..Organic Micro Greens Salad with Green Mandarin Salad Dressing..

I adapted this recipe from the Green Mandarin Salad Dressing from the Youngevity Aroma Share Club recipes for the month of April. I made a few changes to the recipe to suit my own tastes and what I had on hand in the kitchen. While the version I made isn’t IC friendly, it’s very easy to swap the offending ingredient out :).

The salad dressing was paired with an organic micro greens salad that was amazingly delicious. The combination of the dressing with the salad ingredients was amazing. It was light yet incredibly filling. This dish left me feeling great all day, and I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch. Joel and I actually squabbled over who was finishing the last of it off lol.

..Organic Micro Greens Salad..

–  few handfuls of organic micro greens (or other salad greens)

– organic orange tomatoes (omit for IC)

– organic raw white corn

– organic radishes, thinly sliced

– organic beets, cut into thing strips

– organic green onion, chopped

– Green Mandarin Salad Dressing (recipe below)

Really easy to toss together. Simply combine all of the ingredients into a large bowl. Add a few spoonfuls of the salad dressing, plate, and go to town :).

I had orange tomatoes in mine. There are a lot of ICers out there who can actually eat tomatoes. I have a much easier time eating organic heirloom green and orange tomatoes than I do eating any kind of red tomatoes. As long as I do so in moderation and not when my pain and other symptoms are spiking, I tend to do pretty well eating those two varieties. But feel free to omit where you need to.

..Green Mandarin Salad Dressing..

– 1/2 cup of organic raw unhulled, soaked & sprouted sesame seeds

– 1 tbsp of Terrain Sacred Herbs

– 8 organic frozen cherries, cut in half (mostly to check for pits!)

– 1/2 a chunk of fresh organic ginger

– about 2 cups of fresh organic orange juice OR pear/apple juice to make IC friendly

– 1 drop of Green Mandarin Essential Oil

Really easy to make. If you soak your sesame seeds yourself, soak them six hours to overnight. Drain very well. Blend all of the dressing ingredients together until smooth, except for the essential oil. The original recipe called for using nuts in place of the sunflower seeds and only 1 cup of juice. I have developed several nut allergies, so I made a safer swap. The sunflower seeds cause the mixture to set up like concrete, hence the extra liquid :). Once the ingredients are blended smoothly, add the Green Mandarin Essential Oil and blend for one more minute.

ICers- You can sub in pear or apple juice for the orange juice, but the essential oil should be IC friendly. You can also try using blueberry juice, but I’m not entirely sure how that would turn out. If you try it with that sub, let me know how it tastes :).

Store in a glass jar and chill for two hours before using. Pour over any salad. It will last for about two weeks in the fridge. Be sure to give it a good shake before each use to remix all the ingredients after storing in the fridge :).

The salad dressing was light and slightly sweet with a nice tartness that was balanced out nicely with the bit of ginger, the flavors of orange, and the unique taste of sunflower seeds. And it’s IC friendly :). My husband was a little skeptical at first.. and rightly so. My attempts at recreating essential oil food recipes have been diastorous in the past, but this one was a winner :). We’ve used it several times in the two weeks since I made it. He gobbles down anything that’s under it, and my nearly three year old, Eowyn, loves to eat it as is or over fruit.

..Grilled Wild-Caught Crab..

Joel has been doing a lot of the cooking lately while I’ve been slammed with extra studying and finishing up coursework. He’s been so amazing with it all :). I’ve been nagging him about snapping some photos so we can add recipes to the website, but he says it “diminishes his man skills in the kitchen” lol. Cause you know.. photography.. it’s so emasculating when you’re wearing a Vera Bradley apron and jammin’ to Hanson’s Live From Albertane album while dancing the Truffle-shuffle with Eowyn ;).

The other week we stopped in at Whole Foods after church. We hadn’t been in the Oracle store since it was remodeled, and I’ve been wanting to check it out. Elodie spent the entire drive to church begging for “tree stars” and “green food”. Seriously.. if you don’t know what those are, you need to watch The Land Before Time movies! But anyway, we stopped into Whole Foods so Elodie could pick out some vegetables. The remodeled store looks amazing! We should have popped in long before now. The fish counter had a great wild-caught selection, including these beautiful crabs. They were huge! And so reasonably priced. We snagged one to split between us for supper. They were big enough to feed two!

Because we had just picked up a small charcoal grill, Joel decided he wanted to grill them crab. It was pretty windy outside, so it took us a while to get the grill going. And when I say “us” I really mean me. Because I got the grill going like the awesome woman I am :). The embers were glowing and hot, and it was a perfect temperature for a slow grilling of the crab. Joel cooked the crab for about 30 minutes, but he did burn it slightly. He was a little distracted with the girls and Minnie. I would say to check it after about 10 minutes depending on how hot your coals are. Our crab would have been perfect after about 20-25 minutes.

Even though it was a little charred, it was absolutely delicious! I plan on heading back to Whole Foods on at the first of the month to see if they have any more of those delectable crabs! We left the crab completely unseasoned, and the flavor was great. I wouldn’t have added a single thing to it. It’s a wonderfully easy and IC friendly meal that can thrown together at the drop of the hat and with very little effort.

..Garlicky Mushrooms, Kale and Chicken with Spaghetti Squash..

My IC pain and cataplexy symptoms have been very bad lately. This is probably the worst spell I have had in years, and it shows no signs of letting up.

My husband, Joel, has been an absolutely dear over the last few weeks. He’s been helping with the cleaning, laundry, supper prep, and even cooking occasionally. And he’s actually been following my recipes for suppers! The man can really cook when he wants to :).

He made a delicious meal using my recipe for Garlicky Mushrooms, Kale and Chicken with Spaghetti Squash. He did a wonderful job. The dish was full of flavor, and he prepared it perfectly! I couldn’t get him to take photos for the blog, but I did manage to snag a photo of my plate. We’ll definitely make this one again and again! It made delicious cold leftovers too. And Joel is a huge fan of garlic, so even though he hates mushrooms while I absolutely love them, he still found the entire dish incredibly yummy!

 – 1 medium cooked organic spaghetti squash

– 2 tbsp of organic olive oil

– 6 cloves of organic garlic cloves, minced

– 3 cups or organic baby portobello mushrooms, chopped

– 1 tbsp of organic thyme

– 1 to 2 chicken breasts cut into strips (might need two depending on the size)

– 4 cups of organic kale leaves

– zest of 1 organic lemon (optional)

– sea salt

– 1/8 tsp of organic cayenne pepper, or to taste (optional)

Start with cooking your spaghetti squash. You can either roast it or make it ahead of time in the crockpot, which is what I did. To cook it in the crockpot, place the squash in the crockpot with a cup of water. Cook on low 8-10 hours. I let mine go a little longer that that. I fell asleep. So when Joel went to pull it out of the crockpot, it burst open when he touched it! No cutting required lol.

Add olive oil to a skillet and heat on medium. Add the minced garlic and mushrooms. Saute for five minutes, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant and the mushrooms have browned.

Add strips of raw chicken and cook about 1-2 minutes before adding the chopped kale leaves. Cook an additional 3-5 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked through.

Next add the lemon zest (optional), sea salt, and cayenne pepper (optional). Stir and cook an additional minute. Remove from heat.

Strip the spaghetti squash into strands using a fork. Place in a bowl. Add the chicken, mushrooms, and kale. Toss together and serve. You can also serve a little rated cheese over the top :).

This was a delicious meal that was bursting with flavor, and the leftovers were just as great. It’s a quick and easy meal. And it’s IC friendly :).

..Butternut Squash Linguine..

I found this recipe somewhere, but for the life of me I can’t remember where that was. The original recipe called for making the entire dish in a crockpot. There was something about softening the butternut squash in the microwave to peel and cube it before cooking in the crockpot. Well, I didn’t make it that way. For one thing, we don’t use our microwave that often anymore. Once I convince my husband to let me get some bamboo steamers, we won’t be using it at all. I made a few tweaks to the recipe, although I did cook the whole squash in the crockpot the day before, and I added an extra spice to come up with something light and delicious.

– 2 to 3 pound organic butternut squash

– 2 tbsp of organic coconut oil

– 1/2 a small organic onion

– 3 cloves of organic garlic

– 2 cups of organic vegetable or chicken stock

– 1 tsp organic sage

– 2 tsp of organic basil

– 1/2 tsp of sea salt

– 1/4 tsp black pepper

– cooked organic pasta of your choice

Start by cooking your butternut squash. I did this using a crockpot. I had a butternut squash and a summer squash that I needed cook, so I just tossed both into the crockpot. I added one cup of water and cooked on low for 8-10 hours. Mine went a little past the 10 hour mark.. because I fell asleep lol.. so the squash burst open with a single touch. Made it easier to scoop everything out though! Remove the pulp and seeds. Scoop out the butternut squash meat and set aside until you’re ready for it.

Cut the onions into cubes and the garlic into slices. You’ll be blending it up, so you don’t need to worry with mincing or chopping. Melt 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a pot or deep skillet. If you dislike the taste of coconut, you can always add a pinch of sea salt to the melted coconut oil. It will neutralize the coconut flavor. Saute the onions in the coconut oil. Ad the garlic and cook until fragrant.. about 30 seconds or so.

Add your butternut squash and organic stock to the onions and garlic. The original recipe calls for vegetable stock, but I was all out. I used organic chicken stock instead. The flavor was still amazing, so either type of stock works out great! Stir together until combined.

Add the organic sage, organic basil, sea salt, and black pepper (or your IC Friendly alternative). Bring to a slight boil and simmer for 10 minutes.. just to let everything mix together nicely. Now it’s time to blend it all together. I used an immersion blender. Be careful when using one! They can easily splash and the butternut sauce is HOT. You can also pour it into a blender.

For this next step you can use a refrigerated pasta, fresh pasta, or cooked pasta. I used organic gluten free noodles that I grabbed at Costco. They are absolutely delicious! Take whichever of three options you’d like and mix into the sauce. If you are using refrigerated or fresh pasta, cook 5-10 minutes or until pasta is tender. If you’re using cooked pasta, just mix it into the hot butternut sauce.

Joel wanted veggies added to the butternut squash linguine instead of something like chicken, so I added roasted broccoli and mushrooms to out dishes. We had some tomatoes to use up, so Joel also had some fresh tomatoes chopped up and mixed in with his serving. I am having an incredibly rough time with my IC, so I didn’t want to worry about any cross-contamination with the tomatoes. I used a separate bowl to mix Joel’s portion. The taste was light and had a slight spicy sweetness.

This butternut squash linguine was very filling! We even got Eowyn to eat some of it, but then again, she did think the sauce was cheese lol. Ignore the ‘maters in the final photos ICers :).

The added vegetables went nicely with it, and we can add chicken to the leftovers for another meal this week :). Next time we’ll have to try adding asparagus and shrimp!