Category Archives: Healthy Snacks

Carrot + Cucumber Peanut Salad

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This little salad dish was born from farmer’s market loot.

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On Sundays, Greg and I have been working at Headhouse Farmer’s Market for the always amazing Three Springs Fruit Farm.

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Each week, we come home with our hands full of bags of market goodies.

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This week, I am determined to base the dishes I make around what I got at market, rather than think of a recipe and have to buy groceries.

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First up is this salad.

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Crisp carrots and cucumbers slathered in some of this light and delicious peanut sauce and topped off with crunchy peanuts and sesame seeds and cool cilantro. This refreshing salad comes together quickly and is seriously awesome.

ingredients

I am obsessed with using the vegetable peeler for these veggies. It is not a way that I have been used to enjoying raw veggies, but I think that I will be doing it much more often now. The veggies become almost noodle-like, but retain that great, juicy vegetable crunch.

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The carrots and cucumbers + peanut sauce together are delicious, but it is really the toppings that make this dish. Most recipes I share on here are so customizable, but in this dish, the chopped peanuts, cilantro and sesame seeds are mandatory. You have to use all three if you make this, or it just won’t be the same. Amounts are customizable, but omitting one of those three ingredients will change the dish.

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This summer salad is very good on its own. I would just make it as a side dish for a summer dinner. But I have big ideas for it too. Tomorrow I will share with you one of those ideas, so be sure to check back for a delicious meal featuring this salad.

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I hope that you enjoy this tasty summer dish!

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Ingredients:
2 cucumbers
3 large carrots
For the peanut sauce:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 large garlic clove
Juice from 1/2 a lime
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup hot water
Toppings:
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
Large handful fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Using a vegetable peeler, slice the carrots and cucumbers into long and thin strips. Add the sliced vegetable to a large bowl.

To make the peanut sauce, place peanut butter, garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar and hot water into a blender or food processor and blend/process until completely smooth. This made 3/4 cup sauce for me.

Pour 1/2 cup peanut sauce over the sliced veggies and toss very well.

Top with chopped peanuts, cilantro and sesame seeds and toss again.

Enjoy!

Fresh Cherry Vanilla Baked Oatmeal

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I baked you something warm and comforting.

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This is a sweet and filling summertime breakfast.

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Baked oatmeal is a go-to comforting recipe. It’s so easy to do and hard to mess up. That’s what I was looking for when I made this.

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Last week, I attempted a dessert to share with you that went terribly wrong. And I attempted to change up one of my favorite recipes from my mom. It was not a change for the better.

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Both were edible, but not share-able. We ate both but they left no great impression. That’s why I made this oatmeal.

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I needed to make something I knew would be good. I needed something to comfort me. I needed to make something to reassure me, that I can make something good.

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This oatmeal did the trick.

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Cherry + vanilla is one of my all-time favorite combinations. I go crazy for cherry vanilla ice cream. And when I had a cherry vanilla cupcake a few months ago in DC, I couldn’t believe my taste buds. I decided to recreate that cupcake, and my maraschino and vanilla cupcakes are one of the most popular recipes on this site. You just can’t go wrong with cherry and vanilla.

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And what better time of the year for cherries. They are gorgeous right now, like little pieces of art. And they taste amazing. I can’t even get over how much I love eating cherries right now.

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This oatmeal is simple. Not many ingredients. But it is full of vanilla flavor. It is studded with real vanilla beans, which I think is one of the best flavors, ever. And, I added vanilla extract, to make that vanilla flavor even more amplified. The cherries are mixed right in, at the end, and they become soft and sweet, sort of like in a cherry dessert.

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I think this would be an awesome weekend breakfast, with room for leftovers all week. I hope you enjoy this cherry vanilla baked oatmeal!

Ingredients
3 cups oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk (I used coconut)
1 egg
2 vanilla beans, seeds scraped from the stem
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1-2 cups of cherries, depending on your preference, pitted

Preheat the oven to 350*.

In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk together well.

In another bowl, combine the milk, egg, vanilla beans seeds, vanilla extract and melted coconut oil. Mix together well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix until just combined. Gently stir in the cherries.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until firm and slightly golden.

Enjoy!

Notes:
-I enjoyed this oatmeal both warm and cold, with almond milk.
-For directions on how to scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean, see here.

Kale + Mint + Cashew Pesto

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You know how people have secret recipes? Or a secret ingredient in a special recipe?

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Well I think I just made my first secret ingredient recipe.

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And I’m going to share it with you!

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It won’t really be a secret. But if I were ever to have a secret recipe, this would have been it.

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The very secret ingredient in this pesto? It’s mint!

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I don’t think I’ll ever want pesto another way.

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Making this was two things: random and kind of scary.

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Let’s start with random. I’ve never really made pesto before because I don’t have a food processor and I didn’t think my blender could handle it. But I’ve wanted to make it for so long, so I just crossed my fingers that my blender would work and went for it!

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This pesto happened because I had a bunch of random ingredients to use that I thought would make a good pesto. Cashews I bought to have as a snack that never happened. Mint I bought to use in something else but forgot what it was that I was going to make. Kale that I wanted to use for a salad but I thought tasted weird in that particular salad. A half of a lemon left over from making this dressing. This might be good, I thought.

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I wasn’t sure. Like I said above, I was a little scared. Sure, a little scared that my blender wouldn’t pull through and make a smooth pesto. But, even more scared about serving Greg pesto with mint in it. He doesn’t like minty things. Things like mint ice cream or mint chocolate anything or mint tea. He says something like “the only thing mint belongs in is gum.”

So, putting mint in his pesto? I wasn’t so sure.

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It was sort of like when I was afraid to give him a quesadilla with cream cheese, knowing he doesn’t like cream cheese. That turned out well, and I hoped that this did too.

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I used this pesto for Greg and I very simply. I made our favorite noodles (spinach spaghetti noodles) and tossed together the noodles, pesto and some reserved cooking water. I topped the noodles with a sprinkle of Romano cheese. It was divine. Simple and delicious. A ton of flavor from the pesto.

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And, Greg liked it. After he said he liked it, I told him there was mint in it. 🙂

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The mint adds a hint of freshness to this pesto. It doesn’t stand out too much, but when you taste the pesto, it’s like there is something in it that is so refreshing, and of course that is the mint.

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I hope that you enjoy this pesto. 🙂

Ingredients
4 cups raw kale, any variety (I used Tuscan kale)
2 small handfuls fresh mint (I used two stalks of fresh mint)
1/2 cup cashews
1 garlic clove
3/4 cup olive oil
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1/4 cup Romano cheese
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

To make the kale softer and easier to process or blend, blanch the kale first. Do this by preparing a bowl of very cold water. Then bring a pot of water to a boil. Once the pot of water is boiling, place the kale in it. Keep the kale in the water for about 1 minute, no longer. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the kale to the bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Then place the kale into a colander and squeeze it to remove any excess liquid. Transfer the kale to paper towels to dry off a bit.

Once the kale is dry, place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Serve over pasta, with bread, vegetable or in quiche.

Enjoy!

Coffee Banana Date Smoothie

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My new favorite thing!

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(^^ No, that date is not my new favorite thing.) It’s the smoothie that the date goes in.

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I had so many titles to choose from for this post.

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First, I didn’t know if I should call it a shake or a smoothie. It is creamy in texture, almost like a shake. But, I thought, it’s too healthy to be called a shake. Let’s go with smoothie.

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I wanted to call it amazingly-simple-four-ingredient smoothie. Because really? Four ingredients made this cup of deliciousness? They did! Coffee, bananas, dates and frozen almond milk.

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And really, should I have just added almond milk to the title? That’s the only ingredient I used and didn’t add to the title. It just didn’t sound right.

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Also, I wanted to add the word vegan. Because I made a vegan smoothie sort of milkshake-y thing. If I were vegan (or on days that I feel like being one) this would be the perfect drink for a creamy milkshake/sweet tooth craving.

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Now, I don’t want to scare you away, but do you know how much I love coffee ice cream? Ice cream that tastes like coffee? That most people won’t go near? Yes, I love it. If you love it too, you will love this smoothie. There is a subtle flavor in this smoothie that reminds me of the ice cream. But! If you don’t love it, I think you will love this too. You probably wouldn’t even think of it if I hadn’t mentioned it. 🙂 Every ingredient pulls equal weight in this. All the flavors are noticeable, and just enough of each.

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This would be so good in the morning as a way to have morning coffee and breakfast all in one delicious and healthy smoothie. Or great as an afternoon snack (using decaf coffee, because if you know me, you know that I can’t drink caffeine past 10 or 11 a.m.).

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So, what do you think? Is this something you would try? Don’t be scared of the color. It’s delicious, sweet, healthy, refreshing, an energy-booster and vegan! I hope that you try and enjoy!

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Ingredients
2 bananas, frozen
4 frozen almond milk cubes (almond milk poured into an ice cube tray and frozen)
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
2 medjool dates, pitted

I started by add the bananas and frozen almond milk cubes to the blender. I blended them up, adding a little bit of the coffee, until it was very smooth. I then added the rest of the coffee and dates, and blended longer, until smooth again.

Enjoy!

Notes:
-Your blender may be strong enough to add all of the ingredients at once. I added them separately because mine is not high-powered enough to handle all at once.
-I froze my bananas a day in advance. I took 2 very ripe bananas, broke them into thirds and put them in a zip bag into the freezer.
-I also froze my almond milk a day in advance. Just pour almond milk into an ice cube tray and into the freezer.

Summertime Pasta Salad

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Another cool salad for these hot summer days.

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And this pasta is so, so good. And, I just realized, it’s not actually summer yet. This is still summertime pasta salad. 🙂

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My mom has always made a pasta salad that I like. She uses Italian dressing and salad supreme. I have always enjoyed it. It kind of reminds me of more “traditional” pasta salad compared to this one.

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This idea came from Greg’s mom. Last summer she made some amazing pasta salad with this Gazebo Room Greek dressing on it. I loved it. So did Greg. We made it several times on our own that summer.

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I have made this pasta salad  three times in the last two weeks. It is that good.

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I don’t know what it is about the dressing. It just has the perfect taste. It’s flavorful but not overly Greek-y. Sometimes Greek dressing can be very strong, but this one is just enough.

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And for noodles, any noodle can work in this! Use what you love. We have made it with these spinach linguine noodles, with spiral noodles and, this time, with whole wheat chiocciole noodles (which I also used in this pasta). It has been good with every single noodle we’ve tried.

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Same with veggies. Add what you like. Add a lot or add a little. In this one I used cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes and corn. Also good in this is cucumber and black beans. You have got to try  those too (I just didn’t have them).

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Also, cheese. Try cheese. I didn’t have it on hand, so I left it out this time. It’s just as good without, but cheese is never a bad decision. I would suggest mozzarella, any kind of cubed cheddar or feta. But try any that you like!

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It’s delicious, simple and completely customizable. Pick your favorite noodle, pick your favorite veggies and pick your favorite cheese. Use this Greek dressing. If your store doesn’t have this brand, I would just try another one. I just know that I love using this one for this noodle salad.

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Boil noodles, mix in veggies, pour on dressing, stir well and enjoy! Delicious food can be that simple.

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Ingredients
1 pound of noodles (I used chiocciole noodles)
1 bottle of Gazebo Room Greek salad dressing and marinade 
2 cups of cauliflower, chopped small
2 cups of broccoli, chopped small
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, quartered
1 can of corn, drained and rinsed
Other ideas: chopped cucumber, black beans, cheese, or any veggie that you love (I would love to hear what you would use!)

Chop all of your veggies. I chop the veggies very small for this pasta salad. Use cauliflower, broccoli, tomato, corn, cucumber or any other veggie that you love. Also chop or prepare the cheese, if using.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Cook noodles according to directions on package. Rinse the pasta with cold water when it’s done cooking so that it won’t be sticky in the salad.

Add the noodles and the chopped veggies (and the cheese, if using) to a very large bowl. Start with once cup of the dressing and give everything a very good stir. If it seems like it needs more, add more dressing until you are satisfied with the taste and “wetness” of the salad. A lot of times pasta salad will dry out as it sits in the refrigerator so it is nice to have some dressing left over to add when you are ready to serve it.

Serve cold and enjoy!

Notes:
-This makes excellent leftovers. Like I said above, if it seems like it needs more dressing after a day or two, add more right before serving. The amount of dressing you use will vary depending on the type of noodle you use, the amount of veggies and how long you have it as leftovers.