Red Velvet Smoothie

While I was visiting my sister several weeks ago she recommended the cookbook "Superfood Smoothies" by Julie Morris. This cookbook is really outstanding. I've been really impressed with most of the recipes I've made and it's given me an excuse to blend up a storm with the Blendtec I got for Christmas. The only dud I've made is the cauliflower chocolate smoothie, but I guess I should have seen that one coming! The only downside I've seen to this book is that she sometimes uses ingredients that are neither easy to find nor easy on the wallet (camu powder? dried white mulberries?). However, I've found that the funky ingredients are pretty easy to work around.

One of my favorites was the "Red Velvet Cake" smoothie. This recipe gets its gorgeous color and bulk from cooked beets and it's flavored with cocoa powder, so basically you can't go wrong. I played around with this particular recipe and found that it works really well with dates. They add the perfect amount of sweetness. You can use a medium frozen banana or an alternate sweetener (honey, stevia, etc.) in place of the dates, but I think dates taste best.

Another favorite smoothie from the book is the Pineapple Watercress smoothie. While making it I had this crazy flashback to "green drink," a horrid concoction of pineapple juice, spinach, parsley, and celery my mom used to make when we were kids. I still vividly remember the texture and smell of that horrid drink and to this day it makes me shudder. Fortunately this version is actually quite delicious, but I was reminded that in the end we all become our parents, right? :)

Beet n' Berry Scones

So let me just get this out of the way first: I don't like baking and I am a terrible baker. It just takes so much. . . precision, you know? All the measuring and weighing and worries about humidity affecting the dough and the frantic warnings about overworking the dough. WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T OVERWORK THE DOUGH the cookbooks all scream. It's enough to turn anyone off - or at least me.

Despite this, every once in awhile I suddenly get an urge to bake something. Awhile back I got in a scone-backing frenzy. I used my sister's berry scone recipe and which makes a really lovely, dense-but-not-too-dense scone. After awhile it dawned on me that beets and berries would make a lovely combination.

After a lot of trial and error, I figured out the best ratio of beets and berries and I'm really happy with the results. The beets add a really lovely earthy flavor and the berries are bright and sweet. You could also try mixing in shredded beets to your favorite berry scone recipe - no need to follow everything I do here exactly. And as I think about that last sentence I just typed, I'm realizing the urging not to follow every direction is not good guidance for baking. I guess I'll never learn.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler

Meet the Rhubarb- that weird vegetable plant that is extremely tart and no one seems to know what to do with. Rhubarb can be extremely tasty especially when paired with the right flavors.

I created this strawberry rhubarb cobbler over Fathers Day for my dad who loves strawberry-rhubarb pie. While I love a good pie, nothing screams summer to me more then a cobbler. It brings on all the memories of summer BBQ's, cooking over a campfire, and all things glorious and warm. After combining a pie recipe and my favorite cobbler recipe, I do believe we have a winner. My husband says I am the only person in America that doesn't like the "traditional" easy cobbler dump recipes that use the boxed cake mix. I just am not the biggest fan of the cake taste and consistence, and prefer making my own topping. Try using this topping for your favorite cobbler fillings. It is divine with peach cobbler also.I hope you enjoy this as much as we do. Feel free to use this recipe for the oven or in a dutch oven with briquettes.

Citrus Carrot Cookies

Over the past month I have been on a reading frenzy, which may be due to two things: (1) never seeing my husband while he prepares for medical school finals, and (2) my son being sick and taking 2 1/2 hour naps every day. This has given me plenty of time to prepare for my book club. Last month we read this darling little murder mystery novel called Lemon Tart. Throughout the book, the main character, Sadie, shares a few of her favorite recipes. One of the recipes that she shares that really caught my eye was for carrot cookies! Once I glanced through the recipe I knew there would be a lot of things I would want to change about it; it looked like it was going to be more of a shortbread type cookie, without a lot of complementary spices. I made up a few improvements in my head, and they turned out to be better than I imagined! So, without further ado, here is my dressed-up citrus carrot cookie, in perfect time for Easter. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

So, here is the deal. Apart from the stores and online social media saying otherwise, it is still very much Fall. At the beginning of August people are pinning and talking about all things Fall when it's still Summer time, then by Thanksgiving people are over all things Autumn and are already onto Winter and Christmas time. Since I am trying to enjoy our current season and I am not letting go of pumpkin quite yet, here is my tribute to this wonderful Fall season.

Back on August 1st, when everyone was going pin-crazy for pumpkin I stumbled across a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies (I couldn't remember what blog it came from) and was completely intrigued. I took one look at the recipe, saw the ingredient list and haven't looked back (2 1/2 cups of butter and over 2 cups of sugar? I'll pass on that one). No cookie needs that much fat and sugar to taste good, and I have tons of cookie recipes that I love and not one of them calls for that much butter. I created this fall cookie loosely based on a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have on hand, and one of Robert's oatmeal cookie recipes from his family.

I put zucchini in a cookie...and I liked it.

I put zucchini in a cookie...and I liked it. Better yet, no one knew! Let me first say, I don't think you should need to hide all things remotely healthful to get picky folks (kids, friends, spouses, whomever is picky in your life) to enjoy them. I do however like to use greens as a tool to lighten things up, add fiber, and cut down on unhealthy fats (especially in baking).