Black Bean Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad

The Women's Nutrition Clinic hosted by Outspokin Bicycles to benefit the fundraising efforts for Camp Hopetake had a nice turnout.

Below was the night's most popular dish, the Black Bean Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad.

This fresh healthy salad is high in fiber and rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals. In addition, it is a great recipe for the ladies as it has both iron ( plus vitamin C to help absorption) and calcium, two minerals of great importance for women!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

1-1.5 cups cooked quinoa

1 can reduced sodium canned black beans- drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil or flaxseed oil

2 tablespoons reduced sodium teriyaki sauce

1 tablespoons fresh ground or minced ginger

1 tablespoons minced garlic

2-4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup chopped tomato

1 cup fine shred fresh spinach

½ cup+ seeded/ diced cucumber

½ cup + fine chopped green onion

½ cup+ fresh chopped parsley

½ cup+ fresh fine chop cilantro

Directions:

Cook quinoa according to box directions. You can use regular quinoa or try red quinoa. Recommend chill quinoa prior to proceeding with the remaining recipe.

While quinoa is cooling, prep and chop all produce. Use the minimum amount suggested however you could always add more of you favorite green!

In a small bowl, combine oil, ginger, garlic, lemon juice and reduced sodium teriyaki sauce. You can also increase the amount of lemon, garlic or ginger based on your personal taste.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the quinoa, black beans and all chopped produce. Mix in the liquid and stir well.

Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Prior to service mix again and top with reduced fat crumbled feta cheese.

Note: This recipe was adapted from Far East Tabbouleh from Diabetic Cooking.

Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Black Bean Cake

In my initial blog post I proclaimed I am a lazy dietitian (in the kitchen) which is a very true statement but today I was a bit more motivated.

Why? It’s my husband David’s birthday.

I knew after all he does for me I needed to make him a cake. Dave is a fairly simple guy and you might think that being married to a dietitian (and a sports RD at that!) he would reap the benefits of daily nutritious meals that are a textbook perfect balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats with optimal amounts of vitamins and minerals. The fact is Dave has a very selective palate and unfortunately the choices… well, are not the most wholesome. In his defense, he does try to make better food choices (we have progressed from “Cheesy Poufs” to Blue Tortilla Chips and regular cheese to low fat cheese) but there is plenty of room for improvement. In all relationships, we pick and choose our battles and I am not going to nag him about his diet but rather try to positively influence him even if that means by deception :-)

Dave’s favorite cake is dark chocolate with whipped strawberry icing. Sounds like an odd combination but it indeed is quite tasty. Usually I make good old Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Cake but today I thought I would finally use the recipe I pulled from one of my favorite nutrition magazines, Clean Eating a couple months back.

My interest in the cake recipe came from its main ingredient, black beans! I love black beans and use the low sodium canned beans weekly. Dave on the other hand, I have never seen eat a black bean or any other legume for that matter. Today I decided I was going to sneak them in!

Be forewarned, this recipe is a tad bit time consuming and even a bit messy but its well worth it!

What you need to make this moist and delicious cake is:

8 inch baking dish

Food processor

Non-stick cooking spray

1 oz 70% or greater Dark Chocolate

1.5 cups Reduced/low sodium canned black beans- rinsed and drained

2 Eggs + 1 egg white

2 Tbsp. Extra light olive oil

.25 cup Unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder

1 tsp. Pure vanilla extract

.25 cup Unsweetened applesauce

.5 cup Honey

1 tsp Baking powder

Step 1:

Preheat oven to 350 and coat an 8-inch square-baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 2:

Break dark chocolate into small pieces and add 1 tbsp of water to a small glass bowl. Place the small glass bowl in a shallow skillet with water (~ 1 inch deep) and over low heat allow the water to heat the bowl and slowly melt the dark chocolate.

Step 3:

Combine black beans, oil, honey, applesauce & vanilla extract in a food processor and process until creamy smooth. Add cocoa powder, melted chocolate, eggs & baking powder and blend until smooth. Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Step 4:

Bake for ~ 30 minutes until the top is dry and the sides pull away from the baking dish. Allow the cake to cool before cutting into squares or shapes of your choice (I used a drink glass to make small circles for Dave’s cake)

The topping possibilities for this cake are only limited by your imagination.

For Dave, I actually used his favorite commerical strawberry icing (hopefully the healthful ingredients in te cake counterbalance this!) and made a mini version of the traditional round cake. I added dark chocolate chips and shaved dark chocolate on top.

Because I love chocolate and LOVE almond butter, I created an almond butter icing using almond butter, a small amount of Smart Balance margarine and confectioner’s sugar. Other toppings that I plan to try are chopped dark cherries with a small amount of nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt and I think I might even splurge and use fresh strawberries and some whipped topping.

I doubt I will invest this much time in the kitchen any time soon but heck when you making something for "your better half" it is always time well spent.

Now I am just hoping Dave does not read this until AFTER he has tried his Black Bean birthday cake ;-)

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Mmmm Macaroni & Cheese

Macaroni & cheese is my all time favorite food. I am ashamed to admit that while studying to be an RD at the University of Florida it was staple in my diet. I think mainly because it was cheap (4 boxes Kraft for 1 buck). Truth be told, I LOVED the taste and texture of the bright orange “cheese” powder that was (is) it’s trademark. Fortunately as my knowledge of nutrition expanded and I wised up on what constitutes healthy eating, the boxed macaroni and cheese was axed from my routine eating plan.

Over the years, I periodically reminisced my meager college days by eating a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese. I tried to make it lower in fat by substituting skim milk for whole milk and cutting the amount of added margarine (used Smart Balance) but I found that something still did not seem right.

In the last few months, I have been craving Mac & Cheese so I was determined to find a more healthful recipe. I wanted one that I could tweak to make it nutrient dense and a positive healthy addition to an active lifestyle.

So with the help of Martha Stewart (I took her recipe and made adjustments) I believe I have managed to come up with a recipe you can feel good about going back for more.

More Mac & Cheese Please!

Ingredients:

16 oz dried elbow pasta (use high fiber pasta or sub non wheat pastas)

1 c Butternut Squash (can use 10 oz frozen package)

½ c Pumpkin (can use canned, this is an optional ingredient)

1 c Low sodium chicken broth/ stock (can sub vegetable stock)

1c nonfat milk (can sub plain soymilk)

½ c Nonfat plain Greek yogurt

½c Part skim ricotta cheese

1c fine shred extra sharp cheddar cheese (3/4 c for recipe and 1/4c on top)

¾ tsp sea salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Pinch nutmeg (optional)

Pinch or to taste cayenne pepper

Directions:

1) Thaw frozen squash.

2) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bring large pot of water to a boil.

3) In a large sauce pan (at least 12 inch diameter x 3 inch deep), combine broth, milk, stock and thawed squash and pumpkin. Using medium heat bring the liquid to a low simmer. Add sea salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne pepper and stir frequently.

4) Add pasta to boiling water and cook to al dente instructions. For wheat pasta about 7-8 minutes. If using rice, corn or quinoa pasta be sure to undercook so it is al dente.

5) After the pasta has been cooked and drained, add to the saucepan and blend in the Greek yogurt, ricotta cheese and cheddar cheeses.

6) Once the mixture is blended, transfer into Pam cooking spray coated casserole dish or tin (at least a 10 inch diameter x 3 inch).

7) Bake covered for 15-20 minutes then remove foil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and additional cheddar cheese if you like and bake for 15-20 minutes more until the top is browned.

Is this going to taste exactly like the old school Mac & cheese you grew up on, well no. BUT it is creamy and tasty enough that you can satisfy your craving for a staple comfort food and feel good about what you are putting into your body.

Please fell free to leave comments on additional tweaks you might add to this “gonna go back for seconds” recipe!

Enjoy!

Welcome

Welcome to the first post of the IronClad Nutrition blog!

This blog will be dedicated to any and all nutrition related topics with a major focus on day to day sports nutrition presented in a format that is informative without the “ho hum” read of many of the more technical scientific blogs or websites.

Having been a Registered Dietitian for going on 20 years, I plan to share some of tips and tricks for body composition adjustment, fueling tactics for workouts, racing and even some of my very own personal favorite foods. You might even see a few tweaked recipes when I am in my Martha Stewart or Rachel Ray mood.

I will admit upfront…….. I am a lazy sports dietitian. What I mean by that is, I like quick, simple foods made with simple ingredients. So if it has more than 6-7 ingredients or requires more than 20 min preparation time it looses my interest. I probably miss out on a lot of great recipes but I, like may other active folks, have overbooked schedules and prefer to use any extra time outside moving my body instead of inside cooking…but hey that’s just me!

So stay tuned. I do have one post that’s “in the oven” and almost ready to be served. It’s one of my all time FAVORITE foods and I am head over heels happy I finally found a recipe that makes this popular comfort food GOOD FOR YOU.

I will give you a hint. It’s creamy and yellow/orange usually very high in calories, fat and refined carbohydrates. Come back soon so you can see what I have cooked up!