Roasted Butternut Squash & Arugula Salad
LITTLE EFFORT, BIG IMPACT. That's how I'm living. I almost typed livin' but I don't know if I'm that cool.
Maybe I am. I dunno.
I've got a lot on my plate these days and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm working, podcasting, organizing, mom-ing, wife-ing, cooking, making...In other words, there are a lot of ings in my life right now. The most important ing in my life has been and will ALWAYS be eating. You could have guessed as much.
Since I'm a busy lady with a love for new dishes, most of the recipes I've been clipping out have been simple and short. A lot of them require mostly pantry staples with a few fresh produce elements thrown into the mix. This one does just that! I had everything in my kitchen except arugula & apple cider.
Aaaaaand wouldn't you know that with all the my grocery planning, I totally forgot to pick up the apple cider! It was probably those 3 unplanned minutes spent in front of the kombucha shelf figuring out what flavors to get. Guava? Mango? Passionberry? Oooh Strawberry! Tough decisions. When I got home, I made the executive decision to add the orange juice I already had in my fridge to the warm vinaigrette and it worked like a charm!
This salad has all my favorite things:
Toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, Parmesan, arugula & roasted butternut squash.
Loving. Can we make that the new WINNING? Please?
Sushi Roll Edamame Salad
You guys! I'm going through some SERIOUS Oprah withdrawals. It's really bad. Last week I had a crazy dream where I was trying to find a pair of sunglasses and all of a sudden I was in Walmart and Oprah (who was wearing FLIP FLOPS!) handed me a pair. I woke up before I could hear her sweet voice. Sigh. THEN yesterday while I was driving to work, I pulled up at a stop light and a shiny black suburban passed by. OMG it was Oprah driving the car. Well...not really. It was a woman that looked just like her.
While figuring out what to type in this paragraph, I did a google search for "Oprah Vegan" because I remembered the show where she went vegan for a week with all of her staffers and LOOK! that post was a year ago! WHAT WHAT?! I think this means we're destined to meet. Or if not, maybe someone who knows her really well could get her drunk on Moscow Mules and have her call my voicemail? All I want her to say is TRACY SHUTTERBEAN in her voice. It would seriously make my decade.
I wonder if Oprah would like this salad? I'm pretty sure she would. Besides the base of romaine lettuce, there's a bit of brown rice, avocado chunks, cucumber, nori shreds, edamame, carrots & sesame seeds. It's hearty yet light! I bet she'd ask for more green onion miso dressing. Of course she'd ask for more dressing! That dressing IS SO DANG GOOD.
Without further adieu...
SUSHI ROLL EDAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME SAAAAAAAALAD FOR EVERYONE!
Did I tell you that Cooper can do the Oprah voice now? It's glorious.
1000 Seed Banana Date Muffins
Random thoughts going through my head:
Do you think that someone actually counted out a thousand seeds in this recipe? At what point did they get interrupted by a 3 year old and lose count? My guess is 33. Do you think it's a thousand seeds per muffin or per batch? If I walked over to the mirror right now, how many seeds would be stuck in my front teeth? Who would be the first person to tell me about that poppy seed stuck near my canine? Why is the term muffin top so good yet so frightening? Why can I not resist a bread product covered in seeds?
Do you think there's a thousand specks of glitter in my nail polish? I put on three coats...
Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds and sesame seeds make up that seeded muffin top. I told you they were seedy! They're super healthy (almost NO oil!) and packed with a fun ingredients including yogurt, bananas, whole wheat flour, ground flaxseed, whipped eggs whites and pureed dates! If you're planning on eating one before you leave the house, check your grill in the mirror! It's totally seed central.
Raw Chocolate Milk
Brace yourselves. Your minds are about to be blown. You ready? You braced? Good.
What if I was to tell you that you can easily make chocolate milk that tastes like a frothy chocolate malt without using malt or dairy?
(Omg. This is starting to sound like an infomercial! Crap! I need a big screen projector behind me!)
Well, YOU CAN. You can make delicious chocolate milk with your blender!
(this is not an infomercial for a Vitamix cuz I don't have one. I want one though! Like really really bad.)
So this is raw chocolate milk. What makes it raw? So glad you asked! It's made with cashews that have been soaked in water! There's also cocoa nibs up in this mix which makes things extra fancy in my book. Looking to make plain vanilla cashew milk? Just omit the cocoa nibs and reduce the agave syrup. This recipe is a game changer & approved by my picky 3 year old. Winning!
Apricot Coconut Energy Bars
APRICOT COCONUT ENERGY BARS:
Tangy, sweet, crunchy, chewy, delicious, healthy, raw, nutty, vegan, scrumptious, simple, homemade.
All you need is a few pantry items, a food processor and a bit of freezer time and you've got yourself a week's worth of healthy snacks.
Who needs to buy expensive energy bars when you can make your own?
Sorry energy bar companies, I totally sold you out.
Banana Nut Waffles
I make a lot of vegan recipes, yet I'm not vegan. Why? I think it's because I liked to be surprised by food. I love when a few ingredients can come together and taste almost identical to what it's like in its original form- kinda like this coleslaw that used cashews in place of mayo. It's pretty cool when things taste like other things like this Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Salad that tasted like pizza! I also get pretty excited when I find a recipe that pleases the guys in my life like this Kale Coconut Salad with Sesame Oil. I've made that recipe at least 5 times since then.
What I hoped to get out of this recipe was a batch of healthier waffles using what I had in my pantry; I almost always jump at a recipe if I've got all the ingredients. What I didn't realize is that I'd get a batch of waffles that tasted like banana bread. Being a lover of banana bread, I was thrilled.
While I could only eat one for breakfast, Cooper ate two. Future professional food eating champ? We'll see...
Kale Slaw with Red Cabbage & Carrots
I've spent the past 48 hours feeling like I've been rocking back and forth (spending 7 days on a cruise ship can do that to you!). Everything right now is a bit off kilter because in the past week, time zones were crossed, climates changed, calendar days were disregarded, and I did something I never thought was possible- I spent a whole week without using my cellphone (OMG!). Instead of tackling the laundry, emptying suitcases and sorting through the mail when we got home Monday, I immediately went grocery shopping to get provisions for the week. I figured the only way to feel like normal again at home was to get back to work in my kitchen and binge on kale.
When I was eating lifeless romaine salad with extremely unripe yet mushy tomatoes on the boat (not all the food was dreadful!), I daydreamed of crispy kale salads with toasted coconut. Spending a week without kale was absolute torture and when I was standing in my kitchen swaying from side to side chopping kale, I vowed never to let that many days go by without my leafy green security blanket.
The crispy crunchy kale & cabbage shreds tasted amazing with the roasted cashew pieces and hemp seeds. The apple added a nice sweetness too! What you have here is a gigantic plate of HEALTH! I think the slaw could have potentially erased all of those chocolate dipped mickey mouse ice cream bars I ate. Who am I kidding? What I actually need is some serious Mousercise. For reals.
Kale Salad w/ Coconut & Sesame Oil
While everyone was reheating their leftover Thanksgiving dinner Friday night, I rushed out to the grocery store (which was nice & empty BTW) to fill up my cart up with vegetables to juice and kale to inhale. It seems that last week I ate like my life depended on it; it's the holidays!
Saturday morning I woke up and juiced, went for a walk, cleaned house, worked in the kitchen, decorated our house for Christmas, drank water like a fish, juiced again and made this amazing kale salad for dinner.
One of the reasons I picked this recipe from the Super Natural Every Day Cookbook was that it looked extremely healthy, yet filling. I also thought it would help get my taste buds in check since they were accepting nothing but pumpkin pie and my mom's stuffing for 24 hours straight. I found myself scarfing down the salad, but it wasn't because I was super hungry. The toasted coconut and the crispy kale coated in olive oil, sesame oil and shoyu created a buttery/salty/ crunchy effect that I like to call instant crack! It's a delightful thing when "health food" becomes addictive, isn't it?
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