Seriously Healthy Whole-Wheat Muffins

Being that it was St. Patrick’s Day recently, I had myself some leftover buttermilk from when I made Jodi’s amazing Irish Soda Bread (fail-proof recipe!). What should I do with this extra buttermilk? I could make another loaf of that delicious soda bread or…I could try a new recipe! I wanted it to be healthy and something guilt-free. With my buttermilk-searching glasses on, I scoured through healthy recipes until I found one I wanted to base my recipe on. Luckily, trusty ol’ King Arthur Flour had a great one! I healthified it even more than it already was (I cut the sugar) and whipped it up. These muffins are so good without being sweet and they pack a serious punch of fiber. They are also incredibly easy to make. Major plus! Takes under thirty minutes.

Jul132013

Easy Korean-Style Beef Bowl

If you know us, we love Korean food (as Chris spent a summer in South Korea and consequently fell in love with the culture he had already been into). So when I stumbled upon this fantastic easy (ridiculously easy) recipe by one of my favorite food bloggers, I had to recreate it (altered it slightly)! Mine may not look as pretty, mostly because it was all for Chris so he got the entire beef bowl (4 servings) so that you can’t see the rice (oops!). My version of the recipe has less sugar, less spice (Chris has a Geographic Tongue, so he can’t have spice), and brown rice instead of white. Makes it a little bit healthier, but it was healthy from the start. He had worked a long day at work, and I was taking a rest day on workouts, so I decided to make him something that he would love and fill him up...Korean style!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 3-4 normal people (Chris ate it all)

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame teriyaki sauce
1/4 crushed red-pepper flakes [you can use more if you like spice]
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon oil
1.5 tablespoon garlic, minced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
cooked brown rice

Directions

Mix together the brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame teriyaki sauce, ginger, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes in a small bowl. It’d be best to use a fork or a whisk to really blend everything together.

Leave that to the side. Heat up the oil in a saucepan over medium to high heat. Add the chopped garlic to the oil

Once you get that lovely cooking garlic smell, it’s time to throw the ground beef in. Cook it until it’s browned, breaking it up as you do. Could take 4-8 minutes depending on your stove. While it’s cooking, chop up your green onions.

So purdy

Drain the excess fat (ew). Stir in the magical mixture we created at the start, letting it get to all of the meat and soak up the flavor. Add the green onions as well. By this time, it will be smelling goooood.

And serve over rice! It’s smart to cook it beforehand so it’s ready there waiting for you.

You won’t be able to see the rice in my dish, because it’s smothered by the beef! It was such an easy, quick recipe (perfect for summer days when it’s too hot to cook a lot), I would do it again in a heartbeat. Chris loved it and literally ate the whole pound of ground beef plus the rice. Guess it was alright. Thanks to DamnDelicious for the recipe and use it to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Sajah watching me cook

Jul072013

The Perfect July 4th Treat: Stuffed Strawberries

Now that I think about it, it doesn’t need to be July 4th…it can be any nation’s pride day who has red white and blue. And you aren’t limited just to July 4th either because it’s a healthy and delicious treat! I may have served these on July 5th, but that’s only because we already had rhubarb pies made by my grandma. This special dish involves fruit, dairy, and happiness and doesn’t take longer than 15-20 minutes to make! I got it from here and added a bit of lemon into it and took out some sugar.

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes

Cooking Time: …non-existent

Ingredients

a tin of strawberries (I just usually get the regular pound at the grocery)
a tin of blueberries (same thing)
5 oz marscapone
juice of a lemon
lemon zest
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Wash the fruit and pat dry all of it

Beautiful sight

Take the strawberries and cut the green ends off and also a little portion of the tip so they can stand upright on a platter
Take a melon baller and ball out of the bottom, creating a crevasse.

Once your strawberries are all “pitted” and plated, let’s turn to the filling. Put 5 ounces of marscapone cheese and put it in a small-medium bowl

I would next do the lemon juice. Cut the lemon in half and squeeeeeze all that juice out.
Next, grind the lemon on a grater and get a good amount of zest (people say 1 tsp, but I eyeball it)
Then, throw the powdered sugar and vanilla in and stir! Mix it all up really well

Hard not to eat it all

Now comes the most difficult part: take the marscapone mixture and put it into a re-sealable bag and snip a corner off. Use this contraption to fill the pits in the strawberries up with the mixture

Once all the strawberries are filled to perfection, place the blueberries on top of the cream in the strawberries. And that’s it!

Yum yum yum

This is an easy, healthy treat you can substitute for pie or something else you’d like to stay away from on those holiday food feasts. Fresh fruit and sweet cheese. How could it go wrong? It’s easy to do, pretty to the eye, and delicious enough to impress. Make this recipe if you’re looking to stay hungry and fit!

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Jul012013

Kiwi Recipe: Bubble and Squeak [Leftover Magic]

If you know me, or if you’ve been reading long enough, you’ll know that I’m half-Kiwi (meaning half “New Zealandish”). My mum is from New Zealand and thus I grew up with a lot of different cultural things coming from her. As you know, New Zealand is a part of the Commonwealth, and so it takes things from England and either keeps it the same or changes it. New Zealand, by the way, is the best place ever with the best people ever, and we can’t wait to someday move there (dual-citizenship comes in handy). Alana, what’s this back story for?! It’s for the recipe I’m about to share with you, Bubble & Squeak.

You can read that link if you’d like, but I’ll give you a short description here. Many mornings, if we had leftover mashed potatoes from the night before, mum would make me bubble and squeak. It’s a little different than the one you’ll read about in that link, because my mum would normally just use potatoes (if you have other leftover vegetables like carrots or broccoli, you can use them too). She would put the mashed potatoes into a cast-iron skillet and just continually let them cook, then scrape them, cook them, scrape them. This results in a delicious manner of browned mashed potatoes, as best as I can describe. Once it’s browned all over, you serve it on some toast and pour lemon juice over it. My mouth is watering as I write this and making me miss home! Alright, let’s get down to the details.

Yum, ready to go!

Prep Time: 0-2 minutes
Cooking Time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients

leftover mashed potatoes (or sweet potatoes, that’s what is in these pictures. You could even have boiled taters and mash them for this specific meal if you really want)
toast
lemon

Directions

Take out mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or any leftover vegetables out and mash them into the potatoes

Mashed up white sweet potatoes

You can salt and pepper it if you wish. Now cast-iron is best, but make do with whatever you have. Put that vegetable mix or mashed potatoes into the frying pan. You can put a little oil in if you wish, but really we just want to let it brown and keep scraping it and turning it. So, turn up the heat!

Put on a piece of bread to toast
Once you’ve gotten your mash nice and brown, go ahead and serve right on top of the toast. Drench it with lemon juice (we squeeze lemons on top).
You can cut it in half and eat it like toast or just use a fork and knife

Yum, ready to go!

It is sooooooo good. And it’s such an easy thing to prepare for any meal. The combination of tastes between the lemon and browned mash makes you want more and more. This is something I will continue to use and thank my mum for making it for me during my childhood. This is a sure-fire easy recipe to keep you hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Sajah getting a nice bath

Jun092013

Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner: Tofu Scramble

Now this is another recipe from the great book my lovely client got me: the McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook. It’s full of delicious, healthy recipes that don’t take the whole evening to prepare. My client encouraged me to try the tofu scramble and I finally did. I am very thankful I did so, and I was rewarded by having it for many meals since it makes plenty of servings. This recipe is healthy and easy to make, especially for those who take lunch to work. You can have it any time of the day with anything–toast, eggs, stir fry! It is SUPER easy.

Feel free to spice it up!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 packet firm tofu
1/2 cup water
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1-2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 cup spinach
2 tbsp mustard
1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp paprika

Directions

Put the water in a medium frying pan and turn on heat
Put in the chopped mushrooms and bell pepper

Ready to be cooked!

Once the mushrooms and peppers have been somewhat cooked, throw the spinach in as well. Feel free to season how you’d like

While it continues to cook, take out your tofu and put it in a bowl. Mash it up, reeeal well. Keep going!
Put all your seasonings in with the tofu and mix it around the mash
Add the tofu to the veggies and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until you see fit.

You can serve with potatoes, tacos, eggs–whatever meal it is and whatever you are in the mood for!

I, of course, opted for the tacos

Feel free to spice it up!

It may not be pretty, but it is nutritious and delicious! It’s easy to whip up (I did it after a long workout) and it kept me fed for a few days after I made it! Definitely worth it. There’s so many ways you can change it around. The original recipe calls for onion, but I say whatever vegetables you have in the house, throw them in! This is the perfect recipe to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC