Quinoa Asparagus Salad (Super easy, Super yum, Super filling)

I don't eat  a lot of meat. I never loved it. Even when I was in high school I refused to touch red meat (mostly because my oh so cool Uncle from New York City didn't and I wanted to be just like him. Including living in NYC. Just like on Friends. Because that was real grown up life portrayed to us 90's high school kids. And it looked awesome.)

Since I was prego with my little girl, the thought of touching chicken, let alone eating it, makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. I. Just. Can't. So that leaves me with the occasional red meat splurge, fish, eggs and turkey (because it is different than chicken. Don't ask me why my brain can handle a turkey carcass and not a boneless skinless chicken breast *gag*) Oh, and I limit dairy too. I had gallbladder surgery a little over a year ago and just can't. Nobody wants to deal with that. Seriously, I am a dinner party host's worst nightmare.

When I started the 21 Day Fix, I was pumped. I was so excited to see how I could use this portion control thing to really get me past the plateau I had been facing for a while now. (I guess I could have busted out the measuring cups but the color coded containers were SO much cuter and made me excited. I know. I know. Total nerd.) My conundrum came when I realized that, according to my calorie bracket, I was to eat 4 red containers a day. Red meaning protein. No biggie. And then I realized that beans and quinoa were considered a yellow container. The red container list consisted of meats, high protein dairy and soy protein (tofu and tempeh.)

Every once in a while I love to enjoy some soy protein (always organic and non-GMO certified.) But all the controversy around soy makes me nervous. So this is something I limit. Really limit. To maybe once a month. And I can't eat fish every day. First it is expensive. Second there are mercury issues. And third. That is boring.

Sure I could add an extra protein shake to my daily lineup (and some days I do) but the first go round I ended up eating A LOT of eggs. But I just couldn't do it again. I was sick of eggs. But I wanted to stick with the Fix nutrition guide because it worked. It is awesome and it forces me to meal plan (a total vice for me.) I knew I had to find a happy medium between the Fix lists and my desire to eat mostly plant based.

Then I found an interview with Autumn and she was asked about alternative protein for vegans and vegetarians. She said that it was totally acceptable to count things like lentils, beans and quinoa as protein for vegans or vegetarians (which I took to include people like me who float around somewhere in the middle of it all.) She did say that the results may not be as extreme if you are eating a lot of what used to be yellows as reds but because of the portion control you will still see success. And let's be honest. It really did bug me that a veggie burger was on the original list of red containers (and many veggie burgers have beans in them) but beans were not. This makes me really happy. So here is the updated food lists if you are a vegan or vegetarian (who doesn't do soy) or just a can't decide where you belong (like me).

So for dinner last week I made this awesome quinoa asparagus salad. I pretty much looked at what I had in my fridge and googled. And I adjusted to what I had. The hubby doesn't generally love meatless meals so I was thrilled that he really liked this. (When he asks how I made it and how long it took I know it's a keeper.) It was so much a keeper that I made it again a week later.

The original recipe didn't call for spinach but I had some that needed using so I added that. I would call that an optional ingredient. I also add the olives to mine but leave them out of John's since he has this whole olive "thing" (and by thing I mean loathing of all things olive which I think is totally crazy because they kind of make my heart sing.) There was also a lemon/oil dressing on the salad which I didn't love the first time. So on the second go round, I mixed it up and went with one of my favorites. The honey lime vinaigrette which I adapted from The Yummy Life (which you can find here.) I avoid canola oil like the plague when I can (hello GMO's) and sub it in every recipe. Plus I always like to take recipes and make them work for me. You will never find anything remotely spicy in anything I eat and if there is a way to add some fresh cilantro....it will probably happen. This dressing was amazing on the quinoa salad. I have also had it on regular green salads, shrimp, fish, turkey burgers....I will pretty much put it on anything. And then lick the inside of the blender. Seriously, make it. Love it. Use it on everything.

I have become a huge proponent of making your own salad dressings. It takes five minutes and then you don't have to worry about all the yuck that is lurking in store bought salad dressing. Some of those labels are insane. Tons of ingredients and most of them I can't pronounce. And if I am too lazy to make blend up a quick dressing....a good quality olive oil drizzle with some balsamic vinegar does the job just fine (but check your balsamic to make sure it doesn't contain caramel coloring!) But onto my kind of amazing dinner.

Here is what I did: 

1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)
3 cups veggie broth or stock
1 bunch of asparagus (chopped into bite size pieces)
2 cups (or a few handfuls) of spinach
3.5 oz sun dried tomatoes (julienned)
1/2 red onion (a sweet onion works well too. If it is a really strong or large onion you may want to cut back to using 1/4 of it.)

Cook the quinoa according to package directions in the veggie broth.

While the quinoa is cooking prepare your dressing:

1/2 cup cold pressed olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (I juiced 2 1/2 limes)
1 teaspoon dijon mustard (I use Annie's Organic Horseradish Mustard)
1 tablespoon honey (I prefer to use raw honey. For more about the benefits of raw honey click here.)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or fresh minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
A large handful of fresh cilantro

Combine all ingredients and blend.

Add chopped sundried tomatoes, onion and spinach to a large bowl.

When the quinoa is close to done. Cook your asparagus by either steaming or sauteing in a tiny bit of coconut oil. Cook 3-4 minutes or until the asparagus turns bright green. I like my still crunchy so not over cooking is a priority for me.

Add the cooked asparagus and quinoa to the bowl. Toss with spinach, sundried tomatoes and onion until the spinach starts to wilt. Top with dressing.

I also cooked up some shrimp (with cilantro and the juice of half a lime) to top our tasty quinoa. In this case I did count the quinoa as a yellow container, since I had the other protein source.

Enjoy your amazing dinner. (You can thank me later.)

Deconstructed Baked Broccoli Stuffed Potato (comfort food for a cold snowy night)

I am not a huge potato eater. I despise mashed potatoes (it's a texture thing) and baked potatoes never really did much for me unless they were smothered with cheese and enough stuff that I couldn't actually taste the potato part. But I have learned that is all about how you cook them and since I have had some potatoes sitting on my counter for about a month that are starting to look kind of sad, I decided it was time.

Plus I feel like the potato gets a bad wrap. We have totally abused it in junk food but that doesn't mean the humble potato itself is bad news. It actually has some nutritional value (that is often overlooked) and always eat the skin.

For Thanksgiving this year, I made some pretty awesome polenta crusted potatoes. So I decided to take that recipe and do a spin on the broccoli and cheese stuffed baked potato. (Now this recipe isn't vegan. But you could make a really easy No-Cheese sauce like the one over at Forks Over Knives* to top yours. I was having a mini cheat post cleanse and allowing myself some real cheese.)

The other thing I loved about baking this was that I really didn't have to measure anything. I just used the potatoes I had and added stuff until it looked right. (I know worst recipe to try and follow ever.) The good news is you really can't go wrong. I am going to guess-timate the amounts of what I used but in reality, I just dumped stuff in the bowl. And for the sauce -- well and all my dairy anymore, I always try to use diary that comes from grass fed cows. It tastes better and doesn't seem to give me as many problems as conventional dairy. (And I have become obsessed with avoiding GMO's.)

Here is what I did:

2 cups of chopped potatoes
olive oil
1/4 cup organic polenta
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 TBS basil
garlic powder to taste
Himalayan Salt
& pepper to taste

1 bunch of broccoli chopped into bite size pieces

1 TBS butter
1 TBS whole wheat flour(you can sub this to make it gluten free)
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheese


Take your chopped potatoes and put them in a bowl. (I chopped mine small -- think hash brown size-- so they would cook faster and get coated in more of the good stuff.) Drizzle with olive oil and stir until all potatoes are coated. Add polenta, nutritional yeast, basil, garlic and salt. Stir to coat. (Add more polenta as needed to coat potatoes.)

In a hot skillet, cook potatoes on medium high heat until almost fork tender. (This took about 20 minutes for me.) Add broccoli and cover allowing the broccoli to steam for a few minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, melt the butter in a saucepan. Once the butter is melted add the flour and whisk until it makes a paste. Slowly whisk in the milk until smooth, whisking the entire time. Continue stirring until the milk bubbles around the sides. Do not allow it to come to a full boil. Add the cheese. Stir until melted. Change heat to low and stir until ready to assemble.

Grab a bowl, add potatoes and broccoli and top with sauce.

Super yummy.

Super hearty.

And clean. Yay!


Pssst....

Here is the recipe for the No-cheese Sauce from Forks over Knives (which is a great documentary and
a really great cook book even if you aren't 100% vegan or vegetarian and are just trying to cut back on your consumption of animal products. Lots of sauces, quick meals and everything I have made has been really tasty.)

No-Cheese Sauce

This sauce is great with a casserole and can be used for recipes like mac and cheese or baked ziti. Best of all, it takes about 5 minutes to put together.

1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons toasted cashews
1 tablespoon tahini
1 cup nutritional yeast
Sea salt to taste

1. Combine everything in a blender and puree until smooth and creamy.

Happy Eating! 

What To Do With All This Sweet Corn (you know you live in Western PA when this is a problem!)

So maybe it has to do with the fact that I am getting over some sinus and respiratory stuff but I have been craving soup like crazy. It is all I have wanted to eat (with some yummy bread to sop it up, of course! Who eats soup without bread?)

I have also been overloaded with corn from my CSA (community supported agriculture - you should
totally look one up and join. It's awesome.) My fridge is completely full of sweet corn and it is getting out of control. I have no where to put any other food and when I move something it all rolls around and it is getting silk everywhere (you know it's summer in Western PA when your floor is covered in corn silk ALL the time.)

In order to address my soup addiction and get this corn out of my fridge, I decided to goole some corn soup. I mean it has to exist, right? Somewhere people eat this? The idea of a creamy bowl of pureed sweet corn sounded amazing to my aching sinuses. (Maybe I will find something to fill the void that Panera's Broccoli and Cheese soup left in my life -- and yes with a bread bowl. Hello this girl, in love with bread. It's kind of an addiction.)

*Google*

And yes, it does exist! There are actually a lot of recipes for sweet corn soup, much to my suprise. But I didn't anticipate how much of a pain it was going to be to make. In my head I was going to cut it off the cob. Cook it up. Add some broth and whatever else it called for and then use my fancy immersion blender to make it all smooth and awesome.

Generally, things don't seem to turn out the way I picture them in my head. Ever. (You would think I would have learned that by now.)

Almost all of the recipes I found wanted me to grate the corn off the cob to make a mushy mess of corn puree. Well I knew what kind of mess that would be. Corn juice all over my kitchen and a starchy mess all over my hands (plus the possibility of some scraped fingers.) I don't think so. This was the perfect instance to use my immersion blender for something other than my daily Shakeology. Look at me being versatile in the kitchen and making good use of my appliances. (And apparently so much smarter than the 400 people that have probably made this before.)

So I cut and sauteed and cooked and added broth and coconut milk. My house smelled awesome. And I blended, dodging flying hot lava soup when the blender got too close to the surface of the pot.

Then I tasted. And the taste was awesome. What was not awesome....the corn skin left in the pot even after I blended forever. So I blended more. Still corn skin. And I tried to convince myself it wasn't a problem. That it made it more authentic and corny to have the skins in there. That it gave it a more palatable texture. And it was all lies! All of it. I could not justify leaving the corn skins in the soup and I was not happy with what I knew had to happen next. (Why didn't I listen to all the people who grated their corn. Messy hands are so much easier to deal with than the straining of the corn skins.)

So I busted out a strainer and put it over a large pyrex measuring cup and ladled. Ladle-full by ladle-full I strained, using the back of a spoon to work the liquid through the strainer. Ugh. Talk about boring and time consuming but it was well worth the effort. The result was creamy and yummy corn goodness. If you are a corn on the cob lover (borderline obsessed) then this is a masterpiece in a bowl.

I froze two jars of my liquid corn gold and promptly enjoyed the rest for dinners (with some really good toasted sunflower whole wheat bread! yum!) while my sinus yuckyness cleared up.

The original recipe I found here and adapted it to meet my non-dairy preferences.

So this is what I did:

1 or 2 TBS of olive oil
10-12 ears of sweet corn - kernels removed*
1 medium sweet onion
3 small shallots
32 ounces veggie broth
2 cans coconut milk
3 TBS water
2 TBS arrowroot
Salt (to taste - I used Himalayan salt)
White pepper (to taste)

In a large pot saute the olive oil and onion and shallots.

When they are almost translucent, add the corn and cook for five more minutes or so.

Add the veggie broth and let it all come to a boil.

Turn down the heat and let simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes.

Add the coconut milk, stir and allow to simmer for 15 more minutes

Whisk the arrowroot with the water and add to the pot along with salt and pepper.

Strain *

Serve

* Many of the recipes I found called for grating the corn off the cob with a grater so it turns into a puree rather than starting with kernels cut off the cob. After the frustration I experienced with straining I recommend this method. Maybe 90% of the people posting recipes for this online knew what they were talking about or maybe I had a really sad strainer that kept getting clogged. Either way - totally your call.

Happy Eats!

Happy Grilling Weekend (a recipe for those of us who might be grill-less, want to go meat-less or both)

Tis the season to fire up the grill! But seeing as we are in the land of it is June and I wake up and still have to put a hoodie on to go outside (and I still might be cold) chilling grill-side isn't really something we look forward to doing. That combined with an upstairs apartment makes you get a little creative around here if you want to grill.

My other major problem when it comes to grilling is finding a meatless patty concoction that holds it's
shape and won't fall apart while cooking (resulting in huge mess on a grill, not that much of a mess in a pan.)

Now I found this recipe on Skinnytaste.com. I dig this website. (When I was eating meat I found a recipe on there for herbed pork chops. They were O-M-geee amazing. Every once in a while the thought of eating that recipe makes me want to cook up Wilbur again. My apologies buddy.) This time I found spinach and quinoa patties. I am always trying to find more ways to get greens into my dinner and into my toddler's mouth. So in burger form with sweet potato fries this was a win-win twinkle in this mama's eye.

A word about quinoa. If you haven't heard about this rockstar grain yet you need to get it into your pantry! It is a complete protein source (which is a huge deal for those of us that don't eat creatures for whatever reason) and super easy to cook. As easy to cook as rice. It make a great rice substitute too (my hubby likes to make quinoa and shove it in his burritos.) Technically, this superstar is a seed and super easy to flavor. Think being able to douse it with cinnamon for breakfast but cooking it in veggie stock for dinner. It is one of my favorite things to eat. And we tell B that they are seeds like birdies eat. So many a times we sit around the table tweeting as we eat (and not the kind you do from your smartphone. Welcome to the crazy house.)

So as my quinoa spinach patties cooked up they got all crispy crunchy on the outside and were still pretty gooey on the inside (a combo that makes my taste receptors go all it's a party.) These babies were great but I don't know how they would fare on a grill. They stayed together pretty well in a pan and once all crunchy on both sides. I was also thinking how it would work if you made them ahead of time and refrigerated so they were a little more chilled together (and if you wouldn't be all quinoa sticky hands in the middle of your grill-fest party.) It was just me cooking for our little family out here so I wasn't too concerned about the sticky hands mess but since I like to have hoards of people around me when I am home (ask John how many time I thwarted his chance to propose because I had to invite everyone I knew to go with us everywhere. The more the merrier - unless you want to get engaged.) I always try to come up with way to make it work in a party or small get together or anywhere I would rather be drinking a beer and hanging out with friends than locked in the kitchen making a mess.

While the texture of the patties was great, the flavor was kind of underwhelming. Since I was tasting as I was mushing my quinoa and spinach and (flax) eggs together I just started dumping in spices. I added (in addition to the traditional salt and pepper) some cumin and extra garlic as well as some basil. I think in making these again I would cook the quinoa in veggie stock instead of water to give it some more flavor. So I highly recommend flavoring these to your liking.

I would also like to try it with more spinach. The spinach was more of an accent in this burger. I wanted it to be the main event. I know there would be a risk that the patties wouldn't stick together as well but I intend to play with adding more spinach next time. You can view the original recipe here.

This is how I cooked them up:

1 cup uncooked quinoa (I used Bob's Red Mill brand.)

2 cups of water (or veggie stock)

4 flax eggs (or regular eggs)

1 onion minced

1 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)

1 cup steamed spinach

minced garlic

salt & pepper to taste

basil to taste

cumin to taste

olive oil (I used my Mistoto spray olive oil in the pan)

Directions:

Rinse the quinoa and bring the 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the quinoa and reduce heat to simmer. Cook until the quinoa is tender and has absorbed the liquid -- about 15-20 minutes.

In a large bowl combine the quinoa (you may want to let it cool a bit first) the spinach, the onion, eggs, salt, pepper and any other spices you want to throw in there. Mix it all up and let it sit a few minutes to absorb the liquid and get gooey. Make into patties.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Cook each patty about 8-10 minutes on each side or until they are golden crunchy and delicious looking.

Serve with or without buns.

Why I decided to become a Beachbody coach....

I always said that if I was an actress or model or *insert job that requires a hot body here* I would totally look that good too. I mean, it would be MY JOB. I am going to work hard for my job or not get paid. If the model doesn't look good, she doesn't book any jobs, she doesn't get paid. Well, it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is because I just made it my job. One of the best reasons I saw for signing up to be a Beachbody coach was that it was now my job to look good too. How am I supposed to motivate or help anyone reach their health goals while I am sitting on my ass eating popcorn all day? The answer is I'm not. So on those days where I just don't want to, please don't make me workout, it pushes me to do so. It keeps me accountable without having to go to a meeting to listen to people whine about how cake is the devil.

What I love about everything I have experienced so far is that there is no magic pill. No you aren't going to lose 60 lbs in 30 days (ok maybe someone somewhere has but the reality of that is super slim.) You aren't going to lose weight by sitting on the couch. It just doesn't work that way. You have to put the work in and you get out exactly what you put in. If I skip workouts and eat like poo, it is reflective in my performance and my results. I have literally given blood, sweat and tears to completing the Insanity program and worked my butt off for every single ounce I lost. And I didn't lose a ton of weight. I will not be the next infomercial star but I am so proud of myself for showing up and working hard.

I believe, as consumers, we are lied to every day and, as Americans (in one of the heaviest nation in the world) we are super sensitive to anything that promises to be an easy and quick fix when it comes to weight loss. Beachbody is not that. And I love that about this company. There are so many workout program options and they just ask you to push play and give everything you've got. That is something I can stand behind.

When I ordered Insanity, I had just done a month of bootcamp (with a Groupon) and was in love. I was getting up at 5 and busting my hump 5 days a week. My month with my Groupon was almost over (and I couldn't afford to stay without the discount) and I didn't want to lose the incentive or the good habits I had started. The infomercial for Insanity came on and I thought why not? I proved I could do more than I thought by taking a bootcamp class for a month, maybe this was step 2. Go big or go home.

And while my Insanity results weren't commercial worthy, they aren't anything to sneeze at either. I have tried so many programs, so many different diets, but nothing gave me results that came close to my Insanity results (even the bootcamp I loved so much.) One thing I really struggled with during Insanity (and I think I will with almost every Beachbody program going forward) was the meal plan. About a year ago, I gave up meat and dairy. Most of the eating guides are very meat (protein) heavy. I started searching the message boards and even asked in some of the Beachbody groups on Facebook. I found nothing. I really felt like there was a huge gap in the community. And when I found an "answer" it was to substitute tofu or other soy based protein product (which the jury is still out on how great these are for you too...) I don't mind tofu and I have actually grown to really enjoy it in some recipes (once I fumbled through a bunch of recipes learning how to cook it.) But I really didn't want to eat that much soy. I try to limit that to once a week not multiple times a day! Where is the help for someone looking for vegetarian or vegan nutrition? It just isn't there. I really want to be there to help people who are struggling with the meal plans, like I did.

Learning about plant based nutrition has lead me down this twisty turvy path that has me questioning
not only what is sold as food but what we are told about our food by manufacturers. We are generally given brightly colored boxes with nutritions claims and are virtually patted on the head and told we are good boys and girls for making the right decisions. The entire food industry treats us like we are children. No, honey, you don't really want to know how we put the fiber back in or how we made the fat free, healthy, death by chocolate cookie taste good or how we keep the bugs out of the corn. Those are messy, grown up things that you don't need to worry about. Now go eat your snack and stop asking silly questions.


I feel like my job as a Beachbody coach is not to get people to eat the way I do or get as fired up as I do about the food industry but to let everyone know it is ok to question what is in your food. Why do we have to add red dye to farm raised salmon? (and when I found out the answer to that I gagged and stopped eating farm raised salmon.) Why does Kraft make macaroni and cheese for European countries without artificial food dyes and will not do that same thing in America? (read more about that here. Thanks Foodbabe!) And that it is ok to decide that maybe you want to stop eating things with artificial dyes or sweeteners or even foods that are processed. As Beachbody coaches, I feel, that we need to get out there and encourage people to make their own decisions, to do their own research, to empower them to try things like clean eating and see first hand if it makes a difference in their lives. Our food is fuel for our life. I know I don't want to eat things that make me feel sluggish and tired and laying on the couch all day because I don't want to look back and see that I spent more of my days invested in the lives of fictional characters than I did invested in the lives of the people I care the most about.

And of course there was one more huge reason I bit the bullet and decided to become a Beachbody coach...

The discount! That was a huge incentive for me to become a Beachbody coach. I wanted the 25% discount. Even with the monthy website maintanance fee, it was still saving me around 15 bucks on my shakeology. That was a no brainer for me. Kind of like when I used to work retail. I loved getting the clothes on the cheap (and ended buying way more than I should have or needed.) I also get bored easily. I'm not the type who is going to keep doing the same workout over and over and over. Sure I might come back to a workout (maybe revisiting Insanity once a year or so) but I need to change it up. The discount gave me the ability to purchase more workouts (starting Turbofire next! Whoot!) and now that I am committed to exercising 6 days a week I need the variety. (And if I ever stop ordering "mom's shake" my toddler might never forgive me, as it has become her favorite snack.)