Raw banana bread larabar

Makes 4 bars

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup figs
• 1/2 cup dehydrated banana chips
• 2/3 cup raw almonds

Directions:

1. Process almonds in a food processor until you get almost a flour like texture. You will still have a few small chunks of almonds, that’s okay. 
2. Put your processed almonds in a bowl
3. Process banana chips and figs in the food processor. You may need to add 1/4 cup of water to get the mixture to be less crumbly
4. Add banana chip & fig mixture to almonds. Press into a ball.
5. Lay the ball on greased foil, cover with an equal sized amount of greased foil, and roll out the dough. Cut into 4 squares
6. Dehydrate for about 6 hours!

“Mac n Cheese” the healthy way!

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash

• 2 medium broccoli heads

• 2½ cups dry brown rice pasta

• 4 garlic cloves

• ½ cup almond, coconut or flax seed milk

• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

• sea salt

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

• parsley flakes

• pepper

 

 

Instructions:

1. Cook the butternut squash whole and unpeeled in the microwave until it begins to become a little soft, and is oozing water. Do not fully cook the squash! That will happen later.
2. Begin cooking your noodles of choice
3. Steam your broccoli
4. The squash should be ready by now and will peel easily after cooking. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Cut the squash into smaller pieces and steam it covered with the 4 garlic cloves for 10 minutes.
5. In a blender, add milk, nutritional yeast, sea salt, and garlic powder.
6. Drain the water from your squash and add the squash to your blender. You will need to blend a few times to keep adding more squash so it will fit.
7. Once you have a creamy sauce, add this and your broccoli to your cooked noodles.

 

Nutrition per servings:

Calories:  242 Fat: 1.5g Potassium: 815mg Carbs: 51.3 Fiber: 11.8g Protein: 10.7g

Vitamin A	270.8 %
Vitamin B-12	33.3 %
Vitamin B-6	139.6 %
Vitamin C	128.4 %
Vitamin D	2.1 %
Vitamin E	10.7 %
Calcium	15.8 %
Copper	9.8 %
Folate	44.2 %
Iron	17.7 %
Magnesium	18.1 %
Manganese	25.8 %
Niacin	80.4 %
Pantothenic Acid	13.6 %
Phosphorus	14.6 %
Riboflavin	148.9 %
Selenium	11.3 %
Thiamin	171.8 %
Zinc	9.2 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

How to Veganize traditional ingredients in recipes

Pesto sauce	Use 3 cups of tightly-packed basil, ¼ cup soaked raw walnuts, ½ cup olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, and 1/8 to ¼ cup nutritional yeast. Blend well in the food processor.
Butter milk	Equal measurement of soy milk mixed with one tablespoon of vinegar. Let it sit for one hour before mixing with the rest of recipe ingredients.
Alfredo sauce	Soak 1 cup of raw cashews for 2-4 hours. Add ½ cup of water, a dash of nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon sea salt, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1/8 teaspoon onion powder, and 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast. Blend everything using an electric hand mixer or blender.
Cream cheese	Soak 1 cup of raw cashews for 2-4 hours (or raw mac nuts for 4-6 hours). Whizz up in a blender with ¼ cup water, ½ teaspoon nutritional yeast, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice.
Sour cream and onion	Use the same cream cheese recipe above minus the nutritional yeast. Use 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Blend with ¼ cup of chopped green/spring onion. The cream should end up mint green/ light green in color.
Parmesan cheese	Walnuts/pine nuts/ Brazil nuts, nutritional yeast, and sea salt. Grind up 1 cup of walnuts and mix with half a cup of nutritional yeast. Add sea salt to taste.

Pumpkin cookies with chocolate drizzle

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup butter room temperature
• 1/4 cup pureed banana
• 1/2 cup truvia baking blend (or 1 cup sugar)
• 1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt; set aside
2. With an electric mixer, beat together butter and truvia. Add egg; beat until smooth. With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture in two parts and pumpkin puree in one, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined (do not over mix)
3. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto two baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating sheets once during baking. Immediately transfer cookies to wire racks, and cool completely.
4. When cookies have cooled, set them (still on rack) over a baking sheet or waxed paper. Place chocolate in a ziplock bag and put in a bowl of hot water and allow the chocolate to melt. Cut a hole in the corner of the bag and pipe chocolate over cookies.

These cookies are fluffy and taste sort of like a muffin top! Bonus, one cookie has 61% of your daily need for vitamin A.

Nutrition per cookie

Calories: 55kcal Fat: 2.2g Sugar: 8.6g Protein: 1.2g

Easy, noodle-less vegetable lasagna

Makes 4 good sized servings

Ingredients:

• 2 Summer squash
• 2 Zucchini
• 1 red onion
• 10 medium sized mushrooms
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 2 cups your choice of cheese (I used Mexican)
• 2 cups Spaghetti Sauce
• Crushed Basil, Garlic Powder and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cut up the summer squash and zucchini into long slices. I was able to get 3-4 slices depending on the width of each of them. Line the bottom of a greased 9×9 pan with alternating slices of zucchini and squash. I did 4 rows length wise and at the bottom I added one width wise to use up the whole pan.
2. Top with 1 cup of spaghetti sauce, half of the onion (or however much you like), 1/2 cup carrots, chopped mushrooms, 3/4 cup of cheese, and dashes of basil, garlic powder, pepper.
3. Line again with squash, zucchini, then top the same as the previous layer. I used the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese to top my lasagna.
4. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

You could easily mix up this recipe to add meat, cottage cheese, or any other toppings you like in lasagna! If you have thinner slices of lasagna, you could do more layers. There are endless possibilities with lasagna!

 

Nutrition for 1/4 pan:

Calories: 288 Fat: 11.3g Potassium: 1,081, Carbs: 26.6g, Protein: 20.5g

• Vitamin A: 143.5%
• Vitamin B6-22%
• Vitamin C-54.6%
• Calcium: 90.8%
• Magnesium: 17%
• Manganese: 30.8%
• Niacin: 19.7%
• Riboflavin: 30%
• Thiamin: 11.4%

*% Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

The BEST Rice Pudding

This recipe can be made vegan if you use vegan butter.

Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• -3 cups water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• -2 cups brown rice (long or short grain)
• -3 cups unsweetened almond milk (you can also use coconut, soy, or fat free diary milk)
• -2 teaspoons cinnamon
• -1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• -1/3 cup stevia/truvia (you could use regular sugar/honey/maple syrup/agave, but you will need to double it to 2/3 cup)

PREPARATION:

1. -Add 3 cups of water, 2 tablespoons butter, and 2 cups of brown rice to a medium pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover with a lid. Reduce to low heat. Set timer for 18 minutes. This is how long it has taken mine to cook when I make it, but you want to cook the rice until all of the water has bee absorbed.
2. -Once the rice has absorbed all of the water, add 3 cups of almond milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Do not put the lid back on. Stir on medium heat until it comes to a boil again, then let it simmer & constantly stir until most of the almond milk has been absorbed.
3. -Add in 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/3 cup truvia/stevia

You can eat this for breakfast or dessert, hot or cold! Store in air tight container in the fridge. This hasn’t lasted longer than 3 days in my fridge, so I can’t tell you how long exactly it will stay good for.

NUTRITION per serving:

Calories: 105kcal Fat: 4.3g Carbs: 16.2g Fiber: 2.1g Protein: 1.6g Potassium: 61.8mg

VITAMINS:

• A: 6%
• B-12: 18.8%
• B-6: 4%
• D: 9.4%
• E: 19%
• Calcium: 19.5%
• Iron: 5.8%
• Manganese: 42.5%
• Riboflavin: 11.8%

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal

This oatmeal is not only delicious, but it will keep you full until lunch time!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup whole grain quick or old fashioned oats
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or water (I use almond milk for extra calcium)
• 1 cut up apple (leave on the skins, that’s where the vitamins and minerals are!)
• 1 tablespoon raw honey
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. In a microwave save bowl, add 1/2 cup oats and 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk. Follow the directions on the container for cook time. Generally, quick is 2 minutes and old fashioned is 3-4 minutes. Cook for 1/2 the amount of time specified.
2. Add cinnamon, and cut up apple (or one cup of any fruit you choose). Microwave for the remaining amount of time. Quick for 1 more minute, old fashioned for 90 seconds. Be careful to watch your oatmeal at the end of the time to make sure it doesn’t boil over.
3. Let cook for a couple of minutes, then stir in 1 tablespoon ground flax and 1 tablespoon raw honey

In the end you will get a thick, creamy, sweet mixture that will be hard not to eat every morning!!

NUTRITION:

Calories: 342kcal Fat: 7g  Carbs: 61g Protein: 8g

ALMOST healthy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
• 1/4 cup banana (one banana pureed in blender)
• 1/2 cup sugar or 1/4 cup baking truvia
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups whole wheat quick oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips (or raisins, walnuts, cranberries, etc.)

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Beat together 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, 1/4 cup banana, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and white sugar/truvia until creamed
• Beat in 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Add 1.5 cup flour and 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Slowly add  3 cups oats and 1 cup chocolate chips

• Place cookies on greased baking sheet in two tablespoon sized scoops. If you want them to look pretty, make sure they are nice and round. I didn’t care how mine looked.
• Bake for 15 minutes, or until they are done. check on them frequently. They are done when the outsides turn golden brown.
• This recipe makes 2.5 dozen cookies

ENJOY!

NUTRITION PER COOKIE: 

Calories: 120kcal Fat: 4.6g Carbs: 20.8g Protein: 1.7g

The “Eating Healthy Is Expensive” Myth

So true

Spinach salad

 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tsps grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups chopped spinach without the stems
• Assorted toppings, I chose carrot, red onion, red pepper, chopped mushrooms, cucumber, & 15 calorie nonfat Italian dressing

This makes one large salad or two side salads! It would go great with a cup of soup. 

NUTRITION:

• Calories: 80kcal Fat: 1g Carbs: 13g Protein: 4g