Category Archives: Recipes

Refreshing orange muffins

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

I have a bag full of oranges that are nearly impossible to peel. To get through the bag a little quicker, I’ve been brainstorming uses for freshly squeezed orange juice. Smoothies, sangria, orange chicken, cake… the possibilities seem endless.

Last week, I made an orange-glazed tempeh (glaze = fresh orange juice, sugar and a dash of cornstarch blended together on a simmer) and for Mother’s Day I baked these refreshing orange muffins! Check ‘em out!

~

Refreshing orange muffins (Makes 10-12 small muffins)

1 Ingredients

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1 large egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

4 tbsp melted butter (let cool)

Zest and juice of a small orange

3 tbsp white sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together Greek yogurt, egg, orange juice, vanilla and butter. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, mix sugar and orange zest together. Once combined, add flours, baking powder and baking soda. Mix these dry ingredients together.
  4. Pour the liquid ingredients from the small bowl into your bowl of dry ingredients and stir to blend.
  5. Divide the batter into lightly greased (or lined) muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Serve warm or store in fridge/freezer for later.

Stay healthy, stay happy, eat muffins.

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Healthy, twice-baked sweet potato

Posted in Fitness, Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

I know life isn’t always easy, but it definitely doesn’t have to be complicated. Springtime is an opportunity for a fresh start, to begin anew, or to be reborn. Let the change of season be an opportunity for you to remove any clutter from your life (i.e. clean out your closet, give your refrigerator a sweep, clean your car or simplify your diet).

I’m all about keeping things tidy and living simply, but there is always room for improvement. One significant change I’ve made with the change of season is cleaning up my diet. I struggle with my eating habits on a daily basis, trying to eat right while keeping my reactive hypoglycemia at bay. Eating clean, fibrous, protein-packed meals is my ultimate goal, but that’s a costly and often time-consuming plan to have. My tips?

  • Don’t buy the bad stuff: Stock up on whole grains, fruits, veggies and protein-packed snacks like nuts and seeds. Avoid salty snacks and frozen meals.
  • Ix-nay unnecessary ingredients: Does your peanut butter really need anything but peanuts in it? No. Sure that salty, hint-of-honey peanut butter tastes like heaven, but the stripped-down version tastes good too! I wasn’t crazy about it at first, but your taste buds will crave it over time.
  • Meal prep: Meal-prep is CRUCIAL. Every week, I set aside some time to wash fruits and veggies, then prep some meals and snacks for the week ahead.
  • Prepare simple meals: The simpler your meals, the better. But remember, simple doesn’t have to be boring. Take some cooked brown rice, fry it up with tons of veggies, maybe add some tofu or pain grilled chicken, toss in some spices and voilà! (For easy fried rice, just add a scrambled egg to the rice and veggies and stir quickly.)

~

I’ll be sharing some of my simple, stripped-down recipes all spring and summer. Here is one of my personal favorites:

sweet potatoTwice-baked sweet potato (Serves 1)

Ingredients

1 medium sweet potato

2 tbsp plain Greek yogurt

1 tbsp of a cheese of your choice (cheddar/Mexican blend  or an Italian blend are my favorites)

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 375°F.
  2. Poke holes in your sweet potato with a fork or knife. Fully cook the potato in the microwave for about 6-7 minutes)or in the oven for 1 hour. (How hungry are you?)
  3. Once the potato is fully cooked, slice it in half the long ways and scoop out the insides with a spoon. Leave a thin layer of potato on the skin.
  4. In a bowl, mix together potato, Greek yogurt, cheese and any spices you fancy adding. Place your potato halves on a baking sheet like a bowl. Put the mixture back into the potato halves and sprinkle any addition spices.
  5. Bake halves for 10-15 minutes or until edges start to brown.

Once your potato cools, enjoy as-is or add some toppings! The twice-baked sweet potato is delicious as-is, but I couldn’t help but add some salsa, avocado, a dollop of Greek yogurt and some scallions. :)

Stay healthy, stay happy, keep it simple.

sweet potato

Five ingredient hummus

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

Yes, you read correctly! This recipe includes five ingredients and tastes absolutely, positively delicious. Another bonus? It’s inexpensive! One 8 oz tub of Trader Joe’s Tahini Sauce can make up to 8 batches of hummus — unless you really love tahini, then it might only make 4 batches of hummus. Either way, TJ’s sells the tub at $2.99, Garbanzo beans at 89¢ and pre-made hummus for $2.99+… I’ll let you do the math to calculate your savings. ;)

Lemon garlic hummus

Ingredients

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

2+ tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp Trader Joe’s Tahini Sauce (or a similar product)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 clove garlic (best if roasted or sauteed first, yumm yumm yumm)

*For more flavor, add spices like salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, onion powder, etc.

**For a creamier hummus dip, add Greek yogurt (1+ tbsp).

Instructions

  1. Pour chickpeas and 1 tbsp of olive oil into a food processor. (Depending on the size of your food processor, you might have to blend 1/2 of the can with olive oil first, then add the rest of the can.) 
  2. Once the chickpeas start to breakdown, add the garlic, tahini and lemon juice. Blend.
  3. In order to reach your desired consitancy, continue to blend and drizzle in additional olive oil.
  4. EAT!

Healthy black bean soup

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

A couple weeks ago I made this delicious black bean soup inspired by The Teenage Taste. Despite seeing the official start of Spring marked in my calendar… I’m not feeling too Spring-y. Temps are still rather low and we have seen some snow this week… well, A LOT of snow this week. C’mon, Mother Nature! I want to run outside more!

Enjoy a warm bowl of this filling soup for lunch, dinner or even as a snack between meals. There aren’t a lot of ingredients here, but I promise the soup packs plenty of flavor!SONY DSC

Ingredients (Serves 2)

  • Olive oil
  • 1/2  cup chopped onion
  • 1 carrot, shredded or chopped finely
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • 1 can vegetable stock
  • 1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, rinsed and drained
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • pinch of cayenne pepper
  • sour cream and cilantro, for garnish

Directions

  1. In a large saucepan, heat about 1/t tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onion, carrot and garlic for about   5 minutes or until the onion and carrot soften. Add chili powder and cumin. Cook, stirring for another minute.
  2. Add vegetable stock and 1/2 can of beans and bring to a boil. While the soup is reaching a boil, run the other half of the black beans through a blender or food processor with 1 tsp of olive oil; add this bean purée to your soup.
  3.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Garnish soup with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, cilantro, green onions or anything else you might enjoy.

I served my soup with some veggie and flaxseed chips from Trader Joe’s. Yum!

Cuckoo for coconut (Granola / Protein muffins)

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

Happy birthday to me!

Yes, it is my birthday today! The big 2-3. How did I spend it, you ask? Well, by doing limited real-world work, blogging and going out to dinner with my handsome father. It’s been a great birthday so far. I’ve gotten a lot of love from my family and friends… oh, and myself.

A gift from me, myself and I. New lululemon Wunder Under crops and jacket.

A gift from me, myself and I. New lululemon Wunder Under crops and jacket.

A gift from a coworker... ;)

A gift from a coworker… ;)

Tea, notebook and snacks from my roommate. Card from my grandparents. BOSTON CALLING tickets from Ryo. <3

Tea, notebook and snacks from my roommate. Card from my grandparents. BOSTON CALLING tickets from Ryo. <3

My dad took me to Fire and Ice in Cambridge — we love it there. You get to pick out your own food, watch it get cooked in front of you and then enjoy it in a nice upbeat atmosphere. After dinner, we headed on over to J.P. Licks. I was so full of shrimp/veggie stir fry that I couldn’t even get through half of my frozen yogurt (PB, chocolate chunk). My dad is still hanging out with me as I type. He is, however, napping over there (—>). Food coma, perhaps?

Another great birthday surprise was my COCONUT OIL (!) from Tropical Traditions. I won this lovely jar of coconut oil from Inspire and Indulge. Leah picked two different winners before me who didn’t step up and claim their prize. Third times the charm, I guess!

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So far, I have been doing a lot of coconut cooking… you could say I’m cuckoo for coconut oil. This week I made Vanilla Coconut Granola and Chocolate Coconut Protein Muffins. The muffins aren’t that pretty, but they sure are yummy.

Here are some recipes for both the granola and muffins:

Vanilla Coconut Granola

Ingredients

1 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup crispy rice cereal

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup shredded coconut*

1/4 cup slice almonds*

*optional

SONY DSCInstructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil, sprayed lightly with cooking spray.
  2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine oats, rice cereal and cinnamon.
  3. In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil on low heat, adding honey and vanilla. Stir over the low flame until they have all melted together.
  4. Pour liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and combine (stirring with wooden spoon) until all of the oats and cereal are coated.
  5. Place your mixture on the baking sheet, leaving an opening in the middle to prevent your granola from burning.photo
  6. Bake for about 15-25 minutes (big range, I know. But, every oven is different). Check your granola every 5 minutes. Once it starts to brown, take it out and let it cool completely. Enjoy with coconut milk and fruit, yogurt and almonds, or throw it in a trail mix!

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Chocolate Coconut Protein Muffins

(Makes ~6)

Ingredients

Dry 

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1 tbsp chocolate protein powder

1 tsp baking powder

Wet

1 egg white

2 tbsp coconut oil (melted)

2 tbsp cup honey

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup shredded coconut

palm-full of chocolate chips*

*optional

Not the prettiest picture, haha.

Not the prettiest picture, haha.

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and line or lightly grease a muffin tin (I used a cupcake-sized muffin tin).
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine dry ingredients (except coconut and chocolate chips). In another bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and mix best you can.
  3. Next, add the chocolate chips and shredded coconut. Combine well.
  4. The muffin batter is going to be on the thicker side. Divide it out into your muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.
  5. Let cool and enjoy! Store in an air tight container, or freeze some for future pre-workout snacks.

Sweet potato banana bites

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

 

By Emily McLaughlin

When I saw these flour-less muffins, I was a little skeptical. This is recipe is from The Lean Green Bean and these muffins were oddly delicious! Try ‘em out!

Click to go to The Lean Green Bean!

Click to go to The Lean Green Bean!

I highly recommend that you do the work and really mash the banana and sweet potato well. I left a couple chunks of sweet potato… and those were my least favorite bites of muffin.
photo 1-1

Homemade tomato sauce

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

This is my first sauce recipe. Over the weekend, Ryo and I decided to make some chicken parm to soothe the soul. The chicken was breaded in panko, stuffed with mozzella and baked to perfection. On top of the chicken… a hearty homemade tomato sauce.

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Chicken and eggplant parm. :)

Homemade tomato sauce

Ingredients

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 celery stock, washed and diced

1/2 medium onion

1 large garlic clove

1 tomato

1 6oz. can of tomato paste

1+ cup water

Seasonings (garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, basil, oregano)

pasta

Directions

  1. Roast tomato: Slice the tomato into circular pieces, place in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper. Roast at 425° F for 20-30 minutes or until the tomato starts to blister.
  2. While the tomato is roasting, heat olive oil in large skillet. Add carrot, celery and onion and stir to coat with olive oil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. After 15 minutes, stir the garlic into the skillet and increase the heat to medium. Next, add the roasted tomato (diced) and 1/2 cup of water. (You could use 1 can of tomatoes instead of roasting your own. If you do, take the water out of the ingredients list and use the liquid in the can.)
  4. Add the tomato paste to the skillet and mix well. Next, add seasonings a little at a time. (I added basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and tasted the sauce as I went.) Reduce the heat to a simmer and let the sauce cook for 15 more minutes — stirring occasionally and adding water and seasonings as you go.

Put you sauce on pasta, spaghetti squash, chicken parm, pizza… the possibilities are endless!

Tempeh lentil bites

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

I’ve been quite the chef lately… but I haven’t been telling you all about my creative kitchen escapades! First, let’s talk about how the transition back to meat-eating is going. After a month of pescetarianism (in January), I have tried some chicken parm, a turkey burger, bacon and pork here and there. I’m not going to lie… I’m kind of over it. I don’t like being a meat-eater. I’m not going to cut it out of my diet completely because that’s just inconvenient and unrealistic, but I am not going to buy it (unless I’m make something special for dinner, like chicken parm). Like I mentioned in previous posts, being “mostly” vegetarian is the most realistic lifestyle for me.

With that said… here we have a recipe for tempeh lentil bites that I made last week. Initially, I intended to make burgers, but then changed my mind when the baking step came round. Don’t get frustrated with me here, but I don’t remember all of the veggie measurements. I estimate that there were at least 2 tablespoons of each (diced) veggie used here — but use as much as you want!

photo 3

Tempeh lentil bites

(Makes 10-12)

Ingredients

1/2 cup dried red lentils

1 cup crumbled tempeh (I just crumbled the block with my hands, easy-peasy)

1 medium sweet potato

2 tbsp of each diced onion, red pepper, green pepper, yellow pepper

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 egg

Olive/vegetable oil

Spices (cumin, black pepper, red pepper flakes… whatever you fancy)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cook lentils according to package instructions. While the lentils are cooking, cook the sweet potato (microwave is fine), mash and throw it in a medium-sized mixing bowl. When the lentils are done, mix them into the sweet potato.
  2. On a medium-sized skillet, heat oil (1 tbsp should do). Next, sautee onions and peppers until onions start to become translucent. Add minced garlic and crumbled tempeh to the pan and sautee for another 2 minutes. Add this mixture to your bowl of lentils/sweet potato and combine well.
  3. Next, add the panko, egg and preferred spices to your mixing bowl and combine everything best you can.
  4. This is where you can choose to make burgers or muffins bites. If you decide on the bites, lightly grease your muffin tins and put your tempeh/lentil mixture into them. The mixture isn’t going to expand in the baking process like actual muffins, so you can fill them to the brim if you like. (If you want to make burgers, go ahead and do it on a lightly greased skillet.)
  5. Bake tempeh lentil bites for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops start to brown lightly. Let your bites cool and serve with a little sriracha and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

photo 2

Yum!

Panko-crusted baked tofu

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

The other day, I showed you how to prepare tofu for cooking. Did you read it? Did you try it? Do it, do it!

After you go through all of those steps, you are well-equipped to make a tofu dish of any kind. After preparing that tofu in particular, I make some panko-crusted baked tofu. Man, was it yummy.

SONY DSC

Ingredients

Prepared tofu (as much as you want to make)

1 egg

Panko breadcrumbs

(… That’s it. Really. But feel free to add a little parmesan cheese, shredded coconut or other spices to the panko.)

Directions

  1. Preheat the over to 425 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet, lined with tin foil and lightly sprayed with oil.
  2. Whisk egg in small, shallow bowl. Cover the bottom of a second shallow bowl with panko breadcrumbs (keep them nearby for when you need some more).
  3. Take one slice of tofu, dipping both sides in the egg, then in the panko. Place tofu on the baking sheet and do the same with remaining slices.
  4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, flipping the tofu halfway through (or as the underside starts to brown).

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Enjoy over rice, on top of a salad or… really any way.

More healthy Super Bowl snacks!

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Lauren Duffy

My mom, the queen of finding healthy alternatives and substitutes for recipes, showed me these recipes… thanks mom! <3

When my mom first told me that on Christmas she would be making stuffed tomatoes and a 5 layer dip, I assumed the worst. The word “stuffed” makes me think of junk food: stuffed crust, double stuffed Oreos, etc. And any kind of layered dip reminds me of pounds of sour cream, cheese, salsa and beans piled on a corn chip.

But of course my moms healthy instincts shined through and she showed me two of the healthiest and most delicious appetizers that any party will love.. just in time for Super Bowl Sunday!

Screen Shot 2013-01-29 at 9.12.38 PM

5 Layer Dip 

Ingredients: (Best if bought from Trader Joe’s) hummus, Tabouli, Tzatziki, chopped cucumbers, goat or feta cheese, avocados (if wanted), lemon juice, and pita chips and/or flat lavash bread

  • Directions: Layer these ingredients in the order listed above in any kind of deep serving dish. Then, if you want to use flat lavash bread, tear it into small chip-sized pieces and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until hard.

Voila! That’s it! So simple, so healthy, so delicious!!

Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups diced fresh mozzarella, 3/4 cup pesto, pine nuts, as many campari tomatoes as you want (20 is suggested), salt

  • Screen Shot 2013-01-29 at 9.24.30 PMDirections: Cut the tops of the tomatoes off and use a melon baller to core them. Salt the tomatoes, turn them upside down on a paper towel and refrigerate them while you make the stuffing. Mix the pesto, mozzarella and pine nuts and put it into the cored tomatoes with a little spoon, and top it all off with some basil. Refrigerate before serving and enjoy!!

Bring these to any Super Bowl party so that you have healthy snacking alternatives! Enjoy!