For last night's dinner I used a favorite healthy eating trick. Use leftovers to create a yummy salad.
My aunt and I did this a few times during our family reunion this last week. The week was full of snack foods, savory meats (way more than I'm used to eating), and homemade desserts. It's always lacking in salads so during lunch we started using lettuce from the garden, fresh veggies, and the leftovers to create yummy salads. It tasted and FELT good to eat after all the indulging. Veggies should be the bulk of a diet and it's so easy to not let this happen because of time, cravings, and convenience.
When working, my lunch is almost always a salad. It's the easiest way to quickly make lunch. While I clean up my dinner at night I simply throw some of it into a reusable container with lettuce and veggies. Then set aside some dressing or hummus. Viola, I made my lunch!
Last night I created a delicious salad with some leftovers from a Chipotle Bowl. This had rice, veggies, cheese, and sofritas! Sofritas are Chipotle's "seasoned shredded tofu". I almost never eat at Chipotle, but this week I somehow was there twice so I had to try these Sofritas and now I like them better than any of the meat options you can get there! (Doesn't photograph great though, does it?)
Dinner was simple and fast. Leftover Chipotle with romaine lettuce and grape tomatoes that I chopped in half. I also sauteed some red potatoes in olive oil and garlic (some rosemary would have perfected these, but I was out!)
I didn't need dressing because of the sauce from my leftovers. When I do need dressing I have been partial to using hummus, seasoned olive oil/vinegar blend, or this yummy natural ranch dressing by "Brianna's".
In an effort to cook more often I discovered a new way to make chicken. (My usual way is to ask my husband to BBQ it, he does an awesome BBQ!)
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts (I buy organic from Whole Foods usually, about 1.5lbs)
Unsweetened almond milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil (I use a garlic infused olive oil from Trader Joes)
Almond flour
Directions:
- Optional: Pound chicken
- Soak chicken in almond milk for 10-15minutes.
- While the chicken soaks, preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Line baking dish with aluminum foil
- Lightly coat olive oil in bottom of pan
- Place chicken in pan and brush top with olive oil
- Put salt, pepper, and seasoning on both sides of chicken (amount to your taste)
- Sprinkle top of chicken with almond flour
- Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes
- Turn down temperature to 350 and bake for until 10-20minutes, checking the middle to make sure it is cooked.
Enjoy! Mine left a nice sauce in the pan created by the oil and juices from the chicken. I added roasted cauliflower and enjoyed with rice and veggies. The next day I added the leftover chicken to a big salad. The leftover sauce was perfect as a "dressing".
My stress level is a little high at work this time of year (end of year reports) and snack cravings are insane. Especially for carbs when I get home from work!
We've also had lots of "social" events at work and on the weekends that involve food. I've been trying to curb the cravings and temptations with reminding myself of my healthy options.
This week's feature: Roasted Cauliflower "Popcorn"
Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower
1/4 cup olive oil (I use a garlic infused one from Trader Joe's)
Salt to taste
Optional toppings:
Popcorn seasoning: such as "white cheddar" or "kettle corn"
Pepper
Nutritional yeast (gives it a cheesy flavor)
Garlic powder
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 3. Chopped and break up the cauliflower florets into bite size pieces.
4. In a bowl or directly on the baking sheet (my lazy way) toss the cauliflower with the olive oil and salt. 5. Add your desired optional toppings. My favorite is a little nutritional yeast, white cheddar flavored popcorn seasoning, and garlic if I'm out of my garlic infused olive oil!
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Turn at least once. You want them very brown!!
**If you are feeling rushed you can crank the oven up to 475 and bake for 15-20 minutes just keep an eye on them and turn often!
Other's items I'm snacking on:
Roasted Brussel Sprouts*
Jicama
Hard boiled eggs
Carrots, cucumber, and bell peppers with hummus
Apple with or without almond butter
Low carb mission tortillas with almond butter
Chia seed pudding/porridge*
(**Recipes/ideas for these to come!)
I've been playing with this recipe for weeks now. The idea comes from here. A co-worker and dear friend recommended it. I've been adding variations to make them less sugary and even more delicious. My husband and I are a little more than obsessed with them. New favorite creamy soft delicious protein-packed cookies!! I've included some variations as well.
Ingredients:
1 cup almond butter*
2 eggs*
1/4 cup sugar*
1/4 cup stevia*(I use the cup for cup "Stevia in the Raw" brand, not the packets)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line cookie tray with parchment paper.
3. Mix all the ingredients well until the almond butter is blended well with everything. This mixture may appear a little softer than your typical cookie dough.
4. Drop spoonfuls of dough on your cookie tray and bake for about 8-9 minutes being careful not to burn or over bake them! Let cool and ENJOY!
This makes about 16 cookies. The recipe is gluten-free! I was making these in smaller half batches until my husband discovered how much he loves them. They are disappearing too fast to cut in half now.
Nutrition information for the above recipe (using www.myfitnesspal.com to calculate):
Per serving
Calories: 150
Carbs: 11
Fat: 11
Protein: 5
Fiber (I had to calculate this): 2grams
*Almond Butter: Any nut butter should work, I've only tried it with peanut and almond. Both taste great in my opinion, but my husband strongly prefers almond butter. I use "Barney Butter" Almond Butter because it is creamy like peanut butter. I've also resorted to buying this particular almond butter online recently as the price went up at whole foods. They adjusted it for me after I said something, restoring my faith in customer service, but if it stays so expensive I'll keep buying it online.
*Vegan variation: Use egg substitute or flax meal instead of the eggs. I've tried it with the flax meal and the taste was just as awesome, but the cookie turned out a bit flat. Make sure your chocolate chips are vegan!
*Paleo variation: Substitute the stevia and sugar with 1/2 cup of raw honey. Maybe a little less if you don't want it too sweet, I personally think honey tastes seriously sweet and a little goes a very long way. I like the paleo diet, but I've stopped using honey because it has a bit more carbs than regular sugar. Also, I can more easily mix sugar with stevia to cut out half the carbs. There are some mixed reviews out there about stevia, but for now I'm still using it in moderation. Two more notes on paleo: make sure you are using a "bare" almond butter, no added sugar and don't use peanut butter, it is not paleo. Use dark vegan chocolate.
The weather is getting warmer, however, for some reason I'm still craving soup constantly! This one has been so easy to make and it would be an easy recipe to individualize!
Ingredients:
4 cloves minced or 1/2 tbsp garlic
1/2 tbsp olive or sesame oil
1/2 an onion diced
1 cup diced carrots
4 stalks celery diced
4 cups miso soup broth (or use dry mix packages or paste and follow directions accordingly)
1 1/2 cups water or low sodium vegetable broth (optional)
1 package Shirataki noodles
1 1/2 cups kale or spinach
1 hard boiled egg (optional)
Directions:
1. Saute the garlic and onion in oil in a large sauce pan on low-med heat until onion is clear. About 3-5 minutes.
2. Add carrots and celery (add more veggies if you like...maybe mushrooms!) and cook for about 5-8 minutes.
3. Add the Miso soup broth. I bought mine at Whole Foods, but I've also used the mix packets and my husband does a great job with the paste. I also add the optional water or vegetable broth at this point because I don't like salty soup, if you want more flavor omit or add less water. Simmer the vegetables in the broth for about 10 minutes or until they reach desired texture.
4. Open, drain, and thoroughly rinse the Shirataki Noodles. A few notes on these: I love them! Not a normal noodle because they are made from some sort of yam and soy. I think they taste best as a ramen noodle in soup but have also enjoyed them with sauce. What do I love the most about them? Low calorie, which is a plus, but I really care about the carbs! So how many carbs? 8 carbs in the whole package and 6 grams of fiber! According to my last dietician you subtract half the fiber for a total of 5 carbs in the whole package!! Compared to 40 or more in regular pasta!! T1D (type1diabetes) heaven!! The thing I don't like? They have a very unique "fish" smell. This goes away once rinsed well and keep in mind to follow package instructions if you are going to use as spagetti.
5. Add the yummy Shirataki Noodles to the broth with your kale/spinach. Heat on low about 3 minutes until noodles are warm and greens are slightly cooked.
6. Pour soup in a bowl, add an egg if you want some extra protein and enjoy!
My estimated carb count, for the WHOLE pot would be about 30 carbs. I get 2-3 servings from this recipe so only 10-15 carbs per serving!
Jicama Salad
1/2 a large jicama, peeled (about 12 ounces)
1/2 medium zucchini, sliced
2-3 thin slices red onion chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Lettuce leaves, as garnish-optional
1. Cut jicama into desired sizes either small sticks or cube sizes. Combine jicama, zucchini, and onion in a bowl. Pour dressing (see below) over it and toss; season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Arrange lettuce leaves on salad plates; top with salad
Cilantro Lime Dressing
2 tbsp lime juice
1 small roma tomato finely diced *(see variation note)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
4-5 drops liquid stevia *(see variation note)
1. Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate until serving time; mix before using.
Makes 6 side dishes about 2/3 a cup each.
**Variation note: This recipe is alkaline as written. If you like you can add 1 small orange cut into segments to the salad. The variation for the dressing would be to substitute 2 tbsp orange juice for the tomato and 2 tsp sugar for the stevia.
Estimated calories/carbs per serving (best estimations I could do!):
Tomato version: 64 calories and 10.5 carbs
Orange/sugar version: 77 calories and 13.5 carbs
It is a colorful salad. I added orange as garnish for the sake of more color!
I originally bought zuchinni with the idea of making these flourless zuchinni muffins. Then felt inspired to make the jicama salad. Turns out still had enough to make half the recipe, which was more than enough.
I've made these before and they were scrumptious, made a few of my own adjustments this time. Less honey, less chocolate chips, added a little almond flour, and a little cocoa powder. Thankfully I didn't ruin them, still sweet and chocolatey goodness. Clearly cut out a lot of the sugar because I had about 10 of these mini muffins and my blood sugar went DOWN. So I had more.
Jicama is one of my favorite snacks. I discovered jicama when I took a four week vegetarian cooking course from my college dietician. A jicama salad was one of the dishes we made, I'll post the recipe for that later this week!
Fun facts/benefits of jicama:
- Jicama is a root vegetable often found in Mexico, Central America, and South Asia.
- I often joke that jicama tastes like "water and fiber" because it has a crisp refreshing flavor and definitely a high fiber content.
- How high is that fiber content?! 6 grams of fiber in one cup!
- Great snack for keeping blood sugars in range. I see very little to no affect on my blood sugars from snacking on jicama. There are 12 grams of carbs in a cub, but with 6 grams of fiber, the net effect on blood sugar is 6 carbs per cup.
- High alkaline food
- Anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory
- Keeps you full with all that fiber and very low in calories!
Storing and Preparing Jicama:
- Choose the smoothest jicama you can find with no blemishes or dark spots. Jicama is in season fall, winter, and spring.
- Store jicama unpeeled at room temperature. Mine usually last up to a week unpeeled in my fruit bowl. Some say they can last longer.
- Once peeled and chopped store in the refrigerator, it will spoil/turn brown if left out.
- I store my jicama in rubbermaids, you can add water, olive oil and/or lemon to help keep it fresh. I occasionally do this.
- Do not eat the skin. Peel it off or chop it off (This is easier for me). Then chop into desired sizes. I chop into long sticks or small cubes.
1. This side of my jicama is smooth and blemish free.
2. This side is not as pretty. A little damage to the white meaty part underneath may need to be cut off as well. My grocery store never has perfect jicama. As close as you can find!
3. I cut off the skin and rinsed it off with water.
4. Chopped into small pieces and ready for snacking or throwing into a salad. A second jicama standing by, as I plan to finish the first by the end of the week!
Eating it:
- Raw nothing on it!
- Olive oil and lemon
- Lemon and Tajin (yummy chili pepper seasoning)
- Throw it in a salad
- Dip it! Hummus, guacamole, or anything you fancy!
- Some ideas I have yet to try: Boil/mash as substitute for mashed potatoes, roast it, add to stir fry or to soup! I'm looking forward to testing a few of these out in the near future!
On more than one occasion the cashier at the grocery store has asked me "what do you do with this?" while holding up my jicama with a puzzled expression. The most simple response: "Just cut it up and eat it!"
