Vegetable Bean & Lentil Soup

This turned out wonderfully delicious even on a hot day! We sat outside in our patio chairs, enjoyed watching the sunset and devoured some amazing soup. Sometimes when I have one or two ingredients I run an Internet search to find something healthy and child-friendly to make. My main ingredients today were beans and lentils. I also wanted it to be low-calorie, flavourful, healthy and stocked full of veggies. I saw a lot of recipes for black bean soup...gave them all a once over and decided to just create my own soup in my crock pot. Best thing about recipes like this are that they are versatile. I used what I had in my cupboard and fridge and you can use what you have, so don't be discouraged if you see something on the ingredients list that you don't have.

Vegetable Bean & Lentil Soup

Ingredients:
2 medium onions
2 celery stalks
4 overripe tomatoes
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables(corn, peas, carrots, green beans)
1 cup of kale
1 can of black beans
1 cup of dry navy beans
1/2 cup of dry lentils
4 cups veggie stock
4 cups of cold water
1 package onion soup mix (optional: you can choose to do 8 cups of veggie stock instead, I was just using what I had on hand)

~Spice mix~
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Makes 15 servings!

Turn your crock pot on low. Dice all the veggies and put them in your crock pot. Add the canned black beans. Then add your vegetable stock, water and onion soup mix. Finally incorporate the spices into the mix.

If you are using dried navy beans and lentils like I did you have to soak them in water for 3 hours and typically boil them for another 1.5. I did this as the rest of my soup was cooking in the crock pot, then added them during the last hour of cook time. You could also just get canned beans, but remember canned means a lot of salt, dried beans have hardly any.

Let your soup cook for 5-6 hours in the crock pot. Then use a blender to puree 10 cups of your soup. If you are using an upright blender do only 1-2 cups at a time because hot soup means steam can force your lid to pop off. Leave the other 5 cups of soup chunky. Pour the blended soup back in with the left over chunky soup and mix them together. It turns out amazing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love how low calorie this soup is...I plugged the ingredients into a recipe creator and I came out with:
15 servings at 1 cup each
84 calories per serving
16 carbs
0 fat
5 protein
4 fiber
400 sodium (This could be reduced if you used no canned beans and strictly veggie stock)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The review from the family was positive! The hubby had 3 cups worth and loved every bit. Although at this moment he is lying here beside me stuffed and complaining he ate to much! Scratch that now he is sleeping, so remember only a cup or so will do you. I had 1 serving and felt totally satisfied.

My 4 year old is a bit unsure about beans, luckily we had a few parenting tricks. We told our little one that his favorite superhero loved this soup because it gave him the energy to go exploring and run fast. Our little guy hesitated, but then gave it a couple bites..said yuck and then ate more! Got to love that he really wanted to not like it because of the beans, but then ate it because it tasted so good.
My thoughts on this recipe are to enjoy it while you are camping or hiking like us! When the weather starts to cool off in the evening and you can sit outdoors and keep warm. It will keep you full for quite some time and that always helps while outdoors.
Enjoy your long weekend! The weather has finally picked up here, so we've been busy enjoying it.

Ginger is my new best friend!

Okay, so I know a lot of people blog about smoothies and everyone has a recipe or two that they love. Personally I'm addicted to smoothies all year round and I love experimenting with flavors. I have my favorites, but this recipe is the best smoothie I've ever made. It should win a smoothie award, if there is such a thing. What made this smoothie different from others is that it included ginger root, which I was a bit nervous adding. I love ginger in recipes, but in a smoothie?! I realize now that as long as you have a balance of sweet and creamy, you can't go wrong with adding ginger. Don't hesitate, just try, you will be pleasantly surprised! Without further wait, I present...

Mango-Melon Ginger Smoothie



1 cup frozen cantaloupe







1/2 cup frozen mango







1/2 cup of soy milk







1 medium banana







1/2 tsp of grated ginger





Throw it all in a blender and blend it up! This serves 1 person :)
You end up with a sweet, tangy, creamy smoothie. The sweetness from the cantaloupe and mango really balance the creaminess of the banana and soy milk. Then you get hit with a nice kick of ginger that is not overwhelming at all. If it was overwhelming my 4 year old wouldn't have gone near this smoothie. Check it out...We smile a lot when we drink smoothies!

I had to make another batch because he wanted his very own smoothie in his special smiley face cup. He gobbled up his and half of mine!

Then he insisted he take a picture of me this morning with my Mango-Melon Ginger smoothie!

Yum what a great start to our day!

Enjoy!

Farmer's Market Clearance Section

I'm an avid shopper in the clearance section of the Farmer's Markets. I can usually find throw away tomatoes, onions, cantaloupe, bananas, peppers, apples..geez you name it they clearance it. I try to check on it a few times a week, some days I end up leaving with nothing and other days I have huge bags full. Yesterday I found some gems, two 10-lb bags of tomatoes 1.99/each, 2 cauliflowers .99/each, 2 cantaloupes 1.49 for the pair, 10-lb bag of green beans/1.49...yum! Nothing was damaged just needing to sold before being over ripe.

Today I sliced some chunks of cantaloupe some for the fridge and some for the freezer.We pulled these out of the freezer and snacked on them after being outside in the heat. These were great because they were only slightly frozen from only being in the freezer for an hour.

Speaking of freezers I seriously need to consider buying a deep freeze. With all the vegetables and fruits we are growing in our garden, picking at the local farms and buying at the farmer's market we won't be able to keep up with it all. Need to freeze!

As for the tomatoes..well I decided it was probably best we made a tomato sauce with spaghetti squash noodles. My son's favorite dish! I decided that this time around I would try to make sauce the proper way, which meant removing the skin, seed and core. I typically would just remove the core and throw it all into a pot to cook, but then you get skins and seeds in your sauce. I don't really mind, but I wanted to give the "correct" way a try. I discovered very quickly the easiest way to remove the peel...
Score the bottom of the tomato with a paring knife
After you remove core, let them soak in hot water in the sink.
After 10 minutes soaking you can start peeling the skin, opening the tomato and removing the seeds.
Then put in a blender or food processor
You end up with a smooth, delicious puree!
With this puree you could create dishes other than tomato sauce. Think cold or hot soups, salsas, thick tomato juice, dips, the list is endless..tomatoes are used in so many recipes! As for using it as a sauce I may have to add some store bought tomato paste because we like our sauce a bit thicker. I have the sauce cooking on low in my slow cooker to see if it will thicken. It tastes amazing though with fresh oregano, basil, sauteed onions and garlic! Oh yum, dinner is going to be good!

Lastly, there is a great contest give away happening over at Color Wheel Meals for an Ascenta Health product! Check it out!

Veggie Pot Pie with a Whole Wheat Crust

This was a spur of the moment recipe that I threw together. I'm used to seeing pot pies with chicken, but this one is meat free! It's a vegan recipe, but it is not gluten free. The recipe actually came together because I wanted use a bunch of our baby spinach, since I harvested all of it yesterday. Then the family was wanting pot pie and I thought lets put the two together with a bunch of extra veggies. I love pot pies, I typically cook them in the fall/winter because to me they seem like a comfort food. It's been cold and rainy here the past couple of days so a healthy comfort dish was needed. There are so many pot pie recipes out there, so don't let this one hold you back. Every time we make a pot pie, we just throw whatever we have together and make up the recipe as we go. Add, remove, change anything you want from the veggies, herbs, to the crust :) You'll see that this time around I ventured in trying to different types of crusts using olive oil vs. vegan margarine.

Bottom Crust:
This recipe is a slightly modified version of Betty Crocker's Pat-in-Pan recipe. For the original recipe click here. This is always my go to recipe for a bottom pie crust. I love that I don't have to roll out any dough!

1 1/3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1/2 tsp of Salt
2 Tbsp Cold Water

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix flour, oil and salt till everything is moistened. Then add water and form into a dough ball. Place in bottom of dish and spread dough out to cover entire 9' glass pie plate. Cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
Set aside for 30minutes to cool, as you prepare the filling.

Filling:
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 clove of Garlic
1 cup diced Broccoli
1 cup diced Cauliflower
1 diced Onion
5 diced Baby Potatoes
1 cup Frozen Mixed Veggies(corn, peas, beans, carrots)
1 bunch of Spinach
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups Vegetable Broth
1 cup of Soy Milk (Or whatever milk you prefer)
Dash or two of sea salt and pepper
Any herbs of your liking (We used oregano, rosemary and thyme)

Sautee garlic in olive oil for a minute or two on low heat. Cook all veggies except the frozen mixed vegetables and spinach. Let the veggies cook until the potatoes feel tender then add the frozen veggies and spinach. Once the spinach wilts, sprinkle the whole wheat flour in and mix. Then add the vegetable broth and milk. Stir and cook for 20 more minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes to thicken. Then add to bottom pie shell.

Top Crust:
This recipe is also a modified version, this time it's Betty Crockers Single Pie Crust. It's basically the same as the bottom crust, but instead of oil you use shortening. In our case we used a vegan margarine. Worked out well!

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1/3 cup vegan margarine
2-3 tbsp of cold water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in vegan margarine with a fork or two knives. Sprinkle with cold water, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened. Gather pastry into a ball. Add extra tbsp of water if the dough seems crumbly.

Then roll out pastry using a floured rolling pin. Place rolled out dough on top of filling and pie plate. Use a fork to seal the edges. Then take a knife and score the top of the dough 2-3 times. This will let steam release as it cooks. Cook the veggie pot pie at 400F for 20-25 minutes till the top crust is golden brown.

Let it cool for 10minutes and then dig in! So delicious!

The bottom olive oil crust was definitely meant to be a bottom crust it held together well, yet was still soft. The top vegan margarine crust was meant to be a top crust, it was flaky, soft and tender. Remember you could always purchase your pie crusts, but homemade is always better! You know what ingredients go in it and lets be honest these two pie crusts are really not that hard to make.

Enjoy!

My belated birthday and staying committed!

Last year for my birthday my family surprised me with "Maggie's Swirly Tart"and how could I not ask for it again! It's beautiful, delicious and for a cake it's pretty darn healthy to eat :)

I think last year's edition was a bit fancier in design, but in terms of flavor both were amazing. After serving it out, I had to take a pic. It turned out to be a really messy shot though, so you get the pretty before pic. All I can say is yum and thank you everyone who celebrated with me!

I turned 29 this year! I can't believe it, I only have one year left till I hit 30! Some of you may know that I want to reach my goal weight by the time I hit 30, which I believe is possible. In total I have lost 48lbs since December and I want to lose another 30lbs by my 30th.

Yesterday I started a new/old fitness challenge, Jillian's 30 day shred. I really love this workout program, it's tough, challenging and short! I have no excuses to not fit it into my day :) I seem to have commitment issues when it comes to workout programs. I have yet to complete a 60 day or 90 day program, but give me a 30 day and I can bust it out. I think this has something to do with being able to envision the finish line easily, knowing that it will end and I will be able to start something fun and new.

It does pay to learn what workouts keep you motivated during your weight loss journey, that way you can focus on staying committed. For example, a lot of people I know have to join a gym and allot a certain time of the day to working out. There are many examples of this, just find what works well for you :)

+Short workout programs (3 weeks-30 days): A lot of programs are set up this way, look up a favorite trainer or favorite exercise and you should find something.

+Long workout programs (60 day to 90 days): I don't know a lot of programs that are this long other than P90X, Insanity and Turbo Jam or Turbo Fire.

+Game console workout programs: There are tons of workout programs and activities on different game consoles. Most are really well done and get you sweating. Plus I always feel like I'm playing a game more than working out. I always do some online research about the workout/game before purchasing.

+Free Internet workouts: YouTube has a ton of exercise videos posted, bodyrock.tv is another great site that posts workout routines for free.

+Gym routines: Join a gym and get into a routine where you stay committed to it for an hour a day. Before work, after work, before the kids go to school, after your partner gets home from work?

+Local community activities: More than likely your community will have some sort of active program happening. A hiking group, running group, fitness challenge, boxing group. Often you can find these advertised at local gyms, community centers, community track. Just watch prices they can range from free to a few dollars to the hundreds.

+Find a workout buddy: Sometimes it really pays off to recruit a friend into working out with you. That way you can challenge, teach and support each other during workouts. It can have drawbacks though, you should really find someone who is just as committed as you.

+Buy your own equipment: This doesn't have to be expensive either. A few weights, a yoga mat, some boxing gloves, the list goes on...

+Get outside: This can be weather permitting but, start running, biking, hiking, walking the track...the list goes on :)

Those are just a few of the ideas I have been using to keep my workouts interesting and fun. One month I'll commit to a short workout program and if weather permits I'll also run. Another month I'll join a local ladies swim class and walk the track. I hope these examples will help you because they sure have helped me stay motivated :)

On to my funny Popeye find...

We are harvesting a lot of spinach from our garden, which I love! Every morning I'm out their picking my daily smoothie, juice and/or salad base. Anyways, I saw this shirt the other day with a picture of Popeye flexing his muscles that said "I eat spinach, not drugs!" If it had been a girl's tee I would have bought it on the spot and worn it while working out! Too funny!

Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

I love black bean burgers and I've tried quite a variety of them. What is fun about these burgers are their versatility. Everyone seems to have their own "secret" ingredient and of course their own special way of cooking them.

Some extra add-ins I've tried, which are all delicious btw...

+cinnamon
+curry
+ginger
+peppers (spicy and mild)
+Worcestershire
+miso
+tomato sauce
+quinoa
+rice
+vegan cheese
+salsa
+garlic
+cilantro
+corn
You see..the list goes on forever!

Cooking Methods:

+BBQ!(Seems most popular)
+Oven Baked
+Pan Fryed with Olive oil
+BBQ then Oven Baked (The combo, as I refer to it)

What was my secret and method of cooking?

My secret ingredient happens to be rolled oats! Although I shouldn't really claim rolled oats as my own secret ingredient of choice, my mom has been putting rolled oats in burgers ever since I was a kid. This was my first time however pairing it with Black Bean Burgers. My method of cooking was oven baked, still a little to cold to bring out the BBQ.


Black Bean Burgers
1 can of Black Beans
1/2 an med. onion
4 mushrooms (diced)
1/2 cup of oats
1 garlic clove
1 tsp of cumin
1 tbsp of Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Hot Black Bean Burger Option: Add some diced jalapeno or your favorite hot sauce to the mix!

Rinse the black beans and then put them in a food processor. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Blend! Once it is a good paste consistency, divide up the batter into 4-6 burgers depending on size. Place on a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper. Bake in a 375F oven for 1 hour. Flip half way through cooking time.

Now comes for the toppings...this is endless too! I personally love to top my burger with avocado, tomato, and lettuce!


Sweet Potato Fries
Sweet potato fries have become extremely popular around here. I see them in restaurants, in the frozen aisle in grocery stores, and even at some concessions! We really love them in our house and during this season they are super cheap to make yourself.

1 large sweet potato
1 tsp of olive oil
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the sweet potato and then slice into strips length wise. I have this awesome kitchen tool that makes wavy fries, that I have to share it with you. I bought it for 2 dollars at a grocery store, awesome find!


Place fries in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper. Mix it up and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375F for only 15 minutes. Check on them every 5 minutes to flip over. These little gems can burn quite quickly compared to a regular potato, plus they will not turn out as crispy, but oh my are they ever good!


What is your choice of secret ingredient and special cooking method when making homemade burgers?

What is your favorite french fry? I love homemade types of any kind, whether russet, sweet potato, yam or jicama(raw style) :)

Protein Snacks

Went out to the track this afternoon..these snacks came in handy when we were finished with our C25K and interval training.

Everyone seems to have a recipe for Protein balls, bars, snacks, etc... This recipe came from Bodyrockers.tv They have some really great workouts, recipes, community following, so check them out if your into fitness. I stumbled across them through a suggestion on a forum post and I'm glad I did!

I couldn't resist trying out their recipe for protein balls (you will have a laugh at their description of them). What I love about this recipe is it's a quick, easy and nutritious snack. If I'm on the go I can grab one out of the fridge, if it's after a workout I can get in some extra protein and a pick me up. They are convenient, basic and healthy..what more could I ask for! :)

The basic ingredients...


I've experimented with the recipe, adding or removing ingredients, but the three basic ingredients stay the same (peanut butter, coconut and protein powder).

In this batch...

Here are some idea's of what you could add to your batch:

+Natural almond extract
+Natural mint extract
+Pumpkin puree
+Different spices (Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc...)
+Dried cranberries, dried peaches
+Chocolate protein powder
+Plant based protein powder
+Spriulina powder for extra nutrition (took some getting used too! lol)
+Cacao nibs! (YUM!)

Thinking about adding your favorite dried fruits, nuts, extracts and spices can really make this recipe your own little favorite!

Enjoy! :)

What's your favorite ingredients to add to a protein snack?