Coconut

Mmmm…coconut!  Coconuts provide a nutritious source of meat, juice, milk, and oil that has fed and nourished populations around the world for generations.  Each part of the coconut can be used!  Coconut is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals.  The meat, milk and oil do have fat, but once again, they are the good fat.  The type that your body uses to survive.

I love coconut!  I use unsweetened shredded coconut in my baking and sprinked on meals.  The oil is wonderful for baking as well!

Honey

Raw, unprocessed honey has been shown to be an antiseptic, antioxidant and cleansing property for our bodies.  It has powerful healing attributes that promote healing for cuts and scrapes.  It also works wonders on dry skin!

My favorite way to use honey is as an energy booster while on my long distance runs.  It has just the right amount of sugar to give you that extra push for the last few miles.  Plus, it is much more natural and healthier for you than all the energy gels out there.

Honey is also wonderful mixed in tea, used in place of sugar in baking, drizzled in stirfry’s and so much more!

Almond Butter

When choosing a nut butter, make sure to look at the ingredient list!  Many on store shelves contain high fructose corn syrup and a lot of sugar.  Choose all natural nut butters.  My favorite is almond butter – made up purely of almonds!

I enjoy almond butter the most, but any natural nut butters are delicious.  They provide you with healthy fats that will keep you satisfied for a long time.  It has been shown that people who eat nuts or nut butter often consume fewer calories throughout the day because they keep you satisfied.

Check out my info on almonds in Part One!

Hemp Seeds

Hemp is everywhere these days!  Hemp seeds, hemp milk, hemp protein powder…I love it all.  Hemp seeds are very high in soluable protein which makes them easy to digest.  They also contain all of the 9 essential amino acids that your body needs.  Essential amino acids are ones that the body cannot produce on its own.

Hemp protein powder is just ground hemp seeds.  I prefer hemp protein powder over others because of the way it makes me feel.  It does not cause bloating or gas as others do.

Add a tablespoon or two of hemp powder to your smoothie in the morning, or sprinkle some hemp seeds on your salads for a nutty crunch!

Quinoa

Quinoa is the seed of a plant, but many people think of it and use it as a grain in place of rice, pasta, etc.  Like hemp, quinoa is a complete protein containing all 9 essential amino acids that your body needs.  It also contains high levels of iron and magnesium, which will help your body feel more alert and will decrease your changes of developing hypertension or heart disease.

I absolutely love quinoa!  We cook with it a lot by adding it to stirfry’s, making quinoa burgers, adding it to salads and using it as a breakfast cereal.   You cannot go wrong.  Cook a big pot on Sunday night and eat it throughout the week!

Sea Salt

Too much salt is not good for anyone, but a little salt added to your baking and cooking will not cause you much harm.  Adding salt to your food can immensly add to the flavor, but season properly.  Only use what you need!  By cooking your own meals, you can control how much salt you are adding to a dish.  Restaurants and frozen meals use way to much salt!

The grayer the salt the better…and sea salt is much better for you than table salt.  Gray salt is minimally processed, while table salt is highly processed!

Bananas

Bananas could easily be my favorite food.  I love them in smoothies, oatmeal, spread with nut butter, eaten plain and on-the-go!  I love them for breakfast, with lunch, as a snack and sauteed with a little brown sugar for dessert.  I eat at least one banana almost everyday.

Luckily, bananas are good for you!  They contain tons of potassium, which helps to prevent high blood pressure, cramping (side-stitches) and restore your electrolyte balance.  They also help your body to absorb calcium.

I buy bananas in bulk.  I keep some on the counter to grab and go, but also keep a container in my freezer with frozen bananas for smoothies!

Pepitas

One of my favorite parts of the fall is carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds!  I sprinkle a little salt on top and pop them in the oven until slightly crispy – yum!  Well, you don’t have to wait until halloween rolls around to enjoy pumpkin seeds, just buy some pepitas.

Pepitas, or pumpkin seeds, are a nutritional powerhouse.  They contain high levels of magnesium, iron, protein and zinc amongst other things.  They also contain anti-inflamatory properties and can help to lower your cholesterol.

Try adding a tablespoon to your smoothies, salads, trail mix or sauteed veggies!

Dark Chocolate

Chocolate is made from cacao beans, which are the seeds of the cacao fruit.  Once removed from their pods, the beans taste like a bitter rich dark chocolate.  To get to the chocolate bars we eat today, those cacao beans are highly processed and mixed with a lot of sugar (and milk to make milk chocolate).  Check out more here.

Dark chocolate is the least processed, but make sure that you are buying chocolate that does not have many other ingredients added to it.  Most good, high quality dark chocolate is minimally processed, but you might need to pay a little more for it.  The darker the chocolate, the better.  Many bars only contain 50% cocoa or less!  Look for bars with a higher cocoa content.

Dark chocolate is my downfall.  I just love it!  The darker the better!  I read all of the ingredients before purchasing a bar, and try to buy organic when I can.  However, a little added sugar isn’t going to kill you!  (P.s…the Trader Joes dark chocolate bar pictured above is one of my favorites!)

Almond Milk

We all know by now that I love almonds…and almond milk is no different.  Almond milk is a healthy milk alternative.  It does not contain nearly as much protein as cow’s or soy milk, but I prefer the taste…and get my protein in other ways.  I prefer the Pacific Natural Foods brand because it does not contain any soy products.

There are hundreds of articles out there talking about why some milk substitutes are better than others, but I won’t bore you.  I just prefer the taste of almond milk over others!  I am planning to try to make my own one of these days.

Use almond milk as you would use any milk product – in cereal, oatmeal, smoothies or with cookies!

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That wraps up my favorite things.  I hope you enjoyed the small sampling of some of my favorites!

I buy unsweetened shredded and dried coconut in bulk, along with coconut water, coconut milk and coconut ‘ice cream’.

So, I thought it was about time that I try to open my own coconut.  I decided to go with a regular coconut over a young (baby) coconut that are so widely available nowadays.  Below is a step by step tutorial on how to open a coconut.

How to Open a Coconut

* you will need a coconut, hammer, nail and dish towel!

1.  Find the 3 ‘eyes’ on one end of your coconut.

2.  Take your hammer and nail, and make a hole in each of those ‘eyes’.

3.  Before smashing open the coconut, you’ll want to drain our all of the juice inside.  Tip your coconut over and place onto a cup, bowl, etc in order to drain.  (I ended up needing to shake the coconut a little bit in order to get the juice flowing.)

4.  You will end up with a cup of juice/water and your empty coconut.

**Unfortunately, at this point I realized that my coconut was bad!  I was so bummed considering that I just bought it a few days ago.  This goes to show what happens when produce needs to travel from Mexico!  But, I kept going with the process to show you guys what to do.

5.  Now, take your coconut and wrap it in a dish towel, or another towel you won’t mind washing!  At this point, I moved to my floor because I did not want to end up smashing my counter.

6.  Take your hammer and SMASH the coconut!  It took me a few good wacks until I ended up with this.

There you have it!  Delicious coconut meat!

See how it is a little brown in there?  Definitely a sign of a rotten coconut.   I’ll try again sometime soon, though!

Do what you wish with the coconut meat – pop it in a smoothie, cut it up and eat it as is, dry it for trail mix – the possibilities are endless!

Enjoy.

This morning, I started my day with some homemade coconut butter!  I toasted up 2 pieces of my Cherry, Peach toast and spread a thin layer of the coconut butter and raspberry jam.  This is easily my favorite combination.  So good.

Along with my toast, I had a white grapefruit.  It was great.

And some tea – I was so sleepy this morning!

Lunch time came around quickly today, but I was starving.  We are out of veggies in the house, so I made do with what we had.  A whole wheat mini pita slathered with spinach & artichoke hummus and a large helping of spouts.

On the side, Fage 2% greek yogurt with granola and banana.  And, a POM spritzer – 1/2 pomegranate juice, 1/2 seltzer water.  This bottle was about 1/3 full, so I just filled it up with seltzer.

The afternoon also flew by!  I didn’t even have time for an afternoon snack!  I guess that’s what happens when you take a day off in the middle of the week.  For dinner, we needed something quick since we were heading out.  So, I stopped at Chipotle!

I know, not the best food, but by far one of the best ‘fast food’ places around here.  I did hear a T.V. segment about Chipotle a few weeks ago and found out that the owner really cares about what type of food he is giving his customers!  They use organic foods and try to buy as much as they can from local farmers – I love that!  Plus, they have a decent vegetarian option, which does not happen all that often with fast food.  I wish we had a great veggie place around here!  They also have a great website with all of the nutritional information for their products, and how they cook the products (steamed, in oil, etc.).

Anyways, I got the Vegetarian Salad/Burrito Bowl.  In the bowl, I had them put romaine lettuce, a small scoop of chipotle-lime rice, fajita veggies (peppers & onions), black beans, fresh tomato salsa, corn salsa and guacamole.  They seriously have the best guac!

This was delicious!  I was in need of some colorful veggies for the day!  Check out all the guac they threw on here.

Super delicious, full of good nutrients, veggies and greens.  Just because it’s fast food doesn’t mean it is necessarily bad for you.  You just need to pick and choose the places that you go to, and pick and choose from the products they serve.

I knew that I would eventually want something sweet on our ride tonight and I could picture myself digging into the snack bag I packed for the weekend, so instead I whipped up some Banana Softserve for the road.  Same as the other night, which melty chocolate PB drizzled on top.

See you from NYC!

I started the day with a big bowl of oats that I was craving when I woke up.

Yup!  That’s right – time for another round of oats-in-an-almost-empty-jar!  In my favorite chocolate peanut butter jar!

I used to eat this everyday, and got really really sick of it.  It tasted better than it has ever tasted today – so glad I took some time off.

In the mix today:

• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup oatbran
• 1 cup water
• 1 mashed banana
• 1 tbsp ground flax

On the top:

• Justin’s chocolate PB from container
• 1 tbsp AlmondHaze

So sad that these 2 favorite nut butters are gone!!  But, they made for a delicious bowl of oats in a jar.

Mid-morning, I did an easy 4 mile run.  I’m gearing up for my half marathon on Sunday and trying not too push it too hard.  My legs are itching to run – hopefully they can wait until Sunday!

After my run, I stopped at Tealuxe for study time.  I snacked on a raw granola bar and a guava kombucha, along with some Lady Londonderry tea from Tealuxe.

This bar was great!  Loved the chocolate coconut flavor, and loved the chewiness of it.

Paired perfectly with my kombucha.

Kombucha is a handmade Chinese tea that is delicately cultured for 30 days.  During this time, essential nutrients form like: active enzymes, viable probiotics, amino acids, antioxidants and polyphenols.  All of these combine to create an elixer that immediately works with the body to restore balance and vitality.  Probiotics are great for digestive health and the antioxidants are great for boosting your immune system.

It has a fizzy taste which I love, but don’t love the strands of the cultures!  I just close my eyes when I drink it.   This is the only brand I have tried and I love it.  You can by them at Whole Foods.

Once home, I snacked on a pretzel while I made a smoothie for lunch.

In my smoothie, I put the following:

• 1.5 bananas
• 1 cup frozen cherries
• 2 tbsp hemp protein powder
• 2 tbsp hemp seeds
• 1 scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass (I needed more greens today!)
• 2 tbsp raw cacao powder
• 1 tsp maca
• handful spinach
• 1 cup almond milk

Served with my new glass straw!  It was lovely.

The pretzel that I snacked on was from Uncle Jerry’s.  I received a few bags to test out a few weeks ago, and I just got around to trying one!  I still have the Whole Wheat to sample at a later date.  I loved this sourdough pretzel!  All of Uncle Jerry’s pretzels are fat free, made without oil, shortening, or sweeteners of any kind.  And, no preservatives.

The only ingredients in these guys are the following: unbleached wheat flour, water, sourdough, yeast, salt and soda.  Perfect.  Very salty, though.

Then, I got to work making some Coconut Butter that HEAB suggested!

Into the food processor went 1 quart of unsweetened, unsulphered shredded coconut.

Then, I just hit ‘ON’ and watched…

and watched…

and was amazed when it worked!

It is definitely a little grittier and not as sweet as Artisana’s coconut butter, but like HEAB said, for $2 for my shredded coconut (and $11 for a jar of Artisana), I can deal with it.  Plus, I poured it right into my empty Artisana jar.

Time for dinner and packing – half marathon, here I come!

Our first stop was the Red Hook Brewery, so I knew I needed a snack on the way to soak up the beer.

After about an hour drive from Boston, we arrived at the brewery!

It was pretty crowded inside for it being such a nice day out!

We started with a tasting, while we waited for our tour to start.  Their tasting menu consisted of 5 different beers -Long Hammer IPA, Slim Chance Light Beer, ESB Original Ale, Copperhead Ale and Oatmeal Stout.

Long Hammer IPA

This was good.  Normally, I don’t care for IPA’s, but this one was not nearly as hoppy as many others I have tried.  Brant loves IPA’s, so he was in heaven.

Slim Chance Light Beer

Neither of us really cared for this beer.  It was okay, and definitely better than other light beers I have tried, but if I am going to drink beer I want something better and more flavorful!

ESB Original Brew

Apparently, this is the beer that made Red Hook famous!  I did not love it because of it’s slightly bitter taste.  Brant liked it though…

Copperhead Ale – Spring Seasonal Brew

Loved this one!  We both did.  It was flavorful and not too hoppy.

Oatmeal Stout

Surprisingly, this was my absolute favorite!  I always stay away from heavier, darker beers for no good reason except that I assume I won’t like them.  But, this was awesome!

We definitely did not have a problem drinking everything, even the beer we didn’t like!

Time for the brewery tour!

This was a pretty short tour that walked us through the different stages of the brewing and bottling process, then brought us into a tasting room to try some beer.

First up were the brew tanks, where the hops and malts pass through several different stages.

Once the beer is made, it sits in these enormous tanks for at least 2 weeks to ferment.

The bottom of the tanks.

The beer is then bottled in this huge room.  It takes about 4 minutes for a bottle to go through the whole process (add the beer, label, cap, etc.) and only 2-3 people run the whole process because the machines do everything!

On to the tasting room, where we tried the IPA, Copperhead, ESB and Oatmeal Stout again – yum!

Our tour guide.

And us!

We mailed some postcards to our family’s from the brewery.  They encourage this and actually give out postcards and stamps!

After the tour we headed to downtown Portsmouth for a super late lunch and to walk around in the gorgeous weather!  We decided on The Works Bakery Cafe for some quick and healthy sandwiches.

It was cute inside, and surprisingly pretty busy for 3:30pm!

I decided on the special panini of the day – Provolone Artichoke Panini.

It was delicious!  Not oily, like many panini’s are.  They use homemade pesto and all fresh ingredients.

After lunch, we took a stroll around town and stopped at a chocolate shop for a coffee and some treats!

I decided on a Chocolate Coconut Haystack, and Brant got a turtle!

As expected, I dug right in and they were both awesome!

It was an awesome day!  We made it home and I will be having a super light dinner, if anything at all, due to our very late lunch and my tummy full of beer!

I started my friday with some oats.  Due to the special occasion (it being friday and all), I added some fun toppings.

I used Steel Cut Oats today, since I am out of my favorite rolled oats.  I loved the steel cut oats.  They have a different texture, more like oatbran and I like it.

Steel cut oats are minimally processed.  They do not have to go through steaming or rolling, like rolled oats due.  For this reason, they also take longer to cook, but it’s worth the wait.  A normal pot of steel cut oats can take about 20-30 minutes to cook, but I bought these quick & easy steel cut oats to make on weekdays before work.  They only cook for 5-7 minutes and come out great.

One serving is 1/4 cup, which contains 150 calories.

I added a super ripe banana and 1/2 tbsp of chia seeds to my oats while they were cooking.  I like whipping in the banana to create banana oats without any chunks.

On top of my oatmeal I put 3 special ingredients:

• handful of unsweetened banana chips
• 1 tbsp Nuttzo
• 2 tsp Cacao Bliss

The Nuttzo is so crunchy!

With some Birthday Tea, for fun.

Check out the sprinkles!

Lunch

I’ve been working like crazy today, so I didn’t break out my lunch until almost 3!  So late for me!!

Luckily, I brought a homemade salad with arugula, peppers, Valdosta pecans and goldenberries.

My second course was Honey Chobani with homemade granola!

Good thing I took pictures this morning, because lunch was gone in no time!

Dinner

Brant made me a pre-Valentine’s day dinner tonight.  It was delicious!

Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas

from Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen baby peas (not thawed)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (he used 1% milk)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 3 cups packed baby spinach
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 pound dried gnocchi
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan

Directions:

• Simmer peas with cream, red-pepper flakes, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a 12-inch heavy skillet, covered, until tender, about 5 minutes.

• Add spinach and cook over medium-low heat, uncovered, stirring, until wilted. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and juice.

• Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain gnocchi.

• Add gnocchi to sauce with cheese and some of reserved cooking water and stir to coat. Thin with additional cooking water if necessary.

Served with some delicious wine given to us by my parents for Christmas 2008!  Oopss!

Dinner was delicious.  I forget how good gnocchi is.  I loved that this wasn’t super creamy (because he didn’t use the cream) and I could taste the lemon zest.

And, Brant brought me a rose and chocolate!  Yahoo!  What a great guy.

More of my new favorite chocolate to try!

Happy Friday!!

Breakfast was delicious.  I tried some new Food for Life bread toasted with 1/2 nut butter and 1/2 jam while I was running out of the house this morning to catch the T.

It was a Raisin Pecan bread.  Not my favorite, but definitely not bad.  It is gluten free, so is a bit denser and I could not taste raisins or pecans, but maybe it was due to my toppings?  I’ll give it another shot sometime.   I like their ezekiel and millet breads much better.

The toppings on my toast were the best part!  1/2 was my homemade Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan Hazelnut Butter.

The other half was awesome!  I spread a thin layer of Artisana Coconut Butter and topped it with Raspberry Jam (Crofter’s Asia Superfruit Spread)!  A delicious combination!

How good does that look?!  It’s basically dessert, but next time I will try it on my favorite Millet toast!

I grabbed some tea while running out the door as well – Tea Gschwendner’s Oriental Moon.  It’s great.  I love the faint taste and smell of anise.

My T ride to work was pretty painless.  I loved being able to read my book and not worry about traffic.

It was such a crazy day, that I didn’t get to snap pictures of lunch.  I just scarfed it down!  That is one reason why I always bring lunch and snacks with me.  Sometimes when you get to busy, it is easy to skip a meal.  But, then you are starving by your next meal time and normally end up eating way to much!  I always have some type of snack with me, just in case!!  Plus, by bringing my own healthy snacks, it keeps me away from the vending machine during those 3pm snack cravings.

I went for a quick 45 minute / 5 mile run tonight while my hubby cooked us dinner!

After my run, I chugged some Emergen-C to keep that cold away!

Emergen-C is great, especially the Cranberry Pomegranate.  Lots of vitamin C and B vitamins to give your immune system a boost.  Perfect when you feel a cold coming on, or after a late night out.

Then it was dinner time!  The menu for the night was Double Broccoli Quinoa.  We just happened to have a huge bag of broccoli in our fridge to use up and we love this simple and delicious recipe.

Broccoli pesto.

With pasta tonight, since the grain supply is low…

With some wine.

I was still hungry after this pasta.  Me and pasta don’t always work because I rarely feel full!  So, I made dessert a little more nutritious – Chocolate Greek Yogurt topped with a Super Charge Me cookie.  YUM!

Love this yogurt!  I cannot wait to try the caramel flavor (Whole Foods has a $1 off coupon for Oikos in their Whole Deal Flyer until March 31st)!  I will be stocking up.  They are the perfect dessert size – 110 calories, 10 grams of protein, 17 grams of carbs and 16 grams of sugar.  Not bad for dessert or a post workout snack!

Tropical Smoothie – V2

• 1 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple
• 1 tbsp coconut butter
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• squirt of agave

This version was great!  Check out the chunks of strawberries and coconut butter in there!

I ran 9.5 miles in 90 minutes for my weekly long run in about 10°F weather!  I came home to a post-workout smoothie!

Chocolate PB Banana Protein Smoothie

• 1 banana
• 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
• 2 tbsp cacao powder
• 1 tbsp cacao nibs
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tbsp hemp protein powder
• 1 tbsp ground flax

Blended to perfection!

Crazy Richards produces Krema PB as well, so I received some samples of this too!  It tasted just like the Crazy Richards Smooth PB.  It’s great!  I poured it right into my mix.

This guy was thick, but delicious!

I cooked up a storm last night – coconut yogurt and raw granola!  I was too exhausted to get the cookies in!  I have been trying to stay away from all dairy for the past week (since last friday, exactly) for experimentation.  I love yogurt, so I have been trying to find alternatives.  I don’t like soy yogurt, so I decided to try the new coconut milk yogurt that they have in stores, and I like it.  I like the milk, yogurt and ice cream!  So, I decided to try to make my own coconut milk yogurt!

I used the same steps as my last yogurt, but just used coconut milk instead of regular milk!

I started with 3 cans of full-fat coconut milk and added in 3 tablespoons of tapioca starch.  I was reading about how to make coconut milk yogurt and multiple people suggested to add it for thickness and texture.  Since I had some in my cabinet, I decided to do so.  We’ll see how it turns out!

I heated the milk to 180°F.

Then, I took the milk off of the heat and allowed it to cool to 110°F.  The milk is thick!  I’m not sure I needed that tapioca starch…

After cooling, I added 1 tablespoon of the plain store bought coconut milk yogurt as my starter.  I whisked that in until mixed.

I then poured my mixture into a pitcher and then into the 7 individual yogurt containers.

I plugged in my yogurt maker and set the timer for 12 hours, which is the suggested cooking time for coconut milk.  It will be done in the morning!

While that was cooking (it will be cooking overnight!), I started to work on my granola!  I started by zesting my orange and adding that to my food processor, along with the orange juice and pear.  I pulsed until coarsely chopped.

I had been soaking my almonds and macadamia nuts for about 3 hours, so I chopped each of them in the food processor individually, then added them to the pear mixture.

I mixed up some agave, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and vanilla in a separate bowl and then poured it onto my nut + fruit mixture.

I then stirred in my extras!  Chopped dried bananas, unsweetened dried cranberries, coconut, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

Since my dehydrator is too small for a job like this, I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread my granola mixture onto that.

I then put it in my oven on it’s lowest setting of 175°F, with the door slightly ajar and “baked” it for a long time – almost 5 hours.  Or, if you don’t care about the granola being raw, then bake it in your oven at 300°F for 1-2 hours.  Make sure you take it out and stir it around every once in awhile.

gRAWnola

adapted from the Fitnessista!

• 1 pear, roughly chopped
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 cup raw agave
• 1/4 cup pure grade A maple syrup
• 1 T orange zest
• juice of 1/2 orange
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 cups soaked raw almonds
• 1 cup soaked raw macadamia nuts
• 1 cup pumpkin seeds (i used 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup sunflower seeds)
• 1 banana, diced – i used 3 dried, unsweetened bananas
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup unsweetened dried cranberries (added to original recipe)

Directions:

1. Soak the almonds and macadamia nuts for a few hours before using.
2. In a food processor, combine the pear, orange juice and zest, and pulse until coarsely chopped then move to a separate bowl.
3. Add the macadamia nuts to the (empty) food processor and pulse to chop a little bit and add them to the pear mixture.
4. Repeat for the almonds.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the agave, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
6. Add this to the nut + fruit mixture and mix very well.
7. Stir in your extras – chopped dried bananas, dried cranberries, coconut, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.
8. Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet in an even layer (or use a dehydrator).
9. Bake (dehydrated) in your oven at the lowest temperature with the door ajar for about 6 hours (dehydrating will take longer).  Or cook at 300°F for 1-2 hours.
10. After it is ‘cooked’, let sit for a little while to cool before storing in an airtight container.
11. Serve with your homemade coconut yogurt!

The granola came out great!  I got impatient because I was ready for bed, so I turned up the heat in my oven for the last 30 minutes.  This browned the granola nicely!

It made a ton of granola!  A huge bowl full!

Speaking of yogurt, mine is done!  12 hours later, and 3 hours in the fridge to chill and it is the perfect thickness and texture.

My granola is also done, so I mixed up a bowl of coconut milk yogurt with about 1/a cup of my gRAWnola.  YUM.

The yogurt is definitely not something I could eat everyday, but it is perfect for a sweet breakfast or dessert!

It was Day 2 of my weight training today, so I worked out my Legs & Abs.

5 minute warmup – jumping jacks

Legs

• Lunge & Lift – 3 sets of 12
• Stability Ball hamstring curl – 3 sets of 12
• Mountain Climbers – 1 minute
• Calf Raises with 10 lb weights – 3 sets of 12
• Squat jumps – 1 minute
• Deadlifts with 10 lb weights – 3 sets of 12
• Step-ups with 10 lb weights – 3 sets of 12
• Burpees – 1 minute
• Leg lifts – 2 sets of 12

Abs

• Crunches – 3 sets of 15
• Reverse Crunches – 3 sets of 15
• Bicycles – 3 sets of 20
• Frogs – 3 sets of 10
• V-ups – 3 sets of 10

5 minute cooldown – jumprope

Tough workout tonight, my legs were burning during those squat jumps and burpees!  I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but it was worth it!

Then, it was time for dinner and baking!

Tonight on the menu was our favorite – quinoa!  You probably think that we eat quinoa all the time.  Well, we do!  It is a delicious grain (actually, it’s a seed) and it pairs nicely with any type of vegetable.  Quinoa is about 15% protein, which is very high for a grain, so we rarely eat much other protein with it.

We used a recipe out of one of the Moosewood Cookbooks tonight.  These cookbooks are great, especially for vegetarians.  They make all sorts of delicious recipes.

Quinoa cooks like a couscous does, very quickly.  I started dinner by rinsing 3/4 cup of quinoa (it is important to rinse the quinoa because the seed produces a natural coat to protect itself from insects and you want to rinse this bitter coat off) and placing it in a pan with twice as much water to boil.  Once it boils, you just reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until all water is absorbed.  A few minutes before the quinoa was cooked, I added some corn to the mix.

Meanwhile, I chopped up my veggies: garlic, onion, green pepper, zucchini, summer squash and tomatoes.

Add the onions and garlic to a pan heated with olive oil and cook until tender.  Then, add the pepper, zucchini and squash and cook until a little browned, 5-10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes along with 2 cans of diced tomatoes and a tablespoon of thyme and cover, simmering until the veggies are all tender.  Then add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.  We like our food a little on the spicy side, so I added extra pepper flakes!

Serve the stew over a scoop of the quinoa mixture!  The quinoa really works nicely with the stew.  It is a much lighter dish that it would be with a rice.  Delicious!

Quinoa with Vegetable Stew

adapted from Moosewood Restaurants Low-Fat Favorites

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1 summer squash, chopped
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (no salt added)
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse the quinoa and add to pan with water.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until tender and fluffy.
2. When quinoa has cooked for about 10 minutes, stir in the corn, and continue to cook.
3. Meanwhile, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat, until the onions soften.
4. Add the pepper, zucchini and squash; cook until slightly browned, about 5 minutes.
5. Stir in the tomatoes and thyme.  Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, until veggies are tender.
6. Add red pepper flakes, then salt and pepper to taste.
7. Fluff the quinoa mixture, spoon it onto individual serving plates and ladle on the vegetable stew.

Nutrition Facts: About 300 calories per serving.  9.2 grams of protein and 6.5 grams of fat.

My dessert creation of the night were some delicious Almond Coconut Macaroons and Chocolate Almond Coconut Macaroons!  We are having some friends over for dinner this week, so I needed to try some things out.  I can’t serve just any old thing to my guests.

I got this recipe from another foodie’s blog and they came out perfectly.  Plenty of almond and coconut flavor.  I added extra sun-grained chocolate chips to the chocolate ones which makes them much more chocolaty and sinful!

I buy my raw almonds and raw coconut whole because you get more bang for your buck, so my first task was to chop them all up.  I ground up the almonds in my food processor until they were almost to a flour-like texture.  I did the same with the coconut, but made sure it had more texture.

Once chopped, I mixed all of my ingredients together and formed them into ice-cream scoop sized balls.  These are supposed to be placed in a dehydrator, but mine isn’t large enough, so instead I turned my oven on to 170°F (the lowest it will go) and “cooked” them for about 4 hours.

Almond Coconut Macaroons

borrowed from Joggerslife.com

makes 9 macaroons

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Raw Almonds, ground (flour-style)
• 1 Cup Raw Ground Coconut
• 2 Medjool Dates, spun in food processor
• 1/8 Cup Raw Agave Nectar
• 1/4 Cup Raw Honey
• 1 Tablespoon Almond Extract

Double Chocolate Almond Coconut Macaroons

borrowed from Joggerslife.com

makes 9 macaroons

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Raw Almonds, ground (flour-style)
• 1 Cup Raw Ground Coconut
• 2 Medjool Dates, spun in food processor
• 1/8 Cup Raw Agave Nectar
• 1/4 Cup Raw Honey
• 1 Tablespoon Almond Extract
• 1/2 Cup Raw Cocoa Powder
• 1/4 Cup Chopped Sun-Grained Chocolate Chips

Directions for both recipes:

1. Preheat oven to 170°F. (or use a dehydrator at 105°F for 6-8 hours)
2. Combine all ingredients.  You’ll know it’s perfect when everything sticks together easily.
3. Form batter into round balls, and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
4. Allow to stay in oven for 3-4 hours, or until macaroons are firm to the touch. (mine took 4 hours)

These babies are so good.  I could eat them all day long!  They would be great topped with a little almond butter, or even broken up over some coconut ice cream!

I will be making these for family and friends in the very near future!  They just might be the 2010 Christmas cookies!  By then, maybe I’ll have a bigger dehydrator.

After spending a weekend in NH, the last thing we wanted to do when we got home was cook dinner!  We arrived home around 7pm last night and decided to go for takeout instead.

Living in a city, there are so many takeout options, that sometimes I get very overwhelmed!  We always just seem to go for pizza!  The fact that it is cheap and easy to pick up is a definite plus!  My thought is that if I am going to spend $40+ on a dinner, then I am going to eat it at the restaurant and enjoy the atmosphere.  So, pizza it was for us last night!  Many people believe that pizza is not good for you, but like I have said many times before – I believe that anything in moderation is ok!

I absolutely love pizza.  I love the dough and sauce and cheese…but, I always try to add veggies for something more nutritious.

5+ years ago, I would have ordered a large pizza and eaten 3-4 slices no problem!  But, now, I try to fill up on other good-for-you things so that I will not just scarf down the delicious pizza and feel sick afterwards!  Instead of just ordering a large pizza, my husband and I make a healthier decision and order a small pizza with a garden salad.  This way, we fill up on the greens so that we don’t overdue it on the pizza.  By ordering a small, instead of a large pizza, there is also less temptation for overindulging.  I think it is a smart choice!

Sidewalk Cafe Pizza and Salad:

This was the Alfreso: White pizza with ricotta and mozarrella cheese topped with tomatoes and a garden salad.  I definitely ate 2 more small slices after that!

Our pizza of choice for the evening did not include many veggies, but it is one of our favorites that we only get every so often!  Plus, the delicious salad (which I topped with pomegranate seeds!) gave us more than enough veggies for the meal!

To get some more antioxidants, I had a virgin cocktail of sparkling water and a splash of pomegranate juice straight from a pomegranate!

And, for dessert (which I can never give up!) I had 2 chocolate covered snowballs!

Delicious and nutritious takeout dinner!