Fall Baking Extravaganza--Part III

Boot camp (or any 60-minute complete body conditioning/toning/weights class with cardio intervals between sets) and I have a love/hate relationship. Every week, I go to the class, and during the workout, I wonder what could possibly have possessed me to take such a torturous class. Every week, at the end of the workout, I feel fantastic. I feel so fantastic, that I decide to stay in the room and attend the 60-minute Zumba class that follows boot camp.

It's a vicious cycle that I cannot seem to break. 

And then I go home and proceed to eat everything in sight. 

For those of you who think you don't have enough time to cook, please refer to your oven. It is the best appliance that has ever been invented. 

I've made some really quick/healthy snacks/meals with my oven in the past 24 hours. 

Crunchy Snacky (Semi-Sweet) Chick Peas

This took me five minutes to prepare. It also took me 30 seconds to eat in its entirety (there is an actual reason as to why this occurred).

Mix a few teaspoons of coconut oil, some arbitrary amount of honey, and two teaspoons of whole wheat flour in a bowl. Add half a can of chick peas and coat in the mixture.

Spread out on a baking sheet.

Bake at 400 for no more than 15 minutes. Otherwise you'll end up with this:

Crunchy burnt chick peas. Delicious, nonetheless. But probably not safe to eat when they are burnt to a crisp. So there were about 7 unburned chick peas that I got to eat. Oh well, lesson learned: check the oven after 10 minutes, not after 30.

Assorted Roasted Veggies II

Not to be mistaken with the Assorted Roasted Veggies I've previously made, which featured asparagus.

Chop up cauliflower, carrots, and red bell peppers. Add several squirts of soy sauce, mix around, and put in the oven at 350. Check after ten minutes, stir them around, and put back in the oven for another ten minutes.

A good snack or a side to a meal. I ate mine with some feta cheese on top. (Who says soy sauce and feta can't mingle?)

Homemade Apple-Oat Bars

I literally threw in whatever I felt would mix well in the bowl. Whatever floats my boat in a granola bar. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oats
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 2 tablespoons SunButter
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• drizzle of honey
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• handful of pecans

Combine everything except for honey, cinnamon, and pecans. Mix well, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Spread into a non-stick-sprayed baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Tasty and guilt-free. :)

Dessert for breakfast. Part two.

If I was raving about my banana ice cream-ified oatmeal the other day, I had no idea what was in store for me for today's breakfast.

Also, thank you for the feedback on the banana soft serve pictures. Good or bad, I appreciate feedback so I know what to improve on! Hopefully these pictures will be a better representation of the soft serve texture. :)

Pumpkin Pie A La Mode (Overnight Oats)

Last night, I mixed together 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 scoop protein powder, 1 cup milk, 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, and one large spoonful of pumpkin puree. I stirred it up nicely and put it in the fridge. 

This morning:

Nice and pudding-like! Oh, the magic of chia seeds.

Then I mixed in a large spoonful of almond butter and sprinkled on some pumpkin pie spice.

I made my banana soft serve once again by slicing up a frozen banana and putting it in the food processor with a sprinkle of water. And then topped my pumpkin pie oats with it.

IT LOOKS AND TASTES LIKE ICE CREAM. I still can't believe it.

O.M.G. Pumpkin pie and ice cream in the morning?

Then I topped my bowl with a generous helping of flax seeds for a little crunch. Sort of like the crust of the pumpkin pie!

I am seriously considering ditching my usual bran flakes and grape nuts for this kind of breakfast.

Seriously. 

Hearty and healthy. And heart healthy.

A Tulika original. Spontaneous, healthy, and exotic. That's a new one!

Cauliflower and Chick Pea Couscous

I used brown rice couscous for this recipe.

--

Prepare couscous according to directions.

Heat up pan with oil, garlic, and mustard seeds.

Add cauliflower, olives, and chick peas.

Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Add a couple of spoonfuls of tomato sauce.

Add the couscous when it's ready, and stir in.

Garnish with seeds and hot sauce of choice!

Something's gotta give.

I'm currently in a body composition physiology class (finally a class that I can apply to real life!) and recently we've been discussing obesity. One of the major contributors to the obesity "epidemic" is lack of physical activity. This happens for various reasons: lack of motivation, time, other priorities, etc.

Today, I experienced two of the above three. Sometimes, it's just really hard to fit a workout into an already busy schedule with school, work, other hobbies, and a social life. (What student doesn't want a social life?!)

Anyway, to overcome this problem, there are a few solutions. I discovered one of them today: yogadownload.com. This website has all kinds of yoga lessons--classes for beginners/intermediate/advanced, vinyasa style yoga, power yoga, yoga for weight loss--and each class is only 20 minutes long! I thought I'd give it a shot. With little time, yet lots of motivation to do some form of exercise, I found this to be a wonderful solution! And believe it or not, in those 20 minutes, I definitely worked up quite a sweat.

Physical activity doesn't have to be time consuming, nor does it have to be a chore. If you find that going on a run, for example, isn't enjoyable, don't do it! There are so many other options out there for physical activity. If you ask me, anything that gets you moving and burning calories is good enough.

That's my two cents about physical activity. If you are ever looking for ideas for different types of work outs, don't hesitate to ask me...and vice versa as well! I am always looking for new and interesting work outs to add to my collection. :)

Back to cauliflower week. It's been quite a while since I've discussed this week's veggie.

A few weeks ago, I saw a recipe by Opera Girl for cauliflower tabbouleh, in which she grated the cauliflower. This inspired me to make a Cauliflower Greek Salad. I threw this salad together with ingredients I happened to have on hand.

Ingredients:

• a few medium-sized cauliflower florets
• 1/4 red bell pepper
• 1/2 cucumber
• olives
• marinated artichokes
• parsley
• balsamic vinaigrette
• lemon juice
• feta cheese

This recipe can be completed in less than 10 minutes (depending on how quick you are at chopping veggies!)

I'm pretty picky when I chop vegetables. So it took me about 10 minutes. 

I don't know why, but I was in the mood for really small vegetables for this salad. Maybe it's because of the grated cauliflower involved in this. (I decided to include the stalks too, hence the bigger chunks).

I mixed the grated cauliflower and the rest of the chopped veggies, the artichokes, and feta cheese. 

Drizzled some balsamic and a few squirts of lemon juice, and it was ready!

Dessert for breakfast.

This morning, I woke up 30 minutes early just in case I needed extra time to prepare my breakfast.

Best decision ever.

Although, I woke up early just to find myself battling with frozen bananas, a blender, and a food processor.

The result: banana soft serve.

I've been dreaming about this for quite awhile now. I've seen almost every foodie out there making this, and I decided it was time I try it for myself.

Literally, it's just frozen bananas.

But with the consistency of soft serve.

It's completely possible.

I changed my breakfast up a little just to incorporate this "banana soft serve."

Oats in milk, 1/4 scoop protein powder, and chia seeds.

I also wanted to incorporate my favorite:

I was down to the last scrapes of this almond butter jar. So I just layered my oatmeal and banana soft serve in the jar. And then topped it with walnuts and blackberries.

Stay tuned for today's cauliflower dish!

New COOKING Video + Cauliflower!

Hello, cauliflower week!

And hello, Tulika's first cooking video! Due to popular demand, I finally decided to record a video. Super cheesy. Like, super cheesy. But that's what makes it fun. We'll get to the video soon.

Today, I decided to make a Cauliflower Baked Dish (Featuring Ricotta Cheese!)

(Quite the original name. I know).

Ingredients:

• cauliflower (chopped)
• olive oil
• tomato sauce or tomato paste (a really small amount)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• ricotta cheese
• milk
• egg whites
• parsley
• parmesan cheese
• breadcrumbs
• salt/pepper/nutmeg to taste

First, preheat the oven to 375.

Saute the garlic in a drizzle of olive oil over the stove. Quickly add the tomato sauce and saute for a couple of minutes. Then add the cauliflower.

Cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

In the meantime, combine a 1:1:1/2 ratio of ricotta cheese, egg whites, and milk. (I made that up on the spot. It worked, but I really could not tell you the exact amount of each that I used). Then add chopped parsley, some parmesan, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Then, prepare the breadcrumbs. Instead of putting a slice of bread in the blender, I used this wonderful fibrous cereal.

(I was debating using actual grape nuts. But that probably would have broken the blender).

Throw a handful of the cereal into the blender, and you have nice breadcrumbs!

Add the cauliflower into the bowl, mix with the sauce, and put them in the baking dish. Top with breadcrumbs.

Put this in the oven for about 20 minutes. I topped mine with roasted butternut squash seeds and crushed red pepper.

Complete!

Now for the videos. It's kind of a re-cap of the above, but the cooking video is just an experiment for now. Enjoy! (And seriously...excuse the cheesiness. I can't help it sometimes. Especially if I'm pretending I'm on my own cooking show).

(If the videos don't play for you, I've posted them on youtube! Click here for part one and click here for part two).

Food Network, here I come? Just kidding.

Thank you to my awesome readers for the feedback (which is why I made this video in the first place!) I'm definitely open to more comments and feedback, especially regarding whether you'd like to see more videos, pictures, or both? Or if you have any new ideas? Please let me know! 

A Butternut Squash Classic.

I had to leave the best for last--but of course, it has a little spin on it!

Quick and Easy Butternut Squash Soup (no blending necessary!)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 butternut squash, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/8 cup coconut milk (ie SoDelicious Coconut Milk Beverage)
• cumin seeds
• 1 tsp curry powder
• salt/pepper/lemon juice to taste

In one pan, saute the butternut squash in 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil. After a few minutes, add a small amount of water (1/8 cup), and cover the pot, letting it cook over medium heat.

In another pan, heat the other 1/2 teaspoon of oil and add the finely chopped garlic and cumin seeds.

I checked on the squash 5-7 minutes afterwards to make sure it was easily mash-able.

Proceed to mash it with a fork until it reaches desired consistency. Since I'm not a huge fan of soups, and since I am a fan of the texture of butternut squash, I decided to keep it slightly chunky.

Stir in the garlic/cumin mixture.

Then add the rest of the water.

I chose to add the coconut milk to give it a slightly creamy consistency without having to add cream.

Stir in the coconut milk, curry powder, salt, pepper, and a dash of lemon juice. 

Quick and easy, just as the title states!

Last night, I made a blueberry/pecan fruit tart for my mom's birthday (picture taken today, hence why the bananas look the way they do). Super easy, super low fat/low sugar, and taste is definitely not compromised. And even better, I had some left over custard for myself! Check out the recipe from an earlier post here.

Gotta love patterns.