Greek Pasta Salad

Lately I have been looking into my family history and it has been really fun! I's really interesting looking at old profiles, old immigrant records, and especially old photos. Old historical photos are hard to find, especially when they are your own family. But guess what? I found some! My dad practically has a whole family history museum in a chest in his house. It is full of records of my grandparents and great-great grandparents. There are plenty of pictures and I got glued to the floor for a good half hour just flipping through them. So interesting! I love it! I can't wait to look farther back in history and start discovering some mysterious family stories!

Anyways, on the topic of food, let me introduce to you a pretty stinkin' delicious pasta salad recipe. It is really refreshing and light. It is a Greek style salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese, and kalamata olives. Great for a light lunch! Here you go my friends. Try it out....





Ingredients

• roughly 8 oz. dry whole wheat noodles, cooked
• 2 Tb. extra virgin olive oil
• 20 sweet golden cherry tomatoes, chopped
• 1 large cucumber, chopped
• 20 kalamata olives, seeded, chopped
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• sea salt to taste
• drizzle of agave (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients in a tupper-ware container
2. Refrigerate
3. Serve when desired
4. Enjoy

Protein Cinna-Banan-cakes

These pancakes are a perfect breakfast to get you going in the morning. They're full of protein and they taste perty good. I like them cause they have a sponge-like consistency and they're really filling so I am not hungry right after breakfast. (Which is pretty astonishing because yes, I am carb crazy and yes, I am pretty much hungry every second of my life...) But these keep me full so that is always desirable in my book. Try'em out! Here, how 'bout you get the griddle going while I give you the recipes! Yes? Alright, let's go.....













Ingredients
*Made 3 pancakes*

• 6 Tb. whole wheat flour
• 1/8 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 Cup Greek yogurt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 Tb. raw agave
• 1/2 banana, smashed

1. Mix together the yogurt, banana, agave, and egg whites.
2. Once completely mixed together, stir in the flour and salt and cinnamon.
3. Heat a greased frying pan or griddle on low-med. heat
4. Pour your batter onto the pan and with a spoon or spatula, thin out the batter to make a pretty descent sized pancake
5. Flip after roughly 4 minutes
6. Let the other side cook for roughly 2.5 minutes
7. Remove from pan
8. Top with agave and/or fresh fruit

Don't Be Afraid of Brussel Sprouts!!

Ok, so you read the words "brussel sprouts" in the title! Don't turn away!! Brussel sprouts just have a bad reputation for some reason as that one tasteless healthy gross food that you threaten your kids with. But I'm here to say, challenge that reputation! I did and I came to find out that there are really good and if prepared the right way, I actually crave them! Say what?! Crazy I know. But try it sometime. You might actually surprise yourself. This is the way that I like to prepare them even though there are several different ways I'm sure. You could always steam them, roast them, or other methods. Personally, I like boiling them. Here is how I do it....

First Step:

Peel off the first layer of leaves

Second Step:

Chop of the little stem thing at the end

 

Third Step:

 

Cut an X on the bottom, as shown

 

Fourth Step:

 

Place brussel sprouts in boiling water so that there are covered completely

 

Fifth Step:

 

Take out after 8  minutes of cooking



Sixth Step:

 

You can either stop here, OR what I like to do is chop them up a little just to make it a little easier to eat.

 

Last Step:

 

Top with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice along with some sea salt and pepper and enjoy your snack! :)

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Pizza w/ a Cauliflower Crust

So here I am. Sitting in the training room typing up a blog post on my phone. Why am I in the training room on the stationary bike and not running with my team you may ask? Well you see, I am a cripple. No, no. I am not really a cripple. But my ankle just wants to pretend for a few days. I am not injured.  Let me repeat. I AM NOT INJURED. Nope, no way. I was injured last year during the track season. Nope. That means I am exempt from injury this year. Right? Well either way, it's just a slight sprain. Nothing big. Like I said, my ankle is just pretending for a while. Well, life is still good and despite that there is a track meet Thursday and Saturday, I have no reason to worry about my ankle. People have far larger problems than a minor ankle sprain. But I am happy when you're  happy so to make you happy today, I wanted to post my delicious pizza recipe. I made it a week ago and it is so good! It's gluten free and yeast free.  That's right. No flour. Just cauliflower. I'm sure many of you have heard of this and let me just say, it's not half bad. In fact it's not bad at all. It's prime! So here you go. Your happy? Oh good. Now I am too. 

(Just to clarify. Flour is healthy. Flour is great. Flour is grand. Don't get confused. This is just something different to try and something good for those who have celiac disease or who can't have yeast). 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

 

For Cauliflower Crust:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 Tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. parsley
• dash of oregano
• 2 small cloves of garlic, minced

For Homemade Pizza Sauce:

• 5 med./large tomatoes
•  5 tablespoons of chopped yellow onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tb. "Mrs. Dash" Tomato Basil Garlic seasoning blend (or just to taste)
• sea salt to taste
• possibly: 1 tsp. natural corn starch & 2 tablespoon cold water

 

Toppings:

• about 1 Cup of shredded fresh mozzarella
• sliced zucchini
• sliced yellow squash
• 1/2 cup chopped spinach
• chopped tomato
• handful of parmesan

 

Instructions

 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
2. Mix the ingredients for the cauliflower crust in a large mixing bowl
3. Be careful not to get too crazy with the whisking. If you do, the egg whites will start to foam which could make the baking process a little difficult.
4. Pour the cauliflower into a greased 8" round pan
5. While the crust is baking, throw your ingredients for the sauce into a large sauce pan
6. Bring to a heavy simmer and let the liquid evaporate for approximately 20 minutes
7. IF the sauce is still pretty liquidy after 20 minutes of cooking, mix and dissolve 1 tsp. of natural corn starch with 2 tablespoons of cold water and then pour it into the sauce
8. Mix frequently until is had thickened.
9. Pull out the crust after approximately 20 minutes. (Check to see if the crust is well set. If you shake the pan and the crust is visibly uncooked, let bake for approximately another 5-8 minutes. Each oven cooks differently so I'm afraid to say that this recipe may take a lot of watching and attention to avoid burning)
10. Once your crust is pretty set, top with sauce and desired toppings.
11. Bake until the cheese is thoroughly melted.
12. Top with fresh chopped basil if you want a delightful kick. :)
13. Enjoy and don't get injured k? Watch your step. . . . .

 





 

Sunny Grilled Veggie & Hummus Wrap

Just to all those of you who may be reading this right now, I hope that you have a great rest of your week! I hope that every day you wake up to beautiful sunshine and to hope. I hope each step is filled with motivation to go and do great things. I hope every thought is edifying and positive. I will be praying for you that you may see the good in the world and find hope in what may seem hopeless. I encourage you to reach out to those who may enjoy a smile. I encourage to you see a change in your life that you have been putting off (whether that means something big or even small). I hope that you can feel God's love for you no matter what previous affiliation or relation you have had with Him. He is there and may He be recognized in the beauty of your week this week! Because no matter how bad this world or life gets, there are tender mercies and acts of beauty all around us. May you and I see those as we go through out the craziness of our lives this week. <3 <3


*Makes enough for roughly 4 wraps*

Ingredients

• 2 Tb. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 small zucchini, chopped
• 7-8 radishes, chopped
• juice of 2 small limes
• 1/2 tsp. tarragon leaves
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tb. of hummus (per wrap, so most likely 4 Tb. total)
• 4 whole wheat tortillas (sprouted whole wheat is even better!)

1. In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium heat
2. Once oil is heated, sauté vegetables for about 8 minutes (or until golden)
3. Squeeze the fresh lime juice over top of the grilled vegetables
4. Mix in the seasonings
5. Warm your tortillas
6. Spread hummus evenly over tortilla
7. Top tortilla with vegetables and roll up into a wrap
8. Love being healthy! That's my last step for the day :)

Divine PB & Blackberry Sandwich

Its Sunday and today was special. I got to go to a church service for those who are mentally handicapped. It was really neat especially because I really like working and being with those people who have mental disabilities. It is so interesting! And plus, they are truly special, special spirits. I wish everyone could understand how amazing of spirits these people are because I am afraid to admit that our society has many false assumptions and fears concerning these people. They are so sweet and unconditionally loving. Now I am home after a truly edifying opportunity and so I made a delicious sandwich! It was divine! Wow, my day has been full of divine things hasn't it? I would certainly say so.

(makes 1 sandwich)

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of whole wheat bread (I made the yummiest bread! Oh my! I pretty much ate the whole loaf in a few days. I will post that recipe too soon!)
• 1/2 Tb. fresh ground peanut butter
• 9-12 blackberries, smashed
• 2 tsp. agave nectar
• 1 Tb. green pumpkin seeds
• 2 tsp. chia seed

1. Toast the bread for about thirty seconds to allow it to just barely get crispy
2. Spread the peanut butter on one of the pieces of bread
3. Top with both the kinds of seeds
4. On top of the seeds and peanut butter, top with the agave and blackberries
5. Squish on the top piece of bread
6. Enjoy your daily dose of divinity!

"Hermit" Pistachio Curried Egg Salad

I definitely have nights where I just want to be hermit and do nothing. Especially on Fridays at the end of a long week. Its nice to get in sweats and chill some nights. A few of my friends came to my house to just chill. I ate quite a lot, so that was fun! HA! But I did get some pretty good laughs with my amazing friends. I couldn't ask for any better friends than I have. I am definitely blessed and nothing makes me happier than when my friends are happy and lively and laughing. Sometimes, I just love people. :) Well I made this dish Friday. When I decided to be a home body and stay a hermit at home. So enjoy.


Ingredients
*makes enough for roughly 3 people*

• 4 eggs
• 3 heaping Tb. of low fat cottage cheese
• 1 Tb. mustard
• 2 Tb. ground pistachios
• 1/2 tsp. curry powder
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 6-8 spinach leaves
• whole wheat tortilla (sprouted wheat is even better!)

1. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil
2. Place eggs in and makes sure there is a sufficient amount of water to cover the eggs
3. Cook for 15-20 minutes
4. Carefully, take out the eggs and place them in a bowl with ice water
5. Once they are completely cooled (about 20 minutes), peel the eggs and smash them in a medium sized mixing bowl
6. Mix in cottage cheese, mustard, pistachios, and seasonings
7. Warm your tortilla and line with spinach
8. Spoon the egg salad mixture on top
9. Roll your tortilla up
10. Enjoy!!

*Also works on whole wheat bread too!!*