Nut-butter Banana Wrap

Nut-butter Banana Wrap
A recipe really isn't needed for this simple snack.


Instead of using a tortilla, I used swiss chard leaves, smeared them with a tablespoon of almond butter, a drizzle of honey, and wrapped them around half a banana.  The swiss chard leaves don't add much flavor, it's just another sneaky way I like to get in more veggies (and less processed food/carbs).

Turkey Veggie Chili

Sorry there aren't many pictures... forgot to take them while I was making the chili.  

Anthony and I use double the amount of red pepper flakes and throw in some cayenne pepper because we like things spicy.  If you use canned beans, I would suggest not adding any salt until you're ready to eat because we use dried beans in our recipe and don't need any salt.

We usually top off our chili with a little bit of cheese and greek yogurt... totally taste like sour cream and adds a super nice creamy taste to the chili. 

Ingredients:
(this recipe makes about 8 servings)

• 1 tabelspoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1.5 lbs. ground turkey
• 1 can (15 ounce) no salt added diced tomatoes with chilies
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 cup dry kidney beans (or 1 15-ounce can kidney beans)
• 3/4 cup dry black beans (or 1 15-ounce can black beans)
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tabelspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1/2 tablespoon ground pepper
• salt to taste, but I skipped on the salt and you can't tell the difference
• whatever veggies you have lying around that need to be used like TODAY (I rolled with half a zucchini, a hand-full of mushrooms, half a red bell pepper, and about 5 cups of baby spinach all chopped)

1.) If using dried beans, rinse well and soak kidney and black beans overnight.

2.)  In a medium pot, boil enough water  to cook your ground turkey (this is not the 2 cups of water called for in the ingredient list.  After draining out the water you used to boil the ground turkey, you still need to add 2 cups when you combine all ingredients).  Yup, boil it. 

I learned that this is the best way to get ground meat to cook in the smallest pieces as possible... so you have more meat pieces in your chili.   Thank you, Food Network!

3.)  Drain out the water and throw ALL ingredients into a slow cooker (don't forget your 2 cups of water).  Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or cook on high for 4-5 hours.

4.)  That's it!!

Before cooking...

... after cooking.

Nutrition info (will be different if you use canned beans and different veggies) for one serving: 269 cals, 9g fat, 2g saturated fat, 56mg cholesterol, 352mg sodium, 21g carbs, 9g fiber, 22g protein.

Sweet Potato Pie

This recipe came from a website which is quickly becoming one of my favorites: SkinnyTaste.com

Every recipe I've tried from Gina's site (I've made about 6 so far) has turned out supper yummy!  Check it out!

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(source)

For this recipe, I used purple Okinawan sweet potatoes because they are readily available in my grocery store, so don't be thrown off by the purple color of the pies.  You're pies will come out to whatever color potatoes you use.

Ingredients:
(this recipe makes 1 pie, I doubled the recipe in the pictures because I needed to make two pies for Thanksgiving)

• 2 lbs. sweet potatoes
• 2 tbsp butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk (I used almond)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp ground pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and start washing those potatoes.  Once washed, place potatoes in a large pot with water, making sure all potatoes are under the waterline.  Cover the pot and set on high heat to bring water to a roaring boil.  Lower the heat (but keep the water boiling) and boil sweet potatoes until completely cooked (30 - 45 minutes).  A fork comes in hand to poke the potatoes to check for "doneness".

2.)  When potatoes are cooked, run under cold water and let them cool for about 10 - 15 minutes.  Once cool enough to handle, peel and discard the skins off the potatoes, throw naked potatoes into a bowl, and mash them up.   

Note- You will be using a hand mixer to mix the rest of the ingredients together, but it's easier to get out the lumps by now.

3.)  Add butter, sugar, milk, eggs, spices, and vanilla.  Using an electric mixer, mix until smooth.

4.)  Pour mixture into a frozen, unbaked pie crust and spread evenly.

5.) Before putting the pies into the oven, Anthony helped me make a pie shield to protect the crust from burning.  Simply take a piece of foil, trace the BOTTOM (not the top) of a pie dish and lay foil over the crust (like first picture in step 6, below). 

6.)  Bake at 350 degrees for about 55 - 60 minutes.  Remove the pie shields with about 10 - 15 minutes left of baking to brown the crust edges. Use a knife to pierce the middle of the pie to check if completely baked (knife should come out clean).  

7.)  Let the pie(s) cool completely on a cooling rack (about an hour or so) and refrigerate - longer the better - before serving.  ENJOY!

Protein Nut Butter Ball

Protein Peanut Butter Ball

This recipe was originally found on this website but here's my version.  My version is a little too sweet for me so I'm constantly tweaking it till I get the taste and consistency right.  Right now this is my most recent recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1/4 cup nut butter (I had plenty of peanut butter to use but normally I stick with almond butter)
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup agave

Mix all ingredients together.  Scoop out 1-tablespoon size portions and store in the refrigerator for about an hour to set.  THAT'S IT!!  Using the recipe above, it will make about 10 protein balls, or 5 servings.  I always make them in batches of 20 balls or more... the boyfriend and I like them a lot. =)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Drop Cookies

Sorry there aren't many pictures... forgot to take them while I was making them.

Ingredients:
(this recipe makes about 40 1-Tbs. size cookies)

• 1c flour
• 2c quick oats
• 1t baking powder
• 1/2t baking soda
• 1/2t salt
• 1/2t cinnamon
• 2t pumpkin pie spice
• 2T butter, room temperature
• 1/2c white sugar (I used stevia in place of white sugar.  Be sure to use the correct conversion if you decide to go this route)
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 6T pumpkin puree, fresh or canned
• 2t vanilla extract
• 1/2c dark chocolate chips

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.)  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

3.)  In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars.  Beat in egg, pumpkin puree and vanilla.

4.)  Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture, mixing until no flour streaks can be seen.  Stir in chocolate chips.

5.)  Drop dough onto baking sheet in 1T amounts.  This dough doesn't spread out so you can place them fairly close together.

6.)  Bake 12 - 15 minutes or until tops are slightly brown.  Cool on baking sheet 3 - 4 minutes then move cookies to a cooling rack.  Store in an airtight container.

Food porn!

Mini berry panna cotta.

Food porn!

Banana coconut bread

40 garlic chicken

Ingredients:
(makes 6 - 8 servings)

• 40 cloves of garlic, whole
• 3 - 4 lbs. of chicken (any part)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 2 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp salt

1.) Chop onions and place in bottom of crock pot.

2.) Peel garlic (yes, all 40 cloves!) without crushing cloves too much.

3.) In a large bowl, mix together chicken, olive oil, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper.

4.) Pour chicken mixture on top of onions in crock pot and cook on low 6 - 8 hours, or high for 4 - 6 hours.

5.) ENJOY!

Mini-Review
If you love garlic, this recipe is for you! It was really good! I know I used chicken legs (instead of the ever-healthy-constantly-raved-about chicken breast) but I tried this recipe with skinless/boneless breasts before and the chicken came out extremely dry and crumbly. I used chicken drumsticks with the skin ON and it made such a big difference! Chicken came out super moist and falling off the bone! The only negative... I think I cooked it too long because the bones were so brittle, they broke apart if you tried to eat the drumstick with your hands. No biggie.

Will try this recipe again with chicken breast but maybe add a cup of chicken broth to keep things moist.

Pumpkin pie pudding

Now, this recipe uses tofu as one of main ingredients but don't knock it till you try it! I promise with the right tweaking of pumpkin pie spice/cinnamon/sugar, this tastes exactly like pumpkin pie filling! EXACTLY! I didn't include it in the recipe, but I topped my pudding off with vanilla almond crunch granola and it was SOOO yummy!

Ingredients:
(this recipe makes 1 serving)

• 0.5c pumpkin puree
• 0.5c soft silken tofu
• 0.25 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 0.25 tsp cinnamon
• stevia/agave/sugar to taste

1.) Combine all ingredients into a food processor and blend till smooth.


2.) Pour into your container and sprinkle a little more pumpkin spice on top and ENJOY!

Mini-Review
This is so good... I always make it! I'm gonna add in some vanilla protein powder to boost the protein amount but this is good as is! Maybe I'll try chocolate protein too!

Food porn!

 Dynamite roll: shrimp tempura sushi with spicy ahi and a sweet chili sauce on top.

Spicy ahi bowl.

Homemade marinara sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. mushrooms, chopped
• 6 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 onion, half chopped and half diced
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• 3 tbs. Italian seasoning
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste

1.) Add olive oil to large pot set over medium heat. Add diced onions and cook till clear. Add chopped onions and celery to pot and cook for about 6 minutes.

Whenever I make sauces or soups, I dice half the onion and cook that half first.
That way they get REALLY well cooked and pretty much disintegrate into the sauce/soup.
It's a flavor thing.


2.) When onions and celery are cooked through, add chopped mushrooms and cook another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.


3.) Add in the salt, pepper, garlic and Italian seasoning and stir well. Cook till fragrant about 2 minutes.


4.) Add in chopped tomatoes and cook till veggies have released most of their water content. When sauce is liquid, turn up heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let sauce simmer, covered, for about 20 more minutes or until all the tomatoes have cooked down to a sauce consistency.


5.) ENJOY!

Mini-Review
Good but could use a lot more improving. For instance tomato paste would have been good to thicken this up... the sauce came out kinda watery. Little more salt and little less herbs. And throw in some red pepper flakes to kick it up a notch and it would be good to go! I'm gonna try this one again for sure!

Check out how big these mushrooms were!

Sweet and Salty kabocha

Kabocha. I love it! I've eaten it a ton of times but never gave it a thought to prepare on my own. Kabocha is a Japanese squash closely related to the pumpkin and if you didn't know better, you'd think it was a small pumpkin. Taste/texture wise it is just like pumpkin so can easily be substituted in recipes. These recipes (yup - I'm giving out two recipes today!) are not meals, but rather appetizers or side dishes. Both are easy and use very minimal ingredients.

Ingredients:

- 1 kabocha, quartered

- olive oil spray

- salt and pepper

- cinnamon and stevia

1. Being extra careful and using the sharpest knife you have, quarter the kabocha.
2. On two of the quarters (so half of the kabocha) spray with olive oil spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper. On the other half, spray with olive oil.
4. Bake all quarters in a 400 degree oven for 30 - 45 minutes, or until flesh is easily pierced with a fork.
5. After baking, sprinkle cinnamon and stevia on the half of kabocha
that only had the olive oil spray.

6. ENJOY both versions of kabocha with any meal!

Food porn!

Upside-down tomato tart

Pumpkin pie oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashion oats
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 banana, mashed up
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp. stevia/agave (or to taste)
• 2 tsp. maca powder (optional)

1.) Combine milk and oats the night before and store in the refrigerator.

2.) In the morning, microwave oats enough to warm them but they shouldn't need cooking due to the long milk bath. Add all other ingredients to warmed oats.

3.) Mix and enjoy!

Mini-Review
I love pumpkin! And I love oatmeal! So this was super yummy and really convenient if made ahead of time. I usually double the recipe which makes enough oatmeal to last me three to four servings. I think a little more sweetness and pumpkin pie spice would have been perfect!