Smoked Salmon Cucumber Rounds

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Serves 4 as a light snack, or 2 for lunch

Ingredients

Smoked salmon
1 cucumber
4 hardboiled egg yolks (Trader Joes sells peeled hardboiled eggs, making this super easy)
1 lemon, zest and juice
Salt to taste
Dill for garnish

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Lemon Cheesecake with Honey Topping

Last minute invite to a party, currently without a functioning oven, still needed to make a yummy dessert… wanted to make the Fresh Blueberry Pie, but couldn’t find blueberries at my local supermarket. So… no-bake cheesecake to the rescue! Stirred up the crust as instructed but added lemon zest, added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the filling and refrigerated for an hour. Mixed up some greek yogurt and honey to spread over the top, drizzled with a bit more honey and decorated with lemon slices! Fabulous last minute dessert!

Waldorf Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
2 medium celery ribs, diced
green onions, minced
1 large crisp apple, cored and diced
6 tablespoons chopped, toasted walnuts
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Salt and ground black pepper
1 teaspoon celery salt

 

 

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Hummus

Ingredients:
1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
2+ tablespoons olive oil

Birchermuesli

Grandma’s secret recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal (either quick oats soaked in milk 1minute, or old fashion soaked overnight)
1 cup milk
juice of 1 lemon
½ cup orange juice
2 unpeeled apples, grated
2 oranges, sliced
2 pears, grated
blueberries
strawberries
grapes
blackberries
raspberries
pineapple
handful of raisins
slivered nuts

 

Instructions:

Mix everything together!

Lemon Garlic Salmon

Marinade:

Olive oil, lemon juice, lemon rind, freshly minced garlic, sea salt and pepper

Mix about 1 cup of olive oil, with the juice and freshly grated rind of two lemons
Whisk in the garlic (2-4 cloves), salt and pepper
Pour over salmon to marinate for 10 – 15 minutes
Bake @ 450 for 7-10 minutes

 

Rosemary Lemon Chicken

Before:

Take the raw, whole chicken and smother with olive oil and lemon rind
Stuff with rosemary and the lemon (punctured all over)
Bake @ 350 for about an hour (3-4 pound chicken)

After:

Pâté

Pâté finger sandwiches are a super easy addition to any tea party! You can simply buy pâté at your local store, or if yo’re feeling ambitious (and not squeamish) bust out your food processor and make your own!

Ingredients:

1lb chicken livers
1 small lemon, zested and juiced
1 medium onion
6 cloves garlic
6 strips bacon
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
sea salt to taste

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Lemon-Berry Trifle

Yet again, Laurie has outdone herself. She whipped up a beautiful lemon berry trifle! The lemon curd she used in this recipe is quite simply to die for. You just want to keep eating it. And eating it. And eating it. Which is what we did!

Ingredients:

1 vanilla bean cake (in a 10 in springform pan)
2/3 cup of raspberry preserves
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
2 cups of Lemon Curd
1/2 cup of sliced strawberries with 1 tsp of sugar

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Indian-Style Lamb Chops

This recipe was inspired by the recipe of the same name in Nourishing Traditions, we just didn’t quite have all the same ingredients, but we went with it anyway.

Ingredients:

2 pounds lamb, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
4 tablespoons clarified butter
1 medium onion
2-3 cups beef stock
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads (soaked in two tablespoons water)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

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Lavender Lemon Cookies

Adapted from When Harry Met Salad Check out the blog for some more gorgeous photographs!

Ingredients:

¾ cup sugar OR sucanat
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons dried lavender
1¾ cup whole wheat flour (or a mixture of ww & white)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoon (1½ sticks) cold butter cubes
1 egg yolk
½ teaspoons vanilla extract

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Cloud Pancakes

We’re loving Martha Stewart’s breakfast section! We love cottage cheese, we love pancakes… put them together for a yummy reason to wake up in the morning!

Ingredients:

3 large eggs, separated
1 cups small-curd cottage cheese
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar (or a dash of lemon juice)
Butter, for cooking

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Lemon Cheesecake

We’ve been super obsessed with lemons recently, so Tami made up this fresh dessert! Top with strawberries and chocolate sauce for an uber-decedant treat! Cut back on the amount of lemon juice for a more subtle flavor!

Crust Ingredients:

2 (generous) cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick melted butter
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Cheesecake Ingredients:

16 ounces cream cheese
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons lemon zest
6 tablespoons lemon juice


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Lavender Lamb Chops

Ingredients:

1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons walnut oil
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons culinary lavender
8 lamb chops
sea salt & ground pepper

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Meyer Lemon Bars

Originally drooled over these on foodporndaily.com and then every so slightly adapted the recipe from kitchenrunway.com to our needs. Which simply means a little more lemon zest & juice!

Crust Ingredients:

1 C of unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ C sugar
2 C flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest

Filling Ingredients:

6 extra large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons grated Meyer lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour

powder sugar for dusting

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Maple-Pecan Apple Crumb Pie

From the Esalon Cookbook! We can’t wait to try more things out of this cookbook!

Piecrust

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1.25 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons sucanat
1 cup cold butter
1/2 cup ice water

Pie Filling

6 cups cored , peeled apples, sliced into 1/4 inches slices
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sucanat OR honey
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup maple syrup

Maple Pecan Crumb Topping

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole pastry flour
1/4 cup sucanat
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped pecans

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Peach Blueberry Pie

Crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour (we did 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 white flour)
1 tablespoon sugar or succanat
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 to 5 tablespoons ice-cold water

Filling:

3 pounds ripe peaches (approximately)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (packed) light-brown sugar OR succanat
1/4 cup granulated sugar OR succanat OR honey
1 packet Stevia
1/4 cup all-purpose flour OR whole wheat pastry flour
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons heavy cream


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Carrot Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting

We’re determined to make desserts that taste good and are good for you (well okay… desserts that at least aren’t horrible for you and don’t have processed sugar!). The original recipe came from Epicurious, but we made a decent amount of changes to get it sugar-free and we also substituted coconut oil for canola oil, since coconut oil is more beneficial.

Carrot Cake Ingredients:

1/3 cup dried shredded organic unsweetened coconut
3 cups (a little less than a 1 pound) organic farm-fresh carrots, shredded
1 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour
1/2 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons organic ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated organic nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sucanat
3/4 cup organic coconut oil
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
3 organic eggs

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Homemade Ice Cream


The base is the same regardless, but you have some options when it comes to the sweetener that goes with the flavor. If you don’t want to use sugar (we try not to!)  we  suggest agave nectar or succanat, depending on the flavor you choose. Succanat has more of a molasses taste to it, so we wouldn’t recommend it for the lemon ice cream, but it would be great if you wanted to make cinnamon ice cream or something more substantial like chocolate.

For our first try we decided to do lemon and strawberry & banana. The lemon came out very lemony (which we like!) and the strawberry banana was a perfectly smooth end of summer flavor.

Ice Cream Base

4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon zantham gum
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup half and half
1 1/2 cup heavy cream

Lemon Flavor

finely grated zest of 3 lemons
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup agave nectar
or 3/4 cup succanat or 3/4 cup sugar

Strawberry/Banana Flavor

1 pint of strawberries
1 banana
1/3 cup agave or 1/2 cup succanat or 1/2 cup sugar

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Black Bean Ful

Ingredients:

2 cups dried black beans
6-8 cups water

1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 cup copped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

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Lamb Kebabs with Mint Pesto

Kebab Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil plus additional for brushing
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds, ground in spice mill or in mortar with pestle
2 pounds trimmed boneless leg of lamb, cut into 1 1/4-inch cubes
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch squares
1 large red onion, cut into 1-inch squares

Mint Pesto Ingredients:

1 cup (packed) fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup (packed) fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 medium garlic clove, peeled
1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 cup (or more) extra-virgin olive oil

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Baba Ghanoush

We got the original recipe from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, but (in our opinion) it was kind of bland. We added extra salt, garlic and olive oil to make it more flavorful!

Ingredients:

3 large eggplants
1 tablespoon sea salt (we added more like 2-3 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic (we added more like 4-5 cloves)
juice from 4-5 lemons
1 cup tahini
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (we added more like 4-5 tablespoons)
dash of cayenne pepper

Instructions:

Slice eggplant in half
Place facedown on a cookie sheet with olive oil
Puncture eggplant in a few places
Bake at 375F for about 45 minutes (until skin is wrinkled and eggplant is tender)
Let cool
Peel skin off, chop into chunks
Sprinkle with salt, mix well and let sit for about an hour
Rinse well with water and pat dry with towel
Puree eggplant in food processor
Add remaining ingredients (except cayenne pepper) and blend until smooth
Serve with a dash of cayenne pepper and pita or flatbread