stepping into my roll

Summer is coming to an end, and with the beginning of school comes all the roles I have to fit into again. Student, club leader, college applicant (yikes!), and of course blogger! Before summer ended though, I had a potluck dinner with some of my friends and my role was to bring a side dish. So I decided to bring southwestern spring rolls; something different and new to try, plus loaded with veggies!

I've learned through each potluck I cook for that if we all make super filling dishes, none of us end up feeling good at the end of the night. That's why I thought these spring rolls would be good. All of my friends have learned not to make super heavy dishes (and to make healthy ones!), and that way we all can enjoy everything without feeling guilty for it afterwards.

Another successful potluck!

These spring rolls are packed with vegetables and spices, and although I wouldn't make these often (it's tedious to roll them one by one), I found it interesting to learn how to. I also wouldn't make them often because I don't like to used pre-packaged wrappers - they were a little higher in salt than I would like but I didn't have the time to make my own wrappers from scratch.

*I'm not sure if all spring roll wrappers follow the same instructions, but I just followed what the back of the package directed me to do

Here's what you need:
yields 12 spring rolls
1 cup canned corn
1/2 can black beans, rinsed and drained
5 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeeze dried
3/4 cup cheese blend (I used Monterey Jack)
2 ounces (1/2 can) chopped green chilies, drained
2 green onions
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 package spring roll wrappers 

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients (except the wrappers).

I microwaved my spinach for 20 seconds to thaw it out 

2. Fill a tin with warm water and submerge the wrapper  for 15 seconds. Once it's sticky, dry it in a towel and fill it with a spoonful of the vegetable mixture. Fold sides toward the center over filling and roll tightly to seal.

Look really closely and you can see the wrapper on the towel

I used the knife to cut off some of the extra wrapper, I think it was too big 

3. Bake for 5-10 minutes. Make sure not to remove from baking sheet until they've cooled a little bit (the thin wrappers will open up!)

4. Enjoy!!

drinking too much coffee causes a latte problems

Yesterday ended all the traveling I've done for the summer, and as great as the places I went were, I'm happy to be home. The main journey of my summer was to Israel, the first time I've visited another country! Now that I'm home though I've brought back a lot of recipes with the Mediterranean style which I really liked while I was there!

SPOILER: In Israel they eat a lot of vegetables (my favorite), so get ready for plenty of new Mediterranean dishes coming up!

One of the not-so-healthy treats that I loved to get while I was in Israel though was their iced coffee. Instead of just making coffee and sticking ice cubes in it, Israeli iced coffee is more of a slushy type drink. There's one chain of cafes (I would sort of compare it to Panera Bread) called Aroma and they have the best iced coffee in Israel.

Now that I'm home and missing the delicious drink, I tried making my own version of it. Of course it's not as perfectly sweet because I didn't add all the sugar in, but it tastes good and it's easy to make! Plus I'm still trying to enjoy the last bits of summer, and this frozen coffee is perfect for my denial that summer is ending.

 I'm not a huge coffee drinker because I don't let myself drink it so much - I don't want to get hooked on it (because I know I will!) not yet at least! There are a lot of benefits from coffee though. It can help with both long- and short-term memory improvement, lower risk of diabetes, boost your metabolism, and there are actually a lot of antioxidants in coffee (more than in some fruits and vegetables!). Drinking coffee in moderation (and without all the added sugars and creamers) can be very beneficial to your health!

Here's what you need:

yields 1 mug iced coffee

1 cup of coffee (as you like it) - I used vanilla almond milk to make it sweeter

1. Make your cup of coffee in a mug you can freeze.

2. Freeze the coffee for 6 hours, mixing it around halfway through.

3. Enjoy!

Resources: http://www.livestrong.com/article/557242-how-drinking-coffee-could-improve-your-health/

the Reese to finish

Over the past few days I've been trying hard to finish as much of my summer work as I can, just to get it out of the way. The other day, a group of my friends came over to do the summer math assignment - like we do every year - and we found it must more straining that usual. They got to my house at about 1:30, and our goal was to finish the 30 problems by 4. Little did we know that in order to complete most of the problems, we had to teach ourselves the basic concepts from Chapters 1 and 2 of our new Statistics book. So it took a little longer than we expected. And when I say a little I mean that by 5:45 I told them all to go home because I was going out to dinner with my family and had to get ready. We didn't even finish all the problems! In addition to the Stat work, I have a whole lot of Biology work, which has been taking up most of my free time. I just finished reading and taking notes on all the 5 chapters I needed to (yay!!), and to celebrate I decided to make homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

I found a recipe on another blog for peanut butter fudge, so I changed it up a bit and made it my own in order to make these delicious little snacks. There's no added sugar, but instead a little bit of honey. I also chose to use natural peanut butter, which is a better alternative to the very processed and sweetened peanut butter choices.

Just bare in mind that today was the first day that I made these and that's why in the pictures some of the peanut butter isn't covered all the way for about half of the tin. I was still figuring out how much peanut butter to be putting in each cup! It's totally up to you though, you can always add more or use less to accommodate what you want!

These "Reese's" are a perfect size for a quick snack to pop into your mouth when you're in the mood for a mini celebration, whether you're celebrating biology accomplishments or just the fact that it's still summer!

Whatever your celebration may be, enjoy it with good food!

Here's what you'll need:
yields 24 mini-cupcake sized cups
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

1. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan.

2. Mix all other ingredients in a food processor.

3. Line the mini cupcake tin with paper liners.

4. Pour enough of the cocoa mixture in each cup so that the bottom is covered. Then scoop about a 1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter into each cup. Cover the peanut butter layer with another layer of chocolate.

5. Freeze for an hour, and then keep refrigerated. Enjoy!

it's about lime [I eat some good food]!

So.. I'm back from camp now, and one of the only two things that I've been enjoying since Sunday is the food (the other one is my family). You see, every summer when I get back from camp I get into this "post-camp depression" phase, where all I want to do is stalk my own album of camp pictures of Facebook, call/text/hang out with my camp friends, and talk about camp to just about anyone I see. (Here's a hint: I'm still in that mood).

Camp this summer was amazing as always; it was my first time being a counselor, and I was lucky enough to get assigned to a great group of 12 year old girls. My bunk had so much fun all the time, and it was a great experience being able to give to these girls everything I love about camp and I already miss them all so much.

And of course I miss my best friends too. Having periods off during the day and nights off at night were the greatest times because we all got to spend them together. All of the counselors this year became really close, and we were all devastated to be leaving each other after only 6 weeks together. (No worries though because since Sunday I've already seen a whole lot of my friends three times).

But we spent a lot of our free time doing on nights off eating, and to add to the camp menu that doesn't exactly follow the eating style that I keep at home, I didn't eat as many fruits and vegetables as I would have liked. I even admit to trying a Big Mac at McDonald's on one of my nights off. I agreed to try whatever my friend was getting, thinking I'd take a bite and that'd be that just to entertain him. Instead, it turned into a whole scene with every one of my friends surrounding me videotaping or taking pictures. They were all in shock to be watching me eat anything from McDonald's, let alone a Big Mac. But I took a bite of the greasy burger to entertain everyone. One bite won't kill me, I know, I just don't enjoy so much grease and meat all put together.

Tada!! My Big Mac experience

I don't regret any of the ice cream or Big Mac bites from the summer, though. I kept my portion control pretty on target all summer and I tried my best to have as much of each nutrient a day as I could. My bunk always knew that if I was spooning out a little cup of peanut butter at a meal I wanted my protein, and I must have eaten more peaches and plums than anyone else in camp. Additionally, I woke up most mornings (at least I tried) and went for a run around camp or down the long camp road with my friend Ari, and I taught aerobics with my co counselor Alex as well (thank you Nike Training Club App for getting us through that one!!). Plus I went to all the activities with my bunk and was moving nonstop all summer.

Nonetheless, I was excited to be able to open the fridge at home and just eat an apple... or some strawberries.. or string beans.. anything! Yesterday come lunchtime, I was looking through my Pinterest and found a good quinoa fruit salad and I made it for lunch for myself. It was perfect; loads of delicious fruit and quinoa for protein and carbs (and I just found out that it has 20% DV of iron!). This honey- lime quinoa salad was so easy to make, and you can really use whatever fruit you want in it.

Here's what you'll need:
yields 1 big serving or 2 small servings
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
juice from 1/2 a lime
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/2-3/4 cup blueberries
1/2-3/4 cup raspberries
1/2-3/4 cup strawberries
1 kiwi

1. Rinse the quinoa under cold water. Add quinoa and water to a pan and bring to boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then turn heat to low and simmer until all the water is absorbed.

2. Whisk together lime juice and honey to make the honey-lime dressing.

3. Combine cut fruit and quinoa. Pour dressing on top and mix until well combined. Enjoy!!

good-buys for the summer!

Tomorrow I have my last final and then school is over! As much as I've been looking forward to the summer, it's crazy how fast it came! But before I can even begin to relax and bask in the summer sun, I'm off to camp on Friday morning! I couldn't be more excited to be going back to my favorite place in the world for the summer, and I'm anxiously awaiting Sunday, when I get to meet my campers (this is the first time I'm a counselor)!

Even though it is summer, the most relaxed and free time of the year, it's still important to set goals, be smart, and make good choices. Some of my goals of the summer are to be very active (which shouldn't be too hard to do when I'm given a full schedule of activities to do with my bunk everyday), and try to eat as healthy as I can in camp. I'll eat fruits and vegetables as often as I am given the opportunity to, and I'll drink lots and lots of water to stay hydrated in the hot sun. I also just hope to have an overall amazing summer and be able to give the great experience I had as a camper to all my campers!

Some things I hope everyone keeps in mind, and some things it's not too late to invest in to motivate a healthy summer!

• Be active! For everyone around my age that is still in school and has a lot of free time in the next few months, make a plan to go for runs, swim, or play sports as often as you can! Take advantage of the warm weather and run on the beach, or grab some friends and go for a swim! 
• One of the best buys I've gotten all year was my iPhone arm band so that I can bring my music with me when I run, and I suggest everyone should get one for their phone or iPod!
• Drink water! Along with the average amount of water you should be drinking daily, in the summer it's important to drink even more because of the heat. Plus, when you work out and move around so much, add another cup or two to your daily ration! 
• One of my notorious summer necessities is a water bottle big enough to hold 8 cup, the recommended daily amount of water. That way, in addition to the cups of water I drink at meals, I'm assured that I'm hydrated enough each day.
• Relax! Take this time to de-stress and do things that you don't get to do during the year. Sleep a little more and you'll be well-rested for everything you have planned for each day.
• Eat well! Especially if you're home and have access to the kitchen all day (or if you're more inclined to go out to eat more often), it's important to keep your will power and resist from eating nonstop for the summer. Try out new recipes - I may know a girl who has a whole blog of healthy recipes...:) - and fuel up your body for a great summer! It'll make you feel good and ready to get into the bathing suit and go to the beach!
• Stock up on all the summer fruits and vegetables, and if you get tired of eating raw fruits and veggies, try grilling them! My family has recently gotten into grilling zucchini, pineapple, and sweet peppers and even just with a little oil and seasoning, it's a great snack or side dish for dinner! 

So, I'll be back in August - I will miss all of you readers for the new few months. I hope everyone has a great summer, and I will post back when I'm home again! I don't know exactly when that will be, so feel free to subscribe your emails on the right of this post so that you'll get an update when I start back up again! 

a piece of cake!

This is officially my last weekend home before I'm away for the summer! Yesterday was the last day of classes, but next week I have finals, so last night I spent my night studying for my physics final with some of my friends. Not exactly how I want to be spending my last few nights at home, but I want to do well on this test and studying with others always motivates me to actually review. Once I got home though, I was in the mood for a dessert, and I had found a good recipe on SparkPeople  (a great website for recipes, workout tips, and overall healthy living advice) so I decided to try it out. I made for my dad and myself chocolate mug cake. My dad is usually hard to please when it comes to my healthy experiments, but we both liked this cake! With some whipped cream and strawberries, it was a perfect dessert that didn't leave me feeling too full.

Here's what you need:
yields 2 servings
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg white
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1/4 tsp vanilla

1. Mix dry ingredients.

2. Add liquid ingredients and stir. Microwave for 3 minutes.

3. Enjoy!!

weird-dough

The weirdest part about this recipe, is that there's no "dough" at all. There's no flour or grain at all.. and yet this is a 'pancake'. Weird, I know. And personally I don't know if I would consider what I made myself for breakfast this morning a pancake; regardless though, it tasted pretty good and it was a nice change from my usual breakfasts. It's always fun to switch things up a bit.

I've heard a lot of different bloggers and healthy-eaters talk about this sort of breakfast, so I decided to try it out myself this morning. Maybe it would have worked better if I used whole eggs instead of egg beaters, but to be honest whatever it was tasted good. I will warn anyone who tries this that it's sort of a mix between an omelet and a pancake, but with berries on the side it was a great breakfast.

These banana-egg pancakes are a good source of protein to start your day and with the hidden banana in there, all the nutrients from the fruit as well!

Here's what you'll need:
yields two pancakes
1 small-medium sized banana, ripe
1/4 cup egg beaters
1 tsp cinnamon
oil to grease the pan (I used coconut oil)

1. Mash up the banana.

2. Add in egg beaters and cinnamon; mix well.

3. Pour onto greased pan. Flip when the edges get bubbly.

4. Enjoy!