Roasted Vegetable Sandwich

Today I was craving the roasted vegetable sandwich from Nordstrom's Sixth & Pine restaurant but I have sooooo much housework to do so I decided to try and recreate it at home. Hitting two birds with one stone Titan got his exercise for the day by jogging up to Liberty Heights Fresh for my sammy ingredients. I adore this store they always have the most amazing bread their rosemary focaccia is worth every carb but I digress. 

I was able to grab all of the goods and spy on my puppy through their windows. We then trotted back and my exhausted boy sacked out on his new bed while I made this yummy treat.

1 red onion

2 bell peppers

goat cheese

pesto

bread (I used Ciabatta)

1 garlic clove

1/4 C olive oil

1 teaspoon basil oil

1 teaspoon roasted garlic oil

3 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Chop your veggies up and toss with a blend of the oils. Lay them all out on a foil lined baking sheet and place in the oven for ~25 minutes. 

Slice the loaf horizontally and place on another baking sheet in the oven to lightly toast.  I did a legit full crunch toast and just trust me you want it barely there, just a hint of crunch.  Your bread will be done before your veggies so pull it out and rub the garlic clove all over the loaf to infuse the bread with that garlicky goodness. I then slathered both sides with goat cheese followed by pesto.

 At this point the onions were soft so I knew the veggies were ready. Crank on the broiler and do NOT move! You want it charred but it does this SUPER quickly and you don't want your mushrooms to dehydrate. Load em up on your sammy and you are good to go.

Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Salmon and Asparagus

I saw this recipe on the fabulous Meredith Steele's In Sock Monkey Slippers blog and just had to try it. This dish is delicious and incredibly healthy.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb salmon fillet
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 sprigs of rosemary leaves
• salt (I used kosher)
• pepper
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Chop garlic and rosemary. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and season salmon then gently press garlic and rosemary into the fillet. Bake for ~11 minutes.

Asparagus:

Chop off the last half inch of the asparagus stalks. Toss with olive oil and minced garlic spread on a baking sheet and place in the oven under broiler on high. Keep an eye on it I like mine on the crispier side so I leave it in there for ~9 minutes and flip it half way through. Cooking time can vary with the thickness of the stalk as well so when in doubt remove a stalk and take a bite.

Guacamole

Growing up in Texas guacamole was a staple in our household. I may no longer live in the greatest state ever formed but I can still make a mean bowl of guacamole.

Ha and he said he didn't like guacamole when we were dating.

Ingredients:

• 6 ripe avocados
• 1 small/medium purple onion
• 1 jalapeño 
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1-2 limes
• cilantro
• kosher salt

Instructions:
**Check out this Easy Trick to Cutting Bell Peppers**

Cut avocados in half and remove pit. take a knife and carefully score the avocado diagonally without piercing the outer skin. Rotate the avocado 90 degrees and carefully score diagonally until you have diamond shaped cuts in the avocado. Scoop the avocado meat out with spoon into a bowl and mash with a fork. Go slowly with this part as everyone prefers the guac a little different I like mine on the chunky side while my hubby like it a little creamier. You can always mash more but you cannot go back. 

Dice the onion, bell peppers, and jalapeño and mix in. Again I caution you to do this slowly as I love lots of veggies in mine but you may prefer less. Roll the lime on a hard surface to soften the membranes and release the juice. Cut in half and and squeeze one half at a time and taste as you go. add a pinch of salt. A little goes a long way.**Remember you will be eating this with SALTY tortilla chips** 

Chop as much or little cilantro as you'd like. I love it and have been known to put in the whole bunch!

Green Smoothie

To make this bad boy I revved up my Breville and juiced:

• 2 green apples
• 1 C spinach
• 1C pineapple

Then I  poured the juice into my blender and added...

• 1 banana
• 1/4 C V8 Juice-Tropical Blend
• ~6 cubes of ice

 It is my favorite breakfast!

Veni, vidi, vici! Kicked Juice Fast Bootay!!

Annalyn and I did it! 

We went four days on juiced fruits and vegetables.

In hindsight it wasn't all that hard.  I had myself prepped for these terrible cravings but to be honest the juices filled me up. However I craved chewing. I know it sounds weird but stick with me here. My thought process is chewing is a habit and I think mentally ingesting food goes hand in hand with chewing but when juicing there is no need but you feel like you should...am I making any sense?

My husband was positively hilarious throughout this challenge.

When we were drinking this

and this

He was Sending my sister and I pictures of this

 and this

 and this

He even left me this

Thats right this lil beauty was sitting right next to my juicer!

I know the big question will be did we cheat.

The answer...

Chelsea: Yes. Day 2 my professor passed around a bag of Werther's Originals and I popped one in my mouth without even thinking about it.
Annalyn: Yes. Day 3 I did Insanity and felt light headed so I had some cheese.

The important thing: we did NOT quit!

Some of our favorite juices are:
Wiwi Juice
Healthy Smoothie for Juicers
Pink Bliss Juice 

Wiwi Juice

This cute video is of my nephew, Aiden, introducing the ingredients of my sissy Annalyn's favorite juice.

Juice

• 2 "wiwis" a.k.a kiwis 
•  2 green apples
• 1/2 C blackberries 
• 1/2 C pineapple
• 1/2 cucumber

Healthy Smoothie for Juicers

Juice

• 2 green apples
• 1 pear
• 1 kiwi
• 1 1/2 C pineapple
• 1 C spinach/kale

Blend

Put your juice in the blender with one or two bananas (I freeze my bananas beforehand) and blend. Add ice two cubes at a time and once you reach desired consistency drink up.

Pink Bliss Juice

Juice

• ~8 strawberries
• 2 green apples
• 1/2 pomegranate
• 1 pear 
• 1 kiwi
• 1/2 C pineapple
• 1 C spinach/kale

Juicing Challenge

My sissy, Annalyn, and I have decided to do a four day juice fast starting 11/27/12. We have been discussing how we are going to keep each other on track and I decided to make a blog post to keep me honest. 

We both have Breville Juicers and blenders

which will really make this challenge a lot easier while at home but it is a little hard to juice at work and school and lugging around a blender is not an option.

Annalyn will be drinking V8s when all else fails. 

I am lucky enough to work within walking distance of a Roxberry that sells great smoothies and juices.

We both are looking for good recipes. 

So far I have found...

Fruit Juice Recipes

Orange Dreamsicle 

Sweet Potato Refueler 

Green Juice 

We will post updates as we go and let y'all know how it turns out!

Healthy Ice Cream?!

I have been seeing recipes for "healthy" ice cream all over Pinterest and kept on trucking because there is no way you can make something as sinfully lusciously caloric as ice cream healthy...right? Over the week I found my mind drifting away from my professor's lecture on the art of factoring cubic polynomials and landing in a world where ice cream and I could have more than random one night stands. I even dared to picture myself once again stocking it in our freezer without fear of wrecking a weeks worth of cardio in one bowl. I decided to attempt the impossible and oh baby is it goooooooood!

Spinach Berry Smoothie

I know what your thinking, "you don't drink spinach", just try this recipe once and I promise you will not regret it!