Swamp Slushie

Hyla's Swamp Slushie

1 cup coconut milk (vanilla flavored)
1 cup or 1 can pineapple chunks (in juice, not syrup)
2 cups raw spinach

Process spinach through a wheatgrass juicer (if you don't have a wheatgrass juicer, you could use a food processor - or just throw the raw spinach in the blender with the rest of the ingredients). Place all ingredients into a blender. Blend on high until smooth.

Hyla notes: Serves 2. If you are using a can of pineapple or pre-cut fresh pineapple, you want to add the pineapple juice to the blender as well. You can add a half a handful or so of another green such as kale for more nutrition. For one serving, which would be a half a serving of coconut milk (I didn't count the pineapple or spinach): fat 2.5g,
potassium 45 mg, carbs 4.5g, sugar 3.5g, protein .5g. WW Points Plus: Per Serving: 1

Cheeseburger Spinach Salad

Kendra's Cheeseburger Spinach Salad

1-2 cups Baby Spinach
1/4 medium tomato - sliced to your preference
1 medium dill pickle - sliced
1 lean hamburger patty - sliced
1/8 c shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 tbsp. French's French Fried Onions

Honey Mustard-Horseradish Dressing

2 tbsp. Honey Mustard
1 tbsp. Horseradish Sauce

Blend together and drizzle over the salad.

Kendra notes: Entire salad, with dressing, is 488 calories, 26 carbs, 38 g fat, and 42 g protein. Since hamburgers are a weekly staple in our house, I consider this easy substitution a major win. No bun means 200 calories cut straight off the top, it's lighter, it's so flavorful, and it's incredibly filling. The pickle and the French onion straws add crunch and zest for way less calories than croutons.

Vegan Noodle-less Lasagna

Jen's Vegan Noodle-less Lasagna

1 tsp. olive oil
3 tsp. chopped garlic
Basil & oregano fresh or dried to taste
2 cups sliced mushrooms, raw
3.5 cups pasta sauce (I used Nature's Promise Organic Tomato Basil Sauce)
1 cup Boca Ground Crumbles
2 cups chopped broccoli, fresh or frozen
2 cups shredded carrot
1 block (16 oz) firm or extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
3 tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp. lemon juice
½ tbsp. onion powder
salt & pepper to taste
4 cups spinach, raw
2 cups vegan mozzarella style shreds

Preheat oven to 375º and prep 9"x13" pan with oil or cooking spray. Press tofu. If you don’t have a tofu press, place block of tofu between two plates or pans & clean kitchen or paper towels to absorb water. Add a few heavy books or cans on top plate.

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic, basil, oregano, and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until mushrooms are soft and releasing moisture. Set aside. In same pan, add broccoli and carrots. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until veggies are crisp tender. Set aside. If pasta sauce is not thick, reduce it by simmering over medium heat, about 15 minutes. Add Boca Crumbles to sauce.

Remove tofu from press. Crumble in a small bowl & combine with nutritional yeast, lemon juice, onion
powder, salt, and pepper.

Time to layer! Layer lasagna in prepped pan as follows: 1/3 of the sauce, 1/2 spinach, 1/2 the tofu mixture, 1/2 the broccoli & carrots, 1/3 the sauce, 1/2 the vegan mozzarella, all the mushrooms, 1/2 spinach, 1/2 the tofu mixture, 1/2 the broccoli & carrots, 1/3 the sauce, 1/2 the vegan mozzarella.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes until mozzarella is melted. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Jen notes: Serves 6-8. Nutrition for 1 serving (1/6 recipe): Calories 277, Carbs 31g, Fat 11g, Protein 17g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 930mg,Sugars 9g, Fiber 8g.

Spinach, Gorgonzola & Couscous Stuffed Mushrooms

Marla's Spinach, Gorgonzola & Couscous Stuffed Mushrooms

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 6 oz. bag of baby spinach
1 cup cooked couscous
1 egg, beaten
2 oz. Gorgonzola
2 portabella mushrooms

Sauté olive oil, garlic, and red onion together. Once soft, add spinach until cooked. In a separate bowl, beat egg. Add spinach mixture and couscous to egg. Mix together. Fold Gorgonzola into mixture, reserving some for the top of the mushrooms. Spoon mixture into portabella mushrooms and top with remaining Gorgonzola. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Marla notes: 9 Points + each. From the picture(s), you can tell these are monstrous – if you want a lower point dish, fill 4 mushrooms instead of 2 for 5 Points + a piece.

Tomato, spinach & mascarpone gnocchi

Tim's tomato, spinach & mascarpone gnocchi

500g pack ready-made gnocchi
350g jar tomato pasta sauce
100g spinach, washed
250g tub mascarpone
50g parmesan or Grana Padano cheese

Cook the gnocchi according to packet instructions and drain. Heat the tomato pasta sauce in a saucepan and add the spinach, stirring until wilted. Mix the gnocchi in with the sauce and pour into an ovenproof dish. Season and spoon blobs of mascarpone over. Scatter with shavings of parmesan or Grana Padano and grill for about 15-20 minutes until bubbling and golden.

Tim notes: My grill gets super hot so I only did it for 10 minutes so keep an eye on it.

Week One: Spinach

Spinach is susceptible of receiving all imprints:
it is the virgin wax of the kitchen.
Grimod de la Reynière
When asked to name a leafy green, odds are spinach is the first that comes to mind for most people. The popularity of spinach is rooted in its mild flavor, as well as its texture, which is crisp but not fibrous like some other greens, such as kale.

Low in calories and a great source of dietary iron, spinach is also an incredibly versatile ingredient, mixing well with both sweet and savory elements. Whether a base for a salad or smoothie, tossed up with pasta, or chopped and combined with vegetables, tofu, meat, or cheese, cooking with spinach is a delicious way to add nutrients to your diet.

Several of our delicious recipes featuring spinach will be posted throughout this week. Try them for yourselves and leave us some comments, letting us know what you think!

What is your favorite way to eat spinach?

The next challenge ingredient will be ... strawberries! If you would like to submit a recipe to be featured on this site next week, send the recipe (plus a picture of the prepared dish!) to theintrepidchefs@gmail.com by midnight on Saturday, August 20.

Welcome to the Intrepid Chefs!

Welcome to the Intrepid Chefs! "Intrepid" means "characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance" - we're a group of people who are unrelenting in our pursuit of living healthy lives. Part of that is making sure we properly nourish our bodies; in order to succeed at this, we want to build up our recipe collections as best we can with delicious, satisfying, and healthy meals we can prepare for ourselves, our families, and our friends.

This is a collaborative project: part challenge, part recipe collection. Each week, participants receive an email with this week's secret ingredient - it could be a fruit or vegetable, a grain, a spice ... it'll be something different every week, but nothing so fancy you'd have to go out of your way to find it or offer up your firstborn child to buy it.

Participants have until midnight on Saturday to make a recipe using the ingredient - it could be a family favorite or something you invented for the challenge, it could be for any meal, and it could be sweet or savory, as long as it is healthy and uses the week's ingredient.

Participants will then send an e-mail including the recipe, a picture of it all prepared, and any additional information they would like to add (serving size, suggestions for variations, etc.). They will be assembled together in a document and sent out to all challenge participants on Sunday afternoon/evening - voilà, a mini cookbook sent to everyone every week!

The recipes will also be posted here, to have a little database of healthy recipes, searchable with tags like "vegetarian" or "chicken."

For those who would like to discover new recipes but do not wish to submit any of their own, there is an option on this site's sidebar to subscribe via email. When we post recipes here, they will automatically be delivered to you. You will only get emailed by us when we have posted something here - we don't want spam in our recipes, and we certainly don't want it in our inboxes!

So, this is us in a nutshell. Whether you are looking to participate or just find a new way to use one of your favorite ingredients, we're glad you're here!