Natural Homemade Living

My favorite food choices are often related to family memories, so I wanted to share one of our favorite grilled fish recipes. Our Dad used to take us fishing and we grew up eating the fish we caught ourselves. Then came the time when we had to start buying fish, I searched for types of fish that didn't taste too "fishy". It's hard to accomplish that in the Midwest, we don't always have many choices. We were introduced to orange roughy during a trip to San Diego where my great-uncle treated us to some of the most wonderful seafood we had ever eaten at an establishment called Anthony's. It was the first time we had eaten orange roughy and it was white, flaky and not too fishy tasting. After a few experiments, this is my favorite method to prepare it at home. Serves 4 or 2 with leftovers! Ingredients: 4 orange roughy fillets 1/4 c fresh cilantro, I use a small handful * if you are not a cilantro fan use fresh dill, about 1/4 c chopped 2 tsp garlic powder o...

Fresh Veggie Salad A healthy, simple to make summer veggie salad is a great addition to any meal. You can use any fresh veggies for this salad. I only used a few items for this salad but it still tasted delicious! Fresh Ingredients: 1 bunch asparagus tips, sliced 2-3 cucumbers, sliced 6-8 tomatoes, I used Roma 1 c sugar snap peas 1/2 shallot or onion 1/4 c fresh, chopped basil 2 T freshly chopped dill 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil 1/4 red wine vinegar 1-2 tsp honey, optional salt and pepper to taste (or use your favorite Italian dressing) Cut all ingredients into bite size pieces until you have approximately 5-6 cups of veggies.  Whisk olive oil and vinegar together. I added a little honey to sweeten it up a bit.  If you have a favorite Italian dressing, pour that over the veggies and skip the olive oil and vinegar. Pour dressing over veggies and stir gently until the veggies are coated.  I usually let my salad sit for about 30 minutes. It's great if...

Pineapple-banana smoothie It finally happened to me...I'm officially addicted to smoothies! I was looking for something filling for breakfast because I wasn't enjoying my hot oatmeal during the summer months. I bought a KitchenAid blender (that I love) and knew I would end up using it to make something delicious! This led me to my current smoothie experiments and they are simply awesome! These are my 3 favorite smoothies (so far): pineapple-banana, banana-vanilla and peach-vanilla bean.  So try something new and let us know your favorite fruit smoothie ideas! Pineapple-banana directions: 1 cup V8 Splash Smoothie juice (tropical colada) 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks 1 banana, peeled 1 cup crushed ice 1/2 tsp coconut extract Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Banana Vanilla Smoothie Banana-vanilla directions: 1 banana, peeled (fairly ripe) 1/2 c vanilla soy milk (or milk of your choice) 1/2 c vanilla yogurt 1/2 vanilla bean, scrap...