Almond Butter Cookies!

That's right! I was finally brave enough to bake some sugar-free treats again this week! :D I had almost a whole jar of almond butter sitting in my pantry that I had rarely been using, and I still had brown rice flour in the fridge left over from my last batch of delicious sugar free brownies, so I made myself some long overdo safety treats!


Recipe:

(Creates about 25 cookies)

2 1/4 Cups Brown Rice Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt
1 Stick of Salted Butter, softened
1 Cup Xylitol
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Creamy Almond Butter (make sure there's no sugar in it!)
1/2 Bar of Baking Chocolate, diced (again, make sure there's no sugar in it!)
3/4 Cup Almonds, each chopped in half
2 Tbs Milk or Almond Milk (optional, if needed)


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375˚.

Chop the almonds and baking chocolate bar, and mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Once it's all mixed thoroughly, you can add a little bit of milk if it's still kinda dry like mine was.

Place spoonfuls of the cookie dough about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. (It doesn't even need to be greased! Yeah!) You can aim for about a 1 1/2 Tbs spoonful size.

Bake 14 minutes, and then take them out to cool.


Mine kind of came out tasting like healthy muffins, which isn't a bad thing, but wasn't as delicious-cookie-ish as I was expecting. That's why the recipe above includes a bit more xylitol and chocolate pieces than the ones I made. I've been eating these every day since I made them though, they've gotten addicting!

Hope you enjoy them too!

Quinoa with Chicken and Red Chard pieces

Hello! I know it's been a while, but I've been either making things that I've already posted, or making things that cheated the diet too much to be featured on here, but here's something new I threw together that I wanted to share!

This recipe has been brought to you by my unwillingness to wash more than one pot after making dinner. ;)


Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Quinoa
1 Chicken Breast, diced
2-3 Large Red Chard stalks, diced
1/5 Yellow Onion, diced
1 Garlic Clove, minced
Cayenne Pepper
Salted Butter
Rosemary
Oregano
Salt


Directions:

Rinse the quinoa and put in in a pot with 1 cup of water. As you wait for that to boil, chop up chicken, chard, onions, and garlic and stir them in as you finish.

Let it all simmer in the pot with a lid, on a medium heat, for about 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add in your spices, and add butter if desired.

Enjoy a healthy, balanced meal with only one pot to clean!

(I made this same thing with brown rice instead of quinoa yesterday, and since it all had longer to cook, the chard and chicken broke down into smaller pieces which actually worked really well, in my opinion. Feel free to try it too, if you have an hour to spare!)

Garlic Veggie Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I thought of this sandwich recipe last night when I couldn't fall asleep. I knew I had broccoli, bread, and cheese in my fridge, so I made a veggie grilled cheese sandwich! I didn't cook the garlic with the other veggies, so the taste was still strong and added a nice garlic bread taste to the sandwich :)




Even though bread is not ideal for the diet, my mom and I have found that if you use whole wheat (vs. white), it doesn't do much harm, especially later in the diet.

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

1 handful of chopped broccoli
4 grape tomatoes, each cut in half
2 slices of cheddar cheese
Salted butter
1 handful of chopped yellow onions
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 slices of whole wheat bread
Salt

Directions:

Sauté the broccoli and onions in a pan greased with butter. 

In the meantime, prepare the garlic and tomatoes. 

Butter the 2 slices of bread on one side. Place one cheese slice on each bread slice. 

When the broccoli and onions have been cooked to your liking, put them on top of one of the slices of bread and cheese. Add the chopped tomatoes and garlic.

Then put the other piece of bread and cheese on top, so that both cheese sides are in the middle. 

Fry the sandwich for about a minute or so on both sides, in a pan greased with butter. 

Plop it onto a plate, and enjoy!! 

I'd recommend dipping the sandwich in Pace Salsa before each bite, but I unfortunately did not have any salsa at the time. It would have been even more amazing with salsa though!

Chicken, Quinoa, & Veggie Soup

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm sick today, so I made a bunch of chicken soup to try to get better ASAP, especially since my friend and I are supposed to teach a polka dance lesson for the NAU Swing Club in two days.

I also bought a ridiculous amount of citrus, just in case the soup wasn't enough, haha.

Also- I've been researching food photography on Pinterest this week, so hopefully this photo is the beginning of a series of more professional food photographs!


Recipe:

(Creates 4 Servings)

7 Cups Chicken Broth
8 Cherry Tomatoes, chopped in half
1/3 Large Yellow Onion, diced
5 Cloves of Garlic, minced
2 Big Handfuls of Green Beans, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 Chicken Breasts, chopped bite-sized
1/2 Orange Bell Pepper, diced
2 Stalks of Celery, diced
2 Cups Quinoa
1 Small Head of Broccoli, chopped bite-sized
1 Cup of Fresh Parsley, torn bite-sized (including stems, if you'd like)
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Salt

Directions:

Chop up the tomatoes, onion, garlic, green beans, chicken, bell pepper, broccoli, and parsley. Put everything in a large pot, along with 2 cups of quinoa.

Pour in the chicken broth, and bring it all to a boil.

Boil it all for about 20 minutes, stirring it occasionally. (While you're waiting for it to finish, you could take cool steam photos like I did ;) )

Once the quinoa looks cooked, serve the soup with sprinkles of basil, thyme, basil, and salt on top.

Stay healthy!


p.s. If you're wondering how many citrus fruits I bought to get healthy, here's your answer:

I also ordered some ACF Fast Relief to help me out, I'd highly recommend it! It's strong stuff; it tends to get me better pretty quick.

Quinoa Oatmeal

I woke up sick this morning, which is why you're getting two new, warm, healthy recipes in one day, haha. I needed warm, soft food for my throat, so I found some Quinoa Flakes to make some hot cereal with. I mixed in cacao nibs, soaked almonds, and a few blackberries; and sprinkled coconut, cinnamon, and lots of xylitol on top. It gave me some voice back! :)

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving) 

2/3 Cups Quinoa Flakes
1 Handful Soaked Almonds
2 Cups Water
4 Blackberries
2 TSP Raw Cacao Nibs
1 TSP Unsweetened Coconut Sprinkles
Cinnamon
Xylitol

Directions:

Soak a handful of almonds in filtered water overnight. (They become so juicy and delicious the next morning!!)

Boil 2 cups of water in a medium pot. Stir in quinoa flakes, and continue stirring for about 2 minutes until the quinoa is thick.

Pour the quinoa flakes into a bowl, and mix in the almonds, cacao nibs, and blackberries.

Sprinkle coconut, cinnamon, and xylitol on top.

Enjoy it! I know your throat will ;)

Chicken Pasta

Here's another good meat/dinner recipe! This post has been brought to you thanks to the window next to my desk, which lights up my meals and inspires me to post them haha ;)









Recipe:

(Creates 2 Servings)

2 Cups Brown Rice Pasta
1 Chicken Breast, Chopped
1/4 Cup Salted Butter (can be parve butter if you want to keep it kosher ;) )
1/3 Large Yellow Onion, Diced
3 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1-2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil
Rosemary
Turmeric
Cayenne Pepper
Cinnamon
Salt


Directions:

Put a tablespoon of coconut oil in a pot of water. Boil the noodles and the pieces of chicken in there for about 10 minutes, or longer if the noodle package calls for it. Chop up and add in the onions and garlic as it boils.

When it's finished, strain it and put the food back in the pot. Add in another tablespoon of coconut oil and the butter, and mix it over the stove until the butter melts. Season with rosemary, turmeric, salt, cinnamon, and a little cayenne pepper.

(If you have leftovers, I'd recommend putting them in your scrambled eggs the next morning! :) )

Beef, Broccoli & Noodle Stir Fry

I bought beef and broccoli today for the first time in a long time, and I was in the mood to actually spend a good chunk of time cooking, so I made a noodle stir fry!










Recipe:

(Creates 2 Servings)

1 Lb of Beef chunks
1 Head of Broccoli (and the stem, optional)
1 Cup brown rice noodles
2 Cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 Yellow Onion, diced
3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
2 Handfuls of fresh Parsley
Cayenne Pepper
Rosemary
Ginger
Basil
Salt

Directions:

Put water to boil as you chop up broccoli (and most of the stems too, if you want) into bite-sized pieces. When the water boils, put the noodles, half of the broccoli, and a little bit of coconut oil in, and let it boil for as long as the noodle package recommends the noodles to be cooked. Mine took about 10 minutes.

Get a large pan and put 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil in. Chop up the beef (if it didn't already come in bite-sized chunks) and put it in the pan. Season it with basil, rosemary, salt, a lot of ginger, and a little bit of cayenne pepper. Chop up and add in the onions and garlic, as well as the rest of the broccoli you cut up before. Stir it every once in a while to make sure the beef gets cooked all the way through.

When the noodles with the broccoli are done, strain them and pour them into the beef pan. Tear up the fresh parsley and stir it in. Continue to stir the mixture every once in a while until the beef is cooked to your liking.

When dished out, add more ginger, rosemary, basil, and salt on top.

If you don't have a second person to feed, you'll have beautiful leftovers! Ta-da!