Category Archives: Recipes

Thursday Recipe: Bean Burgers

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I’m not a vegetarian but good grass-fed, organic meat is expensive! So I’ve started to explore getting protein in other ways like from beans and other legumes as well as seeds and nuts. I just recently (while I was writing this post) learned that legumes form a fuller protein when eaten with grain so I’m stoked that we ate them like an open-faced sandwich. These were really really good. They were a little crumbly (like most veggie burgers) but great on a half-bun and ever better over a salad the next day. I made a double batch so that’s what we’ll be having tonight for dinner too!

TheRealFoodDiet

I got the base for this recipe from this book. This was a written by a chiropractor at our company and is AMAZING.

Bean Burgers (makes 8 small patties)

Ingredients

2 cups (about 22 oz) Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas)

1 onion

splash of high heat oil (coconut is my favorite)

1/2 cup gluten-free bread crumbs (you can make your own from GF bread or just buy some)

6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 Tbsp rosemary

2 Tbsp Tahini

juice of half a lime or lemon

dash of sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

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1. Thinly slice the onions and saute until soft and beginning to caramelize. Season with salt and pepper, then place in a large mixing bowl.

2. Blend or food process garbanzo beans, tahini, garlic, and lime/lemon juice until smooth. Add to bean mixture.

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3. Add all remaining ingredients and combine thoroughly. Use your hands to roll form into balls about the size of a baseball (love using my hands in cooking!). Use a bit of plastic wrap to cleanly and neatly form them into patties.

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4. Heat a little more oil and cook burgers until heated. Serve on top of half a gluten-free bun topped with dijon mustard and ketchup with a side of steamed veggies or salad.

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Enjoy!

Does anyone have any big events they need to cook for this month? What do you want me to cook?

 

Just-Try-It Thursday: Frittata

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This recipe is really flippin’ easy. And cheap! (I got it from an awesome blog I read regularly: Once A Month) I cooked it immediately after my workout and was eating within 20 minutes. It is a pretty basic dish though so I also had a couple of pieces of toast. One with almond butter, one with honey. It would be delicious with roasted potatoes though.

Veggie Frittata (serves 4)

Ingredients

8 eggs – keep the yolks! They’re a healthy fat.

Whatever veggies you have – I used green peppers, mushrooms, garlic, tomatoes, and a bit of spinach. Onions would be really good too.

1/2 cup almond, coconut, or full fat milk

salt and peppa

1. Chop up all the veggie and sauté the hard veggies (peppers, mushrooms, garlic, onions) in a Tbsp of oil. Medium heat for 5 minutes.

2. While they’re cooking, scramble the eggs and milk together. Use a big bowl and a whisk. Don’t stop until the eggs get frothy.

3. Add the soft veggies (tomatoes) to your sauté and spread everything out evenly.

4. Pour on the eggs. And top with any green leaves you have. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Then transfer to the oven to broil for another 5 minutes.

5. Take it out and cut into it! I kept mine covered for a few minutes before eating it and it went from pretty and fluffy to sadly deflated. But it was still delicious!

Let me know how it goes! (< do this by clicking the title of this blog post and entering your message under “penny for your thoughts)

Tasty Tuesday: Winter Soup

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We had some friends over for dinner the week before last and it was just starting to get cold out. One of the guests was vegan which I actually love because it’s a challenge! So I made this delicious AND vegan Winter Soup in my slow cooker. Thanks to Oh She Glows for the base recipe!

Don’t be scared! It seems like a lot of ingredients but you just chop them all up and throw them in.

Quick tip: I doubled this recipe and it fed 7 of us at dinner and there were leftovers for another night. Always make enough for leftovers! It means less time cooking.

Winter Soup (serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

1 large carrot

1 cup red quinoa, uncooked

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

1 medium zucchini

3 cloves garlic

1 vegetable bouillon cube (not low sodium)

6 cups water

15oz can diced tomatoes

15oz can black beans

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of black pepper

2 cups baby spinach

Instructions

Chop carrot, onion, and zucchini. Heat the oil then sauté onions over low heat until translucent.

Add the carrot, zucchini and garlic and continue to sauté for 5-7 minutes.

While that’s cooking, in separate pot, boil 6 cups of water and add bouillon cube. Stir until dissolved. Combine sautéed veggie, bouillon water, and all other ingredients, except for spinach, in a large pot. Bring to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Chop spinach and add to pot. Simmer for 15+ minutes. The longer the better.

Enjoy!

What’s your favorite Winter Recipe?

 

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet Potato Pancakes

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I am a big believer in spending some time on breakfast. One of my favorite things about having a day off or being on vacation is being able to spend time cooking and enjoying breakfast.

A yummy pile of food + a book/newspaper + a good cup of tea or glass of mulled cider + good company = AWESOME MORNING.

This past Sunday, Mike and I enjoyed a new (and now frequent) recipe. I hope to enjoy an equally lovely breakfast every day of this Thanksgiving holiday.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped small

3 eggs

1/2 cup almond butter (or whatever nut butter you have)

1/2 cup milk (unsweetened almond, coconut, whole milk, whatever…)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp sea salt

high heat cooking oil (coconut, grape seed, or sesame oil)

Instructions

Boil sweet potatoes until soft when stabbed with a fork. Start heating pan on Medium during this last step. Drain then add sweet potatoes and all other ingredients to blender. Blend until smooth.

After preheating pan for 5-ish minutes, pour two small pancakes at a time. Flip when the centers start bubbling. Cook on other side for 3-5 minutes.

Stack a pile, add a topping (bananas, sautéed apples, raisins, honey, maple syrup, etc.) and ENJOY!

*this recipe was adapted from Sammie Kennedy.

By the way, thanks to everyone that commented on my post yesterday. Recognizing the amazing qualities of the people around you starts to make you more amazing too! If you want to add to the comments, there’s still time! I’ll be reposting them on all Friday.

What are some of your favorite breakfast traditions?

Thriving Thursday: Back to Basics Applesauce

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When was the last time you had applesauce? Does anyone remember the blue kind? Why do kids love to eat weird colored food? Scratch that, why do PEOPLE love to eat weird colored food? Anyway! In my quest to get healthy, I’ve started cooking lots of stuff from scratch, in big batches, and then eating it for a week or two. It’s actually amazing how simple some of these recipes are.

So this week I tried to recreate my favorite Trader Joe’s chunky applesauce.

Back to Basics Applesauce (large batch)

Ingredients

8 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped

1 1/2 cups water

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp stevia (optional)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cover and cook on medium for 15-20 minutes or until apples are soft.

Then mash them up with a fork, masher, or in a blender. For chunkier sauce, wait until apples are cool and do not blend.

Enjoy! I even saved my old TJ’s jar and all the sauce fit perfectly 🙂

Ashley Life Update: I have to boast a little, I am a serious BAMF (bad ass mother f’er). A couple of friends (yep friends) and I went on a bike ride on Sunday morning. The winds were about 30 mph and as I was parking to get ready, I realized my shoes were at home, 20 minutes away. So I biked 25 miles in my Crocs with shoe covers on. I usually chicken out when something like this happens so I’m really proud that I stuck it out. And it was even better because I got a great ride in and met a new friend 🙂

So! What recipes do you think would be even better/healthier homemade?

Tasty Tuesday: Steak and Potatoes

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I don’t really love steak. I’m not a big-slab-of-meat kind of person. But when I asked Mike what his favorite meal was and he replied, “steak and potatoes,” it became the dish that I cooked for him for our “date” this past Saturday. I entered into the situation with a little bit of trepidation because I’ve never cooked steak before but I’d say it turned out pretty well.

I knew I would have very little time on Saturday so I prepped everything the day before. I put the grass-fed steak in this awesome Zesty Dijon Marinade (I found the recipe here):

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup Dijon mustard (we didn’t have any so I used honey mustard)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp salt

2 garlic cloves

Mix it all together, add the meat, and refrigerate concoction for 3 to 24 hours.

Then I cut up all the potatoes and stored them in a plastic bag for the night.

When Saturday came, I took him pottery painting (haha. more on that later) and then came home and popped the potatoes in the oven with a little salt and pepper (I added some garlic cloves and chopped red pepper at the last minute)

and then threw the steak on my new iron skillet (5 minutes for each side of a 1 inch steak).

And voila! It was pretty delicious. A little overcooked but I’ll get better at the timing thing. Also, it’s important to mention that I completely disregarded my stomach’s dislike of red meat with this recipe. I haven’t been experiencing any negative symptoms from the grass-fed beef so I thought I’d be fine. I think it was the sheer quantity of beef that did me in but my stomach was a little grumbly and stubborn for about 24 hours after this meal. And of course, Mike was fine.

I hope you’re all having wonderful days. It’s not Monday anymore. YAY!

🙂

Thursday Recipe: Spaghetti Squash Bolognese

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Yesterday I forgot to say Happy Halloween, so….HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope you all got lots of awesomely dressed trick-or-treaters. We got one (Darth Vader) and he looked very confused when we gave him dried fruit leathers. Haha.

Also, today I am on my way to my first ever business trip! Me and the three coworkers are headed down to Orlando, FL for 4 days for a conference on health, wellness, and leadership. I’m actually kind of excited 🙂

On a totally different note, here’s the post for today:

This recipe is grain-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free. Sounds disgusting right? WRONG. I had heard rumor of the awesomeness of Spaghetti Squash but this was my first experiment with the pretty yellow gourd. I decided, since it’s already in the name, to make Spaghetti and sub the noodles for squash.

Mike and I were a little wary but jeez it’s good! A little time-consuming because the squash has to be cooked for a while but other than that it’s super easy.

Ingredients (makes 3 servings):

1 spaghetti squash

1 can crushed tomatoes/tomato sauce

1 lb ground beef (grass-fed) or organic ground turkey/chicken

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp butter

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Cut the squash in half and cook at 450°F (230°C)  for 45 minutes. While it’s cooking, simmer the tomato sauce, beef/poultry, and garlic.

When the squash is slightly brown, take it out and go at it with a fork! It’s easier than it looks, I promise.

Mix the noodled squash with the butter, salt, and pepper.

Top with the cooked sauce and enjoy!

It’s a great evening meal because it doesn’t spike your insulin levels like normal pasta does. Keep those sugar and carb levels down before bed!

Smile, it’s almost Friday 🙂

Tuesday Recipe: Halloween Treats?

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Halloween can be a daunting time for us “healthy ones.” Luckily I don’t have to worry about taking kids trick-or-treating this year but a lot of our patients and a lot of my readers do so here’s a quick guide to help limit the sugar in your kids’ systems:

Set an example by handing out “healthy candy.” However, DO NOT be the house on the block that gives out carrots or raisins. Some ideas for treats most kids love:

^Popcorn Balls – you do have to cook for this one but it’s really easy and they’re delicious.

^ Fruit strips – made of dried fruit and a replacement for fruit roll ups, they can be bought at pretty much any grocery store.

^Cocomels – from JJ Sweets, they are healthy and yummy. A bit expensive maybe to give to all the kids but a great idea for your own or even for Christmas gifts.

^ String cheese – what kid doesn’t love string cheese.

^ Natural Gummies – Surf Sweets sells a great version of natural gummy treats in the shape of spiders! But any natural gummi treat will do. I know this was one of my favorites when I scored on these as a kid.

^ Trail Mix – make your own with your choice of almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc. Be sure to throw some chocolate in there (dark is best) so the kids don’t feel like they’re totally deprived!

^Crispy Rice Treats – click the link to find a great recipe from a fellow blogger. However, I highly encourage you to use healthy marshmallows with less sugar and cereal without any kind of ingredient with -ose on the end (ie. fructose, sucrose, etc).

Note: If you’re making the treats yourself, include a note to the kids parent’s of the ingredients so they don’t think it’s spiked.

Now, it’s inevitable that your kids get your hands on a fair amount of candy this time of year but how do you keep them from riding that sugar high for 12 weeks afterwards? I do not have kids so I really have NO IDEA, but I do have a couple of suggestions!

1. Give them a vacation night. Let them eat the candy. Let them work themselves into a sugar-induced coma. But while they’re there, ask them how they are feeling. Make them realize that the candy is making them sluggish, over-full, and cranky with a headache. Don’t harp on them, but for 5 minutes just try to help them realize the effect of the candy.

2. After their coma, give them incentives to “trade” the candy. For every 10 pieces, they don’t have to do their chore for the day. Something like that.

3. Ask them if they’d rather spend some time with you, cooking something else delicious that won’t make them feel like crap. Then proceed to make an awesome, fun desert (like the popcorn balls or crispy rice treats listed above) to make them feel that this is so much better.

Ok those are a few suggestions from a child-less 24 year-old. I hope they help a little bit! And I hope you all have an awesome Halloween!

What will you and/or your kids be dressing up as?

 

Thursday Recipe: Sugar, Gluten, and Dairy Free Chocolate Macaroons

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Macaroons are one of the most deliciously allowable foods for those of us that are gluten, dairy, and sugar challenged. I have yet to really explain to you all why I try to be sugar-free but you’ll just have to trust me on this one, sugar is really not good for you. You can substitute Stevia or Xylitol for sugar but sometimes it can taste a bit wonky. In this recipe, it just works!

So I made these macaroons and they are so flippin’ delicious. There are a few more steps than I’m used to but SO worth the brain power.

Chocolate Covered Macaroons

Cookie Ingredients:

4-5 egg whites

14 oz of unsweetened coconut, shredded

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Xylitol or Stevia to taste

Chocolate Ingredients (this chocolate covering is optional):

3 squares unsweetened chocolate

2 Tbsp coconut oil

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Xylitol or Stevia to taste

Instructions:

^ Beat egg whites until frothy.

^ Stir in coconut, butter, and sweetener.

Roll into tablespoon sized balls and drop onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes. Cool in fridge until firm.

The chocolate is optional but SO good, just do it:

^ Melt chocolate, coconut oil, and butter together. Add sweetener. Dip macaroons in chocolate. Cool on wax paper. Keep refrigerated.

Like an idiot, I got so excited to eat these babies that I didn’t take an after picture. DOH! But you can imagine how pretty AND tasty they were. And so easy to make. Try it, you will amaze yourself.

Does anyone have plans for a nice meal this weekend?

Who are you gonna smile at today?

Recipe Sunday: Healthy Fried Rice

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Hey All. Sorry about the late post but Mike and I have had such a busy and relaxing (awesome combo) kind of day. Earlier this week I tried my own healthy fried rice and it didn’t come out so well. I only post delicious recipes so I retried it last night and it ended up being so good!

Healthy Fried Rice

Ingredients:

brown rice (cooked)

3 or 4 eggs (beaten)

veggies (I used red pepper, spinach, and broccoli)

liquid aminos (the healthy soy sauce, I use Bragg brand)

meat (optional)

little bit of sunflower oil for cooking

Instructions:

^ Saute all the veggies on low heat. If you are using meat, cook with the veggies. When it’s all cooked through, add the beaten eggs. Stir as it cooks to coat everything in egg. When egg is cooked, empty it into a bowl.

^ Add the rice to the empty pan and spray some liquid aminos on there (it has a very salty taste so make sure not to use too much). Just until it has the “fried” brown look. Cook until heated.

Add the veggie/egg/meat and mix it all together. Enjoy!

Ashley life Update: Last week, Mike and I decided that we were starting to settle into a very sedentary life. Unacceptable. So today, our day off together, we went for an awesome pancake breakfast and then to a GIANT antique market about 40 minutes away. We didn’t have long at the market but we saw some really beautiful stuff and I bought a cast iron skillet, yay! I’ve been wanting one for a while because they’re such a healthy, non toxic way to cook and they last forever. Got an 8″ pan for $14 (I’m a great haggler). It was a wonderful day with my man 🙂

 

I hope your Sunday was as great as mine! If not, tomorrow is a new day, so smile 🙂