I'm beginning to realize that I'm exactly that way with the kitchen. I feel like getting started is like pulling teeth, but once I'm there, I'm usually content to whip up some low carb muffins, hard-cook some eggs, and clean and chop fruits and veggies so that I'll have a stocked fridge for the next few days when I need a meal or snack. There's nothing I hate more than feeling hungry and then realizing that I have to go through a million steps in the kitchen in order to make sure I have something fresh and nutritious instead of another microwaved hot dog covered in cheese. When I'm not in the mood to cook, getting into my car and driving to the nearest drive-thru is much more enticing than turning on my stove or chopping up a single cucumber.
Sometimes it's hard to convince myself to stop living like a college student and take charge of my health.
I'm working on making those long sessions in the kitchen more frequent, though, since they really do make my life so much easier all the rest of the time when it comes to eating.
Lately, I've spent a chunk of my kitchen-time on recipes I found on nutritionist Maria Emmerich's blog. I'm loving her recipes, because they so often consist of ingredients I happen to already have in my fridge and pantry, which means I can go straight to the kitchen, set the laptop on the counter, and follow her instructions. The last two things I made from her recipes turned out especially well:
Sunflower Seed Crackers:
1 cup shelled sunflower seeds
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup water
*Extra sunflower seeds (optional for topping)
Preheat the oven to 325°F-160°C. Put the sunflower seeds and Parmesan in a food processor and process until the sunflower seeds are a fine meal. Add the water, and pulse until the dough is well blended, soft and sticky. Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough out onto the parchment, tear off another sheet of parchment, and put it on top of the dough. Use a rolling pin or your hands to press the dough into as thin and even a sheet as you can get. Take the time to get the dough quiet thin--the thinner the better, so long as there are no holes in the dough. Peel off the top layer of parchment, then use a pizza cutter to score the dough into cracker shapes. Bake for 28-30 minutes, or until evenly browned. Peel off the parchment, break alone the scored lines, and let the crackers cool. Store them in a container with a tight lid. *Option: Before baking press additional sunflower seeds into the batter for an extra crunch.
Fudge-cicles (Extent of phallic shape depends on mold.):
2 ounces cream cheese
1 cup chocolate (or vanilla) unsweetened almond milk
2 packets of Truvia
3 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
Mix all together and place in popsicle makers. Serves 4
7 comments:
Food processor? Not a chance.
I like the penisicles, though. I wonder what I can do with that "batter" that doesn't involve a freezer.
Shoot, man. I always forget your freezerlessness. I mean, I thought the stuff tasted good pre-freezing, but probably not good enough to bother.
The food processor isn't necessary when you have an adorable little blender, though! So you can still make crackers! Wait. Is the convection oven working right now?
Hey, I have so few dessert options that nearly anything blows my mind. I've been dropping a spoonful of peanut butter into my chocolate almond milk and almost dying.
No convection oven still. Kamran says I can't cook anything until we get it fixed, too. I DID chop up green pepper and onions the other night to put on my skillet pizza, though, and that has been awesome.
You could make the filling for that orange cheesecake without an oven or a freezer! It's totally no-bake.
Give up that recipe!
Thanks for the shout out! I love your blog!
Thanks, Maria! Your recipes are amazing.
I absolutely love how often you use almond milk, which is not something I always have in my kitchen ever since I found out how delicious it is. I always thought soymilk tasted so strange, and I feel like the almond milk is much healthier, anyway.
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