Veggie Cream Cheese

I have a really easy recipe for you. But, I mean what else is new? I always give you guys easy recipes. That's because I care about you, k? Cool, let's do this!

We're making vegetable cream cheese. Remember when I showed you how to make your own cream cheese? Remember how easy and tasty it was? Well, this takes that up a notch. All you do is chop up your favorite vegetables and herbs, and you're done! You can use it on bagels or as a dip with some crackers. Here's how I made mine:

Homemade Mayonnaise

Making mayo at home is not as crazy as it sounds. I feel like that's a pattern on this blog. Many things sound super complicated but when you actually found out how to make them, they're super easy. I decided to make my own because of the same reason I make everything else, I wanted real food. It's also really cool to see how it's made and it's a lot fresher. The taste of fresh mayo does not even compare to store-bought. This recipe is from Alton Brown, who is a culinary genius! If you cross Mythbusters with Food network, you get Alton. You don't need any unusual equipment to make mayo, all you need is a whisk and a bowl.

The only thing I will say about the homemade mayonnaise is, there is no way to make this "low-fat". Once you see what ingredients go in mayo, you will question just how they can sell it in a store and call it low- fat or even fat-free. There's gotta be some crazy science behind making mayo only 10 calories per tablespoon. So, I would suggest using the real thing, but just use less of it.

Back to Basics 24 - How to Cook Chickpeas

"Why would you cook chickpeas when you can buy canned?"-you ask
Well, #1 it's fresher. Who knows how long those chickpeas have been in that can? Plus the can might contain BPA which we don't like.
#2 it's cheaper! You can buy organic chickpeas, or any bean for that matter, and it will be cheaper than the organic canned beans or maybe even the conventional ones!
#3 you get to choose the consistency you want for your beans. You can cook them for longer, or add different spices and herbs to flavor them.

Plus it's really not that hard! You barely do any work. I'll show you.

Yellow Mustard

Today's recipe is a good one. It takes you about 10 minutes to do and everybody will think you're a chef when they learn you made this. The humble yellow mustard!

100% Whole Wheat Bread

I love making bread at home. It's just so fun and it makes your house smell like the most amazing bakery. It's also really really easy if you have a stand mixer, I use my Kitchenaid and it's the best appliance I own. Another reason, of course is that you know what's going in the bread. Most "whole wheat" breads you buy at the store are not 100% whole wheat. This one is aaaalll whole wheat. That might actually scare you because you think it'll be dense but as long as you know the secret trick, your bread will come out fluffy and easy to slice.

Back to Basics 19 - Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Behold, the humble chocolate chip cookie. Is there a better dessert? I think not. You can make it crispy or chewy, thin or fat, fill it with whatever you want, and it comes in a nice little convenient package. All you need is one free hand to savor it and you're good to go.
My favorite is thick and chewy, with dark chocolate chips and nuts. And to make us feel less guilty, we make it with whole wheat flour and oats, we also replace some of the butter with canola oil. Perfection.
Now, stop drooling over that picture and let's see how you can make these.

Lighter Hummus

I love hummus. SO MUCH. It's good with pretty much anything. It makes vegetables taste better and crackers seem healthier. You can add it to a sandwich or eat it straight up. It's pretty magical.
I have another hummus recipe on the blog that is a sort of basic recipe that you can go to when you want hummus. This is exactly the same but made a little lighter. We use a little bit more olive oil so we get the health benefits from that but less tahini and we skip the liquid from the can, which has a little bit of sodium in it.

Health Benefits of Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are truly a superfood. They are great for your body, taste really good and are very versatile. You can put them in almost anything! Here is why you should be eating more of these:

-Anti-inflammatory & great for your heart! This is because of their vitamin E content, which is an antioxidant. The anti-inflammatory effect of these seeds means it reduces symptoms of asthma, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Vitamin E has also been show to reduce colon cancer and decrease the intensity and frequency of hot flashes. Vitamin E is also great for your skin by combating UV rays!
-Phytosterols can lower cholesterol.
-Its magnesium content will help lower high blood pressure, reduce severity of asthma, calm you down, and prevent migraines. Magnesium is necessary for healthy bones and energy production. It regulates nerves and muscle tone.
-They're a good source of selenium, which may help decrease your chances of cancer.

Eating just a 1/4 cup of these guys a day will be enough to get these health benefits. You can add them to your cereal, granola, yogurt, pancakes, salads, pasta or even just straight up as a snack.

If you want a good recipe where you can incorporate these, this Almond-Honey Power Bar is for you. It is PACKED with healthy ingredients and it tastes AMAZING.

Back to Basics 16 - Almond-Honey Power Bar

I've got a really great breakfast/snack recipe for you! This, no surprise, is an EatingWell recipe. I got it from my Simple Art of EatingWell cookbook. I make a batch of these granola bars at the beginning of the week for my boyfriend Eric to take with him in the morning as his breakfast.

These bars are very complex, filling and just sweet enough. They have so many tasty and healthy things in them! They're seriously amazing. Everybody that has tried them looovvesss them and begs me to make more.

Yields 8 bars

Green Juice

I got a juicer for Christmas and it's the coolest thing! Eric, my boyfriend, now loves juicing mostly because the juicer is a beast. You can put almost anything in there and it crushes it! And we all know how much boys love power tools. If you want to get one like it, here it is on Amazon.

I know juicing is very controversial. Some people don't like it because they believe it takes out all of the fiber in the produce, making it just a big ball of sugar. Which isn't exactly true. Yes, most of the fiber is gone but some studies say that SOME fiber is still left in there. But one of the benefits of juicing is that taking the fiber out means your body doesn't have to work as hard on digesting the food, so all those vitamins and nutrients go straight into your body way quicker. Fiber is great for keeping you full longer, but it does take a while to digest. Juicing isn't the thing you want to do when you're trying to stay full. I like to use it as a snack between meals, or as part of my breakfast along with a slice of toast.

Another thing that is important is knowing HOW to juice. Meaning, knowing the right the amount of fruits and vegetables to put in your juice. Fruit has a lot of sugar, you don't want a juice that is entirely made of fruits. You also don't want to eliminate them completely because then your juice might be too bitter and you won't want to drink it. So I like to do 1 fruit for every 3-4 veggies. That keeps it just sweet enough. Adding lemon also helps keep it less bitter and adds a bit of zing!

I'm not an expert on juicing so if you want to know more about it, I suggest you do your research. Go online and you'll find thousands of articles and blogs written by people who know their stuff.

This is a recipe in the new Giada De Laurentiis book called Feel Good Food. If you know me at all you know I love her. This is a book all about how she keeps that figure while still eating amazing Italian food. She makes this as a morning juice to drink instead of coffee. I like it any time of day. Enough babbling. Here is a little video of me making it:

Back to Basics 15 - Quick Applesauce

Watermelon Blueberry Popsicles

Well, there's no denying it, it's summer. It was 90 degrees at 9am yesterday. We're in it now! Which means: POPSICLES!!

This popsicle is so refreshing, light and satisfying. You won't feel guilty for eating a sugar-loaded treat, or weighed down with a heavy cream based treat. Plus, it's gorgeous! I personally prefer popsicles over ice cream any day, and making popsicles at home is the easiest thing EVER! You barely have to do anything. All you need to do is go out and buy some popsicles molds, which I got for a $1 at the local dollar store.

This recipe, as usual, is from EatingWell. It uses white granulated sugar, but if you'd like you can substitute it with agave or honey.

Strawberry-Orange Muffins

I'm baaaaack!! I have been gone for a while. I have no excuse. BUT, I am bringing you a gorgeous and delicious recipe.

I went to my grocery store this week and they had some beautiful organic strawberries on sale. Since it is strawberry season and I plan on going to as many Farmers' Markets as I can, I thought I'd add this recipe to my arsenal. It's from EatingWell and I followed the recipe exactly. I do recommend buying organic oranges because you will be using the zest.

This muffin is not overly sweet so it's perfect for breakfast. The strawberries give it just the right amount of sweetness. The orange isn't overpowering, it just gives off a hint in the background. An the topping...OH THE TOPPING. It's sweet and salty and nutty. SO GOOD!

How to make Almond Butter

This recipe came about because I had been buying this really expensive organic almond butter from the grocery store. I didn't even bother reading the label (which I always do, and you should too) because you know, "it's organic! must be totes healthy". Well, this almond butter had a few more ingredients in it that I didn't really want to be eating all the time. All I want in my almond butter is ALMONDS, and maybe a little salt.
So anyway, I decided to make my own. It's cheaper anyway! And like many of my recipes, extremely easy.

Health Benefits of Almonds

Almonds are the best option you can make when it comes to nuts. You can put them in anything and you can even make almond butter by just throwing them in the food processor and letting them go until they become a paste. I throw it in smoothies, oatmeal, cereal, bars, salads, rice, casseroles, ANYTHING, PEOPLE!!!

Strawberry Fruit Leather (Roll-Ups)

This recipe for strawberry (check out why they're great for you) leather was inspired by Weelicious. This is the second video I've made, it went A BIT smoother this time. This recipe is crazy good, my boyfriend didn't know what to expect. He thought it would taste like crap (NO FAITH!) but was pleasantly surprised.
The entire thing has 202 calories, once you cut them up into 7 strips, each one has 29 calories. And it's pure fruit. This is what you would get out of the box:

Strawberry Health Benefits

They're sweet, adorable and a great addition to almost anything you're eating. But do they actually have any nutritional benefits? Ohhhhh yes!

Avocado Health Benefits

Avocado Banana Shake

Don't mind the terribly shaky picture

Banana's Health Benefits