Quinoa and Turkey Meatballs with Tahini Sauce

 
In order to stop meatballs from falling apart you need a binding agent. That’s one of the sacred rules of cooking. Without a binding agent, meatballs hardly hold their round shape and most of the time they will break while you cook them.
The most used binding agents are eggs or bread crumbs. Cheese (such as Parmesan cheese), flax meal or almond meal are among other favorites. I never thought (until yesterday) that quinoa could be used as well...now I know, quinoa makes for a perfect binding agent. Who knew?

Spicy Mexican Quinoa Casserole

If you’re familiar with this blog, you know how much we love quinoa. We already made bread, patties, soup, frittata, more patties, salad and tabbouleh with quinoa. Apparently, quinoa fits in almost any dish we’re cooking. Which got me thinking...maybe I should change the name of the blog from “TheIronYou” to “TheIronQuinoa” or “TheQuinoaYou”. Doesn’t sound bad, at all. I’ll give it a thought.

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Banana Oatmeal Protein Pancakes

I’m pretty much obsessed with pancakes (who isn’t?). Good thing there’s like a million ways to make them.
This recipe has been my staple breakfast for a while. You might argue that this will never replace “real” pancakes made with butter and white flour; au contraire, they’re just as good. 
They fill you up, they taste awesome, they’re nutritionally complete and  good for you. Just what a power breakfast should be really about.

What I'm Reading: "Making Supper Safe"

The topic of food safety is more current than ever before. Over the past few decades, foodborne illness has shifted from being a fairly regionalized threat with the potential to sicken a handful of people in a single outbreak, to a national hazard capable of felling hundreds (if not thousands) of consumers from a single point of contamination.
Food recalls have become so ubiquitous we hardly even notice them. In 2008-2009 the massive salmonella contamination has killed nine people and sickened about 22,500 people. Only few weeks later, a contaminated frozen cookie dough has sent 35 people to the ER. The outbreaks are getting bigger and more deadly. These events are an alarming symptom that there’s something wrong with our food system.

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Hollywood’s new diet craze is nothing like the usual offerings. It’s not even a diet; there’s no counting calories, carbs forbearance or faddy detoxing. It’s a scientific based eating regimen that focuses on your body cells not your waistline. It seeks to operates on a biochemical level and it's designed to neutralize the inflammation that occurs inside your body. 
The anti-inflammatory diet got Hollywood hooked promising big benefits such as a clearer mind, fewer cravings, glowing skin and slimmer waist1.

Credit: Image courtesy of drweil.com

Crustless Veggie Tart

This recipe is a great dinner idea. Also a lunch idea. And now that I’m thinking about it, it could make for a great breakfast too. So this is more of great idea.
It’s loaded with summer veggies and there’s no crust. Well, there’s a sort of crust made with eggplant. But no typical tart crust made with flour and butter. No grains + no gluten = paleo friendly (i.e., primal). And vegetarian. Honestly it doesn’t get much better than that.

Negative Calorie Food: Fact or Fiction?

The term "negative calorie food" has been around for quite some time now, creating a good amount of confusion. 
Allegedly “negative calorie food” identifies certain foods that use up more calories in digestion, absorption and metabolism that they contain in the first place. In other words, calories from these foods are so hard for the body to breakdown and process, that their thermic effects are greater than their calorie values. This in turn could cause a calorie deficit, giving these foods a tremendous fat-burning advantage.  
If this assumption was true, eating these foods will cause weight-loss. The problem is that it’s not true. The calories your body burns in the digestive cycle are minuscule compared with the calories in the food itself1.

Black Carrot Cake with Greek Yogurt Frosting

Springtime is party time. Long sunny days and mild temperatures provide the perfect conditions for fun gatherings.  It seems like any excuse is a good excuse to throw a party and invite friends and family over. In NYC, especially among “youngsters”, it’s all about rooftop parties (and neighbours complaining about noise). 
I like being invited to those parties where you are asked to bring some food and beverage to share: potluck parties! They take some of the pressure off the host, and guests can bring their own flavor to the party.

Stay Hydrated!

There are plenty of hot days ahead of us and while it's always a good idea to stay hydrated, it's especially important when summer temps start rising. Whether you’re training for the NYC Marathon in Central Park, hiking some peaks or just going on a shopping spree in the street of Soho with your friends. 
Here are some tips for how to stay hydrated during the warm weather months.

Apple Crumble Muffins

I just found out that there’s a right way to eat an apple. I’m not talking about manners, but how to chomp on it so that you won’t waste half in the process. Essentially, I’ve just learned that I’ve been doing wrong what I considered to be a fairly common eating routine.
So, how have I (and you too) been eating an apple to this day? Down to the core. Holding the top and the bottom with the fingers. Chomping from left-to-right (or right-to-left) until reaching the “inedible” core. 
But no, that’s not the way to do it. 
The one and only way to eat an apple (according to my friend Ryan) is to pluck the stem and bite right through the top of the apple. Or from the bottom, you decide. 
If you do so, you won’t even feel the core as you bite and you’ll eat it all...yes, all. It really works. You’ll probably discard (read this as spit out) the seeds and the little indentation at the bottom; but that’s how much waste you’ll generate. 
The notorious apple core will be something you’ll show a picture to your grandkids saying “That’s how we used to eat apples back in the days.” No more apple core, what a strange world to live in.

Skinny Eggplant Parmesan

Oh hell yes this was good. Much much better than anticipated.
As with many popular dishes there are many bad ways to make eggplant parmesan (aka, eggplant Parmigiana). In a run-of-the-mill Italian restaurant or in almost every pizza parlor across the country if you order eggplant parmigiana you’ll get mushy slices of soggy, oily eggplant, slathered with greasy cheese and covered with a dubious tomato sauce.
Ok, this is the worst version possible. Besides that, there are many things where eggplant parmesan can go wrong.

This begs a question: if this get ruined so often why it is so popular? Because when it’s good, it’s awesomely good. Mouth watering good. That’s why it’s worth making.

Baked Eggplant Sandwiches

 
Last week I spent a lot of time waddling around the different Farmers’ market in the city; sniffing produce and stuffing eggplants, cucumbers, asparagus, tomatoes and a ton of other produce (I didn’t really need) in my shopping bag. 
I guess I experienced some sort of compulsive shopping syndrome girls always talk about.
Whatever I was laying eyes on I had to buy; which in a Farmers’ market it’s kind of an ok thing to do. No actual risk of financially ruin yourself. Worst case scenario is that when you get home you realize there’s no space left in the fridge. Which is exactly what happened to me.
 

Coconut Oil Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I was on the fence about posting this recipe. Certainly you don’t need me to tell you how to make roasted sweet potatoes. You might need me tell you how to make stuffed whole wheat focaccia or why planks are better than crunches. Roasted sweet potatoes though, I think you can handle it on your own.
However (bear with me, I’m about to make my point) what you might need is for me to tell you that there’s a better way to make roasted sweet potatoes and it involves virgin coconut oil.
Yes, roasting sweet potatoes in coconut oil changes everything. It takes this dish to a whole new level. The crazy-awesome-delicious level.

Let’s be completely real with ourselves: everybody loves roasted sweet potatoes, but coconut oil roasted sweet potatoes are THE REAL DEAL. No brainer. 

Breakfast Like A King, Lunch Like A Prince, Dinner Like A Pauper

“Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Dinner like a Pauper” this adage by Adelle Davis (which is also rule #54 in Michael Pollan’s “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”) delivers some valuable advice to maintain a healthy lifestyle. 
It stresses out the importance of front-loading the calories at the beginning of the day and decrease the intake as the hours goes by.
The rationale behind is that the human metabolism slows down as the day progresses and - furthermore - the chances of burning calories are fewer as nighttime approaches. 
Accordingly, breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day and dinner the smallest.

Take Care Of Your Body (It's The Only Place You Have To Live)

We tend to forget it, but our body is the most amazing machine ever. It performs thousands of different tasks at the same time. It can takes us anywhere. 
We must take care of it, as much as we can. That’s all we have and - as reminded by Jim Rohn’s quote - it’s the only place we really have to live. 
Eating healthy, exercising, and getting proper rest is all we have to do so that this amazing machine can run even smoother, better, and for longer. Because even though it’s strong and powerful, it’s not indestructible.

Kale Pesto

 
I’m dealing with a kale jungle kinda situation right now. It’s my undying love for kale that brought me to this “emergency”. You see, back in September I bought a packet of kale seeds at the farmer’s market. I was very excited at the idea of growing kale on my balcony. Too excited. In that state I didn’t care for reading the instructions printed on the back of the packet (1st mistake) and planted ALL the seeds in a large pot. 
After a couple of weeks ALL of the seeds sprouted nicely. ALL of them. I definitely put a generous pinch of seeds in each hole rather than the required 1-3 per hole (2nd mistake). So there were LOTS of sprouts. LOTS.  

Instead of thin them to one main sprout I just left them be (3rd mistake).  

Then winter came; the sprouts stopped growing and I almost forgot about them. Better yet, I thought that they were never gonna make it through winter (4th mistake). 
Oh man, I was wrong. As soon as spring began (like a month ago) the little sprouts started growing and grew, grew, grew, greeeeew. Like the magic bean in “Jack and the Beanstalk”.  
Fortunately some of the sprouts died (they suffocated each other or something) but there is still a huge amount of kale growing a few inches everyday: the kale jungle.
To give you an idea, I’m harvesting a good ½ pound of it daily. Which is awesome. Don’t get me wrong. I’m saving loads of money and loving it.  
The flip side is that I need to eat kale every day and need to be creative in kitchen in order to put this kale bonanza to good use (a kale salad won’t do it!)

Whole Wheat Focaccia With Cherry Tomatoes and Oregano

Turn of spring can only mean one thing…triathlon race season! There used to be a time, not too long ago, when triathlon race season didn't kick-off until the end of May. With the continued growth of triathlon, you can find a race pretty much any weekend of the year. But spring and summer is when the real action is.
Race season means, among other aspects, food boredom. Something very common for triathletes.
With a strict training and working schedule, food becomes little more than a source of fuel, and sticking to the same menu each and every day makes planning easier. Chicken, tuna, salmon, broccoli, greens, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, oatmeal...the same thing over and over again.
I can’t do it anymore. I need options and that’s why I learned to cook and create new recipes.

Whole wheat focaccia has definitely become my favorite source of complex carbs. Breakfast or lunch, if I need to carb-it-up, focaccia is what I crave.

Hot And Sour Shredded Salad

Whether you share an apartment with roomies, or live in your own house with friends coming over for brunch Sunday morning looking for something to eat, this Hot and Sour Shredded Salad is a quick and easy recipe to win over any guest you have. Seriously, any guest. Whether vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, paleo, primal or (more likely) omnivore. This salad accommodates everybody. No-brainer.

Let's Talk About Clean Eating

‘Clean Eating’ is a big part of this blog. We strive to find the foods that are best for our health and we try to create recipes that not only taste good but are also good for us. 
However, it occurred to me that we never discussed about clean eating in detail. About time. 
I don’t know about you, but when I first heard the words ‘Clean Eating’, I was wondering what it was all about. A diet? A lifestyle? Does anyone really know? 
First off, I learned that clean eating doesn’t refer to the cleanness of food from a safety standpoint. Washing thoroughly an apple before digging your teeth into it, it’s not clean eating; or better yet, it’s more than that. 
Clean eating is, in fact, a term used to identify a way of nourishment (think of it as a lifetime commitment not a short term diet) that focuses on eating whole, natural and unprocessed foods, free of chemicals and other unwanted substances. 
As pointed out by Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center “In some ways clean eating is what eating was always about”1. 
According to the consensus among nutritionists, there are many benefits to clean eating, including: increased energy, mental clarity, and improved digestion. Weight loss has also been mentioned as one of the positive externalities of clean eating, but it’s not only about that. Clean eating is a broader lifestyle choice that focuses on general health and wellbeing; shedding pound is just a bonus, the icing on the cake.

Are You Exercising Too Much?

Exercising too much, is that possible? Yes, exercise overload is just as much a problem as not exercising at all. 
It is in fact well documented that doing a load of exercise can easily do more harm than good. If regular exercise is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle, taking it to the extreme may cause severe health issues. 
For the majority of people, who struggle to exercise, the thought of doing too much may seem ludicrous. However, overtraining is much more common than one could assume. At the beginning, it may be simple enthusiasm, but then the idea that you can’t take a break from exercising creeps into your mind and before you know it you’ll find yourself falling into exercise overload. The problem arises when you feel the need to exercise beyond normal level, or better yet, beyond your normal level. 
Here are some of the most common signs that you might might exercising too much.