Fun Food! :) (And healthy, too! :) )

Cross posted in Kosher Cuisine

This is great if you've eaten a sandwich and aren't quite satisfied but want a little something that's really healthy instead of a second sandwich: Top a slice of whole wheat bread with strips of red and/or yellow pepper. I used both and alternated the colors. Very delicious! :) I thank God that I've got plenty of yummy, healthy food to eat! :) (And chocolate chip cookies, too. Not exactly healthy but very yummy.)

Hubby asked for fourths of tonight's easy, delicious salad with just five ingredients...

...Though he's a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. He'd asked for salad because he said he needed raw greens! I'd already made him an omelette containing chard for breakfast but I guess my unofficial health coaching is working! :)

Here's the salad that I threw together in a large mixing bowl:

All ingredients were organic. (See this post and the one it links to for why organic is better.)

Four slices Ezekiel cinnamon-raisin bread (you could probably use any other cinnamon-raisin bread, or even plain bread plus raisins, but Ezekiel bread is a complete protein)
Walnuts (maybe about a cupful or more)
One bunch lettuce (not a head of iceberg; I think it was green leaf)
A few small carrots
A little bit of cilantro (you could probably leave that out if you don't have it)

I just broke up the bread into small pieces, tossed in pieces of walnuts, tore up the lettuce into small pieces, attempted to Julienne the carrots, and tore up the cilantro.

What are your favorite random (or not-so-random) salad ingredients?

Oh, no! How can I make the cookies now?!

Cross posted in Kosher Cuisine

These apple-walnut cookies were a big hit for all three of us the first time I made them. I used all organic ingredients, whole wheat flour, and maple sugar instead of regular cane sugar. (I learned recently that Truvia can actually make you gain weight because your body is tricked into thinking you've eaten sugar. It produces insulin which is then stored as fat because it's not used. I learned this from a Facebook friend who's a holistic health coach. The accuracy of that information is a moot point because it's not organic anyway, but if anyone is interested I can request a source.) Also instead of following the directions I just tossed all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mixed them all together. I knew from past experience that you can get certain recipes to come out just as well by taking that shortcut.

So anyway, hubby asked me to make them again a few days later. I began going down the list of ingredients, measuring amounts, and tossing them in the bowl....Oh no! I needed an egg but I was totally out of eggs! I couldn't just run out and buy eggs half a block away here in Seattle, not like we could in New York. But I promised hubby I'd have them ready when he got up! What could I do?! I racked my brain, and suddenly I remembered reading that you can make a natural, vegan egg substitute with flaxseed and water. Yes, I had flaxseed on hand because I'd decided to put flaxseed, among other additions, in these bagels. (I'm officially insane, btw: I made these for the first time right before Passover when I was uber-busy and would have to cease eating unleavened bread shortly. Don't worry; they were all gone before Passover.) I hopped online and, sure enough, I found this simple recipe. Indeed it had an egglike consistency when I moved it around and even felt eggy to the touch! I tossed it in with the other ingredients, finished making the recipe with no other glitches, and hoped for the best. The verdict? Good but not as good as the first batch. I might have baked them a tad longer than the first batch, so the extra substitution might not have been the problem. The taste was the same, in my opinion.

FYI, the cookies were not actually vegan because they still contained butter. ;)