One day over the summer I desperately needed to go to the grocery store and I needed to do a real shop, not just pick a few things up, because our pantry was incredibly bare.

Unfortunately, though, school was out and camps had not started yet, which meant I had two boys with me who had no interest in going grocery shopping. 

What’s a mom to do? Bribe. So I did. I bribed them with a treat each if they would help me out and not beg and plead for each thing that caught their interest.

They agreed. So in we went.

We had made it through the produce section and were entering the bulk foods when my little one cried out, “YOGURT PRETZELS!!” And then my older one cried out, “YOGURT PRETZELS!!” These two kids could not be more different in their taste in food- my younger loves all things protein (read: meat) and my older is a vegetable addict- so this was a rare moment.

I was about to say, “Great! Yogurt pretzels can be your treat!” When a little voice inside my head said, “But what is actually in yogurt pretzels?” I had looked it up before and deep down I knew the answer: Not yogurt.

Yogurt pretzels do have a tiny, tiny bit of dehydrated yogurt in them, but mostly the coating is confectioner’s sugar. So really what they were asking for was candy and I wasn’t a big fan of that idea.

But inspiration struck and I said, “what if we made our OWN yogurt pretzels?!” Luckily they loved the idea.

So that afternoon I poked around online and found that I really wasn’t gong to be able to make yogurt pretzels, but I came across a couple of yogurt sauces.

So the boys and I created our own version.

This has become our go-to dessert.

It is healthy, delicious, and fun- kids LOVE to dip! I have even used it as the treat at school birthday celebrations instead of cupcakes/cookies/etc. and the kids loved it.

The best part of this recipe? It takes 1 minute to make.

Ok, maybe 2 if you include washing the fruit.

A small note, I make this with organic whole milk plain yogurt. In fact, that is the only kind of yogurt we have in the house.

Here is why: 1) whole milk yogurt has good fats, 2) flavored yogurts have CRAZY amounts of sugar in them- one serving has as much sugar as a bowl of ice cream!, and 3) it is more flexible.

I use it in baking, in savory sauces, and, clearly, as a dessert.

I hope you and your kids enjoy this one as much as we do.

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1-Minute Dessert: Sweet Yogurt Dip

Course Dessert

Prep Time 1 minute minute

Total Time 1 minute minute

Servings 2

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• ½ cup whole milk plain yogurt preferably organic
• 1 teaspoon honey or more, depending on how sweet you want it
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• dash of cinnamon

Instructions

• Mix the four ingredients together. If needed, add more honey to taste. Serve with pretzels and fresh fruit (grapes, strawberries, blueberries, apples pieces, and melon pieces have all been big hits in our household) with toothpicks for dipping.

<p>The post 1-Minute Dessert: Sweet Yogurt Dip first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

That green showing up everywhere always gets me thinking about and craving green vegetables. Sadly, though, salad greens are kind of tough and lame at this time of year, but the sautéing greens, such as kale, mustard, and chard, are all great, so I figured now is the perfect time to share my tried and true honey greens recipe with you!

This is a spin off on a recipe my brother introduced me to years and years ago that used brown sugar instead of honey. Before having his version I had never really enjoyed chard or mustard greens, but once he put these sweet and sour greens down on my plate I was hooked! This is a recipe I often share with clients who are skeptical of greens and is also a side vegetable that I can (usually) count on my boys to enjoy with gusto. If you have lots of mouths to feed and will be doubling or tripling the recipe, I am a big fan of a mix of chard and mustard greens, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them!

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Honey Greens

Course Side, Vegetable

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• Dash of cayenne optional
• ½ cup onion chopped
• 1 bunch of kale mustard, or chard greens. Stemmed, rinsed, and torn into bite-sized pieces.
• 1 tablespoon rice or apple cider vinegar
• ½ tablespoon honey or more, to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat the oil on medium-high head in a large frying pan and add a dash of cayenne (if using).
• When the oil is hot and shimmering, but not smoking, add the onion and cook until it is translucent.
• Turn the heat down to medium and add greens, stirring constantly. When the greens have turned bright “army” green, turn off the heat.
• Add the vinegar and some salt and pepper. Stir to mix and then drizzle the honey over and give it one last stir. Serve immediately.

<p>The post Honey Greens: A Taste of Spring! first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

The other reason I love millet is that you can use it in so many ways! It is delicious under any sauce or stew where you might use rice, couscous, or quinoa. It is a wonderful side grain. Leftover millet can be turned into a delicious and nutritious breakfast porridge in 3 minutes. It is wonderful mixed into bread doughs and cookie batter, adding an extra crunch. It is amazing mixed into stews and soups, for an interesting texture. It is wonderful in salads (like this salmon, kale, and millet salad I had for lunch today!). You can also cook it into a thicker, polenta-style dish. Really, the possibilities are endless.

Finally, it is quick to cook! Instead of taking 40+ minutes, like brown rice, you can have millet on the table in 25, which works nicely during those 30-minute scrambles to get dinner on the table.

Just a little background on my beloved millet, it is actually a seed that has been used for thousands of years all over the world, but most especially in China and Africa. It is ground up and used in breads in India, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. It is brewed in beer in Eastern Africa. It is cooked as porridge in Eastern Europe. But around here, we usually think of it as birdseed or livestock feed, silly us. It is wonderfully good for you as this gluten-free seed is rich in fiber, iron, calcium, the all-important B vitamins, manganese, magnesium, and phosphorus. One final perk, it is easily digestible for those with sensitive stomachs.

I know that it can be hard to try a new grain—you have to plan for it, get it at the market, prepare yourself to cook something new, and then, gasp, take a bite. I get it, I really do, I mean who hasn’t bought a bag of some new health food that ends up being disgusting, tasteless mush and then the rest of the $6.95-bag sits in the pantry passively-aggressively reminding you of your health-food failure… But here’s an encouraging secret: you can find millet in the bulk bin at your local health food store or Whole Foods. You can just take a one-cup scoop, you don’t have to buy a whole bag. That will run you, maybe, 75 cents. Now isn’t that a risk worth taking?!

So next time you make a veggie or meat stew or the next time you make some sort of main dish that needs a side, give my beloved millet a try.

The Kitchn has really helpful instructions on how to cook millet. But if that isn’t enough, here’s my recipe for Next-Morning Millet Porridge so that you can be enticed to try this amazing grain.

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My Beloved Millet

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• Already cooked millet
• Milk cow, soy, almond, etc.
• Your favorite toppings for oatmeal maple syrup, honey, dried fruit, chopped nuts, etc.

Instructions

• In a small saucepan, dump in about the same amount of millet as you would have oatmeal (after it has been cooked). Drizzle milk in so that the millet is just wet and there is a little bit of milk pooled in the bottom of the pan. Turn on the burner and cook, stirring until the milk is blended in (doesn’t need to all be absorbed) and the millet is warm (about 2-3 minutes). Pour into a bowl and top with your favorite toppings.

<p>The post My Beloved Millet first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>