Noshtopia

Mini-meal Idea: Honey Turkey, Cheddar, Avocado and Arugula Rolls

I love rolls and wraps. When I was at Whole Foods the other day watching the deli lady cut me some honey turkey slices, it dawned on me that I could use the turkey slices as the wrap instead of a tortilla to make a gluten-free snack.

I created these honey turkey rolls and stuffed them with strips of Daiya cheddar (vegan), avocado slices, arugula, carrots, and purple cabbage I got from the salad bar. I lined the turkey with Brianna's Poppy Seed Dressing (vegan) for flavor and to help make the turkey stick to keep the roll shape. I cut one of the rolls into three smaller pieces for bite-sizes.

These rolls are so easy to make, are gluten, wheat, dairy, and egg free. You can get creative and stuff your rolls with whatever you can imagine!

For a full meal, you could pair these rolls with a salad or bowl of soup.

Simple Meal: Colorful Vegan and Gluten-free Veggie Burger Bowl

One of my favorite weekend lunches is making a veggie burger bowl. Using an edible vegetable bowl versus a bun makes the veggie burger experience gluten-free, vegan, and lower calorie.

Recently, I found some vivacious purple red cabbage at the grocery store to use as the bowl. I love all the lively colors in this bowl! Talk about vibrant noshing.

The ingredients in my bowl:

• Crumbled vegan veggie burger (I like Amy's brand)
• Grilled onions and cremini mushrooms
• Kale
• Mashed avocado
• Cherry tomato
• Honey mustard dressing
• Ketchup

I love simple meals like this burger bowl! Do you have a burger bowl you like to make?

Instant Chocolate Gratification: Best Vegan Gluten-free Brownies Ever!

Is your mouth watering gazing at these delectable brownies? Even more delicious, these chocolatey treats are made from a pre-made mix which means all you have to do is mix, pour, and bake, and boom, instant brownie satisfaction.

And yes, these brownies are vegan AND gluten-free plus nut-free, and they are seriously some of the best brownies I have ever eaten. Vegan brownies with regular wheat flour are pretty easy to make and can be made so no one can tell that there is no egg or dairy in the brownie. But to make a brownie vegan AND gluten-free is a hard thing to do, and most I have tried have been underwhelming to say it nicely.

Say hello to Bliss Brownie Mix made by the Inspired Cookie. This mix is sold in-store mainly in Northern California, but not to fret, you can order the mix online at the Inspired Cookie website.

I met Creator and Founder Sarah Gill of Inspired Cookie  last February at the Women 2.0 Conference and she is the sweetest person. I swear her special ingredient is love because she too has food allergies so she gets it, and that is why her stuff is so good, in my humble opinion. Her cookies are equally amazing but for now I'll focus on the decadence of the brownies which make for an incredible 20% food.

I added walnuts to my brownies because I love nuts and it adds some protein to the dessert. Couple these brownies warm out of the oven with some So Delcious Vanilla Bean ice cream and those of you with food allergies or intolerances to dairy, egg, nuts, or gluten will no longer feel like you have to live without a wonderful brownie experience like everyone else.

Go make some brownies now :)

Mix & Bake: Lemon Poppyseed Walnut Scones

 

Sticky Fingers Bakeries makes one of the best mix and bake scone mixes. To make these Lemon Poppyseed scones all you need to do is add water, mix, and bake. Simple!

To make my scones a little more interesting, instead of adding 3/4 cup of water, I use 1/2 cup rice milk with 1/4 water. The scone comes out a little moister with the rice milk.

I also added walnuts because I like nuts in scones. Sometimes, I'll add pecans. Nuts also add protein to the scone, and what a fun way to get some protein, right?

These scones also only have 7g of sugar and 150 calories per serving size which is one wedge when cut into 8ths like shown above. This scone is a healthier option than a muffin, croissant, or sticky bun for breakfast. The scone would go nice with a side of fruit like cantaloupe, strawberries, or raspberries.

 

This scone mix contains no eggs,  preservatives, artificial flavors, trans-fats or cholesterol. I didn't see any ingredients with soy either. The mix does contain wheat and milk in the form of buttermilk powder.

Sticky Fingers Bakeries has 18 other scone mix flavors, so be sure to try them out! Here's a store locator to find a retailer near you. You can also buy online from their web store.

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Healthiness Twist: Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

 

When I was Beiber's age, one of my favorite foods was a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Back then, I would use Wonder bread, margarine, Crunchy Skippy, and Smucker's Strawberry Jelly.

Fast forwarding to the 21st century, I still enjoy the grilled PB&Js but I make a healthier version compared to the ones I ate back in the day as the aforementioned ingredients had high fructose corn syrup, the jelly didn't actually have any fruit in it only juice, and who really knows what embodies margarine.

So nowadays, here's how I make a health-upped grilled PB&J...and this sandwich happens to be vegan as well because I use Earth Balance instead of butter/margarine, and really I was impressed how this spread grills on the bread.

Ingredients

• Food For Life Ezekiel bread. The Ezekiel breads contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, and are made of organic sprouted grains, wheat, soybeans, lentils, and seeds which provides the fiber. See, now you can impress people and say you know how to get fiber with a PB&J.

• Whole Foods 365 brand Peanut Butter is my favorite! They also have the fresh ground nut butter machines and sometimes I'll get the honey roasted peanut butter. I love the fresh ground because it's nothing but peanut and salt...that's it. Basically anything without added sugars, and artificial ingredients or preservatives is better. It doesn't have to be organic. Nice alternatives to the PB are almond and cashew butter.

• Fruit spread or if you feel like making a holiday like version use Pumpkin Butter. Now I like the fruit spread over jelly or jam because the spreads are pretty much just ground up fruit. Jellies and Jams can have lots of additives, extra sugars, and preservatives added into them. I like the Whole Foods 365 fruit spreads because they just use fruit and some grape juice for a sweetening boost plus it's really cheap. Another option is to go to Farmer's markets or to your friends who enjoy making homemade all natural spreads, jams and jellies and getting a fresh far from them!

• Earth Balance Soy-Free buttery spread. The Soy-Free version is my fave because it tastes the best and well, it's soy-free. I'm actually really impressed how well this spread grills on bread. Just visually, when cooking, I could not really see any big difference between this vegan spread and butter or margarine. I don't care for the other Earth Balance products with soy in it because the soy taste is off to me...but that's just my taste buds.

Let's start cookin'

• Heat up a pan to medium high
• While you're waiting for the pan to heat up, slather buttery spread on one side of each piece of Ezekiel bread for your sandwich.

• Grill the buttered side first until it's a nice golden crispy brown
• When the buttered side is done, flip bread over and toast up the dry side a little bit.

• Spread PB on one piece, and the fruit spread on the other slice, and slap together. Sometimes, if I don't want a whole sandwich, I'll just grill up one piece of bread and put the PB & fruit spread on top and eat like regular toast.

Doesn't that look divine? Well get noshing!

Simple 4-Ingredients: Creamy Dairy-Free Harvest Medley Soup With a Twist

 

I got creative with the soup action this week. I wanted to make a simple butternut squash soup, and headed over to Trader Joe's to buy a bag of pre-cut butternut squash. I love how TJ's will cube and package in a handy bag those hard to cut veggies like squash. The hardest part of cutting up a whole squash for me is skinning it. I lose patience and end up driving to Trader Joe's. On this day though, I found something new...

Protein Packed: Pumpkin Yogurt Parfait with Bananas and Gingersnap Granola

 

Sometimes I'm amazed at how much my laziness enables me to come up with creative ways to get multiple benefits in one dish. Rather than eat multiple foods, I'd much rather eat just one dish that is power packed in one shot.

Feast your eyes on my latest concoction, a protein packed pumpkin yogurt parfait with bananas and gingersnap granola.You can make this parfait vegan friendly as well and I've included that option in the recipe below.

A nice bonus, this parfait recipe requires no cooking. It's easy and simple yet looks complex.

 

What's packed in this parfait yumminess:

• Skyr is the traditional yogurt of Iceland, and with its unique production you get 2-3 times the amount of protein as regular yogurt, as well as a yogurt that is so thick and custard-like a spoon can stick straight up in it. One Siggi's yogurt container has 16g protein. If you want to up the protein count even more, you can mix in one of these 9 protein powder options.
• Live Active cultures giving you good bacteria
• 0g Fat in the yogurt, pumpkin pie mix, and banana
• Potassium from the bananas
• Fiber from bananas and granola
• Sweet holiday tastiness from the pumpkin pie mix

 

Ingredients (for single serving):

• 1 170g Container of Siggi's Vanilla Yogurt or Greek Honey Yogurt. Use something thick - *Note to make vegan option

• 2 tbsp Farmer's Market Organic Pumpkin Pie Mix (can)

• 1/2 medium banana sliced into thin pieces (I use a half a banana vs. a whole to help cut down on overall sugar content of the parfait.)

• 1/2 c. Gingersnap Granola (which I got at the bulk foods section at Whole Foods. Use whatever granola sounds good to you.)

• Pumpkin pie spice (or you could use nutmeg or cinnamon)

• Small juice glasses

* Vegan option: To make vegan, in small food processor blend silken tofu, agave nectar with the pumpkin pie mix.You can also use a coconut, rice, or soy milk based yogurt, but these yogurts are on the watery side and won't hold layers as well.

Let's get mixin':

 

• Mix the 2 tbsp of Pumpkin Pie Mix in with the yogurt. I used 2-1/2 tbsp because I really like the pumpkin pie flavor and wanted the flavor to be more prominent.

I just mix in the yogurt container because it's one less bowl to wash. You'll have to mix well and really get the spoon to the bottom of the container because pockets of yogurt can hide. You want to end up with a nice smooth pumpkiny looking color when done mixing.

• Start layering your glass starting with a scoop of pumpkin yogurt. Next put the granola, and then the bananas.

• Repeat layer starting with a scoop of pumpkin yogurt.

• Top with a third layer of pumpkin yogurt, and sprinkle on some granola. Insert a banana slice for looks, and then sprinkle a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice on the top for a festive flair.

You can eat this pumpkin parfait for breakfast, brunch, or even as a dessert. I certainly enjoyed chowing on this holiday-ish treat.

 

Holiday Twist on Spinach: Wilted Spinach with Garlic and Nutmeg

 

It never would have occurred to me to sprinkle Nutmeg on spinach, but I thought that could be interesting, so why not try it. Plus, we're diving into holiday eating season, and nutmeg always reminds me of the holidays. And then I got goofy and thought, Spinach (strong) + Nutmeg (sweet) = Popeye + Olive Oyl (his sweetie). Ok, that's my vivid imagination making corny associations.

I found this Spinach With Nutmeg and Lemon recipe on Martha Stewart and tweaked it some because I can never make a recipe exactly as stated. It's the rule breaker in me :) I opted out of the lemon because I don't care for tart on Spinach, and I put sauteed garlic in everything so I was curious what garlic and nutmeg would taste like together. Could be awesome or incredibly yuck.

 

What I like about this recipe too is that it's easy and super fast. In fact, it's almost Superman fast because wilting spinach takes like seconds.

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

• 1 6oz. pre-packaged bag of fresh Spinach. I get the equivalent amount of fresh spinach from the bulk bin at Whole Foods.
• 3 garlic cloves cut into slivers
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg, ground or grated
• Sea salt & Black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil (versus Olive Oyl, Popeye's sweetie. Ok, goofy me :)

 

Let's Get Cookin':

• Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium. If the pan is too hot, like on high, the spinach will disintegrate immediately. It's not pretty. We want to wilt the spinach not singe it.

• Saute the garlic until it looks soft.

• Toss in the fresh spinach and add the nutmeg and salt & pepper.

• Mix around the spinach with the garlic until the Spinach looks almost wilty. Now, this step literally will take seconds because spinach starts wilting the second it hits heat on a pan. In fact, you want to take the pan off the burner when the spinach looks almost done because even just sitting in the hot pan, the spinach will continue to wilt. If you keep the spinach in too long, you'll get a mush of spinach, again not so pretty.

• Throw spinach in a serving bowl, and voila, you're ready to nosh!

A couple notes:

• The salt part is important because nutmeg alone doesn't taste so lovely. The salt definitely perks up the dish.
• Next time, I'd try cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.
• The garlic + nutmeg combo is definitely different. I'm not sure if it will be a hit with all, but I liked it. If you pair the nutmeg spinach with turkey or ham, it should compliment well.

 

Things I Eat Post Run: Mixed Green Salad With Salmon, Avocado, & Fixin's

  
This morning I went on awesome 5-mile run through my parents neighborhood. The great thing about their 'hood is that you can get a variety in training from steep hills, long sloping hills, flat & twisty, and flat & straight.

After my long run, and still reveling in my endorphin high, I made this simple salad with mixed greens which included arugula, my favorite green of all time, avocado (mmm MUFAs), chunks of juicy tomato from the farmer's market, some candied walnuts from Whole Foods, and bits of julienned squash, zucchini, and red beets which I also got from the Whole Foods salad bar.

Mom made some salmon for dinner the other day, so I ripped some pieces apart and threw on top of the salad for protein and some oh-so-good Omegas. I dress the salad with a drizzle of Brianna's Poppyseed dressing.

This salmon green salad is one of my favorite things to eat post-run because you get:

• Greens
• Protein
• MUFAs (monounsaturated fats)
• Omegas
• Nutrients & vitamins
• Something all natural that makes the bod feel good

What's some of your favorite post meal eats?

Health-upped Classic Grilled Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich

Charlie at Back to the Fridge brought back some great memories from high school for me when he showed us how he makes Grilled PB&J sandwiches. My favorite part is the buttery grilled bread. Yum-ee! I used to eat those puppies all the time back in the day when I played on the school tennis team and had a metabolism like a furnace.

On occasion, I still enjoy the grilled PB&Js but I make a much healthier version today because the ones I ate back then had Wonder Bread, PB&J with high fructose corn syrup, and margarine. So nowadays, here's how I make a health-upped Grilled PB&J.

Ingredients

• Food For Life Ezekiel bread. The Ezekiel breads contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, and are made of organic sprouted grains, wheat, soybeans, lentils, and seeds which provides the fiber. See, now you can impress people and say you know how to get fiber with a PB&J.

• Crunchy Whole Foods 365 brand Peanut Butter. I like crunchy PB because I feel like I'm actually eating a food instead of feeling like I'm eating a candy like caramel. The ideal is to use organic fresh ground peanut butter that is nothing but peanuts and maybe salt. Basically anything without added sugars, and artificial ingredients or preservatives is better. It doesn't have to be organic. Nice alternatives to the PB are almond and cashew butter.

• Fruit spread or if you feel like making a holiday like version use Pumpkin Butter. Now I like the fruit spread over jelly or jam because the spreads are pretty much just ground up fruit. Jellies and Jams can have lots of additives, extra sugars, and preservatives added into them. I like the Whole Foods 365 fruit spreads because they just use fruit and some grape juice for a sweetening boost plus it's really cheap.Check your local store.

• When it comes to butter, I admittedly have a bit of a snobbery. If I'm gonna eat fat, then I'm going to eat some good high quality stuff. I have the Type II cow milk allergy but I find that if I eat organic or high quality butters in small amounts, then I'm okay. My favorite butter is this Plugra European Style Salted Butter. I love it because it's creamy with this amazing flavor, and you really don't need to use much. The creamy is due to some extra butter fat, but I don't care, this stuff is awesome!

Let's start cookin'

• Heat up a pan to medium high
• While you're waiting for the pan to heat up, slather butter on one side of each piece of Ezekiel bread for your sandwich.

• Grill the buttered side first until it's a nice golden crispy brown
• When the buttered side is done, flip bread over and toast up the dry side a little bit.

• Spread PB on one piece, and the fruit spread on the other slice, and slap together. Sometimes, if I don't want a whole sandwich, I'll just grill up one piece of bread and put the PB & fruit spread on top and eat like regular toast.

Doesn't that look divine? Well get noshing!