Spinach cubes!

So,  I love smoothies.

I have one for breakfast 4 times a week at least.

The problem is when I buy a bag or bunch of spinach to use in my smoothies it always goes bad before I can finish the bag.  It drives me crazy.  I hate picking through bad spinach to get to the good spinach.

Then I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it.

So I gathered my ingredients.

That's it.  That and some tap water.

I grabbed my handy magic bullet and started blending away.

Then instead of using an ice cube tray I used mini cupcake tins.

And poured it up and popped it in the freezer.

In theory, I'll be able to pop these in with other smoothie ingredients for an awesome green smoothie.

I had a little trouble getting the spinach cupcakes out of the tin, but when I did I popped two of them in with my smoothie ingredients and it blended up to be deliciously yummy with a hidden boost of iron!

MexiQuinoa

We're going a little recipe heavy this week.

You see, I bought a car.

So I'm on a budget and cooking more at home. Also, you know I'm fat and my cholesterol sucks so I need to eat healthy things.

So I broke out my handy vegan cookbook.

And found some healthy recipes to make this week.

First up was MexiQuinoa

* 4 cups water
* 2 cups dry quinoa
* 2 cups yellow corn kernels
* 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
* 1 can sliced jalapeno peppers, drained ( I skipped this) 
* 1 cup chunky salsa
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice ( I used lime)
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder 
* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh
* salt and pepper to taste

Optional Toppings ( I didn't use any of these) 
* 1/2 cup diced bell pepper
* 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
*1/2 cup seeded and diced tomatoes
*1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

I cut the recipe in half.  Brought the water to boil, put the quinoa in and brought it back to a boil for 10 minutes or until the water was absorbed by the quinoa.  Then I set the quinoa to the side, still covered.


While it set I mixed all the other ingredients together in a large bowl, then mix it all together!  It's Mexican rice with quinoa instead! 


I cut the recipe in half and heated some up for lunch today.  2 WW points a serving and it was yummy and filling!

Beans and cornbread

For book club the other night I wanted to make beans and corn bread to go with the theme of the book we read (Parchment of Leaves).

Mems told me I needed to pick up some ham to season the beans, I'm like "that doesn't work."

So instead I googled and found a recipe for vegetarian beans and fell in love.

Here's the recipe:
2 cups pinto beans
3 cups water
1 can diced tomatoes drained
Small can diced green chiles drained
2 cloves garlic
Medium onion

Bring the beans to boil, add ingredients and cook over 3 hours.

I served them with Jiffy corn bread. It was delicious.

Here's the original link to the recipe:
http://joyinsimplicity.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/budget-meal-pinto-beans-and-cornbread/

Also, Mems made the beans because she didn't think I could do it properly.

My Healthy... Yummy Breakfast...

I'm totally addicted to making smoothies for breakfast.  I know it's cold, but I still do it.  I even got a special rocket blender to make them with in the morning.  I'm totally becoming "that girl."

So here's the recipe-I got it from the lovely Brigid and then tweaked it.

Almond Milk- about 2 Tablespoons
Flax Seed- 1 T
1 banana
5-6 frozen strawberries
handful of baby spinach
1/4 cup of rolled oats
1 teaspoon Honey

Blend it till it's smooth... it'll be a brownish green color and it will be delicious.

Drinking The Kool-Aid

The cleanse continues... and I really like it!

Yeah, it's harder to eat on the go if I'm in a rush or starving without time to cook (hello 3pm today)  but I survived it and know to plan meals differently tomorrow.

I thought I'd be totally bummed missing dairy and soda and meat... and I do miss cheese and crave a soda once in awhile, but I really don't miss it much.

And I feel 100 times better than I did last week.  I have more energy, I'm getting more done... I'm like one of those damn Good Housekeeping articles about changing your diet and changing your life.

Well, except that I curse a lot. And I miss Vodka.

Today's Meals

Oatmeal with sea salt and honey

Zucchini Soup

Banana

Apple

Roasted Veggies

popcorn cakes with peanut butter

plus some OJ (fighting a cold) and some unsweetened ice tea from QT

Tomorrow... eggplant.  Looking for a vegan recipe now.

Cleanse Dinner 1- Stir Fry

It's here... I'm currently cleansing (with a few minor slip ups, mainly to empty the fridge finally) and it's pretty simple.

Oatmeal with sea salt and local honey for breakfast.

Blackeyed Pea Soup for lunch- courtesy of Mems.

Tofu Stir Fry for dinner.  I love stir fry.  I could eat at Genghis Grill daily and not get sick of it... so I made it myself with my cleanse in mind. 

I sliced carrots, zucchini and diced some firm tofu, like so

Then I cooked it in my wok with some olive oil and garlic powder.  Don't get between this girl and her garlic.

While I was doing this I had some long grain brown rice in the rice cooker. I didn't soak before hand like I prefer so it was a little chewier than I like my rice.. but it was good.

I tossed it in the wok with about a tablespoon of stir fry sauce.

Doesn't it look yummy?

It was really good and made enough for me to put some away for lunch or dinner tomorrow.  My goal this week is to definitely make meals that are big enough I don't necessarily have to cook every night. 

So I've been actually planning my meals ahead of time... which is a change, but think it will be a good thing.

Raw Lemon Pudding

Hello lovers... time for another installment of the Brigid's Vegan Challenge. This week I attempted to make Lemon Chiffon Pudding  from a site Brigit recommended because I'm a little obsessed with lemon desserts.

Seriously- I could eat lemon bars or lemon cake every day.  So I was excited to try this recipe.

The main ingredients- Avocado and Lemon juice.

 



You cut the avocado into chunks and put it in the blender with the juice of 1 lemon, some water and sweetener... I used stevia.  Then 2 Tablespoons of water.

Then blend till smooth.  I forgot to take a blender picture... but it was like that scene in Gremlins when they blend one of the bad Gremlins.  It could have been in Gremlins 2, I'm not sure. But I really flippin' love those movies.

Anyway blend it all up and then taste it... now my lemon must have been particularly potent cause my pudding was super tangy... but I put it in the fridge anyway and will be cutting the sweetness by eating with graham crackers.   Next time I'll taste the blended pudding before adding all the lemon juice.





Vegan Baking Experiment

So after busting my ass at the gym today I decided to do some baking.  Vegan baking to be specific.

For this contest on one of my fave blogs. 

After googling some options I decided to go with a Vegan Apple Crisp from this blog the only way I changed the recipe was to use canola oil instead of margarine. 

Then I gathered supplies and got to work.

Look how pretty!  Mems told me I bought the wrong kind, but I love Red Delicious and was too lazy to go back to the store to get the other kind... so I went with these.

And peeled and cored them.  I'm pretty excited I didn't peel my thumb this time.  It happens. A. Lot.

Then mixed it with sugar and flour... the recipe calls for cinnamon, but I'll let you in on a secret.  I hate cinnamon.

Then spread them out in my handy pyrex and let it set while I made the oat mixture for the crisp top.



I didn't want to use margarine cause I think it's gross and also not vegan, so I googled and found I could swap vegetable oil instead and ended up with 4 Tablespoons of oil to get the right crumbly consistency.

To the oven!  Yes it's angled on purpose to be artsy.

45 minutes at 350 in the oven and I had this... not as brown on top which Mems said was because I used oil instead of a butter substitute... but O. M. G. it was delicious.  I seriously went and got some more while posting these pictures.

It's not as crispy a crisp as I've ever had... probably more of an apple crumble... and next time I should use more apples... but I'm definitely leaving this recipe in my repetoire.