Category: Quick and Easy

Creamy Garlic + Rosemary Dip – Paleo, Vegan Friendly, Dairy Free

garlic rosemary dip 2

Sometimes eating vegetables can be a little less than exciting. Eating should be a pleasure. You want to have something that has a lot of flavor and be so delicious that you crave eating it the next day.

For me, this dip is the answer to getting myself to eat a big serving of vegetables, and to do so very happily.

This creamy garlic rosemary dip takes just minutes to put together and makes snacking on everyday vegetables feel like a fun and tasty treat.

I used avocado oil mayo (but you can also use vegan mayo) and olive oil, so this recipe is packed with heart healthy oils and anti-inflammatory ingredients like parsley, garlic and rosemary.

 

Creamy Garlic + Rosemary Dip

Makes 1 serving

 

Ingredients

3 tbsp mayo or vegan mayo (I used avocado oil mayo)

1 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves thawed frozen garlic *

1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 tsp dried rosemary

1/8 tsp black pepper

Salt to taste (if needed)
Notes – * Thawed frozen garlic has a milder taste than fresh raw garlic and less of a bite to it. If you’re making this dip with fresh garlic, start out with adding 1 clove of garlic and then adding more to taste.

Instructions

1. Add the mayo and olive oil to a small bowl. Tilt the bowl to that the olive oil pools together and slowly stir it into the mayo until well incorporated. Add the rest of the ingredients and give it all a good stir.

Serve with any vegetables that you like. This dip is great with sweet potato fries, or I like eating it with 2 carrots (cut into carrot sticks) and a diced tomato for a quick snack.

 

garlic rosemary dip 3

Happy Snacking!

My Technique / Tips for Cutting Sweet Potatoes

cutting sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables, and they are super versatile. You can use them to make mini sweet potato pies, or sweet potato muffins (they taste like pumpkin bread), and they also taste great when sautéed with some onions, garlic and a drizzle of olive oil.

The one down side about sweet potatoes is that they can be very difficult to cut. They tend to roll around on the cutting board, and trying to cut them with a chef’s knife (even a very sharp one) can become a pretty risky situation fairly quickly.

Here’s the technique that I use to make cutting sweet potatoes a little easier.

You will need:

– a paring knife

– vegetable brush

– knife sharpener

– cutting board

– clean dish cloth or paper towel

Instructions

1. Give your sweet potatoes a good scrub with the vegetable brush and dry them off thoroughly with the dish cloth or paper towel. You want your sweet potatoes to be as dry as possible so that they don’t slip around on the cutting board. Set the sweet potatoes aside.

2. Sharpen your paring knife.

I have a little handheld knife sharpener (which isn’t the best, but gets the job done) and I run the paring knife through the carbide blades about 50 times and the ceramic rods about 30 times (if you have a better knife sharpener you probably won’t have to spend as much time sharpening your knife). Wash your knife with a little dish soap and carefully dry off the blade and the handle of the knife. You’ll also want to dry off your hands at this point so that you can get a good grip on the sweet potato while you’re cutting it.

You probably don’t need to sharpen your knife every time you cut a sweet potato, but it is a good idea too if you can. A sharp knife makes everything a little safer.

I also like using a paring knife over a chef’s knife for cutting sweet potatoes because it has a smaller blade, which means that there’s less force acting against your knife when you’re making your cuts.

3. If you want to peel your sweet potatoes, go ahead and do that now, but I usually keep the skin on the sweet potato just as a preference because it makes the sweet potatoes easier to grip when cutting.

Hold the left side of the sweet potato firmly with your left hand and then slice about 1/2 inch off from one end of the sweet potato, turn it 180 degrees, and then slice 1/2 inch off the other end.

From there you can cut up your sweet potato any way you like. I normally make sweet potato fries because they are easy to make, and make a great side for lunch or dinner.

To cut fries – hold the sweet potato firmly on the cutting board with your left hand, then place the blade of the paring knife perpendicular to the sweet potato so that the point of the blade goes straight into the middle of the sweet potato.

Once the blade is about an inch to an inch and a half into the sweet potato, (while still holding the sweet potato firmly against the cutting board with your left hand) with your right hand begin to push on the handle of the paring knife so that while you’re pushing the blade into the sweet potato, the blade also rotates all the way down and eventually becomes parallel to the cutting board, slicing through one half of the sweet potato.

Pull the knife out of the sweet potato and turn the sweet potato 180 degrees, and repeat so that the sweet potato is sliced in half and you have 2 halves of a sweet potato that you can lay flat on the cutting board.

4. Repeat this same motion (press the blade perpendicular into the sweet potato, rotate blade down and slice through), when making the rest of your cuts.

I like to cut my sweet potato fries 1/2 inch thick, and here’s how I cook them so that they get extra sweet without any added sweeteners.

To cut rounds – for if you want to use the sweet potato rounds as bases for veggie pizzas, press the blade about 1 inch into the sweet potato and press down while you rotate the sweet potato with your left hand until you end up with a little round of sweet potato.

cut raw sweet potatoes

I hope that these tips help make cutting sweet potatoes a little easier for you. If you also love eating sweet potatoes, let me know in the comments below how you like to cook them. It would be cool to see how other people like to cook them as well.

Mango Lemon Sorbet (No Churn) – Quick and Easy, Vegan, Paleo

mango 4

Sometimes the best kinds of foods are the ones that remind you of what you ate when you were growing up.

When I was a kid, we would often get takeout pasta and pizza from a local family owned Italian restaurant. The food was always good, but for me the highlight was getting to eat Italian ices anytime we ordered from that restaurant. This Mango Lemon Sorbet reminds me eating those Italian ices out of paper cups on hot summer days.

mango sorbet 2

Mango Lemon Sorbet is incredibly simple to make, and you don’t even need an ice cream maker! The mango gives the sorbet a joyful tropical flavor, and the lemon zest gives it a brightness and zing. Each bite just tastes incredible.

This recipe would also work well if you have a number of ripe mangoes that you don’t quite know what to do with before they become overripe.

mango sorbet 3

You can cut them into 1 inch chunks, freeze them, and make this mango sorbet anytime you like! It’s a delicious and satisfying way to cut down on food waste.

Mango Lemon Sorbet

Makes 1 generous serving (about 3 scoops)

Ingredients

2 cups frozen mango (1 inch chunks)

2 tbsp maple syrup*

1/2 tsp lemon zest (lime zest also works well)**

4 tbsp avocado oil (or any neutral flavored oil)***

1/4 cup water

Notes –

* The store bought frozen mango that I used wasn’t very sweet, so if your frozen mango is naturally very sweet, you can probably add less maple syrup. Just add a little at a time until you’re happy with the sweetness of the sorbet.

You can also omit the maple syrup entirely, and replace the water with 1/4 cup of apple juice instead if you’re trying avoid added sweeteners. The sorbet won’t be quite as sweet as it would be with the maple syrup, but will still taste really good.

**I actually used the frozen lemon rinds from this post for the lemon zest I used in this recipe.

** There is a part of the brain that lights up in the presence of a fat and sugar, so adding that little bit of fat makes the sorbet taste better, and helps to increase the absorption of the vitamin A from the frozen mango.

Instructions

1. Lay your mango pieces onto a plate in a single layer, giving a little space between each piece of frozen mango if possible. Allow the mango to defrost for 15-20 minutes until you can pierce the cubes of mango with a fork with little resistance.

2. Transfer the mango to a food processor and add in the water, avocado oil, lemon zest and maple syrup to taste.

Blend until smooth, stopping to occasionally scrape down the sides of the food processor with a spatula.

3. Serve immediately, or you can make a big batch of this and freeze it it for later in an airtight container. Allow to defrost for a bit before scooping and serving.

mango sorbet 5

So good… and so simple to make! I’ll definitely be making this more often come summertime.

Happy Eating!

enoki mushrooms

Sautéed Enoki Mushrooms with Garlic – Quick and Easy, Vegan, Paleo

enoki mushrooms 3

This is a super speedy and delicious vegetable dish for nights when you want to get dinner on the table as quick as possible. It’s paleo, and vegan and works with most dietary restrictions.

When I was growing up, we ate enoki mushrooms in Hot Pot at Lunar New Year, and for family celebrations. I loved scooping them out of the pot with a slotted spoon (along with lots of baby corn and tofu) and eating them with Taiwanese BBQ Sauce (the BBQ sauce with the cartoon bull on the side of the can is where it’s at, but it’s been a few years since I’ve had it).

The mushrooms come in 7 oz packages from the Asian grocery stores, and while I love button mushrooms too, eating the enoki mushrooms is sometimes a nice way to change up the different vegetables in my diet.

Giving the enoki mushrooms a quick sauté with a little garlic enhances the delicate flavor of the mushrooms. They have a great texture and are a great side dish to have on any table.

Sautéed Enoki Mushrooms with Garlic

Makes 2 small servings

 

Ingredients

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 package of enoki mushrooms (7.05 oz / 200 g)

1-1.5 tbsp olive oil

sprinkle of sea salt to taste

 

Note – I added the green onions in for the picture, but when I tasted it, I found that I actually preferred the mushrooms without the green onion. The enoki mushrooms have a subtle flavor, and that was overpowered slightly by sharpness of the green onions, but if you like green onions, go ahead and add them. It’s all about cooking the food that you enjoy eating.

Instructions

1. Wash the mushrooms under cool water. Cut the mushrooms about 1 inch above the roots. Give them another good rinse. Place them on a cutting board and cut them lengthwise in half.

enoki mushrooms 2

2. Add the mushrooms to a sauté pan with the garlic and olive oil. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Then turn the heat up to medium high and cook for another 3 minutes until lightly golden brown. 

Add a sprinkle of salt to taste and serve.

enoki mushrooms 1

Happy Eating!

 

Joyful Fruit Salad – Vegan, Paleo

fruit salad

There’s a really funny writer/actor/comedienne extraordinaire named Tiffany Haddish who has a dish called “Joyful Greens.” She says that they are “Joyful Greens” because she smiles when she picks the collard greens from her garden, she smiles when she washes them, and she smiles when she cooks them. All that joy, love and care that she puts into growing and preparing the greens make them extra delicious.

Taylor Swift also loves Tiffany’s Joyful Greens. Tiffany brought them with her to one of Taylor’s dinner parties and where they also dined on homemade barbecue chicken, potato salad, and cornbread (don’t we all wish that we could have been at that dinner party? It’s sounds amazing.)

Here’s a video of Tiffany teaching Oprah and Ellen how to make them.

 

 

While I didn’t grow these fruits myself, this is my joyful fruit salad. It’s joyful because you smile while you’re picking out the fruit (you smile at how wonderful and sweet that ripe mango smells), you smile when you see how bright and happy the different colors of the fruits are together, and you smile when you eat it (because it tastes so good…)

It’s super quick to put together, and I like packing it in a lunch because the colors look so cheerful together that I always look forward to eating it. This combination of fruits taste lovely together, and eating it feels like a real treat.

 

Fruit Salad 3

 

Joyful Fruit Salad

Makes 1 generous serving

Ingredients

1 ripe mango*

1 ripe kiwi**

1/3 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

 

Notes – *Ripe mangoes smell very sweet and fragrant. Mangoes that aren’t ripe won’t smell much like anything.

** Ripe kiwis are soft, but not squishy. If you have one that’s really firm, go ahead and leave alone for a couple days and it will ripen up.

 

Instructions

1. Cut the mango into 3/4 inch cubes (or cut it up however you like, this is just how I do it).

There are many ways to cut up a mango. I slice the cheeks off either side of the seed, then try and carefully slice off any remaining mango flesh that I can off of the seed. Then I cut the mango cheeks into 3/4 inch strips and use a paring knife to carefully separate the peel from the mango flesh (kind of like how you would peel an apple with a paring knife). I then cut the peel away from the slices of mango that I cut away from the seed into rough chunks and add them to a bowl with the rest of the cubed mango.

I’ve also seen people use a potato peeler to peel the mango and then slice the mango cheeks off either side of the seed, but I don’t do it that way because I find that the mango gets really slippery to hold while you’re trying to make your initial cuts.

All this is to say, cut up your mango in a way that works for you. The fruit salad will still be awesome.

2. Peel your kiwi and slice it into 1/4 inch slices.

How I peel a kiwi – Cut 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of your kiwi. Sit it flat on your cutting board and make 1/2 inch slices down the sides of the kiwi, cutting as close to the peel as you can until you’ve cut off all the kiwi peel.

You can also cut 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of a kiwi and slide spoon between the kiwi peel and the green flesh. Rotate your spoon under the peel until the peel has completely separated from the fruit.

3. Add your kiwi to the bowl of cubed mango along with the blueberries.

Enjoy!

 

fruit salad empty

What the bowl looks like once I packed the rest of it into a mason jar for tomorrow’s lunch. This is what was leftover, which looks very pretty on it’s own.

No worries, this didn’t go to waste. I ate it right after I took the picture, and I felt very happy and grateful.

fudgy chocolate frosting

The Fudgiest Sweet Potato Chocolate Frosting – Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free, Vegan

Fudgy Chocolate Frosting

This fudgy chocolate frosting works great over my Chewy Sweet Potato or Adzuki Bean Brownies, and it’s delicious enough that you can eat it by itself with a spoon. It tastes better than any store brought chocolate frosting, and it’s refined sugar free and dairy free.

It’s stable enough of a frosting that you can pipe designs with it and give cupcakes or brownies a little extra joy and decoration if desired.

 

The Fudgiest Sweet Potato Chocolate Frosting

Makes 1 cup (enough for 1 batch of brownies)

Ingredients

4 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder (25g)

1/4 cup oat flour (27g)*

1/2 tbsp ground chia seed (about 2.5g)

level 1/4 tsp sea salt

 

1/4 cup water

level 1/4 cup mashed roasted sweet potato

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup + 1 tsp maple syrup

5 tbsp melted coconut oil

 

Notes – * I grind oats into oat flour using a blender. Don’t grind the oats in a food processor because the flour won’t be fine enough.

Any extra oat flour I don’t use in the recipe goes into an airtight container and I use it for another recipe.

If you’re making this recipe for someone who has celiac disease, use certified gluten free oats, as the oats from the bulk bins can sometimes be processed on the same equipment as wheat.

 

Instructions

1. Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and gently heat over a double boiler and stir until glossy.

If eating with brownies, spread the frosting onto the brownies while the frosting is still warm and glossy. If you frost the brownies while the frosting is still warm, then the frosting will stay glossy when it cools and sets.

If you want to use this frosting to pipe flowers or designs, then the frosting needs to cool to room temperature before you transfer it into a piping bag. You can make this frosting in advance if needed and keep it in the fridge, and either heat it very gently and quickly over a double boiler, or let it sit a room temperature until softened before piping.

 

Apple Slices and Two Ingredient Caramel Dip – Paleo, Vegan, Refined Sugar Free

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When I’m feeling like I want a sweet snack in a flash, I make myself a plate of apple slices and caramel dip.

This is the easiest no cook caramel dip ever. This caramel dip tastes incredibly indulgent  and takes just seconds to make. Olive oil and maple syrup may sound like an unusual combination, but it tastes delicious, especially when combined with the sweet apple.

Apple Slices and Two Ingredient Caramel Dip

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1 fuji apple (or apple of choice, I like fuji apples because they are nice and sweet)

Caramel Dip

1 tbsp maple syrup

3/4 tsp – 1 tsp olive oil

 

Instructions

1. Wash and slice your apple, and place the apple slices on a plate. Spoon the maple syrup and olive oil onto the side of the plate, or into a small dish. Stir the maple syrup and olive oil together until well combined. Dip the apple slices into the caramel and enjoy!

 

 

Vegan Taiwanese or Chinese Sausage – “Xiang Chang”(香腸) / “Lap Chong” (臘腸)

vegan taiwanese-chinese sausage

This vegan Taiwanese / Chinese sausage is easy to make and tastes very similar to the real thing.

Spooned over noodles or a steaming bowl of rice, it’s happiness in a bowl.

Taiwanese and Chinese sausages can be found at Asian supermarkets, but I’ve never seen an organic one that’s free of added nitrates yet (here’s to hoping!). They taste amazing, and even though I’ve watched a YouTube video on how to make the sausages the traditional way, I haven’t actually made them myself yet.

This recipe is an easy way to get a similar flavor and texture without the hassle of making the sausage, or the nitrates from the store bought versions.

I used this recipe instead of real Chinese sausage when I made Turnip Cake for Lunar New Year and it worked great, so you can potentially swap this in for recipes that call for diced Taiwanese of Chinese sausage.

 

Vegan Taiwanese Sausage (香腸) or Chinese Sausage (臘腸)

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

6 white or crimini mushrooms – cut into ¼ inch dice (about 1 ½ cups)

2 ½ tbsp. avocado oil (or any neutral flavored high heat oil)

¼ tsp + 1/8 tsp granulated garlic

¼ tsp + 1/8 tsp 5 spice powder

½ tsp organic red miso paste

2 – 2 ½ tsp maple syrup*

maybe a pinch of salt to taste (depending on how salty your miso is)

 

*Taiwanese sausage or “Xiang Chang”(香腸) is usually a little sweeter than the Chinese sausages or “Lap Chong” (臘腸), so if you’re looking for more of a Taiwanese sausage flavor, use the 2 1/2 tsp of maple, and 2 tsp of maple if your looking for more of a Chinese sausage flavor.

Instructions

1. Stir together the granulated garlic, 5 spice, miso, and maple syrup until smooth.

2. Make your pan non-stick. Add the oil and diced mushrooms to the pan and cook on medium high heat, stirring frequently, for 8-9 minutes until the mushrooms are golden brown around the edges.

3. Add the cooked mushrooms to the spice mix and stir until well combined. Give it a taste, adjust the seasoning to your liking.

You can also spoon this into romaine lettuce leaves (like vegan chicken lettuce wraps), or serve it over steamed rice or noodles.

However you eat it, I hope that you enjoy the recipe!

 

Note – This isn’t sponsored, but I just wanted to mention that the noodles that I used in the picture were Organic Edamame Spaghetti Noodles made by Explore Asian Authentic Cuisine (it looks like they may have changed the company’s name to “Explore Cuisine” now).

The only ingredients are water and soybeans and the noodles have a lovely flavor and texture and cook up in about 5 minutes are a good non-grain pasta alternative (if that’s something that you’re looking for). I used up the last of the box I had for this recipe (the box I had was from Costco, and they don’t carry the noodles anymore) but you can find the noodles online.

mint ice cream

Mint Chocolate Ice Cream – Dairy Free, Paleo, Vegan, Refined Sugar Free

mint ice cream

When I first realized that St. Patrick’s Day was coming up, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to make to celebrate.

So I googled “Traditional Irish Food” and pictures of things like shepherd’s pie, Irish stew, and colcannon popped up, along with literally a picture of a potato. That’s right, a plain ol’ uncooked potato.

After I finished laughing for a good solid minute (that lone potato really cracked me up), I decided to go check out what was in the fridge and see if I could come up with a recipe from the ingredients that I already had. After a quick glance at the bananas on the counter, I opened the fridge to find that I still had a big box of baby spinach. After a little tinkering, I came up with a recipe for this gorgeous ice cream.

mint ice cream 4

Ireland is the Emerald Isle after all, and this recipe borrows just a bit of that lush green color just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

This amazing mint chocolate ice cream is rich and creamy, and you can’t taste the baby spinach at all, but it gives the ice cream it’s lovely bright green color without any food coloring. Little flecks of dark green dance across every beautiful spoonful, making every bite a little more festive, a little more special.

Sprinkle over a little cocoa powder before just serving and every delicious bite will taste just like a Thin Mint cookie, but in ice cream form (which is even better).

mint ice cream 2

That little bit of cocoa gives a little bit of bitterness which goes incredibly well with the brightness of the mint and allows the flavor of the ice cream to really sing.

This recipe is also a great way to use up extra baby spinach and overripe bananas. The avocado oil seems like a funny addition, but it adds a real creaminess and makes it taste more like traditional mint ice cream.

Mint Chocolate Ice Cream

Makes a generous serving for 1 (about 3 scoops)

Ingredients

2 bananas

1/2 cup packed baby spinach leaves

5 1/2 tsp – 6 1/4 tsp maple syrup

5 tsp avocado oil (or any neutral flavored oil)

1/8 cup water

1/8 tsp peppermint extract (or more to taste)

the tiniest sprinkle of sea salt imaginable (optional)

A little cocoa powder to sprinkle over the ice cream before serving

Instructions

1. Peel and slice the bananas into 1/2 inch slices. Put a piece of plastic wrap over a plate and arrange the banana slices in a single layer over the plastic wrapped plate. Cover with another layer of plastic wrap and freeze until solid.

2. Allow the bananas to defrost for 5-8 minutes until just thawed. Add the bananas, baby spinach, maple syrup, avocado oil, water, and peppermint extract to a food processor.

Blend until smooth. Taste and add in the tiniest sprinkle of sea salt if desired, and at this point you can add more mint flavoring if you like (add a drop at a time as this stuff is strong).

3. Once you’re happy with the flavor of the ice cream, scoop the ice cream into a dish and sprinkle with cocoa powder. Serve.

Notes – The bananas that I used were medium sized and they were ripe but were only lightly speckled brown, so if the bananas that you use are very brown and sweet, then you can probably decrease the amount of maple syrup.

The measurements that I ended up using in my own batch were 6 1/4 tsp maple syrup, and 1/8 tsp + 3 drops of peppermint extract (as I like a strong minty flavor in this ice cream).

You can also make the ice cream ahead of time and put it into something like a plastic snapware container and stash it in the freezer. This works especially well if you want to be able to scoop it into pretty scoops of ice cream for a nice presentation.

mint ice cream 5

So much minty chocolate goodness in one bite…

baby spinach heart copy

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

cole slaw tacos

Cole Slaw Dressing (Paleo, Refined Sugar Free, Soy Free)

cole slaw tacos

I love this creamy dressing. The dressing takes just minutes to put together and you can make it ahead of time as well and dress the cabbage and carrots when you’re ready to eat.

It’s slightly sweet from the maple syrup, and has a little bit of a bite from the apple cider vinegar and finely grated onion. And the dressing makes eating a good size serving of a cabbage (which is really good for you as it’s a cruciferous vegetable) a delicious experience.

When I first went gluten free, I experimented with a lot with different food combinations to try and come up with more exciting dishes to eat.

One of my first and favorite food combinations ones turned out to be chicken and cole slaw tacos.

I use homemade gluten free tortillas, top them with cole slaw and some leftover roasted chicken. If you’re vegan, you can use a vegan mayo and a meatless chicken subsitute (or crispy tofu would be good too).

You can also serve the dressing over a normal salad (like I did in the picture). I trimmed off the edges of the tortillas and pan fried them with a little oil until they were crispy and added them to salad as a crouton substitute.

I hope that you enjoy the dressing (and that it makes eating lots of vegetables more exciting!).

Happy Eating!

 

Cole Slaw Dressing

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1/2 tbsp finely grated white onion (I use the really small holes on my box grater for this)

3 tbsp mayo (I used an avocado oil mayo)

3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar

1- 1 1/4 tsp maple syrup

pinch of salt (to taste)

1 cup finely shredded cabbage and grated carrot mix

 

Instructions

Stir together the onion, mayo, vinegar, and maple syrup. Add salt to taste.

Pour over the cabbage and carrots and stir until well mixed. Serve.