This recipe is delicious, and for those of you enjoying your new pressure cookers, yet another way to use it. I place 1 large sweet potato, chunked inside the steamer basket, add 1 cup of water to the pressure cooker, and cook on high for 10 minutes. Then it’s ready to mash for this delicious cake…

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, salted

2 large eggs

1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed

1 tsp. vanilla

2 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cups milk

1/2 cup apple cider

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

3/4 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 325. In an electric mixer, mix together brown sugar, butter, and eggs until very light and fluffy. Add mashed sweet potato and vanilla; beat to combine. Add flour, milk, cider, baking powder, pie spice, and salt. Mix until just incorporated. Lightl spray a bundt pan with cooking spray. Pour in the cake batter.  Bake 1 hour or until the center of the cake comes out clean. Brush cake with more apple juice when it comes out, and serve with a dollop of whipping cream. Delicious!

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Today my husband and I decided to visit a Gluten Free expo to see what all the buzz is about these days, and our eyes were opened to a whole new culture in cooking.

I had no idea that so many suffered from Gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease, and what a real challenge it is to cater to all of their nutritional needs. We talked to many of the vendors, and visited all the booths, anxious to see what we could do to help our audience at Simply Living Smart to feel more at ease with eating gluten free.

We’re happy to report that we found some great resources, and will be dedicating part of our website to living gluten-free.  As we see that gluten intolerance and celiac disease is becoming more and more prevalent, we want to make sure that we dedicate some of our time, resources, and energies to coming up with healthy solutions for you do-it-yourselfers who want to learn how to make your own flour blends, as well as many other delicious creations.

We’ll be discussing ways to create new videos that show you how to cook gluten free in your kitchen, and how to feel empowered by all the knowledge out there for the taking when it comes to this topic.

Thanks for your continued support.

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Thanks to all of you who joined us this morning for our Xagave seminar. You submitted some great questions, and we appreciate Steve Richards, creator of Xagave for taking time out of his very busy schedule to meet with us to answer all those questions.

If you’d like to review the segment, please click on the link below.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/9285161

To purchase the Xagave along with the lovely Xagave cookbook at a discounted rate, be sure to visit my shopping cart at www.simplylivingsmart.com

Again, thanks for joining us, and enjoy a more natural way to eat sweets!

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This has been an exciting week in my kitchen, as Chef Brad, grand grainologist paid me a visit. Chef Brad comes from a background of great experience not only in the kitchen as executive Chef, but also as an author of 4 cookbooks and personal coach on healthy eating.

Chef Brad is originally from Arizona, and comes to Salt Lake City every summer to teach at BYU’s education week. He has thousands of fans, and has a passion and energy that is truly contagious. This week, I was fortunate to spend several hours with him, as he showed me his latest culinary creations, and taught me how to make my own delicious cracked grain cereal. I’m hooked, in fact, everyone who comes to my door is now getting a sample of this delicious cracked cereal to take home and try. I just love it, and it gives me energy I never knew I could have.

We simply blended spelt, kamut, popcorn, and barley together, and then, using a hand grinder, cracked the grains into a coarse cereal blend. I cooked 2 parts water to 1 part cereal and a pinch of salt for about 20 minutes, drizzled it with Xagave, and then added some fresh berries. It was truly heaven in my mouth. You’ve got to try it out if you’re looking for a way to treat yourself to a healthier way to eat breakfast. I find that now I crave it every morning, and I feel satisfied well into the lunch hour!

Besides cracking cereal, Chef Brad and I discussed the possibility of getting together to create a week-long retreat next fall, where people from all over the nation could come to be taught about whole grains, healthy eating, organization, and more. We’d love to have cooking events where people could come and have hands-on experience creating meals based on what is taught at our seminars. We’d even like to pamper you with experts in massage, and have daily drawings for gifts and kitchen tools. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Chef Brad and I were recently asked to represent the WonderMill company as their official spokes persons, and we’re thrilled at the opportunity. We both use the Wondermills and have enjoyed them for years. They’re durable mills, and each come with unique and superior features, not found in other mills on the market. We’ve even created a new video which talks about all of the features, and this video will be included in a new dvd that will be free with every mill sold from this point on.

You’ll see more and more videos being created about cracking your own grains, making your own nut butters, and much more, so watch as these come out in the near future. Be sure to check out Chef Brad’s website www.chefbrad.com and enjoy all he has to teach as well.

This guy is amazing, and the more you learn about whole grains, the more you’ll fall in love with them. I promise you that!

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Every summer I’m reminded why I love to dehydrate so much–it’s quick, it’s healthy, and I feel great offering my family tasty foods all summer long. This morning I woke up early to get a head start. I walked over to my neighbor’s garden who graciously offered me all the produce I could pick.

His garden is really his pride and joy, and overlooks the cliff of our mountain, with views of the city beneath. It’s breathtaking, and I’m always amazed at the neat rows and carefully planned garden that he cultivates year after year. We started by walking by the cabbages–just huge! They were easily 12 inches across, and healthy as could be. He had 12 tomato cages, full of green tomatoes, just waiting to ripen. 4 varieties of onions, and 3 long rows of beautiful beets, and swiss chard.

The cucumbers and zucchini were bursting everywhere, and I couldn’t help but bite into the cucumber fresh off the vine to enjoy a sweet burst of crunch in my mouth. It was truly amazing. Next we picked a big bunch of basil, which I rubbed with my fingers and held to my nose to get the most of this fragrant herb. I couldn’t wait to bake some pita, just so I could enjoy it with this fresh basil we’d just picked. Finally, he carefully snipped some fresh broccoli from the bunch, and I was overwhelmed with the beautiful produce he shared.

After volunteering to help with the weeding in trade for vegetables, I hurried home to wash the vegetables, and get on with my dehydrating. I sliced my fresh zucchini and layed them on my trays, sprinkling them with a generous portion of lemon pepper. I did the same with my tomatoes. I rinsed the lettuce and broccoli, and cut a juicy slice of green pepper to pop in my mouth–mmmm the goodness of the garden is truly what summer is all about!

After dehydrating, I baked a batch of pita bread, and while still warm and chewy, I lathered it with cream cheese, and topped them with fresh basil and tomatoes. Wow! That’s summer to me!

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Today was a whirlwind, as we braced ourselves for an onslaught of new premium members. Welcome to all of you who have joined our premium membership at Simply Living Smart. I’m looking forward to having you join me for all kinds of online training and am excited to help you with your questions and concerns

Best of luck to all of you in your quest to become more organized and live healthier. I’m here to cheer you on!

Anitra

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Wow! I am so excited to share the latest and greatest success stories from cooking with my Solar Oven. Truly, I’m now addicted to cooking outside, and love that my home stays so cool—-can’t wait to see how my energy bill will plummet this month! I’ve decided to make it easy on myself, and have decided to store my Solar oven in the bottom of my front coat closet. There I can grab it first thing in the morning, take it outside, warm it up, and start cooking for the day. I’m finding that the cooking times are realitively the same as cooking in an indoor oven, as long as the solar oven temperature stays between 300 and 350 degrees. I am surprised to learn that it’s very simple to adjust the solar oven towards the sun. There’s really no trick–just make sure the shadows on either side of the oven are even, and you’ve got it aligned just right. I like that there’s an adjustable stand in the back of the oven so you can also tilt the oven up or down, depending on how high or low the sun is in the sky. I find that I have to go out every 45 minutes or so that I’m baking in my oven to make sure to adjust the oven directly towards the sun, and it’s very simple and quick. In fact, yesterday, I cooked 2 chicken breasts in the oven, along with some cut up potatoes. I simply sprinkled them all with seasoning, didn’t add any extra water, and covered the baking pan with tin foil. In order that the tin foil wouldn’t reflect the heat of the sun away, I covered the tin foil with a kitchen towel. I took my kids swimming, went and bought some flowers, and was gone about 4 hours. I just left the chicken to bake, and when I came home, I was fully expecting the chicken to be dried out and the potatoes to be mushy, but to my big surprise, the chicken was moist and tender, with juices all around, and the potatoes were cooked to perfection. I was thrilled. Here are the before and after pictures to give you an idea of how it all looked…. Because there was more chicken than we could eat in one sitting, I wrapped it up, and decided to use it the next day to make a chicken salad.  Here’s my recipe: 1 cup diced, cooked chicken 1/3 cup chopped celery 3 tbsp. chopped green onions 1/2 cup chopped pineapple 1/2 cup softened cream cheese 1/4 cup mayonnaise salt and pepper to taste 3 tbsp. pineapple juice Combine all ingredients together, and chill. Serve over romaine or on toasted sourdough bread. Speaking of bread, I thought I’d try to make rolls, so I took some bread dough that was left over from yesterday’s bread baking in the solar oven, and shaped them into 8 rolls, dipped them in butter, and sprinkled each one with parmesan cheese. Then I placed them in the aluminum brownie pan that came with my oven. They baked for about 35 minutes, and came out poofy and moist. There was quite a bit of steam on the inside of the solar oven, so I decided to prop one corner open just a touch using a kabob stick. It worked great. While they didn’t get brown, they were perfectly cooked all the way through! Next, I decided to try baking a chocolate bundt cake. I have an aluminum bundt pan, and thought I’d give it a try. I made a chocolate batter, pre heated my solar oven to 350 degrees, which only took about 15 minutes at 12 noon, and in it went. 35 minutes later, it was fluffy, and done to perfection. It was amazing–looked like I had just pulled it out of my home oven, and was moist and delicious. I love that I can pull out a hot steaming cake from the solar oven, and walk right into my air conditioned home and enjoy it in the comfort of a cool room! I was in the mood for fresh ginger tea, and decided since my oven was already hot, I’d boil some water, and make tea. So I placed about 5 cups of water in a pyrex dish, and covered it with a glass lid. In about 25 minutes, I had boiling water, and poured it into a pitcher with freshly grated ginger and honey. When the honey melted, I added ice cubes, and there you go–so refreshing! My next adventure is baby back ribs in the solar oven. I’ll use a special rub, cover them up, and let them bake in the solar oven for 2-3 hours, then pull them out, lather them with a special glaze, and brown them on the barbeque grill–I’ll be sure to let you know how they turn out! Really–you’ve got to try solar cooking–it’s simple, it’s delicious, and you NEVER burn your food! Best of all, it’s kind to the environment, and you’ll save on your energy bill–what could be better? To learn more about solar ovens, be sure to visit my online store at www.simplylivingsmart.com!

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by layering pans crosswise, you can double the amount of food you cook..clever! As if setting up the sun oven wasn’t easy enough, baking the brownies was simply a thrill to watch! I started by preheating my global sun oven by directing it toward the sun, making sure the shadows were equal on both sides of my oven. The thermometer took only 25 minutes to reach 325 degrees. Meanwhile, I made my brownie batter, and divided the batter into my 2 brownie sheets I got with my Sun Oven. You could get these FREE with your sun oven this month! Simple as that. Here’s my recipe: Anitra’s Chewy Brownies 1 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup cocoa powder 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp. vanilla Blend all together until smooth, and pour into pan(s). Once the oven temp was 325, I quickly opened the solar oven door, and get this—stacked my 2 brownie pans one on top of the other in a criss-cross pattern. I could never do that in a conventional oven!

Chewy, delicious, just the perfect texture for brownies! Only 30 minutes later, I went out to check on the brownies, and sure enough, the upper tray was baked to perfection. The lower tray was just a little moist in the center, so I decided to bake them a little longer, but not by itself… I actually threw together one of my favorite rice blends, placed it in the bottom of the oven, and then placed that pan of brownies on the top of the cooking pot. Only 15 minutes later, and the second batch of brownies was perfectly baked! I took them in the kitchen, and served them up–the texture was perfect–chewy and moist, and even better than being baked in a conventional oven–HOORAY!

using a tight fitting glass lid helped me be able to watch as the rice cooked to perfection! I was so anxious to try rice in my Solar Oven, that I went into my pantry, and grabbed one of my favorite homemade rice blends. Here’s the recipe: Spanish Kick Rice Blend 6 cups long grain rice 2 tbsp. chili powder 2 tsp. cumin powder 3 tbsp. chopped dehydrated red & green peppers 2 tsp. salt Blend in a container, until ready to use. I placed 1 cup Spanish Kick Rice Blend and 1 1/2 cups water into my black enamel cooking pot that I received with my Solar Oven. I added 1 tbsp. butter as well. I covered the pot with a glass lid, just so that I could peek at the progress as it cooked. Then off I went, to place it inside the Solar Oven. Remember, I placed the pot on the swinging arm in the oven, then stacked the pan of brownies right on top. Here’s the picture.

you’ve just got to taste this savory rice blend! After only 30 minutes, my rice was cooked to perfection–fluffy and flavorful! The sun did shift a little, so I made sure to turn the oven slightly during the 1/2 hour cooking time to maintain even temperature. The thing that I’m starting to love about the sun oven, is that there’s no chance for my food to burn–it’s impossible–it just keeps it steady and warm after the food is finished cooking. This must be the easiest way to cook! Next on the menu…..bread!

lightly spraying your loaves before baking helps them get a crusty crust. Once I pulled out my rice from the Solar Oven, I started mixing some bread dough. Because of the amount of water in the rice, the temperature of my oven fell to about 250, so I wanted to be sure to get my oven temperature back up to 350 for baking bread, so I repositioned my oven with the sun, and started raising my bread in 2 stainless steel bread pans. At 3:30 pm I put in my loaves, and crossed my fingers. I didn’t let the bread raise too high, not knowing what the final result would be, but I did spray them lightly with water before baking, because I’ve heard that gives the bread a nice golden crust.

Although these loaves never browned (could have been the cloud cover) they were cooked perfectly all the way through.

And here it is…bread baked in my Solar Oven with FREE POWER from the sun! I started a little late in the afternoon, so it didn’t brown as I had hoped, bu I still can’t wait to use this tool all summer long–I’ll let you know how much I save on my electric bill as time goes on, but more than that, I feel like this skill is going to serve me for years to come!

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Chicken Lasagna Wraps with Creamy Chive Sauce

6 lasagna noodles, cooked and cut in halves widthwise

10 oz. cream cheese softened

1 cup broccoli, steamed and cut small

1 1/2 cups chicken, cooked and cubed

1/4 cup chives, sliced thin

1/2 cup bottled roasted red peppers, drained and chopped

fresh ground pepper

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 cup marinara sauce

Combine softened creamcheese with the parmesan cheese and ground pepper, adding 1/4 cup milk until smooth.

In a separate bowl, combine peppers, brocolli, 1/2 cup of white sauce, chicken, and chives. Roll 1/4 cup of creamy chicken mixture onto each end of lasagna noodle, and roll up, placing the roll seam side down in an 8×8 baking pan.

Finish all 12 rolls similarly. Pour 1 cup marinara sauce over the rolls, then top with the rest of the white creamy chive sauce.  Bake in the camp chef, preheated to 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

The great thing about using a camp chef oven is it not only keeps your kitchen cool in the summer, but it uses very little fuel. Just a small canister of propane will last for 6-9 hours of cooking–can’t beat that!

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If you ask me which of all my kitchen tools I use the most, I would probably admit that it’s a close tie between my pressure cooker and my Bosch Kitchen Mixer, but coming in second is definitely my Electric Wonder Mill Grinder!

I love this machine, not only because I can make all kinds of fresh flours for breads, muffins, crackers, cereals, but it’s light, it’s easy to clean, and it’s quiet!

If you have a desire to really eat healthier, and I mean incorporate more whole grains into your everyday diet, then you’ve just got to invest in a great grinder. Did you know that when you purchase whole wheat flour or cornmeal from your local supermarket, it’s not purely flour–they’ve added all kinds of ingredients to help preserve that flour. Who needs that? Wouldn’t you rather grind your own grains and enjoy pure and simple flours, and feel good about preparing wholesome foods for your family?

I don’t think there’s anything that quite compares with fresh cornmeal when making corn bread, and for me, making fresh cornmeal is so simple–I just take some popcorn from my storage bucket, pour it into my hopper, and in a matter of seconds, I can enjoy fresh bright yellow cornmeal–preservative free and 100% delicious! I’m so convinced that you’ll taste the difference, I want to share my favorite cornbread recipe with you…

Anitra’s Cornbread

2 cups Biscuit mix

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup fresh cornmeal

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup milk

3/4 cups oil

Mix together until smooth and creamy, and pour into a lightly greased 8×8 baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden. Enjoy!

Several years ago, I discovered a whole new world of alternative grains–grains like Amaranth, Quinoa, Spelt, Kamut, Barley, Buckwheat, and others. I was nervous at first to try these out, and wondered how they would taste compared to the wheat I was so used to baking with. Wow–wasn’t I surprised to find that my whole palatte exploded with appreciation for these new-found grains. When I found out that most of these grains have more calcium than milk, and more protein than wheat, I was shocked!

Since then, I’ve become a big fan of Chef Brad Peterson, guru of grains, and have loved trying new recipes that use alternative grains. In this month’s special promotion, I made sure to include two of Chef Brad’s books so that you too could get excited about exploring more possibilities.

Owning a grinder makes it possible to prepare all kinds of nutritious and delicious foods, made from scratch, and I say, whenever we can avoid buying boxed or packages of food at the grocery store, more power to us! I plan to create many more videos in the near future that show you how to grind all kinds of grains, not only in your electric grinder, but using a hand mill as well. In fact, I’m about to shoot a video about making your own peanut butter using a hand mill.

The possibilities are endless, and with a relatively small investment, you too can eat healthier everyday, and become more self-sufficient in the kitchen!

To learn more about this great promotion going on through June on Grinders, visit my online store at www.simplylivingsmart.com

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