Starbucks Copy-Cat

I'm not sure if anyone else knew this, because I didn't, but Starbucks has an entire secret menu of coffee/tea free beverages that are safe for kids (or those of us who don't drink coffee) I found the list  while I was on Pinterest, unfortunately the article is no longer available. This drink is called a syrup creme, and is basically the same thing as a steamer- except iced. I was skeptical at first, but they are totally delicious, and a great way to satisfy your coffee craving if you're trying to quit!
        I, however, won't buy this drink from Starbucks unless I have to- the reason? The drink is made with these ingredients:

• Milk of your choice
• Flavored syrup of your choice
• Ice

Guess how much Starbucks charges for a Venti?  About five dollars! I bought a bottle of hazelnut syrup (which makes the best drinks in my opinion) for 3.28 at Walmart, and I always have tons of milk of  all different kinds on hand. The syrup makes roughly 24 drinks, depending on how much you use.

The directions are super easy. Add ice to a cup, pour milk on top (I use skim) and add syrup to taste (I use sugar free, because it adds no extra calories). And there you have it, a delicious, easy, cold drink for summer that tastes just as good as Starbucks (Actually better, personally. I got a skim, sugar free hazelnut syrup creme from Starbucks and it was terrible) for a fraction of the cost!

Pina Colada Protien Shake

http://www.muscleandfitnesshers.com/recipes/pina-colada-punch 

 

Blend:
1 small banana
1/4 cup chopped pineapple
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein isolate
1/2 scoop vanilla
 soy protein isolate
Ice

I had to make a few adjusments to this (such as using only soy protien, because I was out of whey), and I also used coconut extract to add coconut flavor. Other than that, it was very tasty.

Peaches and Cream Cookies

I found a delicious looking recipe, but it wasn't very healthy, so I decided to try an experiment to change that. It was a failure. The original recipe looked/ sounded pretty tasty, but my cookies turned out bland. I used whole wheat flour instead of regular, egg whites, and sugar free jello/ pudding instead of regular. The dough tasted awesome, but the cookies themselves were sub-par. Oh well. onward and upward :) if you aren't cutting back on sugar/ calories, give those cookies a shot and tell me how they are!

Banana Ice Cream

I have recently been on a "Try new recipes" kick, and one of the ones I decided to try is a vegan ice cream alternative made with bananas. It's extremely easy.

First, peel and slice your banana
Freeze it
Throw it in the blender and blend till smooth
add what ever you want (I did peanut butter and chocolate like she suggested)
eat.

(If you want more detailed instructions, ideas for flavors, etc, check out the original page)

This was a recipe that I was not really a fan of. Maybe my banana wasn't ripe enough, but it wasn't very sweet and the banana flavor was over powering. I may make this again- but I will be experimenting with flavors for sure.

Sweet and Salty Carrot Chips

Sweet & Salty Carrot Chips

I am a big fan of veggie chips, unfortunately, most of them have bad ingredients or are super processed, or VERY expensive, so when I saw this post on pinterest; I knew I had to try it for myself. I actually liked these quite a bit. Granted, I accidentally burned mine- but they tasted good anyway. I did have a hard time getting them to crisp up- which is the main reason they ended up burnt. That is probably due, in a large part, to the fact that I didn't have any parchment paper. These were definitely a good snack though.

Ingredients

• 3 large carrots, very thinly sliced into rounds
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

Directions

	Preheat oven to 425F   line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
	Peel carrots and slice off tops and thin bottoms. Slice carrots into very thin rounds - as thin as you can manage.
	Mix up cinnamon and salt in a small bowl and set aside.  Melt coconut oil in a small microwave safe dish
	Pour melted coconut oil over carrots, sprinkle with cinnamon salt mixture, toss to coat. Dump onto baking sheet and spread evenly, ensuring that chips aren't stuck together.
	Bake for 10-20 minutes until browned and crisp - they will crisp up more while they cool.

Coconut Lime Roasted Chickpeas

I like to cruise pinterest searching for healthy vegan or vegetarian nom-noms- and in my wanderings, I stumbled upon this recipe for Coconut Lime Roasted Chickpeas. I had to try it! Doesn't the name just sound so scrumptious?? So today, I whipped up a batch of these puppies. The verdict? Disappointment. They sounded so good, they looked so good, they smelled so good...but...I think the lime taste was too strong for me. I'm more of a coconut fan, and wanted more of a tropical flavor to them. I have to admit that the texture and crunch was pretty awesome; and there's a definite possibility I will make these again- but I will be playing around with the flavors.



This picture is from the original site,the recipe is also from there,

with a few of my own adaptations

Coconut Lime Roasted Chickpeas
1 cup chickpeas, patted dry
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
Zest of one lime
(optional) Cap full of Coconut Extract

• Preheat oven to 375F
• line a baking sheet with foil. 
•  In a medium bowl, toss chickpeas together with melted coconut oil, lime juice and lime zest. Spread evenly on your baking sheet.
• Roast for 15-25 minutes.
•   Turn your baking sheet half way through and give the pan a quick shake to move the chickpeas around.
• Let cool and store in an airtight container.

Cauliflower Bread Sticks

 I found the recipe for these carb-free bread sticks, and decided I had to try it. I made a lot of different recipes today and somehow managed to make mistakes on all of them. Some how  I forgot to pick up parchment paper while I was at the store; and I think that made a big difference in the way my recipes turned out. To me, the original recipe didn't have enough garlic, so if I made these again, I would probably double the garlic, or add a dash of  garlic powder. They were also thin (probably because the original recipe confused me), and didn't get very crispy (this may be because I didn't have parchment paper), and they stuck SO bad (again, parchment paper would probably fix this).  Other than that- they were very tasty.

This picture is from the original website

Ingredients

¼	of a large head of cauliflower “riced”
1	tsp. olive oil
2	cloves garlic, minced
1	large egg (white), lightly beaten
½	cup mozzarella cheese
½	tsp. dried Italian herb seasoning, divided
	Marinara Sauce for dipping

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350. Line a  loaf pan with parchment paper and spray it with cooking spray.
• To “rice” the cauliflower, remove stems and leaves fro the cauliflower heads, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater).  When you’re done, you should have about 1.5 cups lightly packed.
•  Place the riced cauliflower into a microwavable bowl and microwave until softened (about 5 minutes depending on your microwave). There is no need to add any water.
• While that is cooking, heat the oil in a small skillet over low heat and add your garlic until softened.
• When your cauliflower is softened, add the garlic mixture, lightly beaten egg white, Italian seasonings, and 3/4 of the mozzarella. Stir and mix well, then spread onto your prepared pan.
• Bake until they start to turn golden brown; about 30 minutes.
•  Remove from the oven, flip the loaf over so the bottom side is now on top and add the remaining cheese and a sprinkle more of the Italian herb seasoning.
• Bake for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden.
• Cool (until they harden slightly) and cut into pieces and serve hot or warm.

 

 

 

 

Gallon A Day Challenge

So, for my health, and as part of my new diet, I've decided to do the Gallon a Day challenge. Basically I am going to try to drink a gallon of water every day for a month. I started this 4 days ago on January 17th, and so far so good. My skin is more hydrated for sure, and feels way more moist. I'm still waiting for my body to adjust to the water flow though,  so I don't have to make so many bathroom trips. I will update you all later.

Weight Watchers Smoked Flavor String Cheese

I saw these weight Watchers cheese sticks at Walmart while I was shopping. Normally I wouldn't buy the name brand stuff, since it tends to be a bit more expensive- but the name "Smoke Flavored String Cheese" caught my eye. They are AWESOME. Man, this is like a cheap (and healthier) version of smoked Gouda. I'm going to be buying a LOT of these. They are only 50 calories a stick too, which isn't too bad.

Morning Star Smoke Veggie Bacon Strips and Chik Patties

Today while I was at the Walmarts, I once again found the vegetarian/vegan cooler- and so I bought myself some treats. I had had chik'n patties similar to these before; but I wasn't sure if they were the same brand.

The bacon was surprisingly good. I'd never had vegetarian bacon before- and though it obviously isn't real meat- it still had amazing taste and pretty good texture too. It cooked quickly, and has 30 calories and 3 grams of fat, less than normal bacon.

The chik'n patties were also very tasty. They have good texture- similar to real meat and good taste. They are a lot like the chicken patties you can get from Wendy's, but healthier.

The reason that I'm doing the two reviews together is because I ate them together- This is what my meal looked like:

Veggie Patch- Veggie Dogs

I've recently began eating a much more vegetarian diet, and so I've been trying a lot of vegetarian/vegan substitutes for things. Several years back, I decided to try the veggie dog at Hot Dog On A Stick.....yuck. It was awful. Ever since then, I have been terrified of veggie dogs.

Well, while the Dan and I were at Wal-mart, I stumbled upon a cooler full of vegetarian/vegan meats (score!) Among them I found the Veggie Patch Veggie Dogs.

 I was wary of the veggie dogs, because of my past experience, but up on the corner of the box it says "Best Tasting Veggie Dogs!- Guaranteed. That was pretty comforting. Not many places are willing to refund your money if you don't like their food...So I decided to give it a whirl. The Verdict? Not bad. These actually tasted very close to real hot dogs. Once you add ketchup, mustard, and/or relish; you wouldn't even know the difference.

Cauliflower "Wings"

So while I was on pinterest I found this fantastic looking recipe for vegan hot wings. Since I'm currently cutting back (significantly) on my meat intake, I was pretty excited about this. Unfortunately, I a not a big fan of really spicy (though some is good), so I made some tweaks to the recipe- which I will share with you lucky ducks.

 Cauliflower 'Wings'
2 cups water or soy milk
2 cup flour (any kind will work—even gluten-free!)
4 tsp. garlic powder
4 tsp onion powder
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
1 cup(ish) total of honey, BBQ sauce, steak sauce, sweet chili sauce, and (fat free) ranch dressing
1 Tbsp. olive oil or melted  margarine

Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Combine the water/soy milk, flour, and garlic powder in a bowl and stir until well combined.
Coat the cauliflower pieces with the flour mixture and place in a shallow baking dish. The original recipe says to bake for 18 minutes, but i found that the flour mixture still tasted kind of doughy; so I would say to bake for about 20-25  minutes.

While the cauliflower is baking, Mix your sauces together (to taste) and add the olive oil/margarine in a small bowl. If the sauce is too thick, you may want to add more honey, or water it down a little





Pour the  sauce mixture over the baked cauliflower and continue baking for an additional 10-15 minutes.

Berry Wafflewich

I found this recipie here, and it is honestly amazing and couldn't be simpler. I used the Kirkland Signature premade waffles, but you can obviously make your own. Toast the waffles, smear with peanut butter, fold it in half, like a taco, and fill with berries. I put kiwi in mine as well.