Dessert, breakfast, and coconut milk...oh my!

The title is a summary of my day.

I ate dessert for breakfast, breakfast for lunch, breakfast for dinner, and dessert for dessert. I photographed all meals except for dessert (by then I was too annoyed having to wait 10 minutes to eat my food because of the picture taking). I also had a photo shoot with my So Delicious coconut milk carton.

I like this picture the best because it accurately portrays my bulging right bicep.

I didn't do this because I had free time. I actually did this because I'm entering a contest to win some So Delicious products. Sigh. The things I do for free stuff.

I started my day with some apple pie oats. I know, the dessert for breakfast thing is getting old. But it isn't for me...

yet.

Fluffy oats.

All the cool bloggers have been talking about this new way to make creamy oats. I jumped on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, this new method takes a lot more time than I usually have in the morning. Unfortunately, I might start waking up earlier just to make these more often, because the texture was better than any other type of oatmeal EVER!

Apple Pie Oatmeal

To make this, soak oats and oatbran (1:1 ratio) with 1/2 chopped apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon in water for 20 minutes or so. I used 3 tablespoons of each in about 1 1/2 cups of water. Heat and bring to a boil, then add 1 tablespoon chia seeds. Let simmer until most of the water has been absorbed. Then add walnuts and 1/4 cup almond milk and mix thoroughly. I topped the bowl with SunButter (not pictured).

It actually tasted like fluffy apple pie. 

This morning, I was reading a recipe for waffles. And then I decided that I wanted to make waffles. Fortunately, Alyssa has a waffle maker. 

So I had waffles for lunch. But not just any waffles. Wheat, Oat, and Flax Waffles.

Ingredients: (Makes 2 large waffles)

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup oat bran
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon melted Smart Balance
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Mix all ingredients together to make the batter.

Pour into waffle maker and let cook.

I topped the first one with coconut oil and maple syrup (delish combination, by the way). [Side note: when I say maple syrup, I mean real maple syrup. Not the sugary stuff.]

And the second one with date syrup. Yep, I ate both of them. I only knew it was a terrible idea after I'd already done so.

Just looking at these pictures makes me feel like eating waffles again. Sooo good.

About three hours later, I went to two awesome classes at the rec. Butts 'n' Guts (a 40 minute class) and Calorie Knock Out (another 40 minute class). Calorie KO is my new favorite class. Remember when I discussed the hip hop class last week? After going to Calorie KO, I don't think I'll go back to hip hop. Basically, this class alternates between cardio intervals and weight training intervals. The cardio is done using the step (which makes it really intense!) and weights are usually focused on arms. There are also drills, including high knees, power squats, and cardio lunges with the step. It's a great workout.

I've somewhat finalized a fitness schedule for this semester:

Kickboxing: 1-2 times/week
Zumba: 1-2 times/week
Cardio/Weight (Boot Camp, Calorie KO, etc): 3 times/week
Abs: alternating days
Yoga: every now and then

For those of you who are interested in joining me, please do!

Today's spinach recipe will be featured in tomorrow's post. Stay tuned!

More Upgrades and More Greens!

First and foremost, check out the left side of my blog. You can now subscribe to my posts via email! This will be convenient for those loyal fans and dedicated readers who are not friends with me on Facebook or Twitter and are unable to keep up to date when I've published a new post.

Hopefully this works. If all goes well after you've subscribed, you will receive an email each time I update. {Edited to add: yes, this works! I tried this out by subscribing myself. You will receive a daily email that includes the latest post in its entirety in your inbox.}

Today, I taught my first TurboKick class of the semester. I don't know what possessed me to include three turbos in the first class. (Turbo is the hardest and fastest part of the class. It's three minutes long and includes both anaerobic and aerobic exercises). 

And for some reason, I was talking incessantly throughout the class. Perhaps that was my coping mechanism for actually wanting to just lie down and go to sleep.

Anyway, check out the green protein shake I made after class.

Originally, I had planned for this to be my dinner. (HAH). So the ingredient list is pretty ridiculous for a post-workout protein shake.

Ingredients:

• almond milk
• frozen spinach (~1 cup)
• few slices of frozen banana
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 8 baby carrots, steamed and cooled
• 1 tablespoon hemp seeds

I realize that the combination sounds odd. It was actually a pretty awesome smoothie. Spinach and carrots don't have strong flavors, so the entire combination tasted like bananas.

I didn't have plans to make dinner because my class ends at 7:40pm. And I ate beforehand.

Sometimes, you just can't control your appetite. Unfortunately. So this is what I made in 5 minutes.

Mushroom Bruschetta

Two slices ciabatta bread, topped with frozen mushrooms. [Side note: I thawed the mushrooms in the microwave].

Topped with 1/2 slice swiss cheese on each slice of bread.

Bake at 350F for 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.

This definitely did the trick.

Can I emphasis further how much I love carbs after working out? Specifically after I've screamed my lungs out after teaching a kickboxing class? No. I cannot. [Side note: check out the comments on this post for information on why it's not advantageous to completely eliminate carbs for weight loss purposes].

Make this. I dare you.

Speaking of dares, last night, my roommate Alyssa dared me to eat (in any form) an entire bag of frozen spinach in one day.

Those are the kinds of shenanigans that occur in a health nut household.

I decided to follow through with the dare sometime this week. Then I thought, why not declare this week spinach week?

Then I thought, why not use a fancier type of spinach? And now it is swiss chard week.

There is no better way to start the week than by eating a creamy, delicious swiss chard and artichoke dip. And guess what? It's healthy!

Ingredients:

• 2 large chard leaves
• 3/4 cup chopped artichokes (I used marinated and rinsed them with water)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons 0% Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• salt/pepper

Check out the huge leaves on this chard.

Chop the chard and mince the garlic.

Heat the olive oil and toss in the garlic and chard. Allow the chard to shrink and then add the artichokes.

Add the yogurt.

Add the almond milk. Lastly, add the cheese, salt, and pepper.

Mix and put into a baking dish. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle more parmesan on top and broil for 5 minutes or until cheese has melted to desired consistency.

I ate my dip with some toasted ciabatta bread. 

Verdict: best. dinner. ever. And this is definitely my best food experiment so far.

Alyssa also gave it a two thumbs up. So make this. ASAP.

G'bye, beets.

I had one beet left. I felt like eating it in salty form.

Commence the 10-minute Tulika-fied Indian meal!

Beet Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 beet, cooked
• fresh spinach
• frozen corn
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• mustard seeds
• cumin seeds
• turmeric
• coriander & cumin powder
• chili powder (very little)
• salt/pepper

Pour the olive oil in to a pan with the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Add the garlic just before the seeds begin to pop.

Then add the beets, spinach, and corn.

Add the turmeric and coriander & cumin powder. At this point, the curry might be a little dry, so add a bit more olive oil.

Add the chili powder, salt, and pepper last. 

After teaching my first Zumba class today (!) I was too hungry to wait and make quinoa for this. So I ate the curry by itself. Bad idea. Lesson learned: carbs are quite necessary after an intense aerobic workout. Otherwise you cannot function. 

Even a spinach protein shake doesn't help in this situation. What did help was an almond butter sandwich. Gotta love carbs.

Green Experiments.

Somehow my experiments involving food always end up better than I expect them to.

*Knock on wood.*

Hopefully it stays that way.

Yesterday, I mentioned saving the majority of my beet greens for this weekend. I had a plan in mind. I couldn't wait any longer. Actually, Friday technically is the weekend, so I guess I waited just the right amount of time.

I've been wanting to make beet chips. I also have thought about how beet greens are similar in texture to kale. Why not make chips out of the greens?!

And so I did. Good way to use up an entire beet.

Beet Greens Chips

Wash the leaves thoroughly and put them on a baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil on top and then sprinkle with salt.

Bake in the oven (350F) for 15 minutes, or until the greens have become crisp.

All I'm going to say is that these are definitely taking the place of kale chips. At least for now. Or when I decide to buy more beets.

Oh and here is one of the beet chips. Too bad the beet greens chips stole the show.

That was my mid-afternoon snack.

For dinner, I experimented again. I had a bunch of leftovers and I thought I'd make a bake of sorts.

It actually turned into more of a soup.

Lentil Quinoa Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup green lentils, cooked
• 1/4 cup quinoa, cooked
• 1/2 can kidney beans
• 1/2 can minestrone soup
• 2 handfuls fresh spinach
• 2 slices swiss cheese

To cook the lentils, add 3/4 cup water to 1/4 lentils and allow water to boil on the stove. Lower the heat and let simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

Add all ingredients to baking dish and top with cheese.

Because I was impatient, I broiled it for 2 minutes. It probably would have become less soupy if I had baked it for 20 minutes.

I added black pepper and crushed red pepper on top. No salt was necessary since there was enough in the canned beans and soup. 

Just a warning: this soup contains a lot of beans. 

Look Who's Back!

And by who I mean what. And by what I mean a vegetable I featured a few months ago.

But first! Check out my breakfast this morning. I call it my all natural protein oats.

 Oats and 1 tablespoon chia seeds soaked in coconut milk (carton) for 15 minutes and then cooked. Topped with homemade coconut butter, SunButter, and chocolate almond butter.

Oh man was that delicious and filling! About three hours later, though, I was looking for breakfast number two. Enter my mid-morning snack: pumpkin spice vegan soft serve. [Inspired by Mama Pea's original recipe].

This took less than five minutes to prepare and about one minute to devour.

I used my nifty new hand blender to blend one frozen banana with 1/8 cup almond milk.

I topped this concoction with pumpkin pie spice. It was a mid-morning snack success.

For dinner today, I decided to experiment a little. It didn't turn out exactly how I'd planned. It turned out BETTER!

I've never mentioned that when I cut the stems and leaves off of the beets, I keep them in the fridge to use later. The first time I tried beet greens, I was a bit ...surprised. Since then, I've gotten used to the amount of chewing necessary to digest the greens.

I'm saving some of the greens for this weekend. I took just a handful today and sauteed them with olive oil and salt.

Shrinkage to the max!

That was part one of my dinner.

Part two: beet hash. When I began preparing this, I envisioned something similar to hash browns, or even similar to my spaghetti squash hash browns.

Ingredients:

• 1 cooked beet, finely sliced or grated
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup butternut squash, cut into small cubes
• 1/4 cup seitan, cut into small cubes
• 1 teaspoon whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon Smart Balance

Add the beets and garlic to a bowl.

Oh, one tip: don't rinse an already cooked beet. It bleeds more than an un-rinsed cooked beet.

Add the seitan.

And the butternut squash. Side note: I used frozen butternut squash cubes (convenient, eh?) so I slightly thawed the cubes before cutting them into smaller cubes.

Add the flour. Spray a pan with non-stick and then flatten the mixture on the pan. Add Smart Balance to the top along with salt and pepper.

Allow it to cook over medium heat for a while, about 7 minutes. Afterwards, I attempted to flip the hash, and unfortunately it didn't all stay together. However, it did seem quite crispy! After flipping/mixing, let it cook for another few minutes.

Luckily, this experiment turned out fabulously. It was just the right amount of crispy, and the butternut squash and beet combination was better than I had expected.

I highly recommend trying this recipe. If you're a fan of beets, of course.

Well, I'm BEET.

I've updated both of the new pages a bit more with some pictures. The recipes will be constantly updated so feel free to check that page often!

I'd like to do a quick workout update. Yesterday, I attended Hip Hop Hustle, which was developed by the same company that created TurboKick. For this reason alone, I had to check out the hip hop class. The only other time I attended a hip hop class at our rec center was five years ago (wow, I'm old) and I was completely unable to follow along. Not only that, but I felt inadequate in front of all of the amazing dancers in the room. Needless to say, I never went back. Until yesterday.

Hip Hop Hustle was surprisingly doable for those of us with little to no dancing skills. Additionally, it was a pretty good workout! I left the room sweating and feeling like I'd worked my legs pretty well. My only complaint was that a lot of the moves were only done using one side of the body (ie: lunges on the left hand side and not on the right). So I guess I'd worked my leg pretty well. Today I felt sore on my left leg and not on my right. I'm not sure how I feel about that. However, I think I'm going to give it another shot next week for the sole reason that it was actually a lot of fun.

Back to the beets...

I made some beet burgers, similar to the homemade veggie burgers I made awhile ago.

Not only did they look nice, they really stayed together well. And of course, they are full of protein. And they are delicious. Don't these burgers sound like the best thing since sliced bread? (Heh, get it?)

AND they include hemp seeds. I finally found some! At Whole Foods. Where else? If I had a chance, I'd live in that store.

Beet Burgers

Ingredients: (Makes four)

• 1 1/2 beets, cooked
• fresh spinach (about a handful)
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon hemp seeds
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1/2 can kidney beans, mashed
• olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 green chili
• coconut milk (carton, unsweetened)
• salt/pepper to taste

Combine the oats, flour, and nutritional yeast in a bowl.

Add the chopped beets and hemp seeds.

Saute garlic and green chilis in some olive oil.

Add the spinach to the pan and allow it to shrink a little. In the mean time, add the mashed kidney beans to the first mixture in the bowl. Then add the entire bowl to the pan.

Add a splash of coconut milk to the mixture with some salt and pepper and then form the patties.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, flipping the burgers after about 15 minutes.

And there you have it!

For my burger ensemble, I melted some gouda atop two of the patties.

I put the patties inside two slices of toasted Ezekiel bread (spread with some Smart Balance), with fresh spinach, pickles, and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette.

You can definitely taste the beet in the burger, which is the best part! I would highly recommend making a big batch and then freezing the extra burgers for convenient meals. I would have done this, but I'm pretty sure I'll be "beet"ed out by the end of this week. (Hah).