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: (pictured above)
This is the recipe that I referred to in my YouTube video (check it out at Get To It - Fitness, Health, and Productivity):
*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!

8 Foods to Eat Daily

According to the website eatthis.com, there are eight foods that we should be eating daily:

1. Spinach - mix it in with scrambled eggs, put it on pizza, or make a salad out of it

2. Yogurt - Top it with blueberries, flaxseed, oats, granola, or use it as a base for salad dressing and dips

3. Tomatoes - Put one on a salad, eat it on a sandwich, mix it in for chili, have it in sauces, etc.

4. Carrots - eat them raw or cooked as a snack or part of a main meal

5. Blueberries - top them on yogurt, have it as a snack or part of a meal

6. Black beans - put them in breakfast burritos, add them to chili, puree them with 1/4 cup of olive oil and roast garlic for a healthy dip

7. Walnuts - sprinkle on top of a salad, chop and put into pancake batter, or grind and mix with old oil to make a marinade for chicken or fish

8. Oats - Put it on yogurt, salads, and cereals

How many do you currently eat on a daily basis? 

How can you work to add more in to your daily diet?

​Instead of trying to get to all eight at once. Add a new one in each week until you get up to all eight daily.