Grilled Curry Chicken Flatbread

This came together fast and was so tasty! I adapted it from a Cooking Light recipe but changed a bunch of things around. I don't normally cook with curry powder and I don't know why I don't because it is so delicious! This is really filling and topped with veggies and a great yogurt sauce.

Serving size: I'd say about 2 flatbreads? 

What you need:

• 1/2 cup shaved carrot
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt 
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pinches of garlic powder, curry, turmeric, salt and onion powder for chicken breast
• 2 cups chicken breast, diced
• Kale
• Fresh cilantro
• Chopped peanuts
• Whole wheat pitas

What you need to do:

1. Combine carrots, ginger, vinegar, 1/4 cup water and sugar. Bring to a boil then remove from heat
2. Combine curry, turmeric and 1 teaspoon oil in a microwaveable bowl and cook 30 seconds
3. Add in yogurt, honey and salt
4. Heat a pan with 1 tablespoon avocado oil and sprinkle your diced chicken with curry powder, turmeric, salt, garlic powder, onion powder and a dollop of the yogurt mixture.
5. Cook chicken about 12 minutes or until cooked throughout.
6. Heat a pan with 1 tablespoon avocado oil 
7. Wait til the oil is shimmering then place pitas in and cook til char marks start showing
8. Assemble! Top pita with yogurt mixture, chicken, kale, chopped peanuts and carrot mixture. Top with kale and cilantro
9. Enjoy!

Breakfast Yogurt Bowl

Yogurt bowls are my new favorite thing to have for breakfast! They're so easy and you can put whatever you want in them. This bowl has very few grams of added sugar and still manages to be super sweet, plus lots of protein to keep you full.

serving size: 1 bowl

What you need:

• 1/2 cup of yogurt (I used Stonyfield plain organic) 
• spoonful of apricot jam (I useed a brand called Good Good Sweet Sweetness or something weird like that..it had no added sugar so I was pumped)
• spoonful of vegan vanilla chai granola (I used One Degree Organic of course)
• 3 pieces of fresh pineapple
• handful of dried mulberries (I used Navita's Organics)
• sprinkling of flax and chia seeds (Garden of Life Fruit and Flax)
• topped it was honey (Bee Honey! it's so good)

What you need to do:

1. Put your yogurt in your bowl and decorate the shit out of it with toppings!

Vegan Black Bean Sweet Potato Burgers with Avocado Basil Pesto

Definitely making these a million times in the summer. I didn't even mash the black beans so this was literally the easiest homemade burger recipe I've ever made. And it was crunchy on the outside and softer on the inside and just great! You also have to make this pesto to go on top. GAME CHANGER!

serving size: 4 normal sized burgers, or can make smaller to have sliders. (I definitely had 5 uneven burgers from this batch...haha)

What you need:

For the burgers:

• 1 can of black beans
• 1 medium sized sweet potato, cooked either in the microwave or roasted in the oven
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
• 1/4 whole wheat flour
• 1-2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the pesto:

• 1/2 an avocado
• 2 cups packed basil and spinach
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese (sub nutritional yeast to keep vegan)
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

What you need to do:

Burgers:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in pan
2. Saute onions, sun dried tomatoes and garlic for 3 minutes
3. Scoop out the inside of your sweet potato and combine with black beans in a large bowl
4. Heat 1 more tablespoon in the same pan
5. Next, add in your onion mixture from the pan
6. Add breadcrumbs, flour, basil, salt and pepper
7. You can mash your mixture at this point but I chose not to
8. Form into patties
9. Add patties to heated pan and cook about 5 minutes on each side on medium heat
10. Top burgers with whatever you desire and a dollop of the pesto and you have a delicious veggie burger!

Avocado Pesto:

1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and process til desired consistency
2. Eat on everything!

Paleo Apple Pumpkin Spiced Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

Welp, my whole house smells amazing right now because of this bread. I had a couple old, really brown, scary looking banana's so I knew it was bread time! This bread is paleo, gluten free and refined sugar free!

serving size: 1 loaf

What you need:

• 3 very ripe banana's, mashed
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 maple syrup (I used the Maple Guild's cinnamon infused syrup)
• 1/2 nut butter of choice (I did a cashew/almond mix)
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of ground cardamom
• pinch of sea salt
• Optional Toppings: Dairy free, chocolate chips, pecans, walnuts, banana slices...

What you need to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease a loaf tin
3. Combine banana's, eggs, maple syrup and nut butter until smooth and very little chunks.
4. Combine flour, spices, baking soda and powder and salt
5. Pour dry ingredients into wet and stir well 
6. Top with any additional toppings you want
7. Bake for 50 minutes
8. Enjoy!

Easy Tropical Fruit Yogurt Bowl

I love yogurt bowls. I wish I could have a different one for breakfast every day. So easy and filling and you can customize them to whatever you love! Today's breakfast bowl was packed with fruits and protein. It was kinda tropical ish so I just went with it. If you halved the yogurt in this and froze the fruit, added a splash of almond milk..this would make a killer smoothie, just sayin'!

serving size: 1 bowl

What you need:

• 1/2 cup of yogurt (my fav is Siggi's plain, but I used Stonyfield's organic, plain, whole milk)
• half a banana
• 1 slice of fresh mango, diced (freeze the rest for a smoothie or put in the fridge for a yummy midday snack)
• 1 tablespoon of your fav granola (I used One Degree Organic's Veganic Vanilla Chai)
• 1 teaspoon flaxseed meal (I used Garden of Life's Fruit and Flax)
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened coconut chips
• 1 tablespoons nut butter (I used Julie's Real cacao espresso almond butter)
• drizzle of honey

What you need to do:

1. Lay down your yogurt, then pile on your toppings and EAT!

Copycat Taco Bell Egg Tacos

This was really good, really easy and kinda messy but so worth it! Great weekend breakfast meal that will keep you full for awhile!

serving size: one taco! with some leftover fillings

What you need:

• 2 tablespoon olive oil or coconut or avocado
• cooking spray
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cups spinach or kale, roughly chopped
• 2.5 teaspoons minced garlic
• pinch of salt and pepper
• little bit of your cheese of choice, I went for goat!

What you need to do:

1. In your first skillet, add oil and cook bell peppers and onion for about 3 minutes or until onions are translucent. transfer to bowl for later
2. In another skillet add your oil of choice and saute greens for about 3 minutes, until wilted. add your minced garlic. transfer to bowl with peppers.
3. In a bowl, add your 2 eggs, cheese, salt and pepper and whisk
4. In anotheeeeeeeeeeer skillet, spray with cooking oil and add your egg mixture. let cook until it's like an omelette, around 5 ish minutes. flip and repeat cooking until it's like a pancake.
5. Assemble! add any optional fixin's! I put hemp seeds and sriracha

Turkey Burger Tomato Soup

Soup! Because, snow! Lots of snow here so I went with a homemade soup tonight and paired it with my paleo seed bread and a rainbow heart salad and it was all so amazingly great! This soup actually surprised me on flavor because I feel like sometimes it's hard to pull out flavors in my soups and stews because all my stocks/broths/tomatoes that I base them off of are no salt added or low salt. But this packed a great flavor punch and I'm really happy with how it turned out! Instant Pot recipe below!

serving size: A lot. I'd say almost 12 bowls of this stuff

What you need:

• 1 pound ground, lean turkey
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 large carrots, sliced and diced
• 3 cups of kale, chopped with stems removed
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup of 2% milk
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon minced, dried onion
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 teaspoons salt (if you're using no salt/low sodium things)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

What you need to do:

1. In a blender, add diced onion, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, milk, garlic, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. I did this in 2 parts because my blender isn't big enough!
2. Add in your avocado oil to your instant pot, turn on the saute button, add in your ground turkey, minced, dried onions and garlic powder.
3. Brown turkey slightly then add in your tomato blender puree.
4. Add your carrots and mix everything together.
5. Lock your instant pot lid in place, hit the pressure cook button, turn your valve to sealing and set to high pressure for 10 minutes.
6. Let your pot work its magic! After the 10 (longer since it has to create pressure) minutes is up, release pressure by turning the valve to venting.
7. Once venting has stopped, lift the lid and add in your kale.
8. Stir and place the lid back on for 5 more minutes
9. It's done! Eat it up, I topped mine with some nutritional yeast for a slight cheese flavor!

Grocery Hauls

Just sharing my latest grocery haul with the blog! I try and keep my fridge stocked with fresh fruits and veggies every week and grab the essentials when I'm running low.

Lightened Up Veggie Pasta Alfredo

This was mighty tasty with minimal ingredients and more green veggies than you can imagine! I adapted this from the new Cooking Light magazine but of course changed a couple things around! I didn't want to use cream cheese so started researching what would be a good substitute. I was just gonna sub Greek yogurt for it but a couple places in Internet world we're saying neufchatel..what the fuck is that? Lower calorie cream type cheese! So, I grabbed that and threw it in and it was so creamy and delicious! Was very happy with how this turned out.

serving size:6-8 servings

What you need:

• 1/2 - 1 box of whole wheat pasta
• 1 pound green veggies (I used asparagus, snap peas and green beans)
• 1 1/4 cup low fat milk (could use unsweetened almond milk here)
• 1 teaspoon whole wheat flour
• 3 ounces neufchatel cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon minced onion

What you need to do:

1. Fill a large pot up with 5 quarts of water
2. Bring to a boil, add veggies and cook 4 minutes
3. Using a slotted spoon place cooked veggies in a colander to strain excess water
4. Add your pasta to the boiling veggie water and cook according to package directions
5. Mix your milk and flour together
6. After pasta is cooked, drain and reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water
7. To the same pot, add in your tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of minced onion and minced garlic
8. Saute for about 30 seconds
9. Then add in your milk mixture and cook for about a minute until thickened slightly
10. Next, add in your cheese and cook until its melted
11. Add in your pasta, veggies and reserved water, stir to coat everything
12. Enjoy! I added some goat cheese but it would be great with Parmesan cheese too

Cauliflower "Risotto" Bowl

I'm such a fan of cauliflower rice because I LOVE cauliflower. This was simple to throw together because I was a liiiiittle hung over (read as A LOT HUNGOVER) today and quite tasty because of the spicy tangy sauce on top. Pile on some extras and this is a meal.

serving size: I'd say 2-4 people

What you need:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 an onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic, divided
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 cup coconut milk, divided
• 2 teaspoons coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon chili paste
• 1 tablespoon sriracha
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• *Extras* i threw walnuts, spicy banana peppers and a couple slices of cucumber

What you need to do:

1. Rice your cauliflower
2. Make the sauce. Add the avocado, 1/2 cup coconut milk, 3 teaspoons minced garlic, salt, pepper, coco aminos, honey and ginger to a food processor. Depending on how you like your sauce, add in the tablespoon of water (or olive oil) if you want to thin it out. 
3. Next heat your oil up and add the onions and saute about 3 minutes, then add in your garlic and cook til fragrant about 30 more seconds.
4. Next add in your cauliflower rice and bell peppers and cook for 7 minutes
5. Add in your other 1/2 cup of coconut milk and simmer til all the flavors are blended
6. Top with any of your extras and EAT!!!!