New Favorite Salad Dressing

As most of you know I love making my own salad dressings. I stumbled across this one on Pinterest (I think….or maybe food gawker). I tweaked it a bit and it is delicious!

Chopped Chef Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing

For the Creamy Balsamic Dressing:
(makes 1 2/3 cups of dressing)
4 cloves garlic, grated
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sugar (I used honey)
1 teaspoon fresh pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup extra light olive oil (I used some fresh orange juice and a little more lemon instead of oil…but both are great! And I put fresh mint in)

For the Salad: (I didn’t follow this but it looks tasty – I used a bag of mixed greens, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, quinoa, feta, leek, boiled egg)

2-3 heads of Romaine lettuce, finely chopped
1/2 pound of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 – 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avacado, pitted peeled and diced
1 cucumber, peeled seeded and diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/2 can of artichoke hearts, coarse chopped
4-6 ounces crumbled gorgonzola cheese

Directions:

For the Creamy Balsamic Dressing:
Whisk together garlic, mayo, lemon juice, dijon mustard, sugar, fresh pepper, salt and fresh mint until well combined. Add the balsamic vinegar and whisk well. Slowly add in the olive oil (while whisking).

For the Salad:
Add all ingredients to a large bowl (more or less of each ingredient depending on personal preferences). Toss with desired amount of dressing and serve.

Yum! So good! It’s like a homemade version of honey mustard dressing!

Love you all!

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Banana Chips

Hello Friends!

I recently inherited a bunch of “bad” bananas from friends (Lina and Matthias) who were heading off for a several weeks of holiday time. I just made banana bread earlier this week with my own rotten bananas so I needed some new inspiration. I browsed foodgawker for several minutes…no hours, I confess. I came across this recipe and thought it looked so simple I should give it a try!

Banana Chips -or- Dried Bananas
Use as many or as few bananas as you would like: I used about three.
1 or 2 lemons

Preheat oven (or toaster oven for small batches) to 175 – 200º F

-Slice bananas in thin slices no larger than 1/4 in.
-Place banana slices on a parchment lined baking sheet as close as possible without touching each other
-Squeeze or brush lemon juice on banana slices and place your baking sheet in the oven

 

-Bake the bananas for an 1hr – 1hr 45min, depending on your desired consistency
-After removing the bananas from the oven, let the chips cool on the baking sheet- they may be slightly gooey, but as they cool they will harden

For a more standard “banana chip” texture, you can coat the bananas in a sugar syrup (boiled sugar and water) or you can deep fry banana slices, which is another standard method of making banana chips.

*At this temperature the oven will act more as dehydrator than an oven, hence the long baking time. Depending on how thick you slice the bananas and how crispy you want the chips to be, your baking times may vary. I recommend taking out a few slices at intervals to test the consistency.

It worked! And they are tasty! So cool 🙂

Jodi’s Crepes and Sunshine Salad

Hi Friends!

It’s been toooooo long. I miss you all. I cannot wait for our summer adventures TOGETHER to begin! I love my life! I especially love this season of my life. Besides living in the middle of a dream coming true in Sweden, my favorite thing is getting up and having breaky with the Hubby.  It is so special…neither of us have to rush off to work. We eat breakfast together, read the bible together, pray together. I feel completely spoiled if the sun is shining because then we sit on the patio and enjoy our morning together in the sun!

Jodi’s Crepes

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (or any kind of whole wheat flour)
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

In a medium bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Then whisk in all of the remaining ingredients. Cover bowl and chill overnight. (I skipped the overnight step!)

Set the batter out to come to room temperature for an hour before cooking. Preheat a large 10” skillet over medium-high heat. Add a small pat of butter and use a paper towel to quickly spread the butter around the pan. Add 1/4 cup of batter and tilt the pan so that the batter spreads into a circle. Cook each side for 1 – 2 minutes, or until golden brown. Unused crepes can easily be stored wrapped in the fridge for a couple of days, or frozen for several months.

I like them British style with a bit of sugar or mild tasting honey and fresh lemon juice

Sunshine Salad

Your choice of fresh fruit! (Dried cranberries, apricots or nuts are also a nice addition.) I used oranges, kiwi, banana and raspberries. Add ribbon coconut, fresh mint leaves, real maple syrup and natural yogurt.

Enjoy in the sunshine with loved ones.

Love you all,

Kae Myoir

I loooooove pussywillows

Friends, it has been a while.

Here is something that delights my heart.

My Favorite Granola

The best way to start the day is with an amazing breakfast. My favorite is homemade granola. This is my Mom’s recipe and it is my favorite…(or haven’t I told you that it’s my favorite 😉 )

8 C  large flaked oats                                                                                                                              1 ½ – 2 C   ribboned coconut                                                                                                                 1 -2 C  nuts and/or dried fruit (almonds, pacans, sunflower seeds, peanuts, walnuts, pumkin seeds, cranberries, raisons, ect…)                                                                                       ½ C  honey                                                                                                                                             ½ C   (real) maple syrup (or all honey)                                                                                                1 C  oil                                                                                                                                                        2 tsp vanilla

Combine last 4 ingredients and heat in microwave, stir well. Mix everything together. Mixture should be sticky and moist but not soggy.

I like to bake on parchment paper on 2 cookie sheets.

Preheat oven to 325 stir every 7 minutes for 21 minutes on middle rack switching pans back and forth with each stir. (or until golden)

Enjoy with milk or yogurt, fresh fruit and a hot cup of tea or coffee. (Store in an air-tight container)

The perfect start to any day!

p.s. it’s my favorite!

Gluten-full Banana Bread

Gluten-full Banana Bread
Adapted from Chocolate & tea blog spot

Yields 1 loaf

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I used 1 C whole wheat baking flour and 1 C white all purpose flour)
1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped (pecans would be better in my opinion)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large, overripe bananas, mashed well
1/2 cup maple syrup (can be substituted with 3/4 cup sugar) (I used ½ C white and ¼ C brown)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
extra banana for garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan

Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Combine until just mixed. Pour into pan and back for 50-60 minutes.

Allow to cool in pan 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack. Enjoy warm with butter!

Lipstick

This one’s for you Em…

It was a blustery fall morning. The sun was peeking through the clouds, the wind was howling and I was dressed with many layers, ready to enjoy my day off. I briefly chatted on Skype with Emily and she convinced me that it was a lipstick day….sooooo before heading out the door I lined up my colors at hand and tried to make a decision….

(hmmmm…uhhhh…Em…is that yours on the far right??!!!! Must have brought it home from your wedding…opps. You’ll have to come visit to get it back!)

After trying on all of them…I opted for the bright purple to match my amazing toque. (beanie for you americans…though this truely is a toque.)

 

I had a wonderful day off. It was so good to chat with Em before leaving for the day. I felt loved and refreshed and with my awesome lip color…how could the day not be perfect!

Here’s to living life to the fullest and loving every minute

-Yod

gluten free apple cake with agave

Once again, i baked!! wohooo!! i’m so happy i get to feed my little american friend. Today I made apple cake with agave nectar, and kayla was so inspired she made it her status AND took pictures! so i figured i couldn’t be any less by not blogging about it.

Here is the recipee! (its translated from norwegian…)

Ingredienser

• 2-3 apples
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sweet – half sugar and half agave is what i did
• 0.63 cup butter
• 0.4 cup milk
• 1.3 cup flour (gluten free, with some almond flour)
• 2 t-spoon baking powder
• suger and cinnamon

Peel and cut up apples in thin slices. Mix the eggs and the sweet, then add the flour with the baking powder mixed in to it (through one of those strainer thingys so it doesn’t lump).

put it all in a cake form that has butter in it, and make a nice pattern with the apples. Then put sugar and cinnamon over it, and bake it in the middle of the oven for 40 min on 400F.

lots of sweet love, Irene

super moist (mmm… ) banana bread

A little while back, i made banana bread. And, as you know i have to make it gluten free, and usually what happens is that things fall apart, is dry and tastes funny. But this time i won, and i made a super moist banana bread that even impressed kayla! I have a theory that it was the agave nectar that i used that made it so superb.

anyhow, i wanted to share this recipee with you guys, in case i come for a visit, and you need to serve me something good:) hehehe….

1/2 cup Agave nectar

1/3 cup grape seed oil(you can use vegetable or olive oil as a substitute)

1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup Mashed very ripe bananas

1/2 Cup all purpose flour

3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour (these two i just swithced with some kind of all purpose gluten free flour)

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

some chocolate chips

A pinch of cinnamon

A tad of natural yoghurt

 

Preheat oven to 325

In a large bowl, beat oil, agave. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in banana’s, vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Blend in chopped nuts. Spread into greased 9×5 loaf pan.

Back 55-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack 1/2 hour before slicing.

 

I hope you enjoy it!!

Irene

The First of Many…

4 Friends.

Vancouver Island, Canada.

Redding, California.

and 2 together (lucky) in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Were all on a Skype conference call one night; sending recipes and photos back and forth, trying to share their lives with one another through the distance and miles, when suddenly they had a marvelous idea…we should blog TOGETHER!!!

This blog is a product of our attempt to live life together and ignore the miles between us.

May you be inspired to live connected to friends and enjoy life’s simplest pleasures.

Kaemyoir.

(And yes, that is a made up word composed of a scattering of letters from our names. ahhhhh….so sentimental… and cheesy! Yes, yes, we know.)

Next time there will be a recipe and photos attached.

– Yodi (the one in Canada, otherwise known as Jodi.)