In today’s world where people in increasing numbers are turning to Organic Cuisine while keeping their eyes and ears open looking for new ways to remain healthy, the search to find new factors with which to ensure better health has begun to make us use up our time in searching for new answers.
As everybody knows today; in order to remain healthy, we all need to eat a more balanced diet and we also need to accompany that with regular exercise and then get enough rest so that we are fresh enough to repeat the cycle over again. Thus, it should not surprise anyone to learn that many people today are convinced that they can only achieve better health if they go the organic food way. No Pesticides or Chemicals
As you may well know, organic food is grown on organic farms where the foods are grown under very strict control in which guidelines formulated by the government regarding how to grow such foods need to be followed and which also includes knowing how to grow the organic produce and to package it without in any way contaminating the organic food through use of any form of chemical or even pesticides.
Traditional foods are typically grown in an environment that is rich with chemicals and even more worrying is the fact that many of the chemicals used have not even been properly researched which means that we don’t know what the effects of consuming such chemicals will be on our health.
Hence, it is easy to see that by eating organic food we are at least assured that we are not going to be consuming any chemicals and thus we won’t need to be worried about ill effects of being subjected to such substances.
The fact of the matter is that even when it concerns organic food such as meat as well as dairy products, these are sure to be free of any chemicals, which is certainly not the case when eating traditional dairy and meat products.
You can be assured that when it concerns organic food, farmers will also be feeding their livestock with nothing but organic feed that is sure to be free from chemicals or supplements and thus there is no chance that you will be consuming any kind of chemically enhanced foods.
Organic food is also beneficial to the environment as a whole because even the ground in which such food is grown will not be spoiled with the use of chemicals and thus the landscape will remain pure and uncontaminated.
So, if you are worried about maintaining your health and commit to using organic food, you can be assured that consumption of such foods will at least ensure that your body does not get unwanted doses of chemicals, insecticides and pesticides and in addition, the environment too will benefit immensely. Thus, making up your mind to go the organic food way is sure to be a responsible decision that will stand you in good stead in the near as well as long term.
Here are some of the organic food recepies :
An Olive Oil Pie Crust to Dessert
This holiday season, treat your guests to a flaky, savory pie crust that’s made with olive oil—no butter required at all (hello vegans!). This incredible recipe is from the culinary school Natural Gourmet Institute, where I received my training. It’s been a staple recipe in my kitchen for years, and it will transform your holiday desserts forever. Promise.Makes 1 crust
Cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour
¾ cup unbleached white flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup ice cold olive oil
¼ - ½ cup ice cold water, as needed
Method
Heat oven to 375°F.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
Cut oil into flour mixture all at once but do not mix. Toss the flour around lightly, coating the fat to create little balls of flour-coated fat. A light touch is important here. The final blending will take place on the pastry board in the rolling.
Add just enough water (one tablespoon at a time) to form a ball, being careful not to over-mix and create too much gluten.
Flatten dough into a disk shape and roll to desired shape. Place in pie or tart pan and chill for 30 minutes or more.
Fill crust and bake
Basil, Grape and Plum Goat Cheese Pizza
Try this delicious homemade pizza recipe with organic basil, grapes, plums, balsamic vinegar and goat cheese. It's perfect for the vegetarians in your life. This can be served as an appetizer or main course. Serves 6 as first course
Ingredients:
For Dough:
1 package of active dry yeast
1/2 cup of luke warm water
4 cups of all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup of cool water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of salt
Note: This dough recipe is enough to make two pizzas.
For Topping:
1/2 red onion sliced thin
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup of your favorite dessert wine like Port, Muscatto, Vin Santo
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 plums, seeds removed and sliced thin
1 1/2 cups of red seedless grapes halved
5 ounces of Italian Fontina cheese, rind removed and grated
3-4 ounces of goat cheese
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
1 tablespoon of sweet Green Basil, cut into a chiffonade
1 tablespoon of red Rubin Basil, chiffonade
Salt
Fresh cracked pepper
Balsamic Glaze
Method:
Make Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together, yeast, lukewarm water and 1/2 cup of flower. Lightly dust the top of the mixture with flower. Cover bowl with a towel and leave mixture to rise for about 20 minutes until the flour dusting “cracks,” showing that the yeast is alive and well.
Add to the bowl 3 cups of flower, 1 cup of cool water, olive oil and salt. Turning on stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, start kneading the dough at low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, raise speed to medium. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour as needed producing a silky soft and slightly moist dough. Keep kneading the dough until it adheres to the hook and is smooth and silky.
Lightly flour a flat surface and remove the dough from the bowl to the floured surface. Lightly dust the dough and your hands with flour and begin kneading the dough lightly folding the dough over itself. Knead until dough is soft, elastic and smooth. Shape dough into a ball yet slightly flat and lightly dust with flour. Cut dough in half with a pastry cutter. Use the rest to make a second pizza or punch down dough, wrap and freeze up to one month for a later use. When ready to use defrost and let rise in a large bowl in the refrigerator.
Lightly oil a stainless steel bowl and place dough in bowl. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in bulk about 1 – 1 1/4 hours. While dough rises preheat oven to 500° and place pizza stone in oven to preheat for at least 45 minutes.
Make Pizza topping while dough rises:
Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions and salt and pepper to taste. Stir onions occasionally until softened and caramel brown about 30-35 minutes. Transfer onions to a plate and reserve.
Lightly flour a flat surface and roll out dough to about a 13” round. Lightly dust your fingers and rolling pin get sticky from the dough them with flour as needed.
In a small sauce pan bring wine and sugar to a boil, stir until sugar is dissolved and reduce by half. Add plums and grapes to the sauce pan and stir to coat.
Sprinkle dough with Italian Fontina cheese, break apart goat cheese with fingers and evenly place around pizza. Evenly spread caramelized onions around pizza. Drizzle fruit mixture and sauce around pizza.
Remove preheated pizza stone from oven, line with parchment paper and transfer pizza to stone. Bake pizza until the dough is golden brown and cheese is bubbling about 15 – 20 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for 5 minutes. Drizzle pizza with balsamic glaze, cut and immediately serve.
Note: Because you follow an organic lifestyle, OrganicAuthority.com recommends using certified organic ingredients, when available, in all recipes to maximize flavors and nutrition while minimizing your risk of
exposure to pesticides, chemicals and preservatives.
exposure to pesticides, chemicals and preservatives.
Billions of Blueberries Pie
Apple pie gets all the patriotic props, but perhaps blueberry pie should be our new national pastry. The little blue balls are native to North America and pack a powerful dose of vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants. This is Billions of Blueberries pie, a simple, summer dessert that has been served for generations – and tastes best warmed up and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.Ingredients
Pie Crust:
2 cups + 3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon cold water
1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon water (for egg wash)
Filling:
5-6 cups Maine wild blueberries
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter
Method
1. Make pie crust. Mix dry ingredients together, then cut the shortening into the flour until blended. Add water and mix into dough, handling it as little as possible. On a lightly floured surface, roll your crust out to fit a 9” pie plate – you will have a bottom piece and a top piece. Place the bottom piece in your pie pan.
The secret to a great pie crust = precise measurements of ingredients. Or, skip this step altogether with a store-bought, frozen pie crust.
2. Wash berries, removing any stems or bad berries that the farm workers missed. Mix in flour and sugar with the fruit, and sprinkle with lemon juice.
3. Place blueberries in pan over bottom crust. Chop the butter up into small pieces and distribute evenly over top of pie.
4. Cover pie with top crust. Cut a few small air vents, and brush with the egg yolk and water mixture to make it shiny and pretty. Crimp the edges.
5. Bake pie for 35 minutes at 400 degrees, until top crust is golden brown. Let cool slightly, and enjoy!
Alternatives:
Use ¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup of your favorite alternative sweetener.
If you like your pie less juicy and more gel-y, add a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch to the filling to firm things up
Pancakes
Serves six and makes approximately 1 dozen large pancakes.
Ingredients:
1 small organic butternut squash
1 organic egg
1 organic egg white
1/2 cup of organic milk
2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Method:
Preheat oven 350º F.
Cut squash in half, and remove seeds with a spoon. Bake squash in a roasting pan until tender about 40 minutes. 20 minutes into baking the squash, add 1cup of water to the roasting pan (this will keep the squash from drying out).
Scoop out squash with a spoon and cool. Mash squash with a fork. In a bowl, combine the wet ingredients: squash, eggs and milk.
In another bowl combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Let stand 20 minutes.
Heat the oil to medium high heat in a nonstick pan.
Pour or ladle batter into the pan and cook 3 minutes per side.
Serve with whipped cream, yogurt, honey, maple syrup or butter.
Organic Fig Almond Frangipani Tart
Makes one 10-inch tart
Ingredients:
Pâte Sucrée or sweet tart dough (see recipe here)10-12 organic figs halved lengthwise
3 tablespoons turbinado or other raw organic sugar
Powdered sugar for dusting
Almond Frangipani:
1 cup whole blanched almonds, toasted and cooled
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
8 tablespoons or 1 stick of organic unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
1/4 teaspoon
Method:
Rolling the Pâte Sucrée:
Butter a 10-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom. Place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
This dough can be a bit tough to roll out because of the butter. This however is what makes this dough so scrumptious. An easy way to do it is to roll out the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap. Place plastic wrap on preferably cool surface, such as marble or the counter top. Place dough in the middle of the plastic wrap and top with the second piece of plastic wrap. Roll out the dough turning it often a quarter turn and flipping it so you can roll out the other side. Check and lift the plastic wrap often to make sure you are not rolling it into the dough or wrinkling it. If the dough becomes too warm while rolling it, put it into the refrigerator for 10 minutes to cool.
When you are finished rolling out the dough, remove one sheet of plastic and center the exposed side down over the tart pan. Remove the top sheet of plastic and press the dough into tart pan. Roll the rolling pin over the edge of tart pan to remove any excess dough. If the dough has splits or cracks, use the excess dough to patch it (you can moisten the excess dough with a small amount of water to bring the dough back together). Let dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Meanwhille start the almond frangipani
Make Almond Frangipani:
Process nuts with 3 tablespoons of sugar in a food processor until finely ground.
Using a heavy duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar on medium speed until soft, smooth and creamy (mixture should be homogenous and show no signs of separation or any particles such as sugar) and pale and fluffy. This will take about 2 minutes. Add yolk and egg and mix another 2 minutes. Add nut mixture, flour, vanilla seeds and salt. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Baking the Pâte Sucrée:
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Line the crust with a circle of parchment paper and sprinkle with dried beans or rice to use as pie weights to bake the crust.
Bake the crust 20 to 25 minutes or until crust has a very light color. Remove parchment paper and pie weights and bake another 4-6 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a rack and cool.
Assembling the Tart:
Spread the frangipani in the pie shell. Arrange figs cut side up on top of frangipani pressing gently. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top figs and tart. Bake until golden and bubbly about 45-50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.
Brine:
One 2 to 3 pound boneless organic pork loin9 cups of purified water
2 whole vanilla beans split lengthwise
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
Cured Pork:
Vanilla cured organic pork loin
4 medium organic turnips peeled and cut into 1/4" rounds
5 ounces of unsalted organic butter melted
2 oz of olive oil
salt and pepper
Maple Vanilla Sauce:
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 cup of homemade organic chicken stock (or you can buy organic chicken broth)
1/4 cup of organic white wine (use regular wine if you don't have the organic wine)
1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup to taste
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of cold unsalted organic butter chopped into half inch pieces
salt and pepper (use kosher salt or sea salt)
Make brine one to two days ahead of serving pork:
Add water to heavy sauce pan. Scrape seeds of vanilla bean into water and add vanilla bean to water. Bring water to a simmer. Add sugar, salt and cracked pepper, stir until dissolved. Cool brine in water bath to 45 degrees.
Pour brine into glass storage container (avoid plastic, as toxins can leach from the plastic material into the food). Immerse pork loin in the brine and allow it to cure in the refrigerator for one to two days, turning once a day and stirring twice a day.
Roast Pork and Turnips:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Let meat rest for 15-20 minutes.
Toss the peeled turnips in 3 oz of butter, salt and pepper and set aside.
Heat remaining butter and olive oil in oven proof pan on medium high heat. Sear pork on all sides until brown. Finish pork by roasting it in the oven until meat thermometer reaches 145º, roughly one hour. When done, remove pork from roasting pan, cover and let it rest about 15 minutes.
Roast buttered turnips on sheet pan until fork tender, roughly 20-25 minutes.
While the pork rests, start work on the maple vanilla sauce.
Degrease the roasting pan by skimming the drippings in the pan with a spoon to remove fat. Sauté garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Deglaze roasting pan with wine and reduce by half. Add stock, syrup and vanilla. Reduce sauce to almost a glaze. Remove sauce from heat, stir in chunks of cold butter and season with salt and pepper to taste
Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie
SERVINGS: 1
½ cup fat-free milk
½ cup fat-free plain yogurt
2 Tbsp creamy natural unsalted peanut butter (MUFA)
¼ very ripe banana
1 Tbsp honey
4 ice cubes
Combine the milk, yogurt, peanut butter, banana, honey, and ice cubes in a blender. Process until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and serve
Peanut Butter No-Bake Bars
Prevention
Unlike S'mores and Rice Krispies Treats, however, these are made with whole grain cereal, so you get the benefit of 5 grams of fiber per serving. Now that?s what makes growing up worth it! Keep in an airtight container in a cool spot for up to 3 days.SERVINGS: 6
1. Coat an 8" x 8" baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Melt the margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the marshmallows and cook, stirring, for 4 to 5 minutes or until melted. Stir in the peanut butter, stirring until well combined and smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the cereal and peanuts, and stir until well coated.
3. Transfer to the prepared pan, using a rubber spatula if needed. Place a piece of wax paper coated with cooking spray over the top and press down with your hand to flatten. Cool for 20 minutes.
4. Remove the cereal square from the pan and set on a rack over a baking pan. Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl and microwave in 5-second increments, stirring with a spoon in between each, for 20 to 25 seconds or until melted. Using a small spoon, drizzle the chocolate in a quick back- and- forth motion over the cereal square.
5. Cool completely for 30 to 35 minutes or until the chocolate sets
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup With Sage
Ingredients:
4 lbs roasted butternut squash4 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves
Coarse kosher salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4-5 sage leaves roughly chopped
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup of diced onion
7 cups low-salt organic chicken broth, or homemade chicken stock is the best!
12 fresh sage leaves (for garnish)
Method:
Arrange racks in top third and bottom third oven; preheat to 400 F.
Split the squash in half-length wise & scrape out seeds. Brush cut surfaces with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Place halves cut side down with 2 unpeeled garlic cloves and 2 sprigs each of thyme tucked underneath each cavity.
Roast in oven for 45 minutes, or until completely tender & remove from oven to cool.
Meanwhile, heat cream and sage in small saucepan over medium heat just until small bubbles begin to form around edges of pan. Remove from heat and let steep 15 minutes.
Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until translucent and beginning to soften, stirring frequently, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add roasted squash, then broth. Increase heat and bring to boil; reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer until vegetables are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool slightly.
Working in batches, puree soup in processor until smooth. Return to pot.
Whisk 3/4 cup sage cream into soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper and reheat if necessary.
Divide soup among 12 bowls. Drizzle sage cream over, garnish with sage leaves, and serve.
Slow-Cooker Italian-Style Turkey Meat Loaf
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
COOK TIME: 4 hours
SERVINGS: 4
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh, soft whole wheat bread crumbs (from 1 slice)
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 egg
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Penzeys Spices Pizza Seasoning
2 cups marinara sauce
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups cooked brown rice
1. Combine the turkey, onion, bread crumbs, mushrooms, egg, mustard, and seasoning in a large bowl. Form into a round loaf.
2. Combine the marinara sauce and broth in the bottom of a slow cooker. Place the meat loaf on top, spoon sauce over the meat loaf, and cook on high for 4 hours, turning and spooning sauce on the top after 2 hours.
3. Serve over the brown rice.
