Homemade Creamy Pistachio Milk

Texas weather can and does change over night.  It's crazy; Friday was an enjoyable mid-80's, and the next morning was in the upper 40's! It never got over 55 degrees all weekend, but it's supposed to be back in the 80's by Tuesday.

Since I'm not training for a marathon like I did for the past several years, I don't mind the cold as much....because I can choose to stay inside! My workouts are mostly in the garage, but I like to make mowing the lawn a workout too. Here I am after mowing with a 20lb vest using a reel mower (no gas, no electric, just blades and you pushing) which I just finished Legs day on my Supreme 90 Day schedule.

I will usually work some sprints in across the yard as I push the mower for an extra kick-in-the-A.  Neighbors think I'm crazy (or weird)....maybe I am?  Oh well, I'd say this is functional fitness for sure.

Besides my mowing adventure, I stayed mostly indoors cooking lunches for Kelley and me throughout the week, and making several healthy treats. One said treat is a new-to-me milk I made with my Soyajoy G3 Soy/Nut Milk maker. I'm really enjoying the milks I can make and don't have to buy now. Goodbye extra added ingredients I don't want or need!

The simplicity of making milk with the Soyajoy G3 makes it even more appealing. All I did was soak a 1/2 cup of pistachio kernels in water overnight and then add them to the maker with about 4.5 cups of water. All you do then is push a button and it does the rest within 30 minutes. Pretty awesome stuff, and I love using the leftover pulp after straining in baking recipes and for added nutrition in smoothies.

If you've never made your own non-dairy milk and don't have a milk maker, you can still make it without one.  I've made coconut and almond milk with great success before, just takes more time. We all have extra time to burn anyway.....right? Please, sense my sarcasm....there's never enough time!!

To make your own, just soak a 1/2 cup of any nuts or beans you want for 8 or more hours.  I've soaked for over a day before with no issues. For beans, I suggest cooking them on the stove first; nuts are optional and make good milk cooked or raw.

Once soaked long enough, drain and rinse your nuts/beans and then blend them with 4 - 5 cups water (depending how thick or thin you like it) in a blender or food processor.  When everything is blended, pour your milk through a strainer and viola, you have homemade milk!

I like to add vanilla, stevia, and a dash of salt to the milk and the outcome is pure, milky bliss.  Use the pulp to make veggie burgers, bake into breads/muffins, or blended into smoothies. Speaking of veggie burgers, I still owe you a recipe for my veggie okara burgers on this post.

I didn't forget, but, for the same reason I should be asleep right, work is keeping me from sitting down to take the time to write it.  I just throw things together and hope for best, which it usually does turn out great. But I'm taking time to write this post, you say? Well, yeah, because I wanted to share my pistachio milk, duh.

Homemade milk goes great with homemade treats like these Pumpkin Peanut Butter Protein Cookies. Patience, recipe testing in progress.

Haven't said "duh" in a while....that felt weird, even typing.  So, I'll stop here for today, but I do have a few things I must share with you hopefully soon. For a hint on some things, how does a carrot-ginger "milk" and a healthy coconut oil peanut butter oatmeal cookie sound to you? Good, I hope, because I'll revisit these some time in the near future.

Until then, hope your weekend was well and you have a great week ahead!

Have you ever made your own milk?

Has your cooking style changed as the cooler weather sets in? I made pumpkin chili with beans and chicken that is ultimate comfort food without guilt; another thing to share soon!

Delicata Squash is Back and a Let's Do...Organic Winner!

Guess what......it's Monday. Yay. Boo.

But something I am excited about is the presence of Delicata in the store; first of the season!  I talked about my love of delicata in past posts like....

"Squash" Your Fear of Cooking

"Squashed" Again

Delicata - Fun to Say, Fun to Eat

and of course it's mentioned in my post on 6 Non-Traditional Grain-Free Cereal Options.

So, if I haven't mentioned already, I love this variety of winter squash! I see a lot of bloggers rave about Kabocha, so I need to grab some once I see it in my store's produce section. It's hard to think anything can be better than delicata though; I'll be the judge of that.

Hopefully I'll have some tasty new recipes and pictures to share using delicata and other winter squash this season. Stay tuned!

Speaking of sharing, my Let's Do....Organic Coconut Flour Review and Giveaway ended on Friday (9/14/12) and I have a winner to announce.  Congrats to Katherine for winning a bag of Let's Do...Organic Coconut Flour! Thank you to all who entered and keep checking back for the next giveaway.  Actually, I do still have a Navitas Naturals Giveaway going on until this Friday (9/21), so go enter now!

I am almost out of my coconut flour and will be getting more soon.  This stuff is perfect in healthy dishes both sweet, like this Gluten-Free Coconut Protein Granola, and savory, like Baked Coconut Salmon Cakes.

I have yet to make STUFT Mama's Coconut Cookie Dough Crumble, but will do so before running out.

Now that there's Delicata in my kitchen, I can see a coconut delicata dish creation very soon.  Hmmmm.

Have a great start to the week!!

Sugar Free Peanut Butter Protein Granola: No Oil and All Natural

Hello and welcome to Monday! Kelley and I are taking to day off from work to spend the day together.  It was our 5 year wedding anniversary last Friday, August 17th, but we've been too busy to spend quality time together until now. Hopefully couple's massages will make their way into our day!!

But first, I have to make a not-so-romantic stop at the doctor; then we'll be on our way to a wonderful day! I only half-way meant to rhyme there.....promise.

In essence of time, I'm cutting this post short; I guess I'm really still on a blog break anyway.  I just wanted to take the time to share this recipe quickie I came up with on the fly.  You ever do that? Just start throwing things together in a bowl (dry in one and wet in the other), mix, and then bake/microwave/pan fry/etc to see what you can make?

My body has been feeling run down and bloated a lot, and I'm starting to think I have an intolerance to something.  I don't like self-diagnosing things, but I'm guessing gluten might be a culprit.  That sucks if so; the only cereal we buy and love is pretty gluten not free!

Being one who loves crunch in his cereal, I just turned on the oven and started mixing gluten free oats and other goodies to create a delicious crunchy cereal I can have.  Instead of oil, I just added a touch of peanut butter and pumpkin puree, and stevia is the only sweetener.

Wow! I ate the entire batch in one day.  Now I have to make more already. I'm sorry for ever questioning the purpose of having two ovens in a home as a kid; I totally get it now!

This recipe is not exact and it doesn't need to be; that's the beauty of the whole thing! With a few changes you can make sugar free chocolate protein granola, or even pumpkin spice for the coming season.  The mix can get thick, and it would make a great healthy oatmeal cookie if you formed it into circles.

I'm too impatient for that, plus I like snacking on clusters more than cookies. Give this satisfying granola recipe a try and maybe you'll stop buying the small bag of "gourmet" granola for $10+. Maybe..

Sugar and Oil Free Peanut Butter Protein Granola

by RC Liley

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 35 min




Ingredients

2 cups Organic Rolled Oats
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 scoop vanilla protein powder; I use whey protein sweetened with stevia
1/2 cup peanut flour; or 2 more scoops protein powder plus 1 T natural peanut butter
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup pumpkin puree; mashed ripe banana is excellent too
2 packets of stevia powder or 20 drops of liquid stevia
1 tsp Vanilla




Instructions

Preheat oven to 325.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl using a wire whisk.

In a separate mixing bowl, add the pumpkin puree with 2 T milk or water.

Add the wet to the dry and stir until well combined.

On a parchment lined cookie sheet spread the mixture out evenly and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.  Every 10-15 minutes stir the granola for even baking.

Remove from oven one oats are crisping and turning a deep golden color.

Allow to cool and enjoy however you would granola.  These turn more into clusters that make them excellent for snacking at and away from home.


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Most granola recipes have a dried fruit and nuts added, but I don't care for all of that jazz.  If I want fruit, I'll add it fresh with the granola; likewise for nuts and seeds. Plus, this does have peanut butter baked into each little crunchy golden nugget.

I went through about 4 cups full of this green smoothie, plain Greek yogurt, and granola mix without even thinking about it. Consider this your warning....it's addicting!

I urge anyone reading to bake this granola as soon as possible and change it up to suit your tastes/needs.  Comment to let me know how it turns out please!

Have a marvelous Monday!

Oh yeah, congrats to Christy from Chocolate Covered Diamonds for winning the Artisana Foods Giveaway!

Mindful Monday: Protein Powder is not Food

I’ve been making and reading a lot of protein powder based recipes as of late, and wanted to make a statement to anyone who wants to hear/read it. Protein powder is called a supplement because it is meant to “supplement” your daily intake of this essential macronutrient.

Grillled chicken on salad is hard to beat for quality protein and taste!

I am guilty of thinking as protein powder as a replacement for real food protein sources in the past. Not so anymore! Great tasting protein powder is a joy to cook with in place of flour, add to smoothies, or just hold you over when you need a healthy quick fix. But we really need to get the majority of our protein from whole food sources since these have an abundance of additional vitamins and nutrients not found in a powder.


Ok, so maybe some whole meal powders have all of the extras, but it’s still processed no matter how you look at it. Plus, it’s good to have something to actually chew with various textures instead of just drinking.


Perfect Protein meal of whole grain rye toast with mixed beans, veggies and quinoa. Simple and delicious!



Of course you should still enjoy protein powder creations like these sugar free brownies!!

Beans, lentils, eggs, nuts and nut butters (yum!), chicken, fish, lean meat, whole grains, and more are perfect examples of healthy protein sources.


My favorite portable and versatile protein.


Maybe this is nothing new to you, but hopefully it helps others make real food a priority and not depend on powders and such for their nutrition. Here are several posts I made in the past with regards to protein; they are all very informative and useful to people of varying knowledge on the subject.


5 Healthy Ways to Add Protein to Your Salad
Complementary Proteins
Protein Primer
Healthy Stevia Sweetened About Time Whey Protein Review


Q: How do you get real food protein sources in your life? Are you guilty of depending too much on just mixing a powder to get enough of this vital macronutrient?

Have a wonderful week!

Gooey Sugar Free Protein Brownies: Easy to Make and Healthy to Eat!

Ugh. Monday’s are just hard to enjoy; unless you have the day off. For some reason, I just wake up annoyed at everyone on Mondays…….sorry if you encounter me on this day. But, if I have some of these awesome brownies I made, I just might be in a better mood.



Like most of my posts might be for a while, I need to make them short. But before I just give out a recipe that you’d be crazy not to love, I should ask how your weekend was. So, how was your weekend?

Do anything fun? I know a few of you fellow bloggers had tests to study for and moving into a new place. Hope everything went well with the move if you did this, and that you’re acing those tests now! I remember cramming for big tests the night before. Procrastination still means you’re getting it done; right?


I’m glad to be finished with school, and although I’d love to go back for something I am actually passionate about (I have a finance degree now), I don’t like the thought of balancing full-time work and school; and the cost too! I value family, and would like to spend the time after work with family, in the kitchen (sorry, Kelley, I know I take forever!), or exercise.


Trying to find the right balance of exercise has been stressing me more than it should lately. When I was running all the time…I just ran…..all the time. Besides different paces and few bodyweight strength moves, there was nothing more to it. Now I am working on strength and trying to keep some cardio/endurance from my running days.



I want to be stronger, so I must lift heavy...not run all the time!!! This applies to healthy eating too.



A running plan is pretty easy for me to follow, but I never feel like I’m doing enough with strength training. No matter how much I read about not getting caught up in trying to do too many lifts at once, I just feel like I “have” to spend longer. I consciously know doing barbell squats, bench, dead lifts, and bent rows works the whole body, but for some reason I want more. Sometimes my body tells me differently; it wants (needs) rest, but I’m too stubborn.


Anyway, I enjoy the variety with lifting, and have been getting stronger. Now I just need to work on eating more delicious and healthy food. I think these brownies are a big help! I just blended everything together and poured into a brownie pan and viola! Moist, tender, gooey, brownies that are guilt free and tasty!!

These are very dense, as you can see, and are best enjoyed on top or mixed into chilled Greek yogurt or even just soaked in a cup/bowl of cold milk. Have you ever blended peanut butter with just milk (dairy or non-dairy)? Do it, make these brownies, and mix some into peanut butter milk….then be happy!

P.S. - Don't try this recipe in a donut baking pan! The batter does not do well in this mold and resulted in me scraping most of them out.  Of course, these won't be wasted and I'll mash it up with frozen banana and milk. You have been warned, don't make in molds unless you want this......



What happens when you have extra batter and don't just try to make mini brownies...


I think I'll stick with these instead...

Sugar Free Chocolate Protein Brownies

by RC Liley

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 35 min

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of stevia sweetened or unsweetened protein powder; I used a 50/50 mix of unflavored whey and unsweetened vanilla soy protein powder
• 3/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup unsweetened of cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp or less of salt
• 3/4 cup egg whites
• 1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese or 0% plain (I’m sure vanilla would be great too) Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree or mashed banana
• 1/2 cup milk of choice; I used unsweetened almond milk

Instructions

Add all ingredients to bowl of a food processor and blend well.

Pour into brownie pan lined with parchment; you could try a muffin or doughnut pan too

Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes at 350 degrees F - a fork, knife, or toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean

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Whole Grain Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits You Can Eat!

Hello and welcome to the first Monday in July!  What's so great about the first Monday in July that would warrant an exclamation mark, you ask? Nothing.  Just felt like doing that.


But I did have a great weekend not having to drive anywhere and spending a lot of time in the kitchen.  Plus, Kelley and I enjoyed each other's company and even did one of the Supreme 90 workout DVDs my mom got me for my b-day. I'm more into barbell focused strength training in our garage, but this video was a great workout to mix things up. If only I could clean up all the dog and cat hair before; that drives me crazy!


Since we have Wednesday off for the 4th of July, I only made 4 meals for Kelley and me to have at work.  With the extra time, I set off to try making a few things I've been wanting to do.  I try to keep a nice stock of homemade protein baked goods to have as snacks and limit choosing packaged snacks.  Although, I do enjoy Ak-Mak Crackers and most of the Ryvita Crispbread as stand-by snacks.

I've wanted to make homemade pet treats for a while now, but always get caught up in cooking for myself or Kelley.  Then I realized I can have it both ways since dog food doesn't have to be dog food you would buy at the pet store.

Keeping the ingredient list small and the quality high, I made peanut butter dog biscuits hearts (the only cookie-cutter shape I have) with whole spelt flour, rolled oats, baking powder, milk, and natural peanut butter. Simple, toasty goodness was the result.

Kelley and I tried one. She said it wasn't very sweet (duh!) and I had to remind her it's for the animals....sugar shouldn't be present!  I would add stevia to make it sweeter, but I liked the toasted whole grain with a subtle peanut butter flavor. These tasted just like biscuits I had for breakfast as a kid; only these are homemade, whole grain, and.....for dogs.

Kelley had to hold Abby to keep her still. Guess that's how I am when there's peanut butter around...

I seriously contemplated not using as dog treats and keeping for myself instead.  There's freshly made protein cherry chia jam that would make the "heart" healthy biscuits a perfect human food. But my inner nice guy broke through and I decided to keep them for our dog, Abby, and our friend's from work dog, Chowdah. His dog means a lot to him and I think the treats will be enjoyed....maybe by them both!

Want to make tasty treats for your pet that you can eat (and enjoy) too? This is easy, the longest part is cutting into shapes, which you don't have to do.

Whole Grain Peanut Butter Dog (or Human) Biscuits

by RC Liley

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Ingredients (approx 30 biscuits)

• 1 C milk of choice; I used organic skim milk
• 3/4 C natural peanut butter
• 1 1/2 C whole spelt or another whole grain flour
• 1/2 C rolled oats
• 1 T baking powder

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix milk and peanut butter until well blended.

Add flour, oats, and baking powder to milk mixture.

If dough is too sticky, add flour 1 T at a time until able to handle

On a floured surface, roll dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shape.

Place biscuits on non-stick baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

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I think next time I will just use a pizza roller to make rectangle biscuits; they taste the same to dogs and might be easier to spread jam on for you to enjoy too.

My time in the kitchen also resulted in protein millet peanut butter bars using the recipe for Popcorn Balls from Tiana at teabagginit. Speaking of, I'd like to say congrats to Tiana for winning my Fig Food Company Giveaway! Hope you find a good choice for your free pick, Tiana! If you guys haven't already, check out her blog which has some wonderfully tasty protein recipes, good humor, and more!

I chose bars because I'm lazy and didn't feel like rolling anything. The protein cherry chia jam I mentioned earlier was another creation this weekend, and I even made homemade egg McGriddle sandwiches. When I was a "bigger boy", I used to savor these and other fast food crap all the time.  I hardly even go out to nice places now, but I had fun making this healthy version.

These things will all be discussed in further detail on future posts. But, for now, I must jet.

Q: Have you ever made your own pet treats? Did you try them yourself first?

Hopefully not if it was chicken gizzard puree.

Have a great Monday!