Recipes – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Food March 28, 2016

Healthy Antioxidant Salad Recipe

Vegetarian Antioxidant Salad Salata Healthy Low Calories

It definitely feels like spring here in Houston, and I am so excited to start adding our family favorite Summer Salad back into the dinner rotation. I will definitely miss the Brussels sprouts and root vegetables of fall harvest salads, but having colorful fruit, feta and light dressings on my greens makes me ever happier.

I’m including the ingredients that we use to make our favorite salad below. All of these nutritious items are packed with antioxidants, which are molecules used by your body to fight against disease causing radicals. Studies show that people who eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables have fewer diseases, so they’re on our plates at both lunch and dinner (except Isla’s, because she is currently a carbarian).

I will either buy these ingredients when I’m at the grocery store, or get this salad (typically to-go) from Salata, because it is just so easy. Per the Salata portions, the salad has 345 calories (including feta, excluding a dressing) – and it’s huge!

Personal September 2, 2014

Week 7 in Durango

Week 7 has come and gone very quickly, with the holiday weekend and my parents arriving in Colorado. We are going back to Houston in one week from today – I am so ready to hug (i.e. squeeze to death) my friends, but so sad to leave this gorgeous weather and valuable family time.

In the past week, we hiked up to Fort Lewis College every morning, tried a new restaurant (Chimayo – amazing and will definitely be on my updated Durango Travel Guide), went to the Saturday farmer’s market (delicious hatch peppers and tasty wheat grass drinks!), made some crepe paper peonies (DIY here), baked more vegan black bean brownies as well as these amazing and healthy cookies, ate even more Cream Bean Berry, watched Isla play with her ‘Mimi’ and ‘Papa’, dominated my parents in Taboo, and practiced playing bean bag toss (I’m awful). The only low point of the week was getting stung by a wasp twice (in my hand and leg) – totally unprovoked on my end! Not fun.

Lastly, I recently set up a Facebook page and Instagram account for Snapshots & My Thoughts. I would love if you were to follow along so I can follow you too! Thanks for reading. xoxo

Read about our time in Durango here: Week 1 | Week 2 and 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

Food August 25, 2014

Sweet Summery Guacamole Recipe

I am an avocado fanatic – I could eat them all day long, so naturally, I love guacamole. The local grocery store in Durango recently had a sale on avocados – 10 for $10, which is a steal. We bought 10 and then realized they would go bad before we managed to eat them all, as we’ve been adventuring to different restaurants for dinner in the evening. I decided to make my signature guacamole dish, which is sweet and salty, given that I use Robert’s Reserve Roasted Red Pepper and Onion Dip and sea salt. This dip is very summery, given it’s slight sweetness. Depending on whom I am making the guacamole for, I’ll add cilantro to the top or jalapeños – enjoy with Stacy’s pita chips (Sasha’s favorite), or celery and carrots if you’re being healthy like I am right now!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of Robert’s Reserve Roasted Red Pepper and Onion Dip
3 ripe avocados
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/8 cup of red onions
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 jalapeño pepper (optional garnish)
Handful of chopped cilantro (optional garnish)

Steps

Finely chop 2 garlic cloves and 1/8 cup of red onions and add to mixing bowl
Add 2 tablesppons of the roasted pepper and onion dip (in most grocery stores in a stand alone section near the deli)
Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to the bowl and mix
Add 1 teaspoon of sea salt to the bowl – keep out in case you want to add more later
Pit and add three avocados to the bowl – ideal to use a mortar and pestle (I love this Le Creuset one!)
Mix well and add additional salt if desired

Food August 4, 2014

Vegan Black Bean Brownies + The New York Baking Company

Ever since my vegan chocolate beet muffin success, I’ve felt a little braver in the baking department. Rizzi from The New York Baking Company (Facebook page) asked me to review their brightly colored silicone baking cups, which you can buy on Amazon here. After doing some research, I decided to try baking vegan, gluten-free black bean brownies. I found a number of different recipes online, and adapted them to make our own unique blend (mainly adapted from The Minimalist Baker’s recipe here). Sasha and I devored them within minutes – they are that good (and we’ve made them multiple times in the past week!). Did I mention they are flourless and have no dairy products? It’s definitely seems too good to be true. I have included photos and the recipe below – I highly recommend you make these if you’re trying to satisfy a sweet tooth.

The baking cups worked like a charm. They cost $9.95 and are worth every penny. Not only are these colorful cups BPA free, they are easy to clean – just rinse them and pop them into the dishwasher. The cupcakes came right (without any difficulty!) and into our mouths. Delicious! If you enjoy baking but hate peeling cupcakes, brownies, and muffins out of wrappers, I highly recommend you buy these cups.

Ingredients

1 can black beans
2.5 tablespoons flaxseed meal + 6 tablespoons water to create a flaxseed ‘egg’
3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup of Truvia sugar blend
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 bar of vegan, gluten free chocolate (I love this one!)

Steps

Turn oven to 350 degrees in the bake setting
Mix 2.5 tablespoons of your flaxseed meal with 6 tablespoons of water and set aside to settle
Add together all of your dry ingredients (sea salt, cocoa powder, sugar blend, baking powder) and mix
Add the melted coconut oil and vanilla extract and stir well
Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute and add to the bowl
Add your flax egg – the batter should be icing-like texture at this point
In a separate bowl, add the drained, clean black beans and grind them until they are a soft, blended texture (you can do this in a blender or food processor, but my parents don’t have one in their house in Durango – it works easily by hand too)
Add the ground beans to the batter and mix well
Line your muffin tray with the baking cups and add the batter to each cup – these don’t rise much, so you don’t need to leave space
I added some almond butter to the batter for the last few muffins for a little extra kick – delicious!
Allow the brownies to bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the outside is slightly crispy, then wait until they cool off and enjoy!

Et voilà – the final product below!

One happy mouth

Recipe adapted from The Minimalist Baker

Baking cups provided by The New York Baking Company – all opinions are my own

Photos by me!

Food May 23, 2014

5 Ingredient Raw Vegan Brownies

I am not a baker. But seriously, every vegan dessert I try fails (except these beet muffins – yum!). So when I came across a recipe for a simple, raw vegan brownie bite recipe, I jumped at it. I made some slight adaptations to the version I found online, and both Sasha and I love the result! These have five ingredients – raw cashews, organic honey, pitted/chopped dates, coconut oil, and unsweetened cocoa powder. They take five minutes to prepare (minus recommended refrigeration time) – and they are healthy-ish (no refined sugars!). Perfect tiny snack to fill your sweet tooth cravings!

Ingredients: 1 cup of plain cashews, 1 cup of pitted or chopped dates, 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil, 2 teaspoons of honey

Step 1: Add 1 cup of raw, unsalted cashews to your blender and pulse until finely chopped

Step 2: Add pitted or chopped dates to cashew powder and pulse until completely mixed (should get kind of solid)

Step 3: Add 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

Step 4: Add 1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil and 2 teaspoons of honey to the blended mixture – may have to stir with spoon vs. blend (depending on how strong your blender is!)

Step 5: Lay down stick-free parchment paper or aluminum foil and make into small brownie bites

Optional (but I recommend) Step 6: Add to fridge for an hour so the coconut oil hardens – then enjoy!

If you try them, let me know how they turn out!