I Love putting a THRIVE twist on a classic recipe! Typically rice pudding calls for raisins and cinnamon but this morning we opted for Freeze Dried Mango and Vanilla Powder...it was delicious!
The recipe calls for dried orange zest of course if you have fresh use it, I rarely do so I found some at http://www.firehousepantrystore.com/ and it's great to have on hand for recipes like this! I hope you enjoy this recipe and please leave me a comment with your results!
Mango Rice Pudding
3 cups white rice, cooked 3 cups milk 2/3 cup sugar 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup mango 1 teaspoon vanilla powder 1 teaspoon of dried orange zest
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer and cook for 25 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.Stir occasionally so rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Spoon pudding into a serving dish and dust with additional vanilla powder if desired. Serve warm or chilled.
Loaded with vitamin C, this cruciferous cousin to broccoli was once revered by the French King Louis XIV, can you guess what it is?
It's Cauliflower!
To tell you the truth I wasn't really ever a fan of it before I started using THRIVE but now it's my secret weapon! I throw that stuff into all kinds of things! My top 3 favorites are scrambled eggs, smoothies and soups! You want to know the best part, I don't have to wash or chop a bit because I have THRIVE!
Have you ever snuck veggies into your family's food?
Check out this article about some of the amazing Health Benefits of Cauliflower! http://www.trueactivist.com/7-health-benefits-of-cauliflower-and-mashed-cauliflower-recipe/
It's been a while since I last posted here and I want to get back into it so I'm going to start with a delicious recipe featuring Butternut Squash! Why Butternut Squash you ask, well let me tell you a few things about this Powerhouse food!
"Low in fat, butternut squash delivers an ample dose of dietary fiber, making it an exceptionally heart-friendly choice. It provides significant amounts of potassium, important for bone health, and vitamin B6, essential for the proper functioning of both the nervous and immune systems." - http://www.wholeliving.com/134734/power-foods-butternut-squash
So why not Butternut Squash I say! It's been quite rainy here in the Valley of the Sun this past week so I wanted something warm and comforting for dinner the other night and it just so happened that I came across this quick little video so I knew what was going to be on the menu that evening.
Looks amazing right, who wouldn't want to have this for dinner! So because I'm blessed to have a Homestore I whipped this little baby up in no time at all. In fact I posted about making this on my fb page as it was simmering on the stove because I wanted to share the love!
I didn't follow the recipe exactly but pretty close. I added a 1/2 cup of freeze dried cauliflower and omitted the brown sugar. I also used half and half instead of heavy cream just to kick up the nutrition factor. It turned out perfect, still with a hint of sweetness with the cinnamon and vanilla but not overly sweet. I also used an immersion blender like this one, which made the whole blending process SOOO much easier! If you don't have one of these bad boys' be sure to pick one up on your next shopping trip!
My family loved it! All 5 kiddos and my hubby! I know soup can be difficult for toddlers to eat but my 22 mth old and 3 year old slurped up this thick and creamy goodness just fine. Now my biggest food critic is my 6 year old son and he is particularly vocal if it has any "THRIVE" in it, which he says he hates but eats everyday, nice huh. Anyway even my picky little boy said "hey this is actually pretty good" Now that is HIGH PRAISE my friends, High Praise indeed coming from him! So I think this recipe will become part of our regular rotation from now on!
But the real reason I wanted to start back up again with this post is because the next day I realized how much having THRIVE Life food in my home has been a blessing to me and my family and I really want to be able to share that with everyone!
What I didn't say before is that I had a pretty busy day and dinner hadn't been started before my hubby got home at 5. Also it's resolution time so we've started exercising as a family & decided to go running that evening before dinner and didn't get back home till after 6pm, I had a meeting to go to at 7pm for church, oh and my dear husband said he was going to run get some trash bags really quick so he was out the door as soon as we got back from running. So now I needed to make dinner and I already knew I wanted to make this soup but still need to shower and get ready for my meeting but would I have enough time? With THRIVE I did! I stayed down stairs long enough to make the meal start to finish then ran up stairs so shower and get ready and was out the door by 6:45 just after my hubby got home (way later than I expected him to be)!
THRIVE allowed me to make a healthy delicious meal for my family in a matter of minutes with no work required other than scooping out what I needed and heating it through and still had time to get ready and out the door on time to my meeting.
Before I started cooking with THRIVE regularly my kids probably would've gotten sandwiches for dinner or they would've just had to wait till Dad got back from the store and hoped that he would make something. But instead we all enjoyed an amazing soup that really hit the spot on a cold rainy night and I made it to my meeting dressed and on time.
I'm so grateful to have THRIVE in my life and if you are at all curious about what having a Homestore can do for you and your family please contact me, I'd love to help you discover what Thrive has to offer.
