recipe

  • Food & Nutrition, Nutrition, Uncategorized

    A.M. Recipe: Cabbage Kielbasa Soup

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    My undergrad bestie, Krystal, is an amazing cook and blogger at DC Brown Sugar Bakery.  She has agreed to curate a few quick, healthy and student-friendly recipes to “fit” (pun intended) the Academic Muscle audience.  Enjoy!

    It’s halfway through February 2019, which means that by now, resolutions  made a month ago unfortunately might be broken by now.  In 2018, 45% of Americans pledged to lose weight or get in shape, so there’s a good chance that half the nation’s population has made similar goals this year.

    Jogging, lifting weights, or finding zen in yoga are excellent ways to develop lean muscles. However, those results may never be visible if your diet is poor. Don’t despair! I have a tasty, nutritious and affordable meal even novice cooks can prepare. It’s cabbage kielbasa soup consisting of fresh vegetables, a little starch and protein to give you the energy needed to complete your workouts. It’s also the perfect soup for cold winter nights.

    Get your ingredients together, a calming playlist, and make this easy soup in 30-40 minutes. Then, enjoy this delicious meal, which is not only intended to fill you up but help you see the definition in your legs after all those squats.

    Cabbage Kielbasa Soup

    Ingredients

    1/2 package turkey kielbasa sliced

    soup 1

    soup 4

    2 tablespoons olive oil

    1/2 medium onion diced

    2 medium carrots chopped

    1 celery stalk chopped

    3 red potatoes chopped

    1/2 cabbage head sliced

    1 chicken bouillon cube

    salt, pepper, and dried oregano to taste

    Instructions

    First, brown the turkey kielbasa for about 5 to 7 minutes. Set aside. Add olive oil to a hot pot. Cook the onions, carrots, and celery for 5 minutes and then add the red potatoes. Sauté for about 7 more minutes. Add kielbasa and roughly 4-5 cups water and chicken bouillon cube. Bring the water to a boil and then add the cabbage and seasonings to taste. After the water returns to a boil, reduce it to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are thoroughly done. Enjoy!

    soupsoup 3

    Thanks so much Krystal for this amazing recipe!  Hopefully, this is the first of many. If you all try this out, let us know what you think.  Also, if there are any recipes you’d like to see from Academic Muscle (how to make them healthier, cheaper, etc.) let me know!

  • Food & Nutrition

    Date balls anyone?

    In this month’s grocery haul, I talked about making use of the cashews I bought from TJ’s by incorporating them into this tasty and easy to make snack.  This may be one of few cooking post I ever write, so that’s how you know these date balls are special.

    A year ago, I didn’t know what a dates were.  I just assumed they were figs and therefore would not like them.  For anyone like me, dates are a sweet fruit that grows on trees, date palms, and are native to the Middle East according to bonappetit.com.  They look like this:

    Basically_Medjool-Dates
    Source Image

    Fast forward to today, I buy dates often, primarily because of this recipe from Mona and Olive. I am not a chef and this is not a cooking blog, but  this is definitely worth sharing.

    I like this particular recipe because it doesn’t require a food processor, which I don’t have the space or money for.  Also, you can incorporate protein powder– I use my mocha flavored Vega protein powder–and the outcome tastes like actual fudge.

    Here are the instructions:

    Ingredients
    1 cup of dates chopped
    1 cup of nuts or seeds chopped. I use raw cashews and chai seeds to fill the gaps of the cup
    2 tablespoons of cocoa
    1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil (optional)
    1 tablespoon of protein powder (optional)
    coconut to roll in

    What you do
    1. In a saucepan place the dates with 1/4 cup of water, place on medium heat until reach a slight boil. Allow to slow boil for a couple of minutes until soften. Take off heat and drain.
    2. Allow to cool.
    3. Add cocoa, protein powder and oil, mix in.
    4. Add chopped nuts and seeds, stir in.
    5. Allow to cool completely and roll into balls.
    6. Store in fridge, makes 12 – 15 balls depending on size.
    Don’t eat all at once, you will find that – that many dates are NOT your friend :-)
    Great to be put in the freezer to snack on whenever you need them, once set put a couple in a zip lock bag and put them in your work freezer great for the 3pm snack!

    My finished product!

    There are other variations with dried fruits, nut butters, etc.  If you try them, let me know what you think.  Do you have any date ball recipes that you love?