Year: 2013

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Melissa King 39 Comments

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry.  Stir fries are a great way to use up an extra vegetables you have in the fridge.  That is exactly what I was doing when I came up with this stir fry recipe.

Sometimes you really don’t even need a recipe.  Just throw a bunch of stuff together and viola!  Instant meal.

Often times with something delicious and easy.  That was the case with this healthy stir stir fry recipe.  This recipe will become a staple in our meal rotation.

 

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry

 

If you wanted to add more protein to this recipe, you can add baked tofu. To bake the tofu, I cut it into cubes and bake in the oven at 350.  It usually cooks in 30-35 minutes.

This recipe would also be great served over wild rice or quinoa.  This helps also stretch the meal out longer.

This dish was inspired by my Peanut Noodle Stir Fry.

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry

Cabbage Peanut Stir Fry

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Ingredients

  • 1 head cabbage sliced thin
  • 1 red pepper sliced thin
  • 1 yellow pepper sliced thin
  • 1 green pepper sliced thin
  • 4 carrots shredded
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup orange juice not from concentrate
  • 1/4 cup organic soy sauce or bragg's aminos
  • 2 T toasted sesame oil

Instructions

  1. In a large pan, throw the cabbage, peppers, carrots and oil and cook on medium covered until some of the cabbage cooks down. It will seem like a lot, but I promise it will cook down a bit.
  2. Stir the vegetables frequently.
  3. While the veggies are cooking, in a large mixing cup, add the peanut butter, soy sauce and orange juice.
  4. Once the veggies have softened a bit, add the sauce and cook a bit longer until everything is combined.

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Healthy French Fries (Vegan)

Melissa King 33 Comments

My daughters just love french fries.  What little kid doesn’t like french fries, right?  Time to make her some healthy french fries.

We hadn’t had french fries in quite some since we switched to a whole food diet.  One day, we got a bag of russet potatoes in our co-op basket, so we decided to make a healthy french fry recipe for her.

I think these french fries came out pretty good.  There was no talking when the french fries were being eaten, and there were no leftovers as they were being inhaled.  In our world, that spells success.

 

healthy french fries

Most store bought frozen french fries are laden with saturated fat and too much sodium, but not these.  These are fries you can feel good about giving to your kids.

This recipe would also work well with sweet potatoes.

Healthy French Fries

Healthy French Fries

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 1 hr Serves 5 servings     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 5-6 russet potatoes julienned
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garlic
  • 2 T coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400.
  2. Pan fry the potatoes in the oil for about 5 minutes on medium-high heat.
  3. Transfer them onto a greased or lined baking sheet and bake for about an hour. Shake the pan every 15 minutes or so to get them to cook evenly.

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Recipe Notes

Feel free to add extra salt and garlic at the end to suit your taste. We went a little easy on them since we fed them to our daughter. These would go great with my Black Bean Veggie Burgers or my Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers.

Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal

Melissa King 145 Comments

Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you have probably realized that I love oats.

That is why I have so many granola recipes on the blog.  I also love to bake, much more than I like to cook.

This strawberry banana baked oatmeal is just one thing I made the other day.  It’s so good and a great way to eat oatmeal on the go.

I love making big batches of baked oatmeal that I can pull out of the freezer for quick breakfasts.  The strawberries and banana go so well in this baked oatmeal recipe.

 

Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal

 

This dish was inspired by my Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal.  It came out even better than I imagined it would.  These would be great for those breakfasts on the go.  They taste especially good warm and right out of the oven.

Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal

Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 20 min

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl . 
  3. Mix wet into another.
  4. Add wet to dry and spoon batter into greased muffin pans and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.

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Recipe Notes

I used jumbo muffin pans and filled them about halfway. I got about 6 single serving baked oatmeals out of my batch. You may want to double it if you would like more to stick in the freezer.

Lentil Kofte

Melissa King 3 Comments

For those of you that may not know, my mother-in-law is Turkish.  In Turkish, kofte means, “a little patty.”  This is another one of her family’s recipes.  It is very good!  If you have been wanting to try different foods, I highly suggest giving this a go.  This recipe calls for bulgur, but I was out of it so I subbed quinoa and it came out great.  Might be an option for those looking for a gluten free recipe. 🙂

Lentil Kofte

Lentil Kofte

Lentil Kofte

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 30 min

Ingredients

  • 2 cups red lentils
  • 1 cup fine bulgur
  • 1 medium to small onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 bunch green onion chopped
  • 1/2 bunch parsley chopped
  • 1 lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Cook 2 cups of red lentil in 6 cups of water until soft.
  2. Take it off the fire, add 1 cup of fine bulgur and teaspoon salt , cover the pan with a lid and let it sit until all the water absorbed and forms a soft doughy consistency. About 20-30 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, saute the chopped onion with olive oil.
  4. Then add tomato paste, pepper paste, cumin and paprika, mix them all and cook for just few minutes more. Take off fire.
  5. Now add lemon juice mix well. (sometimes I use only half a lemon juice and add pomegranate juice or molasses/sauce for the other half)
  6. Now add this mixture into lentil and bulgur mixture as well as chopped green onions and chopped parsley.
  7. Mix all well, place in a serving dish with green salad leaves. (I use romaine lettuce) and use them as a vegetable wrap to serve with lentil koftes.

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Recipe Notes

Feel free to add extra cumin, salt or red pepper paste if needed.  I really like the taste of cumin, so I added another extra teaspoon.  This also makes a good size batch that should last a few days.

I have a few other recipes that are Turkish as well.  My White Bean Salad and Red Lentil Soup are two others.

 

Smart Ones Exposed

Melissa King 26 Comments

I really hate all these “diet” frozen dinners.  They are full of nothing but junk.  There is nothing smart about these.

SAMSUNG

Let’s look at the long list of ingredients in very TINY print.  In fact, it was so small that I had to take two different photos to fit it all in.

SAMSUNG

Here is the second half.

SAMSUNG

I may have lost count, but I think I counted about 38 ingredients!  Now, let’s analyze them.  First off, they call the macaroni, macaroni product? There are 5 different corn products in these that are most likely GMOs.  Carrageenan, which may be linked to cancer, is in here as well.  Then there is also the vague term, natural flavor.  Avoid any product that contains that term.  Who knows what it could mean?  Whey protein, yeast extract and sodium caseinate are all hidden forms of MSG.  Let’s not forget the fact that this is full of highly refined flour and sugar.  It will not satisfy you, but rather leave you hungry to eat more.  It is also loaded with sodium.  If you want to do a weight watcher’s plan, please avoid their processed products and eat a diet full of whole foods.  If you need a good pasta recipe click here.  My recipe is free of chemicals and will keep you full much longer than this junk ever would.

Maple Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas

Melissa King 178 Comments

Maple Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas. Nut free, gluten free and vegan.  This may be the easiest snack you ever make.  Seriously.  You need to try them asap!

 

maple cinnamon roasted chickpeas

 

First, I found Kale Chips, and I thought I was in love.  Then it was Cauliflower Popcorn.  But this snack beats them all hands down.

It will satisfy your sweet craving without adding the pounds.  Even my daughter, Meadow, who claims to hate all beans, ate them.

In fact, she grabbed the bowl away and took off with it!  Man, she is a sneaky one sometimes! It was gone pretty darn fast.  I am roasting another batch as I type this.

Here is a little video of how to make them.  For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

 

Looking for more roasted chickpea recipes?

Maple Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas

Maple Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 45 min

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Mix everything well in a bowl.
  3. Pour the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  4. Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes, shaking every 10 minutes to keep them from burning. That’s it. Easy peasy!

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