Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Creamy Cauliflower Sauce
(from pinchofyum.com)

I found this on Pinterest and just HAD to share. Think of it as a super versatile, creamy, delicious Alfredo sauce. Lindsay on pinchofyum.com has so many other recipes that she uses this sauce with, so make sure to check her out!

So, I forgot to take a picture of the final product, because I couldn't wait to eat it, so just bear with me.

I made this with roasted spaghetti squash and stir-fried eggplant, and topped it with tilapia with my favorite spices. I also blended the spices in with the sauce, because I LOVE spicy.



Makes about 5 cups.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 large cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 5-6 cups cauliflower florets
• 6-7 cups vegetable broth or water
• 1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper (more to taste)
• 1/2 cup milk (more to taste)

Spice blend:

• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy, use more)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Garlic: Sauté the minced garlic with the butter in a large nonstick skillet over low heat. Cook for several minutes or until the garlic is soft and fragrant but not browned (browned or burnt garlic will taste bitter). Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Cauliflower: Bring the water or vegetable broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the cauliflower and cook, covered, for 7-10 minutes or until cauliflower is fork tender. Do not drain.
3. Purée: Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cauliflower pieces to the blender. Add 1 cup vegetable broth or cooking liquid, sautéed garlic/butter, salt, pepper, spice blend, and milk. Blend or purée for several minutes until the sauce is very smooth, adding more broth or milk depending on how thick you want the sauce. You may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender. Serve hot! If the sauce starts to look dry, add a few drops of water, milk, or olive oil (which adds great flavor). 

**Serving size is 1/2 cup.

Add to pasta, spaghetti squash, or rice! Or whatever you can think of...

10 Superfoods

1. Wild Salmon


Slimming Superpowers
This fish's omega-3 fatty acids could help you fight flab more effectively. They alter the expression of certain genes, shifting your body to burn fat rather than store it. Awesome.
The amazing proof: In a study analyzing the diets of 35,000 women, published in Public Health Nutrition, those subjects who ate oily fish such as salmon two to four times per week had the lowest basal metabolic indexes, a common measure of body fat.

2. Apples


Slimming Superpowers
This fruit's 4 to 5 grams of fiber not only are filling but also help ferry out some of the fat and calories you take in from other foods.
The amazing proof: People who ate an apple 15 minutes before lunching on cheese tortellini consumed 187 fewer calories in total than those who snacked on nothing beforehand, a study from Penn State University determines. How about them apples?


3. Quinoa


Slimming Superpowers
A complete protein, quinoa has all the essential amino acids needed to build metabolism-revving muscle.
The amazing proof: Reduced-calorie dieters eating about 115g of protein daily lost 22 percent more fat after four months than those who ate 70g per day, The Journal of Nutrition reports. Get that protein in!

4. Lentils


Slimming Superpowers
These legumes are rich in resistant starch (RS), a carbohydrate that may encourage fat burning and shrink fat cells.
The amazing proof: When study participants enjoyed a meal with 5g of RS - about what you get from 3/4 cooked lentils - they burned 23 percent more fat over 24 hours than when they had a meal without the starch, researchers at the University of Colorado in Denver say.

5. Olive Oil


Slimming Superpowers
Healthful monounsaturated fats found in olive oil could potentially switch on genes related to fat burning and storage.
The amazing proof: Dieters on a low-cal plan emphasizing monounsaturated fats, protein and complex carbs lost almost double the weight that dieters who ate the same calories but less total fat and protein and more carbs lost, a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals.

6. Eggs


Slimming Superpowers
The breakfast staple is loaded with choline, a compound known to help block fat absorption.
The amazing proof: After eight weeks, dieters who ate two eggs, toast and jelly for breakfast five days a week lost 65 percent more weight than those who had a same-calorie bagel breakfast without eggs, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity.

7. Yogurt


Slimming Superpowers
Lowfat and nonfat Greek and regular yogurts contain 20 percent or more of your daily calcium needs. The mineral slows production of cortisol, a hormone that encourages belly-flab buildup.
The amazing proof: People on a low-cal diet that included yogurt lost 81 percent more belly fat than those on a similar but no-yogurt plan, a study from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville concludes. This dairy is a must-do.

8. Sweet Potatoes




Slimming Superpowers
These spuds have RS, the same carbs found in lentils that may turn up the body's fat-scorching furnace. RS may also increase production of peptide hormone compounds that signal the brain to stop eating.
The amazing proof: After a breakfast and a lunch containing RS, subjects ate about 10 percent fewer calories over the next 24 hours compared with when they had similar meals with a placebo, research from the University of Surrey indicates.

9. Kiwifruit


Slimming Superpowers
A large kiwi has 84 milligrams of vitamin C - more than a day's quota. C helps from carnitine, a compound that transports fat into cell mitochondria, where it's burned for energy during exercise.
The amazing proof: People with low blood levels of C burned 10 percent less fat per pound of body weight while walking than did those with normal levels of C, a study at Arizona State University in Mesa shows. But when subjects got a dose of C, their fat burning increased fourfold.

10. Edamame


Slimming Superpowers
The green soybeans supply 17g of protein per cup, and your body torches more calories digesting protein than it does processing carbs and fat.
The amazing proof: Researchers from the Federal University of Vicosa found that people burned about 70 more calories per day when their A.M. meal contained soy protein versus other types of protein. Cool beans!

Article taken from youbeauty.com, all images found through google image search.

HIIT Interval Running Workout

Taken from fitfabcities.com

This is so hard, totally kicked my butt. Oh so good!!!!

One "bad" meal won't make you fat.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey and Cinnamon

I just posted about the benefits of sweet potatoes, and thought you might like to have an easy sweet potato recipe. I don't know if I have ever mentioned that I love cooking - I LOVE COOKING. Now you know.

I could have posted a really elaborate dish with sweet potato included in it, but hey, we need to start somewhere simple before we get to all that fancy stuff. So, this is how I make my roasted sweet potatoes, which I use as a side dish to a lot of my lunches and dinners! Even breakfast, I dice them even smaller and roast them for less time (more surface area, easier to burn!) and then I fry an egg, and put that on top of it. Mmmm. Yeah.

When I cook I never actually measure anything, but I have included measurements in this recipe because most people kind of need to know how much, so here is my best estimate!

ROASTED SWEET POTATOES
This recipe gives around 4 servings.

Ingredients
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling potatoes after cooked
1/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Lay the sweet potatoes out in a single layer on a tray. Drizzle the oil, honey, cinnamon, salt and pepper over the potatoes. Roast them for 25-30 minutes in oven, or until tender. I kind of like to leave them in longer, so just check on them and poke them with a fork!

When you take them out and transfer them to a serving platter, drizzle more olive oil on top of them.

Photo from: fortheloveofcooking.net

And that's it! So very simple! Once you get the hang of cooking these, it's a lot easier to make your own version of it, or add it into another dish. Sometimes I don't even dice them, I just cut them into sections, but those take longer to cook, because they are thicker portions. If you wrap them in aluminium foil and bake for about 45 minutes, they are also so delicious! Sweet potatoes are the bomb, I think that is my conclusion.

Benefits of Sweet Potatoes

I was sitting with a friend and eating roasted sweet potatoes, and she asked me why they were healthy. I had no clue. So, I looked it up and here is some information about it, and this is what I found on www.care2.com

Not only are sweet potatoes readily available, inexpensive, and delicious, there are many other reasons to love these yummy vegetables:

1. They are high in vitamin B6. 
Vitamin B6 helps reduce the chemical homocysteine in our bodies. Homocysteine has been linked with degenerative diseases, including the prevention of heart attacks. 

2. They are a good source of vitamin C.
While most people know that vitamin C is important to help ward off cold and flu viruses, few people are aware that this crucial vitamin plays an important role in bone and tooth formation, digestion, and blood cell formation. It helps accelerate wound healing, produces collagen which helps maintain skin's youthful elasticity, and is essential to helping us cope with stress. It even appears to help protect our body against toxins that may be linked to cancer.

3. They contain vitamin D, which is critical for immune system and overall health at this time of year. Both a vitamin and a hormone, vitamin D is primarily made in our bodies as a result of getting adequate sunlight. You may have heard about seasonal affective disorder (or SAD, as it is also called), which is linked to inadequate sunlight and therefore a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D plays an important role in our energy levels, moods, and helps to build healthy bones, heart, nerves, skin and teeth, and it supports the thyroid gland.

4. Sweet potatoes contain iron.
Most people are aware that we need the mineral iron to have adequate energy, but iron plays other important roles in our body, including red and white blood cell production, resistance to stress, proper immune functioning, and the metabolizing of protein, among other things.

5. Sweet potatoes are a good source of magnesium, which is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral. Magnesium is necessary for healthy artery, blood, bone, heart, muscle and nerve function, yet experts estimate that approximately 80 percent of the population in North America may be deficient of this important mineral.

6. They are a source of potassium, one of the important electrolytes that help regulate heartbeat and nerve signals. Like the other electrolytes, potassium performs many essential functions, some of which include relaxing muscle contractions, reducing swelling, and protecting and controlling the activity of the kidneys.

7. Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet-tasting, but their natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, helping to ensure a balanced and regular source of energy, without the blood sugar spikes linked to fatigue and weight gain.

8. Their rich orange color indicates that they are high in carotenoids like beta carotene and other carotenoids, which is the precursor to vitamin A in your body. Carotenoids help strengthen our eyesight and boost our immunity to disease, they are powerful antioxidants that help ward off cancer and protect against the effects of aging. Studies at Harvard University of more than 124,000 people showed a 32% reduction in risk of lung cancer in people who consumed a variety of carotenoid-rich foods as part of their regular diet. Another study of women who had completed treatment for early-stage breast cancer conducted by researchers at Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) found that women with the highest blood concentrations of carotenoids had the least likelihood of cancer recurrence.

9. They are versatile.
Try them roasted, puréed, steamed, baked, or grilled. You can add them to soups and stews, or grill and place on top of leafy greens for a delicious salad. Possibilities, possibilities my friends.

Read more

SWEET POTATO NUTRITION FACTS:

Sweet potatoes are low in sodium, and very low in saturated fats and cholesterol. 

Fell Off The Wagon?

So... Here is the story. Classes started up again, worked 4 jobs, got hit by a car. Then got sick. Totally lost my motivation and I had to stop exercising, and unfortunately, I started eating very poorly as well! Not to mention the new boyfriend weight, haha! But you know what? That's just life. I'm still very busy, and I try to squeeze in a workout when I can, but I know I can do better than that. I have become a pescetarian and it is one of the best decisions I've ever made!

I gained about 20 pounds since the last post because of all the bizarre things happening to me, felt horrible about it, but I know that flukes happen and I'm going to my best to be healthy, do my best to train, and I know I'll be on top it in no time.

Maybe I haven't been able to be as strong with my healthy lifestyle, but you know what, I'm back and I'm going to do it the right way and not beat myself up about it, but have goals in mind. I want to run a half marathon in April (difficult to train since there is snow absolutely everywhere in Boston right now), want to get back to my measurements! I never intended to be healthy temporarily, hit a goal and then just pretend like I'm done. I want to be in it for the long run, so gradual changes are so important. I exercise AT LEAST 4 times a week, and I eat as healthy as I can. I indulge sometimes, but that is perfectly fine - because I'm not on a diet, this is my life. I choose the healthier life, I choose to get back on track if I fall off.