// homegirl recipe: whole-wheat spinach tortillas //

Back in 2010, Geoff and I decided to make a switch from Top Ramen, Doritos, cokes, and junk food, to truly wholesome, nutrient-dense foods. We were a bit extreme and we knew it; but hey, when the world deals you a Cancer diagnosis, such measures are necessary for your physical and mental health. I cannot tell you how difficult it was, though, especially in social settings. As humans, we are defiantly protective of our emotionally-ridden foods. Even if we did not mind not eating what everything else was, others did; even if they did not verbally state it, the implications were loud and clear to us. It was especially difficult to go out to eat and not have healthy foods on the menu (or knowing that what was advertised as 'healthy' wasn't at all). We were vegetarians for two years, vegan for two weeks (we love our cheese too much), and since then, eat primarily healthy with treats sprinkled in throughout for our wholesome souls. My specialty has truly become making our favorite treats into healthier alternatives. When I first starting blogging about recipes, specifically, I asked girlfriends who were also looking for healthier alternatives to guest blog. I thought it would be such a fun way to support, share and encourage each other!

Cue, Stephanie! Stephanie has been a friend of mine since elementary school! Despite all of my moving around, we ended up at the same schools throughout our childhood and teenage years. Today, you can find this gorgeous girl, DIYing, crafting, hosting, cooking, running, working out, all while motivating others, including her husband, to take steps towards a healthier lifestyle! She recently posted these tortillas and I immediately texted her asking her to guest blog for us!
(Follow her on Instagram @stephanievdominguez)

Warm, soft, healthier tortillas? Yes, please! I can't wait to try these! Without further ado, here is this beauty:


Servings:

2 dozen / 6” tortillas

The Goods:

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ cup water

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cups all-purpose gluten free or wheat flour

6 cups spinach

The Process:

1.     In a large pot, add water and spinach and cook
     down over medium heat until tender.

2.     Remove excess water from spinach, but keep the nutrient rich spinach water to add back into dough.

3.     In a blender or food processor, add spinach and blend until smooth.

4.     Add baking powder, salt, oil, and flour to spinach. Blend until mix crumbles.

5.     Slowly add spinach water as needed until dough is smooth.
                                               

6.     Remove dough and divide into equal parts.

7.     With a rolling pin, roll each part into thin circles. Or use a tortilla press (much quicker)! 
     Sprinkle flour as needed to avoid dough sticking to rolling pin or tortilla press.

                   

8.     In Teflon coated pan over medium heat (no need to add butter or cooking spray), toast each side until golden spots appear.

                                                   

9.     Enjoy!

Share your favorite healthier alternative recipe! Have a challenge for me to healthify (yes, that's a word!) your favorite indulgences? Let's do it!

Cauliflower Pineapple Fried 'Rice'

I wish I could remember where I originally found this recipe- definitely a Pinterest find from a couple years ago! It is super versatile and each time I make it, I change the ingredients and my carb if choice! It is one of my favorite entertaining meals because the presentation is awesome! Anytime you can make food-in-food, it is a definite hit! Think mini apple pies in apples!

Details in the yum!

Ingredients:

-diced red onion (or scallions)

-diced red bell pepper

-garlic

-broccoli slaw

-shredded carrots

-shrimp (or whatever protein you prefer)

-whole pineapple

-rice or cauliflower or quinoa

-Bragg's liquid aminos or low sodium soy sauce

-whatever seasonings you prefer

-2 eggs

                             

1. Cut your pineapple in half lengthwise and scoop out all of the pineapple so you have the shell as bowls! Chop up the pineapple fruit! Depending on how round your pineapple base is, you may have to even it out so it sits evenly, by cutting a flat tiny base on the bottom.

*at this time, either cook your rice or quinoa or 'rice' your cauliflower. To 'rice' it, you just put it in your food processor until it looks like rice! Same as you would do with a cauliflower crust pizza.

2. Chop and sauté your onion, bell pepper and garlic.

3. Add your shrimp or protein and cook on medium until almost cooked through. Season as desired. We season with no-salt added seasonings or dried herbs. My favorite is something spicy like cayenne or paprika.

4. Add your broccoli slaw and shredded carrots- add as much or little as you want- or choose whatever veggies you have on hand- I had these and since they're already shredded, I went this route!

5. Drain it all! You are about to add your carb and you don't want it to get too soggy!

6. If you are doing the cauliflower, add it to your hot wok or pan and season it as you wish- I did garlic, sea salt and pepper. Pan fry it for a few minutes, then add your drained protein and veggies.

7. Scramble two eggs and add to the rest! Now add your soy sauce (we use Bragg's) to taste!

8. Garnish with cilantro and serve in your pineapple bowls!

* I usually season the shrimp with spicy spices but since Oliver was eating it too, I added Sambal Sauce to mine!

Hope I didn't miss a step and you enjoy it!

Healthy Pancakes- oh my!

There's something so very comforting about pancakes. On Sundays, my dad would make his special batch of pancakes- fluffy, buttery, round clouds of deliciousness. When Oliver was born, my mom and two sisters surprised me at the hospital. My dad was unable to make it because he was working (it was a Wednesday). But that Saturday morning, he arrived on my doorstep to meet his newest grandson. On Sunday morning, right before he had to leave, he made a huge batch of pancakes for us. It was the sweetest thing.

Unfortunately, pancakes are not the healthiest breakfasts out there. I have experiemented endlessly with recipes ( a lot can be found here- just search pancakes), and finally have a base that seems to not fail me time after time. Mainly because it's so very easy and foulproof! I struggle with my recipe creations because I tend to not measure and go by taste and texture. A little of this, a little of that, and a lot of oh- that would be good in it! Haha!

Check out this weekend's pancakes! I made extra batches for today since it is St. Patrick's Day and green is a must!

Delicious and healthy!

Fluffy, delicious, yummy, versatile, pancakes!

My pancake base:
-equal parts (I generally do 1/2 cup of each per person) of the following:

• old-fashioned oats
• cottage cheese*
• egg whites
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• as much spinach as you can fit in your blender after adding the previous ingredient

Directions:

• Add old-fashioned oats to your blender and blend them (this is how I make my own oat flour. I buy an extra container of oats and it literally takes me less than 5 minutes to make a huge batch of oat flour that generally costs quadruple the price)!
• Add cottage cheese (The only cottage cheese I have found that is not filled with a shitton of weird ingredients is the Daisy brand).
• Add your egg whites (or whole eggs if you prefer); add spices, vanilla, baking powder and blend. 
• Finally, add as much spinach as your blender will still hold and blend away! The spinach is optional depending on the type of pancakes you are trying to make but seriously, why not?

Look at that fluffy perfection- & my fancy plasticware!

-Additional Add-in's/toppings

• your favorite spices (my defaults are cinnamon and pumpkin spice
• chia seeds
• ground flax
• peanut flour
• pumpkin puree
• almond milk
• chocolate chips
• nuts
• extracts (think mint, butter, etc)!
• fruit (banana, any berries)
• Greek yogurt/cottage cheese- have you ever had it together? It's the only way I eat my greek yogurt now!
• This particular picture has greek yogurt with 1 tbsp. of white chocolate no-sugar added jello pudding mix, a little bit of almond milk, dash of vanilla stevia, topped with fresh strawberries and sugar-free syrup! Yum!

Experiment & enjoy! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Peanut butter banana pancakes!

Elvis pancakes- peanut butter, chocolate chip, banana, turkey bacon pancakes for dinner! Hotdamn!

Buttermilk pancakes for Valentines day topped with greek yogurt and fresh berries and a berry jam (frozen berries, heated through and a tiny bit of stevia or honey added, then mashed)!

Blueberry and Banana Pancakes with Kale + Spinach! Baby approved!

Anxious little baby hands eating the rainbow!

Shamrock and pancake stacks with cottage cheese/greek yogurt/white chocolate pudding mix and gold sprinkles. With a fruit rainbow on the side! ;)

Pumpkin [Chocolate Chip] Pancakes

This morning, I woke up bright and early and started on my chores and decided that we needed pancakes. I was going to attempt to come up with a recipe for more protein pancakes and then realized that I have  pure pumpkin puree- hooray! (ha!)! Pumpkin pancakes it is!

Not only is pumpkin delicious but the health benefits make me wonder why I forget about it all year long! The only other times I use it is if I'm ever making store bought cake mixes which is extremely rare...but I just substitute all the additioanl ingredients for a can (for chocolate cake)! It has thousands and thousands units of Vitamin A (which is good for your vision, immune system, babies in the womb -ahem-, & bone health); it has more potassium than a banana & a bunch of other minerals; fiber!!!; & it's an antioxidant!

Guys, these were AMAZING! Like a crispy pumpkin pie or cookie or scone or...pancake! haha! So delicious! Since I made it vegan, I was able to taste the batter and adjust measurements to my liking. In the end, I decided they needed more sweetness and added a little bit of mini chocolate chips which really made these pancakes, in my opinion. You can definitely omit the chocolate chips and add carob chips or none at all to make this fully vegan!

Yummy pancake stacks; fluffy goodness; Honey Munster silently and awkwardly begging.

Ingredients

-1 1/14 whole wheat pastry flour [I'm sure regular whole wheat would be fine]
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. salt
-2 tbsp. brown sugar
-1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
-1 cup Pumpkin Puree
-1 1/2 cups almond milk
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 tsp.-1 tbsp. of chai seeds
-1 tbsp. flax seed*
-3 tbsp. warm water*
*egg substitution

Optional:

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips or carob chips or none at all!

Directions

1. Start by mixing your egg substitution (warm water + flax seed) that way you can keep your recipe vegan and taste/adjust as you go. Set it aside. Heat up a griddle or pan and lightly spray it with EVOO.

2. Mix all your dry ingredients in a large bowl (whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, & pumpkin spice).

3. Add your wet ingredients to the mix (pumpkin puree, almond milk, flax seed/water, & vanilla). Mix.

4. Taste! Here is where I thought it needed more oomph (as in sweetness). I wanted it to taste more pumpkin-y (yup, that's a word), so I added more puree (originally I had only added 3/4 of a cup). I don't like adding sugar so 2 tbsp. of brown sugar was enough. I considered honey and then remembered I had mini chocolate chips! My favorite! I added 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, gave it a quick stir and voila! Perfection!

5. To make the same size (or similar sized) pancakes, I use the same measuring cup or ice cream scooper to scoop & serve. Use whatever size you want- I think I use 1/4 of a cup. This gave me enough for 8 pancakes! Cook your batter on medium high heat and flip when you know they're ready (usually about 4 minutes or so or depending on how you like your pancakes). Cook the other side and serve immediately! So delish!

Enjoy! Can you believe how amazingly HEALTHY these are?!

:]

With my leftover pumpking puree, I'm thinking of a pumpkin smoothie later for a healthy dessert or if it lasts til morning, I'll add it, along with cinnamon & almond milk, to oatmeal for a sweet, low-calorie breakfast. Yum!

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Sometimes we are extremely organized with our meals and those weeks are amazing! Other times, like this week, organized isn't even in our vocabulary. Our house becomes a mess, our schedules hardly enable any time for each other, and our work interferes with any personal or social time! Weeks like these resort to quick stops on our way home to grab fast food or whatever is more convenient. This week is one of those weeks but since I went grocery shopping during the weekend, I've been attempting to cook as much as possible. So on Monday while still at work, I started rummaging our fridge (in my mind); I remembered we had whole wheat pizza crust from Trader Joe's that Marlyna had brought us from L.A. If we didn't use it, it'd go to waste. So pizza it is! I ran to the grocery store and grabbed a rotisserie chicken and came home. My intentions were to make homemade chicken alfredo pizza! Yum! But once I got home I had to improvise because I didn't have all the ingredients for the sauce. So I rummaged through the fridge and found an unopened jar of Red Hot's BBQ sauce and voila! We ended up with one of the most delicious pizzas ever made in our kitchen!






Recipe
Ingredients:
-whole wheat pizza dough or any homemade or prepackaged dough
-1 cup chicken breast, shredded
-1 1/4 cups (or so) of Red Hot's BBQ sauce (we loved the spiciness of this one but you can use any you like).
-1/2 cup cilantro (or as much as you like)
-1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-1-1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese (mozarella or colby jack
-1 handful of feta cheese
-1/2 cup of greek (kalamata) olives, sliced or diced

Directions:
1. Let your pizza dough rise for about 30 minutes. (I put a bottle of wine in the freezer and worked out to keep me preoccupied). Unless you have dough that doesn't need this step. Preheat oven to 450•F.
2. Stretch your dough into shape you want it (I pretty much am amateur at this, I need a lot more practice in kneading and stretching with my fists!) place your dough on a pizza stone or baking dish and cook the dough for about 6 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mix your shredded chicken, BBQ sauce, and cilantro.
4. Once you take out your precooked dough, spread garlic onto the crust circumference. Then add your chicken/cilantro/BBQ spread. Add olives.
5. Add cheese over the top. Feta cheese on top.
6. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly is slightly browned. Cut and serve!





Soo easy and sooo delicious! Reheated leftovers were even better! So this would make a great make-ahead dish!