Chocolate Chip Avocado Cookies

So you're going to have to trust me on this one. These are healthy cookies that are delicious for being so healthy. Once you are past the fact there is avocado inside, you can enjoy the delicious cake-like cookies that taste similar to pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I found this recipe while stumbling and made some of my own modifications to make them more moist, sweet, and natural. 

Ingredients:

One ripe avocado

1/2 cup stevia (or other low/no calorie sweetener)

1/4 cup agave sweetener (I got mine at Trader Joes)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons applesauce

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

cinnamon

1 - 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Remove the avocado from the skin and mix in a bowl (using a mixer) until smooth.

Add the stevia and agave sweeteners, eggs, vanilla, and applesauce while continuing to blend in the ingredients.

In a separate bowl, stir the flour, baking soda and salt together.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients while mixing. 

Add cinnamon to taste. I am a big fan of cinnamon so I tend to add a lot, but it just depends on your preference.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop tablespoon sized drops of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. The cookies don't change much in shape when they bake so I flatten them a little bit with the back of a spoon. Bake at 290 degrees for about 15-18 minutes. Enjoy! 

Spicy Chicken Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast (cubed)
• brown rice (I used Trader Joe's instant which is 10.5oz)
• edamame (or any other veggies you want)
• sauce: 1/8 cup soy sauce; 1 1/2 tbsp oil (I used olive); 1 level tbsp brown sugar; 1/8 cup water; 1 tsp Sriracha hot sauce

Directions

• cook the chicken in large skillet w/ cooking spray 
• when the chicken is cooked through add in the cooked rice, sauce, and edamame
• fry on medium heat until the excess liquid has cooked off and the rice has turned a dark brown and sticks together

Homemade Chex Mix

If you're still in school and/or you like to munch on a snack while you work this is the perfect recipe! My mom used to make this for me and my brothers a lot when we were younger. Once I started college I would need this at least once a semester to help me get through midterms/finals. The best part is it's so much easier and cheaper than buying chex mix (I personally think it tastes better too!)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

3 cups Corn Chex cereal

3 cups Rice Chex cereal

3 cups Wheat Chex cereal

2 cups mixed nuts (or 1 cup mixed nuts 1/2 cup pretzels, 1/2 cups bagel chips or any combination of the 3)

In a large bowl melt the butter. Then add the Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. 

Next, add the 3 types of chex cereal. Stir until cereal is coated with liquid mixture. Add the nuts and mix some more.

Microwave on high for a total of 6 minutes, stopping it every 2 minutes to stir it around. Finally, spread it out on a cookie sheet to cool/dry. 

Upside Down Open Faced Tuna Melt

I had heard of the idea of using laughing cow cheese for a tuna melt and Michael has used Greek yogurt instead of mayo to make a tuna salad so I thought the combination might be interesting. It was so easy and really good; the perfect snack or light meal. Next time I may experiment using cottage cheese either combined with the Greek yogurt or instead of the Greek yogurt because I've been very curious about that combination as well.

Ingredients

Greek Yogurt (I kept adding the yogurt until it created a consistency and taste with the tuna that I liked)

Tuna

Edamame

Light Laughing Cow Cheese

Slice of whole wheat bread

All I did was combine the tuna, yogurt & edamame, spread some laughing cow cheese on the bread and spread the tuna mixture on top.  I also microwaved the sandwich before eating, but if you like your sandwiches toasted you probably want to toast the bread before spreading the cheese on top.

Enjoy!

Spinach and Feta Turkey Burgers

Happy Thanksgiving!! Here is a great turkey recipe!

While rummaging through some healthy food blogs, I stumbled upon a spinach and feta turkey burger recipe. When I showed it to Michael he liked the idea so much he wanted to make them next time we were hungry. Just a couple of hours later we were chomping down on our own simpler version of the burger. It was AMAZING!! We were both SO happy with it and it was so easy to make!

Ingredients

1 package of ground turkey

1-2 cups frozen spinach

1/2 cup of feta

2 medium sized cloves of garlic pressed (keep pressing the garlic until nothing comes out anymore)

We combined all ingredients using our hands to mix them in well.

Next, we formed the mixture into 3 large burgers and grilled them on the George Foreman. Michael taught me the way you know a turkey burger is cooked all the way, firm, but not dry, juicy when you cut it open, and done through the middle.

We decided to make some of our guacamole to eat with the burgers. It was amazing and we definitely recommend it!

Side note - this could make a great appetizer if you make the mixture into mini burgers and have a dipping sauce like honey mustard, guacamole, or cranberry sauce.

Sun Deviled Eggs

While this post is not necessarily a recipe, we thought we'd share with you an idea we had, made and loved! We decided to make deviled eggs, but we'd thought we'd spice this traditional snack up a bit, literally. We hard boiled 5 eggs and mixed the yolks with mayo, a little bit of mustard and some sriracha. The best part is that you can add the sriracha to your own comfortable spice level. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

Happy eating!

Curry Chicken with Brown Rice & Mushrooms

This week is a good week for our blog..It is a week in which Michael and I are able to cook in the same kitchen again while I visit him in New York! We made this meal the first night I got in and not only was it healthy, but it was quick and satisfying!

Ingredients

Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce

a chicken breast

Trader Joe's brown rice in a bag

mushrooms

In a saucepan, we followed the directions on the jar, pouring in the sauce and a cup of water and turning the stove onto a medium heat. (Next time, we'd decrease the amount of water or would try to thicken the sauce by letting it simmer for longer before we put the chicken in, because we would have liked a thicker sauce.)

Next, we added cubed chunks of the chicken into the sauce and covered the pan, but stirring occasionally. 

As the chicken was cooking we put the rice and mushrooms into a bowl, along with a little bit of water and steam it in the microwave.

Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, it's ready to serve.

We served the rice, mushrooms, and chicken in one bowl. It's that easy!

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

I am always looking for some healthy and interesting recipes, so when my lovely aunt told me about this recipe I couldn't wait to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised how something so healthy and low in calories (300 per batch) could be so delicious. I ate them with almond butter and sugar free syrup and also tried them with some pumpkin butter. I will definitely keep this recipe in mind next time I'm craving some pancakes!

Ingredients

1/2 cup pumpkin

1 tablespoon flaxseed meal

30 grams protein powder (1 scoop if you use the biggest loser protein powder)

1/2 cup egg whites

cinnamon, nutmeg, & stevia to taste

Combine ingredients. I used a lot of cinnamon and skipped on the nutmeg because I'm not a huge fan of nutmeg. I also didn't have any stevia so I used truvia, but basically you can use any kind of sweetener. I also doubled the recipe, making it about 4 servings instead of 2.

Once combined, cook the pancakes in a frying pan as though you would normally for pancakes.

Enjoy!

PS - Thanks for the recipe Aunt Karen!

Pumpkin Cranberry Oatmeal

The past few weeks, my ideal Saturday brunch consists of an iced coffee latte and a generous bowl of oatmeal. I had some canned pumpkin leftover from another recipe so I decided to throw some fall flavors into my oatmeal. I really enjoyed the outcome.

I mixed 3/4 cup of quick oats with about 1 cup of almond milk (feel free to use soy or regular), and about 2 teaspoons of pumpkin puree. I popped it into the microwave for a minute and 45 seconds.

After taking it out of the microwave, I added about 1 1/2 teaspoons of brown sugar (may add more next time because I looove brown sugar), a few pinches of pumpkin pie spice, and a few tablespoons of dried cranberries. It was a deliciously wonderful way to start a Saturday!

Mexitalirranean Salad

I was trying to decide what I felt like having for dinner the other night when this unique combination of foods popped into my mind. The dish is a fusion of Mexican, Italian, and Middle Eastern flavors, hence the name. While healthy, this salad is filling and can be made either with or without meat. The first time I made it without meat but the second time I used some ground turkey and I thought it was good both ways.

While you can use any brand of couscous, I used Israeli couscous from Trader Joes and prepared it based on the box instructions, but halving the amounts of water, couscous and olive oil because there were only two of us eating. 

As the couscous was cooking, I cut up about 1 1/2 avocados, 2 roma tomatoes, and a half a can of black olives.

Once the couscous was done I mixed it in a medium sized bowl with the cut up ingredients, 1/3 can of black beans and about 3-4 tablespoons of feta cheese. Finally, I added lemon juice, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper. I recommend just adding each ingredient, mixing and taste testing to determine how much more, if any, of each ingredient to add. You can serve it a variety of ways. I liked eating it on it's own, but my brother really liked scooping it up with tortilla chips.

**Next time I may experiment using some sriracha sauce or red peppers to spice it up a bit.

Seared Ahi Tuna Steak with Benihana Mustard

This is my favorite when I go to teppanyaki, and I was surprised how easy it is to recreate. Also very cheap since Trader Joe's had 2 good size tuna steaks in the freezer section for about $5. Can't beat that!

Start out with the mustard sauce: 

1 1/2 tablespoons powdered mustard

2 tablespoons hot water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 clove garlic peeled (can substitute garlic powder to taste/consistency)

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (optional - I did not use)

Start out mixing the mustard and water into a paste. It you are including the fresh ingredients (garlic and sesame seeds) put this paste in a blender and blend all ingredients together. Since I was using garlic powder I just stirred it into the bowl. 

Here is my finished mustard sauce. It has a good bite to it, and next time I think I would opt to include the fresh ingredients as well for a thicker sauce. 

Marinade your tuna steak in an equal mixture of oil (preferably sesame but any will do) and soy sauce and a bit of garlic powder. Here I used 2 tablespoons each of oil and soy sauce. Flip 3-4 times over the course of about an hour.
Note: Feel free to add in ginger, green onion, lime juice, or anything else you would like to give your fish more flavor.

When you're ready to sear it make sure your pan is really hot. Once you lay the fish down keep a close eye on the clock. I like my fish rare on the inside so I gave it about 1 1/2 minutes on each side. 

If you like your tuna steak rare this is what it should look like on the inside. Enjoy!