Iced Coffee Protein Style

After a long break from blogging Morgan and I have decided to pick it back up. Many of my clients and friends have asked for my Iced Coffee recipe so I thought it'd be a great "Welcome Back" post.

Mornings start early for me during the work week so I typically drink my breakfast on the go while I teach classes or meet with clients. This drink gets me going and keeps me full until I have a snack/meal. You can leave out the protein powder and add a sweetener of your choice. You can also change it up with different protein powder flavors or extracts (peppermint if you like peppermint mochas). I've been using NoBrew iced coffee concentrate or Trader Joes cold brew concentrate.The recipe below is my typical style and it's been a keeper!

Iced Coffee Protein Drink

-1 part iced coffee

-1 part coconut water

-1 part unsweetened vanilla almond milk

-1 tbsp coconut milk (the real deal)

-1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I use DaVinci grass fed whey protein)

-ice

Shake it all up in a blender bottle and drink it down!

Eggs and Pesto

As promised here's another way to eat your leftovers!

This morning I chopped up a few veggies and made an omlete. I used the pesto spread as a topping for bread and served it with diced fruit. I'll walk you through how I prepped my omlete.

Omlete for 2:
-2 whole eggs
-3 egg whites
-handful of cherry tomatoes
-3 baby bellas
-2 handfuls of spinach
-dash of salt
-dash of hot sauce

-Dice up your veggies first and heat your skillet. Crack your eggs, whisk them together with the salt, and hot sauce then set aside. I used non stick cooking spray and sauteed up my veggies for a few minutes. Then I set them aside and sprayed the skillet again for my egg mixture. Add your egg mixture and watch it closely ( I used medium high heat). As the edges start to cook lift them with a spatula and let the uncooked egg seep underneath. Do this a few times to get a nice fluffy omlete. Once the top of the omlete looks mostly cooked add your veggies and then fold on side over and serve. I'd show you a picture of this but I failed! Too much multitasking. No worries, I just scrambled it together and ate it anyways :)

In the meantime toast up a slice of bread and spread some of that wonderful pesto on it!

Eggs and Pesto Bread!

White Bean Salad with Lemon Basil Pesto Dressing

Lately I've been making a lot of the same recipes we've already posted, sorry for that! Roasted veggies and chicken/fish are just one of those things I can eat repeatedly and not get sick of. Thankfully my morning trip to the local farmer's market inspired me to make something new! This recipe is a great "make ahead" and eat throughout the week in various ways kind of meal. I'll illustrate this throughout the week as I eat my own leftovers!

The following recipe can be used eaten as a  meal or side dish. It can be incorporated into a pasta salad or eaten plain. Ingredients can even be swapped out. Just have fun with it and use what you have. Since my Ninja blender was already on the counter I decided to make my pesto using it. Here's the recipe.

Before 

Lemon Basil Pesto:
-3/4 cup pine nuts
-3 or 4 cups fresh whole basil leaves
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
- 1/8-1/4 cup lemon juice (i used between this amt)
-1/4 cups olive oil
-2 pinches of salt
-1 tsp garlic (powder or fresh)




Throw all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and let it whirl. I pulsed the ingredients without the olive oil first but if you don't want to do that, it'll be fine. Pour the pesto into an airtight container and put it to the side (this will make about 1-2 cups pesto).

after

White Bean Salad:

White Bean Salad

-1/2 large english cucumber (diced)
-1 1/2 large carrots (diced)
-1 small red pepper (diced)
-9 baby bell mushrooms (diced)
-1 cup diced tomatoes
-1 can of white beans (drained and rinsed, no salt added)

Mix all the diced veggies and beans together in a bowl or tupperware.

Croutons

Rustic Croutons:

-1/2 a small loaf of sourdough multigrain bread

-pam spray

Cube up the bread and spray it with pam spray or a misto full of olive oil. Then place on cookie sheet and broil on High. You'll need to watch these because they won't take long, really only a few minutes!

Salad + Wine :)

How I served my meal:

I started with a bed of spinach in a plate and set it aside. Then in a separate bowl I mixed the portion of salad and pesto I wanted for this meal and added it on top of the spinach. I also added rustic croutons on top and a drizzle of fig balsamic vinegar. DELISH!

Crab Cakes with Pineapple Mango Salsa

It's been a pretty eventful saturday over here. Ihit a great workout with some friends in the morning, ate breakfast, my power got cut off, I relocated all my refrigerated food, my power got turned back on, I brought back all my refrigerated foods, and I just made crab cakes with pineapple mango salsa. I really do love cooking and baking. To help me get in the "mood" to cook, I turn on some tunes and start jamming out while I cook. This may or may not involve ridiculous dancing and horrible singing...

Anyways, this is a great summer recipe. It's light and flavorful. So turn on those tunes and get out your cooking supplies. Here's what you'll need for the recipe.

Pineapple Mango Salsa

-2 1 inch thick slices of fresh pineapple
-1 mango
-1/2 cup chopped cilantro
-1/4 of a small red onion
-3/4 of a jalapeno
-1 1/2 avocado (or just one)
- juice of 1 lime
-1 tbsp lemon juice
-1/2 tsp salt

Step 1: Dice up your mango, pineapple, cilantro, red onion, jalapeno, and avocado. If you plan on making the crab cakes dice up 1/2 of a small red onion, the entire jalapeno, and 1/2 bunch of cilantro (or one very small bunch). You will need the remainder of the ingredients for the crab cake mixture.

finely chopped red onion

Step 2: Mix all the ingredients into a bowl, make sure the juice of the lime and lemon coat the entire mixture so the avocado doesn't brown.

completed salsa

Set aside and start making those crab cakes

Crab Cakes

-14.5 oz of crab meat (I used a mix of white meat and claw meat)
-1/4 small red onion
-1/4 jalapeno
-1/4 c cilantro
-1/2 + 1/8 c whole wheat bread crumbs
-1 egg
-4 tbsp lemon juice
-1/4 c fat free greek yogurt
-3/4-1 tsp salt
-Hot sauce

Step 1: Toss the leftover jalapeno, red onion, and cilantro in a bowl. Add the crab meat. You'll want to use your hands for this, but feel through the meat and make sure there are no shells or hard pieces.

unmixed ingredients 

Step 2: Add remainder of the ingredients into the bowl and mix together. Once it's completely mixed it should form into balls or patties easily.

Step 3: Again, use your hands here. Get about 1/4 of a cup of mixture into your hands and form into small crab cakes. Set these into the refrigerator for a few hours so they can firm up.

crab cake mix

formed crab cake patties

Step 4: Preheat your oven to 350F. When you're ready to cook, put a little cooking spray and olive oil into your frying pan. Use medium heat to sear the outsides of the crabcakes. Depending on your range it shouldn't take more than 5 or so minutes per side. Then place the crabcakes in the oven to bake for 10 minutes (so they can cook all the way through).

you'll want to flip them before they look like this!

Once it's all said and done plate up your crab cakes and enjoy!

crab cake with salsa, black beans, and carrots! YUMMY!

Date and Spinach Salad

Happy Friday Everyone. I hope your weekend is starting off well. I've got a super easy salad recipe for you tonight. I served this alongside pizza and a class of white wine. Since we've had a few blog posts about pizza type dishes already I left it off tonight, it's super easy to create a new pizza with whatever ingredients you have on hand. This salad mixes sweet and salty perfectly!

Date and Spinach Salad 
(I made 3 side salads with this recipe)

-3 cups fresh spinach
-9 pitted medjool dates
-1 cup diced mushrooms
-2 beets (already cooked-you can buy can or pre-pacaked or boil/steam some yourself)
-3 slices of prosciutto
-2 1/8 in thick medallions of goat cheese with cranberries (or any flavor goat cheese)
-fig tahini dressing (i was intrigued and bought it from whole foods)

not the best pic, sorry!

Step 1: Divide the spinach into 3 bowls, then top with sliced mushrooms, and sliced up dates.
Step 2: cube up the goat cheese (you'll need 9 cubes). Open up each date (slice it in half) and fill it with a cube of goat cheese.
Step 3: Slice the prosciutto (you'll need 9 strips) and wrap each date with the prosciutto.
Step 4: add the dates to the bowls and dress your salad.

*This salad is a great appetizer salad. If you wanted to make it into a meal I'd suggest doubling the veggies and maybe adding in some walnuts and sliced pear.