Category Archives: Vegetarian

10 Days of Real Food-Day 1. Apple Crisp

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When I set out to do the 10 days of real food challenge, I totally forgot about the huge bag of apples that I had planned to make apple crisp and other apple-y goodness with.  How on earth was I going to make apple crisp without adding sugar??  I looked at a recipe that my mom had given to me and looked to see how I could revamp it so that it still fell under the “Real Food” guidelines.  Done & done.  I even substituted the butter for coconut oil. Easy peasy and oh so good. Maybe tomorrow I’ll look up a recipe for real vanilla frozen yogurt in the vitamix and make this baby a la mode.

Naturally Sweetened Apple Crisp {print recipe}

Ingredients
  • 9 apples thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp chickpea flour
  • 1 1/2 C Oats
  • 1 C chickpea flour
  • 1 C pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 C maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 c chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
  • 1/2 unrefined coconut oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.  Layer the apples in a 9×13 baking dish.  Sprinkle the 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1TBSP chickpea flour, and the one cup of maple syrup on top of the apples, then gently toss so that the apples are evenly coated.  In a separate bowl, combine the oats, 1 C chickpea flour, 1/2 C maple syrup, baking powder, baking soda, nuts, cinnamon, and coconut oil. Mix with your hands. Then when you’ve got a crumbly texture, sprinkle on top of apples evenly.  Bake in oven for 45 minutes.  Let cool and enjoy :-)
How did eating go the rest of the day?  I started my morning off with a bowl of Bob’s Redmill gluten-free oats mixed with blueberries, peaches, and unsweetened almond milk.  With the real food challenge you can have dairy, I just try to stay away from it as best as I can because it irritates my stomach.
For lunch, I munched on a pre-made salad from Trader Joe’s.  It was good, but you have to eat these right away (I bought it on Monday) because the lettuce was getting a little wilty. If I wouldn’t have eaten it today, it would’ve been garbage by tomorrow. It was a mixed greens salad with pecans, blue cheese and I topped it with Annie’s raspberry vinaigrette.
For a post workout snack (snuck in some zumba via Xbox today while someone napped), I ate an apple with almond butter and reheated two egg muffins.
Tonight’s dinner was leftovers from last night.  Yesterday, was the perfect weather for chili so I made our favorite: Sweet potato and black bean chili.  It was just as good, if not better than last night’s serving!  I think adding some cheese may have had something to do with it.
I think day 1 of the real foods challenge went rather well.  If you just set aside some time to pre make some things (egg muffins/dinner for two nights instead of one), it’s really not hard to do.  Like I said in the previous post, we generally try to eat as whole/real as possible, but sometimes life (new baby) can get in the way and deter us from that and it becomes more about convenience and less about nutrients.  I’d like to try and make my own bars one of these days because that’s generally my snack of choice to grab & go.

WIAW Celebratory Blueberry Muffins

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Good evening! I hope everyone’s week is going well.  I can’t believe tomorrow is Thursday.  Bring on opening night of Jazz in the Park with my favorite two women :-)

Our week has been a little crazy over here.  Monday I had a dr.’s appointment & made muffins, Tuesday was Election Day here in Wisconsin & a sisters night in-we watched The Vow and I was very disappointed, and tonight we had birthing classes.  So back to those muffins…

I wanted to bring my co-worker a treat as a way to say “Thank you for hiring me after keeping in suspense for the last 6 months”.  I know everyone in my office loves baked goods, so I brought in homemade blueberry muffins.  My version of muffins are a little different than other people’s.  Because people love to bring in treats, I thought I’d make mine a little bit healthy.  I was a little nervous to bring them in because I was afraid of how people would react to the taste…turns out they LOVED them!  My boss took one bite and said, “You can bring these in any day!”  No one had no idea that they were gluten-free and vegan.  Confession…I do this with all my treats but never tell anyone :-)

Celebratory Blueberry Muffins w/Streusel Topping

 

by Maria Campbell

Keywords: bake bread gluten-free vegan

 

Ingredients (24 muffins)

  • Muffins:
  • 4 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup coconut oil melted
  • 1 1/3 cup agave nectar (light)
  • 1 1/3 cup rice milk
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tsp lemon extract
  • 1 quart fresh blueberries washed
  • Streusel Topping:
  • 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice sugar
  • 3/4 cup gluten-free flour
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup vegan shortening

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line the muffin tin with liners or spray muffin tin if liners aren’t used.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the oil, agave, rice milk, vanilla and lemon to the dry ingredients and mix until batter is smooth. Using a plastic spatula, fold in blueberries until they are distributed evenly through the batter.

Using a cookie scooper, fill each muffin tin almost to the top. In a small bowl mix evaporated cane juice, flour, water, cinnamon, and shortening until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of muffins.

Bake the muffins on the center rack for about 20-25 minutes. Let the muffins stand for 15 minutes then move them to the wire rack and cool completely.

Enjoy!

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Take it and Bake It

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I was a few bites into this meal before I snapped a picture. Pregnancy can make you pretty ravenous :-)

Take and bake Mexican food?  Heck yeah!  Last Thursday, I participated in my second Milwaukee gluten free get together hosted by the lovely Sarah.  The get together was held at Cocina DeLeon Gourmet on Bluemound Rd. in Brookfield, WI. 
It’s not a sit down restaurant, but the owner was able to set up tables and a buffet for us to enjoy a delicious meal.  This wasn’t the first time I’ve had their delicious food.  Last family Christmas, instead of making a big meal for our family, my mom bought pans upon pans of enchiladas.  I’ve tasted their chicken and their beef enchiladas and both were very good.  Their guacamole is  pretty tasty as well.

On Thursday, I decided to try their vegetarian enchiladas: black bean & spinach.  Oh. So. Good.  They were so good that I bought a pan of 6 to take back to Chicago with me and make for hubs.  Next to my grandma’s enchiladas, these are the next best thing.  Along with the pan of enchiladas I bought the enchilada sauce as well as cheese.

I made them for dinner that following Monday.  Since I had some errands to run and didn’t have time to whip up a nice meal, I thought this would be the perfect solution.  I baked the enchiladas according to the directions on the pan (overall they took about 25 minutes to make) and I made Spanish rice from scratch…without a recipe. Win! Hubs enjoyed the meal and said that I can buy those enchiladas again.  He didn’t even realize they were meatless.  I’d like to one day make my own enchiladas since I’ve never done it, but I will buying these again.  They’re perfect for quick meals or when you have to feed a lot of people.  The only thing that would’ve made this meal more authentic? A nice cold margarita on the rocks ;-) BUT that will have to wait awhile!     

Meatless Monday-Speedy Weeknight Dinner/SIDI

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I had the hardest time getting out of bed today.  My weekend couldn’t have been any more fabulous and I absolutely hated to see it come to an end.  My long lost sister and my mom stayed with us the whole holiday weekend.  We celebrated Thanksgiving at my in laws.  This was my first gluten-free Thanksgiving and I’d say that it went pretty well.  My mom & I made the cornbread stuffing, apple crisp and pumpkin pie.  It was all so tasty.  We made two pans of stuffing because I wasn’t sure of how many people would be there.  We ended up bringing one one and needless to say, it was gone by the end of the weekend.  I love that stuff.

Our weekend was filled with lots of food, laughs, Breaking Dawn, and Zoo lights at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Me, my mom & sister having brunch at Chicago Firehouse Restaurant. Highly recommended!

Because I was tired from the weekend & still wanted to do a test run on cookies for The Great Food Blogger cookie swap, dinner had to be effortless, yet delicious (and somewhat nutritious).  I resorted to an old college staple: grilled cheese & creamy tomato soup. 

The soup was a gluten-free kind from Whole Foods.  It was a pretty tasty tomato soup.  I threw away the box before I wrote down the brand name.   My grilled cheese contained a slice of American, provolone, a tomato slice, and pesto all melted together on Udi’s gluten free bread.  That’s what I’d like to call a “grown-up” grilled cheese sandwich.  I easily could’ve had another one, but I refrained.  Udi’s is the only gluten-free sandwich bread I’ve ever tried.  I almost grabbed another brand today, just to shake things up a bit, but it’s so good and I’m scared to try another brand only to be disappointed.  I can’t wait until we live closer to a gluten-free bakery so that I can buy fresh baked sandwich bread…  :-)

For this week’s Say it Do it, I’m going to attempt to follow the TurboFire schedule.  I bought the set from beachbody last spring, right before I fell and sprained my ankle, so I haven’t had a chance to do it straight through.  The TurboFire schedule is a 20 week program where you workout 6 days a week.  The workout times vary from 15 HIIT to 55 ez cardio.  It’s a lot like Tae Bo/kickboxing.  So far, I’ve had a lot of fun doing the DVDs.

Monday: Fire 30 / Stretch 10
Tuesday: Bar Method & HIIT 15 / Stretch 10
Wednesday: Zumba/rest
Thursday: Fire 30 / Stretch 10/Bar Method
Friday:  Fire 55 EZ/Bar Method
Saturday: Fire 30 / Stretch 10
Sunday: Core 20 / Stretch 40

While I think it’s kind of unrealistic (for me anyway) to lose a considerable amount of weight over the holidays (I just love cookies too much!), I would like maintain what I am now or lose a few lbs/tone up. As of right now, my only goal is to maintain. 

And I leave you with this video.  I took this while we were at Zoo lights this weekend.  Dancing light trees coordinated with Christmas music.  My favorite display at Lincoln Park Zoo!  The holiday season is here :-)

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Meatless Monday-An Oldie but Goodie

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Today, I’m thankful that it’s a short week. The week following drill weekend is always an exhausting one, so I’m looking forward to relaxing, spending time with family and eating my little heart out.

Because of all the cooking that will be taking place this week, I wanted tonight’s dinner to be pretty easy and low key.  So the black bean & sweet potato chili made an appearance again.  Always so good and the perfect fall, meatless meal! And I made enough for leftovers.

Last week I stayed pretty on top of my workouts.  With the exception of running, I did pretty much everything including random zumba dances in my living room.  It doesn’t even feel like a workout to me because I have so much fun doing it.  So here’s this week’s SIDI.

Monday: 20 minute elliptical interval + upper body
Tuesday: Bar Method + 3 mile run
Wednesday: Bar Method & mom comes to town! Lots of cooking :-)
Thursday: My own 5k turkey trot
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Bar Method
Sunday: Yoga 

I’m off to drink some wine & catch up on mindless TV (aka-Gossip Girl).  Short blog post, but I’m exhausted!

  

Meatless Monday: Restaurant Edition

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After a weekend of cooking, my first Monday back to work & reading *this* blog post, I decided that making dinner tonight was not going to happen.  I wanted some Thai food and bad.   I texted LC and asked him if he wanted to do a date night tonight since we didn’t do one last week.  He was definitely down for this.

What I craved was some authentic, green curry.  Authentic Thai food.  One problem? The “gluten-thing”.  I didn’t really give it much thought when I initially decided I wanted Thai cuisine for dinner.  I totally forgot about my new dietary restrictions.  But surely I’d find something.  After “googling” and looking at different restaurants & menus around Chicago, I found that my safest bet would be Big Bowl.  Big Bowl is another Lettuce Entertain You gem.  They’re the owners of Paris Club & Cafe Ba Ba Reeba.  They specialize in fresh Chinese & Thai Cuisine.

The space is a very trendy restaurant, but relaxed at the same time.  I came from work so I had business casual clothes & hubs rolled in there with a hooded sweatshirt and jeans.

Much to our surprise, on Mondays they have 1/2 price wine bottles.  So, we started off our night with a bottle of my favorite red, Melbec. 

Very much needed after the day I had at work.
For our appetizer, we shared some vegetarian summer rolls. (Random question, does anyone know the difference-if any-between a spring roll & a summer roll?)  They were made of a rice paper wrapper with rice noodles, seasonal veggies & dipping sauce.  These were really good.  I tasted a hint of cilantro and other crisp vegetables.  I like when the summer rolls & spring rolls have some crunch to them.  They taste much more fresh that way.    
And for our main courses, we both rolled with Pad Thai.  Hubs had the shrimp pad Thai and I stuck with the vegetarian Pad Thai with tofu (even though the orange chicken was calling my name!). The dish was served with rice noodles, a ton of sprouts, basil, eggs peanuts, and a sprinkling of lime. Oh. So. Good.  This was probably one of the best Pad Thai dishes I’ve ever had.  I was so hungry and it was so, that I ate the whole thing.  Definitely not necessary. 
Overall, it was a wonderful first gluten-free Thai experience and I’d definitely be back again.  They had quite a few gluten-free options to choose from.  I forgot that I’ve actually been here before.  A few years ago, my family & I came here when we were in Chicago visiting during Christmas time.  This place is pretty close to the Magnificent Mile, so during the weekend and especially the holiday season, you should probably be prepared to wait.

Meatless Monday: Wok it Out

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In an effort to cut down the consumption of meat in my diet & to add in more veggies (and try new recipes), I’ve declared Mondays to be ‘Meatless Mondays’. 
 Tonight we broke in one of our wedding gifts: The Wok.  This was my first attempt at a homemade (not frozen) stir-fry, and I’m pretty sure I nailed it.  I served it over jasmine brown rice, which I boiled in a vegetable broth instead of water and it turned out so much better!
I found the recipe on Foodnetwork.com and made a few minor adjustments.  I overestimated on the veggies, mostly because I didn’t want any to go to waste and I wanted leftovers for another day.   Make sure to read the directions all the way through before cooking.  I mixed most of the vegetables in a bowl as a I was chopping them and then come to find out that they needed to be added at separate times.  Good thing I could easily pick them out. 
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion (I used about 1/2 an onion)
  • 1 cup half-moon sliced yellow squash (used the whole thing)
  • 1 cup small broccoli florets
  • 1 baby eggplant, cut into chunks
  • 8 ounces firm tofu, cut into large chunks
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup GF teriyaki sauce (check the label: no more than 2 grams sugar per serving)(ended up using about 3/4 cup)
  • 2 cups sliced bok choy
  • 1 cup fresh mung bean sprouts
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup snow peas
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil

Directions
In a wok or large skillet, heat up the canola oil until the oil is smoking.  Add in the peppers & onions and stir constantly.  After they are browned, add in the broccoli, squash, tofu, eggplant, garlic and gluten-free teriyaki sauce.  Stir constantly and make sure the sauce covers all the vegetables and tofu.  Stir for about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in pepper, bok choy, sprouts, and salt.  Stir this for about two minutes.  You still want the vegetables to be crisp so make sure not to overcook it.  Eat alone or serve over rice.  Enjoy!

    Fall is in the Air

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    Fall is making its way to Chicago, and I’m loving every minute of it!  Unfortunately, I won’t be here to enjoy the month of October (military duty calls!) so I have to make the most of this crisp weather while I can.  One my favorite things about Fall is the hearty and comforting foods that come along with it.  Tonight, I decided to try a new recipe of a classic dish.  This chili turned out VERY good and will definitely be making an appearance again.  One thing that I didn’t do was add the ground chipotle chile because I didn’t have it.  I just added a little bit more chili powder to give it a little kick.  

    Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
    (adapted from EatingWell)
    Servings:  4;  about 2 cups each
    Ingredients
    • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
    • 1 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and diced
    • 1 large onion, diced
    • 4 cloves garlic, minced
    • 2 tablespoons chili powder
    • 4 teaspoons ground cumin
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chile
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 2 1/2 cups water
    • 2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed
    • 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
    • 4 teaspoons lime juice
    • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

    Preparation

    1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato and onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion is beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle and salt and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Add water and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the sweet potato is tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
    2. Add beans, tomatoes and lime juice; increase heat to high and return to a simmer, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

    I ate this with a side of Udi’s gluten free bread toasted and a sprinkle of shredded mozzarella, because what’s chili without a little bit of cheese? Enjoy!