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Delicious White Bean & Avo Salad

Jul29

Hi blog!

In an attempt to get back to posting more often and more consistently, I thought I’d share this yummy recipe we tried out last week. Thank you to Forever After Blog for sharing and, strangely enough, a big thank you to BuzzFeed, which brought this collection of delicious vegan recipes to light. I made a few tweaks, but you can find the original here.

And now, without further ado,

White Bean & Avo Salad

white-bean-avo-saladVinaigrette:

  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1/4 c lemon juice (I juiced 3 lemons)
  • 2 T mustard (can’t have too much! ;) )
  • 1 t dried basil
  • 1 t garlic powder
  • salt & pepper to taste

Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients and taste – play with it until you’re happy!

Salad:

  • 2 cans great northern beans
  • 2 avocados
  • 2 Roma tomatos
  • 1/4 sweet onion chopped (optional)

Rinse white beans and chop the avocados, tomatoes, and onion. Mix in a large bowl. Pour the vinaigrette over the top and stir in evenly. Chill before serving (just fridge it for a couple hours)

That’s it! Pretty simple, eh?

What’s more, it’s really yummy! You can eat it with a fork, or you can do what Chris and I did – dip in some blue corn chips and crunch away!

photo credit – Forever After Blog

Paleo-Style Banana Pancakes!

Feb19

Eat these with butter and bacon!
I’ve promised some serious catching up, but before I dig through photos and emails of the holiday season, I thought I’d share a truly delicious breakfast Chris and I have been enjoying (WAY too much!)

We’re once again doing the Whole Life Challenge – a fun diet & exercise program meant to help us get back to meeting fitness goals – and while I’m mostly revisiting favorite recipes from last year, I thought I’d give these bad boys a shot. I’m SO glad we did!

They’re pancakes, but they’re even better than pancakes. Basically just eggs, bananas, and almond meal, these breakkie treats are worth much more than the sum of their parts.

Paleo-Style Banana Pancakes

Ingredients:

lumpy bananas make for awesome banana bites in the cakes

  • 2 bananas (original recipe says overripe, but I prefer normal yellow bananas)
  • 3 (heaping) tablespoons almond butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter (plus additional for the pan)

Directions:

  1. Place almond butter & coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl and nuke for one minute to soften. Mix well.
  2. In a separate bowl mash up the bananas.
    *Side note! Don’t completely mash the bananas! The texture of the batter will be lumpier, but little bites of banana in the cakes makes it unbearably better! After comparing to blender-made mix, I won’t go back!*
  3. Pour almond butter / oil bowl into the bananas, mixing thoroughly.
  4. Mix in eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda. Add melted butter last.
  5. Heat the pan to medium heat. Add a pad of butter to prevent sticking.
  6. Ladle/pour batter into pan (we found that 6″ diameter cakes were perfect for flipping!) flipping once when bubbles appear in the top. (just like regular pancakes!)
  7. Enjoy with butter (and a dash of salt!)

small bubbles appear when it's time to flip!

...drool

These are a 100% success! Try it at home!

I’ve made some adjustments from the original recipe from pudgytopaleo.com
UPDATE: Unfortunately the blog is now private or I would gladly share the link! ~Emma 06/2015

Guilt Free Gelato from The Londoner

Jul18

My favorite blog just shared this FAB chocolate-peanut-butter-banana gelato. You must try it!

The best part? IT IS COMPLETELY GUILT-FREE! Oh yeah, and it’s also non-dairy!

How can that be? ‘That’s just bananas,’ you say! And you’d be right :D

*Now, I’ve made some adjustments from Rosie’s original directions, but to read hers and to see some amazingly delightful foodporn, go here.

The Londoner’s Guilt Free Chocolate-Peanut-Butter Gelato

(slightly edited)

To make enough for two you’ll need:

Ingredients

3 frozen bananas (peel & chop before freezing!)
1 heaped tbsp peanut butter
2 – 3tbsp good quality cocoa powder

Directions:

Chuck all your ingredients into a blender/magimix. (That’s it!)
Pour into tupperware to re-freeze or pour into bowls (or mugs) to serve!
The Londoner tops it off with peanuts, but I recommend fresh blueberries :)

**I personally used an extra room-temp banana and some rice milk to help my blender out. It made a softer-serve cream but you can also refreeze it (if you’re patient!)

It’s so decadent, our friends asked “Are you SURE there’s no added sugar?!”

PS – Rosie says:

“This stuff is an incredible source of tryptophan which battles depression.
It works to prevent type 2 diabetes, aid weightloss, lower blood pressure, balance blood sugars, protect against heart attacks & strokes.”

PPS – For some gorgeous photos, beautiful people, a fabulous puppy, and amazing recipes, go to The Londoner!

Rad Recipe – Red Lentil Sweet Potato Stew

Jul12

Chris and I are back on a no gluten, no sugar, no dairy diet, so it’s time to explore some new recipes!

My favorite resource at the moment is the Martha Stewart Whole Living magazine I bought this past spring. We’ve been making a ton of the recipes from its 21 day diet cleanse, and they’ve all been SO GOOD! This is what we had for dinner last night – it was so good, we’re making it again for True Blood night!

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew

Whole Living, January/February January/February 2013
Serves 4

Ingredients

2 Tbsp coconut or extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 diced large onion
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 minced cloves garlic
2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 peeled and diced sweet potatoes
1 diced (stemmed, seeded) red bell pepper
1 1/2 cups rinsed red lentils
6 cups Cleansing Broth
Chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook cumin, turmeric and curry powder until fragrant, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add onion with a few pinches salt, and cook, stirring, until tender, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until tender, about 2 minutes. Add sweet potatoes and bell pepper and cook 1 minute.

Add lentils and Cleansing Broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Top with cilantro before serving.

(Refrigerate stew in an airtight container up to 3 days.)

This recipe was absolutely delicious – my only regret is that we couldn’t pair naan or yogurt with it due to our dietary restrictions… Maybe next time we’ll serve rice milk or almond milk alongside it :)