Avocado Dressing Recipe

This is easy to make and delicious on a green salad, a tomato salad or over grilled vegetables.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 ripe avocado

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 cup water

Handful of coriander (cilantro) leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

Juice of half a lime

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1 Scoop out the flesh from the avocado (without the skin and pit, of course) into a blender and add all of your other ingredients and turn on.

2 Depending on your blender, you might want to scrape the sides. If your dressing is still not runny enough to fall off a spoon, simply add more water.

Add to a mason jar and store in the fridge.

Source: Author and Photographer unknown

Mason Jar Meals

Mason Jars are incredibly useful for many different things and chances are you have plenty of them laying around your pantry right now. Learn how to use those mason jars to make full meals that you can store and take with you throughout your day. You can finally eat well and do it all on a small budget. Mason jars allow you to effectively store food for days so you can choose when to hit the road with a delicious meal or two.

Mason Jar Meals cookbook available here: ( in my store )

Learn how to make Blueberry Maple Refrigerator Oatmeal

http://www.theyummylife.com/recipes/220 

Maya Penn: Portobello Mushroom Burgers

November 3, 2014: Maya Penn Curates LOLA

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Olive Oil, Parsley, Capers and Chili Flakes by Renee Loux

This stunning presentation is substantial enough to make cauliflower a veggie entrée. Roasting the whole head at high heat yields a golden texture that seals in its savory, naturally sweet flavor. A kick of spicy chili flakes, tangy capers, and cooling parsley are the perfect match to set off the flavor with dynamic, mouth-watering delight.

INGREDIENTS:

1 head cauliflower
5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
sea salt
1/4 tsp dried chili flakes, or as desired
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup finely chopped flat parsley

Recipe

This neatly diagrammed recipe is from comic artist and musician Lucy Kinsey’s three-years-in-the-making memoir about food and growing up: “Relish My Life in the Kitchen.” This recipe feels like comfort food! 

Lunch with a Woolworth: Salad Niçoise a la Priscilla Woolworth*

Having a little get together with friends and want to wow them with a fancy salad? This is your new go-to (and very simple) recipe. Filled with fresh ingredients and tasty bites, your friends will surely be impressed!

(*SPOILER ALERT! One of the many Easy Recipes that will be included in LOLA: The Book!)

Salad Niçoise a la Priscilla Woolworth

Ingredients:

1-In a large bowl (ideally a wooden one) add the mustard and then the balsamic. Stir the dressing with a fork. Add the olive oil and mix well. Add the chopped shallot, salt and pepper and mix well. Use the back of the fork to press down on the shallots, so they are blended into the dressing.

2-Add tomatoes and mix them up in the dressing.

3-Add separated lettuce leaves, potatoes, eggs, tuna fish, radishes and pine nuts.

4-Don’t stir the salad until you are ready to serve it, which prevents the lettuce from getting too soft. The salad needs to be fresh and crispy!

MUST SEE: ELETTRA’S GOODNESS: A VIDEO SERIES ON VOGUE.COM

EASY, PRETTY DESSERT

LOLA loves…The Little Book of Lunch! Who doesn’t look forward to that hour of respite, the break from the grind, and the chance to devour a killer sandwich or gorgeous bowl of wholesome soup? The Little Book of Lunch is filled with delicious and simple recipes for the working person’s packed lunchbox. It is for anyone who has found themselves staring at the shelves in their local sandwich chain or their work canteen with a growling stomach and sinking feeling!

 Vegetarian Couscous

Couscous is such a versatile meal and so easy to prepare. I also found this brand of organic whole wheat couscous that is the best I have ever tasted and I’ve included the info for it at the end of the recipe.

This meal is very easy to make and takes little time to prep and cook. It’s full of nutritious ingredients and you can add other vegetable you like as well. Depending on how spicy you like it, you can add more curry powder. I serve this along with a big green salad on the side and it’s just the most perfect meal.

1. In a medium/large sized pot, add the 2 tbs olive oil and sauté the onion, carrots, green pepper and zucchini for 10 mins, on medium heat.
2. Add the cumin, curry and turmeric and stir. Add the tomatoes and cauliflower, salt and pepper, raisins and the vegetable broth. Stir.
3. Cook on low heat for 1 hour, then add the raisins, garbanzo beans and cilantro leaves.
4. Bring to a boil some water with a vegetable broth cube in it and pour over the dry couscous in a bowl and cover. Let stand for 10 mins.
5. Sauté the pine nuts for 5 mins and add to the couscous.

*If you love chicken, do add some as well.

* This dish makes for fantastic leftovers, good for at least 3 days.

Brown Rice and Kale

This has been my favorite meal for the past month! It’s so delicious, nutritious, and easy to make. I usually have a glass food container of cooked brown rice in the fridge, and some shiitake mushrooms in a brown bag, which keeps them fresh longer. In case you didn’t know it already, kale is an incredibly nutritious vegetable that provides ample amounts of vitamins A and C, folic acid, calcium, and iron.

All the ingredients in this recipe are full of nutrients, and even though the soy sauce has many minerals and vitamins in it, it’s high in sodium so use only a small amount, as a little goes a long way.

Serves 2

-All ingredients I use are organic, including the gmo free soy sauce-

1/2 cup of short brown rice
1/2 bunch of curly kale, stems removed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shiitake mushroom, sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce

1. Cook the brown rice for 30 minutes
2. When it is half way done, start sautéeing the kale, garlic and shiitake mushrooms in a pan, and add a small amount of soy sauce. Cook until kale is bright green and wilted.
3. Add the cooked brown rice, and red pepper flakes. Mix well and serve immediately.

You can also substitute the brown rice for another cooked whole grain such as wheat berries or barley.

A piece of grilled salmon is excellent with this and little green salad on the side as well.

– See more at: http://www.priscillawoolworth.com/recipes?page=1#sthash.JzTW1VOZ.dpuf

VEGETABLE QUINOA

My daughter Lucie cooked this lunch recently and it was delicious! This dish is fabulous for a school lunch or at work. Quinoa is a great source of energizing iron and amino acids, protein’s building blocks, and the potassium in the grain can help beat bloat. Add Chicken or shrimp, but cook either one separately and add when the dish has been cooked.

Makes 4 servings

3/4 cup of quinoa, rinsed and cooked
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tbs olive oil
1 small carrot, thinly sliced
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
2 tsp grated ginger
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/4 small red chile, chopped (to taste)
2 cups of snow peas, trimmed (you can use string beans instead)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 egg beaten
2 scallions, chopped, mostly white part
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 Tbs soy sauce

1. After quinoa is rinsed, place in a small saucepan with 3/4 cups water and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook, undisturbed, until quinoa absorbs the water, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and leave uncovered.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook carrot, stirring occasionally, until it softens, about 1 minute. Add bell pepper, ginger, garlic and chile, if desired; cook, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Add peas, sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, 1 minute.
3. Remove vegetables and return skillet to heat; add quinoa, along with egg. Cook, stirring constantly, until egg is evenly distributed, about 1 minute.
4. Add vegetables, scallions, cilantro and soy sauce; cook 1 minute more.

Divide among 4 bowls

Serve warm.

– See more at: http://www.priscillawoolworth.com/recipes#sthash.qgpwkANR.dpuf

Potatoes are good any time!

Oven fries that are so much more than their name makes them sound like. 

1 big russet potato per parsimonious person, 2 potatoes per person if they are very hungry or in great need of comfort

2tb butter per potato

2 tb olive oil per potato

1tb finely chopped herbs per potato (I use white sage, black sage, california bay and wild rose here, but as mentioned above the possibilities are endless)

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.

Get a big pot of water boiling on the stove, and put about 1/4 cup of salt in there. It should taste like the ocean (not the dead sea– if you make the dead sea, that’s a little overboard). While that’s heating up, set to peeling your potatoes. Once peeled, set them on the narrow side (the side they won’t stand up on, on their own) and cut it into three pieces lengthwise. Each piece should work out between 3/4 and 1 inch thick. From there, chop each piece lengthwise again, into 1/2-3/4 inch thick slices. See what we’re doing here? Now we have long potatoes cut into thick french fry shapes.

Once the water is really boiling, dump in the potatoes and cook for exactly 10 minutes. While its cooking, set a strainer in the sink. After ten minutes, quickly strain out the potatoes. You see you want them as cooked as possible without disintegrating– the more cooked they are, the fluffier their insides will be. Carefully dump the strained potatoes out on a roasting tray, and space them all so that there’s an inch of space in between them all. Put the butter somewhere on top, then drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and herbs over the top then put in the oven for 35 minutes.

After 35 minutes, pull out the tray, and carefully flip each potato piece. They should be golden brown on the bottom. Flip onto their uncooked sides and cook for another 15-25 minutes, until they’re golden brown all over. Remove from the oven when they’re ready and serve immediately.