Tag: Healthy Recipes

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

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Hey guys! You know it’s fall when it gets too dark to take good food pics after dinner… yesterday I made these AWESOME muffins but taking pictures of them in the semi-darkness would not have done them justice. But don’t worry, today you get the recipe.

This was my first fall baking project, and I’m really happy with the way that it turned out. When you need an easy, healthy fall treat, hit up these muffins. They’re mixed in a blender, so it’s actually a zero bowl recipe, and they have SO much cinnamon-y apple flavour. I used the rest of my Homemade Applesauce that I had frozen, as well as all of the fall spices, and maple syrup to top it off. There is zero refined sugar in these, and they’re also gluten free if you use gluten free oats. I haven’t tested this recipe with a flax or chia egg, but you can definitely try it out if you’d like to make these muffins vegan.

These kind of remind me of an apple cake, and are GREAT for breakfast or a quick snack. They might be some of my favourite muffins- I love my original Sugar-Free Muffins recipe, and my Mini Protein Muffins, but I’m a sucker for these fall flavours. Hope you enjoy!!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Serves: Makes 9 Muffins

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups oats (I used quick-cooking steel cut, but rolled work too)
  • 1 small egg
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup apples, peeled and diced
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Add all of the muffin ingredients, except for the diced apples, into a blender or food processor. Blend until mostly smooth; if you can see some oats still that’s all good.
  3. Using a spoon, mix the diced apples evenly into the batter.
  4. Grease 9 holes in a muffin tin with some more coconut oil. Scoop out the batter and fill the holes about 3/4 of the way using a tablespoon.
  5. Bake the muffins for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown on the outside, and cooked through on the inside; you shouldn’t see any raw batter.
  6. Let the muffins cool completely and enjoy!

These muffins are so tasty! You can make a big batch and freeze them for a handy snack anytime:) Enjoy!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

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I’m SUPER excited about this recipe it turned out really great:) I’m part Polish, so I grew up eating cabbage rolls a lot, and they’re pretty delicious. I had a couple of heads of cabbage in my fridge and thought I’d try and make a lighter, vegetarian version, and they’re AWESOME. In the filling I used mushrooms for some meatiness, as well as lots of onion, parsley, black beans, and oregano. All of this amazingness is wrapped up in some softened cabbage leaves, then baked in the simplest sauce you will ever make. These rolls are a win for meal prep, a vegetarian side dish, or main course.

Making these rolls is also really fun, because you get to stuff and roll them up. To soften the cabbage leaves, I boiled the whole head for around 5 minutes, then removed the outer leaves and continued the process until all of the usable cabbage was soft. Then you simply scoop some filling in the middle, fold in the sides, and then roll like you would a burrito. Once you get into your cabbage roll groove, you’ll be pumping out rolls like nobody’s business.

After carefully placing the rolls in a glass baking dish, you’ll cover them in sauce (which has only THREE ingredients), and bake them up until they’re a leetle bit crispy. You gotta love those slightly burned edges. And voila. You’re set with delicious food for the next while! These rolls are so healthy and hearty; they’ll keep you going all day long. I hope you get around to making these, because this is definitely one of my new favourite recipes. Happy rolling!:)

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Serves: 4-5 (Makes 20-24 rolls)

Total Time: 105 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Rolls:

  • 2 heads of green cabbage, about 1-2 pounds each
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1 large white onion, diced
  • 2 cups of diced mushrooms
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup of brown rice
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1/2 cup of packed parsley
  • 1 egg
  • 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tbsp of soy sauce
  • 2 tsp of dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste

For the Sauce:

  • 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
  • 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp of dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Bring the water and brown rice to boil in a pot, then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes. You want to rice to be slightly under cooked, as it will cook more in the oven later. Set aside.
  2. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Add in the onions, garlic, and mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to caramelize; about 10-15 minutes. At this point, stir in the soy sauce and season with salt and pepper, continuing to cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and dump into a big bowl.
  3. Add the brown rice, parsley, oregano, black beans, egg, and some more salt and pepper to the onion and mushroom mixture. Stir until combined and set aside.
  4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Use tongs to transfer a head of cabbage into it, and boil for five minutes. Remove the cabbage with the tongs and carefully remove the outer layer of leaves, placing them on a cutting board or wherever you plan to roll your rolls. Continue this process until all of the usable cabbage leaves are soft and ready to go.
  5. Take a leaf of cabbage and cut out any outstanding stem pieces at the base of the leaf that will make it harder to roll. Place a tablespoon of filling inside, and form it into a sort of log shape with your hands. Fold the two sides into the centre and then roll the cabbage away from you, forming a tight, burrito like roll. Place in a glass baking dish.
  6. Continue to fill and roll the cabbage until all of the leaves have been used up. If you have some extra filling and stem pieces, fry them up for a quick snack later:)
  7. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  8. Mix together all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl, and spoon the sauce evenly on top of the cabbage rolls.
  9. Bake the rolls uncovered for 40-45 minutes in the oven. Remove and enjoy!!

I can’t wait to make these delicious rolls again! Let me know if you try them out. See you Friday!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Carrot and Date Breakfast Cookies

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Hey guys! Fall just sort of snuck up on my and now WHAM! It’s here. The other day I made this tea and berry drink thing and I realized that the time for berries has passed. We need some warm spices and things that are orange😂 So, I present to you, Carrot and Date Breakfast Cookies! These babes are simple, sweet, and hearty, and contain a very special secret ingredient.

Do you want to know what it is? The secret ingredient? It’s tahini!! I’ve only ever used tahini in hummus before, but in these breakfast cookies it gives such a nice nutty flavour! The other not-so-secret ingredients are carrots, dates, oats, and a bunch of fall spices. Let me just list all of the things that these are: REFINED SUGAR FREE. VEGAN. GLUTEN FREE. DAIRY FREE. DELICIOUS. Delicious is now a legit food category. These cookies just made it one.

If you don’t have tahini (you should get some) you can use a nut butter of choice👌 Also, play around with some add ins because raisins, chocolate chips, or dried fruit and nuts would be great in these. In this recipe, you have a perfect autumn-ish foundation for all of your fall baking dreams. Not to mention a great breakfast✌️ Enjoy my friends!!

Carrot and Date Breakfast Cookies

Serves: Makes 9 cookies

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 10 large Medjool Dates, pitted
  • 2/3 cup grated carrot
  • 2/3 cup rolled oats
  • 2 tbsp tahini
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp allspice

Directions:

  1. Bring a small pot to a simmer, then remove it from the heat. Add in the dates and let them sit in the warm water for 7-10 minutes to soften up.
  2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  3. Add the softened dates into a blender or food processor and blend until a smooth paste forms. Scoop it into a bowl.
  4. Add the oats, carrot, tahini, and spices to the date paste. Stir until combined.
  5. Line a pan with parchment paper, and scoop out tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough. Place them on the pan and press down with your fingers to form cookies. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes, until the bottoms are golden brown.
  6. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before enjoying.

Hope you like this first taste of fall! Stay tuned for some apple and pumpkin recipes coming soon 🙌🙌

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Applesauce

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It’s pretty much fall now so all of the apple and pumpkin recipes are going strong. I’m going to have to buy some canned pumpkin, but thankfully my grandma has an apple tree in her backyard, so we’ve got LOTS of apples. Apples are great! I have one literally every night with peanut butter. There are so many things you can do with apples, and I’ll be posting more apple recipes, but today we’re just going simple with some applesauce.

I’m a sucker for some good applesauce. You know those little applesauce pouches you got as a kid? Yep. The best. I recently learned that my family doesn’t actually like it that much, but hey, more sauce for me. It makes a great snack, and can be used in a ton of fall desserts. Or just heat it up and add a little nice cream and you’re set. Anyways, applesauce isn’t very hard to make. You just cook down the apples with some cinnamon and water, and then blend em all up and then boom. Applesauce. No sugar, no preservative thingies, just the good stuff.

I ate about half of this batch, then froze the rest for later so I can bake something tasty with it. That’ll probably be my next fall apple recipe. Or I’ll just defrost it and eat it plain because it’s great like that too. So many options! Anyway you like your sauce, you should just go make some because it’s delicious and autumn-y and good for you. Check out the recipe!

Applesauce

Serves: 4

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups of peeled and chopped apples (I’m not sure what kind mine were because they came from my grandma’s tree. If you like your sauce sweeter use sweet apples like Fuji or Gala, and if you like it less sweet, use varieties such as Honey Crisp or Red Delicious.
  • 3 cups water
  • 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Bring the water, cinnamon, and apples to boil in a large pot. Lower to a simmer and cook until all of the apples are soft, about 10-12 minutes.
  2. Scoop out a 1/2 cup of the boiling liquid and set aside. Then strain the rest of the apples and add them to a blender along with the 1/2 cup of liquid.
  3. Blend the apples until smooth, then let cool and use in baking, eat it by itself, or freeze for later use.

Hope you enjoy this simple and versatile recipe! It’s perfect for fall:)

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

No Powder Protein Smoothie

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Hey guys:) I got a cool new blender over the weekend that makes single serving smoothies, so I thought I’d whip up a smoothie for breakfast this morning, and I could drink it on the drive to school. This morning was Upper Body day💪💪 so I wanted sone protein in there. Protein powder is my first choice, and for a while I was using some that we just had in our pantry. But now we’re out, and it’s so dang expensive! I’m not about to spend sixty five bucks on a thing of protein powder. This is where we get creative, people.

I tried adding black beans into one of my smoothie bowls a few weeks ago, and it may sound gross, but you can’t even taste them. Plus, they help thicken things up. Boom, 6 grams of protein. Then you’ve got a tablespoon of peanut butter, which adds great flavour. Another 4 grams of protein. Then some spinach and kale for the vitamins. 1 more gram. And finally, a cup of almond milk. 1 gram. So then you’ve got yourself a smoothie with 12 GRAMS of protein without using any powder whatsoever!!

This smoothie is not only full of vitamins and protein, but it tastes great👌 The peanut butter gives it some nuttiness, and the strawberry, banana, and peaches make it sweet🥰 This is a recipe that I will definitely be remaking, because it’s a quick, portable, protein filled breakfast that satisfies my sweet tooth! Definitely give this one a try😊

No Powder Protein Smoothie

Serves: 1

Total Time: 7 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 banana, frozen and chopped
  • About 5 fresh strawberries
  • 1/2 cup cooked black beans
  • 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup packed spinach
  • 1/2 cup packed kale
  • 1/2 cup chopped frozen peaches
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients into a good quality blender and blend until smooth.
  2. Enjoy!

Such a quick and easy breakfast recipe!! Hope you enjoy:)💪💪

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))