Chocolate Cake Batter Smoothie (Gluten-Free | Vegan | Soy-Free)

I've always loved smoothies. When I was younger, my friend and I would plan mall dates. This happened mostly during the summer, when our parents were off working and weren't able to take us to and fro all the necessary social spots we wanted to visit. I would spend the night at her house and we would check the Kitsap Transit bus schedule, plan our outfits and make our window-shopping routes (since you know, we were like ten and couldn't afford to buy anything but tasty snacks).

Then, when we were on the bus feeling all grown-up about ourselves, I got to dreaming about my Orange Julius and my friend would dream about her Cinnabon.Why I would pick a smoothie over a cinnamon roll is beyond me, but kids are weird.

The thing about some smoothie things, however, is that they're no good for keeping you full. At least, my stomach isn't having it. It knows that it's just ground up fruit and juice, which is nothing substantial.

At first, I started putting protein powder in the mix, along with peanut butter or Nutella, if I was feeling ultra decadent. Then I realized that if I'm soaking my oats in milk and with chia seeds overnight anyways, I could blend that up into a delicious concoction that was delicious as a smoothie but filling as a well-rounded breakfast ought to be.

Oh She Glows always comes through for me in the vegan department. Her recipes are not only tasty and unique, but they're easy and she's great at explaining the steps.

A friends made this recipe by her, and highly recommended it - which, duh, how could it be wrong with so many key words in the title?

I'm pleased to say, it hit the spot. The sweet, savory spot. For 4 hours, until I wanted another.

Chocolate Cake Batter Smoothie (Gluten-Free | Vegan | Soy-Free)
adapted from Oh She Glows

1 cup almond milk
1/3 cups oats
1 T chia seeds
1 frozen banana
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 t cocoa powder or hot chocolate powder
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 ice cubes
1 tbsp chocolate chips

1. In a small bowl, mix the almond milk, oats and chia seeds. Place in fridge and let it soak for at least 1 hour to soften - I prefer to do it overnight for a fast breakfast.

2. After soaking, add to blender along with the rest of the ingredients (except chocolate) blend on high speed until smooth. Add chocolate chips and blend on low until chunky.

Pumpkin Spice Protein Balls (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Soy-Free)

With daylight savings time in the mix these days, I've been able to go running in the mornings again. I realize this might sound like crazy talk, but I am a morning person to the extreme. It's my time of the day. It's when I'm most productive, positive and energetic and generally just feel like super-woman.

Fast forward to noon and then this is me. At least my days are very balanced, right?

The one downfall about going running in the morning is that I'm a breakfast girl. However, I'm pretty certain it's common enough knowledge that one is not supposed to eat a large amount of food (which is what I would prefer) before partaking in physical activity. So I eat these balls:

These guys are packed with protein and nutrients the body needs, but they don't weigh me down when I'm out running amok. One keeps my appetite at bay for about 5 miles, and then I need to stop and have a real meal before a mental hangry breakdown erupts.

You're probably wondering what the heezy is covering the outside of these suckers - chia seeds. Yes, you can grow a bushy animal out of these but more importantly they pack protein, calcium, fiber and heart-healthy fat into your diet. These are a dream for vegetarians, given that they are a complete protein and you don't need to combine them with other food to get all the essential nutrients. Feel free to read more about them here.

One way I enjoy these little seeds is to soak them with oats and milk overnight in the fridge, so that I have a creamy, pudding-like breakfast the next morning. It tastes like dessert, but it's not. I'll give you a recipe for that in a couple days!

Anyway, I hope I provided a little bit more insight into how us vegetarians, athletes or not, get our protein. I get my chia seeds in the bulk bin at WinCo, but I've seen them at pretty much every grocery store lately. They've received a lot of positive publicity these days, and rightfully so!

Pumpkin Spice Protein Balls (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Soy-Free)
Adapted from Beth
Makes 10 balls

1/4 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup oats
2 tablespoons shredded coconut
8 dried dates, pitted
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons pumpkin purée (I used canned)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of ground cloves
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
roughly 1/4 cup chia seeds

1. Add the oats, walnuts and coconut to a food processor and blend until fairly ground. Remove and set aside until later.

2. In the now-empty food processor, process the dates until a thick paste forms. If your dates are really dry, feel free to add a tablespoon of water to thin it out a little.

3. To the dates, add in the peanut butter, pumpkin, spices, salt and vanilla and process a bit until thick and blended together.

4. Add in the processed oats, walnuts and coconut to the mix and blend all together until a ball seems to form in the processor. If it doesn't get this thick, add in more oats or walnuts to thicken it up a little.

5. Take the blade out of the processor and roll the dough into balls as big as you would like. Mine were about 1.5" in diameter. Roll into the chia seeds and then place them in a tupperware or on a plate. Store in the fridge!

Source: No-Bake Pumpkin Spice Cookie Balls (Gluten-Free, Vegan + Sugar-Free) | Free People Blog http://blog.freepeople.com/2012/10/nobake-pumpkin-spice-cookie-balls/#ixzz2C3CoNQDA

Healthy & Cheap Egg McMuffins

Uhhh, yeah. Welcome to my Saturday morning. This was the kind of breakfast that I was literally drooling over as I took this picture. It was painful and embarrassing how much I was withering inside as I took this picture because it was 3 additional seconds that I couldn't eat this.

I've always deeply loved McDonald's Egg McMuffins. My favorite part? The egg. Weird, I know. I've always wondered how they got it to be so perfectly round and soft, with the yoke still semi-in tact.

Then when I got to thinking too hard about the egg perfection I had to tell myself to stop, because really, it's a fast food place, and how right can that be?

 

This morning, ladies and gentlemen, I nailed the egg. As in, I made a perfectly round, soft,scrumptious egg. In the oven. I actually made 6 of the buggers, and could have eaten every last one on the spot if I didn't know I had to put it onto a sandwich.

The recipe states that you should use a jumbo muffin tin, which I had on hand. If you don't, you can use ramekins or another round oven-proof dish. The main goal here is to get your baked egg the appropriate size so it fits on the sandwich. I could have probably made my eggs a little bit flatter, so a wider dish might work better.



What ignited this McMuffin-making endeavor was this post that I found via Iowa Girl Eats. I love this idea, because not only are they super cheap to make (I calculated it to be around 92 CENTS per 'wich), you can make them however you want to according to your taste buds. Plus, there is the added benefit that you can grab one and go on busy mornings, only taking time to microwave it.

I used whole-wheat English muffins, but Udi's gluten-free bread (or any gluten-free bread, really) would work great since the size is similar to that of a smaller muffin. For my protein, I used Morning Star Soy-Based Bacon, and then threw on some cheddar cheese. This morning was special (you know, to celebrate my baking-of-the-eggs) which meant pesto and tomatoes were added to the mix. You really can't go wrong.

I'm pumped to make more varieties, not to mention more baked eggs (!!!). I can foresee this being a long-term relationship.

DIY Egg McMuffins
Adapted from The Yummy Life
Makes 6 sandwiches

You need:
12 slices of smaller-sized bread, or 6 English muffins
6 eggs
cheddar cheese
meat of choice - I used Morning Star Bacon


How you do:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease your jumbo muffin tin or ramekins.

2. Crack an egg into each tin or ramekins and lightly break the yoke so it spreads a little. Add some ground pepper and/or garlic salt if you desire. I definitely desired.

3. When the oven has preheated, bake the eggs for about 25 minutes, until baked through and slightly browned at the edges.

4. While the eggs are baking, prepare the rest of your ingredients. Slice the cheese, prepare your protein, and toast the bread if you're into that kind of thing. I didn't add any condiments to the sandwiches that I was going to save for later, since I figure I will just do that when I am ready to eat them.

5. When the eggs are done, use a knife to gently scrap them from the muffin tin or ramekin. I assembled my sandwiches by adding the cheese first, then the facon, and lastly the egg. For those that you are freezing or refrigerating for later eats, wrap them in wax paper and then covered in a baggie.

*I have not yet tried re-heating these, but according to the original poster, you microwave thawed ones for a minute and frozen for 3 minutes.

Yes. Future presents to myself.

Vegetable Red Curry (Gluten-Free)

Some nights call for quick dinners. You know the ones - you have to be here and then there and don't forget to stop by that store that's on the way to this place. Or the ones when you get home from work famished and are tempted to eat the whole jar of peanut butter.

(Unless there's chocolate involved and you decide to jump straight to dessert, I don't advise the peanut butter option.)

It's always nice to have quick dinner fixing ideas on hand for those crazy nights (anyone else say that in their head in an Adam Sandler voice?).

Here are my all-stars: tomato sauce and pasta, instant soups, teriyaki mixes, aaaaaaanddd:

Curry sauce, courtesy of Trader Joe's. I feel slightly ridiculous posting a recipe for this, but I also feel that I owe it to you since we have this at least twice a month, with the contents rotating around seasonal produce.

From mangoes to sweet potatoes, the produce that you can throw in this dish is widely varied, making it a great dinner to save anything that is crying out on its last days.

While I mainly use Trader Joe's curry sauce since it only requires the one jar, I've also used curry paste mixed with coconut milk and a little fish sauce. However, since it's rare that I'm on top of my game enough to have all 3 of those ingredients on hand, the one jar suits me just fine.

Aside from the flavor, the best part of this recipe is that it comes together in 30 minutes, 15 if you already have the rice made and vegetables chopped. 

Quick and Easy Vegetable Red Curry (Gluten-Free)

1.5 cups cooked brown rice
1 small white onion, sliced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 bunch of rainbow chard, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 can diced organic tomatoes 
1/2 yellow squash, diced
1 head broccoli, chopped into florets
1 mango, diced
1 cup red kidney beans
11 oz jar of Trader Joe's Red Curry Sauce 
about 8 basil leaves

1. Make your rice if you haven't already done so. White rice works great if that's all you have on hand.

2. In a medium skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat; add in the onion and garlic and saute for about 2 minutes until soft.

3. Add in the tomatoes (with juice), chard, squash and broccoli with 1/4 cup cold water; mix together and put some tinfoil or the wok lid on for about 5-6 minutes while the vegetables cook down.

4. Add the mango, kidney beans, curry sauce, and basil and heat through for another 3 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.

5. Spoon some rice into a bowl and ladle on the curry vegetables.

Frozen Banana Bites (Gluten-Free | Vegan)

Most days, I leave work feeling not hungry, not full, and simply content. Just being. It's great.


Until I get on the ferry and an hour goes by and I'm staring at that woman's McDonald's bag wondering whytheheckisn'thereaMcDonaldsontheferryandwhydon'ttheymaketofuburgers?!

 It's ridiculous. I'm fully aware that there are too many people starving in this world as it is, and yet I'm hangry to the verge of tears because I haven't eaten since lunch. Then I get mad at myself and mad at my stomach and then just plain mad at the world for being so cruel and MAN, I am in a great mood when my husband finally receives me through the front door.

Which is when I go straight to the freezer and grab myself one of these puppies. I can almost feel my blood sugar evening out, the birds start chirping and rainbows popping out of my ears.

These truly are a great snack, given the carb : protein ratio. I love them for the times mentioned above, which is also right before I go on a run. They fuel my body for another hour before I start dinner, and keep my cravings of wanting to eat all the dinner ingredients while they're being prepared at bay.

These balls are good balls.

Frozen Banana Bites
Adapted from Oh She Glows

1 large banana
1 t cocoa powder
2 T peanut butter
1 T honey (or maple syrup)
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup crisp rice cereal
1/4 cup shredded coconut


1. Mash the banana in a medium bowl.

2. Add in the cocoa powder, peanut butter and honey and mix until fully combined.

3. Stir in the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly - the mix will be loose and wet.

4. Using a spoon, scoop and drop tablespoons of the mixture onto a baking dish. Mine were about 3 tablespoons big and made 6. (no need to spray). Stick balls in the freezer until frozen, then eat one (batch) and place leftovers in a baggies for the next time you crave a tofu burger at McDonald's. Weird.

Creamy Veggie Pasta, Gluten-Free, Soy-Free

Yes, another pasta recipe. I can't stay away! And this one was special, because I got it from my mama, and she said it was good, and so it needed to be created in my kitchen.

No one should shake off what their mama says (only shake what their mama gave them).

 As you can see on the recipe below, this originated as Pasta Carbonara from Real Simple. Then I realized that if you take away the ingredient that makes it carbonara, it turns into a detectably creamy base for whatever you want to it. (For all you bacon-lovers, feel free to add it in. I'm sure you can't go wrong.)

 If you look at its heart, this pasta is one you would rather eat in chilly December. However, check out its spring outfit! Tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, with watermelon as an appetizer. Total warm weather eats.

I've never been into creamy, Alfredo-esque pastas, mainly because I like the zing and fresh flavor of marinara sauces. Given this, I added some garlic salt and pepper to my serving of this while my husband added Frank's (Yes, the hot sauce. It goes on everything, really). My mom said she added some leftover pesto sauce to hers, which sounds am-AY-zing. However, if you're someone who enjoys the creamy, comforting taste of cheesy sauces, I would think you might not need to add any extra flavor.

So check it out - dress it up, leave it naked, throw some watermelon in the mix. Let me know what you end up doing with it, I would love to try it in different ways!

OH, and did I mention this is super quick and easy to throw together? Yeah, like you can have this on the table in a matter of 15 minutes. Hi, wild weeknight dinner.

(mom's perdy handwriting)

A few notes:

1. Instead of peas, I added broccoli, spinach and tomatoes to my recipe: frozen broccoli went in with the pasta for the last 2 minutes of its cooking time, and then I stirred in the tomatoes and spinach when I added in the sauce and pasta water at the very end.

2. You'll see in the recipe that my mom used evaporated milk instead of half-and-half, which is the same route I went. It eliminated some fat, while maintaining the velvety base.

3. I omitted the olive oil completely, and the texture still turned out great.

Breakfast Quinoa Cups

Have you jumped on the quinoa train yet? I feel like everywhere I turn, there's someone else discussing the bounty and glory that all this complete-protein crop has to offer. I hear about it as often as I do kale, as if they are cahoots. Married. Quinoa and kale, forever and always.

It's great for vegetarians! It contains essential amino-acids! It will teleport you to Bermuda at first bite! Yeah, all it's benefits can get a little exhausting. Especially if you're type A and need more than a moments notice to travel to a foreign destination.

However, we can't kid ourselves. Quinoa is GOOD. As in, tasty good. And it plays well with others, like cinnamon, berries, and coconut. Making it a completely fantastic breakfast idea.

I've played around with quinoa cups before, but it's always been the savory kind for dinner. These buggers are super quick and easy to make, which makes them ideal for rushed mornings or frantic evenings. And really, you can add whatever you have on hand. For these, I used cottage cheese since I couldn't jive with cheddar. I'm sure goat cheese would be phenomenal, or ricotta.

 Breakfast Quinoa Cups
Makes 12 cups

Ingredients
3/4 cup dry quinoa
1 t cinnamon
4 beaten eggs
1/2 cup shredded pear
3 ounces of your favorite cheese
1/4 cup silvered almonds
1/4 cup dried coconut
2 T brown sugar
1/2 cup frozen berries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin tin.

2.  Measure out 3/4 cup quinoa and the cinnamon in a medium pot; fill with 2 cups water, cover, and bring to a boil on the stove. Once it boils, lower the heat to medium and let simmer until all the water has been absorbed by the quinoa.

3. While your quinoa cooks, combine the beaten eggs, pear, cheese, almonds, coconut and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add in the quinoa when it's done. The mixture wild be slightly soupy.

4. Ladle equal portions into the greased muffin tin, filling all 12 holders. Place a few berries on top of each cup and bake for about 20 minutes, or until they are slightly browned and firm to the touch.

5. Cool for 5 minutes before eating. If you can.

Itza Pizza!

 

That's right - deep breath, inhale, ahhhh. 

And yes, there is over 3 different kinds of tomatoes laid out on that pan of glory: jarred (spaghetti sauce), sun-dried, and fresh. Pizza is something my gluten-free main squeeze digs (who doesn't?), and the dish he misses most frequently. I had another pizza crust recipe in mind that requires almond flour, which unfortunately is sold too far away for me to go fetch. So I, knee-deep in a weeknight  pizza-crazed state, pulled out my long-lost Gluten-Free Vegetarian cookbook, and crossed my fingers it had some answers for me.

Then, page 83 came into my life and spot on - cornmeal pizza crust! This can actually be the bottom layer for anything you wish a nice, sturdy foundation on. It came together in about 30 minutes which makes it not only a great idea in general, but especially when you're low on time or near starving. 

 

Caprese Pizza with Cornmeal Crust

The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen

Makes 1  large rectangle pizza

Cornmeal Crust

2 cups course-ground yellow cornmeal

1 cup cold water

1 cup boiling water

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

salt and pepper

Toppings

1/2 cup prepared pasta sauce (we used spicy tomato)

sun-dried tomatoes

1 large, ripe tomato

7 basil leaves

1/2 sliced white onion

1 tablespoon minced garlic

more mozzarella cheese

How You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees; lightly spray your baking sheet with oil.

2. In a large boil, mix together cornmeal and the cold water; slowly add in boiling water and whisk together for 3 minutes until it's cooled a little. 

3. Add in eggs, mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper; combine well.

4. Spread the cornmeal mixture into your baking pan and distribute evenly, smoothing out with a spatula; bake in the enter of the oven for about 10 minutes. (It's super fun once you start to see the bubbles start popping up!)

5. While the crust is cooking, get a saute pan heating up over medium heat with garlic, onion, and a little olive oil; saute it all together until cooked (you could even caramelize the onions here if you want - just cook the onions first and add in the garlic the last few minutes.)

6. Spread the pasta sauce over the crust and continue to layer on your tomatoes, basil, onion and garlic mixture and cheese; bake in the oven until cheese has melted and the pizza is bubblin'.