Fortunately I happened to have this massive bag of dried lavender lying around. Why? A few years ago I started making those lavender eye pillows you see in spas. Clearly I didn’t make too many because I have a ton leftover! I need to start either whipping out eye pillows or more ice cream, stat.

Ingredients:

2 14oz cans lite coconut milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup dried lavender

pinch of salt

Instructions:

In a blender, blend coconut milk, sugar, honey, and salt.

Pour mixture into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil, then remove from heat. Let steep for 5 minutes. Strain mixture, reserving milk and discarding lavender.

Refrigerate milk mixture until cold, about 4 hours or overnight.

Prepare ice cream according to your machine’s instructions.

I churned and churned and churned my ice cream for longer than usual because it wasn’t hardening as much as I wanted it to. Then I stuck the ice cream batch in the freezer, and we pulled it out about 4 hours later to find it had firmed up, but not entirely. It took a full 24 hours for it to be nice and solid the way ice cream should be, but the flavor was delicious! It was nice and sweet and floral. So despite it being a little soupy, the birthday boy didn’t seem to mind.

I have a sneaky suspicion it might even taste good with a pinch of sea salt on top. Did someone say it’s time for dessert?…

I don’t know who discovered the spinach artichoke dip combo, but whoever you are, I salute you. It could have been carrot broccoli dip, or celery tomato dip. But no, its spinach artichoke amazingness dip. It’s also a calorie bomb. Calorific, as one of my clients likes to say (which I actually didn’t even know was a real word until just now).

Fortunately, spinach artichoke dip – at about 100 calories per tablespoon – isn’t the only way to enjoy the delicious combo. I’ve enjoyed spinach artichoke pizza in the past, and this week I decided to take on spinach artichoke pasta.

The silken tofu keeps a creaminess in the sauce, like an alfredo sauce, while the nutritional yeast adds a cheesy flavor, without needing more than a cup of shredded cheese for the whole dish.

Ingredients:

1 package of whole wheat spaghetti

1 container lite silken tofu

1 cup shredded dairy-free cheese

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 bag frozen chopped spinach

1 bag frozen cut artichoke hearts

freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook and drain pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a blender, puree tofu, cheese, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and salt until smooth.

In a microwave safe glass bowl, defrost spinach and artichoke hearts.

When pasta is cooked, add spinach and artichokes, then pour on cheese sauce, mixing to coat the pasta and veggies well. Top with freshly ground pepper and salt to taste as needed.

I typically work out between 4-6 days a week, with the majority of those days being at the gym, but usually once or twice a week I’ll take a long walk in the city or will do a workout DVD at home.

Maybe it’s the nice spring weather that is making me cringe at the thought of being in a sweaty gym, but I’ve been trying to really listen to my body lately and spice things up a bit. If I really don’t feel like working out, I won’t. And if I really don’t want to be anywhere near the gym, I don’t force it. Exercise is fun for me, and I want it to stay that way.

Here are some things I’ve been doing lately to keep me interested in working out:

Get outside: One of the best perks of where we live is that it is so walk-able. I can walk for hours and hours in the city completely entertained. One of my favorite spots to walk to is the Chestnut Hill Reservoir nearby, giving me a nice 5 mile loop. If Funk isn’t swamped with school, he’ll join me for a post-dinner walk. Otherwise, I put on my ipod and have been listening to Jillian Michaels podcasts lately.

Stay inside: I’ve always been a fan of Comcast’s free On Demand workouts (well, free only if you’re already paying for cable). There are hundreds to choose from, including belly dancing, yoga, pilates, kickboxing, and more, ranging from 4 to 40 minutes. I used to love a handful of their pilates workouts, until they recently changed them up and now I think they’re all pretty terrible. Bummer.

(I swear I don’t normally bike with just socks. I swear I do always look that fierce.)

We have a pretty large collection of workout equipment, including a Bosu ball, stability ball, TRX, bike trainer, weights, pilates balls, foam rollers, a yoga block and strap, leg weights and more. Sometimes I’ll just make up my own routine in our living room and that gets the job done.

YouTube: YouTube has been my bff lately, since there are about a bazillion of workout videos on there, some great, but some totally horrible, so the worst part is weeding through them. This week I landed on the video of some guy who taped himself doing the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) Insanity workouts that are pretty intense. After only 10 minutes I’m sweating my face off. It’s a good thing we live on the ground level, otherwise my downstairs neighbors would hate all the jumping around I do. Lately I’ve been doing a 10 minute YouTube HIIT workout, some strength training with my 2lb pilates balls, another set of HIIT, 2^nd round of strength training and a stretch session and I’m done in about 45 minutes. Tabata workouts are similar, since the interval training with a short spurt of rest really gets your heart rate up. The other day I literally only had 10 minutes to work out, so I did a 10 minute Tabata workout and was done for the day. And I felt like I had done an entire hour sweat session.

Barre workouts: A local barre studio (Pure Barre in Newton) had a deal on class packages, so I splurged – those studios aren’t cheap! – and bought myself a pack of 20. I’ve done a handful of barre classes here and there and absolutely love them. It’s like a combination of tiny dance movements with pilates movements, but you don’t have to have any dance experience…I certainly don’t! These classes don’t aggravate my hip at all, and those teeny tiny movements are absolutely killer. Every cell in your body will burn. I also love Exhale’s Core Fusion class, and there are locations across the country.

(My abs look just like that!)

Current fav DVDs: Exhale Spa’s Core Fusion DVDs. This is way cheaper than going to the class! Funk got me a 3-pack of Core Fusion DVDs for the same price as one class, and I usually do a DVD during an early morning workout. It’s not the same as the class, but I feel you can still get a decent workout in.

When I do go to the gym, I change things up as much as possible. Every few months, I’ll meet with a trainer to get a new routine. Once or twice a week I’ll go to a pilates or smart bells class, and the rest of the time I work out on my own. I write down workouts my trainer gives me on little index cards and rotate through them each week so I never stand on the gym floor wondering what exercise I should do next.

These additions have been helping my workout rut, which I’m hoping passes soon. I always tell my clients, “Don’t do it if it isn’t fun,” and I’m trying to keep that mentality for myself. What do you do for fitness fun?

Ingredients:

1 bag pre-cut kale, chopped into smaller pieces

1 bag pre-shredded carrots

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 cups cooked English peas

3 cups pre-cooked farro

Pinch of sea salt

1 Tsp Olive oil

Dressing:
Mama Pea’s Mmm Sauce – 1 batch

I’ve had a box of farro in my cabinet for months, so I made a large batch of it in my rice cooker to keep in the fridge for the week. Farro is a whole grain that is chewier and larger than rice, and it reminds me of barley. You can enjoy it cold or hot, but in this salad, I used it cold.

In a large bowl, massage kale with a drizzle of olive oil and your bare hands. Add in the peas, carrots and chickpeas, saving ¼ cup of the chickpeas for the Mmm sauce.

In a high speed blender, blend Mmm sauce ingredients and drizzle over the salad. Mix well so the entire salad is lightly coated with the sauce. Add a pinch of sea salt to taste.

The veggies were crunchy while the farro and chickpeas were nice and chewy. And that Mmm sauce goes well on just about everything – it’s a little nutty, tangy, and savory.

It was good to get back into the kale groove.

The hardest part was making sure we whisked the confectioners’ sugar enough so there were no lumps. It took some serious elbow grease, and I did this over a low burner on the stove to keep things soft. We set the fudge in the fridge overnight before cutting it into bite sized squares.

It is sickeningly sweet (in a good, peanut butter fudge way, I swear) and made about 40 little pieces. My only complaint is that it’s a tad dry and crumbly – some squares broke in half – but I suspect it’d be even drier if I used more sugar. It all goes down the same way! So broken or not, this is the easiest way to whip up fudge, and you don’t need a class project excuse to make it.

Pssssst….Happy Birthday to the best mom ever!! xoxo!

The thing with making banana bread is that you have to wait all week for those dang bananas to ripen before you can get cooking. But once those bananas are ready? It’s well worth it. Especially for this amazing vegan blueberry banana bread I spotted on the Daily Garnish blog. I love a recipe that doesn’t need any tweaking – Emily already used a “flax egg” and whole wheat flour…a girl after my own heart!

Ingredients:

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup organic cane sugar

2 tablespoons ground flax (+1/4 cup water)

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup walnuts – I omitted these

1 cup frozen blueberries – I added about another half cup

Click here for instructions.

The ingredients were extremely easy to whip together and the batter tasted amazing. That’s my favorite part about vegan baking – if you want to eat the batter, feel free!

Despite my love for nuts, Funk and I hate them in baked goods, so I left the walnuts out and upped the blueberries. Do not come near us with walnuts in brownies, or peanuts in peanut butter cookies. But outside of baked goods? Nuts are like our life support. We have a steady supply of at least 6 bags of nuts in the cabinet, not including the bag Funk keeps at work and the mini-tin of almonds I keep in my work bag at all times. What? You never know when you’re going to want cinnamon almonds over salted almonds, or raw cashews instead of roasted. Always be prepared!

Anyway, into the oven this blueberry banana loaf went. Since my oven consistently clocks in at 500 degrees (or hotter) no matter what temperature you set it, I baked this for only 40 minutes instead of 60. The inside of this bread was perfectly dense and gooey, just like I love it, with a soft crust on the outside. Later in the season, I think I’ll try it with chopped fresh strawberries. I do believe this is hands down the best banana bread I’ve ever had.

One of my goals a while back was to “master cooking Indian food,” since I love it so much. While I can’t say I’m a master quite yet, I’d like to think I’m getting there. Sometimes all it takes is a dash of Garam Masala to kick up a meal, other times, it takes a delicious recipe like this Indian Mango Dal from Eating Well.

Click here for the instructions.

1 cup yellow lentils (I used yellow split peas)

4 cups water

1 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (I used ground cumin)

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 mangoes, peeled and diced (I used a bag of frozen, cubed mangos)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I used frozen Dorot cilantro)

I also added about 2 cups of frozen chopped spinach I had on hand.

I’m a sucker for sweet and savory combos in my meals, especially when the sweet is coming from mangos. In the name of convenience and cost, I used a whole bag of pre-cut frozen mangos, which was probably the equivalent of 4-5 fresh mangos. I also had ground cumin, and not the seeds, and instead of the yellow lentils, I had yellow split peas, which cooked the same way. I also added some frozen chopped spinach.

It came together surprisingly easily, especially since I used pre-cut, frozen mango, cilantro and spinach. And the taste? Perfect! The big chunks of sweet mango were in every bite and the split peas were so filling. I froze the leftovers for future meals to look forward to. We ate this as-is in a bowl, but I think it’s be great over some brown basmati rice as well.

Have you perfected any Indian food recipes? Do share! I’m intimidated but eager to try making Naan!

This month’s Recipe ReDux theme is “The First Shoots of Spring,” and what better exemplifies a spring veggie than asparagus? We’re big fans of asparagus over here. I love it because, well, I pretty much love every vegetable, especially the green ones. Funk too, though we’re still working on brussels sprouts with him.

If you don’t think you love asparagus as much as me, I’m betting you’ll love it prepared this way. I was inspired by Eating Well’s recipe for Panko Crusted Asparagus, and especially loved the fact that no eggs were used! That’s usually always an ingredient when you’re “crusting” a food. I thought their sesame-miso-version sounded great, but decided to use my own twist on ingredients:

25 spears asparagus, washed and ends snapped off

1/3 cup canola oil mayonnaise (egg free)

2 Tbsp honey mustard

1 tsp Sriracha or hot sauce

1/2 teaspoon grape seed oil

3/4 cup Japanese-style panko breadcrumbs

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

pinch of salt

cooking spray

1. Preheat the oven to 450F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; coat with cooking spray.

2. Combine mayo, mustard, sriracha sauce, and oil in a small bowl and whisk with a fork to combine.

3. Place asparagus in a shallow dish and toss with the mayo mixture, using your fingers to make sure the asparagus is well coated.

4. Combine panko, nutritional yeast and salt on a large dish. Working one spear at a time, roll in the panko mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet, leaving room between each spear.

5. Roast the asparagus until the coating begins to brown and the asparagus is tender, about 20 minutes.

I was in heaven eating these, yes with my fingers. They were crispy and tender at the same time with the slightest twinge of heat from the sriracha sauce. I could have eaten all 25 spears, but thought I should save some for my asparagus-loving husband. I love the panko crusting method so much, I think it’d work just as well on tofu, baked eggplant slices, in stuffed tomatoes, and more.

Now that spring has sprung, check out some of these other delicious Recipe ReDux creations with fresh spring ingredients.

Last week I was talking with a client about Lo Mein. She loves it, and frequently orders takeout from a nearby Chinese restaurant. “Why not save some cash and calories and make your own?” I asked her. We did a quick search and found some healthy Lo Mein recipes online, including this one from Eating Well.

All this Chinese food chatter gave me a hankering to make my own, but I veered away from the already established recipes and decided to make an Asian-inspired veggie-noodle dish using my favorite sauce creation from this Mee Goreng recipe. I made an absolutely massive (and I mean massive) batch of this since every Sunday I cook for us and also make a handful of meals for a friend for the week. If you’re not feeding a small army, cut the ingredients in half if for just 4 or 5 servings (entrée sized portions).

Ingredients:

1 box whole wheat spaghetti

2 bags frozen edamame, defrosted

1 bag frozen broccoli, defrosted

1 cup frozen corn, defrosted

1 bag pre-shredded carrots

4 cubes pre-marinated Trader Joe’s Teryaki Tofu, diced

Sauce:

½ cup ketchup

1 cup reduced sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp Sriracha sauce

4 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp curry powder

Cook and drain spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile prepare the sauce by combining all ingredients in a large jar and shaking the (closed) jar until well combined.

When the spaghetti is done cooking, add the edamame, broccoli, corn, carrots and tofu into the large pot. Pour sauce over the pasta and veggie mixture. Cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes until all of the ingredients are coated well with sauce and heated through. Serve and enjoy. Chopsticks optional but encouraged!

A few weeks ago, breaking news (haha) reported that popcorn has more antioxidants than fruits and veggies. I did a little cheer, and then emailed the link to funk with a subject of: BEST. NEWS. EVER.

We’re popcorn junkies around here. Popcorn contains concentrated levels of polyphenols. These disease fighting antioxidants, also found in green tea and red wine, are like little ninja warriors kicking the butts of free radicals that try to damage our cells. Kapow!

Popcorn is also a high fiber, low calorie food, so it fills you up without filling you out. But before you go to the nearest movie theater to load up on the buttery snack, keep in mind that a large, unbuttered popcorn there could have as many as 1,200 belt-busting calories and an artery-clogging 60g of fat.

Your best bet is to make your own stovetop popcorn. Yep, just like the olden days before Mr. Redenbacher and microwaves came around. It’s so easy to do and you’ll never want to use a chemical laden microwave popcorn bag again. Once Funk and I mastered this method, we got rid of our two (yes we had two) popcorn makers.

Coat the bottom of a heavy duty pot with a few teaspoons of olive oil or coconut oil. Drop three kernels in the bottom of the pot, cover, and wait for them to pop.

This part is essential, because when those three kernels pop, it means the pot is hot enough for the rest, and will ensure you don’t have burnt popcorn on the bottom and a whole bunch of un-popped kernels on the top.

Once they do pop, pour three tablespoons of kernels into the pot (or up to ½ cup, depending on how much popcorn you want), cover again, and watch as your pot fills with fluffy popcorn. It only takes a few minutes. Sure the oil adds some calories and fat to your snack, but it’s the heart healthy kind and you’re keeping a lid on the amount you use.

Our all time favorite popcorn that Funk has perfected is his olive oil and truffle salt popcorn. It is worth the $25 for the container of truffle salt we order online and use strictly for popcorn. We make it weekly!

Popcorn is best enjoyed in bed with a laptop movie.