Sweet Potato Workout Cake

I think sweet potato has got to be one of my all-time favourite slow burning carbohydrates. Not only because it’s delicious and can be used in both sweet and savoury recipes, it also has a minimal impact on your blood sugar levels (depending on how you prepare it, that is. A baked sweet potato has a higher glycemic index than a boiled or steamed sweet potato). What better way to spend a rainy long weekend than playing in the kitchen? This single-serve cake is a perfect pre-workout or afternoon snack, breakfast, or dessert. It provides hours of fuel and loads of deliciousness!

Ingredients

2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and steamed

1/4 cup brown rice or quinoa flour (or even protein powder could work)

1 tbsp coconut oil, plus extra for greasing

1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking soda

Pinch sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a ramekin or small dish with coconut oil.
2. Steam sweet potatoes and mash by hand or toss ‘em in the food processor.
3. Add flour and mix or process with the sweet potato. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix.
4. Scoop mixture into your ramekin and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy. Bonus: stick a square of dark chocolate into the middle of the cake when you pull it out and let it melt. Yummm. 

Homemade Mocha Iced Capps

I can smell spring in the air when I step outside. Nothing quite says summertime like a good ol’ iced cappuccino. I remember the milk-and-sugar-laden concoction from Tim Hortons well. The whipped cream on top with sweet sugary frozen caffeinated goodness underneath. The almost flavourless ice left at the bottom every time.

The bloating and the blood sugar crashes. Good times.

Needless to say when I woke up to a particularly balmy morning here in Vancouver, I immediately went to my freezer to pull out some frozen Americano cubes. Enter, vegan mocha iced capps.

Ingredients

8 ounces of frozen Americano

½ cup almond milk

1-2 teaspoons cacao or cocoa powder

8 drops English toffee stevia

½ tsp maca powder (optional)

Directions

Add all ingredients into the blender and slurp away! Sun, warmth, and tan not included.

No leaves in my salad please!

No leaves in my salad please!

You know those days when you look in your fridge and see so many great ingredients, but no clue what to do with them? I realized that all you have to do is toss them in a bowl together and drizzle them with dressing. Cool, eh? Lately I’ve been into super simple “chunky salads”. These salads are fully forkable, with no leaves in sight (I’ve preferred to drink my spinach and kale leaves these days).

Creamy Citrus Chunky Summer Salad

Serves one, multiply to your hearts content!

Ingredients

½ avocado

½ cucumber

½-1 orange

Small handful of parsley

¼ lemon

1 tbsp oil

pinch sea salt

¼ tsp dill

Directions

1. Chop up the ‘cado, cuc, orange and parsley into chunks.
2. Whisk together the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad. Toss and serve.

Cool Black Bean Cucumber Chunk Salad

Serves one, multiply to your hearts content!

Ingredients

½ cup black beans (Eden Organic canned and washed, or homemade)

1/3 cucumber

½ pear

1 tsp honey

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Pinch sea salt

Directions

1. Chop up cucumber and pear and toss in a bowl with black beans
2. Whisk together ingredients and pour over the salad. Toss and serve.

The Ins and Outs of Reading Nutrition Labels

If only it were this easy!

It’s recently been brought to my attention that people still pay attention to calories.  I chuckled a little bit when I realized this.  It’s been so far off of my radar, I kind of forgot about it. Every so often I get this urge to write a post about nutrition.  I mean, I’m a CNP and all that but my focus has been elsewhere these days. Nonetheless, this is a question that is often overlooked.  What’s the deal with food labels?

Okay, well let’s start with the obvious. What is a calorie? It is the energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water through 1 degree Celsius.

Did anyone else just have a WTF run through their head? Even as a nutritionist, reading this definition just boggles my mind. We’re so focused on the word “calorie” when it comes to weight loss and weight gain.  What bears more importance on food labels are the macronutrients: fat, carbs and protein. If it was all about calories, you could eat a specific amount of ice cream or cookies, and still lose weight (sadly, there are people that have made money off of this idea).

Does your cereal have 14+ grams of sugar in it? You’re basically eating candy for breakfast. Does your total protein intake average of 30+ grams of protein? Your body is going to have a tough time digesting that.  Sorry, how many grams of hydrogenated fat are in your food court lunch? Jeeze louise, that’s a little worrisome. Some labels try to justify these ridiculous numbers with the micronutrients, “Contains 50% of the daily recommended vitamin B6…”.  That’s great, but what form are these vitamins and minerals in? Foods that have been “fortified” don’t count (sorry, Wonderbread) since your body can’t recognize and absorb them.

Also check out the serving size. If the serving size is ridiculous compared to the other numbers (for example, if there are 34 grams of sugar in each cookie you have at Starbucks, that is WAY too much for just one cookie!).

Above and beyond the numbers of your meal, what are the ingredients? This is what you should be looking at. Food labels are listed with the most amount of ingredients to the least.  If the first ingredient is sugar… well, that means that there is more sugar than anything else in your food. And even if the last ingredient is FD&C Blue Nos. 1, it still means there is food dye that has been linked to ADHD and other “diseases” in your meal. A food with high fat content from coconut or avocado is WAY healthier and an encouraged choice, whereas if it is from a vegetable oil source, you should steer clear.

If you can understand the ingredients, you’re off to a great start.  If you still need some help, hit me up, abigail@abigailchristens.com

Vlog Numero 2: How to Avoid Plane Food

I miss the sun already! But I’m sure glad I get to come home to the food in my kitchen.