i heart food

Vegetarian Bean Burritos [as seen on Team17 - Seventeen Magazine’s health & fitness blog]

the recipemakes a large batch of beans that are great to store in the fridge as leftovers to heat up whenever you want to make this recipe as a quick lunch 

even my boyfriend who doesn’t like beans sorta kinda liked these, which i am just going to take as a sign that they’re the best healthy burritos in the world 

they’re easy and quick to make and taste absolutely delicious!

Dear Anon: here’s your daily menu numero uno! a little late but i should be getting this up i’m a more timely manner from now on

kitchen challenge: try cooking with quinoa!! 

as i was checking my email about a minute ago, i saw on the news feed an article by Huffington Post discussing the undercover world of “thinspiration” blogging. as you may or may not have read my “About My Blog” section, but this is exactly what I’m talking about.

of course, posting this entry on tumblr, i feel like i may be preaching to the choir. so instead of blatantly chastising, i’d like to offer a fuller opinion

i’ve seen many inspirational blogs on tumblr - many promoting weight loss with the hopes of becoming “thin” - thus “thinspiration.” some do promote healthy weight loss, gettting fit, and a clean diet, with the goal of HEALTH. and honestly, i don’t find anything wrong with wanting to lose weight. What i take issue with, is the teenagers out there who think it’s ok to starve or even have the GOAL of being anorexic. eating disorders are serious matters - i really pray that NO ONE wishes that upon his or herself.

to be clear, i think it’s incredibly dangerous to have such an influential social media site [tumblr] being a platform for these ideas to spread that it’s okay to eat 500 calories a day, or want nothing more in life than to be rail thin 

to reiterate the main reason i continue to blog healthy food for my friends, family, and followers is to promote HEALTHY LIVING - healthy food, exercise, moderation, and enjoying time with the people around you (preferably in the kitchen)

so there’s my 2 cents. (more like 64 or something) and i hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday (almost friday!!)

Stay Hungry,

Rebecca 

Taco Salad Burrito

usually i try to stay away from things that have been modified to be “low carb” or “low cal” but when i saw 80-calorie low carb tortillas at the grocery store last night, next to the 200 calorie regular tortillas, i had to pounce

and i am SO glad i did

because today in the cafeteria they had a taco bar - so i filled my to-go box with refried beans, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, bell peppers, and a little cheese. got home, made a taco salad burrito, and i couldn’t be more satisfied right now (in my post-burrito happiness)

Dessert For Breakfast - Banana Nut Oatmeal

i ate this this morning, new favorite. i’m going to eat this every morning!

• Quaker [Low Sugar] Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal
• 1/4 cup Vanilla Soy Milk 
• 1/2 Banana cut into slices
• 1 tbsp Slivered Almonds
• 1 tbsp Sweetened Shredded Coconut
• light drizzle of Honey 

i’m going to get into bed early tonight just so i can wake up early tomorrow morning and eat this again :)

check out my weekly blog post where i share a healthier version of a much-loved dish!

peanut butter.

it seems like i keep hearing such different opinion s about whether it’s “good” or “bad” to eat. 

true, it’s pretty calorie-dense … but that’s just about the only thing i can find wrong with it. sure, if you’re sitting on the couch eating peanut butter by the spoonful, it probably won’t be the best for your waistline… but a generous tablespoon of peanut butter on toast with slices of banana, there’s nothing better

what do you guys think about the oh-so-controversial nutty spread??

best  baked sweet potato fries recipe i’ve made so far. crispy, flavorful, just absolutely delicious

paired with a light garlic aioli - to die for!

equal parts:

light mayonnnaise

fat free plain greek yogurt

and a generous spoonful of chopped garlic (i strongly recommend buying a jar so you can pour some of the juice into the dip)

stir together before making your sweet potato fries and refrigerate until the fries are ready to eat 

but these were the best batch so far without a doubt. honestly, i don’t think i can even call what i’ve been making “sweet potato fries” after tasting what i made last night 

i prepared these ahead of time so that all i had to do was cook them once we got to our friend’s apartment to watch the superbowl

i made these a little differently:

1. preheat oven to 450

2. once the sweet potato is chopped, put it in a large ziploc bag with a little bit of cinnamon and a little bit more garlic powder and a dash of salt [enough to lightly cover all the fries - you don’t need much at all]. shake up the fries so they’re coated

3. in a large bowl soak the fries in warm water for ten minutes - [genius!! i read to do this online, it gets off some of the starch]

4. lay sweet potatoes on paper towels and pat dry

5. in the same bag, add two egg whites and the sweet potatoes (about the equivalent of 1 sweet potato)

6. lay sweet potatoes on a single layer on cookie sheet lined with tin foil and sprayed with pam

7. cook for 15 minutes, flip them, and bake for another 10-20 minutes, depending on how thick they were cut

my friend (one of the three, I’ll leave it up to your imagination) is the pickiest eater - doesn’t eat vegetables, doesn’t like sweet potato fries - he LOVED these

not onlyyyyyy is today my 20th birthday…

but for the next 12 weeks i’ll be blogging for Seventeen Magazine online as their “healthy cook”. click here  to see my first post!

Teriyaki Quinoa Stir Fry

this was such an easy recipe and i bought all of the ingredients in bulk making this the perfect go-to recipe for an easy weeknight dinner. OR i might make a lot of it and have leftovers to pop in the microwave for an even easier lunch or dinner

and quinoa is a complete protein!

- 1 cup (dry) of organic quinoa
- 1 package (227 g, 8 oz.) fresh button mushrooms, sliced
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 2 cups of broccoli florets
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 3 asparagus stalks 
- 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp terriyaki marinade
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- salt
- black pepper 
- extra virgin olive oil (or pam or canola oil)

Method
1. Cook quinoa according to directions on package making sure to rinse quinoa before cooking. 

2. In a pan, Sautee the garlic and onions with some extra virgin olive oil (i just use a generous amount of pam) until the onions are translucent. Add in the carrots and scallions and stir fry for 10 minutes.

3. Turn the heat down to medium, add in the cooked quinoa, mushrooms, broccoli, and asparagus, and stir fry for an additional 30 minutes. While stir frying, add in the cayenne pepper and terriyaki marinade. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

good morning :)

(Source: makinsmores)

pear, walnut, & feta salad w. balsamic vinaigrette 

props to my school’s cafeteria today for making this salad. they actually said it was bleu cheese (which would have been better) but it looks like they got a little confused. maybe they forgot bleu cheese has blue bits in it… 

either way it was delicious and i was really excited 

note to self from now on: grab a pear on the way out and remember this combo when i’m bored with the usual mushroom/cucumber/olives salad combo

Weeknight Fish Tacos

minus the time spent going to the grocery store, this recipe was quick, easy, and incredibly rewarding

my suggestion would be to plan this as a weeknight dinner, do the grocery shopping on the weekend, and then just throw it all together whenever you want it

Fish
1 pound white flaky fish, such as mahi mahi or orata - [i used tilapia]

Marinade
1/4 cup canola oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tablespoons ancho chili powder (I used regular chili powder)
1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped - [didn’t use this]
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves - [didn’t have this at the store - so i didn’t use it]
8 flour tortillas [used corn]

Garnish
Shredded white cabbage
Hot sauce
Crema or sour cream [i used mayo sauce]
Thinly sliced red onion
Thinly sliced green onion [don’t like ‘em, didn’t use ‘em]
Chopped cilantro leaves [again, not at the store]
Smoky homemade tomato salsa [funny, didn’t use this either]

1. mix together marinade in a bowl, then pour into a large ziploc bag with the fish. try to get as much air out as possible and make sure all the fish is covered in the microwave. let marinade for 20 minutes
2. while fish is marinading, prepare your toppings [chop onions, make mayo sauce, blend up some margaritas]
3. after 20 minutes, “grill” fish. i just stuck it in a pan and hoped for the best, and it turned out perfectly perfect. i also threw in a little bit of onion as they were cooking. i think it added a nice complexity of flavor
4. wrap tortillas in tin foil and put in oven at 250 until fish is done cooking
5. serve and enjoy

hindsight - i wish i had made red onion ceviche (1/2 red onion, juice of 1 lemon) instead of serving them just as potent as they are