Full Power Caesar Dressing

Full Power Caesar Dressing

1 C olive oil (or Mediterranean blend oil)
1/4 C water
2 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh is best, I used bottled this time)
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar (or sub your own if you don't have it)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard (I didn't have any so I used regular mustard)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 large egg yolk*
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 C Parmesan cheese (fresh is best, I used a bottled version this time)
2 Scoops Blendfresh Greens (raw, whole food, powdered fruit and veggie mix) (optional)

Add ingredients to your blender jar and blend until creamy.  Its best to let the flavors sit and come together for a day.  It can also be a dip.  Because of the use of raw egg yolk (as is traditional for Caesar dressing), use within a week or according to common sense and be aware that *Consuming raw or undercooked eggs or egg products can increase your risk of foodborne illness.  

This is the new favorite at my house!  My teens who were almost dragging their feet to eat their salad are now looking at me and asking "What did you do?!".  I'm hearing "This is the best salad dressing I've ever had!".  High praise from the family dinner table :)

I was experimenting with ways to use Blendfresh Green raw food powder.  I've recently been speaking more with chefs and caterers about using Blendfresh from a taste perspective.  It really adds so much more depth and dimension to recipes.

This dressing I've adapted from the Blendtec cookbook.  At first I made it without Blendfresh and tasted.  Then I added one scoop of Blendfresh Greens and liked it better, but thought the flavors would be good with a little more intensity.  So I added a second scoop, and that's the magic!  It's hard to describe how a hint of sweet from the lime and a touch of asparagus and other raw vegetables come together to create this whole amazing flavor.

Instinctively we add oil based dressings to our green salads.  The good oils actually aid in the uptake of minerals found in green plants.  So here is an even more powerful way to do it - add the veggies right into the dressing!  Enjoy and comment below how you like it.

PBJ Energy Bites

Fast, easy and filling!  In case you can't read the graphic, here's the breakdown;

Peanut Butter and Jelly Energy Bites

1 Cup rolled oats (pulsed in blender optional)
1 Scoop Blendfresh Protein Powder (or sub your own)
1 Scoop Blendfresh Purple fruit and veggie raw powder (or sub 1 Tbsp jam)

Stir dry ingredients together with a fork.  The add 3 Tbsp water and

2/3 Cup chunky peanut butter

Mash until mixed and roll into bite sized balls.

So tasty you'll forget it's good for you.  Kids love it and it makes a great after school activity and snack!

Blendfresh raw, whole food powders

Want something that makes getting your fruits and veggies easier? I have just found this and am IN LOVE! Raw, whole food powders, pesticide free, non-GMO, soy free, gluten free, dairy free, vegan. Just the good stuff you actually want in your body. I have been sneaking scoops of this into our smoothies the last two weeks and no one in my family seems to mind they are eating so many veggies! This is the new foods line put out by Blendtec and one of the reasons

 I'm so excited to work with them.

What happened was that Blendtec, the maker of the world's most advanced blenders, would make a great product and then their completely satisfied customer would be gone for 8-10 years enjoying their blender.  Millions of people worldwide know this brand for quality, and they all go and buy various qualities of produce to use for their smoothies.

Blendtec saw an opportunity to better serve their customers by spinning off a sister company that would focus on high quality foods that could be used with their amazing blenders.  As soon as I knew this line was affiliated with a 200 million dollar company and a 38 year reputation, I wanted to know more.  There is no way a stable company like this would put out a substandard product.  

The more I learned, the more excited I got.  Yes, several companies sell greens powders, I've been buying them for years.  But how many are actually raw?  Dried with light instead of heat to keep the enzymes unharmed and active?  And are greens all we really need?  What about the orange, red and purple colored vegetables - we are supposed to "eat a rainbow" of color right?

I was even more impressed when I read the label.  "Bell pepper, rhubarb, strawberries, cranberries..."  twelve ingredients.  Only fruits and vegetables.  No fillers so that they will make more money selling a larger container of product.  No binders so it looks artificially pretty.  No preservatives so they can keep an abnormally long shelf life.  This is just a bottle of food with the water carefully removed.  Wow.

Because it is a fresh, raw food they suggest keeping it in your fridge and using within 90 days of opening.  I love looking in my fridge the last couple of weeks, wonder what I should make, and then having a beautiful bottle remind me and inspire me to make a nutritious smoothie.  Sounds corny, I know, but that's what's been happening.  And with zero arguments from kids or hubby!

I'll post more detailed articles soon on the other great products in the line, but here's a teaser; a probiotic complete with blackstrap molasses as a pre-biotic, so your friendly germs are still alive when you open your bottle.  A fiber blend of sprouted nuts and seeds that meets FDA requirements for soluble and insoluble fiber so that they can say it "lowers cholesterol" right on the label.  And last but not least a delicious (which is rare) vegan protein powder, with not one but 8 different protein sources for a complete amino acid profile.  Lighter on the digestive system than traditional whey and made of whole foods - you can actually read and understand the label!  I could go on and on, and I will, soon.  Just know that if you need a solution for more nutrition quickly and simply (and I forgot to even mention that it even costs you less than fresh produce!) just find out more about this!  I've made a YouTube video link so click here to see me explain it in more detail.  It even goes along with a Blendtec blender discount program if you need one of those.  

So think on it, and have a great day.  I'm going to go mix up a glass of Purples!

Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup Recipe

Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup

This takes literally less than ten minutes from start to table, so you are hearing a chorus of "What's for dinner?" this could save the day!  Pair it with a hearty slice of whole grain bread and you have a nice light evening meal that satisfies.

4 Cups broccoli florets, steamed and divided

1 Cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarian)

1 Cup water

Salt and pepper to taste

1/3 Cup grated cheddar cheese

Add 3 1/2 cups steamed broccoli and the rest of the ingredients to the blender jar.  Blend on the Hot Soup setting if you have a Blendtec blender (the heat from the blades will heat the soup), or 90-180 seconds in a regular blender.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup of steamed broccoli and pulse about 3 times, until they are bite sized chunks.   You are done!  You may need to heat the soup in the microwave or on the stove if using lower end blender.  Pour and top with shredded cheese to make it pretty.

Is it good?  Yeah, they like it...

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A Compromise on Instant Oatmeal?

Some days the kids just want a "fun" cereal for breakfast.  Translation: "Please can I have extra sugar and less fiber from a brightly colored package before you send me off to sit still at school for half a day".  Uh, maybe not.

But we want them to have a little fun sometimes and feel like they have choices, and most importantly to not grow up feeling so deprived that they binge on cold cereal the second they go off to college.  So being the stealthy, healthy mom that I am, I've engineered a compromise.  Here's how it goes.  On special days they can pick a flavored instant oatmeal packet.  In the beginning they would watch me pour it into their bowl, then I'd walk over, add the water, and as they happily ran off to get ready for the day I'd grab a handful of regular oats and add them to the bowl.  (The regular oats aren't even called instant, but cook up in just the same amount of time in the microwave and actually give the kids something to chew on versus drinking down the instant stuff).  They've figured out what I'm up to and these days they don't even mind.  They're used to the taste of less sugar now.

So they get to pick the fun flavor they want from a brightly colored assortment, and I get to give them an added dose of fiber so they will stay full until lunch and keep their tummy from hurting from too much processed food.  Plus the goodness in the oats will dilute down the sugar from the instant packet since the body has something more hearty to digest, creating a more positive glycemic effect on blood sugar.  By doing this I'm also teaching them to adapt recipes to be more healthy at the same time.

Oats even have some protein, did you know that?  Lots of vegan protein powders use it as a main protein source.  Just think, you get all these benefits and you slash your grocery bill too by adding the less expensive regular oats to the more expensive flavor packs.  Everybody wins!

Let me know how you like it!  If you're on Instagram post a pic of your bowl and tag me with @coachjenngibbs .  Thanks!

Epic Backyard Warrior

Sometimes you can't sweat the small stuff - just have to get out and enjoy life! 

This is what we did with the last days of summer...