coconut oil -

by Emily

Super Spiralizer: Butternut & Zucchini Noodles with Sausage and Parm

It’s time. Time for another spiralizer recipe! This one is chock-full of delicious zucchini and butternut squash and plenty of sausage and cheese. So you really don’t feel like you’re eating boring “health food.” It’s just delicious, delicious dinner and I promise you will love it. The sweetness of b-nut squash and caramelized onion marry with the saltiness of parmesan cheese, chicken sausage, and the earthiness of brussels sprouts and mushrooms.

There’s so much flavor in this dish that you don’t need an actual sauce. Tossing everything in coconut oil and parmesan should do the trick, just make sure to add plenty of fresh cracked black pepper at the end. Of course, if you love a marinara or an alfredo on your noodles, go ahead and add your favorite sauce into the mix right before serving.

Butternut & Zucchini Noodles with Sausage and Parm

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Zucchini Noodles with Sweet Potato Red Pepper Sauce

by Emily

Zucchini Noodles & Shrimp in Sweet Potato-Red Pepper Sauce

I am SO in love with the new spiralizer I got for Christmas! (It’s this fancy-pants Paderno 4-blade variety… kind of complicated to put together at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s great.) I’m about to spiralize everything up in this kitchen. Well, within reason.

Obviously, one of the best things to do with a spiralizer is to make faux-noodles. I’ve been trolling Pinterest for some spiralizer inspiration and I happened upon this recipe from Shape. Instead of heavy dairy, it uses puréed sweet potatoes to make a creamy, thick sauce. (Thankfully I also received a shiny new Cuisinart food processor at Christmas this year!)

The original recipe also uses spiralized sweet potatoes to make the “noodles” and while I love me a sweet potato, this was a little too… overly sweet potatoey for my liking, so I subbed zucchini for that component. So technically you can call them “zoodles” but I haven’t fully given into that terminology yet. I also added some shrimp for protein, it went really well with the rest of the flavors and textures. If you’re trying to keep things vegetarian/vegan, you could omit the shrimp and add some firm tofu.

This meal was SO filling and satisfying while also managing to be extremely healthy and low calorie. Rob and I split this entire recipe, and I was wondering if it’s unhealthy/weird for adults to eat 1.5 zucchinis each in a single sitting, but I guess that’s just #spiralizerlife.

Sautéed Zucchini Noodles & Shrimp in Sweet Potato-Red Pepper Sauce

by Emily

Sweet and Spicy Triple Red Quinoa Salad

Let’s talk about cabbage. I love cole slaw—like, really love, it’s one of my favorite sides/snacks. Sometimes I will eat a big bowl of slaw for dinner. Is that weird? Probably. Other than cole slaw, though, I don’t really do much with cabbage. So I had to get a little creative with the huge head of crisp, red cabbage that came in our Johnson’s Backyard Garden CSA box last week.

What’s my go-to when it comes to using up vegetables? Mixing them into some quinoa, of course. What’s my other go-to? Adding a runny egg to anything/everything. Using these two standby moves, I transformed a head of cabbage into a super flavorful, easy, and healthy dinner for the household. (Let me tell you, it’s fantastic living with a boyfriend and roommates who enjoy healthy cooking as much as I do.)

This warm salad is red on red on red on red! We’ve got red quinoa, red cabbage, and red onion mingling with kale, sour apple, rich tropical coconut oil, and sweet raisins. The addition of curry and red chile flakes kicks up the spice and keeps this combination from becoming too sugary. Make sure you don’t overcook your quinoa or produce—mushy quinoa is a bummer and you want to be able to savor the crispness of the cabbage, apples, and kale.

Sweet and Spicy Triple Red Quinoa Salad

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by Emily

Keepin’ it Light: Southwest Quinoa Salad

Now that the holidays have passed and things are calming down, I’ve been trying to focus on easy, nutrition-packed meals, like this one! This super simple quinoa salad is a lovely mix of flavors and textures. Cool, creamy avocado and spicy squash are folded into a protein packed mix of quinoa and black beans. With some other vegetables and a bright splash of lime for good measure.

This particular creation was actually dreamed up thanks to a bunch of leftovers I had the other night. I had some friends over to watch The Bachelor (don’t judge—criticizing sobbing drunk girls on TV is amazing) and I prepped homemade burrito bowls for our dinner. This is the salad that came out of all the remaining components. There is literally NOTHING bad for you here. 100% health. Tons of protein, tons of vegetables, and some good fats from coconut oil. You’re welcome.

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by Emily

Waaaay Better Than Takeout: Sweet and Spicy Coconut Oil Stir Fry

I’ve written about my love for coconut oil before, especially for stir fries. Not only does it smell ridiculously amazing while you’re cooking with it, but it’s one of the only oils that’s truly stable enough to handle high-heat cooking (aka… stir fries, what up!) and its fats are more easily metabolized in the body, so it’s great for your heart! So let’s get cracking on this sooooo-much-better-than-takeout meal, shall we?

Tonight I got home from work and I was not. feelin’. it. I had a long weekend of partying at a music festival (I know, poor me) and the last thing I wanted to do was cook. I was fantasizing about some takeout, or at the very least a trip to the nearest Whole Foods salad bar. But my man Rob surprised me with a plethora of organic vegetables from his trip to the new Austin Trader Joe’s this afternoon, and if you know Trader Joe’s, you know that its produce doesn’t stay well for long. (Love you TJs, but it’s true!) The meal I whipped up for us was even better, and possibly quicker, than ordering from our nearest Chinese place. And it’s definitely healthier. All it took was a little bit of coconut oil, spices, and Chinese sauces (thick, sweet hoisin and oyster sauce, which doesn’t really taste like oysters but just adds a super salty depth of flavor).

Sweet & Spicy Coconut Oil Stir Fry

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by Emily

Ridiculously Easy (and Awesome) Broccoli Stir Fry

As anyone who has had the “luck” to be around me recently could tell you, I’m about to go on vacation! To Europe. I’m pumped. I haven’t been out of the country for three years (except Mexico, which hardly counts) so the anticipation is killing me. Know what else is killing me? My finances. Iceland and the UK are not exactly cheap, especially since I’ll want to live it up while I’m traveling, so I’ve been trying really hard not to burn through my money at restaurants and bars as usual. For some people this might not be much of a feat, but for me it’s extremely difficult, since those two types of establishments represent the cornerstone of my social life. Sigh.

So that leaves me to do a lot of cooking at home, which I also love of course, but groceries can really add up as well. In the past couple weeks I’ve really been focusing on simple, healthy meals at home. It’s kind of a fun challenge; how can I make not-really-boring dinners for my boyfriend Rob and I while still staying on, if not under, my travel savings budget? (At least I try to tell myself it’s “fun.” Once again… sigh.) Anyway, this is beginning to sound like the intro to Rachael Ray’s $40 a Day or something, so let’s just get to the point.

One solution I’ve been really into lately is the stir fry. Cheap and healthy, this meal has become a mainstay in our household, and I’ve practically perfected my recipe. It’s easy, quick, and tastes absolutely awesome. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these ingredients, just (a) check out your local Asian market, and if you don’t have a local Asian market, (b) check out the ethnic and/or health food section of your grocery store.

Ridiculously Easy Broccoli Stir Fry

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by Jessica

Really Good But Even Better Low-Fat Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I love cookies. L.O.V.E. Since I like to eat them frequently (as in multiple times a day), I’m always attempting to make healthier versions of old favorites like chocolate chip or oatmeal. So I was stoked when I saw this Sun Maid recipe for Really Good Low-Fat Raisin Oatmeal Cookies in honor of Heart Health Month (which was February, but shouldn’t we always promote heart health?) I tried them — and they are really good. But since I can’t leave well enough alone, I made a few little tweaks to the recipe and now I think they’re even better.

So here you have it: Really Good but Even Better Low-Fat Raisin Oatmeal Cookies. And even with my tweaks they still come out to about 60 calories per cookie, so I don’t feel too guilty about the fact that I ate like 5 of them out of the oven and about 5 cookies worth of dough as I was making them.

in Desserts / Featured / Recipe 9 comments