Eat Well, Feel Well: #summersalads

 Summer Salads: Cucumber Salad w/ Citrus Dill Dressing and Watermelon Grapefruit and Blackberry Salad w/ Honey Mint Dressing

So I was contemplating what to make for a friend's farewell dinner and instead of the usual baked good, I decided to make some salads.  These are delicious, fresh and super simple and oh so good for you.

Recipe from Nutrition Stripped

Cucumber Salad

2 cups English cucumbers, cubed 

1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1/4 cup red onion, diced

Combine all of the ingredients into a large bowl. 

Citrus Dill Dressing

**note: I found that there was a lot of dressing and you could probably half this recipe

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 lemon, juiced and 1 TBSP of zest

1 orange, juiced and 1 TBSP of zest

1 TBSP dill, fresh (you can use the dry stuff, but use the fresh stuff if possible!)

2 tsp of sea salt

black pepper to taste

Whisk all of the ingredients in a bowl until well mixed.   

Toss the salad in the dressing and voila!  Refreshing and delicious.

Recipe found here

Watermelon Grapefruit Blackberry Salad

1 lb of watermelon, cubed

3 red/pink grapefruits, peeled and sliced into round (I segmented them)

3 cups blackberries, whole

So I decided to segment them because A. I had the time and B. This was actually one of my exams in butchery class way back in Culinary school. 

Squeeze the remaining juice out of the pulp that was left from segmenting/slicing.  

Cut up that fresh watermelon!

Throw in them blackberries. 

Honey Mint Drizzle

1 cup fresh grapefruit juice (left over)

1/4 cup olive oil

3 TBSP fresh mint, chopped

1 TBSP of honey

1 tsp sea salt

Chiffonade the mint which is done by stacking the leaves together and roll it up length wise and chopping it thinly.  Whisk everything together until well combined.  

Ta da!  Two delicious, refreshing and healthy salads to bring to your next BBQ or gathering of some sort before the summer ends.  These were a hit, how could they not be!  Mother Nature's candy.

Enjoy!

Eat Well, Feel Well: #blissfulblueberry

Blissful Blueberry Banana Muffins
Vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free

My apologies for the lack of posts friends, I've finally caved and started Netflixing... so bad. 

Anyway...

Blueberries, bananas and walnuts oh yes please!  I was browsing Oh She Glows website one day and I stumbled upon these delicious looking muffins.  I was ecstatic when I saw that I had all of the ingredients (I was low on groceries).

Recipe By Oh She Glows

Yields: Approx 12 regular and 12 mini (I only have one regular sized muffin tin) OR 18 reg or 36 minis

3/4 cup Mashed Bananas (approx 2)
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp Unsweetened Almond milk
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup Maple Syrup (the good stuff!  Not the Aunt Jemima madness)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup Coconut Oil, melted
2 cups Spelt Flour
6 tbsp Coconut Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1.5 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Fine Grain Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup Walnut Pieces, chopped
1 cup frozen or fresh Blueberries

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease the muffin tin (if you don't have parchment cups).  If you do, just use parchment cups

On a small cutting board, mash your banana with a fork.  I find this a lot easier than fumbling around the bowl.  Place the banana into a medium bowl with the almond milk, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and vanilla.  No need for stirring at the moment.  Set it aside.  

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda.

Stir the coconut oil into the wet mixture.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until JUST combined!  You do not want to over mix this.

Gently fold in the walnuts and then the blueberries, again do not overmix.  The right picture is what my batter looked like before I added the walnuts and blueberries.

Spoon about 1/4 of the batter into each parchment cup; it'll be about 3/4 full.

Found him like that while I was baking haha #boss .

Bake for 23-27 minutes (I did approx 25) until you prick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.  I only had one large muffin tin, so I did end up making some minis too and I stuck some chocolate chips inside them.  Cool in the muffin tin for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

These were quite delightful and make great snacks!  I did use fresh blueberries but if you do only have frozen blueberries, make sure they're kept in the freezer right up until you add them into the batter to prevent bleeding.  They were moist, cakey and burst from the blueberries.  As you can see. I took some before taking a picture hehe.  They were hard to resist.

Enjoy!

Eat Well, Feel Well: #tofuinmypie

Chocolate Fudge Pie

Hello beautiful people!  I was going to wait a bit before I posted this, however, I was feeling down in the dumps and did not want to stare at my endless lecture notes any longer... Yay Finals week.

So instead of studying yesterday, I made a chocolate fudge pie with it's main ingredient being TOFU!

Whatttttttt?  Yes, Tofu!  And you know what it tastes great!

Recipes by Oh she Glows and Chocolate Covered Katie

Crust: for 1 9-inch 

3/4 cup raw almonds

1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)

3 tbsp Maple Syrup

1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt

1/2 cup Oat Flour

1 cup Rolled Oats

*Tip:  Read the instructions before you go ahead and begin mixing everything together...... =)

Filling: 

12.3oz Firm Tofu (I may try medium firm next time so it's more mousse like)

1 1/2 tsp Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 tbsp Almond Milk

Pinch of salt

1 and 1/3 cup of Chocolate Chips

1/3 cup Coconut Flakes**

1 tsp Coconut Extract**

**I wanted some coconut flavour.  Definitely need to increase both amounts next time.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Lighty grease your 9 -inch pie dish with coconut oil.  Put the almonds into the food processor and grind until a flour forms.  Ad the coconut oil, maple syrup,salt, and oat FLOUR and grind until a dough forms.  Pulse in the Rolled oats so there's still texture to the crust. 

The dough should be sticky.  Put the dough evenly over the base of the pie dish.  Beginning at the center, press the dough firmly into the dish, slowly moving outward and upward.  Push hard enough that it will stick together.  Poke holes with a fork so that air can escape when you bake this.

Bake for 10-13 minutes, until golden brown and you smell them almonds.  Cool for 20 minutes.

That block...

Melt the chocolate with a double boiler or microwave.

Till it's silky smooth. 

Put everything except the coconut flakes into the food processor and bend until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a bowl and fold in the coconut flakes.   

Put the mixture into the pie crust and chill in the refrigerator!  

Delicious!  You won't even know there's tofu in it. 

Garnish with fruits, yogurt, peanut butter or red bean!  The possibilities are endless!

For those who are feeling down at the moment, smile!  Keep it positive and do not fret over trivial things... which is what I will try to do. 

Enjoy!

Eat Well, Feel Well: #blackbeanpeanutbuttertime

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate chunks of goodness with the main ingredient being black beans!  With black beans, it gives you the consistency of a fudgy moist brownie along with other lovely benefits for your body other than gas.

Recipe from Kumquat Blog

1 (15 oz) canned Black Beans (rinsed and drained)

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1 tbsp Vanilla

2/3 cup Peanut Butter

1/3 cup Honey

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 cup Dark Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Combine all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips into a food processor and mix until very smooth. 

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the chocolate chips. 

Scoop the dough and place on parchment lined baking sheet.  Press lightly.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  

These were an absolute hit!  I hope you gives these fudge like cookies of deliciousness a try!

Enjoy!