Cooking

Recipe: Slow Cooker Lentil and Bean Chili

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This slow cooker lentil and bean chili is an easy and delicious crockpot dump meal that the whole family will enjoy. It only requires 10 minutes of hands on time and is perfect for those week nights where you only have a few minutes tops to devote to dinner.

I feel like there are two types of chili eaters in the world: Team Beans and Team Gimme The Meats.

I fall squarely into Team Beans. There’s just something about beef and tomato sauce together that makes me a little queasy. I hate meat sauce on pasta. Spaghetti and meatballs is an hard pass for me. And beef-based chilis are just plain gross. (And yes, I DO like ketchup on my hamburger. I’m not a monster.)

The very first time I tried a bean based chili, I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out it wasn’t the chili I hated, it was the meat in it.

I have a tried and true vegetarian chili recipe that I love to make in the colder months. It has a nice heat to it and is filled with fire-roasted tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, and corn. I also make a buffalo chickpea chili that is seriously heaven in a bowl. (I should totally bring those recipes out of retirement. In the meantime, you can find them in the recipe archives e-book.) And now, I have a lentil and bean chili to round out the trifecta of awesome.

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Recipe: Dairy Free Muffins With Dried Mango

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Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or snacks, these small batch dairy free muffins made from dried mangos are packed with flavor. They are also the perfect way to use up that dried fruit that’s been sitting in your pantry for way too long.

A few months ago, I picked up a bag of dried mango from our local BJ’s because it’s seriously the best. Like, better than any other brand I’ve tried. The first time I had gotten a bag, it was gone in two days flat. I was telling The Little about how excited I was to have some again, and asked her if she would be interested in trying some, too.

Of course she said yes. Who can resist such a delicious treat?! So I ripped open the bag when we got home, handed The Little a piece for herself, and took a bite. It wasn’t as good as I remembered it, but maybe my tastebuds were a little off that day… The Little took a bite a few seconds later and instead of oohing and ahhhing about it, she made a funny face.

I picked up the bag to see if something had changed, but everything looked the same. And that’s when I noticed it. The small lettering on the top of the package that said unsweetened.

Face. Palm.

The unsweetened variety was most definitely not the same and most definitely not very good. It just wasn’t for me. (That’s a fancy way of saying it was effing disgusting and not at all what I had hoped it would be.)

So instead of throwing it directly in the trash and feeling cranky with myself for wasting $14 on a bag of dried mango, I tucked it into the back of our pantry and told myself that I’d find something to make with it. Eventually. I’m pretty sure I even went so far as to look up ideas on Pinterest to see if there was anything that was of interest. There wasn’t, so it sat. And sat and sat and sat in our pantry.

Until today.

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Recipe: Strawberry Lemonade Smoothie

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This strawberry lemonade smoothie is slightly tart, mostly sweet, fresh tasting breakfast treat that is absolutely perfect for those warm summer months. It’s also dairy free and has no banana in it — something that’s almost unheard of when it comes to smoothies.

I’m pretty sure my love affair for smoothies has been going on for close to fifteen — maybe twenty — years. I like them fruity, I like them green, I like them decadent and sweet. I like them for breakfast, lunch, or dessert. I like, just love them. So long as they are dairy-free, of course.

Smoothies fell out of my diet recently for a few reasons. First being it was winter and I naturally just don’t crave them when it’s cold. I was also following a low-carb approach to eating, so that knocked off pretty much all fruit from my repertoire. I’ve slowly been working my way back to them and am loving every single solitary sip.

The first smoothies I went for were of the green variety. My favorite being a peach, mango, and spinach smoothie with mango nectar thrown in for good measure. I picked up a bottle of aloe vera juice to experiment with and stumbled upon a great recipe for a strawberry lemonade smoothie that used aloe vera juice.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have quite enough strawberries to round out the drink and ended up grabbing what I had in my freezer: frozen pineapple and cherries. I also had a giant bag of frozen avocado pieces and decided to throw caution to the wind and use those as well. I was tempted to throw in some spinach (because why not), but decided against it for purely aesthetic reasons … I didn’t want a brown smoothie.

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Recipe: Homemade Protein Bars

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Do you know how easy it is to make homemade protein bars? With less than 5 minutes of effort, you can make (and customize) your very own high-protein treat.

I am always on the hunt for good protein bars when I need a quick something to eat while I am running the girls back and forth between literally everything. Unfortunately, I have a hard time finding any I can enjoy because I am sensitive to dairy, coconut, AND stevia. I did manage to find a few brands that work, but can’t always find them in the store. WHOMP, WHOMP. So I figured it was time to try my hand at making them myself. I also happened to have a bunch of protein powder that was just sitting in the pantry and wanted to use it up.

I took inspiration from a few recipes to create one that worked for me. I have to say, I am really pleased with how they turned out and could even see myself making these into protein ball slash truffles for a small bite versus a bigger bar.

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Recipe: Chocolate Avocado Pudding

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Chocamole, otherwise known as chocolate avocado pudding, is the creamiest, dreamiest, richest, most decadent chocolate pudding there is. And it’s 100% dairy-free. I have a confession to make: I hate avocados. As in, you couldn’t pay me to eat them on toast, mashed up into guacamole, or any other way that people who like avocados … Read more

Recipe: Buffalo Turkey Meatballs

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These buffalo turkey meatballs are seriously heaven in meatball form. They are easy to make and insanely flavorful. They also happen to be low-carb and gluten free, so bonus points for that! I’m pretty much a sucker for any and all things buffalo sauce. My all-time favorite sandwich is buffalo chicken. My all time favorite … Read more