Hollandaise Sauce

Hollandaise Sauce is that yellow creamy sauce often served with 

Eggs Benedict or often associated with asparagus.

When the sauce is properly made- it should be smooth and creamy and show

no signs of separation in the ingredients.  The flavor is rich and buttery with

an ever so light hint of tang from the lemon juice.

It is best served warm rather than steaming hot.

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup butter (unsalted preferred)

4 TBS boiling water

2 TBS of fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp  salt

1/4 tsp cayenne (substitute a splash of hot sauce)

Procedure:

Heat the butter until it gets hot and foamy BUT NOT browned. 

In a small bowl- whisk your egg yolks with the lemon juice, salt & 

cayenne (you can substitute a splash of hot sauce for the cayenne).

Once that is all mixed, gradually beat in the butter then water.

Take the well beaten mixture and put into the sauce pan on VERY LOW heat

until it is slightly thickened. 

Serve immediately or you can leave it in a bowl

sitting in another bowl of warm water for up to 30 minutes.

If you want to fancy it up- add some chopped parsley for a garnish.

Detox

I think one of the most commonly known
detox diets is the "Master Cleanse" otherwise known as
the Lemon Detox. It mainly consists of drinking cold water
with fresh lemon juice, 2 TBS of pure maple syrup and a dash
of cayenne. I'm not saying this detox diet doesn't work-
but it's kind of hard to do if you work, need to go places, etc...
(you need to be near a bathroom)
it also dehydrates you and can make you dizzy since your body
isn't eating food during the diet- if you're doing it correctly that is.

I've found another detox drink that allows you to eat while
dieting/detoxing. The pros are obvious and the only major con
is getting used to the taste at first. This smoothie recipe actually
cleans out & detoxes your system without having to starve yourself.
It's a great colon cleanse and really good for your digestive
system as well. You drink this smoothie preferably in the
morning but basically once a day. It detoxes your system and
you still eat while drinking this green smoothie.
You might think how can it detox your body if you're still
eating...? If you're really motivated to detoxing your body,
that usually means you are thinking about shedding some pounds,
so you will start to watch what you eat and it does
clean your system,.... literally.

The recipe below is for 2 large servings...

Ingredients & Procedures:
Blend the lettuce first with the water to break down the lettuce
followed by the other greens and then adding the fruit last.
You ultimately want to try to not have the fruit in there if you can-
but let's just say it tastes really green. If you could taste colors,
you could say this green smoothie really tastes green.

3/4 - 1 cup of cold water
3/4 (little less than the whole head) of romaine lettuce
(you can substitute any green leafy vegetable if you need to)
3 stalks of celery
1/3 bunch of cilantro (you can double the parsley if you despise cilantro)
1/3 bunch of parsley
2 apples
1 banana
juice from 1/2 a lemon

Let's Not Take WATER -

Let's not take WATER for granted.
Without getting into the technicalities and science of water-
We obviously need water for many things.

I used to buy Deer Park spring water bottles by the cases all the time.
I would have so many plastic bottles to the point of foolishness.

I came across this water bottle that is very cool.
You can get the one for hot beverages or for cold water
(non thermal) I've purchased the one for cold water and
realized how much I save on plastic water bottles being
everywhere and saving by filling up on the filtered water
from my sink. Water bottles make it easier to use if you're
taking it with you in the car, an outdoor event, to the library,
bookstore etc... You can use any bottle you'd like BUT...
if you purchase one from water.org
100% of the money you pay for the water bottle goes to
help provide safe drinking water to developing countries.

Water.org is a "U.S.-based nonprofit organization committed
to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people
in developing countries."
-founded by Gary White and Matt Damon.

Jambalaya

Jambalaya was started from the French Quarter in New Orleans.
It was attempted by the Spanish to make "paella" in the New World.
Paella has saffron it it but due to the unavailable import costs- tomatoes
were heavily substituted and as time past, Jambalaya became the New
World paella. In Louisiana today, there are many varieties of this dish,
Creole, Red and Cajun just to name a few.
Below is a simple recipe for general Jambalaya.

I usually make chicken, shrimp and sausage Jambalaya but you
can substitute any meat or no meat or tofu even!

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
shrimp (enough for maybe 4-5 per person)
2 medium (or to your liking) sausage links
S & P (for the salt- I recommend Old Bay season salt)
oil to fry
1 onion chopped
1-2 cloves of minced garlic
half of a bell pepper (I like to mix 1/4 of a red & 1/4 of green)
if you like it very spicy-you can add diced hot peppers)
2 stalks of celery cut about 1/2 inch or so
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup long grain rice
1 can of stewed whole tomatoes
S & P (heavy on the P!)
1/4 fresh parsley or scallions
drizzles of hot sauce (to your liking)

Make Hot Crab Dip...

Ingredients:
1 container (8oz) fat free cream cheese @ room temperature
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
splash of hot sauce (frank's or to your liking)
1 clove of garlic minced
juice of half a lemon
2 TBS parsley (fresh chopped preferred)
S & P (salt & pepper) to taste
1 can of crab meat (about 120z)
2 scallions thinly sliced

Procedure:
Grab your favorite saucepan and start by stirring the
cream cheese and sour cream together on medium low heat.
Once it all mixes together and gets smooth, add your
splash of hot sauce and S & P. Lastly, fold in the crab meat,
lemon juice, parsley and scallions into the base of the dip,
all in your saucepan. Heat all together for about 3 minutes or
so and then place into your favorite dip bowl/plate.
Good to serve with bread or crackers. Stick with multi-grain or
whole wheat to keep with the healthiness of the fat free
sour cream and cream cheese.

You want to serve this immediately... so you can
heat this 5-10 minutes before you actually eat it.

Smoothie Ready To Go!

As the weather starts to get warmer...
nothing is healthier tasting than a good
smoothie. If you're a morning person, smoothies
for breakfast are great and even if you are a evening person
smoothies can be enjoyed as an after dinner treat as well.
Most smoothie recipes call for ice so they are cold. No one
wants a warm smoothie... right?

Here's a tip- go to your farmers market, super market,
garden- wherever you get your fruit from and cut them all up.
They don't have to be cut pretty because they will be going
into the blender anyway. After you cut them all up and mix them
in a big bowl, stuff your little zip lock bags full of fruit... mixing
some veggies is really great too! For example: adding carrots
to a smoothie is excellent. Once you've filled all your zip lock bags-
put them into the freezer. Whenever you are ready for a smoothie,
they are ready for you on the go. Once you've taken a bag out of
the freezer, due to the fact that is is frozen solid- you can either
microwave your bag of goodies for about 45 seconds - 1 minute
or place the frozen bag in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes or so-
just so that the blender is a little happier rather than a big block and
because it's already frozen- you don't have to add any extra ice.
You will probably need a little liquid to make it not as thick and
that can easily be done by adding a little bit of orange juice or apple juice!

Cutting What?

What kinds of things have you cut on your cutting board?
How many wet things has your cutting board touched?
Cutting boards can get really dirty...
deep down where we can't even really see.

I've heard many people say the best basic way of cleaning
a wooden cutting board is to use 1 tsp of bleach in a
gallon of hot water and scrub away. The negative to that is-
many times your cutting board has that bleachy smell.

Let me share a way that smells way better but also cleans
really well, AND gets any stains out of a bamboo cutting board-
stains that get acquired from cutting green herbs, red spices etc...
Sprinkle a little sea salt, especially on the stained areas,
cut your lemon in half and rub it all over your cutting board
pressing down a little bit. Then let it sit for a while- 30 minutes
if you can - the longer the better and then rinse it with hot water.
Once your done rinsing... your cutting board is clean from
visible stains and clean deep down where you can't see AND
it has that fresh lemony scent.
Win, win.