Guilt-free frozen yogurt!

Lately my research has been going so horribly wrong. I feel like I am repeating my very own version of "Kristi and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day." over and over and over and over. Gah! It just makes me want to eat a mountain of food. Eating junk will work as a successful lab failure buffer, right? Wrong. It just makes me feel fat and even more defeated. Since I can't seem to get my experiments to work I thought I should try and make some healthy junk food (well doesn't that sound weird). I also like to shop away my lab failure so I bought a food processor! It's pink and it makes me so very happy! (despite the lab failure). The first thing I decided to try and make in my wonderful food processor was frozen yogurt and WOW did it turn out wonderful! Oh, and healthy too! :)

Guilt-free frozen yogurt!


1 cup frozen fruit (I used a berry mix of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries)
1/2 cup nonfat vanilla greek yogurt
2 graham crackers

• Place the frozen fruit in the processor and pulse the chop button until the fruit is in tiny pieces
• Add the yogurt and then press the chop button for a full minute or until everything is mixed and smooth
• Then add the graham crackers and press the chop button until they get mixed in. If you want the graham crackers to remain in chunks don't press for too long but if you want them to get fine and spread throughout you can press for a full minute.
• The result: Heaven in a bowl! 

BEST oatmeal cottage cheese pancakes

I loveeeee oatmeal. Yes I do. I also love cottage cheese. I know, I know. Most people don't like cottage cheese but don't knock it until you try it. I used to be one of those cottage cheese haters. I took one look at it and was like - ew that looks like vomit, I am not eating it. However, one fateful day I got up the nerve to try a cottage cheese double with strawberries and cottage cheese and I have been walking hand and hand down the beach at sunset ever since... er well, You know what I mean haha :P

I decided to try and improve my old oatmeal cottage cheese pancake recipe listed on this blog. I like the old recipe just fine I just wanted something a bit more fancy. I added flaxseeds to make them more healthy and peanut butter chips for protein. I could not believe how amazing these turned out. I could totally eat them every day. Yummmm! :)

BEST oatmeal cottage cheese pancakes!!!!

• 2 bananas
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 eggs plus 2 egg whites
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 tablespoon flaxseed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/4 cup peanut butter chips

• I like to first blend the oatmeal and then put that in a mixing bowl and then blend the cottage cheese and add that to the bowl as well. You don't necessarily have to blend these ingredients though, it just makes a smoother pancake!
• Mash your bananas in a bowl and then throw that in with the cottage cheese and oatmeal. Mix.
• Add the eggs, flaxseed, and spices. Mix, mix, mix. 
• Finally stir in the peanut butter chips!
• Put some butter in a pan and allow it to heat up on the stove
• Start making your pancakes! Use your 1/4th measuring cup to keep each pancake proportional and on the smaller size so they don't fall apart!
• Cook 2-5 minutes on each side.
• Eat with some butter and/or maple syrup!!! :)

Humm-azing pita sandwich

I have been superrrrr lazy in the kitchen ever since summer started. Which is kind of the opposite of what you would expect since I have more free time now.... this is definite proof that I cook to procrastinate. Oops. However, I have been experimenting with more easy vegetarian options this summer. I still can't decide whether I am capable of cutting out meat completely but I have been pretty good about eating a lot of fruit and vegitables. I only eat meat when I go out to lunch or dinner, which is once or twice a week. Not bad, right? I mentioned before that I am interested in becoming a vegetarian for health reasons only so I will consider eating meat only once a week a win. You could say I am a flexetarian (I swear that is a real thing! haha). I feel sooooooo much healthier now that I have stopped eating meat every day :) 

Here is my go to vegetarian lunch (or dinner works too).

humm-azing pita sandwich

1 whole wheat pita pocket

hummus of your liking (I use sabra red roasted peper hummus)

2 slices red pepper cheese

1 slice of red onion

A couple carrot pieces (I buy the flat fancy wavy cut kind. Oh la la!)

A handful of baby romaine lettuce

Couple spinach leaves

• Cut your pita, opening the "pocket"
• On each half smear on a liberal amount of hummus. Yummmm
• Then add the onion and place a piece of cheese on each peta half. Microwave for 20 seconds. 
• Add carrots and lettuce.
• Enjoy with some mandarin oranges and almonds. Wah la! A fast, easy, tasty, vegetarian lunch or dinner! 

Will add photos later.... (So that you can literally SEE how awesome this sandwich is!)

Carrot and apple cake! (made with greek yogurt)

It's snowing again... ew. But at least now I don't mind using my oven in the apartment! Time to BAKE!!! I had two granny smith apples and some carrots in my fridge.. I had been neglecting them and eating Qdoba instead. I know, bad Kristi. This fruit plus veggie combo seemed perfect for a healthy cake which I can eat for breakfast or bring some into the lab for lunch! I used greek yogurt in this recipe just like in the apple cake I made below and I think it turned out really well. I'm still amazed that you can bake with yogurt but it tastes so good!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

A dash of nutmeg 

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 granny smith apples, grated

1/2 cup carrots grates

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup oil 

1/2 cup vanilla greek nonfat yogurt  

2 eggs

• First, preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt
• Peel the skin off the apples and then grate. Once you have your grated apple squeeze out most of the liquid and then stir the grated apple into the dry ingredients. Grate your 1/2 cup carrots and add to mixture. 
• In a separate bowl mix the oil, greek yogurt, and eggs. Then add to the dry ingredients. Mix, mix, mix!
• You can place your 1/2 cup of walnuts in a plastic bag and smash with a heavy object. Then, add the walnuts to the bowl. Mix!
• Pour your batter into a greased baking pan 8x4 or 9x5
• Bake for 50 minutes
• Yummm! This was sooo good! I can't wait to eat more tomorrow for breakfast :)

Oatmeal cottage cheese pancakes with banana!

I have had a container of cottage cheese just sitting in my fridge for over a week now. I am sick of eating it plain. So, I looked up recipes online that contain cottage cheese and found some for cottage cheese pancakes (I had no idea such a thing existed before). Of course, I didn't have the ingredient combinations that most recipes used online so here is my modified version of cottage cheese pancakes. They came out pretty well. The only thing I must emphasize is that you MUST make these pancakes on the smaller size or else you will have them fall apart and burn on you... like mine did on the first try. oops.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 banana mashed
2 eggs
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

• Pretty easy. Mix all of the ingredients together.
• I would mix the egg first by itself in a separate bowl and then add.
• Measure out a little more than 1/4 cup batter and cook in pan with a bit of butter for about 3-5 minutes on each side. 
• Eat, eat, eat. So delicious!
• Makes about 7 little pancakes. 

Whole wheat apple cake (or bread?)

Baking is a great way to procrastinate. You don't have to do your work AND you get awesome food! It's really a win win. Since I had two granny smith apples in my fridge I decided I would make whole wheat apple cake.. or bread? I am not quite sure what this should be considered. However, I do know that it is yummy!

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 granny smith apples, grated

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup oil 

1/4 cup vanilla greek nonfat yogurt  

2 eggs

• First, preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt
• Peel the skin off the apples and then grate. Once you have your grated apple squeeze out most of the liquid and then stir the grated apple into the dry ingredients 
• In a separate bowl mix the oil, greek yogurt, and eggs. Then add to the dry ingredients. Mix, mix, mix!
• You can place your 1/2 cup of walnuts in a plastic bag and smash with a heavy object. Then, add the walnuts to the bowl. Mix!
• Pour your batter into a greased baking pan 8x4 or 9x5
• Bake for 50 minutes
• Enjoy! I like to eat this apple cake warm with a bit of butter :)

Red hot lentil curry recipe!

I have recently discovered curry and it is yum yum hot hot. In my quest for healthy meals I have also discovered lentils. Can you believe that I have never had lentils before? Nope, not ever. My family is the meat and potatoes type - when I say pasta, they say what? Last semester I tried making a lentil soup which failed miserably. Mainly, due to the fact that I had no idea how to cook a lentil and because I didn't know that acid from say lime juice causes the lentils to cook very slowly.. oops. However, this time I was smart and soaked my lentils overnight to avoid any problems with slow cooking!! :)

Ingredients:

1 cup red lentils

1 can diced garlic and onion tomatoes drained

1 small onion

1 tbl curry powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

• Rinse lentils with cold water until the water becomes clear
• Soak lentils overnight in 1 cup of water
• Simmer lentils in 2 cups of water for about 15-20 mins or until tender
• While the lentils are cooking soften some onions in a pot with a bit of butter
• Once the onions are soft and a little brown add your drained can of tomatoes (I used garlic onion tomatoes diced)
• After about 5 mins or so combine all of the hot ingredients and add all of the spices. Stir! (For more burn-your-tounge-hotness add some extra chili powder!)
• Pretty good, huh?

Buffalo rice and beans!

Man is it really annoying only cooking for one person. I have been eating the lasagna rolls (see recipe below) for three days and yes I like them but I want something new! I also didn't really feel like cooking much so I decided to just throw a bunch of stuff together in a pan and wah la! Dinner! I know this is such an easy meal and I feel kind of silly about posting it but I know that I would forget to make it again if I didn't have it documented! And it was super yummy so why not share? Who doesn't love buffalo hot sauce?

Also, I realize that this recipe does have chicken broth.... but I am going to say that this is a technicality and does not wreck my no meat week. I said no meat and did not said animal products. Yes I know a "real" vegetarian would not eat this. However, like I said previously, I am doing this for health reasons so I am going to say broth is ok. At least for me. If you wanted to make this a truly vegetarian dish you could just cook some brown or white rice and then add buffalo hot sauce to that!




Ingredients:
1 package Knorr's rice sides Buffalo chicken flavored
1 can of reduced sodium light red kidney beans
1 can corn
Buffalo hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

• Cook the Knorr's buffalo flavored rice according to the package directions
• Drain and rinse the kidney beans
• In a separate pot place the kidney beans and the undrained can of corn - bring to a boil and then drain the water from the pot
• Mix together the cooked rice and the beans and corn. 
• Add salt, peper and as much hot sauce as you want! I added maybe about 2 tablespoons. 
• Wah la! enjoy. Tastes pretty good for such a simple meal
• Other ideas I had were to add maybe some salsa and onions but alas I did not have any but give it a try if you like! :)

Veggie Lasagna Rolls!

No MEAT for a WEEK challenge!!!!! Ever wonder what it would be like to be a vegetarian? I have. I just mainly wonder if I could really go without meat. My one and only love is salmon. Can I survive without it for one week? I think so. I am mainly doing this as a health experiment. After eating ranch turkey burgers (see recipe below) every day for nearly a week I am feeling kind of icky (I know I could of threw them away instead of eating them all but I am a grad student. I am not made of money!). SO anyway. This is my challenge. Go one whole week without meat. I started on friday and so far so good. The first no-meat dish that came to my mind was.. pasta! (What self-respecting person does not like pasta?) I thought I could make some lasagna rolls! I am sure that there are about a million different ways to make these but here is how I did it. And they are pretty yummy and healthy too!

What you need (for 5 rolls):

Whole wheat lasagna noodles 

3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1 can of stewed tomatoes with italian seasoning

(Can use tomato sauce instead, if desired)

A handful of red onions, chopped

2 handfulls of spinach

garlic powder

tin foil

baking pan

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
• Cook whole wheat lasagna noodles according to package. At first I was like, how the heck is this going to work? My pot is too small! But really, you stick 2 or 3 in the boiling water at a time and they soften up pretty quick so you can just squish them down into the water after a minute or so. My package of noodles said they were supposed to cook for about 10 minutes.
• While you are cooking your noodles you can soften up your onions for about 5 mins in a pan with a bit of butter if you like
• Lay out your noodles and place about 2 tbls of ricotta cheese per noodle 
• Sprinkle with some garlic powder (everything tastes better with garlic! Yum!
• If you are using the canned tomatoes like I did. Drain the tomatoes BUT keep the liquid in a bowl and set aside. you will use it later.
• Place how ever many tomatoes you want on the noodles - I used about 3 per noodle
• Then add your onions and your spinach
• Now the fun part! Slowly roll your noodles up. Be careful not to roll them too tight or the cheese and stuff with gush out!
• Place on a baking pan lined with tin foil for easy clean up! I placed them on the pan with the seam side down to keep them together.
• Then pour the liquid from the tomato can over them and bake for about 20 minutes
• Bon appetit!

Garlic, onion, ranch turkey burgers!

Ever since I got back to school I have not felt like cooking anythingggg, but after three days of oatmeal and clif bars I really need some sustenance. Burgers sounded like a superb idea! I don't eat red meat soo I bought some ground turkey at meijers!

Ingredients:
1 lb extra lean ground turkey
1/4 of a red onion - finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic - minced
1 egg
1/4 cup worcestershire sause
1/4 cup italian bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 packet of ranch seasoning
(I added some extra garlic powder too, yumm)
(Next time I might add some chili powder to give them more of a kick!)

Pretty easy to make! Chop, season, stir! Cook in a pan with olive oil on medium heat - 5 mins on each side!  enjoy!

This recipe makes 7 turkey burgers... I really should of only made half a pound of turkey. Now I am going to have to eat one for lunch and dinner every day to get rid of them. Good thing they are yummy.

Holiday Picks!!!

It is really hard to maintain a healthy diet over the holidays. I go home for break and basically consume everything in the fridge - just because I am bored. I really need to exhibit some self-control. I do not want my waist size to resemble Santa's. Anyway, here are some of my food picks for the holidays that taste good and hopefully will help you stay in those skinny jeans.

1. Amy's Gluten and Dairy Free Chocolate Cake

I know what you are thinking, organic+gluten free+ dairy free.... that is probably gross. That was my first thought after years of trying different non-dairy products that left a bad taste in my mouth. However, after one bite of this cake you will be in heaven. I don't know how they do it but this cake tastes even better than a cake with real chocolate! Another plus to this cake is that it comes in the freezer isle. So you can take the cake home and leave it in the freezer (if you can resist) until you want it. It takes about 2 hours to thaw and then bon appetite!! It's sooo good. I just ate a piece before I wrote this! :)

2. Birds Eye Steamfresh Vegetables

I love me some veggies! Especially when they are al dente. With these steamfresh veggies I can guarantee that you will never get mushy icky vegetables again! After just 4 minutes you have a healthy side to any dinner. They have tons of different veggie mixtures (My favorite is the broccoli, cauliflower, carrot mix above) so you can buy a bunch and eat them every day if you wish. They even have an asian mix which is perfect for stir fry's!

Gluten and dairy free pumpkin walnut bread

My Memmy is allergic to gluten and dairy - this makes it extremely hard for her to find new things to eat (especially so, since she refuses to eat anything that is not organic :P). Now, that I am home (and bored) for Christmas break I thought I would try to find some new things for her to eat (see the sweet potato salmon patties below). Lately, I have been addicted to pumpkin bread so I thought I would try and figure out a way to make it for her! This pumpkin bread turned out pretty well, I think, considering the ingredients that I could not include but I think some adjustments with different spices and vanilla extract is needed to really perfect this pumpkin bread.

Gluten and dairy free pumpkin walnut bread

2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tsp baking soda

1 15oz can pumpkin

1/4 cup olive oil

2 eggs

1/4 cup water 

2 tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup walnuts 

Here are some of the ingredients. I forgot to take it before we made the bread so I could not include them all.. oops

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Mix together dry ingredients in one bowel and the wet in another
• Take the walnuts and place in a plastic bag. Crush with a heavy object. 
• Combine wet and dry and fold in walnuts.
• Place mixture in a greased loaf pan. I normally use a 9 x 5 pan but here I used two 7 x 3 pans
• Bake for 40-50 minutes or until brown on top and when stab with a toothpick or fork it comes out clean.

Stuffed tomato pesto and cheese chicken

Sooo ever since I started grad school I have been making an effort to eat healthy! Upon searching the web for recipes I came across Kalyn's Kitchen - which really has been a godsend! While I don't strictly follow the south beach diet, I do love to try out all of Kalyn's recipes! Since I normally can't afford all of the ingredients or just don't have them around my apartment I typically modify them.

The inspiration for this recipe came from here and here

Stuffed tomato pesto and cheese chicken!
2 chicken breasts
5 T mozzarella cheese
3 T tomato basil pesto
2 T light skim sour cream

• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F
• Place thawed chicken breast in freezer bag and pound with something heavy on the kitchen table (you don't want to crack your kitchen counter!) until the chicken is flat. Repeat with other chicken breast
• In a bowel mix together 2 T sour cream, 3 T tomato pesto, and 3 T mozzarella cheese. 
• Coat one side of flat chicken breast with the tomato pesto mixture and then roll the chicken and secure with toothpicks. 
• Place the chicken roll up in a greased baking pan and add remaining cheese on top of the chicken.
• Bake for about 35 mins
• Yum!

Sweet potato salmon patties!

While salmon is hecka expensive. It is totally worth the money. Salmon is good for you and tastes good too! (Arby's got it wrong - Salmon is really the good mood food :P )

I have been looking to try some new salmon recipes when I came across this one: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/.html_15

Since I didn't have most of the ingredients suggested I decided to improvise and try something with sweet potatoes! Who does not like something sweet with their salmon? 

Sweet potato salmon patties

1/2 pound fresh salmon (You could use canned alaska salmon if you are feeling lazy)

1 medium sweet potato

1/2 of 1 red onion 

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder

2 eggs

• Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F
• Coat salmon with about 2 Tablespoons of oil and place on a tray covered in aluminum foil (makes clean up easier!). Bake until firm but tender - about 20 mins
• Grate sweet potatoes and onion. Cook in pan with oil until the sweet potatoes start to brown and onions are soft. Add salt and pepper.
• Flake the cooked salmon with a fork in a mixing bowl. Add the sweet potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and eggs. Mix together.
• Using your hands, form mixture into patties of the desired size and place onto a pre-greased oven pan (normally makes 4 medium sized patties).
• Lower your over temperature to 350 degrees F and bake patties until brown. About 10-15 minutes on each side.
• Enjoy!