Vegan Quinoa & Sweet Potato Chili

Yummmm, this tasty vegan recipe was submitted by Desiree Rouleau. 

Vegan Quinoa & Sweet Potato Chili

makes 6 hearty bowls of chili

one 29 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

one 6 oz can tomato paste

32 oz vegetable stock
(4 cups)

1 onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks

1 cup dry quinoa

salt and pepper to taste

avocado, cilantro for garnish  (optional)

Instructions:

Heat the oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium low heat. Add onions, and cook until soft and they start to turn brown (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic, and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and oregano and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the beans, stock, and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper . Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the quinoa. Continue cooking for about 15 minutes – 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until quinoa and potatoes are cooked and the chili has thickened. Add a bit of water if the chili becomes too thick for your liking. Top with avocado and chopped cilantro. Scrumptious!

Des found this recipe from: http://www.milkfreemom.com/vegan-quinoa-sweet-potato-chili/

"Shanibar"

Here's a great recipe from Christine Orr, the current Jr. Executive member of the Nutrition division of PWI. 

Shanibar

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped dates

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup flaked coconut

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk -> enough to make the mixture easier to mix in the food processor (optional)

Directions:

1. Add everything except the dates to the food processor (adding only a little milk at a time, it should not be watery!) and blend until smooth. Then add the dates and again blend.

2. Press mixture into a pie plate or square baking dish and put in the fridge until it is more solid than sticky (about 30-60min). Cut and serve. Store in the fridge.

This recipe was inspired by a dish found on: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/shanibars/detail.aspx

Baked Oatmeal

A recipe brought to you by our very own SMSS President - Kylie Riou

Baked Oatmeal

A delicious and healthy way to have oatmeal on a weekend or a morning with a bit more time on your hands…tastes like dessert!

Ingredients:

2 medium ripe bananas (the riper the better!)

1 ½ cups of blueberries (fresh or frozen)

¼ cup of honey (melted)

1 cup uncooked large flake oats

¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup skim milk (can use almond or soy milk instead)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 container of Greek yogurt or fat free yogurt (flavour of your choice)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Arrange banana slices in single layer on bottom of glass or ceramic dish (8x8 or 9x9). Sprinkle half the blueberries in with bananas, ¼ tsp of cinnamon and drizzle with 1 tbsp. of melted honey. Cover with foil and Bake for 15 minutes-until bananas are soft

2. Meanwhile, in a bowl combine the oats, half the nuts, baking powder, cinnamon and stir together. In a separate bowl whisk together the milk, melted honey, egg, and vanilla extract

3. Remove bananas from the oven and sprinkle dry mixture of oats over the bananas and blueberries

4. Pour milk mixture over the oats, and be sure to pour as evenly over oats as possible. Sprinkle remaining blueberries and nuts on top.

5. Bake oatmeal for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown and oatmeal has set.

6. Serve warm with greek yogurt.

Kale smoothie

Hate eating vegetables as much as I do? It is tough to meet you micronutrient requirements every day when you aren't getting your daily servings of vegetables. If you would rather drink a day or two's worth of vegetables in a single sitting, then this recipe is for you.

Kale Smoothie (makes 3-4 cups)
1/2 Apple
1/2 Oriental Pear
1 Large carrot
1 Stalk of celery
1/2 English cucumber
1-2 cups of baby spinache
1 tbsp Coconut oil
2 tbsp Flaxseed
2-5 stalks of Kale
1/2-1 cups of frozen berries

Optional (protein sources):
2 scoops whey protein
2 tbsp hemp hearts
1/4 cup egg whites

Step 1: Place all ingredients into a high power blender.

A Vitamix - Total Nutrition Centre™ blender was used.

Step 2: Blend until desired consistency is achieved.

Make sure your blender can handle the large volume of raw foods it is about to process.

Step 3: ????

Step 4: Enjoy.

Delicious and nutritious

I make this smoothie almost every day (my room mates can attest) because I want to get as much of my vitamins and minerals from whole foods as possible. This smoothie contains pure raw foods, and because it was blended (and not juiced), it has high fibre content. I have made modifications to this recipe over the last several months when I first began blending my vegetables. An earlier version of this smoothie (containing less berries, no coconut oil, and had no added protein content) was recorded as containing 31g carbohydrates, 7.7g protein, and 6.8g of fats. The new version of the smoothie contains coconut oil, which is high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. I chose to increase the fat content of the smoothie to aid in the absorption of the large amounts of fat-soluble vitamins found in the many vegetables. Kale, in particular, contains a large amount of vitamin K (a single serving contains nearly 700% the daily requirement of vitamin K).

This recipe was inspired by a video segment featuring actor and comedian Joe Rogan, where he described his diet and dietary supplementation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJqqxjP84bg

(explicit language)

Moroccan Chicken on Quinoa

So I have to admit I have a slight obsession with quinoa. I bought an awesome cookbook of quinoa only recipes. Every time I try one and think it is worthy of this blog I will add it along.

Hope you enjoy!

Brea


Moroccan Chicken on Quinoa

Chicken Ingredients
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp of each: ground ginger, ground turmeric, ground coriander
2 Tbsp butter, vegetable oil, or extra virgin olive oil (I enjoy cooking with olive oil and used that when I made this)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
1 cup diced onion (I used a white onion, but a sweet yellow onion would be good)
1 cup water
2 tsp minced fresh garlic (I diced up one clove of garlic)
3 Tbsp orange juice
Pinch salt

Quinoa Ingredients
2/3 cup quinoa
1 1/3 cup of water
(Personally I make quinoa the "easy" way - Equal cups of water as to quinoa. Add in a sauce pan, bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes (or so) until water is absorbed. However, I will put on how they recommend just to be safe).
1 Tbsp Butter
2 Tsp Honey
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pistachios


Preparation

1. Combine cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and coriander in a small bowl.
2. Add onion, garlic, water and orange juice into another bowl.
3. Melt butter (or add veggie oil or olive oil) to a sauce pan and add chicken. Cook for about 5 minutes to essentially brown both sides.
4. Add onion, garlic, water and orange juice. Toss in spices.
5. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down heat and simmer for about 25- 30 minutes (Until the chicken is NOT pink).

While the chicken is simmering start the quinoa.

1. bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a small sauce pan. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and let sit for another 7 minutes. Remove and fluff with a fork.
2. Add butter and honey and salt to quinoa. Stir in Cinnamon and pistachios.

To serve mix together and enjoy!

Hope some one enjoys this dish as much as I did! 

Study: "Daytime pattern of post-exercise protein intake affects whole-body protein turnover in resistance-trained males"

I came across this new, interesting study the other day:
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/9/1/91/abstract

Background

The pattern of protein intake following exercise may impact whole-body protein turnover and net protein retention. We determined the effects of different protein feeding strategies on protein metabolism in resistance-trained young men.

Methods

Participants were randomly assigned to ingest either 80g of whey protein as 8x10g every 1.5h (PULSE; n=8), 4x20g every 3h (intermediate, INT; n=7), or 2x40g every 6h (BOLUS; n=8) after an acute bout of bilateral knee extension exercise (4x10 repetitions at 80% maximal strength). Whole-body protein turnover (Q), synthesis (S), breakdown (B), and net balance (NB) were measured throughout 12h of recovery by a bolus ingestion of [15N]glycine with urinary [15N]ammonia enrichment as the collected end-product.

Results

PULSE Q rates were greater than BOLUS (~19%, P<0.05) with a trend towards being greater than INT (~9%, P=0.08). Rates of S were 32% and 19% greater and rates of B were 51% and 57% greater for PULSE as compared to INT and BOLUS, respectively (P<0.05), with no difference between INT and BOLUS. There were no statistical differences in NB between groups (P=0.23); however, magnitude-based inferential statistics revealed likely small (mean effect+/-90%CI; 0.59+/-0.87) and moderate (0.80+/-0.91) increases in NB for PULSE and INT compared to BOLUS and possible small increase (0.42+/-1.00) for INT vs. PULSE.

Conclusion

We conclude that the pattern of ingested protein, and not only the total daily amount, can impact whole-body protein metabolism. Individuals aiming to maximize NB would likely benefit from repeated ingestion of moderate amounts of protein (~20g) at regular intervals (~3h) throughout the day

Click the link for the complete article.