Sometimes, a balanced diet is food that you can hold in both hands. Like this falafel. Yes it’s fried and yes that’s why it’s oh so crispy ‘n good. Could you bake them? Sure. But should you? No. These are just as good on a pita as they are atop a bowl of greens. Get the dEATs below.

Oftentimes dishes with beans can be a bit…mushy. I don’t often fry foods, but when I do, it’s for good reason. Frying these little discs of pinto beans provides the perfect exterior crunch. I use canola oil, which often gets a bad rap. It’s actually the best oil for cooking (vs finishing) because of the neutral taste and high smoke point. Why does smoke point matter? Because if you heat an oil beyond it’s smoke point, it starts to get rancid and loses a lot of its good-for-you compounds. One of those good-for-you compounds is omega 3 fat ALA (alpha linoleic). Canola oil can offer heart healthy benefits, such as lowering bad “LDL” cholesterol. For more on the benefits of canola oil, check out this article from Cooking Light.

These falafel have a tex mex flair with cilantro and crushed blue corn chips to add some additional crunch and hold together the patties. The patties come together in just a few minutes with 7 ingredients: pinto beans, blue corn tortilla chips, sliced green onions, Monterey Jack cheese, cilantro, cumin and an egg. Cutting up herbs is always my pet peeve and for many years, I avoided recipes with fresh herbs because I hated spending the tedious time to chop or pick off the leaves. The world turned a new leaf when I discovered two hacks 1.) the food processor and 2.) a kitchen shears. Since this recipe only requires a couple of tablespoons of fresh herbs, I used my kitchen shears to “chop” the green onions and cilantro. It’s a game changer.

The next step is forming the mixture into small balls or discs. I found that the mixture holds together a little better in a meatball shape and retains more of the soft interior, but is also a bit more cumbersome to cook evenly. My husband prefers meatball-style, but I prefer flat discs, which are crisper and easier to cook because it only requires one flip. You could also form larger patties for more of a sandwich, but you’ll want to be careful when flipping to ensure the patties remain whole.

I paired my falafel with a dairy-free and paleo tzatziki sauce. While I’m not lactose intolerant, I try to limit the amount of milk-based products that I eat and have found that for me personally, it’s helped to clear up my skin. The base of this creamy tzatziki is coconut cream, seasoned with fresh cucumbers, dill, lemon juice and garlic. It’s best to allow this mixture to thicken for an hour in the fridge; this also allows the flavors to meld together.

Falafel with Paleo Tzatziki Sauce
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Falafel
1 (15 oz) can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 C of finally crushed blue corn tortilla chips
1/2 C Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 T sliced green onions (green parts)
1 T cilantro, chopped
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1 egg
Canola oi for frying

Tzatziki Sauce
1 (14 oz) can of coconut cream
1 seedless cucumber, diced
2 T fresh lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp onion powder
3 T fresh dill, chopped
Salt, to taste
Optional Fixings
1 pint of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1 carton of pea shoots
4 slices of pita bread (if making a gyro-style sandwich)
Greens (if make a salad)

Directions:

Step 1: Make the patties by placing the pinto beans in a medium bowl. Mash to your desired consistency, then add the remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Shape the mixture into 12-16 balls or discs an inch or 2 in diameter.

Step 2: Cook the falafel by heating 1/2 inch of canola oil in a fry pan over the stop top on medium heat until it sizzles when a few drops of water are added. Careful, it will splatter! Turn down the heat if it splatters too much. Add the balls or discs to the fry pan, flipping as appropriate every 2-3 minutes until a crust forms on the exterior.

Step 3: Prepare the tzatziki by placing the coconut milk in a small bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, if not overnight to thicken and amplify the flavor.

Step 4: Assemble the pita sandwiches or salad with your favorite fixings. I’ve eaten these both gyro-style and as a salad, with generally three falafel per serving.

Recipes adapted from MyRecipes.com and Jay’s Baking Me Crazy.

These are easy to prepare at the beginning of the week and eat for lunches or dinners throughout! While I haven’t froze them, I imagine you could freeze and re-heat in a toaster oven.

The post I’ve Falafel In Love appeared first on The Shooks Life.

When your furbaby is such a good boy that you *almost* want to share your backyard picnic – almost. This week I’ve been testing out plant-based meals from Sprinly, a company that delivers fully prepared, chef-inspired and nutritionist-approved organic meals across the Midwest. Most of the time when people hear “plant-based” or “vegan” they think soy or salads; the epitomy of boring. Here’s some straight talk from an omnivore who loves plants and meats alike: it just don’t gotta be that way. Check out the dEATs below.

The plant-based arena is exploding right now and for a good reason – more and more people are realizing the value a balanced, nutritious diet with plants as the center of plate. That’s not to say that meat doesn’t have a place for some. I like a good steak as well as any meat eater, but I do try to limit my consumption of meat for a variety of health and environmental reasons. Others are taking note after an Oxford study indicated that a shift to a fruit and veggie-forward diet could lead to 8 million lives saved by 2050, a two-thirds reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a multitude of healthcare savings.

Sprinly led the charge in May 2016 when Ray Lui, who was at the time a consultant working 120 hours a week , struggled to find the time to eat healthy meals. Lui found inspiration from all the global cuisines that he came across while backpacking across Asia, Italy and Brazil with his girlfriend, Mary McCann. After this epic trip, they took a leap of faith to begin a food start-up that would offer healthy meals to like-minded people like you, me and all your desk junkie co-workers looking to clean up your diet. Lui set out to prove that healthy food could not only be convenient, but also exciting! And Sprinly was born.

There are a lot misconceptions about plant-based meals being all salads and no substance. Now let’s be real – there were salads on Sprinly’s rotating menu, but they were anything but boring and were just the right amount of filling. Sprinly offers a variety of meals plans starting at 6 meals per week, with the option to skip a week or cancel at any time. All meals are vegan, gluten-free, organic and delivered to you fresh via FedEx or UPS in an insulated box each Tuesday.

Here are the six meals I received:

1.) Ancient Quinoa with Royal Beet Medallions and Greens (shown above, top)

2.) Grapefruit Citrus Tofu & Tempeh with Soba Peanut Noodles (shown above, bottom)

3.) Mediterranean Veggie Kofta Crumble with Vegan Tzatziki and Cucumber Tomato Salad (shown below)

4.) Citrus Detox Salad with Roasted Beets and Fresh Oranges

5.) Mushroom Bourguignon wiht Roasted Cauliflower Mash

6.) Pasta Primavera Marinara with Gluten-Free Pasta and Cashew “Parm”

My favorite of the meals was the Mediterranean Veggie Kofta, a unique spin on what is traditionally a minced meat dish with spices originating in Asia. The base was a blend of lentils, portobellos and walnuts that surprisingly matched the texture of ground beef and provided an earthy flavor. Lentils are actually higher in protein than quinoa (though not all 8 essential amino acids) and a good source of iron, which is key to energy production and a healthy metabolism. Many vegetarians and vegans struggle to get enough iron in their diets since meat is a primary source, so lentils are a great alternative.

What made this dish was all of the textures and flavors that fused together to deliver a plate of complex, but unified flavors. Atop the veggie kofta was a layer of turmeric brown rice offering a slight citrus and ginger scent. Pickled cabbage woke up your tastebuds with some vibrant acidic flavor. The dish is then topped with a fresh salad of cucumbers and tomatoes, layered with a creamy vegan tzatziki sauce to tame all of the flavors. This dish was a mastery of global fusion and all you had to do was heat, and eat!

The Citrus Detox Salad was the lightest of the six meals, but was also surprisingly filling, fresh and perfect after a sweaty session at the gym. Atop the bed of greens were: cooked beets (my favorite!), matchstick carrots and radishes, Valencia oranges, pea shoots and crunch pumpkin seeds. Fun fact that 1/4 C of pumpkin seeds has as much protein as an egg! Who knew? The salad was then topped with a refreshing, yet creamy grapefruit vinaigrette that brought to life the salad. Despite the fact that I waited a day to eat the meal, the greens were still fresh. Note that Sprinly includes a stamp on some of the meals that says “Eat me earlier” to let you know which meals you should prioritize eating first to avoid spoilage. Generally all meals will last up to 5 days in the fridge though.

The Pasta Primavera was the most traditional of the meals. Gluten-free pasta was tossed with a marinara sauce filled with sauteed veggies like zucchini, summer squash, portobellos and spinach. I also like that each box lists some of the health benefits of the ingredients. On this box, Sprinly shared that, “Summer squashes are rich in minerals, and a valuable source of copper, manganese, magnesium, and more! Yellow varieties in particular are loaded with carotenoids, helping reduce the risk of certain cancers and eye diseases.” The unique aspect of this dish was the cashew “parm” which was a vegan take on Parmesan cheese made with cashews, nutritional yeast and lemon juice. I’ve written about nutritional yeast in some of my other blog posts – it really is amazing how it can mimic the flavor of cheese.

To be completely unbiased, the Mushroom Bourguignon was my least favorite of the meals, though still good. The sauce was a little too acidic for my taste, but my husband liked it. And while I liked the consistency and flavor of the cauliflower mash, it still felt like something was missing from the dish. There was a lot of “gravy” compared to the mash and I was yearning for something to bit into like a piece of paleo cornbread to help scoop up the extra sauce.

The last two meals are the Beet Medallions and Tofu with Peanut Soba Noodles. I snuck a taste of both, but am planning to fully divulge this evening. Both held up well through Saturday (five days after receiving the meals) and the peanut soba noodles get a fresh spin from chopped grapefruit and alfalfa sprouts. The beet medallions are a bit of a take on a veggie burger with a blend of black beans and beets to create a patty that holds together well as the main stage of this dish, which is served with a smokey and creamy paprika sauce.

All in all, Sprinly impressed with its unique flavor combinations that were anything but the standard vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free fare – which can get old. And if you’re like me and live to eat – this will send you on a flavor adventure with limited effort. Highly recommend you check out Sprinly if you’re in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky or the Chicago area. And if not, write to Sprinly to let them know the rest of the world needs this!

If you’re looking for a convenient option way to incorporate more healthy, plant-based meals into your diet, I’d highly recommend Sprinly!

The post Adventures of Plant-Based Eating with Sprinly appeared first on The Shooks Life.

Healthy spins on classic dishes is my jam. And this veggie-filled bowl takes on the king of Italian dishes: chicken parm. This parm inspired veggie bowl is next level with Parmesan-crusted portobello mushrooms, pesto-infused quinoa, peppery arugula and fresh tomatoes drizzled with EVOO and shreds of fresh Parmesan cheese. I may never look at chicken (or eggplant) parm the same way. Get the dEATs for this Parmesan-Crusted Mushroom Bowl below!

I’m not usually one to read into a lot of hocus pocus, but there are a few defining characteristics of Aquarians that ring true to my core – and originality is one of them. I get a little thrill when I conjure up a new recipe especially when it seems so ridiculously obvious that you wonder, why didn’t someone else think of this? I get bored pretty easily and have been rotating through the same old salads for a couple of weeks. As I was walking home from work thinking about lunch the next day (I am ALWAYS thinking about what I’m going to be eating next, anyone else? Must be some innate cave woman survival mode mentality), I passed by an Italian restaurant and a little light bulb flickered on – chicken parm! There’s got to be a way to infuse all those comforting Italian flavors into a salad. And because it would be too easy to just translate to chicken I though, what about a mushroom version? Eureeka! The Mushroom Parm Bowl was born.

Based on most of my blog content, you might be surprised that I don’t consider myself to be vegan or vegetarian, but most of my recipes are plant-based. Rather, I like to think of myself as a flexitarian (so Millennial, I know) and have been striving for more of a 80/20 ratio of veg-based to fish/meat based meals. It’s part of living a healthier, more holistic lifestyle that takes into consideration the impact of my choices on the environment and my body. And on this journey, I’ve been amazed by all the plant based options that can be so satisfying and nutrient dense! Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be a full-on convert, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying this journey of discovering new plant-based recipes and hope you are too!

If you’ve become a vegan/vegetarian convert, I’d love to hear about your journey and any of your favorite recipes or tips for maintaining a balanced diet. Feel free to comment below or shoot me an email at theshookslife@gmail.com.

I hope you enjoy this plant-based spin on traditional chicken parm!

Parmesan-Crusted Mushroom Bowl
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:
Parmesan-Crusted Mushrooms
-1 pint of portobello mushrooms, sliced
-1/2 C panko bread crumbs
-1/4 C of shredded Parmesan, plus more for sprinkling
-1/2 tsp oregano
-1/4 tsp garlic powder
-salt and pepper to taste
-1/2 to 1 C of unsweetened almond milk
-1 T of olive oil
Pesto Quinoa
-1 C of quinoa, rinsed
-2 C of vegetable broth (or water)
-2 T of basil pesto
Salad
-1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes
-1 bag of arugula
-olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees Farenheit and ready a baking sheet with a sheet of tin foil. Combine the almond milk and 1 T of olive oil in a shallow dish. In another shallow dish, combine the panko bread crumbs, Parmesan, oregano, garlic power and a dash of salt and pepper. Mix well.
Step 2: Dip each mushroom slice in the almond milk mixture then coat both sides with the panko bread crumb mixture, shaking off any excess before placing on the foil-lined baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until crispy and lightly brown.
Step 3: Prep the quinoa by boiling the vegetable broth in a medium sauce pan over medium heat on the stove top. Once boiling, add the rinsed quinoa and cook covered for 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid is fully dissolved and the quinoa forms light fluffy tendrils. Add the basil pesto to the pot of quinoa and stir to combine.
Step 4: Prepare the salad bowl(s) by layering a handful or two of arugula as the base, then top with a handful of cherry tomatoes, two to three big spoonfuls of the pesto quinoa and as many of the mushrooms as you’d like. Drizzle with olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper and top with a few more shreds of Parmesan. Enjoy!

The post A Veggie Lover’s Take On Parm appeared first on The Shooks Life.