Baked Egg Rolls

Mark was never a huge fan of egg rolls, that is until I introduced him to those freezer section ones and deep fried them. They are delicious, don't judge.

A couple months ago Larry, the security guard at my place of employment brought some homemade beef ones to work. They were amazing, but also deep fried.

Needless to say we needed to find a healthier way to indulge in the Chinese restaurant staple. So here I give you my version of vegetarian baked egg rolls.

Although the wrapper is missing that "deep fried" crunch, the fillings flavor is spot on.

Make these with your next stir fry.

(Pictures follow recipe)

Baked Egg Rolls
Adapted from here

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon oil

1/4 of a head of cabbage

1-2 carrots

1/2 onion

1 clove garlic

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. While the pan is warming, attached the shredding blade to your food processor and run carrots through. Place shredded carrots on a large plate and set aside. Now attached the large blade to your food processor and pulse cabbage until chopped semi-finely. Place cabbage on plate next to carrots, set aside.

Next, slice onion thinly and mince garlic clove. Add onions to warm pan and saute for 1-2 minutes, then add carrots. Stir a couple times before adding cabbage. Once cabbage is in the pan allow everything to cook for about 2 minutes, add garlic and stir to combine.

Pour in soy sauce, sprinkle in ginger, and crack in some pepper, stir everything and cook for about another 2 minutes. Place mixture into a bowl to cool.

Preheat over to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with a Silpat or aluminum foil.

Once filling mixture is cool its time to start assembling the egg rolls. To do so, place an egg roll wrapper in front of you making sure a corner is facing you and brush the sides of wrapper with water. Put no more than 4 tablespoons of filling just below the center of the wrapper. Fold corner facing you over the filling, then fold the side corners in to hold the filling. Place seam side down onto baking sheet; repeat with remaining filling.

Spray tops with some cooking spray and place in oven. Bake for 10 minutes, flip, and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Enjoy :)

Puppy Chow

Waaaaay back in October or November I asked some coworkers for suggestions for snacks they would like me to make. Someone asked for puppy chow and finally, 6 months later I'm getting around to making it for her.

I know the recipe is pretty standard but I'm crediting myself with it because I didn't research one to go off. Besides, I doubt many recipes call for refrigerating the mix overnight and adding extra powdered sugar in the morning. Not to mention I put this recipe in the "healthy" category because I made it without butter or oil. Winner.

My "taster" bowl

Regardless, this stuff is dangerously addicting. You've been warned.

Chocolate Milk For One

This here is just a quick little recipe that I adapted from a recipe I saw on pinterest a couple weeks ago for homemade Nesquik. I thought it would be a fun project because we love chocolate milk around here, but hate that most brands are made with HFCS. I know there are brands out there that are made with sugar, but this recipe is easy enough to make at home and allows you to adjust the final result according to taste.

My first attempt of this recipe came after a trip to the grocery store in which we purchased some chocolate milk. Naturally we wanted to drink it right away, but I just couldn't get over the first ingredient being HFCS so I quickly threw this together without checking the OG recipe. All I remembered what that there was twice as much sugar as cocoa powder. I took a sip and thought it was pretty good so I handed it off to Mark.

"You're about to ruin chocolate milk for me aren't you?" he said before taking a sip.

He thought it was pretty darn good (and yes, better than the store bought), but needed more cocoa powder. So for the glass I made for myself I doubled the cocoa powder and cut back on the sugar. After tasting the second attempt, we both agreed that it was delicious.

Mark likes his exclusively with cows milk, but I think its amazing with Almond Breeze coconut-almond milk. With either milk this mixture creates an extremely rich, chocolately drink which can and should be enjoyed hot or cold.

I just love the color of the drink. It reminds me of the hot chocolate machine on The Santa Clause (my favorite Christmas movie) and how creamy it came out.

This one is definitely a keeper.

Chocolate Milk For One
Adapted from here

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 cup milk of choice

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1-2 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt, optional

Directions:

Mix together cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a small container and set aside. Warm 1/4 cup of milk in the bottom of a mug in the microwave for about 15 seconds.

Pour cocoa powder mixture into warmed milk and stir until powder has dissolved.

Pour remaining 3/4 cup of milk into mug and mix well.

Enjoy :)

Mini Sweet Potato Muffins

Remember that bag of sweet potatoes I told ya about earlier? This recipe is another product of that bag needing to be used up. Wanting to appeal more to Mark's (sweet) tastebuds this time around and make something that would hold up a couple days, I thought muffins would be a great way to go; Mark is happy they are sweet and I am happy they have vegetables. As for making them mini? That just allowed me to use my brand new mini muffin pan I purchased this weekend. I call that a win-win-win.

Lightly sweetened with some applesauce and a minimal amount of sugar these bite-sized muffins make a tasty afternoon treat. Some would argue *me* that these should even be considered healthy. Consisting of whole wheat flour, fruit, vegetables, and no butter is enough for me to snack guilt free. You should too :).

(Partially) Whole Wheat Herb Drop Biscuits

Remember that lentil soup recipe I posted a few days ago mentioning some drop biscuits that accompanied the meal? Well they were a huge hit with both Mark and me, like made-the-meal kind of hit. So I thought I would post the recipe.

I ate mine by placing it at the bottom of my bowl and pouring the soup on top while Mark enjoyed his with butter and honey. Obviously we are two very different individuals.

Welcome back Fall, when I bit into these biscuits it made me think I actually missed you.

(Partially) Whole Wheat Herb Drop Biscuits
Adapted from here

Makes 12 biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

5 teaspoons baking powder

4 teaspoons herbs of choice (I used 1 tsp ground thyme, 1.5 tsp basil, 1.5 tsp oregano)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

5 tablespoons cold butter cut into chunks*

1 cup milk of choice*

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray.

Mix together flour, baking powder, herbs, salt, and garlic powder in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.

Using your hands cut butter into flour mixture until well incorporated (you can use a pastry knife, I just don't have one).

Add milk to bowl and stir until sticky dough forms.

Drop 12 equally sized (about 1/4 cup each) chunks of dough onto baking sheet.

Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until your home "smells like pizza dough" as Mark enthusiastically stated.

Serve with soup, butter, eggs, etc. Store any leftovers in an airtight container, but use as soon as possible.

Enjoy :)

Notes:
*Obviously use vegan butter and non-dairy milk to make these vegan.

Super Quick Chunky Tomato Soup

This soup was the invention of a busy weeknight. Going into it we had no idea how well it would turn out, definitely a welcomed surprise. We served it with some grilled cheeses and called it a well balanced meal. I scarfed it down too quickly to take any pictures so just take my word. If you find yourself hungry and wanting some tomato soup and grilled cheese give this 20 minute fix a try.

Super Quick Chunky Tomato Soup

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 can whole tomatoes, chopped

1 8 oz. tomato juice

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 carrot finely, chopped

1 small onion, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1 bay leaf

salt & pepper

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat, add onion, garlic, and carrot. Stir and sauté until onions are translucent and carrots are soft.

Place tomatoes, tomato juice, paprika, basil, cayenne, bay leaf, and salt & pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir and add onion mixture.

Bring to a boil, turn heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Divide between 2 bowls and serve.

Enjoy :)

Banana Bread - As Healthy As I Ever Want It

This past weekend Mark and I were craving french toast but were fresh out of bread. This caused a major conflict for us because we try to only go to the grocery store twice a week, once on Sunday for weekly shopping and once on Wednesday to restock our empty apple inventory... it was Saturday. For normal people just making a loaf of bread to use would probably be an option and a delicious problem solver, but unfortunately I have yet to master the skill of working with yeast. I don't know what it is but nothing ever turns out when I try using yeast. A bread making class is in my future. In the meantime I must get a little creative (or so I think until I do a google search).

Regardless, we ended up happy and with french toast on Sunday morning.

I decided to make a healthified banana bread and use it as the french toast base. Now, I'm not crazy enough to think that lowering the amount of oil and replacing the sugar with honey makes banana bread something I can eat and eat, we wanted a comfort food breakfast and thats what we had. However, in terms of calories and added sugar this recipe is much lower than most while still being tasty (a slice of this has about 100 calories while a slice of Starbucks banana bread has almost 500!). So take it for what you will and remember healthier versions of your favorite treats are still treats and enjoy them accordingly.

Steps off soapbox.

Getting back to this banana bread: I used less sweetener because I made it with very ripe bananas, cut the oil down to just 2 teaspoons, and used half whole wheat/half all-purpose flour. The result was a soft, moist bread that tasted sweet enough to be a dessert and light enough for a snack. It was perfect for the baked french toast I made the next morning (recipe here).

The eggs were for the french toast, not the bread

Yum!

Topped with butter and honey

As for the leftovers? They will be used as peanut butter and jelly sandwich bread for a post workout snack shortly!

Yum.

Banana Bread - As "Healthy" As I Ever Want It

Makes 1 loaf,
Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour (I did 1/2 WW and 1/2 all purpose)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

1/4 teaspoon salt

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup honey (I used a little less)

2 teaspoons oil (coconut or canola)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a smaller bowl mix together mashed bananas, applesauce, honey, oil, and vanilla.

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir well to combine.

Lightly spray a 9" by 4" loaf pan with cooking spray.

Pour batter into pan and place in preheated oven.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Enjoy :)

Celery Haters Ants On A Log

Ants on a log is a quick and healthy snack that has a little bit of everything: fruit, veggies, and protein. However for some (Mark), celery isn't an appealing vegetable. So I took out the celery leaving Mark satisfied because it still involves raisins (one of his favorite snacks) and also continues to provide him with a serving of vegetables.

So if you have someone close who doesn't like celery, deeming ants on a log a non-option, try replacing it with carrots for an easy afternoon snack.

Celery Haters Ants On A Log

Ingredients:

1-2 carrots

1-2 tablespoons peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)

raisins

Directions:

Slice carrot(s) into mini sticks.

Spread peanut butter onto carrot sticks.

Top with raisins.

Enjoy :)

Whole Wheat Strawberry-Banana Muffins

So things got kind of hectic around here last week. One thing after another came up, before I could breath it was Friday and I had about 1/2 lb of VERY ripe strawberries in the refrigerator. My first instinct was to eat them right then and there, but then I remembered seeing a recipe for banana peach muffins earlier in the week that I really wanted to try. So I just replaced the peaches with strawberries.

Problem solved. Q.E.D. (I know that isn't being used correctly, it's an inside joke).

I played around just a little with the recipe by lowering the amount of maple syrup and replacing half the oil with applesauce. Not because the recipe wasn't healthy enough as is, but because I had (still have) some applesauce that needed to be used and I like to play around with recipes to make them my own. Following exact directions is so 3rd grade, am I right?

The result was phenomenal (in my opinion). The nutty flavor of the whole wheat flour and the grainy texture of the thick cut oats mixed with maple syrup, mashed banana, and slices of fresh strawberry.... Muffins make any crazy week infinitely better; I decided.

These are light enough to be part of a breakfast, small enough to be an afternoon snack, and sweet enough to be a dessert.

These also freeze well. Just put leftovers in an airtight container and place them in the freezer. When you crave one, take it out and defrost in the microwave!

It's my new go-to muffin recipe and I can't wait to try them with other kinds of fresh fruit.

Whole Wheat Strawberry-Banana Muffins
Adapted slightly from here

Serves 12-14

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup thick cut oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed (I always keep frozen ripe ones in my freezer)

1/2-1 Ib strawberries, sliced

1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional but recommended, preferably Saigon cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.

In a separate smaller bowl combine applesauce, oil, maple syrup, mashed bananas.

Mix wet ingredients into dry, then add sliced strawberries and fold gently until barely combined.

Either line a muffin pan with liners or spray pan with cooking spray and fill 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown and the sweet aroma of baking fills your house.

Serve warm or cold. Both are delicious.

Enjoy :)

Sweet & Salty Chocolate Banana Soft Serve

I'm sure I'm not the first to do this, but I just made banana soft serve with cocoa powder and pretzels. I liked it a lot so I am typing it out for memory sake.

For the fans of the sweet & salty combo this snack is for you.

Sweet & Salty Chocolate Banana Soft Serve

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 frozen banana cut into chunks

1/2-1 tablespoon cocoa powder (depending on how dark you want it)

6 mini pretzels

1-2 tablespoons milk, optional

Dash of salt

sweetener of choice, if desired

Directions:

Place banana chunks and milk (if using) in the bowl of a mini food processor and blend until almost all the banana chunks are smooth.

Add cocoa powder, pretzels, salt, and sweetener (if using) and finish blending until desired consistency.

Spoon into a glass and enjoy with more pretzels :)

Homemade Almond Butter (Or Any Nut Butter)

My gorgeous food processor churning out almond butter

Every night for a bedtime snack Mark and I have an apple with some peanut or almond butter. As you can imagine we are consistently running out of apples... AND nut butters. I get kind of excited when the jar of almond butter gets to that freakishly low point because it means I get to break out my badass Cuisinart 12 cup food processor and grind some more.

I used to make both peanut butter and almond butter myself, but the cheapest price I can find for raw peanuts is $5 a pound. What a gyp when a jar of scrumptious Trader Joe's Valencia Peanut Butter with Flaxseed costs only $2.99! Almond butter however is a different story. I can get a pound of raw almonds from Trader Joe's for about the same price or cheaper than a jar. It takes barely any hands on work, and allows time for you to get your hair done, laundry done, or errands run while waiting for the nuts to cool.

 Another positive: no oil or added sugars!

Restaurant Review: Cocoa & Fig

Updated 8.19.12:
Just tried a banana nut cupcake, s'mores cupcake, and an almond caramel cake pop. The banana nut cupcake tasted like banana bread and had a delicious cream cheese frosting; the s'mores cupcake had a homemade graham cracker base with a chocolate chunk filled chocolate cupcake and a homemade torched marshmallow on top. As for the cake pop, it was a gooey caramel almond cake dipped in milk chocolate. Each of them were impressive delicious treats. Seriously give this place a try sometime.

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I am obsessed with cupcakes. I love everything about them. The process, the possibilities, the liners,  and of course eating them. I just think they are perfectly packaged desserts or snacks. Sometimes I even make us head over to Byerly's so I can get a cupcake from their bakery.

Mark fully supports this addiction and will happily get me my fix. And sometimes (usually when I've had a bad day) he comes home with sweet treats from my favorite boutique bake shop Cocoa & Fig. Its a small retail store (part of a catering company) nestled between Neiman Marcus & Saks 5th Ave in Gaviidae Commons.

Not only do they have beautiful cupcakes on display, but they also have flourless cakes, cake pops,  sandwich cookies, and french macarons.

This delightful little buggers were nonexistent
in our lives before Cocoa & Fig. We are forever
in their debt.

Their cake pops and oatmeal peanut butter
sandwich cookie

Weekend Recap

Friday (7.6.12):


There are no pictures for our Friday night. I was feeling a little under the weather so we stayed in and lounged. We did watched Breakfast at Tiffany's for the first time and were pleasantly surprised that we thoroughly enjoyed it. I think we were expecting a semi chick flick/romance, but appreciated how different the movie was as opposed to if it were made today.

Saturday (7.7.12):

Morning:

Farmer's Market Swag:
-Bok Choy
   -Swiss Chard
-Broccoli
-Onions  
 -Tomatoes
  -Blueberries

Turkey Momos with Tomato Chutney

Us enjoying our momos from the farmers market

Weekend Recap

Friday Evening (6.29.12):

Close up of the personalized labels

Mini jars filled with dry ingredients for chocolate chip baked oatmeal
& chocolate mug cake

Completed present:

Four mini jars with recipes attached Four 1 cup ramekins Wedding card for the couple

Completed present: 

Four mini jars with recipes attached
Four 1 cup ramekins
Wedding card for the couple

Mark's wonderfully executed wrapping job

Newly manicured nails to go with my blue dress

Restaurant Review: Sebastian Joe's

***Updated Below***

 As I mentioned before in my oatmeal pancake recipe post, my grandmother recently passed away. The way I understand it, her body was just ready to “go” and she was admitted to something called “comfort care”.

This all took place over a week period in May. During this same time, my Uncle Tom fell ill as well and passed away a few days after my grandmother. Needless to say, I was 700 miles away from family and had a pretty crappy week.

So one night (5.4.12) Mark wanted to get my mind off of everything and took me out for ice cream at Sebastian Joe’s. We had been to their Uptown location once before so we headed over to their Upton Ave location for a change of scenery.

It had been raining off and on during most of the day, but was still seasonable warm so we took our chances. When we arrived it was raining pretty heavily, so we ran inside eager for ice cream.

The first thing we noticed, besides the fact that it was surprisingly busy for a rainy day, was its size. The Uptown location is quite large in comparison to this one. The next thing we noticed was the list of ice cream flavors currently available.

The most daunting task at an ice cream parlor is actually choosing what flavor you want. What makes this even more challenging is that they let you sample as many flavors as you want before making a decision…. And being as indecisive as I am these two things don’t go together very well.

So there we were, up at the order counter sampling all the flavors we had never had before (roasted garlic?!) with a line behind us and I was scrambling to make a decision. I turned to Mark for help because he had already made his decision, but it wasn’t helping. So I did what I usually do in these situations and made the person taking my order decide for me. He scooped me up a mix of 2 of the 3 flavor choices I gave him and said that they should go well together.

I ended up with a cup of Pavarotti & peanut butter chunk. The Pavarotti consisted of a mix of chocolate, banana, and peanut butter and the peanut butter chunk was a chocolate ice cream base with mini reese’s peanut butter cup like candies mixed in. Mark ordered a mix of white orangina, a white chocolate ice cream with orange flavoring, and banana cream pie in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone.

After we paid we noticed that there was no seating currently available and retreated to our car to devour our ice cream.

I was especially happy for the mini reese’s peanut butter cups because I had been craving them for awhile. And obviously the Pavarotti was beyond delicious. I mean…..chocolate, peanut butter, and banana, can you go wrong? The two flavors did mix together pretty well, so thank you to the very patient young lad who decided for me.

Mark instantly knew he made the right choice with the waffle cone upon biting into his ice cream. He hadn’t had one in awhile, but my guess is it’s the way he will go from now on. He loved the banana cream pie ice cream and was thrilled with the huge chunks of pie throughout. However, the white orangina was a bit disappointing. We both agreed that he should have passed on that flavor, but noted that it may be due to the fact that he got the end of the bucket.

Overall, we loved Sebastian Joe’s. The ice cream, atmosphere, and price all come together nicely. So if you love homemade ice cream, give Sebastian Joe’s a whirl.

Restaurant Review: I AM COFFEE

About three months ago Mark and I decided that we should start a journal of all the cafes/restaurants we visit as a way to scrapbook the experience (what we ate, weather, surroundings, etc). We try and write our notes no more than a day later to keep our thoughts fresh. Since we are on a mission to use less paper, the reason for the blog, we decided to start from the beginning of our journal and post the things we wrote here. First up: I AM COFFEE!

After one Saturday morning run around Lake Calhoun in March (3.25.12) we were driving back to our apartment and Mark thought he saw a coffee shop called I AM COFFEE. Since we had been meaning to scout out some new coffee shops (there has to be more to life than Starbucks and Caribou, right?), we zig-zagged our way back through the one-way streets to get to the coffee shop.