A Healthier Alternative....

I've been trying to eat as clean as possible for the past few months.  However, clean does not mean without any snacks!  LOL.  I love potato chips as much as the next person, however, check out these homemade sweet potato and taro chips!  I made them myself.  Actually, I make them and sell them, but that's another story.  While these chips are still deep fried, I get to control what else is in them.  And all I do is slice them up very thinly, deep fry them (I suppose you could bake them but I've never tried it), pat dry the oil, and season them with a little garlic salt! 

If we give up too many things all at once on our journey to health and fitness; we'll drive ourselves crazy and probably fail.  So if we're going give something, let's give up the preservatives and additives found in foods that we can't pronounce!  

Coconut Granola

This is an easy coconut granola recipe that I love to eat with greek yogurt and fresh fruits!  Great to have on hand for breakfast or a quick snack or to give away as a gift!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup of mixed nuts (i buy it from the grocery store because it's cheaper than buying everything separately)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup Lehua honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, coconut, mixed nuts, cinnamon, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and coconut extract. Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients. Stir until dry ingredients are well-coated.
3. Pour the granola mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread granola into an even layer. Bake for 30 minutes or until granola is golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes.
4. Turn down the oven temperature to 250 degrees F and bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 mins.  Let granola cool completely. Store in an air-tight container. Makes 12 servings

** Every oven is a little different, so  the granola might require a little less or little more time in the oven. 

Calories  204 cals; Carbs 25 g; Fat 11 g; Protein 4 g; Sodium 5 g

Spicy Thai Tofu Poke

1 block firm tofu
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1/2 tbsp paprika
1 1/2 tbsp Bragg's apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp crushed chili peppers
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, sliced
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

Rinse and drain tofu. Pat dry with a paper towel. Cut tofu into squares. Mix marinade and gently toss with tofu. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy! 4 servings.

Calories: 177.7 Fat: 9.2 g. Carbohydrates: 11.1 g. Protein: 16.9 g

Small Kid Time Green Mangoes with Adult Kine Bug Juice! A healthier twist on a local favorite.,,,

When we were kids,my neighbors had a giant common mango tree on their property.  We would pick green mangoes with only a rock in hand, a stick or another mango.  I'm not even sure how we managed to pick any mangoes without a picker!  Lol.  But we did.  These days my green mangoes come from the farmer's market (so much easier than flinging sticks at the mangoes on a tree!), but I still like to eat them the same way!  With bug juice!  If you are from the Big Island of Hawaii, you know what bug juice is!  It's a dipping sauce made with shoyu (soy sauce), vinegar, pepper, sugar, salt and sometimes lemon juice.  Everyone has their own little favorite way to prepare bug juice.  As for me, I like my bug juice with just shoyu, vinegar, pepper, and dash of lemon juice.

However, today I thought I'd try something a little different.  Instead of using shoyu, which is high in sodium, I decided to use Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead.

And instead of slicing the mango up into bites sized pieces, I decided to make a green mango slaw.  I used my grandma's Japanese slaw shredder thingie (i have no idea what it's called but here's a picture of it! lol).

Green Mango Slaw with a Healthy Twist on Bug Juice

2 Green common mangoes

2 Tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos

2 Tbsp Distilled Vinegar

Pepper, to taste

1 tsp lemon juice

Wash and peel the mangoes.  Shred mango  or slice into thin slivers.  Mix bug juice and marinate mango in it for 5 minutes until the flavors marry.  Makes 2 servings.

Enjoyed some green mango slaw with my lunch today.... Thai tofu and steamed broccoli and green mango slaw with Bragg's bug juice!

Refrigerated Oatmeal

I am not a huge breakfast foods person.  In fact, I'd much rather have lunch, lunch, and dinner.  However, we know that a healthy lifestyle starts with a healthy breakfast so thank goodness for this quick and easy breakfast meal which I can actually eat cold!  (Obviously, not a big fan of hot oatmeal!)  I usually make 4 servings of these refrigerated oatmeal breakfasts and have one a day until they are gone.  They are super easy to make and the flavor options are up to you!  Here are the main ingredients that I use:

Refrigerated Oatmeal

1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 tsp chia seeds

Quinoa salad

 

If you have never tried quinoa (keen'wah) before, you are in for a  treat!  It's actually the seed of a variety of goosefoot and was of great nutritional value to in pre-Columbian Andean society.  It is a complete protein, which means that it is high in protein and includes the 9 essential amino acids that humans and animals need for their dietary needs.  Here is one of my favorite ways to eat quinoa! 

Quinoa Salad

2 cups quinoa

3 3/4 chicken broth or water

1 can of corn

1 can of black beans, drained

1/2 cup of feta cheese 

3-4 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

cilantro, chopped

Wash and rinse quinoa, similar to the way we wash rice.  Place the quinoa and chicken broth (or water or vegetable broth) in the rice cooker/warmer and press play!  Once the quinoa is done, allow it to cool.  Then add corn, black beans, feta, tomatoes, red onions (they don't have to be red onions...you may also use maui onions or vidallia onions), and cilantro.  Mix and refrigerate.   Makes about 8 servings. 

Homemade Granola

So since i'm doing this Real Food challenge, I decided to make my own granola so that i can have some for my breakfast tomorrow.  It's pretty easy and you can come up with all sorts of delicious variations based on what you like.  Here's what I made just based on what I had on hand.

Homemade Granola

5 cups 100% Whole grain Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

1/2 cup Organic Shredded Coconut

1 cup Campfire Trailmix (raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, dried fruits) -- i didn't actually included the blueberries and almonds included in the pic above

1/2 cup Coconut oil

1/2 cup water

1/2 organic honey from the farmer's market

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Heat the coconut oil, water, honey, and salt  in a sauce pan over medium low heat.  Once the liquid ingredients are heated add cinnamon and vanilla.  Whisk all ingredients together.  Pour half of the warm mixture over the dry ingredients and stir.  Add the remaining half of the liquid coating all dry ingredients.  

Line a large roasting pan with parchment paper.  Pour granola into the pan, spreading granola out evenly.  Bake at 300 F for 30 minutes.  Take out and stir granola.  Lower the temperature to 200 F and bake for another 35-45 minutes.  Let cool and store in airtight containers.  

It's super easy and super delicious and you should smell my kitchen!  It kinda smells like Christmas!  Yumm....

Easy Summer Pasta Salad

I was invited to a 4th of July potluck with some friends last night so i was trying to decide what to bring.  I woke up at 5:50 am because that's what time my cocker spaniel's internal alarm clock is set to go off, but back to the pasta.  So I decided I'd whip together a pasta salad for the get together.  This is just what I happened to have on hand so these are the ingredients I used.  It's a pretty flexible recipe, so get creative!

Easy Summer Pasta Salad
1 box tri-colored rotini pasta
1 can of sliced olives (actually, I only had whole olives so I sliced them all in the egg slicer!  Pretty fun!)
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
2 small roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/4 red onion, very finely sliced
3/4 cup feta cheese
12 slices of pepperoni, sliced (you can use more, but i only had 12 slices because it was leftover from something else i made)
3/4 to 1 cup Paul Newman's light Italian dressing

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.  Rinse off pasta in cold water to stop the cooking process.  Toss all ingredients in a gallon sized ziplock bag and refrigerate, flipping the bag over every couple of hours.  I like tossing it in a ziplock bag because 1) it takes up less space in my fridge and 2) it's easy to coat all of the ingredients with the dressing. 

You can make the pasta salad up to 24 hours ahead of time.  The longer you let the ingredients marinate in the dressing the better it will be! 

When you're ready to serve, plate it up and enjoy! 

Did I mention I don't like popcorn?

That's right. I don't even like popcorn! But apparently I can't stop covering it in all kinds of deliciousness. My friends are either gonna love me or hate me. It's such a vicious cycle! Lol.

Last night I made some cookies n creme popcorn drizzled in milk chocolate for my friend's birthday today. I'm gonna blame pinterest when she slaps me for giving her sweets (after all it's not really my fault that I don't really care for popcorn!)

Anywho, it's super easy to make and I did get the recipe off of pinterest.

All you need is some popcorn, about 12 crushed Oreos per bag of popcorn. Melt some white chocolate (I melt it in a double boiler because I'm never successful melting chocolate in the microwave) and coat the popcorn. Slowly adding the crushed oreos to the mix. Let it sit do the chocolate can harden. (I threw mine in the fridge for about 15 minutes). Then I melted the milk chocolate and drizzled it over the popcorn/Oreo mixture coated in white chocolate. Store in an airtight container!

To Blog or Not to Blog...the is the question...

I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting up a blog lately, but what in the world would I write about? Back in college, I had dreams of being a writer and publishing some great novel but then somewhere along the way, life happened. And i got sidetracked. And the next thing i know it’s 20 years later and I my writing career only exists as a ghost writer at work.

So back to blogging. What would I write about? Food? Exercising? My dogs? And more importantly, would anyone even want to read my sometimes weird and quirky musings?

Yet, I always believe that there is something great waiting to be discovered around every corner! And this is no different. I will see where this leads me. So happy reading or blogging or lurking, whatever you feel comfortable with is fine by me! Aloha!