Broccoli Rice and Broccoli Rice Salad with Butternut Squash

Simple, easy-to-make nutritious recipe that you and your family will love.

Hello all!

I hope everyone had a great summer.  It’s now September, but the warm weather is still lingering.  I’m glad because I can still enjoy my morning run. I will definitely enjoy it while it lasts.

Anyway, I was out jogging yesterday morning.  I was about a mile and a half when I received an alarming phone call from the school nurse.  I was told my presence was needed pronto! My son had a severe allergic reaction I was asked to take him home for observation.  I have never run that fast in my entire existence. You could say I had a pretty good workout. 😀 What a timing!  I drove there as soon as I arrived home.

Both of my children have different food allergies.  I thought they will outgrow their allergies, but to no avail. Their doctor advised me to slowly introduce the food that  they’re allergic with. But, it’s too risky and I don’t want to take a chance and regret it later, so I decided to create, reinvent or developed foods that both of them can eat.  No one can really know what it’s like to have children who have severe allergies to many things. I can’t begin to tell you.  It’s a long story. I will one day talk about it, but for now, I want to share this recipe that is so easy to prepare and so delicious and nutritious; absolutely great for children with food allergies.  It’s gluten-free, vegan, and organic. What else could you ask for?  All you have to do is to place the broccoli florets in a food processor, pulse, and viola!  You are halfway done. Just double the recipe if you are feeding a crowd.  You can make it ahead and just warm it up in a skillet and you have a side dish in no time.  Or, if you don’t have that much time to spare, you can just go ahead and process the florets and place in a Ziploc bag and store it in the refrigerator until ready to use; easy-peasy.  What I love about this recipe is it will only take 5 minutes to cook plus preparation. Definitely great on busy nights.  This recipe can be made in many different ways.  However, because of my children’s allergy, I settled for the basic recipe:

Recipe  1:   Broccoli Rice

Ingredients:

• 4 to 6 cups organic broccoli florets
• 1 to 2 Tablespoons avocado or organic coconut oil
• organic Himalayan pink sea  salt and organic pepper to taste
• 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 stalks of organic green onions, thinly cut
• 1 small organic red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 to 1 can (15.5 oz.) organic black beans, rinsed with cold water
• a handful of organic cilantro, chopped

Directions:

• Place all the broccoli florets in a food processor. Carefully, pulse until the broccoli  resembles the size of rice; set aside.
• Heat a 2-inch deep skillet with oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until the garlic is lightly brown. Add the green onions and bell peppers. Saute until the bell peppers are a bit tender or started to sweat.  Add the broccoli rice and stir-fry until the broccoli is a bit tender, but still crunchy about 5 minutes.  Turn off heat.
• Add the black beans and mix with a spatula.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the chopped cilantro and serve warm.
• Enjoy!

Tip:

• If you don’t have a food processor, you can chop the broccoli florets.

Recipe 2:  Broccoli Rice Salad With Butternut Squash

This recipe is for those who are not allergic to tree nuts.

This is definitely a favorite this fall, especially comes Thanksgiving time.  To make it,  with the basic recipe above, just add tree nuts such as whole almonds, toasted whole walnuts, and whole pecans, flax seeds,  chia seeds, avocado chunks (optional), organic tomatoes, cut in chunks, and roasted cinnamon butternut squash. Add more salt and pepper to taste. This recipe is definitely a must try this season.

You can use any of the above recipe as your side dish for dinner and cook up an entree to serve it with.  Below is Bay Shrimp Pesto With Broccoli Rice salad I prepared for dinner tonight; so delicious.

To prepare the shrimp, you will need 2 handful of bay shrimp, a Tablespoon (leveled)  of your homemade pesto sauce, garlic salt, ground black pepper, Italian herbs seasoning (unsalted)  and coconut oil.   Heat a skillet with a Tablespoon of coconut oil over medium-high heat and add the bay shrimp when hot.  Season with the Italian herbs seasoning, garlic salt to taste, ground black pepper, and pesto sauce.  Stir-fry until opaque and the sauce thickens a bit.  Serve over Broccoli Rice salad or Broccoli Rice. Bon appetit! ❤

Enjoy the warm weather. Happy fall y’all!  🙂

~Anna