Three Bean Salad

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Try This Delicious Veggie Side Dish
Posted By Kate Sherwood On March 21, 2014 @ 5:00 am In Healthy Recipes | No Comments

Three-Bean Salad

Serve these well-dressed beans on romaine or butter lettuce. Love white beans, chickpeas, or black beans? You can substitute 3 cups (about 2 cans) of any combination of beans for the kidneys and edamame.

Note:  good to put white beans in to absorb the taste of the dressing.  

Total time to prepare: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
½ lb. green beans, cut into ½-inch pieces
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
¼ cup minced red onion
1 Tbs. country dijon mustard
¼ tsp. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup frozen edamame, thawed
1 15 oz. can no-salt-added kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:
• Steam the green beans until tender, about 5 minutes. Rinse under cold water and drain well.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, onion, mustard, sugar, and salt.
• Mix in the green beans, edamame, and kidney beans.

Nutrition Information:
Per serving (1 cup)—
Calories: 140
Sodium: 150 mg
Total Fat: 6 g
Saturated Fat: 0.5 g
Carbohydrates: 15 g
Protein: 7 g
Fiber: 8 g

Hot Chocolate

from Mother Nature Network

Try #5


In all of the recipes here you can play around with the proportions, adding more or less sweetener as you prefer — and you can also mix and match the milks, as these were developed so that either dairy or nut milks could be used. All of these will yield one regular or two small servings, you can double or quadruple as desired.

1. Traditional Hot Chocolate
This is the only one of the group here that includes chocolate pieces, which as mentioned before creates a beverage with more fat. That said, this recipe will yield a beautiful cup of hot chocolate that will still be better for you than a chemical- and preservative laden cup made from a crummy instant mix.

1 cup milk (or nut milk)
1/2 vanilla bean, split
3 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, cut into small pieces

Heat milk to scalding in a medium saucepan, add vanilla, and let steep with the heat off for 10 minutes. Strain and return milk to saucepan to reheat milk. (You can use 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract instead and skip the steeping process.) Whisk in chocolate until melted and frothy. Serve, savor.

2. Dried Plum Cocoa
Okay, okay. Yes, you could call this one the “hot prune smoothie,” but we’re going to stand by it anyway. After all, if the French can make Pruneaux d’Agen (the decadent prune and chocolate cake) then we can make pruneaux d’ cocoa, by golly. (We’re just going to follow the lead of the prune industry and rename it dried plum cocoa.) The truth is, this one is so thick and rich it’s closer to drinking chocolate, and instead of sugar’s empty calories, you get a healthy dose of fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

1 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
3 medium plums
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Put all ingredients in the blender and puree until very smooth, gently heat in a pot on the stove. Voila.

3. Coconut Hot Cocoa
Somehow, mixing the products of a tropical tree — coconut milk and dates — just seems all wrong for making the perfect drink for a blizzardy afternoon. And it’s true this one may not be the best if you’re considering food miles. But for dairy-free, sugar-free, nut-free diets this recipe may be as close as you get to cocoa nirvana. And for anyone else, if you’ve got the ingredients, this version is super salubrious and delicious.

3 tablespoons canned coconut milk
3/4 cup water
3 soft pitted Medjool dates
1 tablespoon cacao powder
Dash of cinnamon

Put all ingredients in the blender and puree until very smooth, gently heat in a pot on the stove. Sip and dream of the tropics.

4. Maple Cocoa
Maple syrup is one of a wholesome-cooking cook’s best-kept weapons in avoiding refined sugar. It not only adds a punch of sweetness, but that special almost-smoky maple taste adds incredible depth to baked goods and sweets that are hearty in flavor (meaning, great with chocolate and nutty things, not so good for angel food cake). This one is nice with the neutral flavors of regular dairy, but you can use any alternative milk you’d like as well.

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt

Combine ingredients in a medium pot and warm on medium-low heat, whisking until frothy and hot.

5. Mexican Hot Cocoa
The original chocolate beverage lauded by the Mayans was a bitter spicy slurry drunk cold and nothing like the Swiss Miss we have come to rely on. Hot cocoa in Mexico and other southern realms retains the heat, which is very clever since chocolate and spice go together as well any pair of flavors possibly could.

1 cup soy milk (or regular milk)
1 tablespoon Sucanat (see note)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of cinnamon
1 pinch (or more, go crazy!) of cayenne

Combine ingredients in a medium pot and warm on medium-low heat, whisking until frothy and hot. Say "salud" to the Mayans for bringing us drinkable chocolate.

Note: Sucanat is the trade name for “Sugar Cane Natural,” a non-refined cane sugar that is made by crushing sugar cane, extracting the juice then heating and drying it. It’s a more wholesome sweetener than refined sugar – but if you don’t have it, agave syrup, stevia, or regular sugar can be used instead.

Deliciously moist pumpkin bread

The original recipe was moist, but is even better since I started substituting a banana for one of the eggs.  Not the lowest calorie dish ever, but at least it has pumpkin in it as a redeeming factor!

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 banana, mashed
1 1/4 cups canola oil
15 oz solid packed pumpkin
2 cups flour (whole wheat or regular)
2 1/3 cups sugar
3 oz cook-and-serve vanilla pudding
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

walnuts (optional)
chocolate or carob chips (optional)


Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2) Beat the eggs and add the mashed banana.
3) Add the oil and pumpkin.  Beat until smooth.
4) Add the remaining ingredients.
5) Pour into 2 pre-greased loaf pans.

Bake for  50-55 minutes until a toothpick put in the middle of the bread comes out dry.

Not Your Grandmother's Chocolate Macaroons

This is from B'nai Tzedek Sisterhood's Passover tasting.  These are delicious when prepared correctly.  Mine were overdone, but no one seemed to mind!  And so healthy -- they're chocolate, after all!
Makes about 20.

Ingredients:

4 oz semi or bittersweet chocolate
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used unsweetened cocoa powder)
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded coconut

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) Melt the chocolates together on top of a double boiler.

3) In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on medium high until frothy, about 30 seconds.

4) Gradually add the sugar and beat on high until the consistency of marshmallow fluff.  Blend in vanilla.  Remove from mixer and by hand, fold in melted chocolate and then coconut.

5) Drop rounded tablespoons about 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheet covered in parchment paper.  Bake until a light crust forms on the outside of the cookies, about 10-13 minutes.

6) Cool on wire rack.