Do You Want Two Free Points?

Don’t get your hopes up – no giveaway here! But, I loved reading everyone’s thoughts about my “portion distortion” blurb. Sounds like it’s a general consensus among us that it has gotten a bit crazy! One thing I wanted to make sure to bring up was Katie’s point that a “serving size” isn’t necessarily the right size for everybody – take for instance, an athlete vs. someone lounging around all day.  I should have thought to point that out, but for some reason was thinking too black and white, as ashamed as I am to admit! I was more stuck on the serving size people expect vs what a “true” on is – leading them to believe they are maybe eating better than they are. The important thing to remember is to eat according to our body – you can’t compare your portions to anybody else because we’re all different and require different types and amounts of food as fuel. If your body needs more than what may be listed as a serving size, by all means – don’t let a box tell you what to do. I was morseso stressing about those who are sort of blindsided by the fact that they’re not taking in what they think they’re taking in. An interesting point from Maggie was that hamburgers in restaurants are often 8 oz – two “servings”!

Moving on to this morning, though. As I mentioned last night, I had an 8:00 exam this morning. Grumble. Of course, that doesn’t mean waking up much earlier but there’s a difference between going to an exam first thing in the morning and going to work, thank you.

I was contemplating overnight oats, but am glad I passed. Nothing does it like hot oats! I even managed to keep my hand out of the cookie fig jar this morning, even though the thought of using a pear just could not be shook! I was thinking about mixing it up – but my mind would not have been satisfied.

Instead, I had some simple pear oats with maple, as always!

The Base:

• 1 T. Wheat Bran, 2 T. Bob’s Grains & Nuts, 3 T. Bob’s Creamy Rye Flakes
• 1/2 c. water, 1/2 c. PureAlmond
• trail power
• 1/2 pear, diced
• drizzle maple syrup
• 1 T. chia seeds

Topped with:

• Chia-Flax Icing
• Naturally Nutty White Choco Cherry Almond Butter
• chopped mixed nuts (mostly Brazil)
• and a compote of the rest of the chopped pear, with some dried maple-sweetened cranberries simmered in some almond milk and maple syrup.

I thought it was time to remind myself that the breakfast world does not revolve around figs and dates. Actually, I still think it does…but at least life goes on without them 😉 I love living in the northeast because we have maple-sweetened everything. Actually, you guys probably have maple-sweetened everything, too. Oh, well.

Enjoyed with my [last] Green Mountain Rain Forest Nut k-cup. I let myself run out of coffee again. just about, anyway.

..and then, I finally convinced myself to put actual pants on rather than sweats, and boogied to class. I probably should have just worn sweats, however, as the pants I chose I tend to shy away from because the fly never stays up. I bet you wanted to know that. In addition, by the time I got to class I was a little concerned I was going to die inside that room because every other second someone was coughing or sniffling. Dude, blow your nose already.

Uh, anyway. Exam went okay. My favorite question was “Do you want two free points? (yes/no) HINT: answer yes and get two free points.” My answer was: “yes, please.” I almost wrote “It won’t help me much but I’ll take ’em.” though.

I finished up within an hour and was on my way home. I had plans to do a yogadownload.com video, and first grabbed a banana.

The yoga was quite fun, I must say. I haven’t done yoga in eons! After seeing Nicole always talking about yoga download, I finally gave it a go. I’ve been thinking it would be really beneficial for getting back into riding.

also consumed: quinoa-bulghur muffin.

I prepped some veggies to roast, as well as tempeh, and set to work on matting my final photos. Not a big project, but I needed to figure out which ones I wanted to hang up! And to be the perfect picture of efficiency (man, three things at once!) I was burning my final DVD while all of this was taking place. *curtsy bow*

Not only that, but everything was going really well until I decided to “sprinkle” on some garlic salt using the wrong shaker side and instead dumped it on. Sadly, this is the second time I’ve done this. You would think I’d have learned my lesson by now. Luckily, this time, the eggplant was salvageable.

When all was said and done, I emerged victorious with some barbecue glazed tempeh, apple-maple glazed tempeh, more roasted red peppers, roasted broccoli, and roasted balsamic eggplant. Oh and some photos.

I successfully utilized not a single one of these veggies for lunch. Bwahaha. Am I awful or what? My thoughts/cravings were running wild – I had thought I wanted a sweet-ish panini using the fig spread, apple-maple tempeh, and apple – but after smelling the barbeque knew I had to give that a go. And yet I still wanted apple! What do I do?

Combine them, obviously. I made a panini with barbecue tempeh, gala apple slices, and spinach on dakota loaf, one side spread lightly with additional barbeque. It was heavenly!!

To accompany the meal I had the rest of the apple, some Snyder’s Butter Snaps, a carrot, and some of the fig & goat cheese spread. I ended up sharing the apples and carrots with Jiggy, though…the sandwich alone was perfectly filling! And the two flavors of the apple and the barbecue together were simply stellar.

After bumming around a bit more, I prepped my dinner for tonight so that when I got home, I could simply throw it in the microwave and manja! I had no idea when I would be getting home, but knew it would be a bit later. Our photo critique was starting at 5, and I guessed it would go until at least 6. Hence, why I am publishing this early! But, dinner:

Ohhh, yes. It’s hard to do school work when you know what’s sitting at home in your fridge.

Although, if you think it looks a little funky, I wouldn’t argue with you…I didn’t bother to reheat the burger or gravy, so it’s a little…uh…congealed? Appetizing.

anyways, I just got home (8:00) after sitting through an “I’d rather slowly stab my eyeballs with a dull pencil” sort of critique. That being said, I’m glad I wrote this entire post and had dinner sitting on a plate in my fridge.

I hope everyone’s having themselves a lovely day/morning/night/whatever it is while you are reading this. Love yuhhhs.

____________________________________

An Ode to Coconuts

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to any of you that I’m nutty about coconut. Yep – always have been, and am fairly confident in saying I always will be. I think it has to do with the fact that my sister hates coconut – so naturally, growing up, I had to like it out of spite, right? “C’mon, ma! Make a coconut dessert! Yum! Coconut!” la hem. Okay, maybe I wasn’t that terrible, but I’m betting it played a good role. And you know what? I’m glad my mom wasn’t one of those crazy parents telling me I was going to clog my arteries and die when I’m 20 because of all the saturated fats in coconuts and oh, how awful coconuts are. You know why?

It’s all a lie. I never knew coconuts used to be so shunned upon, actually. So naturally, I was a bit surprised when I started finding some information about the benefits of coconut that hinted that it wasn’t always looked at that way. I mean…what did coconut ever do to anybody other than good?!

Nothing. The saturated fats in coconut are actually MCTs – or, medium-chain triglycerides. Healthy fats! These are the type that are not stored as fats in the body, but rather, utlized for energy. I mean, instead of feeding kids sugar to get a crazy high, soon they’ll be OD’ing on coconut milk! Okay, maybe not. But it might explain why I had so much energy as a kid, considering I found my hand weaseling into a bag of shredded coconut everytime my mom’s back was turned. Okay, that’s half a lie. BUT! In addition to being full of healthy fats, there have also been long-term studies showing that in people whose diets consist primarily of high-fat foods (35-60%, mostly sat. fat from coconuts) there have been fewer cases of heart disease, digestive problems, colon cancer, high HDL (bad cholesterol), kidney disease, osteoporosis and atherosclerosis. (which, if you’re like me and didn’t know what that is, I’ll save you the google key-strokes: it’s the thickening of the artery wall from build up of bad-cholest)

Know what else is pretty cool about coconuts and MCTs? They have antiviral properties. They have antimicrobial properties. (think: lauric acid as well as capric acid) Want to support your immune system even more than you orange-nomming lovelies already are? Use some coconut oil. Feed your infant coconut oil, too. Well, only if you want them to have increased absorption of calcium, magnesium, and amino acids. I’m betting you do; pretty soon the world will be overly populated in even more coconut-fiending babies!

Coconut oil is also super-easy to incorporate into your diet, as are coconut flakes. I am definitely going to be picking some coconut oil up soon! As well as a raw coconut – I’ve never played with those before! I’ve only ever had coconut butter, coconut milk, and coconut flakes.

What’s your favorite use for coconut, or your favorite coconut product?

source: better nutrition, march 2010, “break out of your shell,” johnny bowden PhD

In with the Old, In with the New

Hey loves! Did everyone enjoy their extra hour of sleep? …oh, wait…you mean, we lost sleep? Snap.

I know I, for one, felt quite out of place in the kitchen this morning, making breakfast at 8am! It was 7:45 when I woke up – normally, that would be 6:45, and I was almost lost. I mean 8:00 is when I’m already having a snack, most days! Even 6:45 is a late morning for me – but I was up late and was pretty beat, so for a weekend it wouldn’t have been that late.

Once I finally found my bearings, I decided on a bowl of mango-coconut-ginger oat bran & barley flakes. Waffles crossed my mind, but I didn’t think I wanted to take the time and effort, and didn’t want to miss my morning oats! I had two exciting new purchases, too!

That doesn't really say Dundee's preserves - it's definitely "Jess's" preserves.

While I – sadly – finished my much-loved jar of Strawberry-Pom jam in the wee hours of the night, at least it meant I could open up a new find! Sure, I’ve got blueberry cherry jam and plum jam in the fridge – but neither of those belonged in my mango oats. And I allow myself three open at once. No more, no less. Gotta have some guidelines for the obsession, you know.

Goji Berries - Mulberries - Goldenberries

My online order from iHerb for this amazing Navitas Naturals mix came just in the nick of time – my goji berries from the co-op got finished up yesterday! I’ll get to what I think of it in a bit.

Rainy Days

I woke up quite a few times during the night to hear torrential downpours and howling winds – and it was only slightly subdued by the time I ate.  I’m not a rain-hater per se – in fact, I find it calming and comforting when I’m at work or need a lazy day – but this was a gross rain, not a pleasant rain. Does that make sense? Luckily – Rain Forest Nut and a delicious bowl of oats & barley made it seem at least a lil’ sunnier.

Ginger preserves = bliss.

The usual sautee method was done with some of the mango – mango, almondmilk, coconut, as well as some dried papaya. Also did a sprinkling of crystallized ginger, and was quite liberal with the coconut butter. Some things are  necessary when you need a lil’ extra sunshine.

Can we just talk about ginger preserves for a second? Okay, listen carefully. Ginger preserves are – to put it simply – the best thing since fork-split english muffins. I am not joking you. The only thing I didn’t like was that the consistency was more jelly-like than jam or preserve-like. And it’s high in sugar, but – ginger can be kind of spicy so I’m just going to push past that minor detail.

And the Navitas Naturals berry mix? LOVE it. When I was ordering to replace, I was looking into mulberries and goldenberries, as well as my usual goji berries. I actually had an order from my favorite supplier – Live Superfoods – for each of these items, but cringed when I saw what the total would be. They aren’t overpriced – but since I had to buy a large amount of each, it added up. When I saw Nicole mention iHerb the other day, I checked out their selection and it was like my mind was already being read – a combination of everything! Score. I had a $5 off code (thanks Nicole!) and decided I might as well order!

The verdict on the mulberries and goldenberries? SOOO good. I love their tartness, and I think they taste much better than just goji berries. I “re-hydrate” them if you will, by adding them to the oat mixture and simmering everything. That was the only way I would enjoy goji berries, but the mulberries and goldenberries I’ll gladly eat by the handful! A heads-up, though: while iHerb has great service – fast shipping, wide selection, low shipping cost – they are not the cheapest supplier out there, at least not for this. Maybe for some of their other products, though. Alas, I had a $5 off code, and you do too: if you want $5 off your very first iHerb order, enter WEZ004. With the cheap shipping (I think it’s one of the lowest out there – but fast!) and the $5 off, they’re not too bad of a deal.

Phew! Moving on.

this is my "moving on." look.

hah, random. sorry. Anywho. Sundays are usually grocery days – mainly produce. But I did some hemming and hawing, and decided I really didn’t feel like going out. Sure, the grocery store is 5 minutes away and it’d be fine driving. But days like this, you just want to stay inside! So I finally decided I’d just run Tuesday – I have plenty of essentials, I’m really just a little low on produce. No biggie.

That said, today I did what I do best: Grazed! I think I re-instated my title of the grazing queen. I even enjoyed some fun new snacks!

This one isn't new. But it's always tasty. Kashi, trail power, sunflower seeds,almondmilk, honey apple butter, orange.

After breakfast I was reading through some blogs, and Marla’s recent post really struck me. She mentioned how she had loads to learn – which is both empowering and frustrating, and I couldn’t agree with this more. In addition, we talked about how ruts stink, but they can invite unique opportunities. Marla, I couldn’t have said it better myself. It is so true! And I wanted to share this with everyone reading, because I think we all need the constant reminder when we are feeling down on ourselves that something good always comes when you least expect it, and every situation we deal with is an opportunity to grown and evolve as a person. Lately – I’ve been having mixed emotions about my photography, and some comments that have been said that could be taken as backhanded compliments. I read Marla’s words and immediately remembered: do what makes you happy. Those who like it, will like it. Those who don’t, don’t. Don’t change what you like, just to make someone else content. It’s not worth it.

I’d also been worried I’ve been getting in another food rut. Are my eats getting boring and repetitive? I can’t tell – I feel like repetitive, yes. But, remember when I was that girl who had a panini wrap or bulgur stir-fry every night? My, my, look how I’ve grown 🙂 Anyways – I’m going back to my loose meal-planning ways in efforts to get some new meals up in hurr’!

And what better day than today, when I am home free with a full kitchen?! That’s what I thought.

Never had a starfruit before. It’s pretty. It tastes just okay. English muffins are always amazingly okay, however. I remember when I was a kid, I would always have my toast with butter and cinnamon-sugar. I thought of this last night, and enjoyed an olivio and cinnamon-stevia english muffin. It made another appearance today.

What’s a food from your childhood that you haven’t had in a while, or have recently “brought back”? And if you’ve never done this with your toast, you should try it 🙂

It had been far too long since my last sweet-potato panini wrap. This one had a fried egg with spinach, red pepper, and red onion, almond mozzarella, and sweet potato rounds seasoned with some salt, pepper, and curry powder. I also made a quickie poppyseed-yogurt-dijon dressing.

This was much better the last time I made one, but I was too lazy to find that recipe. I mean, I’ll put a fried egg on anything. Same goes for sweet potatoes. You can’t go wrong. But if you’re going to do this, do it this way.

So, the majority of my day consisted of cleaning, laundry, drinking coffee, eating, and photo editing. That is, essentially, all she wrote. It was kind of nice. But I still have more photos to go through. Oh well! Do you guys like the random integration of new photos I’ve taken, or could you do without? I mean, I have a photo website and flickr, so I have no problem omitting them from my foodie posts. But I’m not sure if you’d like to see what I’m up to on the photo front? Input is welcome 🙂

Grilled PB, J, & Tempeh Lavash with a side of Chia Gel.

Holy yum. I think when I grow up I need to be able to work from home so I can snack like this all day. A-la Susan, I decided to make a tempeh, peanut butter, and apple-honey butter grilled lavash sandwich. I nuked pb, apple butter, and the tempeh, mashed up, and spread. I also sprinkled cinnamon-stevia on the outside. New obsession? Maybe. Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult to make at work, so maybe not :[

Although – why on earth have I been so late to jump on the chia gel bandwagon? I think maybe because I’ve seen mixed reviews of it. Well, I adore it. The consistency, the texture, the taste, the chill, oh my! I just combined it with almondmilk, trail power, vanilla extract, and a sprinkle of sun crystals. This was also dessert tonight. And may or may not make an appearance on tomorrow’s oats. If it lasts that long.

Hey, while I'm in the kitchen...why not some oatmeal?

I have these random instant oats packets laying about from when I was an oats n00b. Well, why not put some of a packet to use with some raisins, almondmilk, sunflower kernels, cinnamon, and kashi? Ohhh, if you insist.

cheesy noods.

It was St. Patty’s Dinner Night in the Healthy Exposures household! …if you’re wondering why this doesn’t look like cabbage and corned beef – it’s because I hate cabbage and corned beef. So – you guessed it – I was on my own.

Why not make a cheesy bechamel-alfredo noodle dish? Ohhh, if you insist. And kale. and carrots. and a cheesy creamy sauce made with enough garlic to keep away a thousand vampires, fresh basil, sundried tomatoes, almond mozarella, fresh parm, almondmilk, chives, and…? I think that’s about it. Okay, random throw-in spices, I’m sure. And some white bean flour to thicken. And lots of “yum!”s.

I really wished I had more veggies, but luckily had some carrots! And the kale was fine, so it all worked out. I wouldn’t have complained if I had some red pepper and/or plum tomatoes, though. I need to save the last of my red pepper for tomorrow’s lunch, though!

And some good-ol’ parm-garlic lavash. Fine Dining. Sort of.

And that about brings me up to date! How has everyone else’s Sundays gone? I didn’t mind my lazy day – but it’s still really gross out.

I’m a little bummed, too – I think I’m back to waking up in darkness! Hopefully not for too long, though? And I guess the light at night is worth it.

I was going to include some information about goji berries, mulberries, and goldenberries in this post, but – I think I’ve about talked your ears off already. Or – read your eyes out. Whatever floats your boat.

Goodnight everyone! Back to the bump-n-grind tomorrow…oh joy?

Recipe: Tropical Cupcake Parfaits

(aka…my birthday cake dessert of choice!)

So I’m finally getting around to posting this now. Hey, it’s only a week late – better late than never, right?

As I mentioned, I completely intended to follow Stella’s (The Witchy Kitchen’s) recipe for Mango & Coconut Cake. Not only did it sound and look delicious (as you may very well know – I’m a sucker for anything coconut, and I had recently discovered the deliciousness that is mango.) but it was already quite healthy! Considering it was my birthday I wasn’t so concerned about having a healthy cake, but I wouldn’t have complained.

As I continued looking the recipe over, I decided a banana would be good to add too – give it even more of a tropical twist! And then I realized, that often times – fruit purees can be used as a sub for oil. So I figured, hey, why not just omit the oil and sub the banana, anyways? And that’s what I did. And then, of course, I wanted to play even more and just turn them into fun cupcake-and-yogurt parfaits. Maybe not your traditional birthday dessert, but everyone loved them. And I got them to eat chia seeds.

For the Cupcakes:

original recipe here

Ingredients:

-1 1/4 c. white whole wheat flour

-3 T. stevia

-2 T. honey

-1 1/2 t. baking soda

-1/4 t. salt

-1/2 t. ginger

-1/4 t. chai spice blend

-1/2 mango, diced

-scant 3/4 c. almondmilk

-1 medium banana, mashed (should yield approx. 1/3 cup)

-1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

-coconut (to sprinkle on top)

Destructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350*.

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients, omitting the coconut. (note: you could add in coconut, as well – if my sister wasn’t “on the fence” about coconut, I would have.)

2. In another medium-sized bowl, whisk together your wet ingredients, omitting your diced mango.

3. Combine your wet and dry, and then fold in your diced mango.

4. Spray with non-stick spray 12 medium muffin cups and divide the batter evenly amongst them.

Sprinkle coconut on top (optional) and bake for approx 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from tins, and allow to cool on a cooling rack! And obviously, as always – taste-test one or two to make sure they’re…you know…cooked all the way. Right? Right.

Omitting the oil worked out fine – they were still perfectly moist and – well – dreamy! If I were to make these again today, I think I’d even add in some dried papaya that I’ve got hangin’ out in my cupboard, as well as some crystallized ginger. Because I’m that kinda gal.

You could, of course, stop there and just devour these as-is. In fact, that’s how most of them were eaten – but for my birthday dessert, I took them one step further and made up a lime chia-yogurt pudding and layered it with some fresh fruit to make a deliciously refreshing parfait.

For the Parfait Yogurt:

Ingredients:

–1/2 c. plain greek yogurt

-1/4 c. almondmilk

-2 t. chia seeds

-1/4 t. vanilla extract

-1/4 t. chai spice blend

-1 T. honey

-zest of 1 lime

(I also think I used the juice of half of it? But I didn’t write that down. Take that for what it’s worth, haha.)

Destructions:

Just combine everything! Adjust the sweetness to your taste. Also – this will not give you enough yogurt to make all 12 muffins into parfaits. I got five – and could have used a little more since it was so dang good!

To Construct the Parfait:

Additional Ingredients:

–sliced straberries

-sliced kiwis

-poppyseeds

-lime zest

-shredded coconut

Layer to your hearts content! I topped with a sprinkle of lime zest and poppyseeds (hey – I think it was a mind trick – they thought the chia seeds were poppyseeds! Honestly, though – chia seeds have such a fun texture, and are an easy way to sneak in some extra nutrition for those people who think you’re a health nut who lives on rabbit food. If you have them, definitely use them! No one needs to know. But tell them after they rave, aight?)

Enjoy!

Coconut-Chai Granola

Lately, I’ve been craving granola. I don’t have granola often – a. because it’s one of those foods that when I buy it, it’s hard to stay away from, and b. because it’s one of those foods that when I buy it, it’s hard to stay away from. Okay, and I guess for some reason I just haven’t been wanting granola – cereal’s been doing just fine by me. And my mish-mash bag of granola bars that I crumble up and use as granola. Hey, I need a piece of every flavor, you know! Regardless, when I was in the store today I decided to pick some up. There was a whole bunch to chose from, but of course I was narrowed to the natural selection – I’m not sold on all the sugary nutritional stats of all the other stuff. Eventually I was torn between Bare Naked and Ezekiel. I went for the Ezekiel 4:9 – the flax one, to be exact. I thought it was granola, at least. Turns out it’s more like some strange oatmeal-cereal sort of grain combo. I’m not going to lie: I know I’m a health food junkie, and typically enjoy health foods – but I was not impressed. I almost chucked it then and there, but maybe I’ll try it in one of my morning oat combos sometime…uh…soon. ish. Hey, it’s at least good for me. Of course – I’m also not of the belief that healthy food needs to taste like, well…cardboard, if I’m being brutally honest. I’ll give you another chance Ezekiel…but this is strike 1.

This is getting long-winded: long story short, when I get a food thought in my head, it’s hard for me to shake it. That and, I needed to find something to use that Ezekiel cereal in. So I was going to make granola. I’ve never made granola before, so I thought it best to find a recipe. I would use this recipe from Hodgson Mill! Hah…right. I intended to. Here’s what I did, instead. This being my first excursion in granola-making and my decision to change just about everything, I’m just going to type it out exactly as I did it, and then make note of what I’d do next time. Granted, it ended up quite good as is, but there is always room for improvement!

Coconut-Chai Granola

Ingredients, for approx 7 – 1/4c. servings (halved the original – I am but one person.)

-1/4 c. rolled oats

-1/4 c. rolled spelt flakes

-2 T. (1/8 c.) Ezekiel 4:9 cereal-granola-stuff

-2 T. (1/8 c.) rolled barley flakes

-1 t. each: wheat germ and milled flax

-2 T. shredded coconut

-2 T. chopped macadamia nuts

-2 T. chopped almonds

-1/2 t. almond extract

-1/2 T. pumpkin puree

-1/2 T. applesauce

-1 T. honey

-1/2 t. McCormick Chai Blend Seasoning

-1/8 t. cinnamon

-dash salt

Destructions:

Preheat your oven to 350* and combine your dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Add to the dry ingredients your wet:

And mix!

Spread the mixture onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake for approx 15-20 minutes or until golden, stirring every five minutes.

Once cooled – store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

Voila!

Thoughts:

-Obviously, you can use whatever grains you have on hand. I have a lot on hand. I wanted to play the grain game. heh…

-I would double the amount of coconut next time – I only used 2 T. because that killed the bag and forgot I had two more bags in the cupboard.

-The pumpkin and applesauce idea came from a couple other granola recipes I’d seen. It’s a good way to cut down on the sugar if you are worried about it. It doesn’t give it a strong pumpkin or applesauce flavor, but I was worried if I used 2 T. of honey, it would be too sweet for me. I think as I made it, it is just the right amount of sweetness for me.

-I would also up the amount of the chai spice blend. I wasn’t sure how much I should use – and erred on the side of caution. It’s a pretty strong spice, so I’d rather start small 😛

-At first I thought I burnt it – but I think it’s just right! So one thing to keep in mind while you’re baking, haha.

-Now that I’ve made granola once, I might have a problem with experimenting with new flavors way too often.

Rut-roh, raggy.