The Consensus

It looks like the consensus for a healthy dessert includes anything with fruit. Adding fruit into yogurt, ice cream, or to make a smoothie is a great way to add a serving of fruit and a serving of dairy for after dinner! Some great fruits for this include any sorts of berries, which you can buy in a frozen pack to add to smoothies for just about $4.00 at most food store near you.

Another great suggestion if you want to add Nutella or peanut butter to anything (like me) would be just a couple of pieces of whole wheat toast or rice cakes with some Nutella or organic peanut butter spread on top.

Dessert Anybody?

One of the most difficult things when it comes to eating fairly healthy is figuring out a dessert that can be both delicious and not give you a heart attack. I tend to lean a lot towards anything and everything with Nutella, trying to justify it by saying it has the same nutritional value as peanut butter...in moderation. (I'm not sure if that's actually true or not, so don't take my word for it).

Anyway, I'm looking for some more healthy treats and desserts.

Any suggestions?

Make it in a Mug!

So these probably aren't the healthiest recipes in the book, but they are a tasty treat for whenever you're looking for something to cook quick in the microwave. Plus, who doesn't like eating out of a mug??

Delicious Snacks in a Mug

French Toast in a Mug

There are links on this page to take you to the separate recipes for each mug!
Enjoy!

Mac and Cheese in a Mug

Classes cancelled? Make a Good Breakfast!

Lucky for me, my earlier class was cancelled this morning and I had time to make a good, filling breakfast! Everybody always tells you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I agree, it is. Breakfast is actually the best meal of the day with the best tasting food. If I could eat breakfast for every meal I probably would, to be honest. Usually I'm lucky if I get up in time for a bowl of cereal.

This morning I decided to make scrambled eggs with spinach and red peppers.

Making scrambled eggs is probably one of the simplest things to do. My mom taught me when I was 12 years old and it's always been a favorite for me since it's so easy to prepare, not to mention delicious!

1. Add some oil (or butter) to the bottom of a pan and put it on medium heat on the stove. This helps prevent the food from sticking to the pan. Make sure not to keep high heat because the eggs may begin to burn and get a little crusty.
2. Cut up a pepper (any color is fine, really) into slices and then cut those slices up into smaller pieces.
3. Add these pieces into the pan in a single layer to make sure that all of the pieces are getting warmed up.
4. Once they begin sizzling, push them to one side of the pan and add some spinach leaves. These will take a little bit longer to start to cook. Essentially you're sauteing spinach (just like how I did in one of the first recipes for salmon with spinach and rice. On a side note, a plain dish of sauteed spinach is a great snack if you're ever in the mood for something quick and healthy.)
5. While these ingredients are cooking, crack an egg or two (I usually eat two) into a bowl and whisk them up using a fork so that the yolk and the egg whites are blended together. If you want you can add a dab of milk or some salt and pepper to add a little bit of flavor. The milk will change the consistency of the egg to make it a bit fluffier and more "liquid-y" when it is cooked.
6.Push both of these ingredients towards the outside of the pan to form an empty circle in the middle of the pan.
7. Add the egg that you have just whisked into the pan. Once the surface of the egg begins to bubble slightly, grab a spatula and begin moving the egg around so that the area that hasn't been cooked yet has a chance to.
8. Once it seems that the liquid portion of the egg is fairly gone, mix the spinach and peppers into the eggs so that they are distributed evenly throughout the egg.


Put 'em onto a plate and enjoy! This dish is great with a glass of orange juice and, if you want more, a piece of toast or two is also a great accessory.

Snacking

I had two midterms keeping me from a relaxing fall break on Friday. Luckily, my roommate was in the same situation, so we decided to have a quiet study session in my apartment on Thursday night for probably four or five hours after dinner. Since we had already eaten, we didn't want to have an entire other meal, so we decided to make a couple of snacks. 

First we made kale chips. I've tried to jump onto the kale bandwagon and, to be completely honest, I haven't been all that successful. With kale chips though, you have the freedom to season them however you want or however much you want so that it gets to the point where it doesn't even taste like kale anymore, which is ideal for me.

Kale Chips: 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut up kale into bite sized pieces and wash well.

3. Mix with oil and a seasoning of your choice (I used seasoned salt).

4. Spread out on a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper (so that they do not stick to the pan) in a single layer. Making sure the chips don't overlap is important because otherwise the moisture won't be soaked up and they won't be very crispy.

5. Bake for about 8-12 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don't burn.

Enjoy!

The next snack that we made was homemade potato chips.

Homemade Potato Chips:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut up a few potatoes into thin slices, about 1 cm thick. It's not necessary to skin them, but if you would like to you can.

3. Place the sliced potatoes onto a cooking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and use a spray bottle to coat the chips with oil. Invest in a spray bottle if you don't have one. It's only about $10 and pays for itself after a couple of uses!

4. Sprinkle salt onto the chips.

5. Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour. The longer you keep them in, the crispier they will be. 

I know this snack takes a lot longer to make, but 45 minutes is a good chunk of time to focus on writing a paper or studying. For me, making goals to do homework for a specific amount of time is super effective. Taking the potato chips out of the oven and sitting back down to enjoy them is a great break to become motivated again to do more work now that you have a tasty snack!

What about you? What kinds of snacks do you eat during your late night study sessions?

Healthy Carb Loading

If there's one thing you need to know about me as a person, I'm a huge concert-goer. I've been to upwards of 25 concerts in the past 3 years, and tonight is probably the most important one. Twenty One Pilots is playing at the Tower Theater and, after seeing them twice already, I know how intense their shows tend to be. Being at one of their concerts is more like a workout than a relaxing experience. I've been extra careful these past couple of days to be healthy, drinking lots of water and eating well-balanced meals.

Tonight, being probably the concert equivalent of the Super Bowl, I am making a simple pasta dish for my late lunch/early dinner.

Orzo with Spinach and Peppers
For this dish, you will need exactly what it says in the title above. Orzo, chicken, baby spinach leaves, a bell pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

It's easiest to multitask while preparing this dish. While waiting for the water to boil for the orzo, start cutting up the bell pepper into small bits and pieces.

Grab a small pan and add oil to the bottom. Add the pepper pieces and baby spinach leaves and start to saute them. The peppers don't need to be well-cooked. The point of adding the peppers and spinach to this pan is to warm them up more than anything. Adding cold peppers and spinach to pasta is not as tasty or pleasant to eat unless you are a fan of the different temperatures in one dish.

The orzo should cook for about 9 minutes, and by the end of this time the rest of the meal should be finished cooking also. Drain the orzo and add the cooked spinach and peppers into the empty pot. After the orzo is drained well, add it back into the pot and stir together all of the ingredients.

Add cheese to the top of the dish once served onto the plate or bowl if desired.

This meal takes less than 15 minutes and is a good meal to incorporate different vegetables. My personal choice is to just stick to spinach and peppers, but adding tomatoes and zucchini or any other vegetable is good also.

Now that I'm loaded up on carbs, I'm ready for the best workout I'm ever going to have. Wish me luck!

Salmon

So obviously I have not posted about the recipes that I said I would from this past week. I've been extremely overwhelmed with work, school, and I've been extremely sick, as well.

Tonight I decided to make salmon with rice and spinach since I had some extra time tonight.
Salmon is a great source of potassium, vitamin b-6 and b-12. It's not difficult to prepare and only takes about 15 minutes to finish the entire meal.

I lack the patience to wait for Jasmine rice to cook for 20 minutes, so my roommates and I always buy Minute White Rice. This brand also offers brown rice, which is a healthier choice. Minute white rice is also available as a microwavable food, like Easy Mac. These take only a minute to cook (as the name suggests). They're great for the dorm room.






 Cooking salmon is a lot simpler than many people believe it to be. It's typically avoided to eat because people believe it's too difficult to make.
To cook salmon:
1. Put 1 tbsp of either oil or butter in a frying pan and keep at a medium heat.
2. Lightly season both sides of the salmon with salt and pepper. If you want some more flavoring it's better to add it after so that you don't over-season it
3. Lay the salmon into the pan for about 5-7 minutes and then flip it over.
4. The salmon should cook for about 10-12 minutes total.
5. If desired, drip lemon juice over the salmon to add some extra flavor.
6. Seasoning the salmon in teriyaki sauce or soy sauce prior to cooking the salmon will add some more flavor, but in increases the sodium content drastically.

Be careful not to under cook the salmon, though, because it could potentially cause mercury poisoning if your mercury levels are too high. However, fresh water fish typically have less mercury in them than their salt water kin.

In regards to the rice, the instructions are on the box, but to cook rice:
1. Boil water. (the amount of water should equal the amount of rice, ie. 1/2 cup of water for 1/2 cup of rice).
2. Add the rice and keep on heat for 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat and cover; let simmer for about 5 minutes


Sauteing spinach is also extremely easy. Spinach is a good snack to eat even without a meal. To saute baby spinach leaves:
1. add 1-2 tbsp of oil to a pan
2. add spinach to the pan. Don't be deceived by how much spinach is in the pan, it shrinks up. A couple of handfuls is about the right serving size.
3. When you hear the spinach start to sizzle, move it around in the pan so that every leaf hits the bottom of the pan and is being cooked. The consistency of the spinach varies from person to person
4. If desired, add salt and pepper, or garlic salt, to the pan to add a little bit of extra flavor.





This meal is fairly simple and really not unhealthy. It is not as difficult as some people make it out to be. Both rice and spinach are great as sides, but also great as individual meals or snacks!