Luuux

Homemade Rhubarb Pie for Mommy's Day!

Whilst I was grocery shopping with my mom earlier in the week, we picked up some fresh rhubarb. On the drive home she (my mom) went on & on about how, as a kid, she used to pick wild rhubarb & make a variety of different dishes with it, including pie. She went so in depth about about these dishes, these memories, that I figured for mothers day I ought to try & recreate one of them. I'm a vegan & unfortunately the pie crust contains butter so it was off limits, but from what I was told the pie came out pretty good! Not bad for my first pie, right? :) Recipe for the pie crust (taken from 'Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour' bag); Ingredients: * 5 Tbsp to 8 Ice Water * 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, chilled * 1 tsp Sea Salt * 2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour Directions: Sift flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut butter into 12 pieces and rub into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some pea-size pieces. Sprinkle water over mixture, one tablespoon at a time and knead lightly just until dough forms. Form dough into a ball. Cut in half and press each into a disc shape. Wrap each disc in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling. Bake crust following your pie's instructions Recipe for the rhubarb filling (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fresh-rhubarb-pie/); Ingredients: * 4 cups chopped rhubarb * 1 1/3 cups white sugar * 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour * 1 tablespoon butter * 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold. NOTE; In my pie, I didn't use all of the sugar/flour mixture, I only used about 1-3 tablespoons worth. When baked, rhubarb has a tendency to sweeten & in my opinion, all that added sugar makes it to sweet! Also, it's not required or part of the recipe but I made a honey cinnamon glaze and brushed it on top of the pie after it finished baking. It looked delicious & smelt great. All you have to do is melt 1-2 tablespoons of honey & 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon over medium-high heat, stove top. After the mixture has melted, brush it on top of your fully baked pie. Yum! Credit to Bob's Red Mill & allrecipes.com for the original recipes. The image is my own, but can also be found on my web.stagram page; http://web.stagram.com/p/453849101980171261_7542589

Homemade Croutons! (Recipe)

Hey lovies! It's been a while since I've posted anything on luuux, but I absolutely had to share my crouton recipe! I've already mentioned it far to many times to count, but I no longer indulge in processed foods & am currently working on ditching the extra lb's I've put on over the years (-67 already!). Due to the fact that veggies are a big part of my diet now-a-days, I eat a lot of salad & that's not at all bad, I'm just not the kinda gal who can through some kale or spinach on a plate and call it good. I need texture & I need color! One of my favorite things to toss in my salads are croutons. For years I've always just picked up pre-packaged/pre-made croutons at my local grocery store, they were always easy on calories so I just kinda figured, why not? That was until about a week ago when I really read into the ingredients & realized I didn't know what a single one of them were (not even the “spices”!). From there, I decided I was no longer going to rely on store-bought croutons & set out to find a recipe. I found many recipes online but they weren't at all healthy. Most of the recipes included butter and/or vegetable oil. After going through countless recipes, I still couldn't find one that fit my desires, so I decided to experiment & made my own! Appliances/utensils you'll need; Cooking brush (a folded paper towl could also work) Foiled cookie sheet/baking rack Toaster Small bowl Oven Ingredients; 1 tbs grapeseed or olive oil (I only had GS on hand) 2 slices of bread either stale or lightly toasted (I prefer to use gluten free/whole grain bread) 1 tbs seasoning of choice (I used Italian & herb) Directions; 1.) Preheat your oven to 330F (165C) & lightly toast bread (only toast your bread if it's fresh). 2.) Using a small bowl, mix together oil & seasoning of choice. 3.) After your bread has been toasted, remove the crust & brush on the oil & seasoning mixture (cover both sides of the bread). 4.) Slice bread into 1” – ½” in. squares & place on a baking rack (If you don't have a baking rack then a foiled baking sheet will work. Although, after about 5-6 mins of baking I'd make sure to flip them). 5.) Bake the croutons for 15-20 minutes or until brown & crispy. Allow to cool. The calorie count for my batch was around 200 but it generally depends on what bread, seasoning, & oil you use on yours. Enjoy! :)

Lauren Conrad's Overnight Oats!

I've made this for breakfast too many times to count & unfortunately, each time I make it I forget to snag a picture. The picture used above belongs to Lauren C. & I take no credit for it what-so-ever. Ingredients; 2/3 cup almond milk (or milk of your choice) 1/2 cup organic rolled oats 1/2 cup vanilla (or plain) Greek yogurt (I used non-fat) 1 pinch of cinnamon Directions; The night before you plan to eat your oats, mix together all of the ingredients listed above and seal in an airtight container. Refrigerate the mixture overnight (they will be ready in about 3 hours, but overnight is best). Like I mentioned before I've made this quite a few times & each time I make it I'm quite consistent. Like Lauren I prefer to use almond milk (Unsweetened Vanilla | 20 Cals), Greek Yogurt (Lucerne, Plain | 65 Cals), & 1/2 cup of whole grain oats (150 Cals). For those of you who are calorie cautious, all together it's about 235 calories. I'm not a big calorie counter myself. I prefer to just eat healthy. Regardless, I'm a big fan of Lauren's recipe & I hope you can enjoy it to! Photo source; http://laurenconrad.com/blog/post/good-eats-overnight-oats

Homemade french fries & spinach for lunch!

As I mentioned on an earlier post I've made a drastic change in my diet; No more fried, processed, or unhealthy foods! So far I've currently lost 50 lb's with diet and exercise and I hope to continue on from here. One of the hardest things to let go from my previous diet was french fries, I lived for them! I tried looking up recipes online for different 'healthy' recipes for french fries but they all required some type of oil & in my opinion if your trying to eat healthy, why spoil it with oil? Olive or not... After several attempts to create my own french fries I finally succeed. Here's my recipe; What you need; 3-5 ounce potato (I used an organic russet) Red pepper flakes or other spices (Completely optional) Directions; Cover a medium sized baking sheet in foil and pre-heat the over to 350'F. Thinly slice a potato of your choice until you get about 30 3 inch strips (As I'm not very good with words you can use my picture as a visual to help guide your slices). Using a few paper towels dry off extra liquid from potatoes and place in Ziploc baggy. Add spices of your choice and shake until all slices are coated. Place potato slices on baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip & proceed to bake for another 15 minutes. You can either eat them alone or along side another dish. I choose to use 2 cups of steamed spinach. Regardless, Enjoy! Tip; The thickness of your slices will affect the crunchiness of the fries. If you prefer your fries extra crunchy you could bake them for a few minutes longer. I'd be sure to check them after 15 minutes though. If you decide to take the leap and try these leave a comment and let me know what you thought, I'd love the hear! :) Image is my own.

Homemade Green Smoothie!

Over the past few months I've managed to change my diet from unhealthy processed foods to what I guess you could call a more organic/green like state. One of my favorite things to make is a green smoothie. Here's my recipe; Ingredients: 2 cups spinach 2 celery stalks 1/2 of a medium sized apple 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 4 tablespoons of milk or plain Greek yogurt. Directions: After gathering all the ingredients, finely chop both the celery stalks and apple. Next add all ingredients to a blender and mix on the smoothie setting for 45 seconds or until blended. Some blender's might not have a smoothie setting, If your's is one of them try pulsing 5 times followed by blending it on high for 20-30 seconds. Image is my own.

Health Benefits of Cinnamon!

I've been told by many people that cinnamon is quite healthy but I never knew what made it so healthful, so while I had some down time this evening I decided to google it myself. The first article I came across was '11 Health Benefits of Cinnamon' written by Andrea Manitsas on Organic Authority and she (assuming), like the title says, goes on to mention the benefits of cinnamon; "1.) 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon per day can lower your bad cholesterol (or LDL). 2.) Cinnamon may help treat Type 2 Diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels and increasing the amount of insulin production in the body. 4.) Cinnamon can reduce the proliferation of leukemia and lymphoma cancer cells. 5.) Cinnamon has an anti-clotting effect on the blood. 11.) Cinnamon can also help stablize blood sugar (which is great for weight loss). A couple of dashes in your morning tea or cereal is all it takes!" As you could probably tell from reading the list numbers I only posted some of the benefits. If you're interested in reading the rest of the benefits you can find the link to the article in the source link. Also, the article goes on to mention that while little bits of cinnamon can be good and healthy large doses are toxic. Moderation is key, folks! Image also found on Organic Authority; http://www.organicauthority.com/health/11-health-benefits-of-cinnamon.html

Wonka Candy Canes!

There's a lot of things I love about Christmas, Candy canes being one of them. Regardless of what flavor they are, they're a must! This year I decided to skip out on the peppermint and go for Wonka's sweetarts & gobstopper flavored ones. :) I'm a big fan of both flavors though the sweetart one's are my favorite. They aren't that bad on the nutrition side either, but with that being said they still aren't the healthiest. Sweetart Candy Canes (Per Cane); Calories: 50 Total Fat: 0g Sodium: 60mg Total Carb.: 12g Sugars: 9g Protein: 0g Sweetart Candy Canes (Per Cane); Calories: 50 Total Fat: 0g Sodium: 0mg Total Carb.: 13g Sugars: 10g Protein: 0g Image is my own.

Homemade Shortbread Cookies!

Today (December 19th) is my mom's birthday and since she's not a very big fan of cake I decided to make her some cookies! I used two different cookie cutters; A stocking shaped one and a Christmas tree shaped one. I also bought a bunch of different items like frosting, icing, and hard candies to decorate them. It took a bit of time to make the cookies but for the most part it was pretty easy. I think the most intense thing was having to make my own powdered sugar (Using an equal amount of granulated sugar and the pulse button on my blender). To anyone who'd like the recipe it's in the source link! Image is my own.