Green Juice

Green Juice:
Half a bag of spinach
1/4 pineapple
1 apple

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"grilled cheese" for dessert and root vegetable sorbet

This exchange was about healthy foods. And it was my turn to make desserts.  I immediately thought about a grilled cheese sandwich for dessert.  I wanted to include chocolate and vegetables.  Chocolate zuchinni bread came to my mind first..but now I needed the "cheese".  How am I going to create that without using cheese?  Ah ha - sweet potatoes!  I played with colors.  Check out this super delicious easy to make decadent grilled cheese for dessert.  Now we all know every grilled cheese sandwich isn't complete without ketchup.  My next challenge was to mimic ketchup somehow for this dessert.  What vegetable (and yes, I wanted use vegetables over fruit) do I use? Beets!  But my taste buds had always rejected beets, doesn't matter what shape or form they were in.  Check out the evolution of beet pudding to beet sorbet below.

You might argue that the "chocolate zuchinni bread isnt healthy, but the beet pudding or sorbet sure are.  Aren't we all about a balanced diet anyways? :)

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Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

So delicious and healthy! A very versatile dish, you can use any variety of ingredients to stuff the peppers with, but be sure to try this recipe ladies =)

Ingredients

6 large sweet peppers

2 cups cooked brown rice

3 small tomatoes, chopped

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 small sweet onion, chopped

1/3 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

4 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

salt

pepper

3/4 cup meatless spaghetti sauce

Red marchu - add according to taste

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Mixed Lentil Salad

Since this Exchange supposed to be a healthier one, I decided to make this salad which is very healthy, has so much flavor and pack with protein! Keep in mind that you have to prepare main ingredients in a day or two advance.

Serving: 6

Ingredients:

2 cups sprouted moong, cooked
½ cup dry chana, cooked
½ cup red or green grapes, chopped
½ small onion, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
Coriander, chopped
Pomegranate (optional)
2-3 tablespoon chaat masala powder
½ cup lime juice
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Method:

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Barley Salad with Grapes and Walnuts

I borrowed this recipe from Weight Watchers. The main thing i changed was the nut - i used Walnuts, the recipe called for Pecans. I'm sure either would work.  OH- i didn't have tarragon, so i skipped that. 

Barley Salad with Grapes and Walnuts
PointsPlus® Value: 5
Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 45 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Cooked barley has a lovely nutty flavor and wonderful firm texture, making it a perfect grain for side dishes.

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11th Meeting

After the last exchange we had to get back on track. The evening started with some heavy discussions about the Hindu religion and culture. I was lucky enough to attend Saturday school which taught me a little about my culture and religion. But I am embarrassed to admit that I forgot a lot about it too. Nishal, on the other hand, who can recite the whole mahabratha gave us a brief synopsis of the story. While she was telling us it all came back to me but I could not have explained it the way she did. It was refreshing to talk about our religion.

After that mental boost (I don’t know about your girls, but I really felt good listening to Nishal talk about it) Hetal whipped up some green smoothies. I call them smoothies versus drinks because they felt like drinking a smoothie. The concoction was made of almond milk, spinach and various different fruits. More on that way when Hetal posts the recipe… however, I can no longer say I have not had a banana in 15+ years. It was really delicious. Now we only have to convince Hetal to make it for all of us on a weekly basis. (Queue Ben Stein saying: Hetal? Hetal? Hetal? Anyone?)

Vaishali won’t admit it but she is some kind of a self taught yoga/fitness expert. She taught us some poses that are sure to keep us fit. After that we filled our bellies on two different types of salads and stuffed peppers. Everything was vegetarian. We ended the night with some very interesting dessert. Jalpa served us what was by far for me the biggest surprise of the night- beet sorbet. Yes, beets! The root. And was it delicious!

The only bad thing about the night was that it end way too early. And also that Parul couldn’t make it. Can’t wait till the next one: Indian Fusion!

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