Irina’s Twist on a V8

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Irina

Irina’s Twist on a V8

Source of Inspiration: I had a craving for a tomato(y) drink.

Ingredients:
– 1 large tomato
– 1-2 celery sticks
– 2-3 tiny organic carrots or half a regular size big carrot
– 1 persimmon
– half a lime without peel
– kale or spinach
– ¼ cup acai berry juice

How to turn that into a delicious drink:

1. Get a strainer ready over top of a large bowl.

2. Put all the ingredients together in a blender.

3. Blend on high all the fruits and veggies until smooth.

4. Strain the mixture out into the bowl you had prepared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Once all strained pour into a bottle or cup and enjoy. 

 

Posted in Smoothies and Juices | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Irina’s Brown Rice Pancakes

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Irina

Irina’s Brown Rice Pancakes

Source of Inspiration: The Vita-Mix demonstrator who was at Costco the other day and was showing people how you can make brown rice flour with the dry blade for the Vita-Mix.

Ingredients for the pancakes:

–  11/4  cup of brown rice flour (I made it with my Vita-Mix but I think you can buy it already ground up at health food stores)

–  baking soda and baking powder (optional but recommended)

–  2 large eggs or 3 small eggs

–  50-60 ml of milk (for those of you that are dairy free, coconut milk is the best substitute here: it’s actually very yummy)

–  2 tablespoons of honey (if you don’t use honey, use agave nectar here)

–  1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Ingredients for filling/toppings (optional):

–  ½ cup of soft cream cheese (Island Farms makes killer cream cheese)

–  4-5 tablespoons of honey

–   1 teaspoon of cinnamon

–   1 cup mixed frozen berries

–  1/4 cup brown sugar

–  1 lime

Pancakes:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl very well. Wisk as hard as you can or if you have a blender, use a blender.

2. Get a pan ready on medium heat and use any frying oil (or butter) of your choice. (Coconut oil is always good)

3. Use a large ladle to scoop the pancake mixture in the pan and then use your hand to move the pan in a way that the mixture spreads to form something resembling a circle.

4. Once you spot bubbling on the top of the uncooked side, it’s time to flip your pancake!

5. Once flipped, cooked until it’s done and set aside. Repeat until you create a sexy looking stack of pancakes!

Filling/Topping:

1. For the filling just mix together the cream cheese with honey and cinnamon.

2. For the toppings, take your frozen berries and drop in a frying pan with a minimal amount of oil. (if you have a really good non-stick pan, don’t even use oil) Let the berries steam up and get hot, then add the brown sugar and stir. After it’s starting to bubble, deglaze the pan with the juice of a lime. Let cook for about another 3-4 minutes and its ready for the pancakes.

Additional Tips: Put the pancakes on a baking sheet in the oven at 250°F to keep them warm while you work on your toppings.

Hope you enjoy! I sure did!!!

 

Posted in Creative, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Irina’s Winter Soup

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Irina

Irina’s Winter Soup

Source of inspiration: The cold weather begging me to cook something warm but incredibly nutritious.

 

Ingredients:
– stock of your choice (you can use veggie stock, chicken stock, etc.) – depends on how big you want the soup to be and what ratio of liquid to solid you prefer
– celery
– potatoes
– yellow beets
– green onions
– carrots
– Italian parsley
– Dill
– sprouted beans (lentils, mung, and adzuki beans is what I use)
– garlic seasoning
– pink Himalayan salt
– quinoa flour (you can substitute for any flower but this is awesome because its full of your necessary amino acids)

Prep:  1. Cut up all your veggies into cubes for soup. Again, you pick the amount of veggies you want to put in the soup. The less liquid to solid ratio, the more intensely flavorful it gets!
2. Get the stock almost at boiling point.

Cooking:
1. Pour all the veggies, (minus the parsley and dill) beans, and seasonings into the hot stock and bring to a boil.
2. Let boil until everything is tender and cooked. Look at the potatoes to tell when the soup is done. The beets will always be tougher than anything else but that is just how beets are in a soup. If the potatoes are done very well and they are soft and mushy it means everything is cooked properly.
3. After everything is nice and cooked, thicken up the liquid by adding couple of tablespoons (or even half a cup depending on the size of your soup) of quinoa flour.
4. Stir everything and wait for the soup to thicken a bit.
5. At the end throw in the parsley and dill to keep those flavours fresh and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
6. Done! Take off the heat and it’s ready to serve.

 

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Posted in Soups | 14 Comments

Irina’s Winter Salad

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Irina

Irina’s Nutrient Filled Winter Salad 

Source of Inspiration: learning about using Jicama from Kristina @ http://fullyraw.com

Ingredients you will need: (feel free to substitute things or leave things out)
– Jicama (1 medium size)
– 2 medium carrots
– 2 sweet long peppers
– 2 mini cucumbers
– bunch of green onions
– kale (kale=love)
– cherry tomatoes
– pecans
– sunflower seeds
– 1 avocado
– couple of radishes
– lime
– sunflower oil, olive oil, coconut oil, etc. (your favourite oil for making dressings
– tablespoon of honey
– balsamic vinegar (optional)
– mix of spices for dressings (I like parsley, cilantro, garlic, roasted pepper, pepper, salt, rosemary, thyme, etc.)

For the salad:

1. Start off with getting a big salad bowl out and putting the jicama through a grater so you get thin little strips of jicama. (TIP: Jicama is very wet once grated so I like to let it sit in a strainer for a while so it dries a bit. I also push the water out with my fingers to accelerate the process)

2. Cut up the carrots, peppers, cucumbers, onions, kale, tomatoes, avocado and radishes. (I like to dice my veggies pretty small for this salad)

3. Throw all veggies from above along with the jicama and toss a bit to get ready for the dressing.

For the dressing:

1. Take out a blender or a food processor for this. (Magic bullet does a great job at making dressings)

2. Cut the peel off the lime and throw in the blender. (For those of you who like it super limey throw in a bit of the peel as well)

3. To the lime add some oil (probably 3-4 tablespoons), the honey, a bit of balsamic vinegar (optional), and the spice mix of your choice.

4. Turn the blender on and blend until dressing has emulsified and it has become a smooth liquid.

How it comes together:

At the end, mix the salad with the dressing, toss and then sprinkle on the pecans and sunflower seeds. Serve and make people happy and healthy.

The greatest thing about this salad is that it is incredibly healthy; jam packed with the nutrients you need every day. Here are some that you get by eating this salad:
– high fiber
– iron
– magnesium
– Vitamin K
– Vitamin C
– Beta-carotene
– calcium
– lycopene
– potassium
– carotenoid lutein
– oleic acid
– beta-sitosterol (lowers cholesterol)
– Vitamin E
– lariciresinol, pinoresinol, and secoisolariciresinol
– full spectrum of B-Vitamins (riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B-6 and folates)
– protein
– silica
– phosphorus
– zinc
– ellagic acid
– selenium
–  chromium
– very rich in antioxidant properties

 Hope you enjoy 🙂 Please subscribe.

 

Posted in Raw foods | 10 Comments

Irina’s Turkey Sausage Risotto

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Irina

Irina’s Turkey Sausage Risotto

Source of inspiration: A friend’s request. Jenifer asked me to make her risotto because it is her favorite dish and I love making people happy.   

What you will need:
– 5 turkey sausages
– flour
– bread crumbs
– 1 egg
– 2.5 cups of short grain rice
– a medium dry wine – best is Pinot Grigio
– green onions (around 5-8 singles)
– fresh basil and dill (use according to how strong you want the flavor)
– garlic (5 cloves)
– red pepper (1)
– water (2.5 cups – more or less)
– milk (2.5 cups)
– black ground pepper
– butter (1 cup)
– Romano or/and Parmesan cheese
– lots of love

First, you want to have all your ingredients ready for cooking:
– chop finely the green onion
– mince the fresh garlic
– chop finely the basil and dill
– shred finely the Parmesan or/and Romano cheese
– cut the red pepper up into small little cubes
– for the sausages: get an egg wash ready with lots of pepper and a tray with mixed bread crumbs and flour

Second ,get the sausages cooked first:
– in a pan melt some butter on medium heat
– put the sausages through the egg wash and then bread them with the flour and bread crumbs
– fry them in the pan on medium heat until they are golden brown on all sides
– take them out and let them sit

Third, start the risotto:
– in a pot bring 2.5 cups with 2.5 cups of milk to a simmer and let it sit on low heat
– in a big deep pan, melt 1/4 cup of butter
– add the chopped onion, garlic, basil, dill
– let the flavors infuse and then deglaze with the white wine
– pour about 1/3 cup wine and wait for it to reduce
– add another 1/4 cup if butter and wait for it to brown a bit
– after, add 1/2 cup of white wine to the mixture
– let that reduce and add the 2.5 cups of rice into the pan
– let that cook down a little bit and start adding in the milk and water mixture with a ladle (eyeball about ½ cup of liquid each time)
– after each time stir until the liquid is absorbed (this should be quite a slow and painful process but I promise it pays off)
– when you get about halfway of adding the liquid, throw in the diced red peppers and keep going

 

Fourth, get the sausages ready to add in at the end:
– take the sausages and cut them up into smaller pieces
– add these pieces back into a frying pan with a little bit of butter and some ground up black pepper
– let them cook very well and then keep them near you for adding in to the risotto

Fifth, finish the risotto:
– when the liquid is done add in the sausage pieces and mix
– quickly after that turn off the heat and add all the shredded cheese
– mix together and serve

 

Enjoy!!!

***This is a dish that needs to be tasted as it is cooking to get the right consistency of the rice. You should start tasting the mixture here and there after adding about 3 cups of liquid to the mixture. This is done because all short grain rice, even though quite similar, can take different amounts of liquid to soften.
** Note if you find that the rice is not cooked enough after the liquid mixture is gone, add more water with no more milk

Posted in Italian | 11 Comments