I was at the local Foodtown the other day and came across this package of root vegetables and herbs for $2.99. It was labeled “Soup Greens”. No recipe or anything just a bunch of ingredients that, I guessed, if magically thrown in a pot, would make soup. Well my curiosity got the better of me so I bought it. This is what was in the package….

So I picked up a box of Unsalted Vegetable Broth and went home to experiment. I poked around allrecipes.com and cobbled together a couple of recipes until I came up with this one. I’m happy to say the soup was delicious! It was great with some crusty bread. And most importantly..

IT WAS CHEAP AND EASY.

I LOVE Snickerdoodles! They’re basically a sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar before they’re baked.

this.is.not.diet.food.

But, these are great to take to a holiday party, so that your not stuck at home eating the whole batch yourself feeling guilty the next day. *giggle*

So here’s a great recipe I’ve been using for years adapted from the Joy of Cooking Cookbook so that it’s more organic.

Snickerdoodles Recipe

I adapted this recipe from a Nigella Lawson (love her btw) recipe. It’s really simple and makes a healthy options for breakfast or brunch even if you’re having guests. Plus part of the recipe makes use if a hammer (love that too!).

Simple Breakfast Parfait

Ingredients:

• 1 10 oz. bag of frozen strawberries thawed (I use frozen because they’re out of season here, feel free to use fresh)
• 2 large oatmeal raisin cookies (I got mine from the bakery)
• 1 cup of greek yogurt (plain or vanilla)
• 1.5 tbsps raw sugar (turbinado)
• 1/2 lemon

Ok now this is one of my favorite recipes, and it’s quick, easy and cheap too! Many of you will eat this as a side dish, and the way I’ve posted it here, makes about 2 servings. Me and Sexy are vegetarian though, and I’ve easily eaten this by itself as my meal.

The key to this dish is fresh ingredients. You can use dry if you wish, but it really won’t have the same flavor.

Simple Pasta Parmesean

the amount of chopped basil and garlic I used

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pkg ziti (or pasta of your choice)
• 2 qts of water
• 1 tbsps olive oil
• 1 pat of butter
• fresh parmesean cheese
• 2 tbsps chopped fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves of garlic minced (We really like garlic, so you can reduce this to 1 clove if you don’t)
• garlic powder to taste
• 1 tsp Nutritional Yeast (Optional)

When I don’t have enough lemons to make Homemade Lemonade, I make this instead. I ALWAYS have teabags and it’s so simple it saves us from buying yet another beverage at the store.

Homemade Iced- Tea

Ingredients:

• 6 teabags
• 1 cup of sugar (any type is fine, I like to use raw or turbinado)
• 1 few slices of fresh lemon
• 2qt (or more) pitcher
• 2 qt saucepan

Directions:

Fill saucepan 3/4 of the way with water. Pour in sugar and bring to a boil. Once water has boiled and sugar has all dissolved, take from heat and

I don’t know if you realize it, but there are a lot of chemicals in store bought microwave popcorn. The FDA has even reported that when micro popcorn bags are heated up a known carcinogen called perfluorooctanoic (PFOA) can leach into the popcorn. Inhaled fumes of Diacetyl (a chemical that is used in the artificial butter in microwave popcorn) has also been linked to lung disease, and in fact people with the disease are said to have “popcorn lung”.

When I found out how harmful the stuff was, I got my hands on an air popper, which works great, and makes very tasty popcorn in about the same amount it takes to microwave one of those toxic bags. But I was really excited when I came across an article by Snack Girl about how to make your own popcorn in the microwave. (Less clean up! )

freshly popped!

Ingredients:

• 1 brown paper lunch bag
• tape
• 1/4 cup loose kernel corn
• 2 tbsps butter
• salt

Directions:

Pour popcorn into bag and fold over edge once or twice and secure with tape. Microwave the bag tape side up on high for 3-4 minutes. Until popping slows to less than 1 pop per second. While you transfer the popcorn to a bowl, put the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt it and then pour over popcorn and sprinkle with salt to taste.

There is nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than a nice cool glass of lemonade. Unfortunately most of the lemonade that you get at the store is full of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Here’s a recipe that I use often, and Sexy usually will come home with a bag of organic lemons and a smile to entice me to make more.

Homemade Lemonade Recipe

(makes 1 quart)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar (I use raw sugar or sucanat, but any sugar will do)

1.5 cups boiling water
3 large organic lemons
more filtered water to fill container

Directions:

Boil 1.5 cups of water in a saucepan.when the water is fully boiling, pour in 1 cup of sugar, and stir occassionally ntil fully dissolved. Remove from heat when it’s all dissolved to let cool. While cooling cut 3 thin slices of lemon, and then squeeze the juice from 3 large organic lemons and pour juice and slices into a 1 quart container. Then pour sugar water into the same container and fill the rest of the container with more filtered water. Done!

Making the sugar water (or liquid sugar) helps the sugar to dissolve nicely instead of adding it cold and having it sink to the bottom. This also saves calories because you won’t need to add any extra sugar.

This Meatless Monday contribution comes from subscriber Amanda. It’s a yummy soup that I think I will make tonight! (This should last most of the week!)

Green Lentil Soup Recipe

Ingredients
2 c Green lentils ( I buy in bulk from Whole Foods)
1 large bag spinach – try not to buy baby spinach, larger tougher leaves hold up better in the soup
8 oz sliced mushrooms – optional. I love mushrooms so I put them in EVERYTHING!!
32oz Vegetable Stock – I like Kitchen Basics, also available at WF
2C water
1 large finely chopped onion
4-5 stalks finely chopped celery
1 chopped carrot
2 bay leaves
1 lemon and/or 2-4Twhite wine or champagne vinegar
salt and pepper
olive oil

Directions

Whoops! I was supposed to post-this yesterday for “Meatless Monday” but I guess I’ll share it with you for “Meatless Tuesday” LOL. This is a great low-calorie, filling snack that you can make quickly. It  has “good” fats in it like olive oil and avocado and since there’s no cooking involved, you can do it at the office or where ever. The best part? The ingredients are CHEAP!

Quick Tomato-Avocado Snack

Ingredients:
2 slices organic beefsteak tomato (those are the big ones!)
1/2 hass avocado (those are the small bumpy ones, sometimes called “california” avocados)
A few leaves of fresh basil (optional)
2 organic brown rice cakes or toasted whole grain bread
cracked pepper
sea salt
1 tsp olive oil

Making your own bread saves you money. Plain and simple. It’s also healthier for you. My father-in-law (Papa Brown) doesn’t buy his bread from a grocery store. He either makes rolls himself, or  he buys his bread from the bakery. When I asked him why, he said, “There’s something wrong with bread from the store. It takes too long to go bad.” Papa Brown was referring to the preservatives and icky ingredients that are in most store-bought bread. Including High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, (a.k.a.- “trans-fats”) among other things. For more info on what’s in mass-produced bread, click here.

Basic Bread only needs 6 ingredients:

1. flour
2. milk
3. sugar
4. yeast
5. butter
6. salt

Ever read the ingredients in that 47 grain enriched “healthy” loaf from the store?