Roasted Tomatoes Recipe

Ready to get popped into the oven.

 This is an easy recipe which is mostly hands off and comes in so handy when you need tomatoes in the winter. Roasted tomatoes make a good pasta sauce, you can use them in soups, reheat and eat as a veg side, and whatever else you can think of.  

Nice and soft which means they are done.

They freeze wonderfully so making a big batch works well. You can use whatever tomatoes look the best just adjust cooking time for size and amount.  I like to use Roma tomatoes for this but this time I used a slicing tomato. I do not weigh out my tomatoes I just guess.

Ready for the freezer

Roasted Tomatoes

2 pounds or so of tomatoes, quartered if large.

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh or dried herbs such as thyme or rosemary.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Quarter large tomatoes, romas you can leave whole.  Toss with oil, salt, and pepper in a 13x9 pan. Put in oven and roast for 15 minutes.  Take out and stir tomatoes and roast for another 15 minutes. Check and see if they look soft.  If they look soft they are done, if still hard or firm looking roast for another 10 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on size and how many tomatoes are in your baking dish.

Freeze it! What to do with leftovers

My uncle and aunt were  in town this past week so we had more food on hand than we normally do and also had two dinner parties.  Needless to say there was a lot of cooking that went on for that.  My strategy is to have what I can done beforehand which makes life so much easier. But you can’t do all of it ahead of time.  And what do you do with all the extras that you end up with?

There is some of the new food stash.

They were here for about five days and in the end we ended up with way too many leftovers for the three of us to eat after the fact. Most of the leftovers were unavoidable, the normal pan size for us of lasagne or macaroni and cheese is not enough for five people.  For the dinner parties I would rather have too much than not enough, running out of food is a bummer, too much I can deal with that.  Some items such as the pork shoulder I made extra for sandwich meat that would be lunch the next day.  Cook once and eat twice, love it. We had leftover over fruit and cucumbers too that needed to be dealt with after they left.  The two casualties we had were the spring mix (almost didn’t buy it and didn’t use it) and the strawberries which we did use but not fast enough ( tossed about half of them).

So what did I freeze?

• Sliced peaches in 2 cup packets
• Mac-n-cheese in single serving lunch packets
• Chard risotto in 2 cup packets for risotto cakes
• 2 packets of rice, 1 basmati the other regular
• One roasted Hutterite chicken 4 packets 2 of breast meat and 2 dark
• Blackberries
• Polenta
• Cucumbers for smoothies
• 3 large packets of pork shoulder
• Pomegranate/cilantro sauce for pork
• Lasagne in single serving lunch packets
• Summer Meatballs for a dinner
• Two 2 cup packets of roasted tomatoes
• Chicken carcass for stock
• Cavapcici and ajvar  Ignore the picture with the recipe as that is not cavapcici.

We are stocked up for a while now and that feels very good. Plus I do not have food languishing in my fridge going bad and that makes me feel awesome.  What do you freeze?

Kundalini Yoga DVDs for Beginners

Mantra Girl Introduction to Kundalini Yoga and Chanting
Maya Fiennes De-stress and detox
Ravi Singh and Ana Brett Fat Free Yoga

Cilantro and Olive Chicken

Chicken, Tomatoes, Olives, and Cilantro is a quick and easy recipe to whip up. The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Fresh Food Fast.  This is also a recipe I tend to forget about, not sure why we really like it and it’s easy.  Dinner menus have been hard to come up with recently and the only thing on the menu that day was ‘chix’.  No recipe, no idea or even veg.  Just ‘chix’

Than a light bulb went off in my head and I remembered Cilantro-Olive chicken as I refer to it. I like to serve this with rice but potatoes or bread would work too.  We are out of onions so you will see it in the recipe but none in my picture.  Sometimes onion powder can save you and if you do not like cilantro, parsley will work.

1 tablespoon olive oil

4  boneless chicken breast or a packet of tenders

1 onion sliced thinly

1 pint cherry tomatoes or 14 oz. canned tomatoes

1/3 cup green olives

juice from half a lime

1/4 cup cilantro.

Brown chicken on both sides about 5 minutes each side.  Saute onions until soft. Add tomatoes and olives.  If using fresh tomatoes cook until softened and juices release.  If using canned let juices reduce a bit.  Add lime juice and cilantro cook a minute or two.

5 Tips for Beginner Weight Lifters

The first time I started lifting weights it was a mess.  I’d pick out something from a magazine and not get any results.  Some would say lift heavy, while others said not to.  I biceped curled my way into sore and tight shoulders from bad form and too heavy weights, because something a magazine told me.  I look back and think, no wonder I stopped lifting.

My weight plates, all 184 pounds of them.

The second time I started,it turned out much better and the results kept me going. Now the desire to be strong fuels my desire to keep lifting.

1. Find a program that focuses on compound movements. Examples are shoulder press, lunges, squats, push ups, notice the distinct lack of tricep kickbacks.

2. Form is important.  If you can’t lift it without good form you need to lift less weight.  For the reboot of lifting I started with weights that were not heavy.  It did two things for me, it let me work with good form and built my confidence.

3.  Do not be afraid to work with weights that challenge you. Ladies you will not get bulky. I am pretty sure your purse, toddler, grocery bag is heavier than five pounds.  Why not be able to lift those items with ease and grace?

4.  Find flat shoes or if possible lift barefoot.  Ditching my cross trainers when lifting was one of the best lifting decisions I have made. Many people like Chuck Taylors for lifting shoes or minimal shoes.

5. Seek guidance.  Whether you video yourself lifting and have others critique you or hire a trainer. Find folks to help you with form and questions.  JP Fitness forms is a great resource for this or Fitocracy.

Retrying Food Video

Tips for the Beginner Yogi

I love yoga.  When I started practicing yoga it was difficult to find books and videos.  One would head down to the local metaphysical bookstore because no one else had anything on yoga.  But I wanted to try yoga. So I tracked down a Sivananda Yoga book and eventually found the old Yoga Journal videos and bought all of them and they were expensive for a college student.  The University I went to had a class that I signed up for.  Susan Ann was my first yoga teacher, she glowed and was warm and welcoming.  She taught us a wide variety of styles so we could try them all.  She inspires me to this day.

Finishing up with a breathing meditation.

Getting started can often be the hardest part about adding in something to one’s life.  Here are some easy steps to get you started in your yoga practice.

1. Take classes and try a wide variety of styles and teachers. Let the teacher know you are new to yoga  and if you have any injuries.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

2. Not all of your yoga sessions need to be long or hard.  If you are tired, sore, or rundown relaxation yoga will do more for you than a tough session.  

3. Practice at home. A home yoga practice allows you to deepen your knowledge and lets you work at your own pace.

4. Forget the full expression of an asana.  It is about the journey, not the destination which you may never get to. Work where you are that day and that moment.

5.  Don’t be afraid of meditation and chanting, it is designed to make you the best you can be.  

Namaste and Sat nam.

Finding My Healthy Part 3: The Rules

After starting to get healthy here are a few of the food rules that I used at various times.  None of them worked out or were sustainable habits for me in the long run. My only real goal at this time was to be healthy and feel better about myself. Some of them still make me laugh and shake my head.  I’ll write more about what worked but for today, we will stick with the unworkable and here they are.....

Monster Chocolate Cake does not look or taste like fruit.

 1. Eating only one serving of something. 4 oz. of cooked pasta will not fill you up. Thank the gods I decided if I was still hungry in half an hour I could eat another serving of something.  Of course I ate every 30 minutes as I was never full.

2. The grilled cheese sandwich moratorium.

3. Fruit as dessert and we are not talking about pie, just fruit.  This one made me stabbity.

4. Clean eating.  I know this phrase is everywhere but it seems restrictive to me and demonizes food.  Is some form of junky chip good for me? No, it is not, but I refuse to put it the into a food caste system that lumps pork shoulder into the same caste due to fat content.  I know what a pork shoulder looks like originally, a pig and the other I am not so sure what it looked like in its pre-processed state. They should not be in the same caste. I no longer adhere to clean eating or call my food clean or unclean unless it involves dirt.

5. Trying to understand USDA guidelines and use the pyramid of food (I know they use a plate now.)  I am still not sure why milk gets its own category as I am not undernourished and I don’t drink it or eat three serving of dairy on a daily basis. Also why are veggies and fruit not emphasized as much as grains. My attempt to get healthy with than food pyramid failed miserably.

What have you tried that didn’t work for you?

Kitchen Tools

Here are a few things I use a lot in my kitchen.  I still can't believe I forgot to include my kitchen shears, which I use almost everyday. 

Cherry Yogurt Pops

I started making my own pops a few years ago.  It started with one set of molds and then a second set the next summer.  It is nice to know what is really in them.  You can control sugar amounts and what type of sugar is in them.  It is also a good way to use up fruit and yogurt that is starting to get old. Plus they taste so much better than what you buy at the store.

The base for this recipe comes from Fany Gerson’s Paletas which is a lovely little tome full of great recipes for ice pops, shaved ices, and agua frescas.  Nothing is more refreshing on a hot day than popsicle.  They are portable you can take them with you, which is one of the why I think kids love them.  

This is a basic recipe and you can use the fruit of your choice.  The recipe originally called for 2 cups blackberries but as I did not have any I used about a cup of cherries and that worked very well.  

Cherry Yogurt Pops

1 lemon

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups unsweetened greek yogurt

2 tablespoons honey

1 to 2 cups cherries, quartered or berries.

Rinse the lemon, then peel it. Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, make sure sugar has dissolved.  Add lemon peel and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Add honey stirring until dissolved and let cool to room temperature. Put yogurt in medium bowl and add syrup and stir.  Stir in quartered cherries and pour into pop molds and freeze overnight.

Tips for Beginner Runners

I started running in I want to say 2004?  I could be wrong as I am rubbish with dates and years. But I’ve been doing it for a while now and still enjoy it.  It gets me outside into the fresh air and encourages me to enjoy the beautiful place that I live in.  My first experience with running was Junior High gym class and it was not positive, in fact it sucked.  I hated it so much,  it came as a huge surprise when I found out I liked it.

My new trail runners, aren't they pretty.

Some of the things I did not realize when I started running and was not  in shape: are that running really is an advanced exercise, base training should be thought of in years not months or weeks, and how much I would like it. There are several things I recommend to beginning runners:

1. Go to your local running store and get evaluated by them for shoes. What works for me, your friend, or someone else might not work for you.  The right shoe will make a big difference.

2. Start with a beginner running program. The Couch to 5K plan is a great way to start running.  That is the plan I used when I started running. You want to ease into it your muscles, tendons,and ligaments need time to adjust.

3. Running is long term relationship, base building, speed work, lactate threshold are built up over years.  

4. Cotton is evil!  It holds moisture which means when it is hot you are a soggy chafing mess and in winter you are a hypothermic soggy mess. I got blisters until I bought running socks. Buy running clothes with wicking fabrics.

5. Have fun and enjoy yourself.  Stop and smell the roses or enjoy the view when running, not every run has to be an intense challenge.

Dandelion Smoothie

Dandelion leaves are a very healthful food most people don’t think about cultivating them in their garden, they think about eradicating them.  I started letting dandelions grow in my garden a few years ago and the have flourished.  I do pull off the flowers to keep the population down, but other than that I don’t have to do anything to them other than pick them.

The colour reminds me of the '70's.

Dandelion green will provide you with vitamin K, A, and C and provide a good dose of calcium and other nutrients.  Treat them like any other green for cooking: blanch and saute them, young leafs can be tossed in salads, or smoothies.  My garden provides me with plenty of dandelion greens and I know they have not been sprayed with pesticide, so keep that in mind when picking them.

Dandelion Smoothie

2 cups Dandelion greens

3 apricots, pitted and chopped

1 clementine, peeled

1 cup almond milk

1 - 2 tablespoons honey

Toss in your blender and blitz for two minutes.

IIN 57 Juices and Smoothies of Summer and my Smoothie is on it!

As I was perusing through one of the facebook groups I belong to for Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and I saw a link to submit smoothies and juices.  I clicked on the link and entered my Berry, Cherry, and Kale Smoothie.  Then I went on with my life and didn’t really think about it until, there were all sorts of hits coming from their blog.

At this point there was much squeeing on my part and a flurry of tweets, FB posts, and hitting up all the forums I am on letting them know I made the list.  Give me a moment to squee again, thank you.  If you haven’t guessed I am still extremely excited about  being on the IIN Blog.

Ready to blitz.

There are several recipes I want to try that are included on 57 Juices and Smoothies.  Mine is number 53! *squee*   I am a regular tweeter you can follow me @RadianceHealth and I am also on Facebook at Radiance Health.  Give me a follow on twitter and see what I am up to when I am not blogging and get the latest scoop.

Big Batch Cooking Video