Month: January 2013

hotchoc cupcake

 

If you’ve been keeping up with my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny you’ll notice that I made these for my CBS baking show tape and they came out fabulous! I also got a gluten free request recently so I wanted to post a sample gluten free cupcake! It was really easy for this cupcake because I simply used garbanzo been flour which is gluten free and I was actually much happier with the results than when I just by plain “gluten free flour” at the health food store. I thought these we’re adorable because we’ve gotten quite the cold spell in NYC the past couple weeks and I’ve got hot chocolate on the brain! Slight disclaimer about the picture, marshmallows tend to not be vegan unless you actually by specifically vegan marshmallows! 

 

GLUTEN FREE VEGAN HOT COCOA CUPCAKES!

2 cups of Garbanzo Bean Gluten Free Flour

3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder  (or your favorite vegan hot choc!)

1/2 cup cane sugar

2 tsp of baking powder

2 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon ( I also like to add 1/2 tsp of nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice to give it a little extra kick)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup agave

4 oz of unsweetened apple sauce

2 cups of chocolate soy milk (which you’ll add 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar to)

1 tbs of vanilla extract and 1 tsp of almond extract (optional)

Pre heat your oven to 350 and stick your cupcake liners in your pans. I always bake using mini cupcake pans because I love the portions of the tiny cupcakes!  Next, add your apple cider vinegar to your chocolate soy milk in a separate  bowl/measuring cup and combine all your dry ingredients in your bowl or mixer. Now, add oil, agave, apple sauce and extracts to the dry ingredients. Pour you slightly curdled soy milk in to the bowl and proceed to mix for about 30 second in a stand mixer or a couple minutes by hand till the mixture is the consistency of regular cake batter but not a second longer! You don’t want to over mix if possible. At this point, I have a mini sized ice cream scooper that I use to evenly scoop the batter into the cupcake holders but a tablespoon will work as well.  Watch them while they’re baking – depending on their size will depend how long they need to stay in. Use a toothpick if your unsure if it’s done!

Now for the icing! While they’re cooling, check out my favorite butter cream recipe here — > http://gosweetandskinny.com/?p=348. As I said before, marshmallows are a great little touch if your not concerned about it being vegan or if you can get your hands on vegan marshmallows but if not, I like to just dust a little cocoa powder over the top of the icing. For the baking show video I even piped the icing to look like a dollop of whipped cream! Have fun with it!

 

 

 

 

 

<em>Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you! :)</em>

eggplantEggplant parmigiana is one of my favorite earthly delights. It’s such a rich, decadent vegetarian comfort food so naturally I was craving some this past week when temperatures in NY made it feel more like Alaska. Still, I had to find a way to make it  skinny style with out losing any of it’s amazingness.

SKINNY EGGPLANT PARMIGIANA 

2 mini eggplants or 1 lg if you prefer

1 cup of panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup of olive oil

3 tbsps of minced garlic

1 bag of low fat shredded mozzarella or veggie mozzarella (vegan substitute)

1 jar of low sodium, natural, organic tomato sauce (or if you make your own – even better!)

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Preheat your oven to 375, get out a bake sheet or two and your pyrex and lay out two lines of paper towels on your table. Slice your eggplant as thinly as possibly without it falling apart (or you hurting yourself) and lay it out on your paper towel. Place another paper towel over your finished slices and let the paper towels absorb the excess moisture of the eggplant, you’ll notice there’s a lot! Now I personally  LOVE garlic and olive oil, but if you don’t and your not vegan, you can replace this with an egg like you would when normally breading stuff. So in one bowl I put my panko bread crumbs (which are lighter, fluffier and better for you than normal bread crumbs) and in a second bowl I mix my olive oil and minced garlic. I lightly dip the eggplant slice in the oil mix and then the breadcrumbs and then place on a bake sheet. If your doing this with the oil instead of the egg, do not worry, all the breadcrumbs do NOT stick, it’s not you and it’s fine! Place them all on your sheet and stick it in the oven for a couple minutes to soften the eggplant.

While that’s in the oven, spread your sauce on the bottom of the pyrex dish (or whatever dish your using). Once your eggplant’s been in the oven for 5 minutes you can take it out and make a layer on top of the sauce. Now sprinkle some shredded mozzarella, layer with eggplant, sauce then mozzarella and onwards till you run out of dish or eggplant! I like to top it off with sauce, a sprinkle of whatever breadcrumbs might be left from dipping and a sprinkle of cheese. I know it can seem like a bit of an undertaking but trust me it’s delicious and so much better for you than classic eggplant parmigiana – you’ll never want to go back! Plus if you live alone like me, it’ll feed you for a week!

 

 

 

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<em>Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you! :)</em>

 

 

 

Hey guys! Today I’m a guest blogger over on LeanGirlsClub.com. Click the link to see my “Skinny Superbowl Pizza Bites” recipe! They’re incredibly easy to make and SOO YUMMY! You’ll definitely want to add them to your football Sunday snack list! http://bit.ly/VwJLrm

 

 

 

 

 

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<em>Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you! :)</em>

shoes
First, I’d like to thank Cassandra for letting me guest blog today. I love reading Go Sweet and Skinny and can’t wait to try her recipes. Being a working woman, I find myself making the same ol’ things and often get bored. It’s important to try new recipes so I don’t resort to junk food!

Are you a shoe lover? I love me a good pair of shoes. Stilettos, platforms, wedges, sandals, and boots. Usually I select shoes based on the aesthetic: the color, the height of the heel, embellishments, what outfits it can accompany….

That’s not the approach we should have with running shoes. All shoes were not created equal. Did you know that most running injuries are from ill-fitting shoes? Like bras, we need to be fitted for a good running shoe. Your local running store, not athletic store, will do that for you for free. A representative will watch you run on the treadmill and analyze your gait. Depending on the results and your fitness level, s/he will recommend a stability shoe or a neutral shoe. They’ll come to you with several options and help you find the best shoe. Sorry, you won’t get to choose your shoe based on your favorite colors…the shoe will pick you. How will you know? You just will. It’ll feel heavenly and feel like they were molded for your feet. The shoe will make you run stronger, faster, and lighter. A good shoe will get your butt off the coach and moving.

And if your running store is a GOOD running store, they’ll have a great return policy and let you return the shoes if it doesn’t fit right…even if you’ve run in them. I personally love Jack Rabbits, Paragon, and The New York Running Company at The Time Warner Center.

For more details on how to pick a great shoe, check out this infograph:

Running Shoes Infographic: How to Choose the Best Running Shoes

Check out REI’s wide selection of running shoes

For more tips, check out http://www.leangirlsclub.com or follow @gracekelle

I’m excited to announce the first of our “BRAINLESS BAKING” segments! Brainless Baking is all about making you look like a healthy baking genius in the kitchen without too much time or effort on your part. As delicious and nutritious as a lot of the recipes on this site are, I understand sometimes life gets a little chaotic and we don’t always have the time to make something with 10 different ingredients. So I give to you a series of upcoming baking segments for those times when your desperately craving a cookie, have to bake something for the office or your kids and want to make something better for you in a pinch! After all, Go Sweet and Skinny is all about living the sweet life while staying skinny!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you! 🙂

amylentil

 

Now noone from Amy’s Organic Soups is paying me for this sweet publicity, but hey if you want to send me some free soup – I certainly wouldn’t hate it. I just felt that I needed to share this gosweetandskinny approved soup with you during this freezing cold flu season because I know sometimes we can all be a little to busy (or sick) to make something from scratch. So when that happens and your trolling down the aisles of your local super market, Amy’s offers a ‘just a good as homemade’ alternative for vegans and omnivores alike. Whenever I buy something pre-made I ALWAYS check the ingredients on the label and you should too! I’ve included a pictures of the label from my lentil soup and you’ll see why it’s clearly my favorite. A canned soup with REAL ingredients!? I can’t believe my eyes. This picture doesn’t really do the flavor justice, it’s a really yummy lentil soup and it’s got lots of good for you veggies and lentils in it to give you tons of fiber and protein. You won’t see a label that says NO MSG, NO BIOENGINEERED INGREDIENTS and NO PRESERVATIVES to0 often in the soup aisle so reach for some Amy’s and have one less thing to worry about because you can count on only putting the best ingredients in your body.

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Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you! 🙂

So I just wanted to spread the good word to all my lovely readers. If your on the go this week (till 1/27) you can pick up a $2 steel cut oat and blueberry oatmeal from sbux with the purchase of your usual morning beverage. If your anything like me, a latte is a must in the morning and for this week alone you may also grab a guilt free breakfast with it on the cheap! Finally, a healthy breakfast thats ALMOST cheaper than a bagel. haha Thank you Starbucks! 🙂

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

 

 

mm4              Albert Einstein has some of the most amazing quotes on life, he clearly had a lot more figured out than his contemporaries may have given him credit for. This particular quote, I selected to start of our week because I feel like it’s applicable to the mind and the body! Interpret as you may for it’s YOUR monday motivation but I’ll let you in on what I’m taking away from it. In life, what makes us happier than almost anything else is forward motion. Think about it. Progress, progress, progress. Think of an area of your life your really happy about right now and I guarantee it’s because your seeing progress in that area. This is why people can have tons of money and love and still be unhappy, what they really need is growth and progress, the feeling like they’re moving forward. What areas of your life can you make progress on? Is it your health or your diet? Because your already making progress by checking out this website and showing that you care about your life and your body! Set small goals to show yourself progress, how about making it to the gym 4 times this week instead of 2 or 3? That’s progress! Little by little you can accomplish big things! Of course, you can apply it more literally as well, moving helps keep our body balanced! It clears our and head and reduces stress when we exercise, that’s why when you skip the gym for a week you’ll tend to feel a bit of kilter and maybe not understand why. Our bodies love movement whether it’s walking to run your errands, cleaning our house or jumping on an elliptical. Movement keeps us balanced and happy. So happy monday my sweet and skinny loves, get motivated and get moving!!

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

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Yes I’m perfectly aware that it’s Friday but I figured I’d give you a few days notice to plan for your first meatless Monday! I know going vegan seems completely insane and drastic to many of you and I understand, I was once where your standing. It can be quite a large undertaking to go cold turkey on meat and dairy but that’s why baby steps are so important! So let’s say you start off with meatless mondays, you can then step those up to vegan mondays or simply add more meatless days to your week! Regardless, it’s a great way to start your week on the right foot by doing something great for your body.

Did you know that women who eat a large amount of red meat and processed meats greatly increase their risk of breast cancer and heart disease? Plus all the fiber found in vegetables helps lower your risk of colon cancer! If your still having a tough time going veggie one day a week check out this incredible article. http://www.alternet.org/story/134650/the_startling_effects_of_going_vegetarian_for_just_one_day#.UPmjCO6PQ5Y.facebook

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

 

cookiecupcakesHow cute are these little baby chocolate chip cupcakes?! Can you believe they’re low fat too?! Well not only are they low fat and adorable, they are also part of my kick off into my “brainless baking” segments on our youtube channel! Since I know we’re all not little betty crockers in the kitchen like myself – I’ve decided to spend a little time creating easy peasy LOW FAT recipes that anyone can make from the boxes in their local supermarket’s baking needs section! This way not only are you making healthier versions of your favorite goodies but maybe I can even show you a few things to impress your friends and co workers with your kitchen skills! Don’t worry it’ll be our little sweet and skinny secret! Anyways, while experimenting with some concoctions, I got a little hungry and made these little chocolate chip cookie cupcakes!!

 

LOW FAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE CUPCAKES

All you need is a bag or box of chocolate chip cookie mix from your local supermarket, one egg, a small applesauce cup and half the amount of butter required from the recipe!

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Simply place the mix in a bowl, crack one egg and decide whether or not you want to use all applesauce or go half and half and use half the butter! Don’t beat yourself up if you want to use half the butter, in fact, I recommend it if your not used to low fat baked goods. It’s better to ween yourself off the usual stuff then to jump into a drastic change you might be turned off by. Now use all your apple sauce regardless of if you decide to use some of the butter. If your only using apple sauce, feel free to add about 2oz more if you’d like but it’s not necessary. The applesauce is going to make these more cupcake-y than cookie like, FYI.

So mix it all together, it should be a clumpy cookie dough like consistency. Get out your mini muffin/cupcake pan and spray it with a non stick cooking spray or use mini cupcake holders if you prefer. Use a mini ice cream scooper or a tablespoon to spoon the dough equally into the molds. Bake for 5-10 minutes while watching frequently to make sure you don’t over cook them!

I hope you enjoy these yummy baby chocolate chip cupcakes as much as I do, I won’t tell anyone how easy they were to make. 😉

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

 

monosodium-glutamate-side-effects-300x225                    Now I’m sure your no stranger to the word MSG but if your anything like me, you may have just assumed it was some seasoning used in a specific type of chinese food that you wouldn’t even eat in the first place. To be completely honest, I knew it was bad for me but didn’t even think I’d come across it in my daily diet (since I eat pretty healthfully) till I watched the documentary “Hungry for Change” and was enlightened to this real enemy amongst our food supply!

              First, let’s talk about the picture above! MSG is actually used in labs to make laboratory mice OBESE!!! That’s right when they need to test out a new weight loss drug or strategy and need to start off with a plump mouse, scientists inject MSG into these poor creatures and they just about double in size! Can you believe this is in our food supply!!?!? I know, please, go ahead, get as angry as I am. This is RIDICULOUS!! There is a very basic but wonderfully enlightening website called msgtruth.org that you can check out to find in detail information about all the different studies that have been done as well as a comprehensive list of foods you should avoid. In general, it’s found primarily in places you (being a sweet and skinny peep) already know to stay away from like McDonalds (chicken, beef AND in the fries’ seasoning!), Burger King (chicken, sausage, even their new veggie burger) and KFC (pretty much everything on the menu). Some less obvious places include canned soups (progresso, you disappoint me), parmesan cheese, ranch dressing, dorito’s, cheetos and even deli meats! Once again, another great reason to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and whole grains! Anything that isn’t natural, REAL food is just that, not real food. So do your body a favor and only put the good stuff in! I promise you it will pay you back for the rest of your life. 🙂

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

MM3

This is a quote passed on to me from my grandma and with the recent flu outbreak in Boston I thought it was very appropriate this Monday! Often on the day to day we let little things bog us down and sadly sometimes it takes an even bigger catastrophe in our life to really put everything into perspective for us. That cute guy you went on a date with not calling you back is an epic disappointment till you find out you can’t pay rent this month or lost your job and all that can seem like your world is crashing down till your doctor finds a lump in your breast. I don’t want to scare you, just trying to prove a point. Our health is soo incredibly important and it’s usually the first thing we tend to take for granted. We only get one body so why not put into it only the purest, most healthful ingredients to keep it running on super? You know what’s better than a flu shot these days? A fantastic immune system! Your body is such a wonderfully magical machine that can be your greatest ally against sickness if you are conscious about fueling it well. So eat those veggies and fruits, drink up that freshly made green juice and wake up everyday and say thank you to your body for doing its thing and keeping you happy and healthy! Our health is really our greatest wealth.

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)