FOOD: Double Chocolate Pancakes

Hi Made By Girls! This is Jen from Pretty Eats bringing you a fun and decadent way to wake up, Double Chocolate Pancakes.  I love trying to incorporate non-dairy options in my recipes, and experimented with Chocolate Soy Milk with these pancakes…delish!! Now these thick, chocolately treats are really more dessert than breakfast, but once in a while won't hurt. Don't forget my trick to make these cakes even more special, a sprinkle of fresh berries on top! Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Pancakes
Ingredients:  makes 10 medium sized pancakes

    •    1/2  cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    •    1 cup all-purpose flour
    •    1/2 cup sugar
    •    2 tsp baking soda
    •    1/4 tsp salt
    •    1 1/2 cup chocolate soy milk
    •    1 egg
    •    1 tsp vanilla
    •    High quality maple syrup
    •    Fresh berries of your choice

Directions: 
    •    In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and whisk well. Allow batter to sit for 15 minutes (or refrigerate if longer than 15 min).
    •    On a greased griddle (medium heat), scoop 1/4 cups of the batter onto surface. Flip when bubbles begin to rise to the top.
    •    Stack 'em up, drizzle some syrup, and enjoy with a topping of fresh berries!

-post by jen olson

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FOOD: Veggie Sliders with Tahini Mayo

Hi there, Made By Girl fans! I'm Jen from Pretty Eats and today I'm serving up a favorite of mine, Veggie Sliders with Tahini Mayo. I cannot tell you how great this recipe is, so tasty and healthy! Usually, we will make a double batch of these veggie sliders so we'll have extra for lunch the next day. Much room for adapting these sliders to what you have in the kitchen. How great would these be with some sauteed zucchini added to them? I truly love how these are baked, which just adds to the ease of this recipe. Try these Veggie Sliders in buns, wraps, or even on top of a salad, yummy any way you have them!

Veggie Sliders with Tahini Mayo

Ingredients: makes 4-6 sliders

• 2 sweet potatoes, skin-on and washed
• 4 small pre-cooked beets, finely chopped (you can often find these packaged in the refrigerator section of stores)
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 small portabello mushrooms, chopped
• 1 cup quinoa, cooked
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons mayo (Vegenaise or regular mayonnaise, your preference)
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• juice of 1/4 meyer lemon
• sea salt and ground pepper
• microgreens
• mini slider buns

Directions:

• In a 400 degree oven, place sweet potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until soft.
• Saute shallot and mushrooms in a touch of olive oil. Add garlic and beets after a few minutes, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
• Scoop the inside of the cooked sweet potatoes into a large bowl, and combine with beets/shallot/mushroom mixture. Add quinoa and flour. Mix well.
• Taste mixture for seasoning, add salt and pepper to suit your taste.
• Refrigerate slider mixture for 30 minutes before forming 4-6 small patties. (Add more flour if too sticky.)
• In a 350 degree oven, bake patties on a foil-lined oiled baking sheet for 15 minutes. Flip and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until golden.
• Make the Tahini Mayo by combining mayo, tahini, lemon juice, and a small pinch of salt and pepper.
• Assemble sliders on buns with a spoonful of Tahini Mayo and a sprinkle of microgreens. Enjoy!

- post & photos by jen olson

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FOOD: On-The-Go Breakfast Bowl

Hi everyone! Sami from XO, Sami Davis here. I'm the newest contributor here at Made By Girl & am so excited to be posting today for the first time! So, here we go! Let's chat about breakfast.

Breakfast used to be the hardest meal of the day for me to put together. From rushing out the door or just not feeling particularly hungry, skipping breakfast was seriously make a dent in my daily routine. With the need for a great recipe I could make in a snap, I cultivated a yummy breakfast bowl perfect for the girl on the go. Today, I’m sharing with you a honey greek yogurt bowl topped with strawberries, bananas, and your favorite granola.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup greek yogurt

- 1 tbsp clover honey

- 1/2 cup sliced strawberries

- 1/2 banana

- 1/4 cup your favorite granola 

1. Start by placing your greek yogurt in a bowl and pouring the honey over the yogurt.

2. Slice up your strawberries and bananas then 

assemble them on top of your yogurt honey mixture.

3. Top with your favorite granola, enjoy!

TIP: These make great make-ahead meals and would hold perfectly in small mason jars assembled like a parfait. That way, all you have to do is grab a jar on your way out the door!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

-post and photos by Sami Davis

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FOOD:Pomegranate & Roasted Delicata Autumn Salad

Welcome Made By Girl readers! Jen from Pretty Eats here with a gorgeous Autumn salad you'll want to eat for lunch, and then again for dinner! I am so inspired by the colors of Fall / the warm colors of Delicata Squash are a perfect pairing with hearty, earthy green kale. A quick roast in the oven is all the cooking needed, and simply assemble the rest of the ingredients for this seasonal celebration on a plate.

Pomegranate & Roasted Delicata Autumn Salad Ingredients: 
serves 2 

• 1 small delicate squash, seeded and sliced into 1 inch rounds, *reserve seeds 
• 4 cups kale, rinsed and chopped 
• 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds 
• 2 oz goat cheese 
• 1/3 cup candied walnuts 
• extra virgin olive oil & red wine vinegar 
• salt & pepper Directions: 
• Preheat oven to 425f. 
• Place squash slices and seeds on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with a touch of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in 425f oven for 15 minutes. 
• In a large salad bowl, mix kale with 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss well and adjust seasoning if desired. 
• After roasted delicate squash has cooled for a few minutes, cut rounds in half. 
• Serve up plates of kale and top with squash, roasted squash seeds, walnuts, goat cheese, and pomegranate seeds. Enjoy! 

 -post and images by jen olsen

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FOOD: Watercress Salad with Creamy Poppyseed Dressing

Hi Made By Girl! This is Jen from Pretty Eats coming to you with an elegant & refreshing (end of Summer) lunch, Watercress Salad with Creamy Poppyseed Dressing. The most gorgeous bunches of watercress have been popping up at my local farmer's market and I couldn't resist taking some home. Watercress is a powerhouse food, full of cancer-fighting nutrients, and great in sandwiches and salads. Pairing this peppery green with a light creamy dressing makes for a winning combination!

Watercress Salad with Creamy Poppyseed Dressing

Ingredients:

Poppyseed Dressing
    •    1/2 c plain whole fat yogurt
    •    1/4 c crumbled cheese, such as feta or goat's cheese
    •    juice of 1/2 lemon
    •    2 tsp poppyseeds
    •    1/2 tsp sea salt
    •    1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

3 cups of fresh watercress

Directions: 

Simply whisk dressing ingredients, adding extra lemon juice to obtain desired thickness. Drizzle over freshly rinsed watercress and enjoy!

-post by jen olson via pretty-eats

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The Perfect Beet Salad

Hey! This is Mat, Jen's husband guest-posting today.

This beet salad was inspired by the beet salad served at Lincoln Restaurant in Washington, DC. - one of the best salads we've ever had. Jen was so excited about this salad, but unfortunately we live in NYC & couldn't go back again to have it. So, I thought, why not make something similar for her? You can also try this recipe, since it turned out pretty good Here we go.

Ingredients:

Raw beets, mixed colors
Sea salt
Micro-greens or sprouts
Radishes
Nicoise olives, drained
Ginger
Honey
Red wine vinegar
Olive Oil
Ahi tuna - sushi grade
Soy sauce or
Sesame seeds

If you can find baby beets, they work best but you can just as easily cut bigger ones. In a pot of boiling water, add 1/2 tsp salt and boil the beets whole until tender - about 25-30 mins for smaller ones, 45 for larger. When finished, drop into an ice bath to cool them. The outer skin should peel off easily. If larger, cut the beets into bite-sized chunks.

Finely grate some peeled ginger until you have about 1/2 tsp of mash. In a bowl, mix that with 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/4 C honey, 1/4 C vinegar and 1/3 C olive oil. Finely chop or grate the nicoise olives into a crumb. Slice very thin slices of radish.

In a large bowl, roughly toss the beets, radishes and greens in the dressing and then place a batch into a serving bowl, spreading about 1 tsp of the olive crumb on top.

Heat a skillet with a smeared layer of olive oil. When very hot, gently place the tuna into the pan, sear for 45 seconds on one side, flip and do the same on the other. Remove from the heat and let rest.

In a small bowl, mix 1 Tbs soy sauce with 1 tsp honey. Slice the tuna into 1/4" slices and plate, then drizzle with the soy mix. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

The original recipe calls for sunflower sprouts for the micro-greens but you can substitute with any hearty stemmed green such as daikon sprouts or snow pea shoots. Traditionally beet salads are served with mache, which is also a good green but more difficult to find and a bit delicate.

images by jen ramos

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Food: Baked Tofu Chevre

Hey MBG readers!  It’s Caren here. Am I getting old, or is this year really going by at lightening speed?

This past weekend marked the start of the holiday season for me, as it’s Canadian Thanksgiving.  Then we will celebrate the US version real soon, then onto the Christmas holidays.  The next few months will no doubt be filled with way too many opportunities to over indulge.

Whether I’m entertaining, or I’ve offered to bring a dish to a party, this appetizer never fails to hit a home run.  Not only does Tofu Chevre put any baked brie to shame, it’s also super low fat and high in protein.  Served warm with some crackers and fruit preserves, it doesn’t get much better than this.

         They're also fabulous served cold on salads.

Ingredients

• 1 16-ounce container of extra firm tofu
• 2 tablespoons of French mustard
• 2 tablespoons of miso paste
• 1 tablespoon of tamari or soy sauce
• 3 cloves fresh garlic

1. Press tofu for 15 minutes under a weighted plate to extract any excess liquid.
2. Mix ingredients in a food processor until it becomes a well formed ball.
3. Portion chevre into disks or a long roll (much like a goat cheese log would look like)
4. Feel free to use sesame seeds, dried basil or any other seasoning to dress the cheese
5. Place chevre in the freezer for 20 minutes until well formed.
6. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Serve warm & enjoy!

-Images and post by caren Magil 

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Food: Grilled Veggie Baba Ganoush

Hey MBG'ers!  It's Caren here, dishing up an awesome idea for a clean snack that tastes out of this world!  

If I could only eat one ethnic cuisine my entire life, it would have to be Mediterranean. Even Japanese would take a back seat, and that’s saying a LOT! Baba Ganoush is one of my all time favorites as it’s an easy, low fat, low carb way to sneak your veggies in, and it’s delicious.

Now, according to tradition, you’re supposed to roast your eggplant over an open flame instead of roasting it in the oven. This gives it a real smoky flavor, and I have to admit, it does make a difference. However, if you’re lazy (like me) or you have an electric stove, then a little bit of liquid smoke is going to fix you right up.

But because I like to razzle dazzle you guys, I thought I’d go-for-pro on the open flame. Once your eggplant looks like it’s starting to resemble Joan Rivers before her third facelift (that’s about 5 minutes for the eggplant, and 50 years for Joan), then you’re ready to pop it in a pot and cook it for about another 15 minutes until it’s soft all the way through. The rest is just a matter of blending and adding the remaining ingredients until you get to the right consistency and flavor for your palette.

I also tossed in some leftover roasted asparagus, which added a great twist to the flavor. It was AWESOME, but I think roasted tomatoes, onions or even a little sautéed spinach would have been great additions too. Work with what you’ve got and enjoy with pita slices or fresh veggies on the side.

It’s a great snack to keep in the fridge for those moments where you feel a need to munch, or serve it a healthy party dip.

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 tablespoon of Tahini (use creamy peanut butter as an alternative)
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon of Tamari (use soy sauce as an alternative)
• 1 teaspoon salt and pepper (each)
• 1 tablespoon of Gomasio (use sesame seeds as an alternative)
• 1 teaspoons of garlic powder (or 2 fresh cloves)
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame or olive oil
• liquid smoke to taste (optional) 

Directions

1. Roast eggplant over open flame on all sides (for about 5 minutes)
2. Add to a pot and cover.  Cook for an additional 15 minutes, turning once.
3. Remove eggplant from heat and cool.
4. Once cooled, scrap out the meat of the eggplant and discard the skin.  Add eggplant (and it's juices) to a food processor or blender along with remaining ingredients.
5. Blend well, adding more flavorings if desired.
6. Serve warm or cold.

-images & post caren magill

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Food: Kale + Tofu Salad

Hey MBG readers, it's Monday morning!  This is Caren from Inspired Coast.  I'm in the midst of a food crush with kale.  Weird, I know, but kale is actually a pretty trendy veggie right now.  This salad is super easy, stands up for a long time and tastes out of this world!  

A friend of mine recently made this salad for a party and it blew my mind.  She made a small, non-dairy version for me, but her larger salad sported a heavy dose of parmesan cheese.  You can add that in if you’re a cheese lover, but I prefer the lean protein and texture of baked tofu.  It just feels heartier to me. 

Kale is a super food and a powerhouse of nutrition, but can inhibit the body’s absorption of calcium, so all the more reason to stick with the tofu and bypass the dairy for this dish.  Unlike most leafy salads, kale is a really hardy leafy green and won’t start wilting the minute you add your dressing to it, so it’s also a great dish to bring to potlucks or just any dinner where you think there might be a shortage of healthy choices!

I heart it :)

Tofu + Kale Salad - Serves 2 to 4


Ingredients:

• One or two heads of kale (a mix of dinosaur and curly is best)
• 1/2 or 1 full pkg of sprouted baked tofu 
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
• ½ shallot finely chopped
• 1/4 avocado, cut into small peices
• 1 tablespoon of pre-toasted sesame seeds (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Chop kale very finely, to smaller than bite size pieces and add to a large bowl - this is really important!.
• In a smaller bowl, add chopped shallot, minced garlic, oil, vinegar, lemon juice and salt and pepper.  Mix well.
• Cut avocado and tofu into very small, bite-sized pieces and add to kale
• Pour dressing mixture over chopped kale and tofu and mix well with your hands
• Add toasted sesame seeds and more salt and pepper to taste

Enjoy!

-post and images by caren

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