Thai Salad

Wanting a light dinner which will make a great lunch the next day? This salad was inspired by a craving from a stand at the Ithaca Farmer's Market.  There is an awesome noodle stand there, and well, we felt like eating that tonight but couldn't drive the 3 hours it would take to get it! This whole dish (including if you were to make the grilled shrimp) will take no more than 30 minutes to make and assemble.
Cabbage is a member of the cruciferous family and is jam packed with Vitamin K and C.  It has amazing properties for healing. It's properties aide in digestive health, decreases cholesterol, is an anti-oxidant & anti-inflammatory, and has been shown to prevent forms of cancer.
Source: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=19 .

Makes 6 servings        Prep Time: 15 minutes       Cook Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
Salad:

• 6 cups of chopped or shredded Nappa cabbage (Bok Choy or other cabbages would work well too-this is about 3/4 of a head)
  
• 2 cups of shredded carrots
• 1 cup minced celery
• 1/2 cup of chopped scallions
• *2/3 package of buckwheat noodles (2 bundles) cooked and rinsed with cold water
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• Bean sprouts
  
  

*Note: If needing gluten free, make sure buckwheat noodles are 100% buckwheat. Often buckwheat noodles have wheat flour in them as well.  If you can't find them-use brown rice noodles)

Dressing (keeps for weeks, and you'll have a bunch left over):

• 6 tbsp organic peanut butter (we used crunchy)
• 3/4 c boiling water
• 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (if you don't have this, cider vinegar would be fine but not balsamic)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/2 tbsp fresh chopped ginger
• 1 lime-about 2-3 tbsp juice
• *optional-for added spice: add in 1-2 tsp Siracha/Asian chili sauce

Instructions:

1. Cook noodles and drain, toss with sesame oil and let cool
2. Mix rest of salad ingredients in a bowl (don't add noodles)
3. Place peanut butter into a bowl, add in boiling water, stir until combined
4. Add remaining dressing ingredients
5. Pour desired amount of dressing onto the noodles and toss, reserving the majority for salad

Assembly:

1. Place lettuce in bowls, and mix in desired amount of noodles
2. Pour desired amount of dressing on and toss (we didn't use much)
   
3. Top with bean sprouts, protein of your choice (we used grilled shrimp, tofu would be good too!), and more Siracha (for the heat lovers)
   
   
   
   

Nutritional Benefits:

• High in Protein (if using shrimp)
• Low in Fat (entire dressing has 48g-making it no more than 5 g per serving-that's assuming you use a lot of dressing)
• Vitamin A: carrots; bone, tooth, and eye health
• Vitamin K: cabbage 66.5% of daily needs in 1 cup: needed for bone & tooth health, aides in proper clotting of blood, prevents cardiovascular disease & diabetes
• Garlic: anti-inflammatory (reduced inflammation), heart health (lowers cholesterol/blood pressure/triglycerides), anti-microbial, anti-oxidant
• Ginger: anti-inflammatory, aides in digestion, anti-tumor growth, anti-oxidant
• Vitamin C (immune health): from cabbage (43% in of daily needs in 1 cup) and limes
• *Vegan & gluten free (if not topping with shrimp and using gf noodles)

Pumpin' Pumpkin Bars-gluten free & vegan!

 

 So we're experimenting with pumpkin this month and found these awesome pumpkin brownies. Unlike another recipe we made with beans (that was more like a pumpkin pie), these turned out more cake-like, soft and moist.  YUM YUM! We adapted this recipe slightly from www.ambitiouskitchen.com taking out the refined sugar.  These freeze awesome and are a total crowd pleaser while being healthy!
    The 2 main components in this recipe are oats & pumpkin, both power houses in terms of nutritional value. Pumpkin is packed with Vitamin A, needed for red blood cell creation, bone and teeth development, and immune health.  Oats are very high in maganese.  Maganese is essential for:

• Help your body utilize several key nutrients such as biotin, thiamin, ascorbic acid, and choline
• Keep your bones/teeth strong and healthy
• Help your body synthesize fatty acids and cholesterol
• Maintain normal blood sugar levels
• Promote optimal function of your thyroid gland
• Maintain the health of your nerves
• Protect your cells from free-radical damage

Source: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=77

Ingredients:

• *2 1/2 c oat flour (we take 2 1/2 c organic rolled oats and grind them up for a few seconds in our Vitamix/blender and measure out to make sure to have 2 1/2 c flour)
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1/4 c honey
• 1/4 cup molasses 
• 1/2 c unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 2 heaping tsp cinnamon (we love cinnamon)
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 or 1/3 c chocolate chips (vegan) + 2 tbsp for top
  

*use certified gluten free oats if needed

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with cooking spray (could make it in a larger pan, but these wouldn't end up as thick, and watch timing if you do so).
2. Make oat flour-by pulsing rolled oats in blender until flour forms
3. Mix wet ingredients together.  Mix dry ingredients (excepts chips) in a separate bowl and gradually add in dry ingredients.
4. Fold in chips and pour into pan
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool and slice.
   
   
   

Nutritional Benefits:

• Pumpkin: high in beta carotene (Vitamin A): great for immune, bone, teeth and eye health, 1 c-840% of daily needs!
• Oats: high in fiber 1/2 c dry=4 g fiber and maganese (1c=68% of daily value) 
• Low in sugar/no refined sugar
• Low in fat
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-oxidant

Nutritional Information (based on 16 squares, but you could easily get 20 out of these)

Calories: 121 (in total recipe: 1938)

Fat: 3.3g (in total recipe: 53g)

Carbs: 21.7g (in total recipe: 347g)

Fiber: 1.8g (in total recipe: 28g)

Protein: 1.7g (in total recipe: 27 g)