Hamilton Beach Blender Jar
hamilton beach blender jar How do I remove the jar from the base of the Hamilton Beach 51101 single-serve blender? It won't budge and you're supposed to be able to get the pieces apart to clean t...
hamilton beach blender jar
Food Processor Recipes for a Healthier Lifestyle
It seems like every few months or so there is a new diet craze or miracle workout that comes around. Sure, a lot of these may work for a little while, but they never lead to a sustainable lifestyle change.
How is it possible that our country just had a national debate about health care and yet so little of it centered around what we eat? Our diets are one of the most essential parts of our overall health and well-being. Eating right and exercising is preventative medicine in its purest form.
When you prepare your own meals it is much easier to eat healthy because you can see exactly what you are putting into your food. Does a recipe seem to call for too much oil or cheese? Cut it down, substitute it with something else, or consider making a different meal. Here are a few healthy and delicious recipes that you can make with a food processor.
Breakfast Fruit Smoothie
Starting your day off with a delicious fruit smoothie is a great way to get around the habit of grabbing a coffee and a donut on the way to work. You will also be amazed at how little prep time it takes. If you have time to turn on the coffee pot, you have time to fix yourself a delicious and healthy smoothie.
1 banana
½ cup frozen (or fresh) mixed berries
¼ cup frozen (or fresh) pineapple bits
½ cup orange juice
2 heaping tablespoons low fat yogurt
Simply blend this all up in a blender like the Wolfgang Puck Stainless Steel Immersion Blender and serve right away. The best thing about smoothies is how flexible and open to interpretation the recipes are. You can use a little papaya instead of the pineapple or use fresh squeezed oranges instead of the orange juice. The only limit to what you can do is your imagination.
Muhammara
The Middle Eastern chickpea spread hummus is a staple of food processor cuisine. So much so that you might want to mix things up a bit every now and then.
Muhammara is a tradional Syrian hot pepper dip that uses breadcrumbs and walnuts instead of chickpeas. This recipe is a little bit less spicy than normal and it goes just as well with raw vegetables or pita bread as hummus does.
3 roasted red peppers (jarred or roasted on the stove top then pealed and seeded)
2/3 cup homemade breadcrumbs (mashed up oyster crackers works great)
1 cup walnuts, toasted
4 big cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt to taste
To prepare, just put everything in a fair-sized food processor like the Hamilton Beach 500-watt 14-cup food processor and puree until smooth. Start by just adding a little bit of salt and then adding more as needed. Muhammara is fun to make when you sort of season as you go, tasting your way to the finish line.
If you want a spicier dish, you can substitute the ground pepper flakes for a chopped up jalapeno pepper. This dish is also best when you let it sit overnight to allow the flavors to blend.
Kale Salad with Chipotle Avocado Dressing
This recipe requires no cooking so the kale itself maintains all of its essential nutrients. By massaging in the salt, however, the kale will wilt and take on a cooked texture. The dressing for this is so delicious you will be looking for all kinds of other places to use it! This recipe feeds at least four people so invite over some friends!
4 heads of kale (again, this will look like a lot but it will wilt down a lot with the salt)
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups sliced cherry tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 cup hulled hemp seeds
Dressing
3 avocados, peeled and with center removed
2 chipotle peppers
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar
¼ cup lemon juice
Start by removing the stems from the kale. Wash it well and then tear it into bite-sized pieces. Put it in a bowl and begin to massage half the salt right into the kale. Massage until the kale starts to wilt and begins to have a cooked texture. If it is being stubborn you can use more salt, but the less you use the healthier the meal. Just keep massaging!
When it takes on a good texture you can mix in the onions, tomatoes, and hemp seeds.
Now it is time to make the dressing. All you do is dump the dressing ingredients into a food processor like the Black and Decker 10-cup 500-watt Food Processor and puree. If you are concerned with the amount of fat from the olive oil you can use more lemon juice and less EVOO.
Remember that it isn't always what you cook, it is the act of cooking itself that is important. When you go out to a restaurant you are only choosing what to pick off the menu. When you cook from scratch you are making literally dozens of food choices about what you are putting in your body. These choices will add up to a healthier and happier lifestyle.
About the Author
Rob Reed is a freelance writer who writes about furniture and kitchen products used for home improvement such as food processors
.