Health, Fitness, Productivity

Recipes

Vegetarian Taco Salad:
*Ingredients: vegetarian refried beans, rice, spinach, corn, sour cream, and salsa.
*Saute corn in 1 tbsp. grapeseed oil. Remove from heat and mix in 1/4 cup sour cream.
*Heat refried beans 1-2 minutes on high, and then reduce the heat.
*Make long grain rice ahead of time or make minute rice.
*Put refried beans on plate and spread around in a circle, add rice, then torn up fresh spinach leaves, corn, and top with salsa.

Even Easier Pasta Salad (4 ingredients):
*1 cup brown rice and quinoa fusilli pasta - boiled and drained with cold water
*1 Roma tomato cup into pieces
*2 cheese sticks sliced
*Italian dressing to taste - little or a lot, your choice
*Mix the four ingredients and put in the fridge for a minimum of one hour.
*Enjoy solo or on a bed of lettuce for a crunch. Drizzle dressing over the top if needed or desired.

Easy Vegetarian Pasta
*1 cup brown rice and quinoa fusilli pasta (it's also gluten free)
*1 small can of tomato paste
*1 small tomato cut up (I prefer Roma tomatoes)
*1/2 to full cup of crumbled extra firm tofu
*Herb and garlic seasoning
*1 tbsp olive oil
Directions:
1. Heat olive oil and seasoning in pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add tofu and cook 6-8 minutes
3. Pour in tomato paste, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water, and tomato. Stir and reduce heat.
4. Boil water and pour in pasta. Cook 7-9 minutes and then drain. Mix pasta in with sauce.
5. Garnish with fresh parmesan cheese.
**Note: For meat eaters, replace tofu with hamburger.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mini Blender Muffins
Fellow vegetarian Jordan Clark, shared this recipe from averiecooks.com. It's a great gluten-free recipe and the most amazing aspect is that you can mix it up in a nutribullet or magic bullet. No mixer, mixing bowls, or extra steps. Throw in the ingredients, turn it on, and soon you have batter.
*1 medium fresh banana
*1 large egg
*8 tbsp creamy peanut butter
*3 tbsp honey
(Mix these together and then stir in 8 tbsp. chocolate chips.)
You can also make them chocolate by adding in 1/3 cup of cocoa.

Healthy Banana Pancakes
Another recipe Jordan found from weepiggies.com, and it can also be made in your magic bullet!
*2 eggs
*1 banana
*1/2 cup oats
*1/4 cup apple sauce
*1 tsp vanilla
*1/2 tsp cinnamon
Blend the oats in the magic bullet until ground and then add in the rest of the ingredients!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Granola
So, I had an epic fail on this recipe. It was supposed to make cookies, but because I was not feeling patient and didn't follow the recipe thoroughly, I ended up with granola. Still super tasty!
Ingredients:
1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
*Mix the dry ingredients
2 tbsp. butter melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
1/2 cup honey
*Mix the wet ingredients and then combine with the dry ingredients. Add in organic dark chocolate chips.
*If your dough is crumbly like mine was, put the crumbles on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it, because it will burn easily (yep, learn from my mistakes, people!).
*Let it cool and then mix in with almonds or pour in yogurt for a healthy, yummy crunch!

Protein Gingerbread Cookies
My son found this recipe on proteinrecipes.com. It's a great cookie that is both vegan and gluten-free. Win-win!!
Ingredients:
2 scoops of vanilla protein powder
2 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tbsp. molasses
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of nutmet
1/2 cup almond butter
Mix the ingredients together and drop by the spoonful onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. This recipe makes 12 cookies.

Fresh veggie supper:
*Sautee green beans in basil olive oil and garlic and herb seasoning
*Open faced sandwich: ezekiel bread toasted, roasted garlic hummus, tomato slice, cucumber slice, and topped with Parmesan cheese

Vegetarian Salad
*Bag of Romaine lettuce or a head of lettuce
*Can of black beans (drained)
*Can of corn (drained)
*1 tomato diced
*1 avocado cut up in small pieces
*1 package of Gardein crispy tenders - baked and cut up
**Combine the above ingredients in a bowl. For the dressing, either use salsa or balsamic vinaigrette.
*The recipe makes enough for 6-8 people.

Healthy Flatbread Pizza
*Preheat oven to 350 and put it on broil.
*Broil flatbread until crispy
*Layer flatbread with original hummus, spinach, grape tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese
*Put pizza back in the oven long enough to melt cheese
Easy enough, tasty, and healthy!! Enjoy! :)

Vegan Energy Bites (easy and delicious...plus, you probably have all the ingredients!):
2 mashed ripe bananas
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup granola (optional)
1/2 cup organic dark chocolate chips
*Mix the ingredients together, shape into spoonfuls on wax paper, and refrigerate.

Gooey Peanut Butter Clusters (shown above):
*1 cup organic peanut butter
*1 cup honey
*3 1/2 cups of cereal of your choice - less sugary the better
*Dark chocolate pieces of your choice - M&M dark chocolate was my choice!
*Pour peanut butter and honey together and then microwave for 1 minute. Stir them together until creamy.
*Add in cereal and dark chocolate.
*Put in clusters on wax paper and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes so they hold together.

Apple Panini:
*Use two pieces of Ezekiel bread, thinly cut apple slices (I like Granny Smith apples), 2 tablespoons of hummus, and mild cheddar cheese to make this easy and tasty panini.
*The chips are Edamame crisps.

Tofu/Broccoli/Pasta Dish:
*Put one tbsp. virgin olive oil in pan and put on medium heat.
*In a separate pot, boil water for organic whole wheat pasta. Cook pasta.
*Cut up tofu into cubes (extra firm) and put in pan with seasoning (I used chopped onion).
*After 5 minutes, add in frozen broccoli.
*Once pasta is ready, add it in with the tofu and broccoli and mix thoroughly. Remove from heat to plate and top with grated Parmesan cheese.

Potato Casserole:
*Line a mini-loaf pan with tator tots and add in tofu cubes with seasoning of your choice. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
*Add in cooked corn and put shredded cheddar cheese on top for 3-5 minutes.
*Enjoy this little guilty pleasure!

Taco Salad: (unique twist)
*Base 8-10 Sea Salt Edamame chips
*Baked tofu cubes in Taco seasoning (8-10 minutes)
*Pour tofu over chips
*Add lettuce, tomatoes, cheese (light), salsa, and fat-free sour cream (if you need sour cream)

Oat-Nana Pucks:
*Mash 3 ripened bananas and add 2 tsp. vanilla and 1/4 cup of olive or coconut oil
*Mix dry ingredients together: 2 cups oats, 1/2 cup maple quinoa clusters, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. baking powder.
*Then pour dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix together. Add 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips.
*Form 1 inch balls and then flatten with a fork (so they look like pucks)
*Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes - make sure they are firm or they will fall apart.

Almond Auroras:
I recently found a vegan recipe for Almond Auroras on elephantjournal.com. If you're not ready or don't have a desire to go vegan, I put alternative ingredients in parentheses.
1/2 cup slivered or chopped almonds (I didn't have any, so I used 1/2 cup Go Lean Kashi crunched up)
1 3/4 cup wheat flour
*Mix these two ingredients together.
Cream together:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sucanat (I used sugar)
Mix in 1 tbsp flaxseed and 3 tbsp water (I used one egg)
Then mix in the wheat flour/almond mixture.
Roll the dough into a log and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and bake 7-9 minutes at 350 degrees.
When the cookies have cooled, drizzle melted dark chocolate over the top of them. You will have 18-30 cookies to enjoy!

Let the training begin

Gulp. I need to be completely transparent for a moment.

I'm scared.

Scared because I'm going to start training for another half-marathon. I haven't run one in three years, and what scares me is that I know how out of shape I am.

I know what it is going to take to get back into shape.

While I don't expect to be running the same times I was three years ago, I do want to get in the ballpark.

So, check back here periodically to see how it's going. Feel like you want to join in the fun? Even better.

We can be scared together. In a good way.