Sweet Curry Kale Salad

12 oz. cleaned, ribbed, cut Kale

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup garlic infused olive oil (or olive oil)

1/4 - 1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste)

fresh ground black pepper (to taste)

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon stevia (to taste)

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1/4 cup slivered almonds or other (raw) nuts

Put kale in a large bowl and drizzle the lemon or lime juice over it. Set aside. Come back periodically over the next 20 minutes to 2 hours to toss the kale. Alternately, you may also refrigerate the kale/juice mixture for up to a day and come back to toss periodically. The point is that the acid from the juice will soften the kale. You will find that if you add other ingredients in as little as 20 minutes, it will still be very yummy, but the flavors will continue to improve over time.

When ready to add other ingredients, add them in the order listed and sprinkle each item over all the kale, stirring after addition of oil, and then again after the last ingredient. Taste-test and adjust seasonings to your liking.Salad is ready as is, or could be used. as a part of the next salad, Sweet Curry Kale Pasta Salad, below.

Sweet Curry Kale Pasta Salad

You will not believe that this salad is Advanced Plan! The pasta is made from 100% organic red lentils and nothing else. This pasta, Tolerant's Organic Red Lentil Rotini, showed up recently in our local Costco and has quickly become a family-favorite. If you can not locate it in your Costco or local health-food store, you can order it through Amazon. The flavored vinegars and oils mentioned below come locally (West Cobb County, Georgia) from Olive Tree and Vine, other locations of olive oil and vinegar tasting boutiques have been popping up in locations around the country. and can typically be found with a google-search of olive oil and vinegar tasting boutique.

1 batch Sweet Curry Kale Salad (Recipe below)

4 cups dry red lentil pasta

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 (15 oz.) cans organic black beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup cara cara orange white balsamic vinegar (or other balsamic vinegar)

1/3 cup garlic infused olive oil (or olive oil)

additional 2 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/2 small head of green or red cabbage

Taking note that the original salad requires time for the lemon or lime juice to soften the kale, you can get that started first and then assemble the rest of the salad. The kale will be ready by the time you have everything else put together. Next, get the beans marinating so they have plenty of time to soak up good flavors. Put the drained, rinsed beans into a medium bowl, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, mix. Next add the 1/3 cup of cara cara orange vinegar and 1/3 cup of garlic olive oil and toss. Periodically toss this mixture also while assembling the remaining ingredients. 

Next cook the pasta according to package directions, adding 1/2 teaspoon sea salt to the water. Do not overcook! Drain and rinse, and return to the original cooking pot and let soak in cold filtered water (may add a few filtered ice cubes as well) until the pasta cools. 

While the pasta cools, clean and slice the cabbage very thin using a knife, food processor slicing tool, or mandolin. Drain the cooled pasta, toss with the additional 2 tablespoons of garlic olive oil, and add to the kale salad. Next put the sliced cabbage on top of the pasta, followed by the marinated black bean mixture. Toss, taste-test, adjust seasonings if necessary, and enjoy!

You can have fun with other variations of this salad adding other seed or nuts, or changing the flavor of  the vinegar and oils.

Decadent Chocolate Cake Revisited

Decadent Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Decadent Chocolate Cake Revisited

I take no credit for this original recipe, which is Kimberly Roberto's. Kimberly is co-author of the Maximized Living Nutrition Plan, and the original recipe can be viewed on her blog at smartmeals.wordpress.com. I am rearranging it a little before serving it tonight at West Ridge Church's very first ever Winning My Race Recipe Night/Celebration. This recipe is doubled from the original and uses Swerve rather than Xylitol. The ingredients get combined initially in 3 different bowls (or 2 bowls and one blender) and have been listed in those groupings. The only item that is repeated in different bowls is eggs. You will need a total of 10 eggs; 6 in the first bowl (or blender), and then 4 in the second bowl where they will be added to a butter/Swerve mixture one at a time. Use a large mixing bowl for the first two groupings of ingredients, and a small one for the last.

2 (15 oz) can of unseasoned black beans

6 large organic eggs

2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon sea salt 

1 teaspoon liquid pure stevia extract

1 1/2 sticks softened unsalted organic butter (or 12 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil)

1 1/2 cups Swerve

4 large organic eggs (left at room temperature while butter is softening)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus extra for lining pan)
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons filtered water (added last as all 3 bowls are combined)

Preheat oven to 350º F. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of a 13" x 9" glass pan and set aside. Grease a 13" x 9" pan with coconut oil or a thin layer of butter. Line the pan with the cut parchment paper then grease the top of the parchment paper too. Dust cocoa all over the inside of the pan and parchment paper, tapping to evenly distribute and tap out any access.

Drain and rinse the beans and shake off excess water. The beans get blended with the other first ingredients. You can either add the beans, first 6 eggs, vanilla extract, sea salt, and liquid stevia to a blender to blend, or add to a large bowl and use my favorite kitchen tool, a hand-held blender to blend the ingredients until it is liquefied right in the bowl. If you use a standard blender puree until smooth and liquefied.

In a second large bowl (if you used hand-held blender method), beat softened butter with Swerve until light and fluffy. Add the 4 eggs, one at a time, beating for 30-60 seconds after each addition.

Mix the cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl and blend with a fork to smooth any lumps.

Pour the bean batter into the egg mixture and mix. Finally, stir in the cocoa powder mixture and water and combine until cocoa powder is no longer floating on the top. Then beat the batter on high for one minute. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake in the 350º oven for 40-45 minutes. Cake is done when the top is rounded and firm to the touch.
The cake can be cooled completely in the pan and frosted later to be served directly from the pan. Fancier options include cooling the cake for 10 minutes, using a butter knife to gently go around the edge of the pan, and flipping cake on to serving platter for frosting when cool. This cake can also be done in two 9" round pans and frosted into a layer cake. Also cool for 10 minutes before flipping. Be certain to double the frosting recipe if making into a layer cake.

Frosting choices include those listed with the Decadent Chocolate Cake recipe on Kimberly Roberto's blog, and the Peanut Butter Frosting recipe from my blog.

Pecan Pie Cookies

These literally taste like pecan pie. They are made with approved Maximized Living Advanced Plan ingredients (real food, made by God). They are sugar free, artificial sweetener-free, grain-free, gluten free and melt-in-your-mouth good! There is only one trick to these cookies: do not over-process the pecan butter. 

Ingredients

4 cups pecan pieces (organic, if possible)

2/3 cup swerve or xylitol

1 cup flax meal (organic, if possible)

2 farm fresh eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt

Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare two to three cookie sheets by covering with parchment paper. Process the pecans in a food processor until it becomes a butter. Before it becomes a nut butter, it will become a meal or "flour". Watch carefully after it becomes a flour and stop processing when it just begins to start forming into a butter and sticking together. I have over-processed this, and the oils start separating out of solution and becomes difficult to work with. 

Put the pecan butter into a mixing bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix with beaters on medium until all ingredients are mixed. Make 1" balls and place on cookie sheets 2" apart. Flatten each ball slightly with your hand. Bake for 12 minutes. Cookies will be soft so cool at least 2 minutes before trying to move. Eat warm or cold. Store in refrigerator if not eating right away. Remember, his is real food with no preservatives!

Almond Butter Heart-Shaped Cookies

 
 

This is an easy recipe and it is not too hard to shape into heart-shaped cookies.

Ingredients:

2 Cups Almond Butter (organic, if possible)

2/3 cup Xylitol or Swerve

2 Organic eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Stevia-sweetened chocolate chunks (Optional)

Set oven to 350°. Line two cookie sheets with unbleached parchment paper. Mix all ingredients with a hand-held beater until blended and smooth. The batter will be stiff. For round cookies, drop 2 teaspoon size balls, 2" apart on the cookie sheet. Flatten a little with your hand. Bake 10 - 11 minutes. Watch carefully during the last two minutes, as they can easily brown on the bottom.

For heart-shapes, roll 2 teaspoons between your hands to make a "log", bend the log in half, then pinch the bottom of the crease to form a pretty point at the bottom of your heart. Place on cookie sheet 2 " apart. Add a chunk of stevia sweetened chocolate to the middle, if desired. Bake for 10 -11 minutes, watching carefully to avoid browning. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for at 1 minute or more, or transfer after 1 minute to a cooling rack (slide the whole sheet of parchment paper).

Beet Humus

Kimberly Roberto (Co-author of Maximized Living's Nutrition Plan) found pink humus at Publix, so we had to try some for Valenspine's Day at the office! A quick check of the ingredients at the store revealed the typical unwanted oils so it was going to have to be homemade. With canned beans and beets, this goes together in a flash in a food processor and is so yummy! The beets are a Core Plan and not Advanced Plan as it is high on the glycemic-index. In this recipe the beets are only used for the color and there is such a small percentage that I feel very comfortable eating this dish though I am on the Advanced Plan.

Ingredients:

2 - 15 ounce cans Organic Great Northern Beans

2 - 4 pieces of cooked beets (organic if possible)

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon

2 - 3 cloves fresh garlic

3/4 tsp sea salt

1 T Olive Oil

1/4 cup sesame tahini

dash of cayenne (Optional)

Put all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth and pink. If it gets too stiff, you can add a little of the beet juice. Add more beet if it is not pink enough. Enjoy with Mary's Gone Crackers (Core Plan), homemade flax crackers, or raw veggies.

Chocolate Mint Bullet-Proof Coffee

This is a new concoction created for our Santa Patient Appreciation Day on Saturday, December 13, 2014. Dr. Eriece Harris was the inspiration. She imagined this festive variation of bullet-proof coffee I just had to figure out how to do it! My husband said it tasted like a minty hot-chocolate!

5 Cups freshly brewed, very hot organic coffee

5 T grass-fed, unsalted butter

1 1/2 T organic coconut oil

1 T cacao powder (organic if possible)

8 packages Stevita spoonable stevia (or equivelant)

1 -2 drops of peppermint essential oil

Blend on high for 30 seconds and serve!

Homemade Granny Smith Applesauce

3 pounds organic Granny Smith apples
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1-2 packets stevia, or to taste
1 tsp. cinnamon, or to taste

Peel, core, and chop or slice the apples into about 8 pieces per apple. Put the apples and water in a medium/large stainless steel pot.  Cover and cook over a medium/high heat until it comes to a boil. You will have to listen for the boil as the water will be buried by the apples. The water is only needed to keep the apples from sticking and burning on the bottom while the apples cook and make their own juice. When you hear the boil, turn the burner down to low and simmer until the apples are soft. When they are soft and "saucey" turn off the burner, and stir the stevia and cinnamon into the apples. This is good served warm or cold as a side-dish or dessert and keeps for many days in the refrigerator. It also freezes well.