Chilled Fruit Soup: Berries + Kefir

With antioxidant-rich berries and probiotic-rich kefir, this chilled soup is delicious and nutritious. Enjoy as an appetizer, snack, or simple dessert. To adjust the sweetness, just add more or less black raspberry powder!

INGREDIENTS

• Dairy kefir (plain)
• Black raspberry powder
• Frozen wild blueberries, defrosted

STEPS for 1 serving (about 1/2 cup)

• Pour about 1/3 cup kefir into each individual serving bowl.
• Add black raspberry powder to taste; mix.
• Add defrosted wild blueberries and mix.
• Garnish with a few more blueberries.

INGREDIENT NOTES

Green Valley Organics Kefir. I like Green Valley Organics Kefir because it’s organic, a tad sweet with no more carbs than other plain kefirs — and it’s an amazing source of probiotic bacteria (good gut bugs). I was blown away when I learned that per 8 ounce serving, this kefir contains about 590 billion CFUs or colony forming units of probiotic bacteria from 10 different strains! That’s a lot more than most probiotic supplements!

I love Virgin Extracts Pure Premium Raw Freeze Dried Organic Black Raspberry Powder Extract Concentrate because it’s organic (even though it just says so in fine print on the back of the package), tastes great, is super convenient, and ess expensive than fresh black raspberries — though it’s certainly not cheap.

What makes black raspberries (which, BTW, are not the same as blackberries) so healthy? Check out this extensive list of nutrition and health benefits.

Enjoy and be healthy!
~ Leni

Turkey Chorizo Chili — Made with a Little Help from Whole Foods and Costco

Here’s a little secret. I don’t always cook from scratch. Really! Sometimes I use a few carefully selected products — mostly from Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or Costco. For example, here’s how I made the Turkey Chorizo Chili we had for dinner the other night.

Start with some Turkey Chili with White Beans from Whole Foods.

Add thick bite-size pieces of Wellshire Smoked Chorizo Sausage, also from Whole Foods. The sausage is pre-cooked! No pan to clean up! 🙂

Pour some Kirkland Organic Chicken Stock into the mix — just enough to get the consistency you want.

Mix in some sautéed peppers, like these slightly hot peppers I bought at the farmers market. Sorry, I don’t know the name for these peppers, but you can use any slightly hot peppers, including poblanos which are easy to find.

Stir the mixture and heat to serving temperature in the microwave.

On top of each serving, add some chopped avocado.

Garnish with chopped cilantro.

BTW, to keep chopped cilantro fresh longer, I store it in a plastic container in the veggie drawer of my refrigerator. Notice the paper towel lining the container. The purpose of the towel is to collect moisture. And there are a few slits in the lid of the container (as you can see below) to allow the chopped leaves to respire. These two tricks help keep the cilantro fresh longer. And having chopped cilantro on hand encourages me to use more of it. 🙂

And that’s all it takes to make a fantastic Turkey Chorizo Chili! Less time and effort than getting in the car and eating out. And healthier too!

Enjoy and be healthy!
~Leni

Fried Egg with Green Onions and Chat Masala (Indian seasoning)

Here’s a recipe for a fried egg that pops with flavor from the Indian spice mixture, chat masala. If you have 5 minutes and 4 easy-to-find ingredients, you can whip up this quick healthy dish — perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

INGREDIENTS + DIRECTIONS

Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon avocado oil to pan. When oil is hot, add 1 large handful of thinly sliced green onions.

Sauté green onions until hot and starting to soften. Remove sautéd green onions to a plate and reserve.

Add another teaspoon of avocado oil to the pan. Heat oil until hot. Crack one egg and let it slide onto the hot pan.  Sprinkle the reserved green onions over the egg.

Cook the egg to your liking. Then remove the fried egg and green onion OR flip the egg over and fry it on the other side.

Serve sprinkled with chat masala — one of my favorite Indian spice mixtures, made with exotic ingredients like black salt and green mango powder. You can find chat masala at an Indian grocery store, a Korean supermarket, or on Amazon. And, you can make your own chat masala using a recipe like this one from Lisa’s Kitchen.

Serve with spinach (such as the frozen Trader Joe’s organic or pesticide-free chopped spinach, just heated through) and fresh marinated red onions, a wonderful Peruvian condiment. To make the marinated red onions, I follow  the recipe shown here, but I use only red onions, lime juice, and salt — which is the “recipe” I was given by a waiter at La Canela, a very nice Peruvian restaurant in Rockville, Maryland.

Enjoy and be healthy!
~Leni