Tag Archives: Healthy

Black Bean Salsa- SRC Post!

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Happy SRC Reveal day! Ah, I just love the Secret Recipe Club!! So much fun to explore new blogs, while someone else gets to try one of your recipes and post all about it.

Black Bean Salsa | Beautiful Disasters

This month, I got Renee’s blog, Eat. Live. Blog. Renee went from the busy business world to world of education. She keeps in touch with her creative side by keeping up with her blog. I think that it is awesome that she has truly found that perfect balance in her life!

Black Bean Salsa | Beautiful Disasters

Originally, I was going to make her black beans over rice dish, which sounds so yummy to me. A couple months ago, I made the switch over to becoming a vegetarian, so it is always exciting to find tasty, filling entrees.

Black Bean Salsa | Beautiful Disasters

However, I did not get around to making the beans and rice dish, so I whipped up her black bean salsa in a jiffy. Whew-eee! I’m glad I did! It was so quick and simple and I go through jars of salsa like crazy, so it was nice to have such a big homemade batch around. You guys have got to try this salsa, and check out some more of her yummy concoctions!

Black Bean Salsa | Beautiful Disasters

Black Bean Salsa

(From Eat Live Blog)

1 can black bean (drained but not rinsed)

1 jalapeno (seeded and roughly chopped – keep a few seeds for more heat)

1 small tomato (roughly diced)

1/2 small onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic

2 handfuls fresh washed cilantro

1 lime

    1. Place beans in a bowl and lightly smash with a fork, I left about half of the beans whole, unmashed.
    2. Squeeze lime juice over the beans
    3. Place cilantro, garlic and onion in a food processor or blender and pulse until diced but not liquified
    4. Mix diced veggies into beans
    5. Add diced tomatoes and mix
    6. Salt and pepper to taste
    7. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, stir and serve!

Black Bean Salsa | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: Henry Ford produced the model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.

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Baked Sweet Potato Fries

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Sometimes I have those days where I just want to bury myself in a bag of popcorn.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries | Beautiful Disasters

Or chips.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries | Beautiful Disasters

Or Girl Scout Cookies. (curse you girl scouts!!!)

Baked Sweet Potato Fries | Beautiful Disasters

These are the days that I hope to the good Lord that I remember that gross feeling in my stomach after I bury my head in chips, and then I make an equally delicious snack that is a bajillion (<– exact measurement) times better for you.

 

Baked Sweet Potato Fries | Beautiful Disasters

Sweet potato fries happen to be a sweet love of mine and I finally got around to making them at home. This recipe is the perfect yield for one person for one nice snack (a little bit over 100 calories!). You only have to wait about 25 precious minutes for that them to be done.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries | Beautiful Disasters

Twenty-five minutes may seem long, but in that time you could do so many things! Fold laundry, watch Modern Family, dance like a maniac, watch youtube hair tutorials, pin workouts to look like a Victoria’s Secret model on pinterest, you name it..

Baked Sweet Potato Fries | Beautiful Disasters

Next time instead of grabbing that deadly box of Girl Scout Tagalong cookies, grab a sweet potato and bake it turn into this delicious recipe! Happy Friday :)

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

(serves 1)

1 medium sweet potato

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon paprika

pinch of salt and pepper

cooking spray

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Either spray lined baking sheet with cooking spray, or line with silpat.
  2. Wash sweet potato, cut sweet potato into thin strips for fries. Place strips in bowl and either coat with cooking spray (or about 1 Tablespoon oil).
  3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Once combined, coat the sweet potato slices with this mixture until every piece is coated.
  4. Place sweet potato fries on prepared baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until turning crisp. Enjoy!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: Club Direct, a travel insurance company in Britain, provides insurance plans for protection from falling coconuts.

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Peanut Butter Banana Bread

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Peanut butter and banana may not seem like the most traditional combination to some people, but I just can not get enough of it. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are like my life. (Yes, I lead a thrilling life)

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If you haven’t tried a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Do it NOW. Then make this bread…

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Back to the bread, it *does* have the peanut butter and banana combo going on but the banana is truly the shining star in this recipe. The peanut butter almost just gives it a little sweetness with a tiny hint of a different nutty flavor. If you want more of a peanut taste in here, chopped up peanuts (or any other nuts) would be awesome!

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Peanut Butter Banana Bread

(Makes one loaf)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3 bananas

2 eggs

1 little less than 1/3 cup skim milk mixed with 1 teaspoon of white vinegar (or 1/3 cup buttermilk)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together smashed bananas, peanut butter, oil, milk-vinegar mixture (or buttermilk), eggs, sugars,and vanilla extract. Once combined mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until completely combined with no streaks of flour.
  4. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for 60-75 minutes or until comes out witha few crumbs on it. If the bread is browning quicker than the middle is cooking, you can cover the top with foil partway through.

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Random Fact of the Day: In Uruguay intoxication is a legal excuse for having an accident while driving. “Please believe me officer, I really was drunk.”

 

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Kale Chips

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I know I am a little late on the whole kale bandwagon here butttttt..better late than never, right?

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

I have heard rave reviews from multiple bloggers about kale chips and have been meaning to make them since like for ever. Kale is not something that we typically have in our house, as I tend to avoid bitter, spiky-looking lettuce type leaves.

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

Side-note: One of my biggest pet peeves is when restaurants serve all the purple and spiky, scary looking leaves in their house or side salads. YUCK! I know that the darker leaves tend to be healthier for you, but bleeeck, I am either forced to drown them in dressing or completely avoid them. So they really do not end up being any healthier for me. Please note this fancy-pants restaurants!

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

This is the kale before baking, look at the next picture to see how much they shrink!

Back to kale, I decided to give this one a go the other day when I saw that they actually sell already-made kale chips at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. My thoughts were if people are really buying this stuff, then it must be tasty.

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

This is the kale after baking, they shrink a bit! Beware of over-seasoning

Guys, if you haven’t been convinced by the bajillion kale chip recipe pins on pinterest, or the other gazillion bloggers who have raved about kale chips, listen to me. These are the bomb.com.

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

No, they aren’t something you could eat for lunch (as NO chip should be ate just for lunch!); they will not leave you feeling full. What they are absolutely perfect for is when you are craving something salty or just a crunchy snack. These babies will do the trick and leave you feeling food that you got your crunch and veggies in!

Baked Kale Chips

(serves 1-2)

about 5 oz. kale, cleaned and hard stems removed

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon salt

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Clean and remove stems from kale. Place kale in large bowl.
  2. Drizzle olive oil over kale, sprinkle chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt over kale. Mix everything together until kale is coated with oil and spices.
  3. Arrange kale in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in preheated oven 18-20 minutes, or until crisp. Remove from oven, let cool on rack, and enjoy!

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood!

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Zucchini Chips

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Oh hello there, snack numero dos for this week.

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I have been meaning to try zucchini chips for a while now. Those of you who are half as obsessed with pinterest as I am, you’ve probably heard of/seen these before. I was a little skeptical at first, but then I figured…a chip recipe that is under 100 calories if I eat the whole batch (did that), what the heck do I have to lose? A zucchini? That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

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Here’s the final verdict. These are super easy and a great snack, but you DO need to watch out for a couple things. It is possible to over-season these.

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Seriously, lay low on the seasoning or else you may find yourself wondering where the zucchini chip is under all the seasoning. The zucchini rounds shrink as they bake because they have such a high water content, so when they’re done baking you may wonder who snuck in your oven and stole half your chips…Fear not, they’re all [most likely] still there. Hopefully none of you have little zucchini chip stealing elves in your kitchen.

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P.S. Feel free to let your creativity flow in this recipe. You as much and whatever spices you like, and they’ll taste great. I was even thinking about a sweeter-dessertish chip sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, but then I realized I was dealing with zucchini and freaked myself out. Anyone out there daring enough to give the cinnamon-sugar zucchini chip a go?

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Zucchini Chips

(Serves 1)

1 medium sized zucchini, sliced thinly into 1/4″ rounds

cooking spray

2 Tablespoons paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

3 teaspoons BBQ seasoning (I used my classic recipe)

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne red pepper

1 Tablespoon sea salt

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray an oven-proof wire rack with cooking spray and place on cooking sheet. Set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, combine spices except sea salt. When spices are thoroughly combined, lightly coat (be sure to not get too excited on seasoning your zucchini rounds, they shrink in the oven so your zucchini chip will not need as much seasoning as you may think) each zucchini round in spice mixture. After each piece is lightly coated, place on prepared oven-proof rack. Sprinkle sea salt over top of arranged rounds.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, watch carefully to be sure chips don’t burn. Let cool for about a minute and enjoy!

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Random Fact of the Day: Fingernails grow fastest on the hand you favor.

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