Sublime Living: Recipes

Last summer I made a point of buying flats of locally grown berries to freeze for winter use. SO glad I had my lil' brain cap a-thinking. So I pulled some out, muddled it with some other ingredients and VOILA!

This one whips up in no time - easy-peasy. It was SO good on our spinach & steak salad.

I used the following ingredients:

1 Cup Berries

Juice of 1 Lime

1/2 Cup Local Apple Cider Vinegar

(totally worth seeking out your local options - way more flavor)

Blue Agave to taste (depends on strength of vinegar)

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

...and time to muddle the berries & other ingredients together. Then it is ready to serve.

I am telling you this was so simple and delicious. I loved how fresh the flavor was. I mentioned earlier we were having a steak salad. It was very Paleo except for one ingredient ---> Goat Cheese. We couldn't imagine having a perfectly peppered flank steak without it's heavenly pair. I'll tell you what we chose to include in our salad and you can decide for yourself what you would like to drizzle this dressing on for your lil' taste buds to devour.

Our salad was what we call a LOADED salad. You know the kind you keep tossing ingredients into way beyond that which would be suggested in any salad recipe known to man? Yeah - that was us. An everything but the kitchen sink salad. We started with spinach and added: cucumber, zucchini, celery, mushrooms, carrot, tomato, pecans, goat cheese, chopped fresh basil and avocado. Grilled flank steak seared to perfection with a peppered crust. Then topped it off in our newly created Berry-Lime Dressing.

Paleo: What's-in-the-fridge Stuffed Green Peppers

It all began with me poking my head into the fridge to find some inspiration. Somehow this particular color palette seemed fitting for a great dish. A- ha... 3 green bell peppers... let's fill 'em.

So I began chopping like a mad woman.

10 mushrooms, 1/4 of a purple cabbage, 2 carrots, 4 garlic cloves and half a large onion later - and I was ready to start the cooking. I had a pound of ground beef in the fridge. So the browning began - after it was a nice color I tossed in 3 T. new mexico diced green chili along with some onion and as they reached the halfway softened state I threw in everything else. (Typically I would hold off on the mushrooms until the last couple minutes - but on this night I would not be home to make sure this was actually consumed....so the mushrooms needed to be incognito)

The photos don't do this justice - but it really smelled yummy. After it reached a nicely cooked consistancy it was time to add a little diced tomato to the mix, a sprinkle of salt to enhance the flavors and voila... the filling was ready.

Next to prepare the green peppers

I cut them straight across and cut out the innards.

Yep - they are gloriously green and ready for some scrumptousness to fulfill their purpose.

A few big spoonfuls pressed into them...

A lil' garnish to make it pretty....

Toss it in the oven @ 350 degrees and wait about 30 minutes. YUM!

I didn't get a photo of the finished product after it had baked due to my.. I MUST run out the door and get to my group - state of mind. They were beautiful though - basically looked similar to this but the green bell pepper had softened a little leaving a delicious aroma in the air.

What I really love about this is you could add whatever you wanted to this. You really don't need a recipe. Just dig around in your fridge and grab some produce. I was thinking diced sweet potatoes would have been a delish addition - they would need to be cut small and added when the onions go in. Celery and bacon. Pretty much whatever you think would be good to add in - give it a try.

Salted Caramel Sauce

INGREDIENTS

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
8 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons salt

DIRECTIONS

In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved increase the heat and bring to a boil, without stirring. If necessary, use a rubber pastry brush dipped in water to wash down any crystals forming on the side of the pan. Boil until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 5 to 6 minutes. Watch closely and have other ingredients measured out & prepared ahead ready to add when needed.

Remove the sugar from the heat. Very slowly & carefully pour & whisk the heavy cream in. If you poor cream in too quickly it will ruin the consistency of the sauce. The mixture will bubble up like crazy - I wear an oven mitt when I stir because the steam is HOT!!! Once the cream is all stirred in add the butter and salt. Transfer the caramel to a dish and cool. Once cool poor into little mason jars. Top with burlap circles and cinch with a festive ribbon. (*Tip: I used a rubber band to stop the burlap from slipping off when tying the ribbon on - once the ribbon was secure I removed the rubber band.)

This recipe will make approx. 4 cups of sauce. It can be stored in the fridge for about 4 weeks - that is if you can make it last that long!

Our family is part of a Homeschool Co-op where the parents teach 2 semesters (consisting of 8 weeks) to a group of about 10 kiddos. I am a hands on, creative kind of girl. I also find food to be in my list of TOP 10's in my life. (Okay - it really lands in the top 5). So this semester I decided to teach EDIBLE ART! How fun is that? This particular project turned out so cute I thought I would share.

I combined 2 different really cute pinterest projects I had scoped out plus added a little touch of my own to create one exceptional fall chocolatopia.

First things first the kiddos need to take a lil' field trip outside to find some pliable leaves with nice veins.

PHASE # 1

Wash with a little soapy water, rinse and pat dry. Set aside for later....

PHASE # 2

You start with Wilton's Dark Chocolate Melting Chips - you can find these at your local craft store. I picked mine up at Michaels. Since we were limited on time we followed the microwaving instructions.

I had the kiddos get a handful of each of the following ingredients:

Butterscotch Chips
Hershey's Kisses
Nutter Butter Bites

Then you simply lightly dip the kisses & chips into the now Melted Wilton's Chips and press one on each side of the Nutter Butter. SO SIMPLE & SO CUTE!!!

Here is the finished acorn. YUMM-O!

PHASE #3

Blow up a good quality balloon - but you don't want the balloon fully blown up. We blew up ours until it was about 3-4" in diameter. You will be making a small bowl with this. (Hint: Tie it as tightly & closely as you can to to bulb part of balloon to get the most pressure in the blown up area)

Now you will dip the balloon into the melted Wilton's Candy Melts. Dip as deep as you want your bowl to be. We dipped about 2 inches into the chocolate. Set on waxed paper until it sets (or cool in fridge).
When cool dip 2nd time.
Snip tip of balloon - allow air to release, then pull balloon out gently.
VOILA - a choco-bowl!

They do have how-to video's on youtube for this.

PHASE #4

I think this may have been the kids favorite part. The chocolate leaves. Once you know the leaves are clean and have no water on them it is time to get your chocolate on. I used a rubber basting brush.

You simply dip it into the chocolate and brush a nice THICK COAT on the BACK of the leaf. If your chocolate coat is not about 1/8" thick go ahead and add on a second coat. Let cool - on counter or in fridge. When cool peel leaf from chocolate... and ta da... LOVELY LEAF of Chocolate you do have!

Now assemble them all together. Place your leaf into the bowl and add your acorns.

Isn't it CHOCOLISCIOUS?