Vegan

Vegan

Cashew Ginger Brown Rice Bowl with Dole Premium Celery Hearts

Dole-Premium-Celery-Hearts-Less-Stringy-Celery-Cashew-Ginger-Brown-Rice-Bowl-1Have you ever made a nice little snack of celery and peanut butter, and then bit into it only to struggle to get an actual bite because strings of celery just wouldn’t break and were stuck in your teeth? Yaaaa, not a fan! That feeling of stringy celery always gave me the heebie jeebies, but luckily Dole has changed my celery fears to cheers! You can now enjoy a special variety of celery that is exclusive to Dole that has a milder flavor, snappier crunch, and less stringy texture. Introducing Dole Premium Celery Hearts!

I love these tender young stalks for snacking because they really are exactly what they say: milder less celery-ish flavor, super easy to snap, break, and crunch, and way less stringy than any other celery I’ve eaten! Another reason I love Dole Premium Celery Hearts? I try not to add additional salt to my recipes, and celery has a natural salty flavor, which is great for Asian dishes, like my Cashew Ginger Brown Rice Bowl below!

I’m starting 2016 off right with a fully balanced Rabbit Food Pyramid approved meal for you guys! It’s pretty crazy that this lunch/dinner meal is a single serving for one person. At first, when you are chopping and prepping, it seems small, but once you add everything together, it’s a pretty awesome sized meal! It’s remarkable how much volume vegetables give to a dish once you add the RFFMBT recommended serving of 2 cups! Heres to a healthy & happy 2016 with tons of fab new Rabbit Food Pyramid approved meals that are totally filling, satisfying, and always tasty!

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Cashew Ginger Brown Rice Bowl with Dole Celery

1/2 cup sliced Dole Premium Celery Hearts
1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp orange juice
1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 Tbsp cashews, crushed

1. Cook brown rice ahead of time and measure out 1/2 cup. Set aside in a bowl.
2. Prepare your vegetables: slice the celery, bell pepper, carrot, and chop the onion.
3. Whisk together the rice vinegar, orange juice, and ginger. Transfer the mixture into a saucepan. Add chopped vegetables and edamame to the pan and sauté in the mixture over medium heat until slightly tender.
4. After vegetables have finished cooking, add them to the bowl of brown rice.
5. Top the veggie bowl with crushed cashews. Enjoy.

The Rabbit Food Pyramid Breakdown
Produce: Dole celery, bell pepper, carrot, & onion
Whole Grain: brown rice
Protein: edamame
Plant Based Fat: cashews
Free Extras: rice vinegar, orange juice, &  ginger

Health & Happiness
xo-Catherine

Dole Banana Power Pops

I have been working with Dole for over three years now, and I am so honored to be an official Dole ambassador for 2015! I’m also really excited to announce the launch of Dole’s “Get Up and Grow!” campaign and tour! All of my bunnies know that I am a huge advocate for “eating more rabbit food” and getting as many fruits and vegetables into your diet as possible. You’ve seen me hide spinach in everything from smoothies to brownies and it’s no secret that I love introducing my readers to healthier options. That’s why I’m so excited for Dole’s “Get Up and Grow!” campaign and initiative to directly challenge the public to adopt a healthier daily routine including eating more fresh fruits and vegetables!

The Dole “Get Up and Grow” tour caravans are making roughly 480 stops at supermarkets and special events throughout the U.S. and Canada this summer that you won’t want to miss!

“Multiple colorful Get Up and Grow! Tour caravans with rolling kitchens will deliver innovative new recipes, product samples, a do-it-yourself smoothie bar, free giveaways for the whole family and other activities specifically created to showcase the fun, flavor and preparation possibilities of fresh fruit and vegetables and a plant-based diet. Visitors can also present a grocery receipt showing a qualifying level of DOLE® fresh purchase to receive a limited-edition, commemorative Get Up and Grow! item.

The new recipes available for sampling range from the Banana and Blue, Breakfast Smoothie, Power Punch Smoothie and Spinach-Avocado Hummus to the Grilled Banana Parfait, Southwestern Gazpacho, Caesar’s Bounty Salad and Charred Summer Salad, which Dole has proclaimed 2015’s “Official Salad of Summer.”

Dole-Get-Up-and-Grow-Tour-2015Take the Pledge Today & View Tour Dates and Info!

I’m really into snacks, they literally make the world go round. My absolute worst snack attacks usually hit at about 3pm and midnight (I know, it’s so bad) and although I try to avoid the midnight snacking by sipping on herbal tea, the midday hunger is unavoidable. 3pm is that awkward time in-between lunch and dinner when you don’t want to eat something heavy and spoil your dinner, but you need something to give you energy and nourish your brain and body to get you through the next few hours. This is when Banana Power Pops are the perfect little energizing snack. Natural sugars and potassium from bananas, antioxidants and caffeine from dark chocolate, and nourishing plant based fats from the nut and seed toppings make a winning combo to power you up and give you a dose energy! They also make a great cool treat during the hot summer when kept in the freezer!

Power snack or dessert? You decide!

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Dole Banana Power Pops

1 Dole Banana
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips or vegan chocolate chips
Toppings: shredded coconut, sliced almonds, chia seeds, raisins, oats.
Lollipop Sticks

1. Peel and slice banana into half inch thick slices.
2. Melt chocolate in a saucepan over medium heat.
3. Place a lollipop stick in each banana slice.
4. Dip each banana slice one by one into dark chocolate and sprinkle with desired topping.
5. Place dipped banana slices on wax paper and place in the freezer until hardened. Enjoy cold.

Dole-Get-Up-and-Grow-Ambassador-Facebook-ChatI am hosting a Facebook chat this Thursday, June 11 at 5pm PDT (8pm EST!) on the Dole Facebook page! Make sure to stop by, chat, and ask me questions!

Health & Happiness
xo-Catherine

Single Serving Vegan Mini Donuts

Happy NATIONAL DONUT DAY!!!

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Sorry for the lack of posts recently. The past couple of weeks have been busier than the holiday season for me! A few weeks ago I started a new job at Vans doing their social media! It has been the most fun job and I LOVE my social media team. They are a group of some of the most hard working, dedicated, and creative individuals and it’s so fun to get to work alongside them. It’s really amazing that this blog has opened up so many opportunities for me, and one being my new job in social media. Right now I’m trying to balance my new job and creating new content for my blog, and I think I’m figuring this out haha. Thanks for being patient with me and continuing to pop in and read! Your support means the world to me!

Sooooo, today is National Donut Day and of course I had to make a single serving of donuts for my little bunnies! These donuts are vegan and made from whole wheat flour and have a maple almond icing which is naturally colored with beet juice (trust me you cannot taste it!). A little bit of beet juice goes a long way (just like food coloring) so you don’t need too much.
As I was making the batter for my mini donuts, I realized that I didn’t have a donut pan to bake them in. I would usually go to the store and buy something like this, but I was like wait a second… If I don’t have a donut baking pan, then not a lot of people do haha! So instead of buying one, I made my own! I took a mini cupcake/muffin tin and rolled up aluminum foil and placed it in the center of each muffin tin so that the donuts would bake with a hole! Call it ghetto or call me a genius… up to you!!!

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Vegan Mini Donuts
Serves 1

1/4 tsp ground flaxseed + 1/2 tsp water
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
heaping 1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch cinnamon
pinch salt
1/8 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened almond milk

Maple Almond Icing
1 Tbsp almond butter
1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
splash of unsweetened almond milk
(optional) 1/4-1/2 tsp beet juice for color

Vegan Sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine ground flaxseed and water in a small dish and set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients (whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt).
4. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients (apple cider vinegar, vanilla, almond milk) and the flaxseed mixture.
5. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until evenly combined.
6. Pour the donut batter into a mini donut pan generously sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. If you don’t have a donut pan, you can use a mini muffin tin and place rolled up aluminum foil in the center. Generously coat the muffin tin and aluminum foil centers with nonstick cooking spray (do not skip this step).
7. Place the donut batter in a Ziploc bag and cut the tip (like a pastry bag) to evenly distribute the batter into the muffin tins around the aluminum foil centers.
8. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes.
9. Remove donut from the oven and let cool.
10. While the donuts are cooling, mix the icing ingredients. Mix almond butter and maple syrup together and add a splash of almond milk until desired consistency is reached. For pink icing, add 1/4 tsp of beet juice (natural food coloring).
11. Remove donuts from muffin tin and push the aluminum foil centers through each donut until donut hole is exposed.
12. Drizzle each donut with icing and add sprinkles.

Silk Banana Berry Breakfast Quinoa + Giveaway

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I’m sooooo excited for this collaboration! I get really pumped when a brand contacts me, but when it’s a brand that I already love, I get really really REALLY excited! Silk makes my absolute favorite Almondmilk, and all I want to do is talk about how creamy and tasty it is, but I’m trying my best to refrain becauseeeeee today it’s all about Silk Soymilk!

You guys know that I am allllll about the plant based protein on my blog and milk totally counts towards that! Silk Soymilk has 8 grams of plant-powered protein per serving. It also has no cholesterol, no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners, no high-fructose corn syrup, is low in saturated fat, free of gluten, and is verified by the Non-GMO Project.

You’ve probably heard this all of your life, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” But let’s get cereal (haha) breakfast provides you with the energy and nutrients that you need to get through the day and influences how we perform physically and mentally. Plus, studies show that breakfast is important in maintaining a healthy body weight.

If you’re planning on going for a run or working out later don’t skip out on breakfast, and definitely don’t skip your protein! You don’t have to eat a jar of protein powder for breakfast, but by eating a balanced breakfast with a serving of protein, you will feel satisfied and energized to conquer the day and your workout!

Today’s recipe is a Banana Berry Breakfast Quinoa made with Silk Vanilla Soymilk. It’s similar to oatmeal, but made with quinoa which is a complete protein! Most people don’t think of quinoa as a breakfast food, but it can be a great addition to some recipes and adds an extra punch of protein and nutty flavor to your basic breakfast!

I usually make this breakfast quinoa with tropical types of fruits or apple and cinnamon since I have a severe allergy to most berries, but I know seeing the same tropical fruits on my blog over and over again can get kind of boring so I wanted to do a fun banana berry combo for my bunnies! Matt was my taste tester on this one, and he said it was “REALLY GOOD!”

Silk-Banana-Berry-Breakfast-Quinoa-2Interested in trying Silk Soymilk? Signup on the Silk website to receive a 75¢ off coupon!

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Silk Banana Berry Breakfast Quinoa
Serves 1

1/2 cup Silk Vanilla Soymilk
1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 cup blueberries and blackberries
1/2 banana, sliced

1. Combine quinoa, Silk Vanilla Soymilk, and berries in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to a very low simmer and cover for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until all liquid has absorbed.
3. Transfer the quinoa mixture to a bowl and add a splash of Silk Vanilla Soymilk until desired texture/creaminess is desired.
4. Top with sliced banana and a small handful of berries. Enjoy warm.

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GIVEWAY
Now it’s your chance to win a Silk Soymilk prize package!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Must use a valid email address to enter. Must be a US resident to enter. Giveaway ends on Sunday, March 24th at 11:59 PM (PDT). 1 winner will be randomly selected and announced on Monday, March 25th. Health & Happinessxo-Catherine This conversation is sponsored by Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

3 Ingredient Magic Cookies

I remember seeing a banana oat cookie recipe floating around Pinterest a couple of years ago and I thought it was too good to be true. Welllll I pintested it and it was a total flop. My cookies were rubbery and looked like one of those typical “NAILED IT!” photos. It was bad. Like most of the omgsupercool intriguing Pinterest recipes that I’ve tried, I got super frustrated, annoyed, and never tried it again.

Well, here I am years later conquering the banana oat cookie, and not to toot my own horn but, TOOT FREAKING TOOT I actually nailed it! In the correct kind of nailed it way. And these cookies are seriously magical! The original recipe called for cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins, but I am giving a big N-O to those ingredients for my magical cookies. I’ve also mastered the ratio of ingredients so your cookies don’t look like a pile of unicorn poop when they come out of the oven. You’re welcome.

I am happy to tell you that these cookies are gluten-free (make sure to buy uncontaminated oats), vegan, nut-free, seed-free, dairy-free, soy-free, wheat-free, refined sugar-free, and absolutely magical. Plus, you might just happen to have two super ripe bananas on your counter just waiting to be used… for cookies!

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3 Ingredient Magic Cookies

Yields 20 cookies

2 large ripe bananas
1 cup whole rolled oats
¼ cup vegan chocolate chips (I love Enjoy Life brand)

additional ¼ – ½ cup rolled oats as needed to thicken batter

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Place bananas and 1 cup of oats in a food processor and blend until the bananas are smooth but you can still see bits of oats.
3. The consistency will depend on the size of your bananas, so if your mixture is too runny, transfer to a bowl and fold in ¼ cup of whole rolled oats to make it thicker. If the dough still isn’t stiff enough, add another ¼ cup of oats. Add chocolate chips and mix in with a spoon.
4. Using a 1 Tbsp sized measuring spoon scoop heaping spoonfuls of dough and place onto parchment paper.
5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until tops are golden.

If you follow me on Snapchat, you probably saw me making these cookies yesterday!
Snapchat Username: @EatRabbitFood

I’m off to Disneyland today with Matt and his family for his sister Olivia’s birthday!
Be on the lookout on my Instagram if you’re at Disneyland today, I have a little surprise planned!

Health & Happiness
xo-Catherine

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