Get Your Sammie On!

Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of summer. I know I'm dreading the fall and trying to milk every last ounce of summer out. I came across this recipe while reading one of my favorite blogs thugkitchen.com Warning! if you are easily offended by foul language this may not be the blog for you. 

The meal today: chickpea pesto sandwich

Now, I have overgrown basil plants all over my garden so I thought, what better way to get rid of it! Out I went to pick my basil!

Back to the kitchen to stuff it all into the ninja.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 torn, packed basil leaves

1/3 cup sliced almonds

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp water

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas ( or one 15 ounce can)

1 carrot

Put all ingredients for the pesto, that's everything but the last 2 in a food processor or blender and blend till smooth.

Mash up the chickpeas in a medium bowl some chunks are ok. Shred in the carrot then add the pesto mixture to your liking. Slap it all on some bread and you're ready to eat!

We all scream for ice cream!

It's plain ol' hot outside and nothing says summertime like ice cream.  Ice cream is one of my favorite treats no matter what the weather, so when I came across the old ice cream maker circa 1990s in storage I decided it was time to put that old guy back into action. I researched quite a few recipes but for my first outing I wanted to keep it simple. I found one with only 4 ingredients and ran with it. I froze my ice cream container and went to bed with dreams of ice cream in my head.
Vegan Almond Milk Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c almond milk

bananas not pictured

2 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp sugar
2 ripe bananas

Prep:
Whisk together the milk, sugar, cocoa. Once combined put into blender/food processor and add the bananas. Pulse till pureed. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, and let it do its magic. Mine took about 15 min to set up.

I'm sure you could get 4 servings out of this recipe but if  you eat ice cream like I do it's more like 2! Have fun with it, you can add in nuts, berries, chunks of chocolate.
I already have my canister washed and in the freezer ready for the next batch! This will certainly not be the last time I make ice cream.
Hope you like it, Happy Summer!

Vegan Chocolate Truffles

Summer is in full swing and I don't know about you but I always want sweet things even more in the summer! (Ok let's face it any season is an excuse for me to have sweets) Like any good idea lately I found this recipe on Pinterest. You can follow me, sassycassy@gmail.com. The original recipe called for an enormous amount of the ingredients so I scaled back. Didn't want to have too many sweet treats around to tempt me.

The ingredients are simple: 10 pitted medjool dates,

2 Tbsp cacao powder 

2 tsp coconut oil

If your dates aren't pitted just cut them in half and take out the pit. Put the dates and cacao powder in a high powered blender or food processor. I used the single serve container on my Ninja. More about my love of the Ninja in a post real soon. Pulse them till the dates are all mashed up. Then add the coconut oil and pulse again. When everything is good and gooey scrape it all out and put in a bowl. Refrigerate for about 15 min so it's cool and easy to work with.









Now the fun begins, roll them into the size you would like. I made mine pretty small and got 18 truffles, I will keep to myself how much I "sampled". You can roll them in more cacao powder or almonds like I did. Obviously you can use any nut you would like. Also you can cocoa powder that just breaks the rules of being raw, which you may or may not care about. I'm pretty sure some powdered sugar would taste great too. 
So there you have it, a quick easy to make, guilt free snack!

Ready, set, RUN!

It's May, National Running month! The perfect time to share my love/hate relationship with running. Once upon a time about 7 years ago I ran half marathons. The first one I ever did was to repay the favor of my friend Beth who did a triathlon with me. I had never dreamed that I could run that far. With the help of Beth and her well planned training I was on my way! After we finished I was hooked so to speak.

Beth and I pre our 1st 1/2 marathon in Las Cruces

I then enlisted my friend Alexis to be my training partner and we made vacations out of races. We ran the OC half marathon in Irvine and the Rock and Roll half in Virginia Beach. I also did the Rock and Roll half in Nashville. Each race holds a special place in my heart and in some cases in scars from blisters on my feet. There is something so magical, for lack of a better word, about getting in your zone and feeling like you could run forever. It is that feeling that keeps me coming back, despite that burning sensation in my lungs and legs.

Most recently I have cut back to fun 5k races around town which have reignited my desire to run. 

If you are like me when I first started I couldn't run a mile in a decent time. So here are some tips to take you from the slow walk to a run, ok a fast jog in my case!

• Start small, walk at a brisk pace and add in a jog for either a certain amount of time or pick a landmark and run till you get there. Slowly you will be able to run for longer stretches. These walk breaks will actually make you a stronger runner!
• Suffer from chin splints after only a few steps? Make sure your calves are warmed up and make sure to give them a little stretch before you start jogging. Also be mindful that you aren't running on your toes.
• Running up hills of any sort will make you feel like a champ when you hit the flat ground again and will increase your stamina in a hurry. As Beth taught me, run with your head down and don't look up till you can feel you are at the top. 

My challenge to you this month, go for a run! It doesn't matter how far just go! Be careful you just might like it!

Laura and I at the Great Pumpkin Chase 5k

Want more information on a training schedule for a race you are hoping to run, contact me, sassycassy@gmail.com.

Color runs are fun!

Put some Sass in your water

We've almost made it through April!! If your month has been anything like mine May is a welcome sight! It's been an especially stressful few weeks for me and it was starting to affect my health, and I wasn't gonna stand for that!
One quick fix I knew I could make without much effort, DRINK MORE WATER!!! With my allergies threatening to take over at every turn I set out to defeat them. The answer sassy water!
It's simple, grab your best pitcher, fill with water. Chop up some fruit maybe a cucumber, maybe throw in some mint.
My first batch, strawberries and lemons. I needed those antioxidants to go to war for me!

Whatever you choose to add to your water let it sit about 30 min, your water will have a delicious kick after that. Just keep adding water to the pitcher, the fruit keeps for about 3 days.
Having water with a little extra kick helped me to not only keep my allergies at bay but brought me back to life. That is not an over statement, I promise. When you get at least 48 ounces of water a day you start to feel more awake, your skin feels better, and at least for me my brain isn't as foggy! All those benefits and its calorie free!!
It's the simplest, cheapest way to improve your health!
Cheers!

Spring Has Sprung

Happy Spring Everyone!
Amazing how life fills up so quickly for me when there is extra daylight to soak up. It has been a very busy March and April. I've been very busy out in my garden getting things ready for the season. My cousin talked me into starting my garden from seed this year. I couldn't say no to a challenge so I took his advice, and his seeds and started planting. I've got 7 tomato plants that are looking very good. The joy I had when those little seedlings popped up was quite unexpected. I feel even more connected to my plants this year. My little plant babies that I have to take care of!

These seeds are still working on finding the surface. Much less success in this batch, I have already re-seeded some kale and basil since I only have 4 seedlings. But I will NOT give up

I spruced up this little corner of the yard, right next to my planter. I have dreams of tomatoes, basil and cucumbers going in here.  There is still one more batch of crazy spring weather I want to get thorough before I put those in the ground. 

Perhaps the most unexpected surprise in my garden this spring was my asparagus popping up. I had covered it all winter hoping for the best and low and behold I still have sprigs of asparagus popping up today! I ate one of them straight out of the ground, tasted just right in the one bite I got. After some garden research I was happy to find that next year my little sprigs should be a much more respectable size.

Inspired by my own asparagus I headed out to get some that I could make a meal of. Oven roasted asparagus is what I decided on. Set the oven to 425 degrees. Wash the asparagus and dry it out as much as possible, you don't want soggy asparagus, or maybe you do.
Drizzle some oil of your choosing, I used sesame, but olive or any other would do. Make sure they all get an even share of the oil. Then sprinkle some salt, pepper what ever other spices that get your juices flowing.  Let them cook for 15-20 minutes, you know they are done when the tops get crispy and brown.

I served mine up with some brown jasmine rice but I know it is delicious with an egg too. 















I am also running a special for the month of April. 2 sessions for the price of one. The first session is a lifestyle and eating review. The second session is a you pick! It can be a workout with me, an exploration of a topic you have always been curious about, info on a cleanse, cooking help, you get the idea, it can be anything!! Email me sassycassy@gmail.com to schedule a time!

Waffles

Breakfast is my favorite meal and I was hungry for redemption from my pancake disaster. My friend Beth from college used to make the best waffles and I needed a waffle fix and the waffle iron she bought me was in desperate need of some use.  Enter Blueberry Waffles I found the recipe on Post Punk Kitchen where I also found a ton of other tasty recipes I will be trying in the coming weeks.  Back to waffles, here's the recipe:

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice ( I used nutmeg)
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or your non dairy milk of choice)
3 tbsp pure maple syrup
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and allspice into a mixing bowl. Mix in the oats. Make a well in the center and add applesauce, milk, maple syrup, oil and vanilla. Stir till combined.
Let batter rest for about 5 min to thicken. Fold in blueberries. This is where everything turns blue.
Cook in waffle iron according to waffle iron directions. In my little iron I used a heaping 1/4 cup.
Remember to spray between waffles with oil.

Batter

Naked waffles

 

 

 

Ready to eat!

I am happy to report that my waffles were a success, meaning I thought they were delicious. It took some trial and error with the amount of batter to put into the iron and how long to cook them but once I got it down I was a waffle making machine!