503-705-4762

Tag: healthy recipes

Baked Oatmeal Recipe With Caramelized Bananas And Blueberries

Are you looking for a warm, filling, healthy, high fiber, slightly sweet, crunchy, chewy not boring breakfast, that you can make ahead and even freeze? Check out this recipe for baked oatmeal.

If you are a fan of soaking your grains you can for sure do this step the day before, then continue with the rest of the recipe.

I’ve made several variations on baked oatmeal over the past few months, typically I mix oats, fruit, sweetener, a handful of nuts, a couple eggs, and some type of milk, and bake in the oven like a casserole. What makes this recipe different, is you caramelize your bananas in butter first (ever had bananas foster? same idea), then add the rest of the ingredients.

My favorite fruit combo is frozen blueberries and cherries, but you could also do peaches, or raspberries (or whatever your heart desires). I use cow’s milk, but nut milk would also work well.

Check out the recipe below and let me know what you think…

Baked Oatmeal With Caramelized Bananas And Blueberries

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 2-3 ripe bananas
  • 2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup walnuts
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1.5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (or a mix of cherries, raspberries, or blackberries)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Butter an 8 x 8 square baking dish.
  3. Slice bananas, and place them in a single layer on the bottom of the dish. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, or until they start to smell really good.
  4. While the banana layer is baking, prep your other ingredients. In a bowl, mix together the oats, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and half of the walnuts.
  5. In another bowl, whisk together maple syrup, milk, eggs, and vanilla.
  6. Once the bananas have caramelized, pull them out of the oven.
  7. Stir the oat mixture into the egg/ milk mixture to combine. Pour this over the bananas. Gently stir in the berries, and top with remaining walnuts (now everybody should be in the pan).
  8. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the oat mixture has set. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
  9. Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup, or a spoonful of yogurt.

Anne McCranie is a Portland, Oregon based Personal Trainer and Licensed Massage Therapist. She offers this recipe to tickle your taste buds. Please see your medial professional for specific dietary advice.

Tom Kha Gai: Spicy Chicken, Coconut Milk, Ginger, Cilantro, and Lime Soup

Tom Kha Gai is one of my favorite soups. Spicy, savory and rich with coconut milk this winter soup will warm your bones.

Cooking for vegetarians? Sub veggie stock for the chicken stock and add veggies (celery, carrots, potatoes…) instead of chicken. This recipe is pretty forgiving so feel free to experiment.

Tom Kha soup
spicy, creamy, chicken soup with lime

  • 1 quart chicken broth
  • One 15 oz. can of coconut milk
  • 1-2 whole dried Thai chilies diced, or a pinch of dried chili flakes
  • 1-2 inches of freshly grated ginger
  • 2 sticks of lemongrass
  • 2 thinly sliced chicken breasts
  • 1 cup of sliced mushrooms
  • 2 tsp fish sauce
  • 2 Tbsp of brown sugar
  • Juice from one lime
  • One small bunch of chopped green onions
  • One handful of cilantro
  • One thinly sliced red bell pepper

1. Bring chicken broth, coconut milk, dried chilies, ginger, lemongrass (and any additional veggies) to a boil. Simmer for ten minutes.

2. Add sliced chicken breast and cook for two minutes.

3. Add mushrooms, fish sauce, brown sugar and lime juice, and stir to combine.

4.  Ladle soup into bowls. Add green onions, cilantro and red peppers (this recipe should make four large servings).

5. Enjoy!

Silky Egg Breakfast Soup

What can I say, I’m on a bit of a soup kick this winter. As a matter of fact I have a pot of Tom Kha Gai soup simmering away as I type this.

What about soup for breakfast?

Silky Egg Breakfast Soup-sm.jpg

While not so common here, there are many cultures that start their day with a warm bowl of nourishing soup. My friend Minga offers this breakfast soup recipe featuring highly nutritious chicken broth and eggs. Eggs have gotten a bad rap over the years. I consider them to be a health food and eat eggs almost every day. Eggs provide high quality proteins, vitamins, nutrients, minerals and good fats.

From Minga:

Growing up in Thailand most of our breakfasts were savory. Often we would have noodle soups, rice soups, meats, veggies and eggs of all kinds to nourish us deeply for a day of activity. Personally, a day without eggs is akin to a day without water. We eat eggs every day unless there is a crisis and we can’t get local farmers’ eggs with golden yolks.

This is one of the soups we love to have in the morning designed after congee, but without the starchy rice component. The recipe below is for 2 people. Feel free to double it or triple it depending on your family size. Red Boat fish sauce is a must in this dish to make it taste really Thai. It’s the only fish sauce I have found without sugar in it.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of Thai chicken broth with some of the meat returned to the broth
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • salt to taste

Garnish possibilities:

  • julienned ginger
  • chopped cilantro
  • chopped green onion
  • dried shrimp
  • fried garlic

Directions:

  • Heat broth and chicken in pot at a medium heat until lightly boiling. While the broth is heating, blend the eggs in a bowl with a hand blender or mix with a blender.
  • Pour the mixed eggs into the broth slowly while stirring. Turn the heat to low and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Add fish sauce and salt to taste.
  • Serve in portion sized bowls and garnish to taste!
  • Enjoy!

 

Thanks to Metta River for use of this recipe and photo. Visit Shawn and Minga’s website for more yummy and healthy recipes, and news on their upcoming workshops.

Shawn Kinsella is a Certified Nutritional Therapist and Licensed Massage Therapist here in Portland. He uses evidence-based nutritional counseling to create a personalized nutrition program that helps restore balance, harmony and vitality to your body.

Minga Lily is an integrative therapist fusing traditional Thai medicine, energy assessment, yogic exercises and dialogue addressing the psyche. She assists her clients in developing ongoing self-care practices to alleviate pain, restore balance and encourage optimal health. Minga enjoys working with clients of all ages who are motivated to maintain self-care routines that sustain and enhance the work she does with them.

Learn more about Shawn and Minga at www.mettariver.com

Let Them Eat (Gluten Free) Apple Cake!

Ok last month I gave you a salad recipe so this month – cake!

Apple Cake ice cream 3.13

My buddy Rachel is a self proclaimed “megan” meaning she is gluten free, dairy free and consumes mostly meat, veggies, fruit and some grains. So my sweetie Jack found this cake recipe for her birthday dinner last month. It was a big hit!

I love that  (besides being delicious) the recipe is fairly easy to put together and contains ingredients you should be able to pick up at any grocery store. While I would hardly consider cake health food, the apples provide vitamin C, soluble fiber and powerful antioxidants that have been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, Alzheimers, cancers and other diseases. Cinnamon has been shown to regulate blood sugar and walnuts are linked to improved brain function. So have an occasional piece of homemade cake and enjoy!

We experimented with sweet vs tart apples and I favored the sweet. The original recipe called for Golden Delicious. The cake has a chewy, brownie like consistency and you really do need to cook it for an hour to get it cooked all the way through. Try this recipe and let me know what you think.

Apple cake 3.13 (2)

 

Rachel’s Gluten Free Apple Cake

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
  • 3/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/4 cup rice flour
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 1 cup light olive oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 4 small apples – peeled, cored and chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 inch pan (I recommend butter) and lightly flour (I used rice flour).

2. Whisk first seven ingredients (flours to salt) in a bowl.

3. Whisk sugar, oil and eggs in a separate bowl.

4. Stir sugar mixture into flour mixture and combine well. Fold in apples and walnuts.

5. Pour and press batter into pan. The batter will be very thick – use your hands to mush it into the pan.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for one hour, or until a knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

 

Apple Cake whole 3.13

 

Louisiana Style Carrot Salad

I came upon a version of this recipe while I was home for the holidays and wanted to share it with you. Carrots are loaded with vitamins A, C, K, and potassium and the shrimp and eggs pack a protein punch. Try this and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

  • 10 – 12 large carrots, sliced into 1/2 inch matchsticks
  • 2 cups small to medium shrimp
  • 4 boiled eggs
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup yellow mustard
  • 1 tbsp creole mustard (sub brown or dijon if needed)
  • 3 tbsps olive oil
  • 1/2 cup diced celery
  • 1/4 cup diced red bell peppers
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onions
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • hot sauce to taste

Prep:

Set a bowl of ice water in the sink. Peel and devein your shrimp. Bring a large pot of water to boil and poach your shrimp 1-2 minutes until just pink. Scoop them out and place in the ice bath. Poach carrots in your shrimp water until just tender and scoop them out and into the ice bath. Separate eggs whites from yolks and dice the whites. In a large bowl mix the yolks, mayonnaise, mustards and oil. Mix in peppers, garlic, onions and add salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste. Drain your carrots and shrimp. Mix the cooled carrots, shrimp and egg whites with the dressing and serve.