When it comes to the holidays, we tend to center it around food and those yummy, yummy treats. As long as you have an amazing will power, you are fine! But I, for one, don’t. I need to be careful when I am choosing to bring treats into my house. My weaknesses are peanut butter and starchy anything! I have 3 recipes to help tone down the sugar & starch and bring in more veggies. I hope you enjoy these!!
If you do an Easter brunch, you can not go wrong with a frittata! This is a great way to add those yummy veggies your body loves. This one has antioxidant-rich broccoli and spinach plus the great flavor of leeks.
Broccoli Spinach Frittata with Caramelized Leeks
Serves 4
- 4 C broccoli florets, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 4 C (packed) baby spinach, washed and roughly cut
- 2 Tbs grass fed butter
- 1/2 tsp unrefined sea salt
- 2 leeks, sliced to the green
- 1/4 tsp oregano, dried
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 eggs, beaten
- 2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Lightly steam broccoli until it starts to turn bright green (about 5 minutes), remove from heat, rinse with cool water, and set aside
- Melt butter in a large skillet on medium heat. Sauté leeks for 20-25 minutes until translucent and brown
- Add garlic and sauté another minute or two
- Add spinach and a pinch of sea salt and stir. Let cook until spinach is wilted (about 3-4 minutes)
- Add rinsed and drained broccoli, oregano and rest of sea salt. Stir until well combined and remove from heat
- Pour eggs on top of veggies and nutritional yeast; shake pan slightly to get egg mixture to settle into the vegetables
- Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes until baked all the way through
The starchy sides always get me, so when I go some place, I always try to bring something that counterbalances the starchy sides most people bring. It also makes me feel better when I indulge in a SMALL portion of the foods I love. Portions do matter when it comes to the starchy foods you love! This recipe incorporates a lot of different veggies and it adheres to my adage of Eating the Rainbow. The more colorful your food, the better. These veggies are finished with metabolism-boosting lemon juice.
Lemon Parmesan Roasted Vegetables
Serves 8
- 1 C each of broccoli, zucchini, squash, bell peppers, grape tomatoes, asparagus, purple onions, radishes
- 4 whole garlic cloves etc.
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- 3 tbsp + 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil divided
- 2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest zest from one small lemon
- Juice from half a lemon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425° (F).
- Clean vegetables and chop into large chunks and uniform pieces. Cut broccoli into florets, slice zucchini and squash into half-moons, halve the radishes, trim asparagus and cut into thirds, half then quarter onions, and leave grape tomatoes and garlic cloves (w/ skin) whole.
- Place all vegetables, except garlic, in a single layer onto one or two large baking sheets. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and drizzle with 3 tbsp olive oil, then toss to combine. Add garlic cloves to one corner of a baking sheet, then drizzle each clove with 1 tsp olive oil.
- Place in the oven and roast for 8 minutes, toss, then continue to cook for 5-7 minutes more or until tomatoes have burst and veggies are lightly golden brown.
- Take out of the oven, remove garlic cloves from the baking sheet; immediately top roasted vegetables with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, and the juice of half a lemon and toss.
- Remove garlic from skins, lightly chop, then toss roasted garlic with the vegetables.
My last recipe is one that I can’t wait to try. It’s homemade peanut butter (or whatever butter you want!) eggs. These are amazing and always remind me of my mother. She always gets me one every year. I really like the idea of reducing the sugar in various foods I really like to eat. I’m not a huge fan of stevia and prefer to experiment with honey in the future. Make sure you are careful with the stevia because if you use too much it will give it a weird taste. I am a fan of dark chocolate, so I advocate using dark chocolate over the sugar-free, but that is a personal choice. Just remember that dark chocolate has antioxidant properties!
Sugar-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs
12 servings
- 3/4 C Real Peanut Butter, No Sugar added
- 2 Tbs coconut oil
- 1 Tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 Tsp Chocolate liquid stevia
- Coating
- 3.5 ounce 85% dark chocolate bar or sugar-free chocolate chips
- 1 Tbs coconut oil
Directions
Peanut Butter
- Line a large baking sheet with waxed paper or parchment paper.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and peanut butter together until melted. Whisk together. Stir in the sweetener and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Roll dough into 15 2-inch balls and the flatten into an oval egg shape. Place on the prepared baking sheet and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
Chocolate Coating
- Place the chocolate and cocoa butter or butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth.
- Drop the frozen eggs in the chocolate and use a fork to roll around to coat. Lift out and tap the fork firmly against the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate.
- Place back on the baking sheet. Take any excess chocolate and drizzle over the eggs decoratively.
- Store in the refrigerator.
I hope you try these recipes out or at least let it inspire you to find alternatives to what you typically enjoy on Easter. This year will be different than every other Easter and it is tempting to make comfort foods and over indulge, but remember that this is temporary. Focusing on your health at this time is very important and a great time to set up habits that will carry beyond the current times. You no longer have the excuse, “I don’t have time for that.”
Photo by Jessy Smith on Unsplash
