Healthy Chick'n and Rice

This is one of my staple dishes. It's low fat, high protein, and the right kind of carbs.  Pair it with your favorite steamed veggies and you have a great, healthy meal that cooks up in just minutes.  The recipe below is for one serving, you can easily multiply it by the number of servings that you need.

For each serving:

1/8 cup wild rice DRY (approximately 80 calories)

     - Of course you can use brown rice but I would stay away from white rice because it has little (if any) good nutritional value.

     - Cook the rice according to the directions on the package. I tend to start this as soon as I get home from work because in general, the longer it takes to cook the rice as stated on the package, the better the rice is for you.

Ingredients:

1 Chick’n cutlet of your brand of choice 
    - (I use Gardein chick’n scallopini – 90 calories, 2g fat, 14 g protein)

¼ vegetable bouillon cube or approximately 1/3-1/2 cup of vegetable stock

1 tsp vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)

    - This adds about 3 grams of fat to the dish. In my opinion it is well worth it but you can leave it out if that is a major concern for you.

Splash of lemon juice

Dash of garlic powder

Optional: Lightly flour the chick’n cutlet.  Fry in a pan with about a tablespoon of oil. Of course it is tasty but I usually leave this part out when watching my waist-line. It’s a nice option if you’re cooking a special dinner for people.

Take the chick’n cutlet and place in a nonstick pan, flipping to heat each side. If you want you can add some olive oil to the pan to cook the cutlet in. When cooked through, set the cutlet aside on a plate.

Use the same pan and pour in your vegetable stock – or – ¼ bouillon cube + ¼ cup of water.  Boil the stock/cube down until the water has mostly disappeared and you’re left with a thicker brown “sauce”.

Turn the heat down to low. Add in your margarine, dash of garlic powder and a splash of lemon juice.

-        A note on garlic powder: most people are appalled that I use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. Aside from it being easier…no cutting, no extra knives and dishes to wash, etc…garlic burns so easily. It tastes nice if it’s sautéed in oil but that’s just extra fat and calories, and of course extra effort!  So it’s not the worst thing in the world if you get home from work and want to use powder,  instead of fresh, that requires no effort, really, it’s not.

In a few seconds the margarine will be melted. Mix everything in the pan so that it is all incorporated well. Put your cutlet back in the pan and let it sit on each side for a little bit (maybe 30-60 seconds) to get some flavor into the cutlet.

This whole process (aside from the rice) takes about 10 minutes.

Take your fully cooked rice and place it on your plate. Take the cutlet and place it on top of the rice. Pour the remainder of your sauce over the chick’n and rice to let the rest of the sauce absorb a little bit into the rice.

Eat and enjoy!

Give the Delivery Guy the Night Off

General Tso's Tofu

This is probably the most complex recipe that I make and I only make it once every couple of years.  It's not low fat or low carb but I'm sure it's a lot better for you than any General Tso's Tofu/Chicken you would get at a Chinese food restaurant. You control how much oil and corn starch you want to use. If you don't mind the tofu being less crispy you can cut back on the corn starch. I like this dish with wild or brown rice.

To make the Tofu

1 package of Lite Firm Tofu (any kind of firm tofu will do)

1 egg replacer (Ener-G (preferred) or flax powder)

Canola Oil for pan frying (any kind of oil that doesn't have a strong flavor will do)

3/4 cup corn starch

• Drain the tofu. To make tofu "meatier" you can drain the package of tofu and leave it in your refrigerator uncovered overnight. 
• Mix the egg replacer powder with approximately 1/4 cup of water in a medium bowl.
• Cut the tofu into chunks and toss it in the egg replacer mix. 
• Coat the tofu (covered in the egg replacer mix) with the corn starch.
• Heat up some oil in a pan and fry the tofu until it is golden brown.
• Set aside…

To make the Sauce

3 tbsp Canola Oil (again, any kind of oil that doesn't have a strong flavor will do)

3 cups of chopped onions

1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tsp powdered ginger

½ vegetable bullion cube

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp white/apple cider/rice vinegar

1 tbsp corn starch

Optional: add in some peppers if you like it a little spicier

• Heat oil in a large pan and add onions, garlic, and ginger.
• Saute for a few minutes and then add in soy sauce, bullion cube, brown sugar, and vinegar.
• In a small bowl thoroughly mix the corn starch with a tablespoon of water then add to the pan.
• Keep stirring the sauce mixture until you get a thicker consistency.
• Add the tofu that you fried up earlier to the sauce and mix thoroughly.

Serve it up and Enjoy!

ZOMG!!!1! Chocolate Chip Cookies

Seriously, who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies? I mean really. Every day in my brain chocolate chip cookies go head to head with chocolate covered berries for the title of My Favorite Dessert.

Over the course of about 5 years and many hours in the kitchen I am at the point where I can make a chocolate chip cookie that I think is 95% perfect. They are one of the handful of desserts that I make best. Now, I don't know if that 100% perfect cookie is really a unicorn but I will always look for it.

Enough bragging about my mad chocolate chip cookie baking skills. How do you make an awesome vegan chocolate chip cookie? In my opinion, eggs are completely superfluous in 99% of baked goods. Again, instead of butter you can use oil to make a very dense rich cookie, vegan margarine for a more traditional taste, or applesauce for a more cake like cookie. I use oil for the most part but when I'm making low fat cookies I substitute a good part of the oil with applesauce. Some people actually prefer this version.

As for vegan chocolate chips, my personal favorite are the Whole Foods Vegan Chocolate Chips. Enjoy Life also has great chocolate chips. The debate rages on as to whether processed sugar is vegan or not. (For those who don't know, animal bone char is used to process sugar.) If you're on the side of the debate that says processed sugar is vegan, Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips have no dairy but they do have processed sugar. I have also found some store brand semi-sweet chocolate chips that are made with processed sugar but no dairy. If you want to make chocolate chunk cookies, there are so many options for vegan chocolate, just check your local store and you will find one for sure.

Brownies

Vegan brownies are just as easy as non-vegan brownies. Take your favorite brownie recipe and simply replace your eggs with approximately 2 tablespoons of water per egg and your butter with oil or applesauce (or vegan margarine). Oil will make your brownies more dense and chewy while applesauce will make your brownies more cake-like. You can also mix some combination of oil and applesauce. Conversion amounts are direct, ie. if your recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter, use half a cup of oil, applesauce, or margarine.

I <3 raspberries and chocolate so I added just raspberry syrup to my brownie.

Laughing:Sketches AS Snicker:doodles

How many things say Fall more than Cinnamon? Not many. So what a perfect time to make Snickerdoodles!

Breakfast Wrap

This is one of my favorite quick breakfast meals and it's incredibly easy to make.

Ingredients:
Wrap or whole grain bread (I use Flax Roll-ups)
Soy/rice/tofu cheese or cream cheese
Avocado
Almond or walnut pieces/slivers

Salt and Pepper
Nutritional Yeast (optional)
Flax seeds (optional)

 

Lay your wrap out flat. If you are using "cheese", place the cheese on the wrap and either microwave or lightly toast until cheese is melted. If you use "cream cheese" I think it tastes nicer as a cold wrap. Slice up some avocado, I usually put about 1/5 or 1/4 of a medium avocado sliced in my wraps. Sprinkle some nuts, seeds, nutritional yeast and salt/pepper to taste. Roll up your wrap like you would a burrito and enjoy.

Nutty Mac

I've been working on making this recipe low fat but high on nutrition for about a year now. I think I finally got it.

1 1/2 tbsp soy or tamari sauce
1/2 cup light soy milk
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp tahini
1 tsp tomato paste
2/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp flour (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

The ingredients in the order that they should be added to the pot which should be on low heat. Stir each ingredient in until it is well incorporated. Stir until the sauce thickens and then add in whole wheat or quinoa pasta for a nutritious delicious dish.