Homemade Peanut Butter Supreme Quest-Style Protein Bars

March 15, 2015

It has been awhile since I brought you a new recipe. It isn’t that I haven’t been cooking. We have actually had countless dinner parties in the intervening time between food centric posts. My culinary silence is merely due to the fact our life has been bananas, and I haven’t had the moments to sit down and pen out the meals we have concocted. So I figured I should rectify the situation promptly and bring you a new, simple, no bake treat to enjoy!

For those of you who haven’t jumped on the fitness bandwagon yet, it is the Crossit Open right now. Every Saturday the Comp team at CF NYC does their open workout publicly so spectators can come ogle at their impressive skills (and cuteness). The team has been doing a secret santa for each other each week. Before the weekend they draw names and each team member gets or makes something small for the person they drew. This week Jay got our badass friend Kate, and since he was away all week I tackled prepping her gift. I have an out of control addiction to Quest bars which my wallet feels in spades. I have been seeing homemade versions Pinterest and figured this was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at them. Unfortunately, the first couple recipes I tried didn’t quite work out- probably because protein power can be variable and finicky. I wound up augmenting and combining a bunch of the recipes, and also looking at the ingredients list on Quest Bars (where I learned I can pronounce only a fraction of them) to create these pretty awesome bars. The result were Quest-like protein bars that are not only Paleo but also comprised of ingredients that I can pronounce. Enjoy! Continue reading “Homemade Peanut Butter Supreme Quest-Style Protein Bars”

American Thanksgiving: Homemade Curried Hummus

December 1, 2014

Lets just pause for a second. Isn’t our street beautiful this time of year? (Mad photog props to Fab for snapping the above gem). Our apartment may be winter ready and decorated for Christmas, but the rest of America still has fall and Thanksgiving to savor. Last month we hosted Canadian Thanksgiving which was such a hit (and left us with the most amazing left overs) that we opened our house once again to our family-less friends who were sticking around the city for the holidays. We were so thankful to share the day with some of our best people. Now all that needs to happen to make this past weekend a recurrent theme is for Justin to ditch Chicago, and for Aaron to move back ASAP (thanks for understanding guys).

I switched up the menu a little to try some new things, but also stuck with our tide and true favorites. Again, we kept things as vegan/Gluten-free/Paleo as possible with a few exceptions to the rule. It is a holiday after all and we need to live a little. The first of our festive eats is our Homemade Curried Hummus, which is no exception to any rule and pretty much free of everything. The subsequent menu fed a plethora of hungry millennials with left overs to spare. So, from our home to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

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Slow Cooked Homemade Buns

October 29, 2014

Here is another recipe from our Canadian Thanksgiving. By sharing all my kitchen secrets, I am really ensuring all you Americans are ready for your feast in just over a month. Now baking isn’t always my area of expertise, and I find bread to be a tricky culinary pursuit. However, as soon as I discovered that I can turn my slow cooker into an almost bread maker I was sold. Not only are these buns low maintenance and simple but they are also super healthy. You can pronounce every ingredient in them, and unlike their store bought counterparts there are no added sugars. Making bread at home is always a sure fire way to wow guests (little do they know how little work and how simple it is to do). Continue reading “Slow Cooked Homemade Buns”

Spicy Fajita Soup

April 4, 2014

Clearly I am on a culinary roll this week. It is shocking what can be accomplished when I am facing of a daunting level of work, and thus in desperate need of a creative outlet. Today’s soup comes to you as an extra show of love for Jameson who has been so supportive and patient in the midst of all the crazy. Even taking the time to walk me around the Upper West side until 10:30pm last night as I breathed in the fresh air, cleared my head and tried to let go of the day. In the meal planning process I often tend to favor my dietary preferences, and rarely cook him anything with animal protein. So on days when I am feeling extra thankful for the emotional, physical and mental resource he is for me day in and day out, I tend to plan meals that have him in mind. What makes this soup extra special is that the chef can opt the meat in or out (or add it just to the carnivorous bowls at the end like we do), thus making it the perfect flex meal for differing palates and culinary restrictions. Meat or meatless you will still get ample protein from the black beans and the flavor isn’t hindered in either version. This is a substantial, hearty meal, so enjoy. Continue reading “Spicy Fajita Soup”

Homemade Chipotle Bowl

December 12, 2013

One of our favorite things about America is Chipotle (yes fellow Canadians I know Vancouver got one right after we left). When we were in Texas for one of Jay’s closest friend’s weddings he introduced us to it’s sheer awesomeness. We experienced our first encounter with another dear friend, Tang, who is nothing short of a force to be reckoned with in terms of lifting heavy weight and eating. As such, Tang polished off two entire Chipotle bowls in that one first sitting. If that isn’t something short of amazing and a testament to the greatness that is Chipotle than I don’t know what is.

My inspiration stemmed after I had stumbled across a few recipes for a DIY bowl on Pinterest but none of them seemed to stack up (one was a cold version which just didn’t cut it for me). So I decided to try my hand at a recreation myself, and the results were spectacular. The thing about Chipotle is everyone’s bowl will taste different depending on what they choose, so I based my creation on a combination of my normal order and Jay’s. So here is our take on a healthier, cheaper and you can get it in your pajamas version of the coveted Chipotle bowl. Continue reading “Homemade Chipotle Bowl”

Christmas Past: Hosting in an intimate setting

December 11, 2013

A little throwback to a Christmas past. Last season, an old friend of Jay’s was in town with a beautiful new girlfriend at his side so we hosted a little get together so we could meet her and eat our fill of scrumptious holiday foods. At the time we were waiting to move into our new house and were renting a great, little basement suite but that left space was at a premium. However, our lack of large dinner tables nor our quaint dwellings didn’t daunt of festive decor or vast spread of eats. Below I have detailed our menu for the event, as well as my meal prep tips for small space hosting. So here is a little inspiration for hosting the masses no matter how grand a place you call home.

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Nourishing Carrot Ginger Soup

February 17, 2013

As a new teacher you are in constant contact with sniffles, runny noses and grubby fingers, and unfortunately you don’t have the immune system of a veteran educator. So in any attempt to reduce the number of times I come down with a cold I have tried to be mindful of my nutrition and weave plenty of fresh ginger root, chili and garlic into my diet. Tonight I whipped up a nourishing and hearty carrot ginger soup with a hint of sweet from the Braeburn apples, which compliments spice of the turmeric perfectly. Now I am off to catch up with some amazing girlfriends over a movie and idle chat (while I secretly oggle her three beautiful children).