Easiest recipe ever: sea salt and vinegar kale chips

When I saw this recipe for super healthy kale chips I knew I had to try it immediately, and I am so glad I did! (click here if you have no idea what kale is!) The chips were a total hit with not only myself, but Hank too, which was awesome. Baking the kale in the oven transformed the green, leafy vegetable into a delicious, slightly salty snack that totally hit the spot as a crunchy side dish to our risotto and "chicken" tonight. Tomorrow we're going to try the same thing with spinach, so I'll let you know how it goes.

First off, buy a bunch of kale at your local grocer. If your regular store doesn't carry it, try your natural foods store, but it should be pretty easy to find.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Tear the leaves off of the long stem running down the middle. I tossed the leaves into a colander as I tore them off. Rinse the leaves WELL and dry thoroughly. We don't have a salad spinner, so I just used a paper towel to try off each individual piece.

Place the leaves in a single layer on parchment paper, on a cookie sheet. Below you'll see that I accidentally used wax paper at first...no big deal until the oven started smoking! haha. When that happened I just moved the kale straight onto the cookie sheet and it was just fine. But anyway, drizzle olive oil and vinegar all over the leaves, then top with sea salt. If you don't want to do the vinegar you can just do olive oil.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until you notice the leaves shrinking and looking crispy. We had no issues with the kale being soggy whatsoever, and each chip was crispy and REALLY delicious!

Enjoy!

Quinoa!

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is one of my favorite, favorite things to cook.  I probably eat it about 4-5 times a week, and both Hank and I absolutely love it.  I mention it a lot on this blog and I swear I even posted how to cook it before but I can't seem to find that post!  But one of the main questions I often get after "what on earth IS it?" is, "how on earth do you cook it?!" I grew up eating it, so it's normal to me, but for most people it's definitely not a common dish and might even seem a bit intimidating to tackle.  Surprisingly though, it's very quick and simple to prepare.  Quinoa is an interesting little power food; it's protein content is high (at close to 18%), and unlike rice or wheat/rice products, quinoa contains a complete set of awesome amino acids.  It's very rare that a plant-based food supplies all nine of the acids, and it even includes lysine, which makes it a complete protein.  What does this mean for you?  If you are a vegetarian or vegan, or just someone who wants to be a little healthier, quinoa is an incredibly healthy option that you can eat in place of heavy pastas, or even enjoy as a main dish.  We've used it in many different ways including but not limited to: stuffed peppers, in place of spaghetti with a super chunky homemade sauce, a simple version with just sea salt and butter, cooked in vegetable broth to kick up the flavor, baked in spiced quinoa cakes, the list goes on.  Simply google "quinoa recipes" and you will be overloaded with tons of delicious and nutritious ideas for this power protein. 

So, you may be wondering: how DO I make it?  Well, it's simple:

1. Add 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of quinoa into a pot. 
2. Boil together until all the water is boiled out of the quinoa.

Yup, that's it. 

We typically use Trader Joe's brand quinoa but just yesterday we found a huge 4 lb. bag of organic quinoa at Costco for $9.99!  That is an amazing deal for an amazing brand (I love Bob's Red Mill products), so if you have a Costco head over and see if your local store carries it.  You can also typically find quinoa in the bulk section of your regular grocery store, and you can be sure to find it in your local natural foods store.

 Have fun, and good luck quinoa-ing! Let me know if you decide to try it! xoxo

Delicious baked ziti (and some chicken-less chicken too)!

I have a not-so-healthy recipe to share with all of you today. It may not be the most waist-friendly dish, but it's the perfect recipe if you are craving a bit of comfort food and want to indulge! We usually eat this dish around the holidays, and my Mom always makes it for Hank at Thanksgiving as a another option outside of his customary Tofurkey. I made it this weekend for a family dinner, and as usual, it was a hit! There are multiple ways to make it healthier- less cheese, whole wheat noodles, adding tons of veggies, etc...but this time I made the full-fat version in all of its cheesy goodness.

Here's what you'll need to make this SUPER easy dish:

1 box/bag of penne pasta
1 jar sauce
1 15-16 oz. container of ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 regular sized bag of mozzarella cheese
spices to taste- oregano, sea salt, basil, etc.

1) Preheat oven to 350.
2) Cook pasta
3) In a small bowl, mix the ricotta cheese and one egg.

4) Spread about half of the ricotta cheese and a third of the jar of sauce in the bottom of a deep baking dish.
5) Add about 1/2 of the noodles on top.

6) Next, layer as followed: mozzarella cheese, sauce, rest of the ricotta cheese, rest of the noodles, rest of the sauce, mozzarella cheese. Don't forget to add your choice of spices as you go.

7) Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake for 50-55 minutes, taking the tinfoil off the during the last 5 minutes of cooking to give the top a nice crispy, cheesy layer. Baking times may vary a bit, so just be sure that the middle is hot. One way to tell is to see if the ziti is slightly bubbling. That's always a good indicator.

I forgot to take photos of the finished dish before I served it, but rest assured it was delicious! Tonight Hank wanted to enjoy the leftovers, so I heated him up Gardein's Chick'n Good Stuff marinara and vegan cheese stuffed "chicken." Hank LOVES this stuff, and anything from this brand, so he was happy. Basically it's s piece of breaded vegetarian chicken, stuffed with marinara sauce and Daiya vegan cheese...AND there's 22g of protein per piece! Check out their website by clicking here- after the jump you'll discover a million of their delicious products, tons of ideas, and a lot of nutritional information! I really feel like some of their dishes would fool a meat eater, so if you're looking for a family friendly veggie dish, or just something a bit healthier than all of the scary meat on the market today, Gardein products are such a good choice.
The lighting in our kitchen tonight was really, really bad, but here's Hank's meal (leftover ziti and Gardein chick'n). Doesn't it look like real chicken?

Have you tried Gardein products? If so, which are your favorite? Next I am excited to try their Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n. It looks amazing!

Quick and easy quiche!

Hi guys! I hope you're all having a great day. Today I thought I'd share another one of my favorite things to eat, straight from my Mom's kitchen, into mine...and maybe into yours! It's incredibly simple, very healthy, and looks so pretty if you host a brunch or breakfast get-together. Plus, there are a million ways to change it up and add variation.

Here's what you'll need:

1 pie crust- I prefer spelt for not just the taste but the health benefits (click here for info on it)
10 egg whites
Veggies of your choice- today I just used 2 bunches of broccoli that I pre-steamed
shredded cheese

When I make pie I typically make my own crust, but for this one I got the frozen version from our local health food store's freezer section. The cost was about $5 for two crusts, but you can always go the less-expensive way and make your own, or buy generic, regular old pie crust that works just as well!

1) Preheat oven to 350.

2) Set out one frozen pie crust.

3) In a large bowl, mix egg whites (add yolk/s if you'd like- I prefer straight egg whites), cooked broccoli, and a small amount of shredded cheese. The cheese amount is up to you, I'd say I used about 1/4 of a cup.

4) Pour mixture into pie crust.

5) Place pie tin on a large piece of tin foil, and fold the foil up and around the pie crust edges, to prevent the crust from getting burnt/too brown while cooking.

6) Bake for 40 minutes at 350, removing the tin foil edging at 35 minutes to let the edges brown for 5 minutes.

7) At the end of the 40 minutes your quiche should be firm to the touch and a tiny bit browned.

8) Enjoy your healthy, protein and nutrient packed quiche!

Hank's Coconut Curry

Fortunately not only do I love to cook, but Hank does too. When he gets into chef mode he's the most adorable thing in the world and he almost always makes up his recipes as he goes. In fact, when he and his friends get together, they most often "cook it up," as they call it, and make some amazing dishes. This one in particular is adapted from his friend Matt's curry that he made at our house a couple of weeks ago. Hank went off memory so I don't have much of a formal recipe to share as far as amounts of spice, etc, but it turned out absolutely delicious and I thought I would include the process he used (thank you Hank!).

For this recipe, you'll need the following:

1 can of coconut milk (I insisted that Hank use light coconut milk, but regular would be SO much better for a curry, since it thickens up a lot more)
veggies of your choice- we used broccoli, onions, and carrots
minced garlic
curry powder
generic "Thai" spice blend
chili paste
sea salt
1 block of extra firm tofu
brown rice (or quinoa)

1) Add the entire can of coconut milk to a wok.
2) Add about 2 tbsp minced garlic to the milk (we LOVE garlic so we go overboard, but do this to your liking).
3) Add about half of a chopped onion (also add amount according to taste).
4) Bring to a boil.
5) Add everything else (chopped broccoli, carrots, other veggies, and drained/cubed tofu, spices- all amounts of spice are to your taste, we add tons).
6) Boil it for awhile until veggies become tender- the longer you do this, the longer the tofu will have a chance to soak up the flavor.
7) While this is cooking make some brown rice.
8) Curry should thicken up during cooking time- light coconut milk will be more watery.

And done! You have a quick, healthy meal. I really enjoyed it and I hope you do too!

Monday, Monday

Happy Monday everyone! I hope all of you had an awesome day. I'm super excited to be heading to Phoenix tomorrow evening, and then Hawaii early Wednesday morning! I am going to try and keep a semi-consistent blog schedule even while there, and I've already set up tomorrow and next week's Tattoo Tuesday so you won't miss either of those features. Also, Hank's Mom already hooked up the internet in the new house, so hopefully it's up and running when we arrive, and I can make a million posts from the beautiful Hawaiian coast! We should be really busy during the day but I am definitely going to try and fit in some time at night for quick updates before I head to sleep.

Today was a great day at work! My sophomores had "booktalks" due, which are basically glorified book reports. For this assignment (they do it 8x per year!) they choose any book (over 200 pages), write a summary and review, and present their book to the class. I always love love love these days. I've gotten a lot of awesome book recommendations via this project, and the kids seem to really enjoy it. My seniors are working in their book clubs, so today I was more of a facilitator than anything. After work, I headed out for a workout with some of my girlfriends. It's awesome- we went on a nice run, then did military style bootcamp circuit sets- lots of cardio and plyometrics. It's SUCH a hard workout, and I always leave feeling amazing. Thank you Paula and Robyn!

When I got home, I was pleased to find that my new phone had arrived, and when Hank got off work he set it up for me. I am so happy to be back on bbm and "in touch" with everyone. I'm also glad to have such a fast phone- my old curve would crash even when I'd try and take a photo! So this is really a treat. Soon after, our friend JP arrived with his girlfriend, Danielle! She lives in Connecticut, so this is the first time we've met her. She is so incredibly sweet and I'm stoked to see our friend so happy. We ate dinner at Hugo's, and then came back here to hang out. It's been a great night and my heart is so happy. Aren't they cute? :)



Before I go, I wanted to leave you with a quick and healthy meal idea! It's not a recipe, since we technically just heated up and added things to existing items, but I figure it might get your wheels turning!

Potato Gnocchi with Vegetable "Meat" Sauce



You'll need:
1 package potato gnocchi
1 jar tomato sauce
1/2 bag Boca (or comparable brand) meatless crumbles
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
3-4 leaves fresh basil
2-3 cloves of garlic
a nice sized head of broccoli

For the cheesy garlic bread:
1 Ezekial hamburger bun
Mozzarella cheese (we used Horizon Organic but you can forgo the cheese or use vegan)
Garlic powder

This is SUCH an easy, quick dinner to make. All you do is boil a big pot of water, and once it's boiling you add the gnocchi and let it cook for 3-4 minutes, until they float to the top! Done.

While the water is boiling, throw the entire jar of sauce in another large pot and then add the frozen "meat" crumbles and all the raw veggies. Whenever Hank and I make a quick sauce (and I'm not going the truly homemade route) we always add tons of veggies in, and if we're feeling crazy we sometimes will do tofu or seitan. It makes for a nice "semi-homemade" addition and adds a LOT of vitamins and nutrients.

So all you do is heat up the sauce, toast the bread and add some cheese...wait for those little potato cuties to boil to the top...and you're done!

WA-LA! A quick, healthy meal. You can totally change this up too, and do whole wheat pasta or whatever. This is the kind of meal we make when we aren't in the mood to actually cook, and because we cook the whole package of both the gnocchi and the sauce, we both have an entire lunch to bring to work the next day. Healthy and economical, awesome! :)

This is the potato gnocchi we used, from Trader Joe's. We decided to make this instead of the peanut tofu last night, so the packaging is long gone. But for the entire package the calories aren't bad at all, and I think there's 1.5 grams of fat for the entire thing. I can only eat about 1/4 of the total amount, so it's not bad at all.




This is the BEST sauce EVER. Seriously, go to Trader Joe's and buy this stuff. The best part about it, is that it has no sugar, which is a typical (unnecessary) ingredient in most tomato sauces. Tomatoes should be able to stand alone, without sugar, and this sauce has a truly delicious flavor, with hints of basil and oregano. Yum.



Let me know if decide to try out that sauce or anything you saw above! I hope all of you have a beautiful evening. Tattoo Tuesday will be up at 8am Arizona time tomorrow, so check back then. :)

xoxo

Quick and EASY dinner idea: baked Sriracha tofu

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a super simple vegan dinner idea with all of you...baked Sriracha tofu plus veggies and grains. If you're unfamiliar with Sriracha, it's a spicy, spicy sauce that's works in all types of foods, but particularly works best in Asian dishes (in my humble opinion). With that said, if you decide to make this recipe, it's VERY spicy. Hank and I eat tons of spicy food (I order my Thai dishes "Thai hot" if it gives you an idea of what I like), so this isn't a big deal to us. But my Mom, for instance, couldn't handle it. (Love you Mama!) :)



So here's what you need for the whole meal-

1 block extra-firm tofu
Sriracha sauce
couple of cloves fresh garlic
half box/bag of fresh spinach
salt/pepper
brown rice
pinto beans (or any bean)
veggies of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Drain the tofu and press the liquid out of it using paper towels. Once it's fairly dry, cut it into slices.

3. Squirt (yes squirt- the bottle has a twist top! haha) some Sriracha into a shallow dish, and coat both sides of your piece of tofu.

4. Line them on a non-stick bake sheet and place in oven. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until you can tell the top is looking a little more firm/crispy.

5. At the 15-20 minute mark, take the tofu out of the over and flip each piece over. Squirt a small amount of Sriracha on each piece, and spread it evenly with the back of a spoon. Put the tofu back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so.

6. While the tofu is finishing baking, heat up the beans, cook or reheat the rice, and whatever other veggies you'd like to include. Tonight we used an organic steamed mixed veggie bag in the microwave.

7. Additionally, while the tofu is finishing up, chop up about 2 cloves of garlic.

8. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, and when heated, add the chopped garlic. Brown on low heat.

9. Once the garlic is browned, add spinach. It looks like a lot at first, but it will quickly cook down. Keep moving the spinach around in the olive oil until you reach a consistency you like. I prefer it to be soft, but not too mushy. If you've never cooked spinach this way you'll see what I mean while you're cooking. You can also add salt/pepper to taste.

10. Remove the tofu from the oven, making sure it looks slightly crispy on the outside.

11. At this point, you should have quite a few finished products, depending on which parts you chose to make- rice, veggies, beans, spinach and tofu.

12. Plate and enjoy!

So, this was a super easy, throw together ingredients kind of meal. The tofu is nothing special- I just kind of made it up but Hank and I love it...and I hope you do too. It's also yummy to use in a sandwich, or on top of a salad! And remember you can always substitute the Sriracha with anything- soy sauce, bbq sauce, peanut sauce etc! This meal is such a good mix of protein and veggies and grains, and 100% vegan! Awesome.

Let me know if you try it.

:)

Monday, Monday!

My dear friend Emily and I have always shared a love for Mondays! In her most recent post she said, "I LOVE Mondays! It's the day I hit "re-start" and get ready for a fantastic week. Every Monday I wake up feeling refreshed and ready to organize my weekly plans/goals." I couldn't agree more, and I think almost every Monday I write something about how much I enjoy the "restart" and setting goals. On Sundays I enjoy doing a little run-down in my mind of what I accomplished, and what I need to work on for the upcoming week. This week, for instance, I am working on getting into the gym each and every day, cooking yummy homemade meals that are ready when Hank gets off of work 4 out of the 5 work days, and spending time outside everyday. We always cook a lot throughout the week, but it really makes more sense for me to have it ready right when Hank gets off work. Often I feel tired after work and I curl up in bed for a couple of hours with my laptop or a Netflix dvd, but I never feel good after I waste time like that for so long. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love doing nothing, and just relaxing, but if I do that right after work sometimes I won't even want to get up! So, my goal is to stay motivated and get everything done that I need to get done. :)

Today was a good day at work. My seniors and I had a great class period- I mentioned before that we're doing a poetry unit and it was a fun day spent searching for poems that struck them, and then sharing and acting some of them out. My cheeks literally hurt from laughing and smiling so much. If you're curious about my daily going-ons, I usually tweet throughout the day, so if you aren't following me on Twitter, feel free to click here and do so!

On the way home from work today I stopped off at New Frontiers (our natural food store in town) and picked up some groceries. I decided to make an eggplant dish for dinner, and it turned out great. I didn't follow a recipe and kind of just went with the flow, so here are a couple of photos a quick, VERY easy made-up recipe you can try at home!

You'll need:

1 eggplant
olive oil
tomato sauce
cheese (vegan or regular)
salt/pepper/oregano/garlic

Put olive oil into a heated skillet.
Chop eggplant into rounds (thick or thin depending on your taste preference)
Add olive oil to a heated skillet and brown eggplant on both sides (I did this so it wouldn't get all mushy while it baked)
Once the eggplant is browned, place it into a dish with a little sauce for the base
Layer eggplant, sauce, and cheese (ending with cheese on top)
Bake in the oven at 350 until the cheese is melted
Serve with whole wheat pasta!



layer one


heading into the oven...


After dinner Hank and I spent some time together. We hung out until he left to watch the Suns game with the guys, and I did some working out. Now I'm currently enjoying one of my most favorite television shows/guilty pleasures, The Bachelor! I've watched this show for years and every year I love it more. I know it's super cheesy and probably really fake...but I love it all the same.

Some photos from today-

I feel like Madeline saying "HEY GIRL!" here. She looks kind of scary but it makes me laugh!






lazy us, hanging hard on the couch! I love her.


I hope all of you had a really great day! As far as this week on Sometimes Sweet, look for another recipe post, a healthy treat recipe, a playlist, a book recommendation post (as per request), a blogger feature, and daily run downs and photos. I also have an awesome giveaway in the works so stay tuned for that! I've already received a lot of great questions for next week's Formspring feature, so feel free to ask me anything over there, or as always you can leave a comment.

So again, happy Monday! What goals are you working on for the week?

Daily rundown and recipe!

First of all, thank you all SO much for all of the amazingly kind comments on my body image post that I made this morning. It means a lot to me that you guys read what I write, and it makes me feel so happy that I am giving some of you hope, and a common ground. It's astounding to know so many women have gone through similar struggles, and I hope that all of us can continue to support each other and come out on the positive end of it all! Remember you are beautiful. :)

So, I woke up pretty late this morning, and when I went to take Madeline on a little walk, I noticed that snow was starting to fall very softly! As the day progressed more and more snow started to fall, and now, at 5:30pm, there is quite a bit on the ground. I seriously love snow! A lot of people don't know this, but it does snow in Arizona! We live up north, in Prescott, which is about 2 hours from Phoenix. It definitely snows up here, and in all of the other northern towns too. Today as I was tweeting with the lovely Jamie, I realized that maybe some people only think of AZ as a hot, desert place, so I just wanted to clarify. The best part about Prescott is that we get all of the seasons, but nothing too crazy. The summers up here are to die for too. Basically it's the most perfect town in the entire world! Two of my blog friends have recently come up to visit, which is awesome. I love reading about Prescott from an outside point of view, and seeing all of the things that they find cute about this town. If you want to check out Chelsea's post about it, you can go here!

Today's snow:


Madeline running around in our front yard- she was soo happy.


I spent the day doing little projects around the house- I organized cupboards, cleaned the bathroom, and did some baking! Madeline and I had a great time being "snowed in," and it really got me in the holiday spirit.





it was a bow kinda day!


details...


my handsome husband, home from work! Don't mind our closet- the doors broke today (oops) and he has to fix them tonight.


I also wanted to share another fabulous recipe from my Mom. These cookies are very easy to make and are truly delicious. They take just a few minutes to whip up, and really bake beautifully. Let me know if you try them! I'm also including photos of the batch I whipped up today! Enjoy.

Drop Cookies

1. 1/2 cup butter
2. 3/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
3. 1 large egg
4. 1 teaspoon vanilla
5. 2 cups flour
6. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
8. 1/4 cup sour cream

Mix 1, 2, 3, and 4 until fluffy at medium speed
Combine 5, 6, and 7 and add at low speed into mixture
Then beat 8 into dough
Drop tablespoons onto cookie sheet
Put Hershey kiss in middle
Bake at 350 on an ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 minutes until lightly browned