Spring Rolls and Smoothies

I was cruising the aisle of World Market a few months ago and found these goodies:

Organic Ramen, Rice Paper wrappers, Sweet Chili sauce, and Sweet Chipotle Jerky

The Sweet Chipotle Jerky was awesome, there wasn't nearly enough in the bag to really share, but I did. I will definitely be looking for this again, and maybe some other flavors!

I haven't used the Organic Ramen yet but I plan to in the near future...please feel free to share your recipes!

As far as the Rice paper and the Sweet Chili Sauce, I had plans for those!  Vietnamese style spring rolls!

The rice paper wrappers were very easy to use.  You just place each wrapper in a bowl of hot water for about 5 seconds prior to wrapping.  It will soften then place on a cutting board, fill and wrap like a burrito!

 Sweet Chili Sauce is my son Austen's favorite.  He puts the stuff on everything!  I did already have form Franks at home but I wanted to try this brand, plus I got it for a buck!

Ok Assembly!  Here are my ingredients: Grilled chicken (you can use shrimp or tofu here), julienne cucumbers, shredded or julienne carrots, cilantro (you could also use mint), and avocado.

Heat ONE wrapper at a time or they will stick together.  Place on your cutting board and add your ingredients but don't overfill!  The wrappers stretch but you don't want them to break.  I really like that you could see the avocado through the wrapper of most of them!

Serve them with the Sweet Chili Sauce for dipping.  My kids had them will bunny Jell-O.  They make great Appetizers.  They would also be great with some Miso Soup!

GREEN MACHINE SMOOTHIE (Makes 2 servings)



1 Small Avocado
2 Cups Spinach
1 1/2 C Coconut Water
1 Scoop Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1 Cup Ice

Blend all ingredients for a delicious and refreshing treat!

Ry LOVES this smoothie!

Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Jess

The views and opinions expressed in this post are mine, I have not been paid for my opinion of any of products you see listed.

Sorrel, Potato and Sausage Soup

What in the world is Sorrel?

We got this crazy green in our CSA box from Farm 2 Family. I wasn't sure how to use it.  It can be added to soups, or salads but has a very sharp taste so I added into a soup, kind of like a kale, escarole or spinach.  It did change the color of the soup to a funky purple since the leaves and stems were a reddish color.  The soup was still great though!  So if you ever find this funky leaf in your garden, CSA box or want to try something new here is a recipe for you!

Sorrel, Potato and Sausage soup



2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 cloves garlic
3 italian sausages (I added these after but decided that the soup was too good with them not to have them!)
1 medium onion
2-3 potatoes peeled and cubed
6 Cups Chicken Broth
Salt and Pepper
Parmesan cheese

Heat your soup pot to med-high, add your olive oil. Chop your onions and garlic. Add them and sausage (not pictured) to the pot.

  Peel and chop the potatoes. Half of these were from the CSA and the other half, I had and needed to use up...I really should have only used half..this was TOO much! Add them to the hot tub!

Make sure your Sorrel is rinsed and dried, give it a rough chop and add it to the saute. Give it all some S & P.  If you don't have sorrel, this will work with Kale or Escarole too!! It may also work better if you add it at the end, the sorrel seemed to be a lot tougher than a normal leaf lettuce though.

  Once you've given everything a nice saute and stir, add the broth.  The pic below was with 4 C, it wasn't enough once I decided to add sausage, especially with all those potatoes!  You can adjust if you want it chunkier though (4C-6C). Simmer for 20 min.  Remove the sausage and slice it up, add it back to the pot and serve it up topped with some Parmesan cheese!

Here is the finished soup pre-parm.  It was VERY good!  We devoured it after a killer cross-fit workout!

I hope you enjoy!

Jess

Do you CSA?

This year our family is participating in a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture.  I have coordinated pick up with a a great family of farmers, Farm 2 Family aka The Farm Bus to deliver fresh produce, hormone and antibiotic free meats, cage/soy free eggs, fresh bread (gluten free also!), dairy, honey, granola, pasta, etc to Military Families on Joint Base Andrews, MD!  We have 12 families currently signed up for biweekly and 3 for weekly.  This is the first year and everyone has been VERY happy with the produce and other items so far!

I'm a little behind but I was hoping to post pictures of each box and possibly recipes that we have made with some of those items! So far we have been getting a lot of greens, salad mixes.  I eat a lot of salad and the boys do pretty good so nothing has gone bad.  We have LOVED the asparagus and now we are also getting some great strawberries.  The first two weeks were biweekly and this week we have switched to weekly pick up!

First Pick up
Bibb lettuce, Sorrel, Celery clippings, carrots, apples, potatoes, asparagus, baby garlic,
sweet potatoes, basil, spring mix, spinach, oregano

With the Bibb lettuce we made Bulgogi as well as lettuce wraps 

We has tuna steaks with roasted carrots and asparagus.  I just roast them in olive oil and salt and pepper.  I like to add parmesan to the asparagus when it's done (I've been doing this way longer than Pinterest has ;)

We LOVE asparagus! It's our favorite Veggie!

I also made a quick Caprese salad with some pearl tomatoes and mozzarella I picked up from Trader Joe's using the Basil from my CSA box as well!

Caprese Salad

 

2 C Tomatoes

1 C Mozzarella

10 leaves Basil ripped

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Balsamic

S&P

add all ingredients to bowl

Tuna Steaks are GREAT! This time I changed it up a bit.  I just gave them some olive oil, S&P and seared them on each side.  I cooked up some of the baby garlic/spring onions (not sure WHAT it was) in the pan when they were done and sprinkled some on top.  Also added some Ginger Dressing/marinade to the pan for a few minutes then poured it on top.  Done!

I had no idea what Sorrel was and it took some Facebooking and some google-momming to find out what this leafy green was...I'll post the recipe that I came up with in a few!

The sweet potatoes have been saved for a few weeks down the road for our favorite! Sweet potato fries!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jess