Simply-Healthy-Spaghetti

The other day I was driving home from the park with the kids, and as I was approaching our house, one of our neighbors had a sign up advertising free squash with large bucket filled with a variety of large squashes. Squash grows abundantly out here, so why not give away what you can't eat yourself. SO I slammed on my breaks, pulled over and grabbed two of these bad boys. 

I FELT LIKE I WON THE LOTTO! One of my all time favorite meals, that can easily be kept vegan, fresh from a local garden, for free... c'mon does it get better than that?? For those of you who might be unfamiliar with this type of squash, it is called spaghetti squash. Why is it called spaghetti squash? Well, because, once cooked it makes a very convincing (and very delicious) spaghetti replacement. 

I don't think I mentioned how simple of a meal spaghetti squash is, it's pretty hard to mess up. The hardest part comes first. So for starters you'll need the biggest baddest knife you have, and you'll need gun power as well, perhaps warm up with a few push ups ;) Take that beastly knife and your beastly biceps and carefully cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise (as pictured above). Once you finish that struggle the rest is a breeze. Scoop out seeds with spoon. Rub the inner flesh down with just a little olive oil (cooking spray works fine too), and place on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet exterior skin up. 

Then proceed to place it in a 400 degree preheated oven. Set timer for 45 minutes. While the squash is in the oven start making your favorite spaghetti sauce. Since I was cooking 2 spaghetti squashes and feeding 6, I used the following ingredients to make my home run veggie sauce (if you're only feeding 4, usually 1 large squash will be enough and you might want to half my sauce recipe).

1 24oz can of chunky vegetable pasta sauce

1 15oz can of plain all natural tomato sauce

1 small onion-chopped

1 zucchini or yellow squash-chopped

1 bell pepper-chopped

1 tomato-chopped

1-2 tbsp of garlic-minced

1 tbsp of olive oil

dried basil, oregano, parsley, salt & pepper to taste.

Directions: Chop veggies of choice (mine as listed above but feel free to add carrots or make exchanges to suit your preferences), and toss them along with your oil and garlic into a pot and saute together over medium heat until onions are translucent. Add your cans of tomato & pasta sauce along with your dried seasonings, salt, and pepper. Let cook another 5-10 minutes over medium heat, stirring often, then allow it to simmer on low and flavors to blend until your squash is ready. Don't forget to check on your sauce and stir it occasionally while it simmers. Once your squash is ready take it out of the oven, flip them over. Take a fork and scoop out the insides onto plate. It will be stringy and look a little something like this:

Top with your sauce, and this is what you'll get!

So so good...and you can eat it without feeling in the least bit guilty but still satisfied, seeing as one cup of spaghetti squash is only about 42 calories but is rich in dietary fiber and complex carbs. They are super loaded with all the necessary vitamins and minerals. It's nutritional values are very comparable to that of summer squash so you can find out specifics on the benefits of squash here in one of previous blog posts.

Feel free to try diffrent sauces as well, pesto and grilled vegetables would be a delightful spaghetti squash topping as well!

One more bonus: KIDS LOVE IT TOO...easiest way to hide veggies is in spaghetti sauce! And when you trick them into thinking they're eating really cool noodles, but in reality it's even MORE veggies...it's hard to go wrong!

Heavely healthy zucchini bread!

 One of our neighbors has a monstrous garden and pecan orchard, so when their multiple varieties of squash, cucumbers, corn, and nuts become more abundant for their family to handle they offer some for free to the community. I was driving home from the store, and I saw the free sign...naturally, I pulled over and grabbed a monster zucchini, 2 butternut squash, a spaghetti squash, and a few cukes. Feeling very excited I began brainstorming what I could do with my fresh new goodies. Well, a few hours later my mother came home bearing 2 more butternut squash, a bag of pecans, 3 more cucumbers, and 6 ears of corn. Well shoot dang. That's a lot of produce. We chuckled at our lack of communication and again I went back to brainstorming at what on earth I could do with all of this produce. A few hours after THAT my husband walks in the door holding another monster zucchini, and 2 more spaghetti squash. We all had the same idea, except we felt kind of bad for probably unintentionally taking probably half of all the barrels of free produce. I knew how I would use the spaghetti squash, cucumbers, and corn but I was at a loss of what to do with THAT much zucchini. Granted it was only 2 zucchinis but they were huge! Good thing it was Labor Day weekend and all three of my starving brothers were coming into town. They could help me eat these, somehow. After browsing pinterest recipes for a few hours, I decided on combining and modifying a few different zucchini bread recipes to come up with my own vegan whole wheat version. When I told my husband what I planned on doing to use up half of a zucchini, he was excited and explained how zucchini bread was one of his all time favorite foods- which was news to me. I felt like a bad wife because I had never before made it. Seeing as we just recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary, that's 5 whole years of deprivation. Bad wifey, bad, bad! Nothing a few years of therapy wont fix ;)

SO off to work I went. I made one experimental batch (which yields 2 loafs), and I was super pleased with my results!

 After tasting my success I went ahead and made another batch of muffins and mini loafs to freeze for future breakfasts and snacks (thanks to my friend Meg that gave me the idea)!

On the second batch I added just a little more zucchini to moisten the bread just little bit more (because I'm a sucker for gooey moist breads)...the end result: perfection!!!! 

Both large loafs and 2 mini loafs were devoured this weekend. So when my son requested zucchini bread for breakfast this morning I had to resort already to the frozen muffins. I just pulled it out of the freezer, opened the bag to vent and stuck the bag and all in the microwave for 30 seconds. I cut them in half, smeared some raw maple almond butter and a drizzle of raw honey on it then paired it with some fresh carrot-apple juice and I had one very happy little boy, that I could feel good about sending off for another day of kindergarten!

Ingredients:

(DRY)

1 3/4 c organic whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c organic all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp of  ground Cinnamon

1 tsp ground clove

1 c chopped pecans (I de-shelled & chopped our fresh pecans from the neighbors orchard)

(WET)

3 tbsp of flax meal & 9 tbsp of water

4 tbsp organic coconut oil

1 1/2 c raw honey

1/2 c organic applesauce

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 1/4 c finely grated zucchini (use a paper towel to soak up just a little bit of the excess water off the zukes once they're grated, leaving some)

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl, set aside.

Combine wet ingredients in large bowl. I make my own flax meal by blending whole flax seeds in my vitamix blender for about 30 seconds. The flax seeds cannot be left out of this recipe for it acts as the binding agent. Once wet ingredients are well mixed, slowly add the dry mixture, and mix until well combined. Pour into 2 oiled bread tins, 12 mini loaf pans, or 24 greased muffin tins.

Bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes for full sized loafs, or 30-40 minutes for mini loafs, or 25-30 minutes for muffins. They are done if you insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

They're sexy and you know it! ;)

With the remaining 1 1/2 Bigfoot sized Zucchini's I grilled them for a big BBQ we had with our family and neighbors this weekend. I simply sliced into long spears, marinated in oil, apple cider vinegar, Italian seasonings and salt and pepper for about 2 hours. Then just threw them on the grill, rotating occasionally until tender. They were fantastic as well. 

Check out the high nutritional value of Zucchini's here!

Oh, the things you can do with green!

I eat a lot of spinach, it's by far my favorite thing to put in my smoothies if I'm going for a mild flavor. I love Kale too but it has a bolder flavor so I use it often in juices and smoothies when I'm going for bold!

But what about the other dark leafy greens? It is important to have variety in your diet, firstly, because they all contain different arrangements of beneficial key nutrients. So keeping it different increases your nutrients intake. Secondly, you don't want to get bored or sick of the same thing over and over and over...and seriously, why eat the same thing over and over (unless of course you love it), when there is such a broad array of different types of tasty fruits and vegetables available. You can really spice up your life with greens. I don't think I ever really ate any dark leafy greens aside from maybe spinach growing up, so when I overhauled my kitchen and started cleaning up diet I had to learn how to cook them. Luckily, it's not in the least bit difficult to incorporate or cook these suckers! I used collard greens with my spaghetti squash this week, and then incorporated Chards into my vegan Mac n chz creation! Yes, Swiss and Green chard with Mac n chz.... It was shockingly awesome.

I'm feeling generous so I'm going to share both recipes with you in a single post. Yep, I know, I'm the best! BUT the catch is I'm going to make you read the fun nutritious facts first! Dark leafy greens are probably the most nutrient dense foods available. They are a rich source of minerals like Iron, magnesium, calcium, and potassium, while getting a hefty dose of vitamins K, C, E, and B's. The phytonutrients like beta carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin protect our cells from damage while protecting our eyes from aging issues. Not to mention they also contain small amounts of the oh, so important Omega 3's aka BRAIN FUEL! K is probably the biggest handy helper in these veggies because of how much they contain of vitamin K. K is known to regulate blood clotting, protect bones from osteoporosis, as well as reducing inflammation and preventing diabetes. POWER HOUSE FOODS. Incorporate them on a weekly bases and strive to up that to a daily basis when you can.

So here is the goods, my friends!

The greens themselves are actually cooked similarly in both recipes but are being paired with completely different types of foods which creates crazy diversity.

This recipe can be used for any type of chards, collards, spinach, ect

Sauteed Greens Ingredients:

1 bunch of greens (cut out large center stem if applicable) 

1/2 small onion chopped

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup water w/ 1/3 tsp better than bouillon  (or just 1/3 c vegetable broth)

1 tsp lemon juice

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Put all ingredients in a large pan and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until leaves are tender. 

For the spaghetti squash dish, all I did was baked the squash (see directions here) drizzled a little olive oil, salt & pepper on the squash and then tossed the collards with the squash and garnished with fresh parsley and cherry tomatoes.

For the Mac N "Cheeze"

Cook 1 package of noodles (I used brown rice noodles), drain, and set aside. In pot over medium heat combine 1 c daiya vegan cheeze, 1/2 rice or plain soy milk, 2 tbsp vegetable broth, 1 tbsp veganaise (which is a vegan mayo alternative, earth balance 'butter' would work too), Himalayan salt, and pepper. Stir until smooth. Turn off heat, toss in noddles and greens, and voila!

I also want to add my favorite green juice recipe that utilizes Kale. 

2 large leaves of Kale

1 stick of celery

1/3 large cucumber

1 apple

1 pear

1/4 lemon

Enjoy!

Living large...in the healthiest way!

Hello again! I've been on a roll lately- be proud!

Last weekend some good friends of ours came down to good ole' Toquerville to visit us. We hit up a health and wellness festival for kids in St. George at the town square splash pad. Our kids had a great time playing in the splash pad, horse playing in bounce houses, taking pictures with spider man, running obstacle courses, jumping hurdles, getting balloons animals, and eating free fruit Popsicles! WIN! However, I think the biggest win (aside from getting to spend time with them) is the very, VERY, large present they brought us, freshly picked from her mothers garden!

Our present is as big as Miss Ry! And if you were wondering what the heck that is...it's a monster sized Summer Squash!

As excited as I was to get this I was at a loss as to what I could make with THAT MUCH SQUASH! I've made several butternut squash and sweet potato soups lately so I wasn't feeling soup. Prior to our friends visit we had planned on making eggplant "Parmesan" for dinner one night this week...well why not substitute a monster summer squash in place of the eggplant. DONE, DONE, AND DONE! I know I'm a genius! But wait... how do Vegans eat anything 'Parmesan'? I'm not really down with eating overly processed fake soy cheeses except on a rare occasion- so I left out any kind of cheese substitute all together and used nutritional yeast for that extra umphh! I was so excited that it actually worked. I didn't miss the cheese one bit- it rocked!

Ingredients:

40 oz marinara sauce (I used white linen collection all natural marinara from Costco, yumm)

1 very large summer squash, or a couple regular summer squash, or eggplant

2 Tbsp of Olive oil

2 c plain almond or soy milk

1 c wheat flour

1 c breadcrumbs

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

2 tbsp nutritional yeast plus more for topping

pepper to taste

Directions: 

• Cook 1 package whole wheat spaghetti according to the package. Peel and half the squash...scoop out the seeds, and slice up one half of squash about an inch thick. 
• Combine bread crumbs, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and pepper into a flat bottomed bowl or Tupperware container, pour wheat flour in a separate container, pour milk into a third container.
• Put oil in pan over medium heat. Dip a slice of squash in milk, then in flour, then back in the milk, then dowse in breadcrumb mixture, and place in pan. Continue this process until all squash are breaded. Cook side 1 for about 5 minutes then flip and cook the other side for another 5 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside.
• Drain noodles and place them in a glass baking dish. Toss about half of your jar of marinara sauce in with the noodles. Arrange your breaded squash on top like so.

• Add remainder of the sauce on top of the squash and then top with additional nutritional yeast to taste as seen below. The rest of my family demanded cheese, so my servings were on the left. 

Seriously though, I did not miss the cheese AT ALL.

• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

My serving!MMMM!

This recipe is not difficult but the breading part takes time. It takes about an hour from start to finish to make this dish, but oh man is it worth it. Again any vegetable can be used on top. Use your favorite sauce, add your favorite seasonings to your breadcrumbs, and you've got one flavorful gourmet meal. We got up at 5am and ran this morning so the carbs from last night sure helped fuel my run! 

Check out the health benefits of consuming squash in my previous post.

That squash is literally larger than life, I served 6 people and still only used half of that squash.
Any ideas of what to do with the other half?! I'd love to hear your favorite squash recipe!

Until next time...eat clean, train mean, live lean!

We all know what they say about beans!

Okay, so I've been back in the kitchen full swing this past week and I can't wait to share my many successes with you guys. I wish I could post them all in a single post, but I need you guys to keep coming back for more, right?! 

So far my vegan experience has been wonderful. Because I have fully committed, without any marginal room for errors, it makes it a whole lot easier to resist processed foods and desserts (seeing as most pastries, ice creams, frozen yogurts, cookies, etc contain both dairy milk, and eggs). That's not to say that you can't make your own tasty & healthy vegan desserts. My calorie count has naturally declined by excluding those rare high fat, high caloric desserts, that I'd very occasionally indulge in. I have also cut out cheese which was another food that I commonly threw in my salads and dishes that very quickly jumped up my calorie & fat counts. BUT with resisting all these foods and cutting out all meat I am super surprised to say that I have not missed any of this..at all. I have yet to feel hungry, tired, or have any crazy unbearable craving for any of the foods that I have cut out.

 How can that be possible?

Well, I believe this is the case because with cutting that stuff out, I have upped my emphases on making sure I am getting enough of the things my body really needs and replaced those unnecessary calories with vital ones. Example: by cutting out even more processed foods has left me with no choice but to incorporated more fresh produce (as if I wasn't eating a lot already), so my body is very efficiently being fueled because of the body's natural ability to break down and utilize plant based foods. So as "extreme" as veganism sounds, it is actually very compatible and natural for the human body. And as I briefly mentioned in my previous post, getting enough plant based protein is high priority, since I do a lot of running and weight training. A no-brainer way to get your protein punch and a mouthful of flavor is beans and rice. Beans and Rice in unison makes a complete protein. So I threw together a concoction that is definitely a keeper. My kids cleaned their plates, and then kept asking for seconds and thirds as the night progressed. The Olympics had kept us all up past our bed time and as 10 o' clock was approaching we were heading downstairs to finally get the kids to bed and both kids start asking for their 3rd helping of rice. This might have been a tactic to try to stay up later, but either way they scarfed it down time and time again.  It has a touch of heat to it but if my kids can handle it over and over, so can you!

Spicy black beans and rice

Ingredients: 

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 tbsp garlic, minced

dried bay leaves (chopped or whole)- optional

1 tbsp ground cumin

2 c. brown rice (I used part brown, part wild)

2 (14 oz) cans of black beans (I used a Cuban variety) -drained and rinsed

1 or 2 (14 oz) cans of Rotelle diced tomatoes with green chile's-drained

3 c. vegetable broth

1 c. water

1/4 c. apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place oil, garlic, pepper, bay leaves, and cumin in large pot over medium-high heat and cook for about 8 minutes. (use 2 cans of rotelle for more spice, or stick to 1 for mild spice)

Stir in rice, black beans, rotelle, broth, water, vinegar, salt, & pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover with lid and reduce the heat to low. Let it cook, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes or until rice is tender. Eat it up! 

You can replace the vegetable broth with all water, but the veggie broth just adds a little extra umph. To make my veggie broths I usually use "Better than bouillon organic vegetable base" found in a little 8 oz jar, and you just add 1 tsp of the base per 1 c. of water. It's delicious. I pretty much cook all my rice in this broth no matter what I'm making.

Stay tuned for more smoothie, spaghetti squash, chick pea salad, and snack recipes that I have experimented with this week!

Simply. Healthy. Nikki signing out.