Tag

healthy

Healthy Whole Grain Scones

written by Ali

This second #Recipe Makeover post just might be one of my all-time new favorite recipes: healthy whole grain scones. I totally love scones, despite the fact that they rely so heavily on butter and cream to make them so light and fluffy and delectable. As I’m trying to eat healthier, I recognize that scones need to be a sometimes and very rarely only treat. That’s why the sponsorship of this week’s #Recipe Makeover by Barlean’s made me so incredibly happy. Barlean’s generously sent us bloggers two of the most awesome products ever: organic butter flavored coconut oil and Barlean’s Digestive Blend.

When I opened up the butter flavored coconut oil, the first thing that came to my mind was, hm – that would be super yummy on popcorn (it is, by the way). The second thing that came to mind when I read the information about it was, hm – it can be used one-to-one as a butter substitute. If I was going to be refashioning an existing recipe to make it healthier, I’d definitely want to try to improve on my scones. The Barlean’s butter flavored coconut oil is an amazing substitute, because indeed, it does act just like butter.

I decided to use both products in one to make these healthy whole grain scones. The digestive blend with its spectacular blend of flaxseed, chia seeds, coconut, pumpkin, and quinoa sounded like the perfect addition to a whole grain scone. I used half and half instead of whole cream and whole wheat flour instead of unbleached white flour.

These healthy whole grain scones are super easy to put together and bake quickly. In about 30 minutes, you’ll have fresh hot scones. I discovered that the Barlean’s butter flavored coconut oil is lovely spread on a split scone. It also completely behaves like butter if you warm it up in the microwave, making these a great accompaniment to a salad at lunch.

Many thanks to Barlean’s for the products. I was not familiar with Barlean’s prior to this, so am so glad I’ve discovered what they have to offer.

Yum

Healthy Whole Grain Scones

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Barlean’s Digestive Blend
½ cup Barlean’s butter flavored coconut oil (in solid form)
½ cup + 1 tablespoon half and half
1 egg

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper (or use a spray oil to lightly coat).
Combine all the dry ingredients (from the whole wheat flour to the Digestive Blend). Add the butter flavored coconut oil, half and half, and egg and combine until the dough just comes together.
Shape into a circle. Starting from the center, make eight cuts to form eight scones. Pull the scones slightly apart from one another. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until the scones are lightly brown on the bottom. Enjoy!

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Disclosure: This post contains sponsored content brought to you by Barlean’s. As always, all opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.
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April 26, 2017 1 comment

Beverages Lunch Recipes

Healthy Pineapple Mango Smoothie

written by Ali

This Healthy Pineapple Mango Smoothie is my go-to treat for a week that has been nothing but chaotic. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that we might be moving and as it turns out, we are most definitely moving and very soon. We finally have most details worked out – you know, like if we’ll have a house to live in and that kind of thing. I’m transitioning out of one job and into a new one while also trying to avoid packing anything that’s essential until the last minute. Through all of this, I’ve still wanted to have a healthy lunch. Which made the timing of a sponsored post kind of perfect, especially since I had a chance to work with Halo Top Ice Cream to create this healthy pineapple mango smoothie.

If you aren’t familiar with Halo Top, all I can say is get familiar quickly – it’s so worth it. Halo Top is an all-natural ice cream that’s low-calorie, low-sugar, and high in protein that actually tastes like ice cream. At first I was a bit skeptical, but I promise you, it’s true. We started out with the chocolate mocha chip, and while I’d planned to use it in a recipe, one night, after we’d spent all day packing boxes and moving them to our garage, I needed chocolate too desperately to wait. We devoured it in one sitting, which is ok, because the chocolate mocha chip is only 280 calories.

I went back to Whole Foods and got a second pint of the vanilla bean, which I used to make these healthy mango pineapple smoothies. I never use ice cream in smoothies because of the calories – but Halo Top ice cream makes me feel perfectly ok with it. The Vanilla Bean ice cream is 240 calories so divided out over four smoothies, the calorie impact is minimal. Plus, it’s so creamy and good. I was a kiddo of the eighties, so vividly remember getting Orange Julius at the mall. This smoothie takes me back to those very happy memories. It is tropical tasting and smooth and perfect for what’s shaping up to be an intensely busy few weeks.

On a total side note: since I bought a whole pineapple for this recipe, I couldn’t resist looking to see if I could actually grow another pineapple plant from the top of the one I chopped up for this healthy pineapple mango smoothie. Because, in the midst of a move, what I need is a project that takes some degree of attention and care. Still, I can’t resist sharing what a pineapple top looks like before it gets put in water to grow some roots. I’ll post updates on Instagram about whether or not this actually works.

Yum

Healthy Pineapple Mango Smoothie

Ingredients

1 pint Halo Top Vanilla Bean ice cream
½ fresh pineapple (about 2 cups)
4 mangoes, peeled and chopped

Instructions

Blend all ingredients using an immersion blender or in a blender. Makes 4 eight-ounce servings. Enjoy!

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Disclosure: This post contains sponsored content brought to you by Halo Top Ice Cream. As always, all opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.

April 12, 2017 15 comments

Beverages Farmer's Market Lunch Recipes Quick and Easy Vegetarian

Sunrise Spring Smoothie

written by Ali

This Sunrise Spring Smoothie is a great, healthy way to start the day. Of course, they might be even better if I actually drank them at sunrise. Let me rephrase – they’d be great if I could actually see the sunrise. Here of late, it’s just been rain…and more rain. I’m starting to feel like the sun is never going to come out. Even the three daffodils that I planted in our front bed are looking depressed (ok – two daffodils – I cut one of them for the photo shoot for these smoothies).

Regardless of when you decide to drink your smoothie, the sunrise spring smoothie is a beautiful blend of all sorts of in season fruits and veggies. Yes – you read that right. I used a handful of beet greens for the top layer of these smoothies. I love all things beet, and any time I find a bunch of beets that have a great looking set of leaves, I buy them so I can get maximum benefit out of them. Beet greens aren’t very beet-y; instead, they taste like a very green version of, well, greens. Beet greens are full of protein, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and B6. One of my favorite ways of making use of them is blending them into smoothies.

I’m also getting desperate for strawberries. However, we live in the PNW, which means the best berries are the ones we get locally here. They won’t be available until around June. In the meantime, I’m willing to buy strawberries that have been shipped here, but will use them primarily in smoothies, because they just don’t quite taste right yet. I also threw in some more mangoes – I discovered champagne mangoes the other day at Whole Foods. Champagne mangoes are a smaller mango and are definitely sweeter than their larger counterparts. They are perfect for the yellow layer for my sunrise spring smoothie.

As I mentioned in my tropical turmeric smoothie recipe a few weeks ago, one of the best parts of smoothies is that they can be stored in 8 ounce jars and frozen. I pull a smoothie out of the freezer in the morning, throw it in my bag with the rest of my lunch and have both a great lunch treat, but also an automatic ice pack for whatever else I’m taking with me for the day. By lunch, my smoothie is thawed out and all I need to do is give it a good shake and drink it.

Yum

Sunrise Spring Smoothie

Ingredients

2 mangoes, peeled and diced
1 pint strawberries, chopped
1 bunch beet greens, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 cup pineapple juice

Instructions

If you are going to layer the smoothie, start by blending the mangoes and pineapple juice. Pour this layer into your glasses. Blend the strawberries and 1 1/4 cups almond milk next. Carefully pour onto the first layer in the glasses. Blend the remaining almond milk and beet greens last. Pour onto the second layer.
If you are not layering, combine all ingredients and blend.
Makes 4 eight ounce smoothies. These can be frozen and enjoyed as needed. Enjoy!

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April 5, 2017 1 comment

Lunch Recipes Quick and Easy

Preserved Lemon Tuna Salad

written by Ali

I have just one day in the office this week before the holiday break, so decided to make preserved lemon tuna salad as a quick one-day only lunch. I’ve had quite a bit of lemon going on these last few days. I’m preparing to make a sparkly New Year’s Eve cocktail for Fix Me a Little Lunch, which I’ll post later this week. To do this, though, I needed limoncello. Limoncello is one of my favorite liqueurs, but I hesitate to pay the hefty $20 plus for a store bought bottle when it is so easy to make at home. So – I stocked up on ten lemons, with the only purpose to peel them and saturate the peels with vodka. But then, of course, I had ten naked lemons to contend with and couldn’t stand the thought of wasting them. Naturally, this led to my hubby requesting a lemon meringue pie, which is something I’ve never, ever made. As I’m writing this, it’s cooling and I’ll confess that I’m pretty afraid to cut into it. I don’t fully trust that the meringue set quite like it should have, which will only make me determined to try again. Good thing I still have plenty of lemon juice left from those ten naked lemons!

Good thing, too, that my preserved lemons are ready to use and could be chopped up for this preserved lemon tuna salad so I could have a quick and easy sandwich ready to go for lunch tomorrow. I did make the baguettes in the photos for this lunch. I opted for a more traditional baguette that required a starter and an overnight period of time for the starter to bubble and rise. It’s safe to say that I’m ready for vacation and getting a head start on baking and cooking. The recipe for the baguette, by the way, is on the King Arthur Flour site (here). If you have the time, it’s definitely worth it to make fresh baguettes. If you don’t – a store bought baguette will work fine, too, for a preserved lemon tuna salad sandwich.

Yum

Preserved Lemon Tuna Salad

Ingredients

1 can water packed tuna
1 tablespoon preserved lemon, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/4 - 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Black pepper to taste

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Serve on a baguette or lettuce leaves. Enjoy!

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December 19, 2016 20 comments

Travel

Tips for Healthy Travel

written by Ali

This week, there won’t be any little lunches. I’ll be out of my office all week long, traveling. I’ve spent a large part of my adult life traveling: I lived for two years in Majuro in the Marshall Islands and made the trip to and from the US four times during that time period, flying thirteen hours each way. I’ve also traveled internationally in other spots of the world for vacation, traveled quite a bit in the US for work, and now spent much time traveling throughout Oregon both for fun and for work.

At first, when I traveled, I was a fairly strict vegetarian. This often made lunch, particularly grabbed in an airport, complicated. I learned to find specific spots in airports I frequented so that I was guaranteed food. A particular BBQ place in Houston that served a very good baked potato comes to mind. Though I’m not a vegetarian anymore, I’m still pretty picky about what I eat, so I don’t want to succumb to eating fast food as I transfer planes. Last year, I traveled to Baltimore and, for the first time, packed my lunch. It was such a good alternative to trying to find fresh and healthy food, I’ve done it ever since.

So here’s what’s in my carry-on luggage this time.

Top: Umpqua Oats Oatmeal, In a Pickle Popcorn (Trader Joe’s), instant coffee from Starbucks, a salted dark chocolate bar (also Trader Joe’s), and trail mix (combination of peanuts, Brazil nuts, dried apricots, dried cranberries, dried edamames, and chocolate covered raisins).

Bottom: Salami, provolone cheese, hummus, and lettuce wrap in a tortilla. These can all handle going unrefrigerated for a while so I’ll eat this between flights, right around lunch time. Umpqua Oats Oatmeal, wrapped in a plastic bag in my carry on to prevent getting dried oatmeal everywhere on my clothes).

When I get through security at the airport I’ll buy water. I’ll be well hydrated and well snacked throughout my flights and in the several nights at the hotel. On the flights back, I’ll take my chances with airport food.

June 28, 2016 0 comment