Last year, with Magic Bullet in hand and a resolution to increase my energy I stumbled upon Angela Liddon’s Oh She Glows blog and her Green Monster recipes. The smoothies combine kale or spinach with other ingredients to make energy-boosting vitamins taste like a sweet treat.

One year later, my favourite is still the blueberry-banana.

What you’ll need:

2 cups organic spinach
1 cup of almond milk
1 tablespoon of flax (optional)
1 banana
½ cup blueberries
Ice

The method:

Place all of the ingredients except the ice in the blender and hit start. Once everything is blended add the ice and blend some more. Or, use frozen blueberries and bananas to skip the ice.

—Jaelyn Molyneux

For more recipes or to submit your own, visit www.greenmonstermovement.com

After our successful first foray into adult popsicles using Caramilk liquor, we started searching around for other icy recipes to help us beat the heat with a bit of a buzz.

We found recipes for mango-mojito popsicles from Erica’s Sweet Tooth, sangria ice-pops from Emily Bites and these fab vodka-spiked ices made with fresh watermelon by culinary goddess, Giada de Laurentiis. We used these stunning stainless steel molds from Onxy Containers to make our ice-pops, but you can go green by freezing your libation of choice in a thoroughly cleaned yogourt container with a lid.

Just make sure that the kids don’t find them, or there might be tears at happy hour. —Jennifer Nachshen

All apples are not created equal. In the case of the Ambrosia, the variety is a chance seedling whose parentage is not 100 per cent known and was discovered by a B.C. family on their orchard in the 1990s. Famed for its sweetness, versatility and beauty (pink blush on the outside and slow to turn brown), the B.C. Tree Fruits apple can be used in a variety of dishes. Former Calgarian, chef Ned Bell, shared a recipe that’s perfect for cold winter nights.

Ambrosia Apple, Winter Squash, Corn and Cheddar Soup


Ingredients
1 lb peeled and grated Ambrosia apples

1 lb frozen cubed winter squash
2 cups frozen corn
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup cream (or half milk to reduce fat)
¼ stick butter
1 white onion, diced 

2 cups grated white cheddar

Method
Sauté the onions in the butter for five minutes, add the Ambrosia apples, the cubed squash and corn and cook for 10 minutes. Add the stock and the cream, cook for another 10 minutes and then add the grated cheddar. Puree with a hand blender until smooth and season with salt and cracked black pepper.

Courgette and chocolate come together at last in this Vitamin Daily-tested, kid-approved recipe (perfect for a quick breakfast).

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ingredients (wet)
3/4 C butter, softened
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1/2 C milk
2t vanilla
Ingredients (dry)
2 1/2 C Flour
1/2 C cocoa
1t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
1T Baking powder
1t cinnamon
2 C grated zucchini
1 C chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Method
In a medium bowl cream butter with an electric mixer adding sugar, followed by eggs, milk and vanilla.
In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and stir in zucchini and nuts.
Gradually add wet mixture to dry and stir well.
Pour into two greased loaf pans and bake 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Let cool, then serve dusted with icing sugar if desired.

After incessantly being asked what she makes for dinner, Calgary-based journalist and cookbook author Julie Van Rosendaal did what any respectable food writer would do these days: she started a blog. 

Dinner with Julie is a mix of simple recipes, last-minute dinner ideas (think: hummus-and-chicken wraps) and fun family anecdotes. The most popular search, “leg of lamb in a slow cooker,” results in a handful of choices including the most recent incarnation with garlic and rosemary (pictured) but also reveals Van Rosendaal’s determination to resurrect the Sunday family dinner.

Next time someone asks where you got that recipe, tell her your friend Julie passed it on.

www.dinnerwithjulie.com

Resolution #4: Throw away the take-out menus and cook more often.

In comes Kitchen Scraps ($29.95) by Calgarian Pierre A. Lamielle, an illustrator who studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Filled with simple recipes accompanied by Lamielle’s Burton-esque drawings, this kitchen helper is broken into four sections: “Food You Eat With a Spoon,” “Food You Eat With a Fork,” “Food You Eat With a Forkenknife,” and “Food You Eat With a Hand” and includes cleverly named recipes like  “Vampire Slayer’s Garlic-Laced Chicken,” and one of Lamielle’s favourites, “Snails in the Garden” (deep friend escargots in a salad).

At Amazon.ca.

The detox has begun. For a hearty meal that’s light enough to counteract the three weeks of eating cheese balls and chocolate, we recommend this white bean salad. After all, beans aren’t called the "magical fruit" for nothing.

Post-Holiday White Bean Salad

1 can of white beans, drained
½ cup of chopped parsley
2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes cut in half (regular tomatoes diced can also be used)
¼ of a red onion diced or use chives if onions are too strong
Large lemon wedge
1 tbls of balsamic vinegar
1 tbls of olive oil
¼ teaspoon of sea salt

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl (the last four can be mixed separately before adding).

Season with more lemon and/or salt to taste and enjoy, or shall we say detox.

Presenting Editor-in-chief Sarah Bancroft's great-great-Grandmother Matilda's gingerbread cookie recipe, originally from Heligoland. The secret to its crispiness? See ingredient #2. Yum!

Matilda's Gingerbread Cookies

1/2 c butter, softened
1/4 c bacon fat, cold
1/2 c white sugar
1  large  egg
1/4 c molasses
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbls ground or fresh grated ginger

Method
Cream together butter and bacon fat, adding sugar.
Add egg and molasses, mix again.
Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.
Mix flour mixture into butter mixture gradually.
Form dough into ball, flatten slightly, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Roll out with a dusting of flour into 1/4 inch thickness.
Cut with cookie cutters and lift onto baking sheets.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

This toddler-proof, ridiculously simple Banana Bread recipe has been in Editor-in-chief Sarah Bancroft's family for four generations. Invite the little ones into the kitchen for a stress-free baking session.

Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda

Method
Preheat the oven to 315 degrees F. Combine eggs, oil and sugar. Add mashed banana and nuts. Sift in flour and baking soda, stirring just until blended. Bake in well-greased loaf pan for about an hour.

After a recent Italian excursion, we’ve brought back our own Italia-inspired recipe for a simple salad that has a little fall colour and flavour.

Ingredients

1 bag of salad mixed with a healthy portion of arugula (if the mix already contains arugula, add more as you want plenty of its strong flavour)
2 vine ripened tomatoes sliced
Half a can of pitted ripe black olives (drained)
Half a can of sweet corn (simple Green Giant will do)

Method

Top with freshly grated parmesan and drizzle lightly with olive oil.
Dress with a sweet balsamic vinegar and coarse salt.