Valentine's Day Family Dinner

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and to celebrate the occasion I decorated and cooked up an organic, gourmet meal for my husband and family.

I went to Delish.com and found a few recipes that I liked for the entrée, Pepper-Crusted Filet Mignon, and the dessert, Romantic Molton Chocolate Cakes. I hit up allrecipes.com  for the Gourmet Mushroom Risotto, and myrecipes.com for the Raspberry Asparagus. I used all organic ingredients whenever possible in place of the conventional ingredients listed in the original recipes. I eat in season but made an exception for the holiday with the use of berries. 

The Main Course

The Molton Chocolate Cake

 It was divine!

No Valentine's Day is complete without chocolate covered strawberries. These are organic strawberries with organic chocolate.

Here is the recipe for the Molton Chocolate Cakes. I couldn't find it written, just the video (which is quite helpful) so I thought I would jot it down and make it easy on you. You will definitely want to make these!

Romantic Molton Chocolate Cakes

4 oz bittersweet chocolate

4 oz butter

2 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

4 oz sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

4 Tbs flour (I used whole wheat pastry)

Strawberries

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Butter 4 or 5 4-6 oz ramekins

Melt Butter and chocolate in a saucepan on low heat. Do not let boil - just melt.

Turn off heat and in a bowl, mix the next 5 ingredients. Add the chocolate. Stir. Fold in flour. Pour into prepared ramekins and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes and take a knife around the edges so that you can flip the over onto your plates. Dust with powdered sugar and arrange a sliced strawberry on top. Serve warm.

Yields 4 1/2 cakes. I needed 5 so I made 4 regular size and 1 half size for my youngest child.

These are delicious!

Enjoy!

Keep it Real!

~Sarah

Flaxseed: Why's & How's - Guest Post for The Marathon Mom

My dear friend, Brandy, The Marathon Mom asked me to write a guest post about flaxseed.

Here it is over at The Marathon Mom Blog - Flaxseed: How's & Why's

Enjoy!

~Sarah

Getting a Jump Start on Valentine's Day with Strawberry Pancakes

I was baking last night (I bake almost every night) to have some muffins for my kids to snack on and to take to my Grandparent's house today and decided to make pancakes for this morning. I found a recipe from Cooking God's Way that I have been wanting to try. It's for Easy Blender "Overnight" Pancakes. The recipe calls for blueberries, which I ran out of making their Ultimate Whole-Grain Blueberry Muffins so I substituted frozen, organic strawberries. A little Soap Box moment here: Please don't use non-organic berries. They are at the top of the Dirty Dozen List for pesticides. You can get a cool wallet guide of the list at Food News. I keep mine on my fridge. Paying a few cents extra for pesticide-free food will really help your children develop properly. A new study on pesticides and children came out today over at Natural News that you may want to take a look at.

Back to the pancakes...I didn't have buttermilk nor did I feel like making my own late at night so I used raw milk and simply added a splash or two of apple cider vinegar to the batter. Soaking the grains overnight makes them easier to digest by breaking down the phytic acids or "anti-nutrients". Cooking God's Way offers a Free E-course that teaches the basics of Real Food including a lesson on soaking grains. I highly recommend it.

Go out and grab the ingredients you need and after dinner tonight, prepare the batter for these delicious pancakes. Tomorrow morning you will be able to make them in 5 minutes and your kids will say that you should work at IHop! Mine did.

Enjoy!

Keep it Real!

~Sarah

Guest Blog for Lilith's Apothecary: Real Food

I had the privilege of contributing a Guest Blog for the Lilith's Apothecary Blog. It is all about Real Food. Check it out!

Real Food: Guest post from a Real Foodie

Enjoy!

Keep it Real!

~Sarah