Healthy Low-Calorie Spring Rolls

I love taking spring rolls to potlucks or serving them at gallery receptions. They are as healthy as the ingredients you roll up inside the rice paper wrappers. They require no cooking (unless you opt for a cooked filling such as steamed spinach, grilled asparagus — or my favorite — shredded chicken breast marinated in a soy-sesame-ginger dressing.) Once you get used to rolling these, they really truly are a super easy appetizer, lunch or side dish. Try these and let me know what you think!

Nutritarian Adventure … How are we doing?

Feel free to download this handy healthy grocery list based on the Eat to Live food program of Dr. Joel Furhman.

Early on in our Eat to Live adventure, I made a Nutritarian grocery list using Evernote (with the checklist feature) which syncs to all of my devices. So I always have the list on my cell phone when I am shopping. It really helps to just look at the list, check off the things we need, and stick to it — at least 95% of the time. Here we are a little over a year after starting this health adventure and we’re doing pretty well. Not perfect. But who is perfect? I’m happy with mostly great, much healthier eating and feeling lots better. Here is a gift for you — a well balanced, healthy grocery list to download and use for smarter, healthier shopping. Enjoy!

Throwback Thursday Anadama Bread

Lately I’ve been craving the chewy mouth feel of Anadama bread. It really truly no-kidding is incredible delicious!
I broke down and baked some this week. Sigh. It’s so good. My husband loves it too. When he tasted the first warm slice his comment was, “To hell with Dave’s bread. This is better!” That’s saying alot around here. Dave’s bread is Tim’s bread.
I made a slightly healthier version than the one I learned as a college student. I used whole wheat flour and flax meal, less salt, a teensy bit less butter. Read on, to find out how I made this incredibly delicious bread.

Today’s a Good Day for Hot Ginger Lemon Tea

My favorite way to drink ginger tea is to make it from fresh ginger root, brown rice tea (genmaicha) and lemon zest. The flavors of made-from-scratch ginger tea are incomparable to the store-bought kind. And, what’s really yummy about this recipe is the way the ginger and lemon flavors blend with the toasty-almost-like-popcorn-but-it’s-really-toasted-rice flavor. OMG yummo!

Peanut Butter Cookies with a Twist

What’s the twist with these peanut butter cookies? Candied ginger and hand-chopped super-dark chocolate chunks. Plus less sugar than most cookie recipes call for. This gives you a deliciously crisp, buttery peanut butter cookie with little surprises of sharp chewy ginger and morsels of the best chocolate ever. And they’re not too sweet. The cookies will be soft and chewy at first, but after totally cooling, they’ll be perfectly crispy/chewy. Lovely with a cup of Darjeeling tea or a glass of cold milk (or whatever milk-alternative you like.)

Hot Honey Custard Soothie … Happy Birthday Mickey!

Oct.5th, 1981 — a day I will never forget. It’s the day I locked eyes with my first son, Mickey, before he was breathing on his own, when he was halfway into the world. Happy Birthday, Mickey. To make this day even more special, I made a warm soothing drink that I used to give my boys when they had trouble falling asleep. It’s nutritious. Healthy. Easy. And extremely comforting.

Hot Chocolate Banana Nut Soothie

When the cold weather hits, the hot chocolate comes out. Here’s a non-dairy variation on hot chocolate: made with coconut milk, dark chocolate chunks, pecans and bananas to add body and nutritious goodness. Serve it right away while it’s still foamy and hot.

Saturday Smoothies Morphing to Saturday Soothies

The cold weather is here in Montana so I’m switching my weekly smoothie recipe feature to a soothie recipe. Soothies are comforting, warm (or hot) drinks that will warm your belly. Check back weekly, or sign up for email updates so you don’t miss a single yummy recipe. Thanks!