Chocolate Apricot Nut Bars

This last week, I bought some dried apricots for a salad, but of course I bought a whole bag with only the intention of needing about 1/12 of it. (Go me.) So, with all this dried apricot I decided to find a recipe that would use some and help me get rid of the excess. 

I found this chocolate apricot nut bar recipe from Whole Living, found here: http://www.wholeliving.com/172998/chocolate-apricot-nut-bars?czone=e¢er=136761&gallery=136112&slide=172998 

Ingredients follow as:

• 1 1/2 cups dried apricots
• 1/2 cup raw almonds, toasted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
• Coarse salt
• 1/2 ounce dark chocolate, melted (I made my own chocolate sauce with cocoa powder, sugar, and little bit of water)

To help make the apricots puree better put them in some boiling water to soften (literally takes about a minute in the water to work), then place apricots, toasted almonds, and some of the toasted coconut in a food processor or blender to puree together. 

Puree the apricots after soaking in hot water

Toast the almonds to be added to apricots

Mix almonds, apricots, and some of the coconut in a food processor or blender

Spread out on a baking sheet and drizzle chocolate sauce and remainder of coconut flakes. Place in freezer for 15 minutes to set. 

Cut apart and enjoy!

Black Bean, Sweet Potato, and Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

I like this dish because it's kind of like it own balanced meal in itself, but I had mine with another protein. This recipe comes from Ambitious Kitchen, found here: http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013/04/black-bean-sweet-potato-quinoa-stuffed-bell-peppers/

This recipe requires a little more effort to make, simply because it calls for a few different things (sauteed onions and garlic, diced and boiled sweet potatoes, quinoa, and roasting the stuffed peppers), but in actuality it only took me probably 45 minutes (45 minutes of valuable study or sleep time for a college student, but hey food above all, right?). 

Ingredients: 

* I made a half recipe and it was easy to reduce the recipe for a single person

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 large yellow onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and diced (I skipped this)
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups vegetable broth, divided 
• 1-15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and finely diced
• 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (I skipped the oregano and cilantro also)
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, if desired
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste if desired
• 3 large red bell peppers, seeds removed and cut vertically
• **3/4 cup reduced fat shredded colby jack cheese (*leave out for vegan recipe as I did)

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil

Peel and dice the sweet potato into small pieces and put in boiling water to cook for about 6 minutes. Rinse a can of black beans, cook quinoa, dice and remove seeds of tomato, and mix all ingredients together.

Add spices

Cut bell pepper around the core and fill quarters with filling

Roast at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes

Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties

I love anything with sweet potatoes. Thanksgiving dinner with sweet potatoes is like heaven to me. I also have an obsession with white potatoes (I blame the Irish side of me.), but as I have learned substituting sweet potatoes for white potatoes makes a healthier dish! These are absolutely delicious patties with some quinoa, yellow onion, thyme, sweet potatoes, and garlic. 

The recipe comes from A House in the Hills and can be found here: http://ahouseinthehills.com/2014/1/13/sweet-potato-quinoa-patties/ 

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 cups baked sweet potato, skins removed & mashed (approximately 2 medium sweet potatoes)

- 2 cups cooked quinoa- medium yellow onion, diced (I use less onion usually. I made a half recipe and used 1/4 an onion.)

- 3 cloves of crushed garlic

- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme (more to garnish)

- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

- sea salt

- fresh cracked pepper

- earth balance vegan butter or coconut oil for cooking (I used olive oil, but mine also fell apart (may be from not enough sweet potatoes to quinoa ratio) so I'll probably try coconut oil next time.)

Saute the onions in olive oil

Add the garlic 

At the very vey end add the thyme

After roasting the sweet potato, smash it up in a bowl and add all the ingredients 

Roll into balls and flatten

Cook in oil (I had trouble keeping them in shape and many of them fell apart, which I believe was because I didn't have enough sweet potato for my quinoa. Oh well better luck next time!) 

As you can see I tried to fix the "not sticking together" problem by cooking some for longer, hence the browner patties

Still delicious, however!

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Quinoa Pizza Bites

There are several quinoa pizza bites recipe to be found on pinterest and google, which you can find for actual measurements. For me, I just added what I had on hand to make these guys! I used some kidney bean, cooked quinoa, and Italian herbs and spices and for the dipping I just took some tomato sauce and added spices to it as well. 

I found this adaptation from Elsja Down Under here: http://elsja.com/pinterest-finds/quinoa-pizza-bites

This is how mine turned out!

Quinoa Pizza Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 cup drained, cooked black beans (a can is fine, just rinse well) (I used kidney so I think any beans will work)
• 16 small square inch size pieces of mozzarella (can use cut up string cheese) – about 80g total (leave out for vegan recipe)
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried Italian herbs
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes (feel free to use more if you like spice, I did)
• Salt to taste

Again you can find any quinoa pizza bite recipe you prefer and as Elsja did you can adapt it to you liking!

Vegan Taco Bowl

A vegan taco bowl is super easy for a fast lunch! And it's a pretty balanced meal! You've got your rice for carbs, lettuce for vegetables, beans for protein and iron, corn, and tomatoes! All I did was pull apart some lettuce, open and rinse canned corn and black beans, diced a tomato, and heated up some rice (courtesy of my roommate from her recent trip home). 

Take all your ingredients and layer in a bowl!

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Summery Grapefruit Jam

Ohhhh so summery and so yummy! Grapefruit is a current health food fad and it's delicious! So I decided why not try to make a nice citrus-y spread for summer! 

It was extremely easy for someone that has never made a jam before. (That's me.)

All you have to do to make jam is put the fruit you want into a pot, boil, and add sugar to balance the tartiness. 

Boil until it reaches a jam, spreadable consistency. 

(Note my new adorable teapot from the antique store)

Yay summer! Yay grapefruit!

Pumpkin Spice Overnight Oats

If you haven't noticed yet, I have a strange obsession with overnight oats. But how could you not? They are so easy to prepare and ready to go in the morning and not to mention delicious! I really fancy them on days when I workout in the morning and really just want (and feel) that I need to eat immediately when I get back.

 Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
• 3/4 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
• 1/4 Cup Pumpkin Puree
• 1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder (I left this out because I don't like protein powder.)
• 1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds
• 1 Tablespoon Almond Butter
• 1/2 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

This recipe can be found here: http://thesubtlestatement.com/2013/11/05/overnight-pumpkin-pie-oats/

As with any overnight oats, add all ingredients into a container and refrigerate overnight.  

And who says, it has to be fall to indulge in pumpkin. I love pumpkin. Pumpkin is for all times of the year. 

This gif accurately shows my love for pumpkin.