Friday, April 2, 2010

My kind of fast food meal + superfood chocolates!

Happy Good Friday everyone!
I'm lucky that I'm off from both jobs today. Don't ask me how that happened but I am not asking any questions. I just got back from the gym and so my hunger was rather massive. I dined on some quinoa with avo and carrot mixed with honey-dijon dressing...yum! I also finished the last half of a blueberry-amaranth muffin..so good!



I made these with quinoa flour and I used coconut oil for the fat....these are now my go-to muffin recipe. I'm curious if I could replace the amaranth with cooked quinoa. I will have to give it a try!


Onto some other good eats, I wanted to share with you last nights easy-peasy fast food dinner. I made collard and romaine veggie wraps along with the hemp dip from Heathy's blog and a simple honey-dijon dipping sauce. For the veggies I used carrots, lentil sprouts, red pepper, avocado and cucumber. I had it layed out family style so Ry and I could make whatever combo's we wanted. This was probably one of my favorite dinners so far as it was so delicous and I was able to consume a lot of raw veggies in a delicious way.




Love the color combo! The veggies you could use for this are endless...jicama, zucchini, daikon, cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower, fermented veggies. These are going to be a staple for my lunches come the summer when I have access to more organic veggies.



Here are the stars of the show...collard greens and romaine lettuce. These greenies are the perfect wrappers. I really like using greens as your wrap because it saves you a lot of calories and bad ingredients compared to your normal flour wraps. I ate way more than I would normally and I didn't feel like my gut was going to explode..definite bonus wouldn't you say?


Here is the whole set-up! It took up half of our dining table...AKA...coffee table that is actually a large chest.


Here's a closer look at heathy's hemp sauce. Hey isn't that an alliteration..three words starting with the same letter? It's been awhile since I was in an english class. Anywho, english lessons aside, this stuff was awesome and simple to make. Really, your kids could make this! I made the mistake of using hemp seeds that were still hulled so the sauce was a bit crunchy yet once it was in the wraps there was so much crunch going on you barely noticed. The flavor was pretty mild and so if you are looking for something that doesn't taste "green", I think this is your sauce!


This was an awesome dressing that went really well with the hemp dip. We drizzled a bit of both sauced in our wraps and really loved it! I just mixed equal parts of dijon mustard with equal parts honey. You could use whatever sweetener you like! For a different mustard dipping sauce check out Averie's version. She just did a post on veggie wraps using cabbage. I love cabbage so I'll have to give that a go next time.


Here's one FULL wrap. I think this one was eaten open-faced to avoid a veggie spillage disaster!


Here's one of my creations without any sauce added..yet! Sorry about the blurry photo this was a one-handed attempt!

Now that you've had your veggie fill...its on to the chocolates! I literally flipped when I saw that Meghan posted a recipe for superfood chocolates (or Bon Bons as she called them) on her site, Making Love In The Kitchen. I love my chocolate but it has to be dark, not too sweet, and, if possible, RAW! Well, I think I found my match in Meghan's recipe. Seriously, who wouldn't love eating chocolate if it provided you with some of the best nutrition out there? Her recipe includes coconut, maca, goji berries, hemp, almonds, bee pollen, flax, raw honey, and raw cacao powder plus some other powerful ingredients. The best part about this recipe is you can adjust it to include whatever you have on hand and you can veganize it too! I used hemp seeds instead of protein powder, almond butter instead of ground almonds ( I bought almonds but I apparently didn't put them in my bag at the coop...grr), I left out the essential oil, and used ground flax seed instead of flax oil. They turned out AMAZING! The recipe didn't call for sweetening the chocolate itself so they are pretty rich tasting. I think I would add a little sweetner next time or play around with the amount of cacao powder to coconut oil ratio. The filling though is divine! You can taste the pollen ever so slightly so use less if you don't like that flavor. I can't wait to play around with this recipe more and try out some different flavor combo's..mmm! This was my Easter chocolate treat for the hubby and since they are all gone I think he liked them:)


Here are the goji berries, maca powder, and pee pollen ready to be ground!


Here is what the filling looks like after everything is added. Love the little hints of red and yellow in there!

Here they are right out of the freezer. Don't mind the color differences. I had to use more cacao powder and coconut than she asked for and I didn't exactly measure to make sure I was adding in equal amounts. You will make more filling than chocolate, just so you know.


Now check out the filling. Doesn't that look sooo yummy! Chocolate that is actually good for you:)

I hope you try those chocolates and let me know if you have your own version of a superfood chocolate! Hope you have a wonderful rest of your Easter weekend. I've got to work tomorrow for a short shift and then I'm free...wahoo!


Don't forget to enter my giveaway for Meghan Telpner's 5 Days Healing With Everyday Superfoods. The last day to enter is April 6th at Midnight. So go on and enter! PS I looked over my copy of her e-tutorial and it is jam-packed with essential info and amazing recipes. You will not be disappointed!


I thought I would end today's post with some picts of our new foster cat, Alvin (we call him Alvie).


Alvie and Nemo checking out the hood...AKA back alley!



Alvie playing hide-and-go-seek in the blanket! He is such a sweety and he has such beautiful black and white patterning. So, if you are looking for a great kitty to add to your home and you live near Nelson, give the SPCA a call at 1-250-352-7178. Thank you!

















































































8 comments:

Heather Pace said...

Hey Melissa!

Hehe, yay! Glad you liked the wraps! Ive never actually seen hemp seeds with their shell still on... interesting!

Your choccies look super delish... choccie is great any time in my books!

Melissa said...

Hey Heather! Thanks for stopping by. Love, love those veggie wraps! I have learned my lesson..get the shelled hemp seeds haha!
Thanks for being so kind about my choccies! They don't compare to yours but I'm working on perfecting my skills:)

Lauren said...

Hey Melissa!

Great blog, great eats! Thanks for visiting mine!! :)

I'm actually a research assistant for CSL, so I put that recipe in there! He he! ;)

Kris | iheartwellness.com said...

These chocolates are the super food of all super foods chocolates! Did you use a mould for these little guys?? I really need to get myself one!

I can't wait to make these!

PS. I love lettuce as my wraps....but I do make a mean oat flour wrap when I need it!

XXOO

Averie @ Averie Cooks said...

oh the hemp dip sounds and looks great, i missed that on heathy's blog well i forgot about it :)

then the choc action...oh my. ill take it all :)

Melissa said...

Hey Lauren...thanks for checking out my blog:) That's so cool that you are a research assistant for CSL. Sounds like a fun job! Even though you work for them it still sounds like an awesome recipe:)Have a great Easter!

Hey Kris- I actually just used my ice cube trays but I want to get some fun chocolate molds. I see so many cool shapes on everyone's blogs. Let me know when you pick yours up. I need a good source at the coast:) Happy Easter!

Hey Averie- You have to try that hemp did! You will love it:) Those chocolates are a must try for sure! Happy Easter:)

Donna WWAHHMpreneur Johnson said...

I definitely plan to try out the chocolates ... always looking for a way to make my monthly one week indulgence healthier.

Lately I've just been mixing in semi-sweet morsels with low-fat, low-salt mixed nuts, but your recipe looks absolutely marvelous.

Thanks!

Melissa said...

WWAHHMpreneur - Thank you for stopping by! You should definitely try those chocolates..they are really quite amazing.