Vegan Raspberry Thumbprint Breakfast Cookies

April 19, 2015 by Christine Skari

This Saturday night got a little crazy and wild with these breakfast cookies. I’m talking, mashed bananas off the hizzle, chia seeds like WOAH, and raspberry jam’ming all night to the sound of the raging party happening next door. I know, I know. Christine, you need to calm down a little.

These are the latest creation to come out of my college kitchen and are born from a situation I find myself in pretty often. Imagine this scenario: you wake up after a long exhausting night of sleeping, stumble to the kitchen in a hunger-induced stupor, and start the coffee pot. Then, you’re hit by a wave of NEED-TO-EAT-NOW emotions. What should you do?! Well, if you were smart, you would have baked up a batch of these super easy and nutritious raspberry thumbprint breakfast cookies and VOILA! The perfect “treat” to help satisfy that morning sweet tooth.

These babies are made healthy with the use of a combination of whole wheat flour and oats as the base, a super ripe banana and egg to hold everything together, a pat of tart raspberry jam, and ~~river~~ drizzle of peanut butter. I add in just a teeny tiny but of light brown sugar to up the sweetness a bit, but other than that, all the sugar in these cookies are natural!

One thing to keep in mind (as with all healthified recipes) is that this recipe is by no means your standard bakery-style chocolate chip. It’s not loaded with butter and fat and sugar and subsequently will not taste like one of those decadent desserts, but rather is a filling, slightly sweet, and packed with lots of healthy goodness. If you’re someone who likes to eat a cookie-a-day (like me), these cookies are a great substitute to have your cookies and eat em too!

*Recipe inspired from Oh She Glows

No-Bake Cookie Dough Energy Bites

June 18, 2014 by Christine Skari

You know those nights where you just want to eat cookie dough for dinner? Yup, me… every single night. I have no shame in admitting that there were multiple times during the year where I would whip up a batch of my Healthier Dark Chocolate Walnut Cookies and not even bother to turn the oven on. Oops… how’d that happen?!

There’s just something so comforting about eating batter straight out of the mixing bowl. It doesn’t matter if it’s brownie batter, cheesecake filling, or lemon bars. I can’t wait to get most of it into a pan so I can plop down in front of the tv or my laptop (good habits here, I know) with a spoon and scrape down the sides. I always end up making myself so gloriously sick off of the dough that when the final product is actually done, I’m completely sugared out. No complaints from this girl 😉 .

Mañana just happens to be my birthday and I plan on making a biiiiggg batch of cookie dough to celebrate. And, as birthdays go, I’m going to be indulging in lots of other delicious eats this entire week including an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ dinner on Friday, a fun night out with a big group of friends tomorrow, and most likely a family dinner when the pops gets back from a business trip. With all that good food around, I wouldn’t say no to lightening up a dish or two without compromising flavor.

Hence, these No-Bake Cookie Dough Energy Bites were born!

They’re everything I could want in cute mini ball form and are loaded up with morsels of walnuts and mini chocolate chips in every bite. Not only that, but the base is completely made of oats and wheat bran, making these little energy bites super filling and full of fiber. And almond butter! My newfound love that happens to cost $10+ dollars at other grocery stores, but I found for cheap at good ol’ Trader Joe’s. Sending that store big hugs right now <3.

Feel free to eat these babies straight out of the bowl or roll them into portable little bites to give you that extra boost you need to fuel you through your day!

Healthy Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

May 22, 2014 by Christine Skari

I love breakfast food. Whether is be in the form of my sweet Blueberry Pie Oatmeal or a few pieces of toast with peanut butter, the simplicity and ease of breakfast recipes make my heart sing. On weekends, though, I like to do a bit more to make my morning even more special by sitting down at the table with a hearty breakfast and cup of coffee. And this, my friends, is the heartiest!

This Healthy Crockpot Breakfast Casserole is perfect for a weekend brunch and makes plenty of leftovers that can be heated up for up to five days so you can enjoy it all week long! Fix it and forget it at its finest.

Last weekend, Kyle and I drove to the library for some early morning studying and productivity. I threw all the ingredients into the crockpot before we left, said a quick prayer to the food gods, and then returned a few hours later to an apartment bursting with delicious smells and a hot meal! Well, to be honest, not so hot since I promptly whipped out my camera and let the dish go cold as I tried to capture pictures to match how good it tasted. The lighting was bent on making that difficult and poor Kyle was left waiting hungrily for over an hour… rough life for that guy.

This recipe can serve a big crowd or, like I mentioned before, can be refrigerated and reheated. The beauty of this recipes comes in how much breakfast it packs into one bite. It tastes like a full restaurant meal of hash browns, scrambled eggs, omelets, and bacon all packed into one delicious slice! Did I mention it’s filled with a whooooleeee lotta veggies? They meld together with all the other ingredients to make a tasty and filling breakfast that even your picky eaters will love! One serving is 1/8th of the total recipe (a whopping big slice- hooray!) and has 320 calories, over 5g of fiber, and over 22g of protein. It’s a hearty way to start your day off right and keep you full throughout the morning!

Cheesy Broccoli Cauliflower Bake

May 8, 2014 by Christine Skari

Say YES to veggies!

Especially if those veggies involve a creamy garlic cheese sauce that melts into them and makes them ooze goodness in every bite. And wait for it… a crispy and crunchy panko topping! This is what veggies were designed for. They were born to be smothered in white sauce.

It is their destiny.

The other day, I was thinking about the meals Kyle and I usually eat on repeat. We like to experiment, obviously, but we have a few safety dinners like chicken/sweet potato bakes, steak with mac and cheese, lemon shrimp orzo, and panko-crusted salmon. Where are the veggies? Usually in the form of a boring salad that is literally just that, salad leaves. Sometime we branch out and will bake some brussels sprouts, but for the most part, our veggie intake is pretty dull.

No more I say!

Not only is this recipe easy as pie (mhmm, pie), but it comes together relatively quickly and make the whole house smell delicious! While baking in the oven, the cauliflower melts into the cheese sauce and the broccoli collects it in its florets till it’s just saturated with deliciousness. Also, do I call them florets? Mini-tree leaves? Broccoli afro? I don’t know, man, all I know is that even your picky eaters will LOVE this!

More cheese, please.

Healthy Skillet Lasagna

August 25, 2013 by Christine Skari

Sometimes, all you need in life is a steamy plate of pasta with gooey, melty cheese bubbling on the top.

I mean, I usually prefer the flavors of asian cuisine, but I do love me a good plate of pasta- one of my favorites being lasagna. There’s something so comforting about throwing everything and the kitchen sink into a pan and letting all of those delicious ingredients meld together in a savory symphony.

There is, however, a secret ingredient in this that TOTALLY blows it away and makes all the difference in lasagna for me!

That being said, I’m usually pretty picky about exactly how I like my lasagna and have yet to taste one better than that of my Grandma’s. I actually find it pretty funny that the original recipe came from a tiny asian woman instead of an Italian cookbook! She uses this cottage cheese instead of ricotta, which makes the lasagna more savory than sweet tasting and, in my personal opinion, much tastier.

Another thing I love about this recipe is that is was so easy to lighten up, yet still stay mouthwatering!

It’s packed full of protein, has less than 400 calories per hefty serving, and you could easily add some chopped vegetables to get in an extra serving of veggies.

Fast, healthy, and delicious! This healthy skillet lasagna is my kind of dinner.

Enjoy!

This recipe contains sponsored content!

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