Tag: skinny

Recipes

Recipe: Vegan Pasta Bolognese (with lots of veggies!)

Miche

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Lately, I’ve been on a mission to simplify my life in the food department. As much as I’ve loved coming up with new recipes every day, it can get exhausting and takes up a lot of time. So a few weeks ago, I decided to do something drastic: make a dinner that would last me for more than one night, rather than making some whole other new dish the next night like I usually would.

And it was a success! Instead of spending an hour cooking an entirely new dinner the next day, I spent that time reading a book and relaxing after a day of midterms. I could get used to this.

The pilot meal was a pasta bolognese, and it was delicious! It’s a super simple weeknight dinner, with leftovers that seem to keep getting better and better. I stored the pasta and veggies separately, and each night just had to combine them with the marinara and “beef” crumbles.

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Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 4oz dry pasta (I used ancient grain penne)
  • Mushrooms, garlic, kale, broccoli, and any other veggies you’d like
  • 1.5 cups marinara sauce
  • 1 cup Beyond Meat beef crumbles

Directions:

1. Prepare pasta according to directions on the package–will vary by type.

2. Prepare your veggies as you’d like: I roasted brussels sprouts and broccoli in the oven at 400 degrees for ~10-15 mins, and sauteed mushrooms and kale together with garlic.

3. Combine cooked pasta and veggies, marinara sauce, and Beyond meat beef crumbles, and serve hot.

Nutrition info: (using 2 cups of broccoli and kale)

  • Calories per 1/2 of recipe: 420 calories
  • Carbs: 67g (9g fiber)| Protein: 25g | Fat: 7g

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Enjoy your quick and easy weeknight dinner!

(This is cross-posted from my recipe-only blog)

Recipes

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Muffins (Vegan and Low Cal)

Miche

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Hello friends! Sorry about yet another hiatus. Sometimes life just gets a bit crazy: between classes and research internships and my boyfriend visiting during his spring break, I just haven’t had much computer time. But I think that can finally change during the last 6 weeks of the semester and through the summer! 🙂 Despite the blogging break, I have been uploading daily to my instagram, so feel free to keep up with my food/fitness adventures over there! (Linked in sidebar)

And now, one of my goals for this blog is recipe sharing: I have another dedicated recipe blog I post on, but I thought I’d share the more fitness-friendly ones here in case they’re useful to anyone. I’ll also post about my current fitness routine and goals soon, since I’ve been making a lot of progress in the last few weeks!

So to kick things off, I wanted to share one of my favorite new recipes, from last week: chocolate chip sweet potato muffins. They’re a tad addictive, and my omni friends were shocked that they were vegan (always my test of good vegan food). They were even more surprised when I told them they’re incredibly low cal, too! They’re my new favorite snack when I’m out and about: I’ve been bringing them to class straight from the freezer and they’re perfectly moist and thawed an hour later.

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Makes one dozen small muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 cup oat flour
  • 1/2 cup spelt flour (for gluten free, try buckwheat flour)
  • 1/2 banana
  • 250g sweet potato, baked
  • 1 cup non dairy milk (I used unsweetened soymilk)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp splenda, or sweetener of choice
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 -1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg

Directions

Ingredient prep: Use pre-baked sweet potato, or bake your own in the oven at 375 degrees F for around 45 minutes, or until soft. If you don’t have oat flour, make your own by grinding 1 cup of oats in a food processor–I like mine slightly course. Remove from food processor to a bowl, and set aside.

1. Combine baked sweet potato with banana, soymilk, and vanilla, and blend until smooth. Add maple syrup and sweetener, and set aside.

2. Combine the flours, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices in a medium sized bowl. Stir in chocolate chips, then add in wet ingredients and stir. If the batter is too dry, add non dairy milk until it’s at muffin-batter consistency.

3. Spoon batter into a standard sized muffin pan–it should fill one dozen cups about 2/3 full.

4. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove muffins to a cooling rack.

Nutrition info:

  • Calories per muffin: 90
  • Carbs: 16.5g (2g fiber)| Protein: 2.5g | Fat: 1.8g
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One with cashew butter, the other with coconut butter–both are delicious!

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Enjoy!

(This is cross-posted from my recipe only blog)

Recipes

Recipe: Cauliflower Mac n Cheeze (Vegan and Low Cal)

Miche
This is a classic case of it-tastes-better-than-it-looks, I promise!
This is a classic case of it-tastes-better-than-it-looks, I promise!

Sometimes, the craving for comfort food is overwhelming. Luckily, instead of turning to the high calorie foods I’m dying for, I like to make low cal substitutes. This cauliflower mac n cheese is one of my favorites, especially because it’s so easy, and actually pretty healthy! The whole thing came to 300 calories for me, and that was with the avocado–the dish was amazingly rich and filling. (I like to try to have half an avocado a day, so I incorporate it as often as I can.)

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Who needs pasta when you have cauliflower?

Most of these are estimates, because I cook spontaneously. So just mess with the ingredient amounts to fit your tastes!

Serves 1.

Ingredients

  • 1-2 cups cauliflower, cut into small florets
  • 1/3 cup vegan cheese of your choice [I used daiya cheddar]
  • ~1/4 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
  • 1/2 avocado, ~75g  (optional)
  • Chipotle or smoked paprika powder (optional)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Optional add-ins: spinach or kale, veggies, vegetarian sausage

Directions

1. Wash, slice/rip, and cook cauliflower as desired. I microwaved mine in the bowl for ~45 seconds. Roasting it would also taste delicious!

2. Prepare sauce: in a pan over low-medium heat, add the cheese and half the milk, stirring frequently.  Once melted, add as much milk as you’d like until the sauce has reached your desired consistency. (it really varies person to person!) Add salt, pepper, and any seasonings you want.

3. Add in cauliflower, avocado if using, and add-ins; stir until coated and cauliflower is as soft as you like it.

4. Pour into a bowl and serve hot.

And enjoy!

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Recipes

Recipe: Mango Swirl Chia Pudding

Miche

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I love chia pudding, but I don’t make it nearly often enough because you have to plan it the night before if you want it for breakfast. After trying adding various fruit flavors, however, I’m now addicted–totally worth the early prep!

This tropical themed one is one of my favorites: it’s creamy, delicious, and packed with omega-3’s, fiber, protein, potassium, and vitamin C! (And of course all the other myriad of nutrients that chia has.)

Makes ~8oz. (pictured) – 300-350 calories.

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp chia
  • 1.5 cup water or soymilk (necessary liquid varies with seed types)
  • 1/2 cup mango chunks (best if frozen)
  • 1/2 banana (best if frozen)
  • 1/3 cup coconut or plain unsweetened yogurt (optional)
  • Protein powder (optional)

Directions

1. ~6-24 hours before: mix the chia and the water and/or milk together. Shake or stir at 5-10 minute intervals until it stops settling and is evenly distributed throughout. (Or you can just let it sit 30 mins and shake it once). Let sit overnight or until soft and expanded.

2. When you’re about to eat it, prepare the fruit puree. Blend together the banana and mango–you may want to add a splash of water or milk to get it going–until smooth.

3. Mix chia mixture with yogurt and any add-ins you want, add the fruit puree, and enjoy cold!

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