Spoonful of Sugar Free

Registered Dietitian

Recipes

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

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Hey! Sorry guys I haven’t updated for a week. I’ve been really busy moving this past week, and I haven’t even had a chance to sit down at the computer!

Anyway, the family who sold us their house was extremely nice, generous, and helpful! They knew I loved to cook, so they left some goodies in the kitchen that they didn’t want/need anymore. One of the goodies included a panini maker! It looked like it had never been used before because it was extremely clean, and it still had the sticker on it.

I had been on a pb&j kick the last week or so, so I wanted to see what it would taste like panini style. The result: a warm and toasty thin bread with warm peanut butter enveloped with jelly oozing out the sides. Yeah, it was that good.

PB&J Panini

~This sandwich is a mix of 2 childhood favorites: peanut butter and jelly and grilled cheese.

  • 2 slices bread of choice (I used Nature’s Own Whole Wheat)
  • 2 Tablespoons Peanut Butter (I used Kirkland’s organic signature)
  • 1 Tablespoon all-fruit jelly or sliced bananas

Make a pb and j (or pb and b) like you normally would, and throw it in the panini press for a minute or so. Enjoy!

Here’s a pic from our new house below. My sister and I saw this strange bird walking across our lawn, and had to take a picture. Sorry about the screened in porch in the way. I didn’t want to get too close and scare it away.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What is the strangest thing that you saw walking through your yard?

I know I’ve seen a few. One time a saw the fattest squirrel eating an acorn on my backyard slide.

Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

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I’ve been itching to make my own tortillas, and I finally did today! They were surprisingly, amazingly easy to make! I’m never buying store-bought tortillas again.

My hand-shaped tortillas are lumpy...

Whole Wheat Tortillas

~These tortillas are vegan, dairy-free, whole grain, and of course, sugar-free!

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 3/4 cup warm water

First, mix all ingredients except water. Then add the water until the mixture sticks together to form a nice ball. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Heat a pan with a little bit of oil on the bottom (to prevent sticking). Meanwhile, spilt the dough into about 10 different parts and roll them into balls. Flatten the balls with a rolling pin, your hands, a cookie sheet, or whatever to make the tortilla thin. Cook the tortillas for about 30 seconds each side or until cooked to your liking (I like mine a little crisper).

Use them with your favorite dishes, or just eat ’em with a spread for a snack:

I mixed cinnamon, almond butter, and ground flax on this one.

The possibilities are endless! The batch of tortillas I made today were a little thick, so it tasted kind of like naan. Yum!

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Is there something that you always used to buy at the store until you found out that is was surprisingly easy to make! This happens to me a lot! I always find that my creations are easier on the wallet, too, than store-bought stuff.

Happy Birthday! (Yesterday)

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Yesterday was my mom’s birthday, so I didn’t have time to post anything. But……today I get to show you what i did yesterday! Yay!

First off, I got up early to make her a special Birthday Breakfast. She doesn’t like breakfast in bed, but she does enjoy a good meal. So what was this special meal? Baked Banana Oatmeal and a Fruit Salad! Served with a glass of Orange juice and hot jasmine green tea.

Baked Banana Oatmeal

~This Baked Oatmeal is vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and of course, sugar-free!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups regular rolled oats
  • round 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 Tablespoons ground flax (optional)
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional-I used a mix of almonds and walnuts)
  • 1 1/2 cups milk of choice (i used almond milk)
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 1 or 2 bananas

Simply mix all of the ingredients together except the banana(s). The batter will be thick. Now, you can use 1 banana mashed and mix it into the batter, and then top with sliced bananas; or just top with one sliced banana; or just use one mashed banana mixed into batter. For this batch, I just topped with 1 banana. Pour batter into a lightly greased glass dish (or whatever you have lying around), and bake in the oven at 350* for 30-35 minutes.

You can even make the batter the night before, and then throw it in the oven the next day. Just make sure to wait and add the baking powder right before you bake it so that the chemical components don’t die overnight. This is what I did today so that I could sleep in a few extra minutes! 🙂

Fruit Salad

Blueberries, strawberries, bananas, red grapes

Hey this salad would be perfect for July 4th-red, white, and blue!

All together, a beautiful, scrumptiously satisfying breakfast:

We didn’t really do much the rest of the day. We went to Outback for dinner, but it was a Thursday, so we were still busy. Don’t worry, we’ll go do something special this weekend. Iron Man 2 perhaps?

I did give my mom lucky bamboo, though!

Ok, the one I bought didn't look this cool, but it was still cute (and lucky!)

Did you know lucky bamboo isn’t even bamboo? It is actually a member of the lily family. Man, I learn new stuff every day!

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What have you learned recently? Anything strange, new, or exciting?

What is Stevia?

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The new sugar-substitute, stevia, has been getting a lot of attention lately as more and more health food products have been adding it to their ingredient list. What is it exactly, and is it safe for me to use?

Well, stevia is actually an herb that’s extracts can be up to 300x sweeter than regular cane sugar. Stevia also does not raise blood sugar. So far, scientific tests that have been done with stevia has not proven that it is unsafe, but I don’t think enough has been done to prove anything yet. Since it is an herb, it has no calories or grams of sugar in it. In the laboratory, steviol can be converted into a mutagenic compound, which may promote cancer by causing mutations in the cells’ genetic material (DNA). “We don’t know if the conversion of stevioside to steviol to a mutagen happens in humans,” says Huxtable. “It’s probably a minor issue, but it clearly needs to be resolved.” This would be with high doses, however, and there is not enough scientific data to confirm this yet.

What I think: I have bought one bottle of liquid stevia to try. So far, I like the taste of it (I tried the french vanilla kind), and it is easy to use. I only need a a couple drops of stevia to make foods sweet for my taste. Also, I have not had ANY reactions to it whatsoever. No headaches, no rashes, no stomach aches…. So this made me really happy. I’ve tried it in my oatmeal and other desserts, and i has been fine. I eat just a couple drops at a time, and use it minimally.  Its still an experiment to me, and I would like to see more tests done on it. The bottom line: a few drops a day won’t hurt you.

Anyway, onto a lighter subject: Breakfast! My favorite time of day. Today, I had strawberries and cream oatmeal. Mmm…Summertime gets me in the mood for this kind of stuff:

Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal:

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1 cup almond milk (or other kind of milk of choice)
  • 1/4  tsp vanilla
  • 1 Tablespoon ground flax (optional)
  • chopped strawberries

Boil the oats and milk together in a saucepan. Then, add vanilla, ground flax (if using), and strawberries. There we go! Perfect for a summer day.

After this lovely breakfast, I went out to play tennis for a couple hours with my sister. We got a good sweat in! Then, back home for lunch:

Morning-star Black bean burger over a bead of spinach, topped with cherry tomatoes. With a nice glass of a strawberry-mango smoothie. I love these black bean burgers because they are super fast to make, and taste good, too. I get them in bulk at Costco. To heat them up, I simply throw them on a pan and heat over medium-high for about 5 minutes.

The smoothie was super simple, too:

Strawberry-Mango Smoothie:

  • Frozen strawberries
  • Frozen mango pulp
  • orange juice
  • milk of choice (i use almond milk)
  • optional: protein

Simply blend ’em up! The mango pulp I use is from Goya. I recently found this in the frozen food section at Sweetbay. It was only $1.50 for one packet, and the only ingredient is mango. The packet lasts a while, too. It could probably make about 5 good-sized smoothies.

Whew! This was a long post today! I hope you got something out of my rambling!

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What do you think of stevia? Have you tried it before? Do you like the taste? If you know any more information about it, please tell me because I would really like to learn more!

Fiesta Time!

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Happy Memorial Day!!! (If I can say “happy,” what else do I say? hmmmm….) Anyway, Thank you to all of the soldiers out there right now fighting for us! My heart goes out to them, and their families.

What are you up to for Memorial Day? Picnic? Parade? Party? Have fun with your day off, if you have one. No day off for me……I still have homework…..

If you are having a party or picnic, why not serve some fresh salsa? I always get into the mood for salsa when summer comes around. At my house, I am known as the salsa queen! Whatever crazy stuff I throw into it, the salsa always turns out ok. Perfect example: A couple nights ago, we were having Mexican chicken salads (or ensalada de pollo). Then, disaster struck!!! We were OUT of salsa!!! No!!!! But…Lucky me! We still had a couple of fresh tomatoes, but no cilantro 🙁 Thus, the Leftover Salsa was born!

Leftover Salsa:

  • 2 medium sized tomatoes
  • 1/4 onion (i used purple this time)
  • handful of spinach
  • salt
  • pepper
  • lemon or lime juice
  • vinegar
  • hot sauce (optional)

Place the ingredients in a food processor (or blender) and pulse to desired consistency. I didn’t measure the spices or lemon juice or vinegar, but just added them to taste. I would say that I added about 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1/4 tsp hot sauce, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper. But have fun! It is leftover salsa after all! Add whatever you want to it!

When you read through the ingredients, you might be thinking, “Spinach?! Why would I put spinach in salsa?!” Trust me, it tastes good! I just added the spinach because the salsa didn’t look very pretty without something green in it, and I was out of cilantro. Plus, spinach is good for you! It has good calcium.

Here was my Mexican chicken salad with the salsa! A bed of spinach topped with brown rice, black beans, chicken, salsa, and homemade guacamole! (I’ll give you the recipe for guacamole another time!)

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Do you guys like to eat ethnic foods? I know I do! Greek, Indian, Spanish, Italian……What’s your favorite?

Magic Ice Cream in Seconds!

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After my creamy raw cheesecake yesterday, I wanted more creamy desserts! And FAST!!!

So what’s creamy, fast, and easy to make? Ice Cream!!!!!

What? Homemade Ice cream isn’t fast! -Oh yes it is! When its Banana Ice Cream!

Lightning-Fast Banana Ice Cream

~This ice cream is vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and of, course, sugar-free!

Ingredients

  • 1 frozen banana (yeah, that’s it)

Place the frozen banana in a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth. Voila!

It has a consistency like custard, and is perfect for a summer treat. No guilt whatsoever. I like adding a scoop of peanut butter into the blender, and sprinkling it with cacao nibs (like shown above).

This is perfect for when your bananas get too brown. Simply take the banana out of it’s peel, wrap with plastic, and throw it into the freezer. Ice cream is a good alternative for banana bread, or banana muffins.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What’s your favorite thing to do with overripe, brown bananas?