Herbs- MVP for the night!

Last night was a girls night out- or rather- girls class out!  That's right, we outclassed everyone because we were learning about gardening with vegetables and flowers and herbs!  In my humble opinion, I think we all had fun and learned a lot.

First, I'm coping with the fact that my gardening escapades are near failures compared to my friends, but like I told my walking buddy this week, with cooking and gardening, as frustrating as they can be at times when you are always experimenting, I am choosing NOT to give up!  That would mean defeat from the cooking/gardening gods and I refuse.  Whatever successes I do have in those areas I hold them up like trophies!  They are my glory!  Aha!

So, I shared about my love of using herbs in the kitchen at the class tonight with my lady friends. When I use herbs,  I get that 'clean' feeling that I've been talking about. Using god-given plants to enhance my food, now that's a winner!  Here is my little list that I presented tonight:

rosemary: make your own herbes de provence- use on chicken or swiss steak
               use in homemade gyro meat recipe

mint: use in chia pudding, homemade tea, desserts

chives: use in scrambled egg recipes, or with cream cheese spreads

basil:  ok- just about anything with basil is a bit of heaven, but the obvious, pesto, pizza, etc

tarragon: salad dressings!  Can we hear a woot, woot!  I could drink this stuff.  Just do your basic
             dijon vinigrette with tarragon blended in with it.  Gold sauce!

I know you foodies out there can talk about more herbs forever. We need your legacy of knowledge, so please add to the list in the comments below.

In harmony,
Leslie

Orange Chia seed Pudding

photo credit

 

 

 

This stuff is amazing.  For me its more of a yogurt-drink-type consistancy.  Chia pudding is a great snack or even breakfast. Boss Moss, who grew up with tapioca pudding, loved it.

 

If you have tried my healthy truffles/chia balls you know why chia seeds are good.  But there is more- the technical stuff:

 



Chia has more omega 3′s than a 4oz piece of salmon. In fact, if you had Chia for breakfast, you could skip your fish oil supplement that day

12g of fiber (real stuff, not that fake processed stuff that has been infused with inulin to boost the fiber content – ummm like Kashi cereal )

Chai is a natural appetite suppressant.

Same amount of protein as one egg

Gluten free and dairy free

Rich in B vitamins and magnesium (nutrients required to counter stress)

Travels well

Egg substitute (Whaa?)

The fun part of chia, when you are out of eggs and you are making, say gluten free muffins, just whip up 1 tbsp. of chia seed with 2 tbps of water and voila, you have substitute egg with a vitamin punch.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons chia seeds
• 1 cup coconut milk (So Delicious is GF)
• juice of 1/2 orange
• pinch of fresh vanilla bean seeds
• pinch of sea salt
• 1/4 tsp orange zest
• 4 mint leaves, torn(maybe from your garden)
• 3-4 drops of Wild Orange Essential Oil

DIRECTIONS   Add chia seed to a small bowl. Pour coconut milk over chia seed. Stir. Let it sit for 15 minutes (or overnight).
Pour fresh orange juice over chia seed. Stir again.
Add ground vanilla bean, sea salt, orange zest and fresh mint. Serve or chill.  I doubled this batch for my family.  Servings: 6-7