Category: NuNaturals NuRecipes

Coffee Shop Inspo

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When we were galavanting around town enjoying some delish coffee, I had two delish concoctions that I NEEDED to try at home. I decided to put a NuNaturals spin on this, though honestly both required syrup and I only have NuNaturals syrup, so my tastebuds decided for me. 🙂

Mint Julep- Houndstooth Coffee

As much as I love a coffee shot, I knew immediately whilst taking this that my version would not look as cute. First off, this Cerci Lannister goblet is EVERYTHING. Second, they clearly purchased mint in that level of Mario 3 where everything is gargantuan.

Now Houndstooth doesn’t make this recipe a mystery, they shared it online for the Kentucky Derby:

Combine:

  • Generous dash simple syrup (10 grams) (I used NuNaturals vanilla syrup)
  • 2.5 ounces cold brew concentrate
  • 1.5 ounce club soda (I used Topo)
  • Top with crushed ice (I did not have crushed ice. So I used geometric ice shapes)

Garnish with agitated fresh mint. 

Now I believe my mint was already agitated because it knew it was Joe Pesci compared to the mint at Houndstooth, but for those new on the agitate mint scene, Imbibe Magazine has you covered:

A mint garnish is all about adding aroma to the final cocktail, so it’s important to know about the oil on the underside of the leaf. Ever seen a bartender slap mint in their hands before adding it to the drink? This movement is the quickest and easiest way to express those oils. “We’re allowing the oils to release and make the general environment around the top of the drink great,” Voisey says.

I ordered this the last time I was living in Austin and I thought the barista was making this up when he slapped the mint in his hand. I was like “alright, bro. You do you.” Turns out he reads Imbibe Magazine, I guess…

Here’s my version:

I asked Jon to try it and he liked it so much that I made him one as well. I consider that a job well done. The only thing agitated in this house was the mint. Last agitation, joke. Promise.

Throwback Matcha Cooler- Manana

This drink was the special on the day we went to Manana (part of the South Congress Hotel). I took a picture of just the tea and it came out terribly. Luckily their Instagram had this picture and now I want that reusable straw.

The Throwback Matcha Cooler had:

  • Unsweetened matcha powder (in a water concentrate made in-house)
  • Lavender Syrup
  • Lemon Juice
  • Sparkling Water (they had their own on tap, pics below)

I asked for the ratios of this drink because it was freakin delightful. They said 3oz of the matcha concentrate, 1 oz of lemon juice, a splash of syrup, then the rest was sparkling water. I am not sure why it is a throwback. They had a version with Strawberry lemonade and I imagine some curmudgeonly hipster was all “boooo! play the classics!” so they included the throwback as an option.

Anyways, here is a picture of us enjoying this concoction:

Eerily, my nail polish is almost identical to the George Costanza, er hand model, for Manana.

I had a leg up on the drink lewk because they did not have the goblets and fresh mint like Houndstooth (but what they lacked in those areas they made up for with a TAP OF SPARKLING WATER THAT YOU COULD USE TO HAVE AS MUCH AS YOU WANTED). I want one in my house when I grow up. Here is my version of this tasty beverage:

I used the recipe above, but replaced the lavender syrup with NuNaturals vanilla syrup. Jon said this one was even better than the one we had at the coffee shop. This feels a bit unfair because I served it to him right after he worked out and any cold beverage post-workout tastes like heaven. Here’s a picture of my ingredients:

Since the baristas told me they put the water in last, so I poured the lemon juice and matcha over ice, then finished it with sparkling water. And I don’t know if you noticed, but I used a metal straw like their instagram account. Ballin.

Let me know if you try either of these! 🙂

XO,

Watermelon Collagen Refresher

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Hello, Friends!

It is HOT right now. And my favorite thing to eat in the summer when I am warm is watermelon. So I decided to make a refresher using NuNaturals Collagen! 🙂

The ingredients are SO simple, this is barely a recipe. The only thing you need to remember to do is freeze some watermelon and banana.

First, I blended the watermelon and banana with a splash of coconut milk. I continued to add the coconut milk until it was a smooth almost daiquiri-like texture. Then I added the collagen and blended it a little more so it would be evenly incorporated. Enjoy!

Stay hydrated, dudes!

Rainbow Cheesecake Bars

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Hello, friends!

I have made quite a few delights for Pride Month but wanted to make sure I ended the last week pride month with a NuNaturals recipe! This is a modified version of these cheesecake bars. I made them for Jon’s birthday and he enjoyed them immensely. I replaced the sugar with NuNaturals Monk Fruit 1:1 sweetener. This would have been keto, but I decided to use leftover mint girl scout cookies for the crust. 🙂

I pulsed the cookies in my food processor and added melted butter. Then I smushed it onto a parchment paper-lined square pan and baked it for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. The rest of the ingredients in the first picture made the filling (I only used the egg whites in this recipe and used the yolks for brunch later).

I have seen rainbow cheesecakes where there’s a layer of white cheesecake and then a layer of swirled rainbow cheesecake on top as a second layer. This recipe is lighter in part because they are cheesecake BARS, not a full cheesecake. So I did not use a white layer below and split all of the cheesecake batter into 6 cups to color.

One trick to lifting cheesecake bars is to have parchment paper to pull up. I have seen people bake with metal clips on and I plan to eventually. I don’t have any so these adorable chip clips from my mom helped keep things in place while I added the colors. I have seen people do blobs and swirl them. I wanted to make the rainbow colors stripes, but not in ROYGBIV order (they are in order, but they don’t start with red. Which is pretty pink. I digress…). Then I used a knife to swirl the edges of the colors to make it sort of tie-dyed. I think it looked pretty dope:

See that top piece of parchment that wants to fold in? It did while baking and ruined (what would have been) the perfect shot of the baked cheesecake. Here’s the full pic (followed by a cropped pic to soothe my ego):

You know what fixes blemishes like that? Whipped cream. And I just happened to have some leftover whipping cream in the fridge. I painted the inside of a pastry bag with rainbow colors then filled it with the whipped cream. Boom. Magic.

I should also add that this painting technique for piping also is shown off in this Instagram reel when I made these adorbs meringues. I used this recipe and once again subbed sugar for NuNaturals Monk Fruit 1:1 sweetener. You might say this post is full of monk fruit, food coloring, and merriment.

Happy Pride, y’all! I hope you enjoyed these recipes. I also wanted to share a little highlight of some of the treats I made this month (I didn’t share the Transgender pride flag cookies because I assembled them wrong for the picture. I did make sure to use the flag colors in the unicorns seen on the bottom left though):

As NuNaturals often inquires, Isn’t Life Sweet?

XO,

Peach Cobbler

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I have to admit something: I have never purchased, cut, or baked a peach. I have eaten peach pie and I am pretty sure I’ve had those peaches in syrup that sometimes get served with school lunches. But that is it. End of line. So when I saw peaches were in my weekly Farmhouse Delivery CSA box, I started to dig around for ideas. This cobbler was the one that was the most intriguing. Next week I’ll be sharing some chutney I made using white peaches.

This recipe is pretty straight forward. I followed it exactly, other than subbing NuNaturals 1:1 stevia for the sugar. Here are the IKEA assembly pictures:

Basically, you mix the sugar in with the peaches, add the crumble, and bake. The hardest part is waiting for it to cool for 20 minutes so it can thicken.

We ate ours with vanilla ice cream and Busy Bee granola on top. 10/10 would make again!

Thanks for reading!

XO,

The easiest, yet somehow fancy, fruit salad!

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I don’t know about you, but fruit during hot summer days makes me SO happy. I feel like I am being uber healthy and I also find cold fruit refreshing. I wanted to elevate the summer fruit experience with a few ingredients that you may already have on hand:

I chopped up the fruit I had in the fridge (mango, cantaloupe, strawberries) and added grapes. Then I mixed 2 tbsp of lime juice and 1 tbsp NuNaturals Chai Syrup. This was poured over the fruit and mixed through. After a few moments, I added chopped fresh mint leaves and mixed again.

The final product was DELIGHTFUL. I think it would also be good with blueberries, pineapple, watermelon, etc. I REALLY like mango with spice though. So get some of that if you can. 🙂

We ended up eating this fruit salad over some cool whip with our brunch yesterday. I am going to enjoy the remaining fruit salad (I cannot believe we left any tbh) in between teaching summer classes today. Maybe I’ll put on some shades and pretend I am on a mini vacay…

XO,

Nutritional Yeast… more like delish cheesy sprinkles!

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I received a GARGANTUAN bag of Nutritional Yeast from NuNaturals and keep finding new recipes to try out. This bag has 76 servings and I am still holding on to about 60 of those. Mama has some recipes to make! That was weird. Sorry, readers. I don’t normally refer to myself as “mama.”

In any case… I wanted to share a trifecta of recipes with nutritional yeast that you could have as breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. Let’s get cookin!

Breakfast: Cheesy Frittata (hold the cheese)

I used this recipe as inspiration. I subbed olive oil for the coconut oil and used some caramelized onions as well (since I was making those for the dinner recipe). I LOVE a frittata because they heat up so well as leftovers. I also enjoyed how this imparted a cheesy flavor without the drama that comes with cheese (it makes my allergies cray fillet).

Pro Tip: The original recipe author kindly suggested I top this with fresh tomato and avocado. I did not have those things, but it would be an awesome juxtaposition of texture and temperature. Do it up if you can!

Lunch: Corn Chowder

This recipe came in clutch because I had a dentist appointment and for the rest of that day chewing wasn’t very fun for me. I ate this chowder for dinner, but heated up the leftovers for lunch yesterday. Delightful! It is also the first time I cut fresh corn off a cob, which made me feel like a badass.

You can blend this soup (which is what I did because my teeth were being TOTAL divas). You add the nutritional yeast at that point and MAN did it add a nice flavor. The corn was sweet, so this really helped round out the flavor of the soup.

Pro Tip: I kept some fresh corn for garnish. I would suggest you do the same. 🙂

Dinner: Fully-Loaded Cauliflower Gnocchi

I made this as a side for our dinner. We had chicken with garlic paste, a lil bebe kale salad, and this gnocchi as a side. Now this recipe is ALL ME, so let’s discuss how I made it.

First, Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi is life. BUT- as many already know- the way they tell you to cook it? Not so great. So here’s the trick:

  1. Microwave the frozen gnocchi on a plate for 3 minutes.
  2. Add said gnocchi to a hot pan with oil.
  3. Fry the gnocchi in the pan until it is golden brown.
  4. Top with sauce, toss in pesto, etc.

In this case- I let it dance in the pan with some caramelized onions and chopped bacon. Next I added the nutritional yeast to the oil (see step 2) so the cheesy flavor would be evenly distributed. Finally, I topped it with some sea salt and freshly chopped green onion. It is a fully loaded baked potato type situation, y’all.

You can use any veggies that would go well with the Nutritional yeast. I used the leftover bacon and caramelized onions from breakfast and some frozen peas. Here are the ingredients (minus the bacon because I took the picture this morning whilst the bacon was sizzling in the oven):

Pro Tip: make sure you are on or near a fainting couch when you try this bad boy out.

While all three of these recipes were so darn delightful, this gnocchi was the winner. My husband pointed at it while eating several times, then wanted to know how I came up with the recipe. I felt like I was on chopped and the judges were pleased. Ha!

Thanks for getting faux-cheesy with me!

XO,

Nooch

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Well, “nooch” is a word I never thought I’d use. It is shorthand for Nutritional Yeast, an ingredient I played with briefly years ago when on the Paleo diet. I used it in a few recipes that called for it, then literally never bought it again. Nothing against the stuff, I just didn’t make too many recipes that called for it. Man, dear readers, how things have changed… 🙂

Nooch Popcorn

When NuNaturals shared they were making their own, I asked for some to try out in recipes. And, per usual, they delivered (I should add that it is also ON SALE right now. No, they don’t pay me. Ha!)

First, I attempted the cheesy popcorn hack where nooch is the star player:

I guess I should say that the nooch shared the stage with Everything but the Bagel seasoning. This is basically the song where (inexplicably) Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson fought over the same girl. In the end we all win, really.

Tahini Nooch Kale Salad

I also used nutritional yeast as part of a salad dressing! I used kale here because it stands up well to bold dressing choices. This delish dressing concoction was made using lemon juice, tajini, nooch, garlic, soy sauce, and a bit of apple cider vinegar. Because this dressing was SO flavorful, there were only two other ingredients: kale and ribbons of rainbow carrot. Both from Farmhouse Delivery. Obviously. 🙂

Keto Broccoli Fritters

My final recipe using nutritional yeast also provided me an opportunity to use up some broccoli I had laying around. Occasionally, as a CSA box gal, there’s a rando ingredient who needs some friends. This week it was broccoli. So I made these fritters using almond flour, nutritional yeast, egg, and broccoli pulsed in a food processor.

On my next attempt I would replace the almond flour with regular flour or wheat flour. The flavor of these was great, but they were a bit dry. Not your fault, nooch. The dang almonds did us wrong. 🙂

What’s Next?

I would like to make Keto Fried Chicken using nutritional yeast in the future. I’ll report back on how that goes, as well as the decidedly not Keto fitters I make on round 2.

XO,

The Easiest Applesauce EVER.

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I don’t know if y’all had a Boston Market where you grew up, but we did. And my FAVORITE thing (other than the cornbread) was their applesauce. It was chunky and warm and amazing. When I purchased applesauce from the store it was cinnamon applesauce from Motts, but not chunky and always eaten cold.

I bought an Instant Pot a while back and decided to use it to make applesauce. I am NEVER looking back, sorry Mott family. This stuff was SO easy and SO delish!

Here’s my IKEA step by step process:

There’s no formal recipe. This is how I do it:

  1. Peel apples and cut into chunks
  2. Add cinnamon (circle 1)
  3. Add NuNaturals Vanilla Syrup (circle 2)
  4. Add a splash of lemon juice and some water
  5. Stir together so apples are evenly covered (circle 3)
  6. Steam for 20 mins, release instant pot pressure
  7. Mash any huge chunks
  8. Eat warm if possible. Because OMG.

You can also use brown sugar in this or a splash of bourbon if you imbibe. It is a delightful treat no matter how you make it.

So, I guess you could say I’m…. Austin Market. Eh? Eh?

XO,

The BEST breakfast shake. Ever.

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This shake has EVERYTHING: oats, protein, deliciousness, cinnamon, cocoa powder… come on now! Why have I been hiding this from you? (No, really… I am asking you because I am at a loss.)

I have lived in many-a-homes. This recipe has travelled with me since I lived in Michigan with my adorbs hubster. Here’s a pic of our last day at that house and what we looked like in 2013:

Side bar: the woman who took this pic was the obligatory “nosy neighbor” in every movie ever. She asked us how much our house sold for and where we were going before taking this picture. I just wanted to set the scene for you here. 🙂

Anyways, back in this adorbs house I came across this recipe on Pinterest. It was absolutely delicious and I told everyone on Facebook, because I think Instagram was new and I did not have Twitter. So I told who I could, okay?

I updated this recipe for y’all by adding 2 tbsp of NuNaturals Collagen. While this recipe was already delish, it did not really have much protein. I liked the flavor as is, so I didn’t want to add a protein powder and screw that up. This was the ideal solution! Here’s the gang taking a group photo before I assembled:

All you do is take every ingredient except the frozen banana and let it soak overnight together like a little pool party. Then you blend the soaked oat mixture with the frozen banana and enjoy! Today is super busy so this is the perfect lunch time treat! Full disclosure, I am literally drinking this as I type. It is a delish treat that makes working through lunch seem manageable (I am not working through lunch because this is not my job, but I imagine it would be good on a day where I was swamped and had to).

Enjoy!!!

XO,

Espresso Keto Cheesecakes

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I think it is fitting that I am writing a post about caffeine-infused sweets, as I woke up at 5:00 a.m. today, apparently VERY excited to begin my week. 🙂

I previously made Keto No-Bake Cheesecakes, which I enjoyed quite a bit. There were two small differences that made it clear these were not baked:

  1. The texture of the no-bake cheesecake was not a “solid” layer
  2. The crust was also not a solid layer and these two mingled together once eating the dessert.

I wanted to make a baked keto cheesecake AND have the distinct layers I missed whilst eating the last dessert (Though I want to be CRYSTAL clear- if you don’t want to turn on an oven that no-bake cheesecake is delish! I just wanted the layers for the gram and the satisfying snap when a fork or spoon takes a bite of cheesecake).

Per usual, here is my IKEA Instruction Recipe Rundown (I used this recipe, but used NuNaturals 1:1 sweetener instead of Swerve):

The final product was cooled until ready to be refrigerated. I put it in the freezer so they would be easier to remove from the silicone molds. After they came out, I put whipped cream on them. This was the layered amazingness I was looking for!!!! I had to use up this shelf-stable whipped cream by the end of the month so I added some NuNaturals Vanilla Syrup and stevia to it.

I have an issue with garnishing. Like… I want to add more to things. So I have two examples of this below, both using the aforementioned keto whipped cream. First, I decided that these layered cheesecakes looked BALLER from the sides, but not the top. So I added a cat stencil using cocoa powder. Next, I made my man orange jello (using NuNaturals gelatin) with mandarin oranges inside. I felt like those looked lonely with just whipped cream, so I added an orange slice. I stand by these decisions, and wish I had a bowl of this whipped cream right now.

I should add that this cheesecake recipe was made in a silicone mold I purchased for the oldest daughter of my decades-long friend Matt, aka The Domestic Specialist. She has been KILLIN IT with desserts and I thought it would be fun to see what she made with the same mold. She and her younger sister are both artists (I know this isn’t fair to the rest of the world, but her parents are amazing so it is not shocking). I asked her younger sister to decorate the box.

This was a test round…. but I have my idea for the mold ready to go. I’m ready to get completely destroyed by her amazingness.

For reference, look at a macaron side-by side:

Hers have the “feet,” which have been elusive to me. I have made two batches. While this one was miles better than my first, I still didn’t have feet. She did. She’s 11.

Remember when that little drummer prodigy girl kicked Dave Grohl’s butt in a drum-off? That’s what is going to happen here. I’m toast. 🙂

P/S- If you’d like to play along, I got the mold here. I do not get $ from Amazon or anything. I’m a baller on a budget and wanna share in case you’d like to make something, too.

XO,