Grilled Endive

En-what?!

That’s right- endive. I’d seen these weird torpedo shaped leafy veggie in the grocery store but had never tasted one or knew how to cook… But that didn’t stop me from picking a couple up!

Searching around online, I found a ridiculously simple recipe! Like, stupid simple!

INGREDIENTS:

1-2 endive (1/2 or 1 per person)
Oil

DIRECTIONS:

Cut endive in half length wise. Cut V out of core but not wide enough to separate leaves.

Lightly brush with oil (I use coconut oil) and place oil side down on warm grill. Brush other side with oil and close lid of grill. Leave on grill for 5-7 min. Flip when grill marks appear on endive and start to soften.

Enjoy as a side!

Asian Slaw with Ginger Peanut Dressing

I’ve never (EVER!) been one for coleslaw… but when I saw this recipe, I couldn’t help but think it sounded amazing! Since I needed to go to the grocery store that morning, I picked up the ingredients I needed- shockingly, I had quite a few of them!

Have a look at the original recipe- it’s beautifully photographed with virtually step-by-step pics! I did make a few changes to the recipe (which are noted below) namely in the type of oil and I used tahini paste instead of peanut butter- which I refuse to keep in the house!

Servings: 6 as a side dish

Ingredients

For the Dressing

• 1/4 cup honey (or other liquid sweetener to make it Vegan)
• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Braggs soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon tahini paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Frank’s hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 large garlic clove, minced

For the Slaw

• 4 cups prepared shredded coleslaw
• 2 carrots, shredded (about 2 cups)
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
• 2 green onions, finely sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts (or you can leave them whole)
• 1/2 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. Make the dressing by combining all of the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir until the tahini paste is dissolved. Set aside.
2. Combine all of the slaw ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss well. Let sit at least ten minutes so vegetables have a chance to soak up the dressing. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary (I usually add a bit more salt.) Serve cold.

Nutritional Value per serving:

• Calories: 258
• Fat: 18 g
• Carbs: 22 g
• Sugar: 14 g
• Protein: 5 g

Zucchini Carrot Slaw

Back at the beginning of summer I was trying to decide which “eating discipline” I wanted to try… Or try again as in this case! My curiosity was between Paleo and Vegan (again) though, this time, specifically Raw… or as much as possible…

I’ve seriously been thinking about Vegan… again! But before taking the plunge, I figured I would play with new recipes! And the good part is that, for the most part, I can have it on the side as I continue trying Paleo!

This recipe does fall under both! And made up… kind of a couple recipes mashed together.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Carrot
1/2 Zucchini
1 1/2 Tbsp guacamole (or avocado)
1 Tbsp Veganaise
Lemon Juice
Flax Seeds

DIRECTIONS:

Using a potato peeler or julienne peeler, shave the carrot and zucchini into about 4 inch strips long and 1/4″ wide. Kinda like fettuchini! Place in large bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the guacamole, Veganaise, and lemon juice. Stir until well combined.

Pour over zucchini/carrot and stir until evenly coated. Sprinkle with flax seeds.

I usually have guacamole in the house which is why I used that instead of a slice of avocado… either, I’m certain, would work fine!

I recently tried Veganaise instead of Mayonnaise as I saw a show that was doing a blind taste test and it was liked the most of 5 different brands of mayo type dressings. I’m certain regular mayo, or even Greek Yogurt would work equally as well.

Watermelon cucumber salad

I always forget about this salad but it’s a regular at my father in laws house in the summer time. It’s PERFECT for the hot weather- super easy to throw together and absolutely refreshing!

The ingredients might be odd- I know the first time I had it, my first reaction was “HOW can that possibly be good?!” and then “that’s it?!”… The flavors work perfectly well together and it’s SO easy to prepare!

INGREDIENTS:

Watermelon
Cucumber
Feta Cheese
Fresh cracked Pepper

Dice watermelon and cucumber, combine in bowl. Crumble feta cheese, top with fresh ground pepper and mix together.

Like I said: SUPER easy to make! And the ratio of the ingredients can easily be adjusted to personal tastes!

Paleo Pizza Crust

I have to admit… I can’t believe this worked! As my husband would say, “Sometimes your recipes don’t turn out” but I thought I would give it a try… plus he wasn’t home to criticize my efforts… or go hungry… considering the HORRIBLE result of the cauliflower pizza crust, I decided to use the paleo hummus I made the other day, which, incidentally, IS cauliflower!- add some tapioca flour, and see if I could get it to work and have pizza for lunch…

Not bad! I have to wonder how it would have turned out minus the tapioca flour!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 Cup Paleo Hummus
• 1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400′
2. Mix the two thoroughly and roll out onto parchment paper or non stick pan.
3. Allow to cook in preheated oven until golden around edges.
4. Remove from oven, add toppings of choice, and place back in oven and cook until crust is desired done-ness.

NUTRITIONAL INFO (NOT including toppings!!!)

• Calories 465
• Fat 23 g
• Carbs 38 g
• Fiber 6 g
• Sugar 3 g
• Protein 7 g

When I initially pulled the pizza out of the oven, the crust wasn’t quite done, so as I was eating half, I put the other half back into the oven to cook more and came out much better.

Eat it as a meal or split it with someone as an appy!

Sweet PoPALEO loaf

I have to admit, I was crushed when I found out lentils are “black listed” in the Paleo lifestyle… I loved my Lentil Walnut Loaf! So I decided I wanted to keep it, but modify it to have it be Paleo friendly… so out goes the lentils and bread crumbs and in goes sweet potatoes and almond meal.

I don’t know if I quite like it as much, but it’s still good!

So here’s the changes I made (in red):

;

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked and lightly mashed sweet potato (about 1 large)
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 cup almond meal
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• for topping—
• 2 tbsp ketchup or BBQ sauce
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup or Honey
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

6 Servings

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cook sweet potatoes as desired. I diced small (with skin) and boiled until soft. Drain and slightly mash so there’s still chunks of sweet potato.

While sweet potato is cooking, prepare your veggies. Chop the onion, grate the carrot and dice the celery. Saute the onion and celery in the olive oil over medium high heat for six minutes, or until tender, not caramelized. Add the garlic and carrot and cook for about another four minutes.

Toast the walnuts in the oven for six to seven minutes. Add them to the onion/carrot/garlic mixture on the stove and stir well.

Add the oregano, chili flackes, salt and pepper as well and then take the mixture off the stove and transfer to a large bowl.

Add the almond meal, egg white and cooked sweet potato and toss well. Press mixture into a parchment paper lined loaf pan and set aside while you make the topping.

In another small bowl combine the ketchup, maple syrup and vinegar. Spread on top of loaf. Bake for 40 minutes, allow to cool and then lift out of pan and cool on a plate.

NUTRITIONAL INFO Per Serving

• Calories 306
• Fat 15 g
• Carbs 37 g
• Fiber 5 g
• Sugar 12 g
• Protein 7 g

Paleo Pizza Shell

Some of you may be thinking “What the heck is Paleo?”… and since so many others have already answered that, I’m not going to go into detail- if you’re curious, try:

• Nerd Fitness (highly entertaining and simple to understand!)
• Robb Wolf , or
• Fitbomb…. or any number of other sites out there explaining it!

Basicly, no wheat, grains, beans, legumes- no bread, pasta, rice, quinoa, peas, peanuts. Nothing (overly) processed. No sugar- unless it’s fruit, but even that’s minimal. Dairy is a grey area.

One of my clients commented that she was going to try (pretty much) a Paleo diet, but more out of health issues that have not been resolved by conventional means for over 5 years. Someone suggested to her about trying it (as Paleo cuts out a lot of aggrivants) She mentioned she was going to look in my recipe blog for Paleo friendly recipes. I just laughed knowing there wouldn’t be much… though substituting almond/coconut/tapioca flour for any wheat flour is easy enough!

Anyhow, I realized Paleo diet is quite similar to my pre-competition diet (with a bit more freedom!) so I decided to give it a try as well! I’ve been feeling the need for more structure and this will give me good guidelines! I started looking for recipes and I found this great site with this recipe for a Pizza shell- I’m always game for PIZZA!

(though I didn’t manage to stick to the “no dairy”… but Saturday’s my treat day, anyhow!)

4 Servings

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cups flaxseed meal
• 1 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp natural baking powder
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 tsp Italian mixed dried herbs
• 3 large eggs, beaten until smooth
• 3 Tbs coconut oil, melted
• ½ cup water
• toppings of choice

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 425° F.
2. Combine flaxseed meal, almond meal, sea salt, baking powder and Italian herbs together until lump-free.
3. Beat together eggs, oil, honey and water until smooth.
4. Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture. Blend well until smooth.
5. Press into desired shape.
6. Place on a pre-greased or non-stick pizza pan or sit on a silicon baking mat.
7. Bake for 15 minutes in the center of the oven until cooked.
8. Add favorite toppings and then return to the oven to bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Nutritional Information (per serving)

• Calories 587
• Fat 37 g
• Carbs 44 g
• Fiber 34 g
• Sugar 9 g
• Protein 17 g

Keep in mind this does NOT include any toppings!!! And it’s 4 servings! My hubby and I split this pizza- even I’m thinking “Wow! I’m impressed I ate anything the rest of the day!” That’s a whole lot of… everything!

Don’t make this to “try something new” if you’re expecting anything remotely close to a regular pizza crust! If you’re looking at making some dietary changes, then expect a completely different taste and texture- but it’s not unpleasant or unenjoyable… it’s just… different!

 

Eazie Peazie Tomato Soup

I don’t like tomato soup. It’s a known fact. I hate it. Never liked it. Never will!

Or will I?!

A couple years ago I was at a ladies retreat and one lunch the chef served us soup. I took a taste of it and it was fantastic! I asked what it was- roasted bell pepper? Nope…

Tomato!

But I don’t like tomato soup!

She proved me wrong on a few things- the tomato soup and cheesecake! I guess if it’s made from scratch, it’s a wee bit different that something mass produced!

I kept in contact with her and she gave me the recipe and I was dumbfounded at how retardedly simple the soup was!


INGREDIENTS:

• 3 small yellow onions, peeled and roughly diced
• 6 cloves garlic (or to taste)
• 2 – 28 fl oz cans of stewed tomatoes
• 1 cup 1/2 and 1/2
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pot and sautee the onion and garlic for several minutes until it becomes transluscent and fragrant.

Add the stewed tomatoes and let simmer for a few minutes. Add the half and half and cilantro and using a hand held mixture blend until the soup is creamy and a desired texture.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with extra cilantro if desired.

NUTRITIONAL INFO (7 – 1+ cup servings)

• calories 124
• fat 4 g
• carbs 20 g
• fiber 4 g
• sugar 10 g
• protein 3 g

I made this to add to my lunch, so adjust the serving sizes accordingly.<;br

Curried Chicken Salad

I’ve never been one for sandwiches, but every now and then I like to sink my teeth into a loaded veggie, meat and creamy sauced sangie or wrap. The problem with sandwiches is if you actually pay attention to serving size, most are only one slice of bread. Well, what’s the fun of that? Bring on the wrap! Flat bread = larger surface area, so it’s easier to cram it full of meat and veggies… you just need to hold on!

I found some new wraps and they seem better than the regular ones- they’re 50-70 calories less than the regular wraps I get, and have WAY more fiber as well!

Fiber = staying full longer and helps with the plumbing!

;P

So bring on the wrap for lunch! Replacing out a regular meal, I always attempt to keep the nutritional information close so it makes the meals easy to interchange week to week. This was virtually identical to what I was replacing- only 1 calorie different!

SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Wraps of choice
• 224 g Cooked Chicken, finely diced
• 1 Ripe Avocado
• 2 Tbsp Mayo
• 1/2 C 0% Greek Yogurt
• 1/4 C Cilantro
• 1 tsp Curry Powder
• 1/2 tsp Chili Powder
• Veggies, veggies, and more veggies!

DIRECTIONS:

Place all ingredients (except wrap- obviously- and chicken) in a food processor and blend the crap out of it! Scrape down the sides with a spatula, if needed.

Place in bowl, add chicken, and stir to coat. Cover and store in fridge until needed.

Nutritional Info per serving

• Calories 377
• Fat 18 g
• Carbs 27 g
• Fiber 16 g
• Sugar 4 g
• Protein 28 g

NOTE: Most of the fat is the good stuff from the avocado, so don’t fear! However, a good chunk of it also comes from the mayo as I used full fat REAL mayo (organic) and not the chemical stuff regularly used!

Nutritional info does not include any extras like cheese and veggies. I consider veggies “free” as they have very little actual nutritional impact, so load the wrap up with lettuce, sprouts, spinach, bell pepper, cucumber, zucchini- what ever you like!!!

Omit the chicken and use it as a dressing!

Nutritional info per serving WITHOUT CHICKEN

• Calories 291
• Fat: 16 g
• Carbs: 27 g
• Fiber: 16 g
• Sugar: 4 g
• Protein: 12 g

Load the wrap up with spinach or lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes… Whatever you like!!!

ALSO, you can omit the chicken and use the base for a potato salad- perfect for summer!

Vegan Lentil Walnut Loaf

First off, I’m not Vegan… any more. I used to be, but (I’ll say it) I missed meat! However, I’m always willing, able, and excited to try new Vegan recipes as, I’ll admit, I’ve been thinking recently about maybe possibly “going Vegan” again… for the summer when fruits and veggies are readily available.

Maybe… probably not… BUT I will continue to try Vegan recipes and try and get a good repetoir of meatless dishes handy… just in case!

This will be the second time I’ve made this recipe- I LOVE it! I made it last week for my lunches during the week. Same again for this week! Though this time I didn’t double the recipe, so I’ll only have it once a day instead of twice!

Not that it’s not just that good! I loved having it twice- I just don’t want to get bored of it!

Quite a few people turned their noses up at it- the mere word “lentil” seems to put people off. Is it the color? Lets face it, the green lentils (at least) look rather unsavoury. And lets not even get into the texture! They pretty much turn to mush! There’s not a lot of flavor, so how do you cook them?   

So why should you eat them? They’ve been eaten for the last 9500+ years! That’s a long time! They can be stored for periods of time, so it’s easy to keep in the house and for those saavy enough, they can be sprouted for even more benefits. They are high in fiber and has the 3rd highest percentage of calories from protein of legume or nuts (behind soybean and hemp). Though high in iron, phytates reduce the amount actually absorbed. soaking over night or sprouting increase the bioavailability of the iron.

Okay- enough of WHY you should eat this. Just make the darn recipe and decide for yourself! (Even my husband liked it!)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup green lentils
• 3 cups vegetable stock or broth
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 tbsp ground flax mixed with 1/2 cup water OR 1 egg white
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• for topping—
• 2 tbsp ketchup or BBQ sauce
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup or Honey
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

6 Servings

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the ground flax and 1/2 cup water. Set aside.

Simmer together the lentils, broth and a pinch of salt for about 25 minutes or until the lentils are tender and have absorbed all the broth.

Meanwhile, prepare your veggies. Chop the onion, grate the carrot and dice the celery. Saute the onion and celery in the olive oil over medium high heat for six minutes, or until tender, not caramelized. Add the garlic and carrot and cook for about another four minutes.

Toast the walnuts in the oven for six to seven minutes. Add them to the onion/carrot/garlic mixture on the stove and stir well.

Add the oregano, salt and pepper as well and then take the mixture off the stove and transfer to a large bowl.

Add the breadcrumbs, flax/water (or egg white) and cooked lentils and toss well. Press mixture into a greased loaf pan and set aside while you make the topping.

In another small bowl combine the ketchup, maple syrup and vinegar. Spread on top of loaf. Bake for 40 minutes and then out on a plate.

Leftovers make great sandwich stuffers!

NUTRITIONAL INFO Per Serving

• Calories 292
• Fat 15 g
• Carbs 32 g
• Fiber 6 g
• Sugar 9.5 g
• Protein 18 g

TIP: You can easily find walnut pieces (or whole) in the grocery store and chop them, which is what I did the first time, but you may find you get big chunks. When I was at the store, I found walnut crumbs which were perfect!