Beef Egg Rolls w/ Ginger Carrots and Coconut Oil

Surprise, Surprise -- because I love a good challenge (and because I already eat lots of vegetables so I figured this couldn't be too difficult) I decided to go VEGAN for the month of December. No worries, as I have a very carnivorous boyfriend, expect some of the same meat-friendly recipes (in moderation, of course.) But, on the contrary, I'm excited to share with you all some of my "get creative" meals here and there in the great big mix of holiday classics and boyfriend-friendly meals. Starting with these awesome egg rolls. Make them in large numbers for a party, or just a few for your dinner.

Servings: 2 (3 egg rolls make one full meal)

What You'll Need:

• 1 package egg roll wrappers (I found a brand named Nasoya that makes a pack of 20 wraps for $3.99 -- plus you can refrigerate the ones you don't immediately use -- win!)
• 1/2 package meatless crumbles (vegan fake meat; but feel free to use half a pack of ground beef if you're not down for the cause)
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger 
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (they make these awesome squeezie tubes now for both ginger and garlic; find them in the salad area of the grocery store)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 large carrot
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

The Step-by-Step:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium pan, spray some cooking spray. Heat the meat with the garlic and stir until combined (if using ground beef, stir until the meat is no longer pink.)
3. Turn the heat down to low, and with the spoon, scoot the meat to the side of the pan, and respray the open space. Using a grater, grate the carrot into small shreds right in the open space. Add the ginger and coconut oil to the carrots, and stir. After about 5 minutes, turn off the heat.
4. Take a egg roll wrapper and spoon a little bit of the meat in a line down the middle of the wrapper. Repeat with some of the carrots, but on top of the meat. Use your fingers to make the line as neat as you can.
5. Wet your fingertips with a little water, and fold up the egg rolls (see pictures below.)
6. After you've wrapped all the egg rolls and placed them on the pan, use your fingers to wipe a little olive oil on each of them. Bake for 20 minutes.
7. Optional tips: Serve with chopped green onion and teriyaki sauce.

xoxo n

And for the record -- I was mistaken, being vegan is difficult.

Garlic Lime Shrimp & Kale Salad

The perfect salad that even the kitchen-challenged can make.
Take a swing at it!

Servings: 2 (tuppleware the extras and put the dressing in a plastic baggie! lunch tomorrow!)

What You'll Need:

• 1 lb raw shrimp (about $8.00 at the grocery store)
• Mrs. Dash -- Garlic Chili Lime seasoning
• 4 cups fresh kale (easy sub: fresh baby spinach!)
• Dressing of Choice (I used Cranberry Gorgonzola dressing from Trader Joe's!)
• Cooking Spray
• Oven/Baking Sheet

The Step-by-Step:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place the shrimp in a small bowl and lightly spray with cooking spray.
3. Use your (clean) hands to lightly toss the shrimp.
4. Sprinkle some of the Mrs. Dash seasoning (about 2 tablespoons) and toss again until each shrimp is seasoned. If you don't have this garlic chili lime seasoning, try salt, pepper, squeezing a fresh lime, and adding some fresh chopped garlic. I like this Mrs. Dash seasoning because it is salt-free, but Get creative!
5. Spray the baking sheet with cooking spray, and place the shrimp on the pan.
6. Bake the shrimp for 15 minutes.
7. Place kale in two bowls and top with cooked shrimp.
8. Drizzle on some dressing of your choice!

xoxo n

Sweet: A Thanksgiving in Sugar Land

With all of the travel that I've been doing for work and the holiday season, I'm now back in action. And the good news is, that means more recipes! But first, I thought that I would share some personal photos of my sweet sweet Thanksgiving in my hometown of Sugar Land, TX -- with those I love.

Spent some quality time (& dance moves!) with my mom....

Drove to Austin....

Oh, and we ate....

Visited the State Capitol (my Austin had a blast!)....

Helped my brother organize his college planning (let's go Howard!)....

Ate some more...

Saw some great Dulles High School basketball (go Vikes!)....

...and ate some more

So readers -- happy holidays from my family to yours.

xoxo n

Personal Apple Pies

October is over. So over. In fact, it's 16 days over.
But..... to conclude AppleFest once and for all (I had so much fun!) I had to share with you these Mini Apple Pies! These babies were so unbelievably easy to make, using fresh apple, and also -- only about 100 calories a pop!

Servings: 8

What You'll Need:

• 1/2 an apple
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon ground ginger (if you dont have these individual spices, or don't want to buy three spices, you can buy 1 tube of apple pie spice! it has all of the above in one.)
• 1 can Pillsbury Crescents (in the refrigerated section by the dinner rolls!)

The Step-by-Step:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Chop the apple into small pieces and place in a bowl.
3. Add the spices to the apple pieces and stir, until evenly coated.
4. Open the can of crescents and unroll the dough. You'll see that it is already separated into triangle shapes.
5. Take a triangle, place about two spoonfuls of apple mixture at the widest point of the triangle.
6. Roll the dough over the mixture, and keep rolling until you're at the skinny part of the traingle.
7. Use a fork to poke three holes into the top of the pie.
8. Place your "pies" on a flat baking pan, and bake for 15 minutes (make sure to keep an eye on them!)
9. Let cool for 5 minutes before eating.

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The apples cook perfectly -- even in the few minutes in the oven, creating great juices and flavors. Best part -- portion control is built in, so you won't eat too much and regret it later. Make these before friends come over, and you'll impress them with your cooking "skills" -- aren't you glad crescents were invented? Shh, I won't tell :)

xoxo n

Also -- if you didn't get a  chance to see my Instagram video, watch it here to see the step-by-step!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles w/ Cheesecake Centers

Remember when I said (when setting up this blog) that I would post the occasional unhealthy (yet wonderful) recipe? I wanted (and continue to want) Table Haven to reflect how a truly healthy life is. While even with the best intentions, anything (even healthy eating) followed 100% is unhealthy because it festers obsession and rigidity -- which, in my opinion, is mentally unhealthy.

Cookies filled with cream cheese? TO-DIE-FOR!

I came across this recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles on Pinterest (link here) and I just had to try. They were absolutely wonderful, and I made enough to bring some to work and share with Austin and his housemates. A coworker of mine said "I don't like pumpkin, cheesecake, or snickerdoodles, but all together these are AMAZING!" This past week, Austin mentioned that his housemate is still talking about the cookies, and is asking me to make them again while she "will even buy the ingredients!"

The only change I made when following Alyssa's (the writer at therecipecritic.com) recipe is I found it hard to work with the dough and stuff with the cream cheese mixture -- it was way too sticky. What I did instead was roll the dough in the sugar mixture first, so i could flatten it into a circle, then add the cream cheese. Then I would do the same with the top circle, and it was then easy to roll the circles into a ball.

Either way, this recipe was a hit! I thank Alyssa and other experienced bloggers for posting such great content and being such great role models for younger bloggers. Happy fall, everyone!

xoxo n

Let's Talk!

This week, I was in Trader Joe's (so dangerous!) and before managing to not put pumpkin bagels in my cart (hear, hear! small victories are still victories,) I found myself stopping to think in the dairy section. I know, complete nutritonal nerd moment.

Being a health-conscious consumer today has shifted into who has the most "pins" on Pinterest, and how many skinny six-packs in bikinis we see on our Instagram feed (also known as "fitspo.") Yes, of course -- how many calories you consume and what quality of foods you choose to eat are very important. Having a sense of motivation is important. Please know that I agree with these conclusions. What's sad about this, though, is that we get caught up in the numbers. As someone who works in finance, I know first-hand that it isn't always the number that matters by itself -- but rather -- what that number means. So when you have X amount of calories to eat in a day -- that number matters -- but what you need to look at is what's behind that number -- what makes up that number. There's a huge difference in eating 1200 calories of french fries, and eating 1200 calories of chicken breast, asparagus, an egg white omelette, and some roasted tilapia with brown rice for dinner. Even better -- eating 1500 calories of what I just listed, and getting in a 300 calorie workout after work (so your calorie total would still equal 1200.) Does that make sense?

In the dairy aisle (where this epiphany placed itself in my head,) I was shopping for half & half. Ever since starting my health journey -- I've heard that eating "clean" includes drinking water (very important, I agree,) but if you must "indulge," you can drink unsweetened tea or black coffee. Umm, what? That's not indulging. Ever since starting a full-time job after college (quite frankly, even before that -- when I was a Wall Street intern) I've learned that not only am I more productive in the morning with coffee, but I really love the taste of it (it's so delicious, no?) I have to admit, its become a habit, but I like it. And I'm proud of the fact that I'm not one of those people that have to have a coffee at 2:30 pm too -- because by then -- I've started well into my daily 8 glasses of water and am full of energy. That morning coffee (note: singular) makes me proud that I can indulge in moderation, and yes, I add cream and sugar (Amen.) Anyways, instead of using the regular half & half they have on tap at work (literally on tap -- you pull the lever and watch it pour into your cup, not knowing how much you are actually drinking) -- I bring my own fat free half and half -- store it in the fridge, and put it in the coffee I buy when I return to my floor. Fat-free half & half has about 20 calories per 2 tablespoons, while regular has double that. Its only a 20 calorie savings, but if I'm going to have "my coffee," that sacrifice isn't much to bear.

Back to the story. I was reaching for the fat-free as usual -- and for some reason, I thought to look at the back label to make sure this brand at Trader Joe's was still the same 20 calories. It was -- but something else caught my eye -- the long ingredient list! What the hell is corn syrup doing in there? And dipotassium -- what? That doesn't even sound attractive -- and in cream? HUH?

 

Then I dared to look at the regular half & half -- surely I thought that if the "healthy" version had so many additives and just plain unnatural things in it (since I'm a baker, I knew that half & half literally was made from half milk, and half cream, hence the name.....) then the regular version MUST have crap in it too -- after all, thats what "extra" calories were made of.... right?

Well -- to my surprise:

As a well-informed person that is trying to eat better for yourself, its really important to know what you are eating, instead of just how much. Milk & Cream is what Half & Half is SUPPOSED to be! And those are ingredients that don't sound like a chem lab! That is what you want!!!

Let's just say -- my mind and my body feel alot better with the regular. My coffee has never tasted better. That "extra" twenty calories was made of the real stuff -- and that's better than cutting corners and eating a "fake number" any day -- whether in finance or in life.

Sometimes, it is true -- when it comes to ingredients -- less is more.

xoxo n

Israeli Cous Cous with Apples & Cranberries

Hi everyone -- made this the other day on a whim and I just had to share. Israeli Cous Cous (its like a happy medium between rice and pasta, and in a ball shape) is delicious! I simply cooked mine in chicken broth, and added in dried canberries and diced apples. It was SOOOO delicious. Sorry, usually I am better at describing the food I make, but literally that is the only word I can think of. I made another batch just a couple of days later, because Austin gobbled up what was in my fridge and it made me sad that there was none left for me! Hahaha. Not to mention -- it takes 20 minutes!

Servings: 4 (makes four side dishes, if you want it to be a main dish, it will only make two servings -- and add a protein like chicken -- yum!)

What You'll Need:

• 2/3 cup Israeli CousCous (sometimes called "Pearl CousCous" -- to get an idea of the price, I got a box of the stuff from Trader Joe's for $2.99 -- totally doable on any budget!)
• 1 cup fat-free chicken broth (such as Swanson's)
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries (Craisin's works!)
• 1/2 an apple
• Pinch of Salt, Pepper, & Garlic Powder
• OPTIONAL: Olive Oil, Crushed Garlic

The Step-by-Step:

1. Heat the chicken broth in a small pot  (the size appropriate for heating a can of soup,) then add the cous cous
2. Stir, and let cook until the liquid almost disappears (about 6-8 minutes)
3. While the cous cous is cooking, take the cranberries and cut them into small pieces, and then take the apple and cut it into small chunks
4. When the cous cous is done, turn off  the heat and let sit for 2 minutes
5. Add in the cranberries, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and stir
6. Optional: If the cous cous is sticking together, add a dash of olive oil
7. Optional: For more flavor, mix a little bit of crushed fresh garlic
8. When serving, top with some apple chunks!

This warm, comforting, yet fruity dish lends a nice change from the usual. The chicken broth adds a depth of poultry flavor that you would miss by cooking the cous cous in plain water... so all in all, this is kind of like a healthy cousin of thanksgiving turkey with cranberry sauce. Enjoy this clean eating!

xoxo n

side note

this past weekend, i reunited with lots of college friends at my alma mater's homecoming -- one of Austin's fraternity brothers came up to me and said they love my blog and made my breakfast avocado! it really touched me!! even though this blog is a labor of love, and i truly love writing about my cooking escapades -- your comments as readers really keep me going on those tough long days. i really appreciate your words, alex! :)