Healthy spring pasta: Roasted Spaghetti squash with tomato/olive oil sauce +ground chicken

I've been craving pasta and carbs a lot lately. I know pasta isn't the greatest when it comes to nutritional value, so I made a healthy spin on a classic. I used spaghetti squash as my "pasta" in this dish. All of the vegetables I used in this sauce remind me of spring. It is so gloomy out, this pasta gave me hope that spring is on it's way.

This dish is one of my favourites, and is loaded with vitamins A & C, good carbs, and protein. You can't go wrong with eating this rainbow!

I ate this "pasta" with my mean green Kale & Broccoli salad, this recipe is also on my blog

Feeds 6-8

Ingredients
2 spaghetti squash
2 yellow onions
3 cloves garlic
1 bunch asparagus
1 bunch basil
1 lemon
6 tbsp olive oil
5 vine ripe tomatoes
12 cherry tomatoes
1lb extra lean ground chicken
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Cut spaghetti both squash in half lengthwise
3. Place face down on an oiled baking sheet
4. Bake for an hour or until done
5. In the meantime, dice onions, garlic, tomatoes, slice the asparagus
6. Heat olive oil in a large skillet
7. Sweat onions until fragrant
8. Add garlic and sweat
9. Add tomatoes and asparagus
10. Cook until the tomatoes lose their form and create a sauce like texture
11. In another pan cook the ground chicken
12. Add the olive oil tomato sauce to ground chicken once it is cooked
13. Finish the sauce off with torn basil and lemon juice
14. Season with salt and pepper to taste, keep tasting your food while you cook to ensure the perfect meal
15. Once the spaghetti squash is roasted, remove seeds, and scrape the squash out with a fork
16. Spoon some of the ground chicken/ tomato olive oil sauce on top of the roasted squash
17. Garnish with more basil and real grated Parmesan cheese

Enjoy!

-Alexandra

Mean Green Kale & Broccoli salad

I just got back from Miami and I think I brought some of the good weather back with me to Toronto. It started to warm up as soon as I returned! When the weather gets nicer I always crave lighter foods than in the winter. I've been trying to be a good girl and eat all my veggies lately. I decided to make a salad with kale and broccoli. Kale is a super food chocked full of amazing nutrients. It's a little bit tough and bitter. It's best to let this salad sit in the fridge for a couple hours before consumption to marinate and soften up the kale. This procedure takes away from it's bitterness. Here it is! The whole family loved it, including my picky father.

Ingredients
1 bunch kale
1 bunch broccoli
1/2 red onion
1 green apple
1 hand full pepitas
2 handfuls raw almonds
1 cup raisins (you could use dried cherries or cranberries also)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Wash and chop kale into bite sized. Pieces
2. Wash broccoli and cut florets into bite size pieces
3. Peel stems of broccoli and julienne
4. Dice onion and green apple
5. Roughly chop almonds
5. Toss all ingredients together in a bowl


White Balsamic & Honey Vinaigrette

Ingredients
1tbsp Dijon mustard
3tbsp honey
4tbsp white balsamic vinegar
6tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Place first 3 ingredients in a bowl
2. Mix together thoroughly
3. Slowly pour in the extra virgin olive oil while whisking to emulsify the vinaigrette
4. Pour over salad, and toss
5. This salad is good for up to 5 days refrigerated

Eat the rainbow!

-Alexandra

Buckwheat Banana pancakes

I'm a little crazy about pancakes lately. I really enjoy finding new healthy ways to make this otherwise nutrient lacking breakfast favourite.

Today it's a dark rainy Sunday. What better way to start the day than with banana pancakes! "Make you banana pancakes, pretend like it's the weekend. Can't you see that it's just raining? Ain't no need to go outside. " Jack Johnson is on point with this song. So here's another healthy spin on pancakes! I used buckwheat and almond flour instead of regular white flour. Buckwheat is a fruit seed that is higher in fibre than white flour, and it is also gluten free. The almond and buckwheat flour add a slight nutty taste to these pancakes. If you're allergic to nuts you can substitute coconut flour for the almond flour.

Ingredients

Serves 2 people

2 ripe Bananas
2 eggs (or 4 egg whites)
1tbsp sprouted chia & flax seeds
1/8 cup + 3tbsp almond flour
1/8 cup Buckwheat flour
1/2tsp baking powder
Pinch cinnamon (optional)
Coconut oil (for cooking)





Method

1. Mash ripe bananas with a fork until purée like
2. Add eggs
3. Place dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients
5. Mix until well combined
6. Place coconut oil in frying pan
7. Cook pancakes on medium low heat until golden brown on each side
8. Enjoy with real maple syrup or agave syrup and fresh fruit

Enjoy!

Alexandra

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

Soups are one of the most comforting foods in my opinion, especially pureed soups. The weather here in Toronto has been anything but spring like to me. Hello! It's April! When is this spring weather coming?!? Canadian winters are too long, and sometimes I think I live in the wrong country. In my ideal world it would only snow for 1 day of the year, and that day would be Christmas. After Christmas all the snow would melt, and the frosty cold winter would be done and over with...The weather would warm up, and resemble the climate of the caribbean. What a dream that would be.

Unfortunately the weather is anything but tropical here, so I decided to bring a touch of the tropics to my kitchen with my sweet potato and coconut soup. Coconut brings back memories of lounging on caribbean beaches and sipping coconut water. I love coconut! I really love sweet potatoes too! They are my favourite root vegetable. I love them because they are inexpensive, delicious. and nutritious. They contain a higher fibre content than regular potatoes. They're also packed with vitamin C, beta carotene (which is great for your skin), iron, and vitamin D. 

This soup was so comforting, healthy and delicious!  I made a really big batch, because I like to share my food with the people I love. I also love freezing soups for days that I don't have the time to cook. I like clean eating and eating foods made from scratch, so this system works well for me. You can garnish this soup with chives, plain greek yogurt, coconut cream, diced red pepper, crostini, bread, sweet potato chips, croutons, or parsley. I enjoyed my soup plain because I was famished, and so excited to get this soup in my belly!

This soup was also my lunch the next day. I had it with Romaine lettuce wraps, with hummus, cuccumber, shredded carrot, red onion and avocado.

Ingredients

3 medium onions

5 cloves garlic

1 red pepper

1/2 bunch celery (5-6stalks)

2 carrots

5 medium sweet potatoes

6 cups vegetable stock or water

1 can unsweetened coconut milk

1 tbsp coconut oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Wash, peel and cut all vegetables

2. In a large stock pot, melt coconut oil

3. Add onions, sweat them out

4. Add celery, carrots, and garlic sweat them out also (by sweat I mean cook until you can smell the vegetable's aroma)

5. Add sweet potato, red pepper, vegetable stock, and coconut milk

6. Simmer about 20-30 minutes until the vegetable in the soup are cooked

7. Once all vegetables are cooked, puree the soup with a hand blender or blender until smooth

8. Taste the soup, and season with salt and pepper to taste

Enjoy!

Alexandra 

Protein pancakes!

Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes! They bring back some of my happiest memories. From childhood sleepovers, to lemon ricotta pancakes an ex would make me, mother's day brunch pancakes, to oat pancakes my sister would make me for my birthday, and buckwheat pancakes...the list of pancake memories could go on forever.

I feel like I'm going through a quarter life crisis lately... When I would picture my life at this age when I was younger, I pictured it to be more "together" than it is right now. The optimist in me tells me everything will be just fine and fall into place the way it's supposed to.

I made these protein pancakes today, not only put a smile on my face but to make me feel like I have my life together.

These pancakes are a healthier alternative to your white flour pancakes that are high in fat, and lack nutrients. The sprouted flax/chia powder and banana add fibre. The egg white and soy protein add protein. These pancakes surely started my day off right. I hope you enjoy these babies as much as I did.

Protein pancakes

Makes 3 pancakes

Ingredients
1 ripe banana
2 egg whites
1tbsp sprouted chia & flax seed
1 scoop soy or egg protein (I have tried whey protein, and the texture isn't as nice and fluffy as when you use soy or egg protein)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Coconut oil (for frying)

This is the brand of flax/chia seeds that I used. If you can't find this product, you can use ground flax seeds.

Method
1. Mash up the banana very well
2. Mix in the remaining ingredients
3. Place coconut oil in frying pan over medium low heat
4. Fry until golden brown on each side
5. Serve with fresh fruit and real maple or agave syrup. I ate mine with mango, banana, shredded coconut, and pepitas, and real maple syrup.

Have a happy + healthful day!

- Alexandra