Chickpea Gyro Flatbread

Within the last year I've been going crazy cooking with chickpeas. My husband might be sick of them by now, but IM NOT! It's the best alternative to meat. Packed with protein and fiber. They are so diversatle. I love them! This recipe is great if you're having a little get together and you need to provide small bites. Or...just eat and entire one alone like I am doing right now 🙈👍 

Ok, enough with my snapchat pic 😄

Here is the recipe:

2 cans of chickpeas, drained and dried off with paper towel

2 T olive oil

2 T taco seasoning

1 T garlic powder

Toss chickpeas in oil and seasonings

Lay spread out on parchment paper on a cookie sheet

Bake 22 minutes at 350

Tzatziki Sauce

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

2 T fresh dill

1 small lemon juiced 

1 garlic clove 

1 teaspoon garlic powder

S&P to taste 

1/2 a cucumber peeked and cut up. Remove seed center.

Mix all together in a food processor 

Toppings:

Diced tomato

Red onion

Cucumber

Black olives (I forgot to put these on mine)

Romain lettuce

Spread tzatziki sauce on flatbread. I used Nan.

Add backed chickpeas and topping. 

That's it folks! 

Egg-ucation and the Dirty Dozen

I am by no means a health freak hippy. I'm not perfect, I still love Diet Coke and bacon. I'll eat fast food occasionally, even the dreaded McDonald's. I consume more than 30g of sugar a day, WAY more! I know I know.... Duhhhh it's bad!!! BUT I DO want to know what the ingredients that go into my food are. I educate myself about what "organic" means, what GMO's are, how the animals where raised before I buy the meat. What are nitrites? High fructose corn syrup? I check for artificial colors and flavors. I read the labels and I pay the extra for food that is going to benefit me and not just fill me up. As a mom now, I'm responsible 100% for what my son eats. I don't want to feed him anything that could be harmful to him now or in the future.

I don't know about you, but with diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's, ect...it scares me to get older and not know the cause for such horrible illnesses. Not to mention obesity in America. We allow so much more on our grocery store shelves than other countries, it's not a surprise our country is so over weight and unhealthy. But studies are being done and we know for a fact it's not good to eat added hormones, antibiotics and nitrites which can be found in our eggs, meats and poultry. We know that it's bad to eat produce that can have pesticides and are genetically modified. We also know high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors and lots of other chemicals to preserve foods are found in so many products. I stay away from "fat free" and "non fat." Because those items can have more calories than the good fats we should be eating. I choose butter over vegetable oil or canola oil because those can be used with GMO corn. Butter is more expensive but it's one of the items I feel is worth it. 

With all of this being said, read your labels and do your research. Now I want to share how you can decide what eggs to buy and which produce is most important to buy organic. 

How to read your egg carton label:

Organic: these eggs meet specific requirements verified by the USDA-accredited certified agent. Organic operations must demonstrate that they are protecting natural resources, conserving biodiversity and using only approved substances. Organic eggs come from chickens treated with animal welfare standards as free-range and are given non GMO feed. 

Free-Range: this label is regulated by the USDA and indicates that the flock was provided a shelter in a building, room or area with unlimited access to food, fresh water and continuous access to outdoors during their production cycle. The outdoor area may or may not be fenced and/or covered with netting like material. 

Cage-Free: the flock was able to freely roam in a building, room or enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water during their production cycle.

Pasteurized: this label indicates eggs were heated in a sanitary facility under the supervision of the USDA. In a pasteurization, the liquid part of the eggs rapidly heated and held at a minimum required temperature for a specific amount of time. This destroys salmonella, but does not cook the eggs or affect color, flavor or nutritional value. By law all liquid eggs must be pasteurized. 

Omega-3 or DHA: these are from hens that have been fed a diet a supplemented by a source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Typically flax seed. 

No Added Hormones: a similar claim includes "Raised without Hormones". Federal regulations have never permitted hormones or steroids in poultry, pork or goat. 

I don't know about you, but the thought of eating eggs from caged, force fed chickens that never see the light of day is so sad and grosses me out enough to choose from the above options. 

All eggs need to be kept refrigerated. And use this cold water test to see if your eggs are fresh! 

As for what fruits and vegetables to spend the extra money on always buy the "Dirty Dozen" organic. 

The "Dirty Dozen" items usually have a high pesticed residue you should be careful of. The "Clean Fifteen" typically is ok for you buy conventionally. 

USDA: The U.S Department of Agriculture.

I found the info about eggs in a pamphlet at Sprouts. 

Chocolate Fudge Sundae Cupcake with Homemade eggless vanilla ice cream

Sometimes the best ideas start out as a mistake. I hade all my friends over for a potluck grill-out and my intention was to have chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream icing for everyone. I also got the ice-cream KitchenAid attachment for Christmas, so I was excited to show my friends how it worked. I absent mindedly used all my heavy cream for the ice cream mix. So, obviously we decided to just use ice cream instead of icing. Best idea ever! It's the perfect amount of cake & ice cream in one cute cupcake. I made the cupcakes from my moist chocolate cake recipe. (Below) Baked for 18-20 minutes. Once cooled I scooped a little from the center and filled with chocolate fudge frosting. Once you are ready to eat these beautiful babies, scoop a small amount of ice cream (I use a cookie scoop) and plop on top! Eat up before they melt!! 

The ice cream recipe:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla 

3/4 cup sugar

Mix and pour into the mixer. Mix on low for 12 minutes. 

Chocolate cake recipe:

http://debrasfoodtravelsandfun.blogspot.com/2014/02/moist-chocolate-cake.html

Zucchini Lasagna

When my husband requested this dish for dinner, I have to admit that I wasn't that excited to make it or eat it. But it easily exceeded my expectations! This will be a staple in my house from now on and it doesn't hurt that it's healthier than it's original lasagna version. My secret ingredient for the meat sauce is one packet of Stevia. You don't have to add it, but I LOVE it in my marinara sauce. That and balsamic. Yum yum!

Ingredients:

1lb Ground turkey 

2 T Olive oil 

3 minced Garlic cloves

1/2 diced sweet Onion 

1 stevia packet

2 T Balsamic

1 T Dried oregano

2 T Dried or fresh basil

S&P to taste

28 oz crushed tomatoes 

3-4 zucchini 

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cup Ricotta

1 Eggs

16 oz Mozzarella 

Preheat oven to 375

Cook the ground turkey in a large skillet. Then set aside.

Sauté onion and garlic in 1 T olive oil and then add meat again.

Add crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, s&p, balsamic and stevia. 

In a seperste bowl mix together ricotta, parm cheese and egg. 

Sauté zucchini in olive oil until golden.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking oil.

Pour about 1/2 a cup of the meat sauce on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of zucchini and ricotta mix. (The ricotta was hard to spread, it's ok if it moves the zucchini around a little bit) 

Sprinkle with mozzarella. 

Repeat for 3 layers.

Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 29 more minutes. 

Strawberry Balsamic Coconut Ice-cream

Strawberry balsamic ice cream might sound weird to some people, but if you've lived in Seattle or worked for Whole Foods Market (which I have done both), then it's totally normal to you and you already know it's the best ice cream flavor EVER! This gourmet recipe is vegan, gluten free and has no refined sugars. It's as guilt free as it gets. Serve it with some chocolate chips if you want to spruce it up even more. 

1 pint of strawberries 

1/4 cup maple syrup 

3 T balsamic vinegar 

1-2 teaspoon vanilla 

Preheat oven to 375

Clean and cut in half all strawberries

Mix syrup, balsamic and vanilla together 

Coat all the strawberries in the balsamic mix

Bake for 30 minutes

Mix in a blender baked strawberries and juices with: 

2 cans of coconut milk 

1/3 cup maple syrup

Store in a container in the fridge until cold. 

Make in your ice cream maker or place in freezer and stir every 30 minutes until the right texture. 

NOTE: recipe from www.glutenfreeveganlove.com

Beer marinated Steak with tomato Chimichurri

Is your mouth watering already and you don't even know what's in the recipe yet??  For all you steak lovers I bet it is! This recipe is a compile from two recipes I love. The Skinnytaste Cookbook by Gina Homolka and Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart. It's a flank steak, which is my favorite because it's thin and cooks super fast fast on the grill. It's so soft and flavorful to eat. It's also low in calories. About 250 per serving!  Even though the steak doesn't take long to cook, you still need to allow at least 2-3 hours for the meat to marinade to maximize the flavors.

 Wondering what chimichurri is? It's a green sauce from Argentina made for grilling  meats. Originally the base ingredients have been parsley, garlic, oregano and olive oil. This recipe's chimichurri is more like pico de gallo and chimichurri had a baby. It's SO good!  

Ok ready? Here it is: 

Ingredients: 

Flank steak 

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dash of pepper 

3 diced green onions

Olive oil 

2/3 light beer (I used Ommission Lager b/c it's gluten free 👏) 

Score the steak in a criss cross pattern on both sides. 

Rub a little olive oil on steaks then Dry rub all the seasonings on both sides. 

Place in a shallow dish with beer and green onions. 

Cover and marinade in fridge for 2-3 hours. 

Grill each side for 3-4 minutes for medium rare. 

Chimichurri:

2 diced plums 

3-4 diced green onions

1/4 C chopped cilantro 

1/2 tablespoon vinegar (white, red wine or apple cidar. You pick!) 

Dash of salt 

1-2 fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon pickled jalapeño relish

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mixed everything together and place in a jar in the fridge until you are ready to eat.

Scoop generous amount onto your steak. 

Enjoy! 

Served with a side of potatoes. 

Snickerdoodle Cookies - gluten free

I want to start out by saying I am NOT trying out a gluten free diet for fun or to be trendy. I've been having stomach pain since September and I've seen a few doctors already. I've been putting this experiment off for a long time because I love food too much to want to change my diet just for fun.

My symptoms include migraines a few times a month and stomach pain EVERY day. Gluten can take several weeks to get out of your system, so if you try to go gluten free for real results give yourself 1-2 months. 

Feeling depressed about this decision and how hard it's going to be, I decided to make a delicious dessert that's gluten free. Snickerdoodle cookies!!! I was skeptical and thought there was no way these would taste as good as the real deal. The cookies turned out so perfect that my husband says "whose to say what the real deal is?? These cookies ARE the real deal!" He also asked if they are considered healthy because they are gluten free. Which a lot of people think is true. Let me clarify what gluten is. Gluten is a protein found naturally in wheat, rye and barley. It helps food have structure to rise. When baking a gluten free recipe you need to add xanthan gum (found at whole foods market) I found a gluten free flour blend that already has xanthan gum in it. Which is awesome because it's going to make baking so much easier than I thought. 

But, anyway back to my husbands question about gluten free bring healthy. These are cookies made out of real butter and sugar. Of course it's not healthy! But it's sooooo yummy! So, just because it doesn't have gluten doesn't mean it's healthy people!  Ok enough with the gluten free educational lecture, here's the recipe. I hope you love it! 

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups gluten free all purpose flour (I used gluten free flour that already had xanthan gum in it) 

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs 

1 1/2 cups sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + 2 tablespoon (mix together set aside) 

1/2 cup soft butter 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400

Whisk together flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, cream or tartar and salt. 

Cream sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla. 

Slowing add in dry mix. It will be very thick when finished. 

Chill covered in fridge for at least an hour. 

Take 1" cookie balls and roll in cinnamon sugar mix

Bake for 10 minutes. 

NOTE: What is cream if tartar anyway?? It's an acid called potassium hydrogen tartrate used in the fermentation process in wine making. The white powder is used in baking alongside of baking soda. It help makes the cookie rise and soft.