Tag Archives: Healthy

“After School Snack” Smoothie

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It may sound weird, but one of the things that I am most about graduating this year is the fact that I will finally be able to eat lunch at my own time.

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Any guesses on my absurd lunch time this year?

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9:45 AM.

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Yep…if it was my choice I would not even be awake at that time! 9:45…who seriously would ever think that is somewhat close to a normal lunch time?! Anyways, I eat my lunch like an obedient little student, and then by my final class of the day it sounds like my stomach is playing it’s theme song. Yes, I could bring snacks and save some of my lunch for later, but something about being the only one in class, making all the eating and chewing noises pushes me away a little. So there is my life problem in a nut shell for you. It’s a torturous life, but someone’s got to live it (sarcasm..)

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So here is a wonderful smoothie I love to make that energizes me and fills me up when I get home. If I woke up early enough, this would be awesome as a breakfast smoothie before I take off to school, but I guess you can’t win em all. One of my favorite things about this smoothie is that it is 100% fruit, and with the frozen banana, a creamy smoothie is made!

“After School Snack” Smoothie

(Serves 1)

1/2 cup sliced, frozen bananas

1/4 cup blackberries

1/3 cup blueberries

1/4 cup juice (I used cranberry-grape juice, but grape or cranberry on their own would work well, this juice is not totally necessary)

  1. In a blender, blend together all the ingredients until smooth and you don’t hear the frozen bananas making a ruckus anymore.

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Random Fact of the Day: On some Caribbean islands, the oysters can climb trees.

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Layered Zucchini Parmesan

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I have to say, zucchini has shocked me. I never fully appreciated zucchini until recently.

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Zucchini is an awesome and super beneficial vegetable that is low in calories, aids in digestion, maintains low blood sugar, curbs overeating, provides fiber for your diet, has plenty of vitamins A and C which act as powerful antioxidants, and provides you with loads of potassium. Zucchini can be easily “sneaked” into baked breads and whatnot, aaaand it also tastes great in savory dishes like the one I’m sharing with you all today.

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You will fall in love with this zucchini parmesan. You’re going to want to make a big dish of this if you are serving it for your family. It is a good idea to double the recipe if you are planning on serving this as a meal with a salad and bread. We ate this as a side with ravioli and bread, but I will for sure enjoy it again in the future as the main dish, doubling the recipe.

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Remember, when you double the recipe, you need to double the baking time!

Layered Zucchini Parmesan

(as a side, serves 3)

1 1/2 medium zucchinis

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup colby jack cheese

1/4 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs

3/4 cup pasta sauce

olive oil

cooking spray

salt

pepper

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray a cooking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
  2. Slice zucchinis into about 1/3 inch slices, try your best to make them uniform size. Place slices in a medium size bowl and lightly coat with about 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Set aside
  3. In a medium-small bowl, mix together bread crumbs and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste (about 1 teaspoon each is good)
  4. Coat zucchini slices in breadcrumb mixtures, then lay flat on sprayed cooking sheet. Coat all zucchini slices, and once all of them are placed on cooking sheet, bake in preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Watch carefully and be sure they don’t burn!
  5. Remove zucchini slices from oven, and set aside to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, coat the bottom of a baking dish, I used a round casserole dish (about 8 inches in diameter) with a layer of pasta sauce. Next, lay a layer of the baked zucchini slices on top of the pasta sauce, use about half of them. Then layer a mixture of the colby jack and parmesan cheese on top of the zucchini slices. Layer again with pasta sauce, then zucchini, then cheese, until everything is used up. You should end with a layer of cheese on top. At this point, you may cover the dish and place it in the fridge to bake the next day, or you may bake it now if you plan on eating it right away.
  6. Heat oven to 400 degrees F and bake uncovered dish for about 8-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling. Let sit for about 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

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Random Fact of the Day: 7-11 sells 10,000 pots of coffee an hour, every hour, every day.

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Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Bread

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I don’t know if any of you have ever been to Minneapolis, Minnesota or not, but I was just visiting there for my first time ever last weekend. I have narrowed down my college search to [I think] two schools, University of Illinois and University of Minnesota. I had never actually been to University of Minnesota before, but it looked good on paper to me. Anyways, before I make any final decisions, I thought that it would be a good idea to at least check it out in person, which is what I did last weekend, which brings me back to what I really want to talk about.

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They have their train on the same road that cars drive on. Call me crazy, but it was a bit alarming to see the lights of a train right behind the car when we were driving. Particularly for my mom. Me? Well, I was a little busy peeing in my pants laughing at my mom who was driving.

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Anyways, after I learned more about it, the train seemed to make more sense, it would be super convenient for students and what-not, but a little confusing for drivers (to say the very least!). I’m guessing their trains in Minneapolis can brake a lot better than the ones around where I’m from, because there is no way I would be alive if I was in a car that close to a train in Chicago like I was in Minneapolis. Despite the seemingly near-death experience, I loved Minnesota and definitely consider it a very possible option.

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Buuuuut it was nice to get back home and in the kitchen. I had some zucchinis that I needed to use up, so I decided to make a recipe for those of you holding strong with those healthy New Years Resolutions. Whole wheat CHOCOLATE (mmm) Zucchini Bread. Bake up and dig in, friends!

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Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup buttermilk (I used 1/4 cup skim milk and about 1 teaspoon white vinegar)

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup whole wheat flour (or if you only have all-purpose, that’ll do)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa)

pinch of salt

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, sugars, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and buttermilk. Then stir in grated zucchini. Set aside.
  3. In a larger bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients using a rubber spatula. Make sure batter is thoroughly mixed and combined. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in loaf pan for about 20 minutes, then remove from pan. Enjoy!

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Random Fact of the Day: There are no rental cars in Bermuda.

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Corn Chowder

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Do you wish that you had an accent? Do you have an awesome accent and are in denial about it and still want a new accent?

That’s how I feel we all are. Because if you think about it, I guess it sounds like we have an accent to someone from somewhere, but we don’t notice it because we’re surrounded by the same accent all the time! Deeeeep…

What got me thinking about accents was chowder. I made some corn chowder the other day (more about that later), and every time I hear or think of the word chowder, it seems like it should be said “choowwwwwdaaaaa”, like with a thick New England accent.

I’m glad we had this talk.

So here’s some corn chowdaaa for you, and all the great corn that is around now! Enjoy :)

Corn Chowder

6 ears of corn

2 Tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1/3 cup bacon bits

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons thyme

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 basil leaf

scant 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 1/2 cups water

4 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup half-and-half

1/2 Tablespoon white sugar

  1. Remove the husks and silk from the corn. One at a time, stand each ear of corn up in a large bowl and use a chef’s knife to cut the kernels from the corn. Then, hold the ear over a second bowl, and use a vegetable peeler to firmly scrap any remaining pulp from the cobs into the bowl. Repeat with the rest.
  2. Spread a clean cheese cloth over a medium bowl. Transfer the pulp to the towel, and then wrap the towel tightly around it and squeeze as much corn juice as possible into the bowl. Discard the pulp that’s left in the cloth.
  3. Set a large Dutch oven over medium heat and add the butter. Let it melt, then add the onion, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cooke for about 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion has softened and is just starting to brown at the edges. Add the flour and cook for another minute or so, stirring constantly. Gradually add the water, keep stirring. Bring the mixture to a boil, then stir in the corn kernels and potatoes. Bring the chowder to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
  4. Transfer a little less than 2 cups of the chowder and the basil leaf to a blender and puree until smooth. Stir the puree back into the dutch oven. Add the half-and-half then return the chowder to a simmer. Mix in the bacon bits. Turn off the heat and add the reserved corn juice. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and mix in the sugar. Enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: Per capita, Canada has more doughnut shops than any other country.

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One Ingredient Creamy Dreamy Ice Cream

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This is absolutely, incredibly, insanely awesome.

This is ice cream, but not really ice CREAM. It’s frozen banana if you wanna get all technical on me here. But this is a great alternative for someone who is lactose-intolerant or just wants to watch their waistline. I saw this on interest a while ago, but was a bit skeptical.

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This treat is really easy and super healthy. All you have to do it chop up a banana, freeze it, grind it all up for a couple minutes in the food processor until it gets creamy and dreamy. Then mix in what you like, I used chocolate chips because chocolate rocks my socks. Finally, take a spoon and stuff your face!  You’re welcome :)

P.S. There is a slight banana taste. If you are really anti-banana, you can drown it out pretty well by adding chocolate chips or peanut butter or any other add-in.

One-Ingredient Ice Cream

1 banana

any other add-ins like chocolate chips, graham crackers, peanut butter, Oreos, nuts, etc.

  1. Slice banana into small chunks or disks and freeze in freezer until frozen solid.
  2. Place frozen banana pieces in food processor and process until smooth (about 2ish minutes). You may need to scrape down the sides every so often. If using peanut butter, process it in until fully incorporated.
  3. Stir in by hand any additional add-ins and enjoy!! :-)
Random Fact of the Day: Any free-moving liquid will form itself into a sphere in outer space because of its surface tension

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