Healthy Avocado Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese is a favorite comfort food as well as a quick and easy meal to make when you don't feel like cooking.  The traditional grilled cheese sandwich is high in calories and fat, and low in fiber, since calls for bread, butter and processed cheese.  Because of this, if you go for the grilled cheese when you're hungry and trying to make a quick meal, it's not going to fill you up and may cause you to want to eat more! However, with a few tweaks, a grilled cheese can be made healthy, filling, and just as delicious.  Adding avocado to a grilled cheese is a great way to incorporate heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, and it also contains fiber and other good nutrients.  In addition, I used coconut oil instead of butter. Coconut oil is a saturated fat-- however, it's mainly made up of medium chain fatty acids which are converted into energy rather than getting stored as fat, unlike butter, and it also does not impact cholesterol. Coconut oil has many other benefits that I won't get into, but I highly recommend cooking with it regularly!

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread (I used a paleo coconut flour bread; I recommend using Ezekiel bread or an 100% whole grain bread)
3-4 tbsp low fat cheese of choice (I used low fat mozzarella. Low fat swiss and goat cheese are also good choices)
1/2 avocado sliced
1/2 - 1 tsp melted coconut oil
Non-stick cooking spray
*Feel free to add any other vegetables such as tomato, red peppers, etc.

Directions: Coat a pan with non-stick cooking spray and put on medium heat, or heat up a counter top grill. Spread the melted coconut oil on the 2 slices of bread. The bread I used was smaller so I only needed 1/4 tsp on each slice, but you may need to do 1/2 tsp on each. Form the sandwich so the first slice is coconut oil side down, then layer on the cheese, followed by the avocado, and then place the other slice of bread on top with coconut oil side up.  Place on the pan or grill.  If using a pan, flip when toasted and a golden brown color.  Make sure the cheese is melted.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats

Another overnight oats recipe! Most of you who follow my blog and/or Instagram know I have a sliiiight pumpkin obsession (I only eat it everyday...normal). I make my overnight oats with pumpkin a lot, but this time I added bits of a cinnamon roll Quest bar and it was crazyyyy good! For those of you who like Quest bars as much as I do, you have to try this!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 tsp chia seeds
2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2 tbsp canned pumpkin puree
1/4 cinnamon roll Quest bar, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Optional: stevia, maple syrup, whey protein

Directions: Mix everything (except for optional ingredients) and put in a jar/container overnight.  The next morning you can eat it cold, but I heated it up and then added 1 packet of stevia and Cellucor cinnamon swirl whey protein, and topped it with walden farms maple syrup.

Hazelnut Mocha Overnight Oats

I'm not usually a fan of chocolate, especially in the morning-- but these overnight oats were delicious! Think Starbucks, but in oatmeal form.  And just way better.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup old-fashioned/rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp hazelnut extract
1/4 tsp coffee extract
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 of a banana, sliced thin
cinnamon
optional: 1 packet stevia, 1/2 scoop cinnamon swirl whey protein

Mix all of the ingredients (except the stevia and protein) and put in a jar/container in the fridge overnight.  Can be eaten cold or heated up.  I heated it up and then added the stevia and protein, because I like my oats sweet.  You could also top with a nut butter or nuts!

Cauliflower Bun Chicken Sliders

Trade in your high calorie, high carb bread burger buns for low calorie, low carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, and grain-free cauliflower buns! These sliders were not only clean and healthy, but they were delicious and so cute too!  I made this dairy-free by using a vegan, dairy-free cheese because dairy doesn't really agree with me, but you can definitely use any low-fat cheese of your choice in place of the cheese I used.  

Ingredients:

-1 cup of cauliflower, riced

-2 egg whites

-2 tbsp daiya cheddar cheese (this cheese is vegan friendly...it's dairy, gluten, and soy-free and still tastes so good!)

-1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

-Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb and Italian Seasonings (or you can use garlic powder, regular italian seasoning, salt & pepper if you'd like)

-Any chicken of choice, already made. I always have extra lean chicken already made from meal prep

-2 leaves of baby spinach

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425F.  To rice the cauliflower, I use my food processor or you can use a blender.  Combine the riced cauliflower, egg whites, cheese, nutritional yeast, and seasonings in a bowl (I don't usually measure seasoning I kind of just eyeball it...but probably 1/2 tsp each) and mix.  Take a muffin pan and spray 2 of the muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray.  Divide the mixture into 2 portions and pour into each muffin cup.  Cook for 15 minutes, then broil for 4-5 minutes.  Let cool, then cut the two "muffins" in half, creating a top bun and bottom bun for each.  Heat up your chicken and put it on the bun, then add the spinach.

This makes two sliders, so feel free to double the recipe or adjust it to make more! For 2 sliders (just the buns...with the chicken it varies depending on what you used) it's 135 calories, 3g fat, 8g carbs, 2g fiber, 12.5g protein.

Almond Milk Ice Cream

Happy July everyone! Also known as National Ice Cream Month! Going out for ice cream is a common thing to do on a hot summer day, but it also comes along with a ton of calories, sugar, and fat. Frozen yogurt has become a very popular alternative, but is still high in sugar.  I decided to come up with a healthy, low-calorie alternative that will still satisfy your craving for something cold and sweet.  No ice cream maker required! I made this recipe using unsweetened vanilla almond milk, the only kind of milk I use. It's only 30 calories per cup, there's no sugar, and it still has calcium and other important nutrients that you get from cow's milk.

Ingredients:
-Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (I use Blue Diamond)
-1/2 tbsp of sugar-free instant pudding mix -- any flavor
-2 stevia packets
-pinch of salt
-1/4 tsp xanthan gum (optional but highly recommended. it makes it fluffy and thick)

Optional/Add-ins to create your flavor of choice:
-1/4 tsp of any extract- vanilla, maple, banana, etc.
-1/2 scoop whey protein any flavor
-stevia drops any flavor

Directions: To give an example I'm going to describe how I'd make Butterscotch Toffee flavored ice cream.  Mix 3/4 cup almond milk, 1/2 tbsp sugar-free butterscotch instant pudding mix, 2 stevia packets, 5 drops english toffee stevia drops, pinch of salt, and 1/2 scoop cinnamon swirl whey protein in a bowl.  Pour into ice cube tray and freeze.  Once completely frozen, blend the ice cubes, ~1/4 cup almond milk (or a little less if you want it less like soft-serve and more frozen) and 1/4 tsp xanthan gum in a blender.
*If you use a vegan protein such as Sun Warrior, I've found that you may need to blend it for a minute, add a little bit more almond milk, and then keep blending.  A little more complicated but it still works!

*I've also found adding 1 tbsp of plain Greek yogurt when you're blending the ice cream makes it like a Wendy's frosty! Not needed though!

I've made this ice cream with and without protein powder, with different extracts and pudding mixes, and it tastes good every time! Get creative and don't forget to add toppings! :)