FitFeat

where daily feats & eats can be adventures in themselves

Archive for category Cooking

Battle of the (Black Bean) Brownies

Sep 2

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, vegan | 3 Comments

Doesn’t this look delicious?

How about this one?  mmmm… no drooling on your keyboard or iPhone now!

I promised in the Craving Sweets post that I would be back to share my experience with two different recipes for Black Bean Brownies.  I first tried a black bean brownie a few months back and I was instantly smitten with this healthier alternative to a regular brownie.  This past week, the summer intern at our office had his last day, and I wanted to bring something in to share, so I figured it would be the perfect opportunity for these intriguing brownies to be taste-tested!

The recipe used for the first brownie pictured above (with the nuts) comes from one of my favorite blogs, No Meat Athlete.  Matt’s sister Christine is a fabulous baker and I knew it would be her recipe I had to try for this round of Battle of the Brownies.  It is completely vegan and therefore dairy-free and egg-free.  It is not gluten-free, as it does contain whole wheat flour.

The recipe used for the second brownie pictured comes from a site called Happy Herbivore.  I’ve made this recipe a few times in the past with great success.  It too is vegan, with no dairy or eggs.  It also contains no flour and uses oats and bananas as its base.

The NMA brownie comes out truly like a brownie, with a great cakey texture (below, on the left).  The HH brownie is denser with a definite banana flavor, and a dense almost fudge-like consistency (below, right).

I tried to stay very true to each recipe to be fair to the chefs who created them, other than not having a couple of ingredients and making those adjustments.

Christine’s NMA brownie calls for hazelnuts, and I couldn’t find them ANYWHERE in the store, so I chose to use raw crushed cashews on the top.  Also I didn’t have the instant decaf coffee, so I brewed up some decaf and used it in place of the water in the recipe.

In the HH brownie, I used half carob powder and half cocoa powder, did NOT add the optional raw sugar and used ground old fashioned oats in lieu of instant.

Both are super alternatives for having a homemade dessert to snack on when the chocolate cravings strike!

So which one won?

From a taste perspective, Christine’s NMA brownie won.  Many in the office really liked the NMA brownie cake texture, while some preferred the HH banana bread flavor of the denser brownie.  Personally my vote on taste alone was the NMA brownie, hands down.  Actually to a fault!  Because I had to put the remaining NMA brownies in the freezer as I was having a hard time keeping my hands off!  MSP also voted for the NMA brownie, but said that next time I make them I can cut back on the sugar.

From a nutritional profile perspective (and if you are in a weight loss program) I’d be more inclined to recommend the HH ones.  The raw sugar is optional (which I didn’t use), and the amount of agave in the recipe is negligible.  The main ingredients are bananas, beans and oats, whereas the NMA brownies use a fair amount of raw sugar and whole wheat.

In my opinion, I think you should try them BOTH!  And definitely take them to your next social gathering – telling people that the main ingredient is BLACK BEANS is definitely a conversation starter!  You really won’t believe it till you try them – you don’t even know the beans are there!

Enjoy a little chocolate (and black bean) decadence this holiday weekend!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Growing Like a Mother (My Kombucha, That Is…)

Aug 29

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Thank you all so much for the very sweet and encouraging comments regarding both my attendance at Bauman College and for FitFeat turning one!  I loved reading the messages and they brought serious smiles to my face!

As I sit here typing the draft for this post on Sunday evening, the Broncos/Steelers pre-season game is on our TV in the background.  Can it really be time for football again? Football season to me means pots of hearty veggie chili and curling up with my blanket to watch a game while the leaves are falling outside, or maybe a few snowflakes.  But I’m not ready for that time of year!  I just can’t wrap my brain around the fact that fall is right around the corner.

Fortunately summer is still holding on – it is currently 82 degrees and gorgeous out, at 7:00 in the evening.  That’s the kind of football weather I can deal with!  We’ve really been blessed with a beautiful summer in Colorado this year.  Nice and HOT and plenty of sunshine!

Speaking of sunshine, doesn’t this bottle invoke thoughts of summer?

MSP found a new brand of kombucha tea for me to try, called Vibranz.  (And when we went back to get more, it was already out of stock!  People are crazy for BOOCH!)

Since I only had one bottle, I knew I had to take the opportunity to try my hand once more at making some from scratch.  I have high hopes that this bottle has enough culture in it to get something started.

Before I used it all for my homebrew, I did take a few sips of the Vibranz tea.  And I have to say, I LOVED IT!  I am so happy to know that there is a brand that I can turn to that tastes very similar to the BUBBLY I’ve grown to love.

It was hard not to want to finish the whole bottle, I’ve been so starved for kombucha.  But just in case I have a hard time finding it on the shelves around here, I got busy on the BACKUP PLAN!

Rumor has it that when one is starting their BOOCH BATCH from a previous brew and without a starter culture, it will take about a month before it’s ready.  I have a note on my calendar to check it out mid-September (as it is currently stored down in the dark recesses of our basement!)

I peeked in on it today and it’s GROWING!!  It looks like there is a culture layer on the top!  YES!  But I must confess, it might be one thing to pour a pretty glass of kombucha from a bottle you bought at the store and quite another to pour something that looks like this:

I might have to plug my nose and close my eyes for the first few sips!

What do you think?  Would you drink it?

Have a GREAT week blog buds!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , ,

What’s The Best Healthy Meal You’ve Had Lately?

Aug 17

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 12 Comments

Hi blog buds!  Hope your week is off to a great start!

First off, absolutely awesome comments from the Shopping with Shari post!  Thank you so much for participating!  I’m glad to know that my grocery bill isn’t completely out of whack!  I will confess that I DID go back into a grocery store on Sunday, but it was innocent – when I shopped the prior Tuesday they were out of the refrigerated almond milk that MSP likes, so I went back in to get some before we were completely out, along with a dozen eggs.  :)   So I didn’t make it a FULL week, but because I knew I’d need to come report it here I was much more aware of trying to AVOID the store and use what I have.

I’m tellin’ ya folks, if you ever want to hold yourself accountable for anything, start a blog!  ;)   It’ll keep ya honest for sure!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post featuring my actual EATS, so I thought I’d share some of my recent adventures in food.

I’ll start with this morning’s post-workout smoothie because it was DELICIOUS with my most favorite fruit ever, MANGO!  No greens this time, just one mango, a scoop of Jay Robb brown rice protein powder and a tablespoon of raw pepitas for a tiny boost of iron and healthy fat (and 8 oz water).  There’s nothing like a five mile, five-fingered run before you drink your smoothie to make seem like the best thing you’ve ever tasted.

Mmmm mangolicious!

I also recently tried one of the new Larabar flavors, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  It was so good, I’d eaten the whole thing before I could take a picture.  So all you get here is the wrapper!

I figured that would be my new favorite – that is, until I tried Chocolate Chip Brownie.  While I don’t consider this on the same ‘healthy level’ as I do most of the other Larabars, I will say that this bar will come in handy when  you feel like you want to stuff your face full of chocolate cake.  Because of the chocolate, this isn’t one I’d recommend eating every day (as I would with some of the fruit flavors like Apple Pie and Lemon Bar) but it IS an amazing treat that will keep you from needing to eat actual brownies.

On the dinner front, I’d attempted to make a Fish Taco that ended up being a better photo op than it was a meal.  I think the fish was in the freezer too long (it couldn’t POSSIBLY have been the cook’s fault!)  ;)   The rice is lime cilantro basmati, in case you were wondering – and it ended up being the star of this meal.

A quinoa salad stuffed red pepper (in an attempt to mimic the delicious quinoa I’d eaten at BOP restaurant).  Served with a light sprinkle of goat cheese and a side of massaged kale salad:

A “Wrap Panini” – we’ve been on a kick lately of putting our wraps on the George Foreman grill and using it like a panini press.  This one has some marinated spicy tempeh, sliced tomato and some melted Daiya dairy-free cheese.  If you are bored with your wraps, put them on your Foreman grill.  You’ll be in love all over again!

And while on the spicy tempeh theme, this was sauteed with a little Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning, the placed on a bed of romained and chopped veggies, garnished with a little salsa, a dollop of greek yogurt and some toasted pepitas.  AMAZING!  I love it when “thrown-together” meals taste way better than those that take hours to make!

I’ve tried two different recipes recently for a Cold Carrot Avocado Soup.  Not a fan of either attempt, I’m afraid.  It’s definitely a cool and refreshing soup, but I like this better as a dressing (on a salad.)  Or maybe as a soup “shot” appetizer.  A bowlful is too much of a strong flavor.

Last but not least was the Sesame Stir-Fry we made from last Tuesday’s grocery trip.  MSP’s is made with lean ground beef (on the right) and mine is made with spicy tempeh (again with the tempeh, I know!  I’m loving it lately!).  We followed the recipe from Eating for Life, which we usually LOVE recipes from.  This wasn’t bad, but it didn’t WOW us, so I’ll need to do some tinkering with the seasoning.  We added a squeeze of lime at the end to give it some zing.

I figured I’d better share some of what I’ve been eating lately, lest you think I’ve fallen off the healthy wagon!  ;)   Of everything above, hands down my favorite was the spicy tempeh grilled wrap.  Next time I make it, I’ll be sure to write down the ingredients and steps so that I can share the ‘build a meal’ process.

Have you put together a healthy meal lately that knocked your socks off?  What was it?

Make it a GREAT and FIT day friends!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Ingredient Swapping to “Nutrify” Banana Bread

Aug 3

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 3 Comments

Hey there blog buds!  How is your Tuesday treating ya?  :)

Did any other suckers besides me watch the season finale of “The Bachelorette” last night?   After the complete cheese that was the JAKE season, I swore I was NOT going to get drawn into ALI’S season.  I made it all of TWO weeks.

(hmmm maybe this NOT having satellite TV experiment is bad for my brain – when I could be watching more educational programs like National Geographic channel I’m watching very bad scripted reality series.)

Who am I kidding?  I’d be watching it even if we still had our dish.  ;)   But Ali and Roberto make a cute couple.  I hope they make it longer than Jake and Vienna!

So I wanted to tell you all thanks again for the feedback about the Red Cross instructor.  I did decide it was worth mentioning to them, especially if I aimed to do it diplomatically and constructively.  So far, I’ve been forwarded into the voicemail of the Health & Safety Director.  Not sure if I’ll get a call back, but we’ll see!

I have some readers’ request topics to cover in the near future:  one being the topic of craving sweets after meals and the other asking me to post my grocery list and/or receipts.  They are on the to-do list and as soon as I have something written and edited I will post them!  Thank you so much for the topic ideas. Keep ‘em coming, I love that!

Meanwhile here in the FitFeat household it’s been a busy day.  But I did squeeze in some time to make a batch of banana bread for MSP.  After he tried it at lunch (and really liked it) he asked me what veggie I had hidden in it, because I seemed awfully intent on watching his face as he tried it.  Who, me??  Hide VEGGIES in your food??

Lo and behold I did NOT hide any veggies in his banana bread – at least not this time.  :)   I just wanted to play around with a standard recipe by switching out less nutritious ingredients for some others I would prefer.  You can do the same to boost the nutrient levels of your recipes as well.  Here’s how I played with the ingredients, using a very basic banana bread recipe that called for things like all-purpose flour, butter, eggs and brown sugar.

  • In lieu of standard refined white all-purpose flour, I used 100% whole grain flour (which gives it a hearty, kind of rustic texture).
  • Rather than the 1/2 a cup of butter I used 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 coconut butter/coconut oil mixture (you could use ALL applesauce if you’d prefer).
  • Where it called for 2 whole eggs I chose one whole egg + one XL egg white (organic and free range of course!)
  • And in lieu of 3/4 cup brown sugar, I filled a 3/4 measuring cup part-way with raw organic blue agave nectar and then topped the rest of the measuring cup off with blackstrap molasses.  (I wanted them to be mixed because ALL blackstrap molasses would be overkill and probably not taste much like banana bread.)
  • For fun I threw in a few chocolate chips. (If I’d felt like spending more money, I would have purchased some cacao nibs, but ONE  I wasn’t at Whole Foods this time and TWO sometimes I have to stick to my food budget.)

The bread batter was pretty liquidy, so I was a little worried that it wouldn’t work well.  But it turned out great.  I baked it at 375 degrees for about 45-48 minutes (I increased the temp because I’m cooking at high altitude). It came out GREAT.  Wonderfully moist and no coconut flavor at all (which is good because MSP does not like coconut!)

While this certainly isn’t a food that I’d tell clients to eat all the time when trying to lose weight, I would definitely say it’s better than a premade store-bought baked good and it’s one I can feel good about.  As long as I don’t overdo it!  I definitely will have to freeze half of this loaf to keep that from happening!

I can’t wait to toast a piece for breakfast, and then add a little raw almond butter or coconut butter with my coffee.  Mmmmmm.

Somehow the chocolate chips melted in a way that look a little like a smiley face – I didn’t plan it, but it makes me smile just the same!

What are your favorite ways to “nutrify” recipes?

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

Tags:

Cooking Out, FitFeat Style

Jun 1

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 14 Comments

Good morning blog buds!  I hope that you all had an amazing holiday weekend!

Ours was absolutely gorgeous.  We had PERFECT weather all weekend long.

Saturday morning we got in an hour of Bob’s yoga, followed by a good long dog walk.  Sunday I went on a wonderful hike in the foothills with my good friend Keri of Om of the Rockies.  Monday was another dog walking session in the morning with a long strolling hike in the evening.  We got a ton done around the house and yard and STILL had time to relax.  Every weekend should be a three day weekend, don’t you agree?  I feel refreshed today and ready to take on the new month.

Wahoo it’s finally JUNE!  Love the summer months like you can’t even imagine.

Speaking of June:  in this month’s issue of Women’s Health magazine, they had an article on ‘bikini-friendly burgers’.

I thought the vegetarian Lentil-Quinoa Burger with Sauteed Mushrooms sounded interesting and would be perfect for some outdoor grilling, so I gave it a shot.

Plus the picture was drool-worthy:

So I followed the instructions and busted out six patties:

(it’s not cooking unless you drip stuff on the recipe, right?)

And here is my final product, bunless of course, because I’m already getting plenty of grain/carbs in the burger, so no need to add on a big huge bun.  Just a side of baked kale and a sprinkle of raw goat cheese.

My thoughts on the recipe as it was written:

1.) there was no way that these patties were going to survive the grate of our BBQ grill as they didn’t hold together that well when they were first pressed.  Refrigerating the raw patties helped somewhat but I still ended up ‘grilling’ them on my George Foreman.

2.) there wasn’t a lot of “oomph” to the flavor, even with the cumin and the fresh cilantro.  Add some of your favorite spices if you try this recipe to give it a little pizazz.  I think the burger recipe is a great canvas to play with the flavors – add some Old Bay and dried sea veggies to give it a crab cake feel or some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for some Tex-Mex heat.   I topped my leftovers with spicy hummus and avocado and it was delicious that way too.

3.) the texture reminded me of the Sunshine burgers, if you are a fan of them (I am!) and they reheated nicely without becoming little hockey pucks.

Definitely give these patties a try – just add your own flair to make them your own!

And no “cookout” is complete without a cocktail, right?  How refreshing does this look:

Guess what it was?

Gingerade KOMBUCHA TEA – that’s all!!  Mmmm so good!  And tastes even better when you drink it out of a wine glass!

Did you try any new recipes or healthy foods over the holiday weekend? Drop me a comment!

***

June is a great month to lay off the heavier foods and cleanse the body!  If you feel the need to do some ‘spring cleaning’ of your temple, you could sign up to take Brendan Brazier’s Thrive in 30 Challenge. I’ve done this in the past and really enjoyed watching the video lessons that arrived in my mailbox.

If the idea of a challenge sends you running for the hills, how about making it simple:  get in a green smoothie (blended salad) at least a few times a week as well as a LARGE salad for lunch or dinner.  Up it to doing these two things every day and you’ll be well on your way to a ‘cleaner’, lighter body!

Have a GREAT day friends!

– Shari B.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Recipe, Schmecipe

May 19

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 5 Comments

Have you ever spent a ton of time in the kitchen with a handful of new recipes, only to be disappointed how they turned out and then feeling like you wasted all that time?  (Not to mention feeling like you wasted FOOD?)  That was my day yesterday.

I don’t want to slam the cookbook I used (fortunately borrowed from the library rather than purchased) because 1.) it’s a really well known franchise and 2.) it could very well be that I just happened to pick a few that weren’t total winners.  There are hundreds of recipes in the book, so I’m willing to bet some are really great.

I pulled out three and didn’t care for a single one.  A Chile Rubbed Tequila Seafood dish (too fishy and way too much tequila), a Southwest Cabbage Salad (very acidic and too salty) and a Chilled Cucumber Soup (again too salty).

I put the fish and the cabbage into a corn tortilla and made it into a Fish Taco. That made it a little better.  At least it LOOKED appetizing!

Two words:  Epic.  Fail.

The bright side? Reaffirming that I don’t necessarily need recipes to make something yummy.  Here are are few of this past week’s NON-RECIPE last minute creations:

Scrambled Organic Eggs with Goat Cheese Slivers, Tomato Slices and Grilled Sweet Pepper

Black Bean Burger on a half-bun (topped with sprouts and a ‘Veggie Slice’ uncheese), Sweet Potato Fries and Roasted Mixed Veggies

Pumpkin Brown Rice Breakfast with Cinnamon and Almond Milk

The “Bat Snack”:  Egg Salad (made with Nayonaisse and mustard) flanked by ‘avocado wings’ and garnished with some leftover lemon-infused salmon:

First attempt at homemade sushi rolls using leftovers of brown rice and mahi, adding in some cucumber, carrots, and avocado.  (And of course served on my “Shari’s Sushi” plate from Beth!)

I like simple, easy-to-build meals.  If you know what you like and you throw in a pinch of creativity, the options for healthy eating are endless!

So I say… Recipe Schmecipe!

Do you have a favorite “thrown together” meal or original creation?  How about recipes gone awry? Drop me a comment!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , ,

Salmon, Take Me Away!

May 11

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 3 Comments

Hi blog buds!

As I am sitting here in my home office getting some work done, I’m enjoying the last few rays of sunshine hitting my windowsill before the snow moves in. Yes folks, you read that right.  It is mid-May and we are expecting more SNOW!  We have the possibility for a LOT depending on what the temperature does.  I think I’ll be doing some SUN SALUTATIONS tonight in order to ward off the snow.  ;) Here’s the view from my window at the moment:

Remember the “good ol’ days” of September when I wrote about how the Colorado tourism board should pay me commission for all the gushing I was doing about hiking in our lovely mountains and sunny weather?  I miss those days!  :D Hopefully all my cold weather writing hasn’t turned any of you off from Colorado.  It’s USUALLY gorgeous.  We’ve just had a REALLY odd year of weather, unlike any winter I’ve seen in the 19 years I’ve lived here.

But I won’t think about it right now.

I’ll pretend snow doesn’t exist.

And imagine myself on a beachfront somewhere, kind of like I did when I was Summoning Summer with Salmon Cakes.  Salmon, I’m looking to you again for some help.

This time around, I decided to make Salmon en Papillote (“in paper”).  That feels a little “beachy”, don’t you think?  I’ll visualize myself on the patio of an oceanside restaurant, sipping some Riesling, with this on order:

The first time around I marinated two small salmon filets in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, onion powder, ginger and lemon juice.  Then I placed them (skinside down) in my parchment paper, wrapped them up and baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes.

The second time around, in lieu of marinade, I placed 3 slices of lemon UNDER the salmon and sliced tomatoes on top of the salmon while it was steaming away inside the papillote. That was even twice as delicious.  The lemon steamed into the salmon – the flavor was fantastic.

Filet #1 was plated with some roasted cherry tomatoes, corn, grilled portobello mushroom and a little basmati rice:

Mmmm DEEE-LISH!

But wait!  There’s more!

The leftovers were even better.  Filet #2 was used in this AHHHMAZING salad:

Salad ingredients (starting with the bottom layer in the bowl and building upward):

  • arugula
  • spinach
  • herbed goat cheese (sprinkled on)
  • sliced roasted beets
  • sliced hard-boiled egg
  • diced avocado (1/2 a fruit)
  • sauteed kale and beet greens (look at me using my WHOLE beet, leaves and all!)
  • sunflower seeds
  • Annie’s Light Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
  • Leftover salmon

OMG friends!  This was one of the best salads I’ve had in a long time, and the fact that I didn’t pay a restaurant $15.95 to make it for me was an excellent BONUS.  You have to try it yourself at home!

One of the things I’ve been doing with my salads a LOT over the last year is adding warm roasted veggies to the cool salad greens.  I love that combo.  I’ve mentioned it before here on the blog, but I’m just really loving making my salads that way.  My friend Keri sent me home from Girls’ Night fajita dinner with some leftover fajita veggies (peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, squash) and I reheated the veggies, added them to my cold spinach with a hard-boiled egg and roasted cherry tomatoes, dressed with some Annie’s Roasted Red Pepper Vinagrette.  Another lip-smacker to be sure!


Do you have a favorite combination of veggies to use in your salads?  Or a favorite restaurant salad that I should try to recreate at home?

***

Salmon Tip – Keep Your Skin On: I recently learned that a majority of the Omega 3 fatty acids in salmon are located between the skin and the flesh.  So if you don’t mind keeping the skin on during cooking and then eating down TO the skin after cooking, do so!

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B.  =)

http://fitfeat.com/blog/2010/03/24/summoning-summer-with-salmon-cakes/

Tags: , ,

Easy Italian 3, 2, 1

Apr 29

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 3 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

How goes your week so far?  How did Thursday get here so quickly?  My week has been a little out of whack.  I went to work on Monday and then got hit in the afternoon with some sort of tummy bug that kept me from even being able to drive home!  I had to call MSP to come and get me.  Needless to say, I was mortified because it was my first day back to work after vacation and it made me feel like some sort of slacker/drama queen.  So I went in on Tuesday to make up some of the lost time, and I feel like my routine has been goofed up since!  And I keep mixing up the days.  Yesterday morning I thought it was Tuesday.  Last night, I fully expected to watch “Survivor” until MSP reminded me that it wasn’t Thursday night yet.  Yikes, my brain seems to be stuck in vacation mode!

Since returning from our Vegas trip and eating all that amazing Italian food and spending so much time in “Venice”, I’ve been stuck in an Italian rut with this week’s eats!  (There are worse ruts to be stuck in, wouldn’t you say?)  ;)

1.) With this dish that seemed kind of ‘country Italian’ I heated a bit of coconut oil and minced garlic in a pan, then sauteed asparagus and mushrooms. Once both were tender I spiralized half of a zucchini into the pan, added about 1/3 small can of diced tomatoes (with only a bit of liquid) and some cannelini beans.  I let that heat through until the beans and tomatoes were hot, then topped with some of my homegrown basil.  It was SOOOOO good!!

2.) Then for a lunch a made an open-faced pizza sandwich but smearing some basil pesto onto a slice of Ezekial.  Topped it with thin slices of roma tomato, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes.  FAST, SIMPLE and (as my cousin Kevin would say) “Gosh Darn Delicious!”  :)

3.) I had such a good time with dish number 1 above that I decided to expand on that idea for another night’s dinner.  Again I started with coconut oil, adding asparagus and mushrooms.  This time I thinly sliced the zucchini into rounds in lieu of spiralizing.  I added diced tomatoes (with all the liquid this time), cannelini beans, artichoke hearts, and two spoons of basil pesto and let it heat through.  Toward the end I threw in a big handful of spinach and continued to heat until the spinach wilted.

Then I plated it and topped it with just a dollop of herbed goat cheese.  The pesto and the goat cheese totally made this dish!  MAGNIFICO!!!

Just goes to show you don’t have to be a good cook (or follow a recipe) to throw together healthy, quick meals.  Start with vegetables so that you are getting lots of “good-for-you” nutrients (and lower calories) and add in a few extra things you LOVE – and you can’t go wrong!

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday, blog buds!

Ciao!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: ,

Crockpot Veggies Make Good Blizzard Food

Mar 23

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Vegetarian, vegan | 6 Comments

Hey there blog buds!

Happy Tuesday!  As I write this, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and it’s a crisp 36 degrees.  That’s all going to change shortly.

Check out our forecast:

A Winter Storm Warning goes into effect at 3 PM Tuesday afternoon for the Denver Area as well as adjacent communities and the foothills. This storm may drop eight to sixteen inches of snow in the Denver area, with the main snow coming between 3 AM and 9 AM on Wednesday. The foothills and higher terrain south of Denver may see closer to 2 feet of snow.

Here’s me:

Guess where I’m at – yep, that “higher terrain south of Denver.”   Two feet of snow.  Are you guys tired of my whining about winter yet?  Normally I LOVE Colorado.  But this has been the worst winter in my book in the 19 years I’ve lived here.

Please Mother Nature, I beg you:  More warmth.  Less snow. (Or at the very least snow on the days I don’t have to commute.  I only have to commute 3 days out of the week – can’t you wait till Thursday when I don’t have to BE anywhere?)  :)

Good thing I have a TON of leftover food from the crockpot meal I made yesterday!

As I mentioned I tried a new recipe that I was very excited about.  I usually use the crockpot for MSP’s meals that contain meat rather than for my veggie-only ones.  So when I came across this Vindaloo Veggie recipe, I had to give it a try.  Because it’s not my recipe (and because her recipe is adapted from a published & copyrighted recipe) I’m providing the link rather than reprinting it.

If you have trouble getting your veggies in each day, this recipe is for you.  It’s got cauliflower, carrots, onion, bell pepper, zucchini, peas and some fun things like cayenne, turmeric, brown sugar, garlic, ginger.  The list goes on.  Normally I am intimidated by anything with more than 3-5 ingredients.  But I had to give this one a shot because it looked so flavorful.

I made a few substitutions:

  • Used raw agave in place of brown sugar
  • Used liquid dijon mustard in place of dry mustard
  • Used apple cider vinegar in place of white wine vinegar (because that’s all I had)
  • Did not add peas (nothing against peas, was just HUNGRY when I got home and didn’t want to wait 10 more minutes to eat!)

The night before, I did the prep work so I could throw it all together quickly in the morning before work.

I  made the “spicy sauce” in my ThunderStick mixer.

Chopped the carrots and onions and sauteed until tender (in water).

Cut up the zucchini, cauliflower and green bell pepper then put it all in a bag in the fridge.

Had the can of beans at the ready.

Then Monday morning I mixed the spicy sauce, the veggies, the tomato paste and organic kidney beans into the crockpot.

This goes in the crockpot for only 6 hours, so I asked MSP if he would grab the crock out of the fridge and turn it on low when he got home for lunch.  That way it would be ready when I got home around 5:45.

The house smelled amazing!  I served it over brown rice with a sprinkle of cinnamon and it made a very tasty and satisfying dinner (with a TON of leftovers.)

It would also work well with chicken for those of you that eat meat.  I think it would go well with fish too but I wouldn’t put fish in my crockpot.  I’d add it afterward.  It packs a lot of heat from the cayenne, so if you like milder flavor you might want to cut down on that.

I’d tasted the spicy sauce before mixing it with the tomato paste and it had a really wonderful sweet & spicy flavor.  I think I might play around with using that sauce alone as a stir-fry sauce, without the tomato paste.  I think I was expecting this dish to have a sweeter flavor because of it, but the tomato really cut the sweet out.

Well friends, I have more to say as usual but I better check out the grocery situation just in case we really do get snowed in.

Today’s questions:  What foods do you like to stock up before a blizzard?  Do you find that you eat more “comfort” foods during snowstorms? I have a tendency to crave starchier, heartier (and sometimes sweeter) foods when I’m stuck in the house.  I’ll be making sure I have enough Ezekial bread and almond milk,  and probably some Amy’s Organic Soups.  I’m all stocked up on produce from Sunday’s regular shopping trip.

I have another post that I’m working on that I’ll hope to have published later today, so check back by again tonight.  And hopefully for dinner I’ll be trying ANOTHER new recipe, so if it turns out well I’ll be sharing my thoughts on it too.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

– Shari B. =)

My Basil Is A Bully

Feb 9

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 8 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!  Hope your Tuesday is off to a terrific start!

Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Marathon Monday feature.  Sounds like you guys like it, so I’ll definitely keep it up throughout my training.  I’ll be sure to include all the ups AND the downs so that you guys can learn from my mistakes as well as my wins… since this is my first full marathon, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of “whoops, bad call” moments!

I feel a RANDOM post coming on so I’ll just give you fair warning now.  :) It’s probably going to be all over the place!  Lots to catch you up on!

Lets start with some EATS, shall we? A few food highlights to share from the last few days.

Here’s my portobella ‘burger’ that I grilled on the George Foreman using Ezekial ‘heels’ as the bun.  Toppings include broccoli sprouts, avocado, Tofutti, salsa and some spinach.  On the side I have steamed cauliflower sprinkled with nutritional yeast.  That was a tasty dinner right there!

Yesterday’s packed lunch was SO GOOD!  I’ve really been missing my large salads that I used to eat every day for lunch when I was home at lunchtime.  So I packed up a good ol’ Shari-Salad of the past (spinach, dulse, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, nutritional yeast and Annie’s Goddess dressing.)  I also warmed up some leftover steamed veggies from the weekend and put them on top of the salad.  Then I shook the whole thing up and darn near licked the last few drops of salad dressing out of the bowl when I was done.  I ate an ENTIRE CONTAINER of spinach yesterday between my green smoothie at breakfast, my salad at lunch and my dinner.

Dinner was a mushroom and spinach quesadilla.  This pic is before I put on the top tortilla:

The ‘innards included mushrooms, spiralized zucchini, spinach, small sprinkle of raw goat cheddar, a spoon of 505 gluten-free vegetarian green chile and some nutritional yeast.  While it TASTED FANTASTIC, I have a new “note to self” which is this:  Do NOT use just-steamed veggies  for the innards of a quesadilla – you end up with a SOGGY-dilla instead.  Next time I will use leftovers because they’ve had time to drain.

***

OK switching gears on ya!

A FitFeat reader and good friend of mine is also on a mission toward her first marathon.  Unlike yours truly who is running a marathon because I can’t seem to say no when presented with a challenge, Beth is actually doing her marathon for an amazing cause.  I’m sure many of you have heard of Team In Training, that raises money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Beth has signed up to run her first marathon in June in honor of her friend Diane who is a 15 year Leukemia survivor.  If this is a cause near and dear to your heart (or you just did your 2009 taxes and realize you could use more charitable write-offs for 2010!) head on over to Beth’s TNT Page for more info on the TNT cause and info on how to donate.   Beth has been a running machine the last few years, competing in tons of half-marathons and she’s very excited to be aiming for her first full marathon.  I’m sure she’s gonna kick that course right in the shin(splints)! ;)

I’ll be getting a link set up in the sidebar too so that if you think of people to whom you’d like to spread the word for donations, you can send them right to FitFeat and there will be a banner to click on.

***

OK this will be the last gear-change, I promise.  I thought I’d give you a little update on how my AeroGarden is doing.  The basil is going CRAZY and growing beautifully.  I even harvested my first few leaves on Sunday for a Lemon Basil White Bean dip that I made for a SuperBowl party.

However the chives and the thyme are not looking quite so happy!  In fact, they’re looking downright PATHETIC.

I think the basil is a big bully, stealing all of the UV light and shading the other two in its huge leaves.  And probably using up all of the root space in the bowl!

***

Time is flying by and I have lots to get done on the ‘catch-up’ day so I better get cracking!

Near-future blog topics you’ll want to come back for:

  • Thoughts on Physique 57 (finally, I know)
  • Thoughts on Born to Run
  • Calling all ABS for our next Flex-It Friday feature

Make it a FIT day!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes