Braving the Marvelous

September 9, 2013 By Laura

Flattered.

Does anyone else think of flatulence when they say that word?

I am absolutely flattered when people try out the #strangebutgood recipes I subject you all to. It’s high time I share some of the evidence and creative edits!

Jicama Tofu Nachos

This may be one of my favorite recent creations. I was really excited to see it popping up on Instagram! This version is by Hannah:

Meghan @ The Lyon’s Share braved these nachos and made it her own with mushrooms and a vegan cheese sauce.

Meghan truly is a brave soul because she made my Fluffy Cauliflower Pancake recipe last week too! And she made it ~~even more strange~~ green by adding spinach and doubling the cauliflower!

(Cheese-less) Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Continuing with the cauliflower theme, Tiffany @ Love, Sweat, & Beers (minus the beers for now, baby mamma) made my Cauliflower Crust Pizza!

Since she’s eating for two, she even had room left for dessert. Clever thinking. 😉

Chick-Less Nuggets

Arman @ The Big Man’s World is a #strangebutgood enthusiast, so I was thrilled when he made my Chick-less Nuggets. He compared these TVP-based vegan nuggets to falafel, which makes total sense since I also used chickpea flour to make them.

Even better is the fast that he ate them with roasted cauliflower and brussels, two of my favorite things (rain drops on roses aside).

150 Calorie Chocolate Mug Cake

My girl Heather @ Better With Veggies is training for her first bikini competition on a pescatarian/dairy-free diet. She’s rocking it out and I was super flattered when she tried my 150 Calorie Chocolate Mug Cake.

She had the brilliant idea to mix the ingredients in advance so all she could take it to work and “cook” it in the microwave there.

Peanut-Coconut Flour Pancakes

Inspiration goes both ways! Arman made my nuggets, but my Saturday pancakes were inspired by the peanut butter-coconut recipe he entered in the #strangebutgood linkup on Friday’s blog.

The I made it more strange but adding roasted jicama and strawberries with a Mexican chocolate twist – I tossed them in cocoa, cinnamon, and cayenne pre-roast. So good!

Flattery, not to be confused with flatulence, is marvelous.

Check out Katie’s link up for more blog-land marvels!

***

I mentioned Friday that I have a new job. In order to give myself time to ramp up in my new role, I’m going to be posting a little less frequently. I don’t know what that schedule will look like yet. Just know if I miss a day (probably tomorrow) I’m not dead. If you notice. 😉

What blogger recipe have you tried lately and loved?

Is there anything making your Monday particularly marvelous? I’m in San Fran, which doesn’t suck.

PB & J Topped French Toast + WIAW

September 4, 2013 By Laura

My favorite porn is #yolkporn.

I can only imagine the search terms I’m going to get from this…

When I saw this video on Lifehack yesterday I couldn’t wait to share it with you guys. It’s (allegedly) a fool-proof way to cook a sunny side up egg.

In case you need the definition a perfect sunny side up egg should have the whites just cooked through, but the bright yellow yolky deliciousness should remain runny. Like a silky syrup for your toast or oats or salad or jicama nachos… anything!

Warning: this video will make you crave butter. And egg, obv.

The guy’s name is Mr. Breakfast. He must be an expert.

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In other news, I failed and didn’t have a runny egg on WIAW. I did win at food prep though! After a few weeks of being less than planned, I was happy to have my meals ready for me today!

Read on for my prepared food, and then check out Jenn’s blog. I don’t know if she’s doing the link up though… because she had her ~~bagel~~ baby!!!!!!!

♥ Congratulations and welcome to baby Mia! ♥

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Breakfast:

Of course I had my morning cocktail (apple cider vinegar, water, Glutamine, and Fitmixer Aminos) to start my day out right.

I was feeling like something decadent for breakfast in honor of the short work week. That only means one thing: french toast. My protein-filled toast tasted like a treat with the peanut flour sauce and strawberries.

Note: I order peanut flour from iHerb – use discount code USO924 for $5-10 off your order.

PB & J Topped French Toast

1/4 C egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
4-5 drops liquid Stevia
1 large slice of bread (I used p28 High Protein)
1 T peanut flour
1 tsp sugar-free syrup
1/8 tsp butter extract
Almond milk (adjust to desired consistency)
Strawberries and granola (to top)

Beat together first 5 ingredients in a shallow bowl. Soak bread slice in the mix, flipping once to coat.

Cook in greased pan over med-high heat until browned.

Meanwhile, mix together peanut flour, syrup, butter extract, and almond milk. I used 2 T almond milk; add it slowly and adjust to your desired consistency.

Plate toast and top with syrup, berries, and granola.

Lunch:

Things got busy and I missed my mid-morning snack so I had an early-ish lunch. I packed up the chicken, tabbouleh, and celery sticks from my food prep, and added to that some hummus and a piece of Ezekial bread.

Mid-Afternoon Snack:

No need to eat boring food just because you’re sitting in an office. This snack was incredible: salmon sashimi, lavar, edamame, and kabocha.

Totally normal work eats, no?

Late-Afternoon Snack:

My schedule was thrown off and I had to busy out an emergency bar to power through my workout before dinner.

Note: I don’t actually like these. It was a freebie.

Dinner:

I was going to eat the snapper from my food prep… but after I workout all I want is a smoothie bowl. Eating solid food after a workout just doesn’t appeal to me.

My new staple is this Chocolate Beet variety. Last night I wolfed it down with oats, fig, and a bar I made as part of meal prep (side note: I want to make some adjustments before I share – sorry!). Extra spinach.

Dessert:

Smoothie bowls are like dessert to me, but that didn’t stop me from having a second dessert. The post-Labor Day fall mood struck and I made a Sweet Potato Pie Protein Bowl as my midnight snack. I’ve been adding coconut flour to everything lately – it makes everything deliciously cake-y.

With all the toppings I had to take a bite shot for you to even see the pie!

Pumpkin Pie Protein Bowl

1/2 C sweet potato, mashed
1/2 C no-salt cottage cheese
1 T coconut flour
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp almond extract
Liquid Stevia, to taste
Almond milk (adjust to desired thickness)
Optional toppings: popcorn, figs, cacao nibs, breakfast bar crumbles

Mix it all together and devour!

Note: you could blend it to smooth… I was too impatient. 😉

***

How awesome that it’s already Wednesday?!

Do you have a hard time eating solids after a workout?

Do you ever eat something you don’t love just because it’s free? I don’t know why I’m so compelled…

Work It Out: Meal Prep

September 3, 2013 By Laura

Tuesday is the new Monday.

Why can’t this be a permanent thing?

Since Monday was a holiday, it became food prep day (usually Sunday). I get a lot of questions about what I prep for the week, so I am doing another kitchen-themed Work It Out.

I am diligent about prepping proteins and carbs on food prep day. Veggies most often I do as the week goes because I like then fresh and they don’t take long to put together.

Breakfast

First up is breakfast. This is a place I half-prep, often making bars or Baked Oatmeal To Go. This week it was bars. I’m going to see how this recipe keeps before I share it, but it was a Carrot Cake Protein Bar creation. Half I keep fresh and the other half I freeze to have as a quick grab in the future.

Carbohydrates

Then It’s on to the carbs. I always have Ezekial bread and edamame in the freezer for a quick add to lunch. Then I prep some sort of grain and my sweet potatoes and/or winter squashes.

This week I make kaboacha squash (this often gets the twice-roasted treatment), quinoa, and sweet potato.

Proteins

My proteins are a mix of turkey, chicken, and seafood. This week I baked a ton of chicken (some of which I will freeze – it was a LOT) and made turkey burgers.

Chicken is most often baked, and the turkey burgers are done on the George Foreman grill. This chicken recipe was another new experiment that I promise I’ll edit pics for and share. The burgers are a simple mix of salsa and onion.

If anyone can care an easy way to clean the George Forman, I’d love you forever.

The seafood this week is a yellowtail snapper and salmon sashimi. Most often, I bake seafood with a simple seasoning. Tonight I just drizzled it with lemon juice and added minced garlic and freshly ground black pepper.

You’ll see a few of my veggies in the pic too. I made more of my Tabbouleh Salad and cut up celery.

It may seem like a lot, but once you get the hang of it, the whole prep takes less than 2 hours. Plus you can do other things (like laundry) while you wait for the food to cook/cool.

Preparing my food at the beginning of the week saves me time (and stress) in the long run. When you eat 6-7 meals a day, food prep is a life saver.

For more on my staple foods, flavor adds, and typical grocery store buys, check out the No Shit Diet post. 🙂

***

Yes, these pics are all via iPhone. This is another time-saver. #sorryimnotsorry

Do you prep food for the week? How much time does it take you?

What your favorite things to take to lunch?

Will Labor for Food

September 2, 2013 By Laura

I wasn’t going to blog today.

Labor Day is about NOT laboring, right?

Then I realized that work isn’t always a thing to be avoided. I have a lot to share, and blogging isn’t “work.” It’s the perfect day for a short and sweet ~~over-share~~ blog post. This weekend has been all about fun work!

Job #1

My mom asked me to watch her dog, Honey, for the weekend. I am not home enough to have a dog, but a part-time dog is awesome! Honey and I walked until I was practically dragging her. Those short legs get tired. 🙂 She is a Golden Retriever and Corgi mix.

Did you see her video debut on Instagram?

Job #2

Waking up at the ass-crack of down to play make-up artist for a friend’s first Bikini competition. Chelsea has an amazing transformation story – check out her before pic! She trains at my gym, and I’m so happy to have met her.

Chelsea’s dedication and unwillingness to settle of anything less than her dream is inspiring. Visit her blog to read about her journey.

Side note: having to let the dog out at 5:30am felt like actual work.

Job #3

I workout like it’s my job when I have the time. After Chelsea’s pre-judging I came back home to hit the gym. I slacked on my laundry job and didn’t have a clean tank top to wear… so I cut up an old Georgia Tech tee to represent at the gym (we won the season opener 70-0!).

After killing my back and tris, I ate that green smoothie like it was my job. Then I took a nap.

The next day’s workout was eventful. I went for a bike ride. I am not a cyclist, and I am especially not a smart cyclist. As soon as I got the bike outside I heard a rumble in the sky. A smart person would have waited or stayed close to home. Hahahaha!

I headed down the Beltline, pausing to enjoy the art. The sky darkened, but still I thought maybe I’d ride around it. Notsomuch. I was 5 miles from home when the bottom dropped out. After hanging out under a bridge for a while, I got impatient and biked home through the rain. I arrived at my building looking like a drowned rat (see pic).

Job #4

Being a chef for myself is my favorite job. Some people dread being in the kitchen, but I find it relaxing. It’s art, not labor! I cooked ALL weekend long and couldn’t have been happier.

Clockwise from the top left:

Dessert porn. Cocoa-roasted kabocha topped with a mix of Greek yogurt, coconut flour, cinnamon, and stevia. Drizzled with cocoa powder sauce (cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne, and stevia), then sprinkled with cinnamon toasted quinoa and a crushed Adora calcium disk
Cinnamon Roll Coconut Mugcake cut up over a sweet potato with peanut butter and a sprinkle of cocoa powder. The cake was based on Morganne’s mug cupcake recipe, but i amped up the protein. Here’s what I did: 1.5 T coconut flour, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 3 T applesauce, 1/4 C egg whites, 1/2 tsp butter extract, 4 drops English toffee stevia. Microwaved for 1 min in a cereal bowl
Meyer Lemon Roasted Brussels may be my new go-to. I roasted them to a crisp in coconut oil, Meyer lemon, cumin, and pepper
Overnight TVP Oats were a must since I was up early for the bikini comp. This was a TVP creation – 1/4 C TVP, 1/4 C oats, Greek yogurt, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, stevia, and unsweetened almond milk. With extra blueberries
What’s a weekend without #yolkporn? In addition to the egg, this tortilla pizza had salsa, spinach, tofu, jalapeno, purple peppers.

***

I’m spending the day pretending like tomorrow isn’t the return of “real” labor.

What jobs did you have this weekend?

What do you enjoy that most people view as work?

Strange But Good: Cinnamon Toasted Quinoa and PB Eggs

August 30, 2013 By Laura

Start your day out toasted.

I crack myself up.

When I prep food I usually end up double-cooking it. You get the groundwork done during your Sunday meal prep, but to keep it tasting fresh and crispy I pop it back in the oven before you eat. Oven, not microwave.

Double-roasted is my favorite way to eat kabocha, and yesterday morning I did that with my quinoa. Strange to do with stuff you already cooked, but oh-so-good.

Can you believe how cheap that giant thing of cinnamon was?! Love my farmer’s market.

This is really a non-recipe. There are no measurements, only flavors you should adjust to your liking. 3 simple ingredients: my new English toffee liquid stevia from iHerb (you can use any sweetener), cinnamon, and ginger.

Basically, it tasted like cinnamon toast. Much healthier than the butter-slathered stuff mom made us. Add to that some bananas brushed with coconut oil and thrown under the broiler with the quinoa and you’ll wonder who put the dessert on your breakfast plate!

The quinoa was prepped on Sunday (after I burned the beans), making it quick and easy to grab from the fridge to make this. When you toast already-cooked quinoa, it becomes crunchy and granola-like. The added texture was amazing on top of my PB eggs!

How do you make PB eggs? I’ve posted them a lot in all my “Jegg” creations (there’s even a
vegan tofu version), but here’s the run down.

Peanut Butter Eggs

Mix peanut flour, cinnamon, butter extract, and a teeny bit of liquid stevia with enough water to make it a runny PB consistency
Prepare egg whites in a small pot until almost cooked
Stir in peanut flour and allow to cook the rest of the way (~30 secs)

PSA: It’s also awesome on top of a protein-rich bowl Chocolate Zucchini Bread Batter (this recipe, but with chocolate protein powder).

Cinnamon Toasted Quinoa

Quinoa, cooked
Liquid stevia (I used toffee)
Cinnamon
Ginger

Toss together all ingredients and spread evenly on a piece of non-stick foil

Place in over under the broiler until crisp. Watch closely – it’s easy to burn on broil!

Remove from oven, top your eggs (or yogurt, salad, etc).

How have you enjoyed making co-workers, friends, or family stare with strange but good creations this week? The link up rules can be found here or by clicking on “Strange But Good” in the menu bar above. In short, I want to see what concoctions have earned you weird looks from co-workers, family and friends! Post your Strange But Good creations, grab the logo below for your blog, and link up here.

Remember to use #strangebutgood in any Tweets and Instagrams of your creations. 🙂

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There aren’t many (any?) things I say this about, but caramelized bananas could honestly replace dessert.

Quinoa for breakfast: yay or nay? Yay!

Have you ever tried peanut butter eggs? How about just sweet eggs?

Peanut Flour Love + WIAW

August 28, 2013 By Laura

What’s more exciting than packages?

Chocolate cake.

I came home last night to a delivery from iHerb. After a massage and a trip to Whole Foods, it was the icing on the ~~chocolate~~ cake.

Use discount code USO924 for $5-10 off your order!

Many of these are new to me – toffee stevia, Walden Farms caramel, and the peanut butter protein powder. I have been out of tahini and coconut flour for a while, so I’m excited to use those again. I bet I can use it all together!

Do you think I got enough peanut flour? I love that stuff. It’s better than the other stuff (ahem… PB2) because it’s just the de-fatted nuts. No added sodium or sugar.

What should you do with your peanut flour? Allow me to help…

Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Tofu Noodle Stir Fry with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Rum Butter Kabocha Bowl

Sweet Potato Scramble with Spiced Maple-Peanut Sauce

Sweet Potato Pan-lette

French Elvis Toast

There’s a lot more where that came from… check out my Recipage. I may or may not have an addiction…

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This WIAW was a good one. I was much more prepared this week to stick to my plan. I’m using more quinoa to help me hit my carbs. This time I made extra to keep in the freezer for quick access next week too.

Read on for my food, and then check out Jenn’s link up for everyone else’s tasty eats.

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