Friday, July 27, 2012

Berry Green Dandelion Super Smoothie!


During hot summer weather, a morning smoothie is a fantastic way to start your day! Thick, rich, and oh so delicious, this smoothie is loaded with goodness! And you might just want to eat it with a spoon! Thinking you must be having dessert, you will not even realize the nutrients you are getting! I can dig it! Filled with hemp seeds, chia, flax, and dandelion greens...all super foods. Hey! The rest of the ingredients are not too shabby either! Healthy and like dessert? That's just crazy! Try it for yourself!

Dandelion Berry Green Smoothie
4 large dandelion greens
3 Romain leaves large
6 oz coconut water
2 tsp flax powder 
2 tsp chia seeds 
2 tsp hemp seeds 
2 Bananas
6 frozen strawberries
handful of fresh blueberries
Michele's Cherry Chocolate Granola

Tear off the leafy part of your dandelion greens and drop into a good blender. Tear up Romain lettuce and add to the blender along with the coconut water. Blend and pulse till liquid. (I have been so happy to find out that my 25 plus year old Osterizer Blend-Matic 12 blender can handle greens! Obviously a product made before planned obsolescence.) 

Now add the chia, flax, and the hemp seeds. Let chia soak a bit, while you peel the bananas. (Some people place their peeled bananas in the freezer, before they make the smoothie to get them cold or frozen.) Time to add your berries, then pulse and blend. 

Pour and Serve! Adding some Michele's Cherry Chocolate Granola is optional, but this will add a nice crunch and breakfast feel to your smoothie. Yum! I hope you try this combination while blueberries are in season! Oh, and you do not taste the greens at all. So no worries newbies, this is a winner in the super taste department too!



Thursday, July 26, 2012

At The Baltimore Farmer's Market: Which Farms Are Actually Organic?


We have been wanting to experience a larger farmers market than the tiny one where we live. So we got up early on a Sunday morning after a very late Saturday night gig, and made the trip to the 'Baltimore Farmer's Market and Bazaar.'  That is a strong commitment to food adventure folks! This outdoor market is located under the JFX highway, just at the end of the small left Pleasant Street exit. Get off the exit, and follow the road to the light, turn left, and make a left into the parking lot, which is no charge during market hours. Easy! On a map you will find it at Saratoga Street between Holiday and Gay. The Market is on Sundays from April 1rst, to December 23rd. This is the 35th Annual Baltimore Farmers Market and Bazaar. The Baltimore Farmer's Market opens at 7 am and runs till approximately noon, or until items sell out. When we finished our produce shopping just before  noon, the market was still filled with people buying and selling. I only saw one person breaking down their stand at that point.

The Bazaar vendors are outside of the main food market area selling items like jewelry, arts, crafts, home goods and clothing. To give a festive flair there are young people playing and performing with brightly colored hoola-hoops. Food excitement is in the air!
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Presto It's Pesto! And Pizza too!


Since getting our handy dandy food processor this winter, I have been wanting to try making a classic pesto. This is my first time having a go at it, and I have to say that this is another food item that tastes so much better home made! Plus, it really is super easy. Yes, It took awhile to pull the leaves from the bunch of basil, but that can be used as a Zen activity. Just space out for awhile, and don't do any thinking. Give the ole' brain matter a rest! Just savor the smell of the glorious herb in your fingers...


When I saw this bouquet of basil at the market I could not resist any longer! So I gathered together my ingredients. I decided to add some nutritional yeast flakes, since they have a cheesy nutty flavor and are a good source of B-12.

Classic Pesto

2-3 cups basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/3 - 1/2 cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
2tsp lemon juice or 1/2 lemon squeezed
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/3 - 1/2 cup olive oil
Himalayan or sea salt to taste
pepper to taste
Optional
1 tsp Dulse seaweed flakes
1/4 cup parsley added into mix
1/4 cup cashew or walnuts instead of pine nuts


Wash your fresh basil and pick off leaves. Add the organic ingredients from list above except the olive oil. (FYI, I always keep my pine nuts in the refrigerator, and that is where my natural market sells them too.) 


Mix and pulse ingredients in the food processor. 


Lastly and slowly add Olive oil into the spout of food processor till the pesto is the consistency you want. So green! 


Now go make some goodies from your creation! Pesto does turn brown easily, so to store, pour a bit of olive oil on top, and then press parchment paper onto the top over pesto, and smooth out, making a protective skin. Store in a glass container.

We made three different dishes with our homemade pesto. Yes, it is another yummy Naan Pizza! We also made pesto Quinoa Kamut pasta the next day, and little bruschetta snacks. Mmmm So good! For the pizza, use whole wheat naan flat bread, and spread your fresh homemade pesto across to the edges.


Make sure you have some organic Italian cheeses or mozzarella in the house, then look for what fresh veggie bounty you have in your kitchen or garden as toppings. We had some asparagus, tomatoes, and onion. Place your creation in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Edges will brown. It is so quick! Smelly good!


Pesto pizza never tasted as yummy as this homemade version. Serve with a healthy garden salad full of local goodies, and enjoy!



Friday, July 6, 2012

Geeky Fruit Smoothies For Everyone!


The country is on fire, and everyone is hot, hot, hot! People we know have been out of power for a week, and this post is dedicated to those folks! So on these stinking hot days that most have been enduring lately, we need a big fat treat! Amen to that fact! Let's create something delicious, quick, and geeky for everyone to cool down with now!


A shot of the temperature in the "shade" of my kitchen porch this evening. It's actually much hotter in the kitchen, as this old house holds in the heat. Good job house! Now if you could only do that in the winter! The humidity has been 58 percent.
People are losing their food to no electricity. We lost our top of the line big computer surge protector unit, to 8 continuous brown outs within one minute. That happened two days in a row. We have to pull the plug on our old computer beasts, when we are not using them...or else. Crazy as it sounds mailboxes are melting! For real...Google it! We have had my car in the shop 4 times to work on the air conditioner, and still no relief there. Luckily I am writing this post from the peaceful climes of our air conditioned office. Whew! So I say... let's just stay inside, and have treats!


Unfortunately the hubby has been gigging outside during these scorchers. Hectic Red opened for Dennis DeYoung of Styx last Friday night, and the reports of temperatures ran from 105-110 degrees, in Dundalk that night. Suchy says he did not know who he was at times! Still they rocked their buttz off! Tomorrow Ben has another outside gig and it's going to be over 100 again. So I made him that Geeky Fruit smoothie in the Spock glass above to cool my hot rocker down!

The beauty of this sweet treat pleasure, is that it's good for you too! You know I gotta put super-foods in everything I make! So serve this delish fresh, and frozen, fruit smoothie up in your favorite 'Geeky glass!' ...Why?... Because it gets a smile every time silly! And those are good for you too! How cool is good old 'Star Trek Spock Lives' on the glass above?!! Look at the photos below, and you will find one of my awesome "Lord Of The Rings" light up goblets. Of course I used the King! Aragorn Lives! It is getting hot in here! Whoo hoo! So go for it fellow healthy geeks! Get your smoothie on!

The Geeky Fruit Smoothie

2 bananas
1/2 papaya 
4-6 oz coconut water 
handful of frozen berries 
1 tsp chia 
4 oz kefir
flax oil 


Peel and scoop seeds out of papaya. Cut up into large pieces. Place in a blender, bananas, papaya, 4 oz of coconut water and then pulse. Blend till mixed. Oh check out my old "Osterizer" Blender from the seventies! Still working! Yes I'd love a Vita-Mix too! Wanna buy me one? And while your at it, could you get me a Norwalk juicing machine. Thank you so much! You are the nicest peep in puppet-land!


Back to the smoothie! Remember these quantities are approximate in this type of recipe, you can be free to do as you wish when putting together your fruit smoothie. Add 1 tsp chia seeds, 2oz more coconut water on top of seeds, a squirt of flax oil, and about 4oz of kefir. Blend again, then add handful of the frozen berries.


(We had a bag of frozen mixed berries containing blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. I also had blueberry flavored kefir on hand to add in the mix.) 


Blendo-rama mama! Now pour your fantabulous fruit smoothie mixture into your favorite geek-dom drinking vessel, and share the coolness with someone! 


Oh yeah, they will be loving you, because this cold fruit smoothie is so freakin' yummy! Smile loudly and get your geek on!...or as Hectic Red sings, "Let your freak flag fly!"



Monday, July 2, 2012

Free Downloadable Shopping List!


The Free downloadable PDF "Shopping List' file is finally finished for you! Yea! It is located under the page tab above in the green bar, amazingly called  "Shopping List!" Scroll up under "The Queens Table" logo and get your freebie! You can see a bit of the list in graphic above. I can tell you that working with columns is no fun. Anyway, the King came to my rescue, and helped me fix the formatting a bunch of times yesterday, so I could upload this handy shopping tool today. Print this convenient two page organic food shopping list each time you are ready to go to your market, and check off what you need to purchase for your healthy eating! I have used this pre-made shopping list myself, and it worked great. Very clean and easy to read! Plus room to write on yourself. Download and enjoy!