Ice Cream For Breakfast? Yes!

Ice cream is another way of saying thick shake.  

Who does not enjoy a cold thick sweet shake in the morning?  

A powerhouse breakfast, fast and easy to prepare.  All you need is a frozen banana and a blender to start.

Base for ice cream

First freeze your fruit.  Once frozen, blend in blender and add a pinch of cinnamon and just enough milk/water to blend.  You are not making smoothies so keep it thick.

Consider adding these on their own or in combination:

Cinnamon

Cardamom

Shredded unsweetened coconut

Nutmeg

Ginger

Cocoa

Inka (coffee substitute)

Vanilla extract or vanilla bean

Once you have creamed the banana you can throw it back in the freezer to get the ice cream consistency back.

For a smoothie add more liquid (1 cup of milk) and keep the rest the same.

You can freeze blueberries, raspberries, peaces (cut up and pit removed), apples, pears etc.  For a mixed fruit flavour blend fruit together.  

When adding  cinnamon, coconut, nutmeg etc. to your smoothies or ice cream, start with ½ teaspoon, taste and add more if needed.

For a protein punch add yogurt or hemp seeds.

When blended add a tablespoon of Grains Plus to your shake or sprinkle on your ice cream for added nutrition and flavour.

Three Fabulous Salad Dressings

A well dressed salad is a meal in itself and delicious to eat.  

Here are my favourite dressings.  They are simple to mix;  just toss the ingredients in a small mason jar (250 or 500 ml) cover, mix and serve.  The leftovers (if there are any so make a large batch) can be refrigerated for a few weeks, again simply shake well before pouring.

Sweet and Spicy Asian Dressing

1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar and

1/2 cup of garlic chili flax oil (can improvise and use other oils)

4 cloves of garlic minced (or one small clove per serving)

1 cm" of sliced ginger, minced (or one thin slice per serving)

1/4 cup of orange juice (1/2 to 1/3 of the amount of vinegar)

1/2 tsp sesame oil (1/8 tsp per serving)

1/2 tsp chili flakes

1/4 cup maple syrup

sea salt to taste

Basic Garlic Dressing

garlic minced

lemon juice

garlic chili flax oil

sea salt

Easy Greek Dressing

4 small cloves of garlic minced

juice of one medium lemon 

oregano

1/4 cup olive oil

Garnish your salad with crumbled feta cheese (about 1/3 cup)

Summer Feast - cornish hens for janice

Mangoes have been on sale for weeks now at our local grocers. 

When we buy a case of mangoes, a couple usually are left uneaten and are soon too ripe to eat. Now what??

Take out the cornish hens (chicken will do) and curry powder and lets have some fun!

You will need ...

1-2 mangoes washed and cut 

2 cornish hens (or a whole chicken)

1 cup of chicken stock (or water with added chicken soup base)

1 onion chopped

1 head of garlic chopped 

4 slices of ginger (1/2 inch of ginger root)

1/2 cup of orange juice

1 heaping tablespoon of curry powder 

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Salt to taste

Combine the last six ingredients in a bowl and mix to a paste.  Add liquid from the chicken stock to make a thin paste and rub this onto the cornish hens (or chicken).

Place the hens and the rest of the ingredients (mangoes with pit and yes, peel too) in a pot (do you have a clay pot?) cover and bake in oven at 375*.  

To brown the hens, finish baking uncovered for the last 10 minutes.

Serve this with roasted yams, wild rice and salad.

Recipes to follow ...