Holiday, Celebrate!

With the holiday season upon us I thought I would take a bit of a different path with this post and offer up some advice on how to recover from the dreaded hangover.
Set Limits
First set some limits before you even start sipping. They say that if you don't have more than two drinks of anything you will be in the clear. But at that office holiday party two might not cut it.
Drink Clear
Should you drink more than two try to make them clear liquids. Rum, vodka and gin have fewer congeners, a byproduct of fermentation that is more likely to make you feel ill the next morning.
Keep Eating
Everyone knows an empty stomach does you no favors. At that party eat before and keep snacking all night long, especially if you exceed two drinks.
Alternate Sips
My own personal rule of thumb is drink a glass of water for every drink I down. Water is best, but any virgin drink will work too. Also remember a glass or two of water before bed.

Should you still wake up with your head banging like a rock concert guzzle as much water as possible. Water will help flush the alcohol from your system and help you back to feeling like a functional being.

One more remedy is a yoga pose, not to worry extreme flexibility not required.

Seated twist (ardha matsyendrasana)
Sit on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you. Bend your right leg at the knee and cross it over the left leg, planting your right foot on the outside of your left knee. Bend your left leg in, bringing your left foot next to your right hip. On your inhale, sit up taller and place your left elbow on the outside of your right knee. On your exhale, slowly windmill your right arm behind you, turning your torso so your body is rotated as far back and to the right as comfortably possible. Hold for five deep breaths, then slowly return to the starting position and repeat on the opposite side.



And what would a post about hangovers be without a drink?
Here is a low-cal drink that won't ruin all that hard work you put in at the gym.
St. Germain and Champagne
1/2 part St. Germain
1/2 part Brut Champagne or dry sparkling wine
Float a half strawberry for garnish and a small dose of antioxidants too!


Cheers! Happy Holidays!

Energy Bites

Hello all,
Hope that the Thanksgiving holiday was a relaxing time spent with family or maybe some quality time with strangers at the mall. I began my week last week thinking that I needed a quick snack I could grab between meals or just before a workout. I was having trouble keeping my energy up through the day and realized that I was bulldozing my way through the day running on breakfast, a tiny lunch and whatever I could scrap together at dinner. Yes, this health coach was doing all the things I tell everyone not to.
My snack had to meet 3 criteria:
Must be bite sized
Must be easy to make
Ingredients had to be in my house already
The answer: Oatmeal Peanut Butter Balls
Here's what's in them:
2 1/2 C quick oats
3 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter
1/4 c of honey
1/2 c of cacao nibs
2 tablespoons of almond milk
Here's how to make them:
Dump all the ingredients into a large bowl, mix together, this is a VERY sticky situation. I coated my spatula with coconut oil so that I didn't end up with a giant glob of mostly unmixed ingredients. I learned this the hard way! Once it's all mixed up form into balls of any size you like, mine were ping pong sized. Put on a non stick pan or a plate and refrigerate for at least 15 min before you eat them.
I made about 15 balls from this recipe. I am going to make another batch with chia seeds in them. You can also use whatever kind of liquid or nut butter you want as well. The mix in possibilities are endless.

Ingredients

In fitness news I took on a challenge, run a mile a day till the end of the year. My friend Laura, you can find her at bandidablog.com told me about the Runner's World Run Streak she was doing and there really was no excuse not to join her. It's my 6th day of the challenge and I can proudly say I haven't missed a day and my affection for running is slowly creeping back. Thankfully the weather has been more than accommodating for this challenge with temperatures in the 60s. This should also help with my time for the Farolito 5k I am running with Laura on Dec 16th. So if you've got less than 20 min to spare you should join the Run Streak too! Find all the details at Holiday Run Streak

Vegan pumpkin pie

heThis week I set out to veganize (pretty sure I made that word up) a traditional thanksgiving dish. Tofurkey was not going to be where I started! I hunted down a pumpkin pie recipe that only had 4 ingredients and made a date for a pumpkin pie bake-off with my friend Lorraine. Her recipe was slightly more complicated in that it included tofu.
Here is my recipe which I can thank Healthy. Happy. Life Vegan Blog a million times over for such a simple approach.
The ingredients:
1 1/4 cup of raw cashews
1 can pumpkin purse
1 cup of maple syrup
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
The preparation:
Soak cashews in water and 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt in the fridge over night.
In a food processor or vitamix blend cashews on low-high till almost smooth.
Add in pumpkin purée, maple syrup, and pumpkin pie spice and blend till creamy.
Pour all of this into the pie crust, bake at 400 degrees for 10 min then decrease to 350 for 30-40 min.

As for the pie crust, that recipe is a Lorraine family secret what I can tell you is that it includes flour, olive oil, salt. I am making this pie again for thanksgiving and I will be using a vegan pie crust from whole foods.

My pie is on the left and the right belongs to Lorraine

The bite sized portions we took to our taste tester

As for the results of the bake-off, I win!
We took our slices to an outside source, Lorraine's neighbor who is a regular baker of delicious things. He liked mine because it had the most traditional taste and texture. It's funny, we didn't tell him there was tofu one either one but somehow he knew there was something different about the other pie. Lorraine's pie was much more rich than mine, had a definite molasses taste to it
Here is Lorraine's recipe just in case you want to try for yourself. Pepperplate Easy Vegan Pumpkin Pie Recipe. A giant thank you to Lorraine for always being so willing to be my partner in vegan cooking crime!
Last but not least on this Thanksgiving Eve I would like to thank everyone who reads this blog and in turn supports my efforts to be less domestically disabled. This has been a year full of ups and downs but starting my health coaching business and learning what a joy cooking can be are for sure the best parts! I hope that each one of you has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Cheers!

Vegan Tamales

With the holidays coming up I had to find a way to replace my favorite New Mexican holiday dish, tamales. I would usually make an exception and make this dish the one time I indulged in pork but not this year. My friend Lorraine had made lentil and red chile tamales and I was inspired to make a green chile version.
First I set off to the local grower's market to gather all the zucchini and squash I could find. Turns out all I could find was zucchini, so I made it work.

The insides:

First start a pot of black beans boiling this will take most of the day to finish, cook according to the package

Cut up the zucchini in pretty large chunks, it cooks down pretty small. I had 6 medium size

Saute the zucchini and some garlic and onion, to taste I don't like a ton of onion.

Add in the chopped green chile toward the end.

I stored all of the filling over night and mashed and strained the beans the next morning. You don't want the filling to run or you will have a mess of a tamale. The more paste-like the better.

The Masa:

4 cups masa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup melted coconut oil

3 vegan "beef" bouillon cubes dissolved in 3 cups of water

1 package of dried corn husks, I bought 2 just to be sure.

In a large bowl mix the masa, baking powder and salt together. Add the coconut oil and mix well, then add the water and bouillon mixture. Stir well, you can add water as needed till it is a spongy texture.
You will want to soak the corn husks in a large bowl of warm water before you fill them.

Thankfully I have a mother who is well versed on the art of making tamales and she was very precise with her thickness of masa and picking which corn husks would be suitable those are her hands in the photo above. It's an inexact science, just don't tell her that!
My mom's method is something like this: find 2 fairly large husks and put them together, like a fan. Spread the masa on the middle 2/3 of the husk, don't make it too thick but enough that the filling can't leak through, we were using about 3 heaping tablespoons full of masa. Add the filling to the center, we used about 1 1/2 tablespoons. It will become obvious how much filling will fit. Fold one end over the filling and then fold the other end over that one. You can then fold up the bottom section, creating a burrito of sorts. Tear several of the husks up into "strings" and use these to secure the tamale, wrap it around and then tie a knot.
To cook them you need a double boiler sort of idea. Mom has a strainer that sits in the pot that works quite well, a plate small enough would do the job too I think. Add water to the pan so that the bottom of the tamales are in the water. Keep the water boiling, you will have to add water pretty frequently. and the tamales cooking until the masa peels away from the husk at the top. It took about an hour. I got about 3 dozen tamales out of this recipe. I froze the rest so I could easily defrost and eat. 

This was our set up for easy assembly of tamales. It can get a little messy.

The tamales, rolled and ready for the stove. 

I took these tamales to my friend Laura's annual Turkanza holiday party last night and I am proud to say that they were a hit!

Holy Guacamole!

It has come to my attention that it is national guacamole day, and a day such as this can't go uncelebrated!
Here is my incredibly simple recipe:
Avacado, how many depends are how many you are feeding. I tend to 1 per person
Tomatoes, roma, heirloom, cherry you can pick your favorite
Lemon juice
Garlic salt
Green chile if you have it
I add all off these things to taste, not a real exact science with this one.
I like to eat this with chips or on top of black bean veggie burgers as I did this evening.  Happy guacamole day!!
Stay tuned, vegan pumpkin pie and vegan tamales are coming very soon!

The Salty Taste of Disaster

This week I had grand plans to continue my pumpkin cooking theme. Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes was the meal of choice. I invited myself over to a friend's house and was going to make her and her 2 boys pancake lunch. I had all the ingredients in tow, even had my own pan. Whipped up the batter, put 4 pancakes on the fire. I tried a bit of the batter and it was really salty, thought I just got a bad patch. NOPE. To my great sadness the pancakes were the saltiest baked good I had ever eaten. My friend consoled me, saying cooking without eggs is difficult. The one plus, the texture was quite fluffy, not what I expected with no egg pancakes. I have made a vow to myself to try them again and skip the salt or salt to taste as I mix up the batter. Stay tuned for Pumpkin Pancakes, the success story!
To redeem myself in the kitchen I decided on a snack, something small I was sure I could not mess up, carrot stick fries! I headed to the local co-op to get colored carrots. It might be a small snack but I was determined to add some flare.

Peeled and chopped my carrots, tossed them with salt and olive oil and put them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 min.

They came out very well, my friend Alexis even liked them. Give carrot fries a chance, they actually taste a lot like sweet potatoes. Have a great week everybody!

Pumpkin

With Fall in full swing the cold cereal I was eating for breakfast so many days a week just didn't seem to be doing the trick. Earlier in the summer I had experimented with overnight oats which were delicious but I wanted a warm start to the chilly morning. After strolling the isles at Trader Joe's I decided it would be a pumpkin oatmeal experiment. This went well with the Great Pumpkin Chase 5k Race I was set to run on Sunday.
I bought some gluten free quick cooking oats, cooked them as the package said. Then I set about adding ingredients till my tongue said it was just right. I felt a bit like Goldilocks tasting the three bears porridge if I'm being honest.
Here is a list of what I mixed into mine, yours might be totally different.
Organic pumpkin puree, about 1/4 cup
Pumpkin Pie Spice, who knew there was such a thing, about 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon, about 4 shakes of the hand
Agave nectar, a healthy dollop

A fitbit love affair

Hello everyone! I would like to take a little time to tell you about my favorite fitness gadget, the fitbit!
I have the fitbit ultra and to say that I don't leave home without it would be an understatement. Since my purchase in July, one for me one for my mom I have come to love this little thing.
What does this thing do you ask? It's a pedometer, fancy word for step counter, altimeter, another fancy word for counting how many flights of stairs you climb. Calories burned and miles traveled are also tracked. What makes this little device so special, it tracks your sleep! It tells you how many times you woke up during the night and how long you actually slept. A feature that has helped me realize I am an amazing sleeper.
The website is amazing, with an easy to follow breakdown of all your stats. This is where to friend others with a fitbit and before you know it you are engaged in an all out step war with your friends. At least that is how it has worked out for me and my friends. Goal setting is also a huge part of the website, totally customizable to your lifestyle and available in every category that is tracked.
The applications that you can link to your fitbit are too numerous to mention , my favorites are myfitnesspal.com where you can track calories and activites and earndit.com a website that rewards you with points for being active that you can redeem for free items. There is also a digital scale that syncs with your account and keeps track of weight, BMI and body fat. Where can you buy this life changing tool you ask? Amazon and fitbit.com for you online shoppers. For those of you that want to go get one right now, Target, Best Buy, Sears and REI just to name a few.
This concludes the end of my non paid fitbit endorsement. It's a wonderful tool to help you get in your 10,000 steps a day, which is harder than I thought it would be.

My partner in fitness crime!

Hello and Welcome to Healthy with Sass! A place where I will share my adventures in vegetarian cooking. I say adventures because I am a novice in the kitchen, and even that is giving myself some credit. Previous to taking my health coaching course the microwave was the only thing I needed in that place they call the kitchen. Just know that if I can cook these foods so can you!
I promise to only share recipes I have tried myself. To begin I will keep my ingredients and cook time to a minimum. For me if cooking takes too long or gets to complex the fun starts to dwindle. 
I will also share workout moves and quick routines that you can do anywhere and with minimal equipment. Are you sensing my minimalist approach to life yet?
I have a belief that eating healthy and working out should be fun and customized to what you like. If it's not something you like the chances of sticking with it plummet. 

All that being said I have a deep love in my stomach for mac and cheese. In an effort to make that dish a little healthier I happened upon a recipe for quinoa mac and cheese on Pinterest of course! Original recipe found aroundthetableri.blogspot.com. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised at how easy this was. 
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
• Veggies of your choice (optional)
• good pinch of salt
• a few grinds of seasoning salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup soy milk or non-fat milk
• 1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, more for sprinkling
• Optional- Crushed Red Pepper, Panko Bread crumbs for topping
• Toppings (optional)- salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, scallions

1. Cook the quinoa as package directions say. I used tricolor quinoa from Trader Joes.

2. Lightly saute any veggies you would like to use. I used peas the second time around. 

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 13x9 pan or 8 individual ramekins with cooking spray. I used a smaller pan the second time to get more depth to my servings. 

4. Whisk together the eggs and milk in a large bowl. Fold in quinoa and cheese and the veggies if you used them. Stir well, the mixture will thicken, allow some cheese to melt. Transfer to a baking dish. You can sprinkle breadcrumbs on top for texture if you would like. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

5. Enjoy!