Recipes | Amber Keinath

Recipe: Yummy Vegan Vanilla Date Shake!

Apr 242012

I can’t help but drive by date farms these days since moving to the southwest. They are all over the place! But, what do you actually do with them?

For a long time, I had no clue!

They kept popping up in all sorts of new recipes I would look through when I made the switch to a plant-strong diet. But, truth be told, they scared me!

I didn’t know how to buy them, store them, or even eat them.

Asking around, I found many people also did not have an idea on how to use them.

By far, the most popular dates in healthy recipes I have found are medjool dates. They are considered the “king of dates” and the “crown jewel of dates”. They are dried before you eat them. Due to their size, amount of meaty fruit, and how moist, sweet tasting, and sticky they are, they are great for desserts, smoothies, dips, and so much more.

They really have been easy to add to my healthy lifestyle. I love just eating them plain. Freezing them and then eating on a hot summer day is great too!

Health Benefits:

Only 70 calories!
High in Fiber, Magnesium, Potassium, Iron, and Phosphorus.
They are high in natural sugar, but because it is from a whole food and paired with fiber, they are a great alternative to regular desserts.
They are a VERY good energy source!

How to Buy:

In most grocery stores around the U.S., they are available from mid-summer to mid-fall, but can be stored at home all year long. When buying medjool dates, be sure to choose dates that are plump and have a shiny look to their skin. You do not want dates that have sugar crystals forming on them or have a shriveled look.

How to Store:

You can store your dates in an air-tight container for one week on your counter, up to 6 months in the fridge, and up to a year in your freezer.

Medjool Date Recipes:

Cereal topping
Eat plain
Or take out the pit and fill that area with crushed nuts or nut butter for a quick, high energy snack!
Date Shakes are very popular in southern California and Arizona with all the date farms around. But most date shakes use dairy products which is not plant-strong/vegan. I found 2 yummy plant-based date shake recipes. Test them out and let me know what you think by leaving me a comment at the bottom of the page!

Cinnamon-Vanilla Date Shake
1 cup vanilla soymilk
½ tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. cinnamon
2 frozen bananas
4 pitted medjool dates

Plain Vanilla Date Shake
2 frozen bananas
1 ½ cup vanilla soymilk
5 pitted medjool dates

You can take the plain vanilla date shake recipe and make any flavor you would like! For a chocolate date shake, just add cocoa powder and for a strawberry date shake, just add 3-5 strawberries.

What do you think? Do you use dates? Leave me a comment below…

To your health journey success,

P.S. Get started on your health journey with your own printable healthy eating guide! Click Here!

Friday’s Recipe: Tortilla Soup (Yep, it’s Vegan!)

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Oct 282011

As many of you know, I moved to the desert southwest this summer. It has been quite the change from the midwest. Although I am a very picky eater, I have been experimenting around town testing out local flavors. The latest dish I tried was a tortilla soup. Now, if you have never had tortilla soup, I highly recommend it.

There are 2 different ways you can make it. As you can see from my picture on the left, I am definitely not a good food photographer…doesn’t give justice to how tasty this is! I made it more like a stew. When I first had this at the restaurant, it was more of a soup. Make it in the way you are in a mood for! (For a soup add more water and instead of just dumping all the ingredients in, blend the diced tomatoes in a blender and smoosh the chickpeas with a fork which will give you more of a soup consistency!)

I made it for me and my husband this past weekend because I loved it so much when I first had it at the restaurant. However, I did not have the recipe and had to do a little research online (I am not a chef so I do look up recipes online like you).

I will come right out and tell you that I did find about 4 recipes that really sounded close to the restaurants secret recipe. But, there was always something in the recipe that would either make it too complicated or not vegan. So, trying to be a good little wifey, I set out to make my own that would please my meat and potatoes kinda hubby AND be simple that anyone could do.

And I am surprised to say, it turned out great! My hubby actually said it could be a fall/winter staple in our household. SCORE!

(BTW…here is a great fall/winter dessert! Not-so-guilty apple cake! YUM!)

Well, here is the ultimate vegan tortilla soup that won’t be ‘burning your mouth’ spicy!

AMBER’S AWESOMELY VEGAN TORTILLA SOUP

1 can of chickpeas (rinsed and drained)

2 cups vegetable broth

1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 can diced green chilies

1 green bell pepper (diced)

1 red bell pepper (diced)

1 medium yellow onion (chopped)

2 tsp. minced garlic

1 tbsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

water (as needed)

3- 8inch 100% whole wheat tortillas

Veggie shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

If you would like the soup rather than the stew, blend the entire contents of the diced tomatoes into a blender until smooth. Next, take your fork to the chickpeas that you just drained and rinsed and mash until desired consistency.
Combine the tomatoes, chickpeas, chilies, and vegetable broth into a large saucepan.
Bring to a boil.
Add remaining ingredients, except for tortillas, and simmer for about 25 minutes.
Tear tortillas into small pieces as you add it to the soup and cook for 10 minutes or until they have fallen apart and have thickened the soup.
Add more water as necessary.
Add the veggie cheddar cheese as a garnish.

—> QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is your favorite fall/winter dish? <—

(Leave a comment below!)

To your healthy & fit life,

P.S. If you have a question about nutrition or a starting a plant-based diet, and would like to see your question answered on this blog, send your question to Amber or contact Amber on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter!

Friday’s Favorite Recipe: Raw Chocolate Banana Dessert Pieces

Recipes 8 Responses »

Sep 232011

Happy 1st day of Fall. I really am going to miss seeing the changing leaves and all the fall colors.

Here in Arizona, it is far from looking like fall (everyone tells me it won’t ever look like fall here). We are still over 100 degrees at the end of September! As this is my first year away from the Midwest in 7 years, I don’t completely want to miss out on this fun season.

Please send me your favorite fall photos to amber@amberkeinath.com or simply tag me in the photo on facebook or twitter. Include what you like most about fall or attach your favorite healthy fall recipe to be featured on my “fall favorites” blog post!

Because all around me there is only sun and heat, I am bringing you a yummy frozen dessert you can enjoy all year long! I don’t know about you but I used to eat ice cream even in snow storms (until my healthy days). Who doesn’t love chocolate all times of the year?

This recipe is a great one to make for your parties. Don’t worry; you don’t have to tell your friends it is actually a healthy raw/vegan dessert! They probably won’t believe you anyway.

Get going and treat yourself to some chocolate today!

Raw Chocolate Banana Dessert Pieces

2-3 large bananas
1 cup of hazelnuts
¼ cup of carob powder
¼ cup of agave nectar
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

Mix carob powder, agave nectar, and cinnamon together in small bowl.
Put hazelnuts into food processor until fine pieces.
Cut banana into thin slices.
Dip a banana slice into the chocolate. Cover with chocolate.
Transfer into nut pieces and cover or transfer unto tray and sprinkle top with nut pieces.
Place the tray of finished dessert pieces and let chill for 2-4 hours.

Question of the Day: What is your favorite fall activity? Leave me a comment below!

To your health journey success,

P.S. Get a Healthy Lifestyle Coach to help you Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and have FUN. Join me by Clicking Here!

Friday’s Recipes: Top 3 Fruit Juice Recipes

Healthy Eating, Recipes 3 Responses »

Jan 282011

Hey there! How was your week this week? Because it is Friday, I am bringing you some more yummy healthy recipes to try this weekend!

I finally invested in a great juicer a few weeks ago and have been looking around for some great recipes to try out. I came across 3 great tasting juice recipes that I am sure you will love!

If you do not have a juicer, you can make up these recipes as smoothies in your blender by adding some water to the fruit. So whether you are up for some fresh juice or a great smoothie, try out these recipes and let me know what you think.

When you are juicing these recipes, just use the ingredients listed in the recipe and put the fruit through your juicer. How simple can it get? If you are wanting to make the smoothie versions of these recipes, you can add some soy milk, almond milk, or water to the fruit and blend in your blender until smooth.

Berry Juice Delight

2 cups of Strawberries
2 cups of Blueberries
1 ½ cups of Raspberries
1 cup of blackberries

Kiwi Apple Juice

3 Kiwis
2 Apples (cored)

Grape & Blueberry Juice

1 cup Purple Grapes
1 cup Blueberries

Leave me a comment below and answer this question of the day: which recipe sounds the best to you and why?

To your health journey success,

P.S. Get a Health Coach to help you Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and have FUN. Join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Friday’s Recipe: Tangy Avocado Salad

Healthy Eating, Recipes No Responses »

Jan 212011

Friday’s Healthy Recipe this week is a quick and easy salad. This is a great option for a quick lunch option or to take with you to work. It really gives you a great nutritional punch!

Tangy Avocado Salad

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp lime juice

2 cups Spinach (or if you prefer romaine)

1 Avocado diced

1 Orange

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

For the dressing, mix the olive oil, lime juice, salt, and the juice from the one orange (Squeeze as much out of it as possible. Do not use juicer).

Mix together the diced avocado with the spinach or lettuce. Drizzle dressing over top and add pepper to taste.

It is a simple recipe and takes a whole 5 minutes to make giving you a tasty lunch or side salad.

Let me know what you think of the combination of this salad by leaving me a comment below. Is there something you would do differently?

Friday’s Raw Recipe: Party Salsa

Healthy Eating, Recipes No Responses »

Jan 142011

Hey there! Since last friday’s recipe was guacamole and it had such great feedback, I decided to follow that up with another appetizer for those football playoff parties you are throwing this time of year.

My colts are history, so now the Bears are my last hope. Go Bears!

For the salsa recipe this week, you can make the recipe as is or you can take the salsa and mix it in with the basic guacamole recipe from last week to make a spectacular dip!

Here’s todays totally healthy salsa recipe which is great with chopped veggies or you can add it to lettuce to make a delicious salad! So many options, which will you choose?

Here’s the salsa recipe:

5-6 roma tomatoes (or 4 cups diced tomatoes)

1 bunch of cilantro (or 1 cup) finely chopped

1 small onion diced (or 1 c minced onion)

juice of 1 lime

Salt to taste

1 tsp of chilli pepper (optional) or to taste

2 ripe avocadoes diced if making the salad version of this salsa

Directions:

Mix the ingrediets together in a bowl. If making the salad, mix the ingredients with the avocado and then toss with lettuce.

There you have it! Simple and easy: just the way I like it!

What do you think?

Question of the day: What is your favorite dip? Leave me a comment below….

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Friday’s Recipe: Why I Love this Raw Guacamole Recipe

Healthy Eating, Recipes 6 Responses »

Jan 072011

Hey there! Welcome to another friday which means I bring you my favorite healthy recipe of the week! This week I am bringing you my favorite Guacamole Recipe. I thought with the football playoffs starting (go Colts!), it was about time I bring you a bunch of my favorite dips that go great at parties!

I think this past week I have made my husband sick and tired of avocados because I have made guacamole so much! I just love it! For a healthy snack, cut up some fresh veggies and eat those with this dip! AMAZING!

Oh, yeah, and avocados may get a bad rep because they are higher in fat, but guess what? They are high in the healthy fats that we miss in our daily diets! You know those omega-3′s that are essential for ultimate health! Im not a huge fan of fish so this is one awesome, easy, and tasty way to get those essential fats!

So, in other words eat up! These are not going to make you fat! All that candy and sweets you eat will make you fat before a simple avocado will! You’ve gotta start thinking in terms of whats healthy and nutrient dense as opposed to just calories in! This is one food you would be wise to eat up and not skip out on! So start eating!

Yummy Raw Guacamole Dip

Ingredients:

2-3 avocados

1 medium tomato chopped

Juice from 1 lime

Optional ingredients, choose what combination sounds good:

1/4 tsp of garlic powder (1 clove garlic minced is even better!)

ground black pepper and celtic sea salt to taste

2 Tbsp of finely chopped onion

1/2 red pepper finely cut

1/2 green pepper finely cut

2 stalks celery finely chopped

Directions:

Scrape out insides of avocados and throw away skin and seed. Mash up both avocados. Add the chopped tomatoes and mix. Mix any combination of optional ingredients into the avocado and tomato mixture (can use all ingredients). Refrigerate for 10 minutes and then serve.

What do you think? Not that difficult to make it fresh! It is tastier than that packaged mix you buy in the grocery store and you get to skip all those preservatives and chemical additives that cause health issues!

Try it and let me know how it turns out! Don’t forget the cut up raw veggies to eat with it!

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you will be serving during the football playoffs!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Friday’s Favorite Recipe: Fruity Breakfast Delight

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Dec 102010

Welcome to another friday! This week I am going to bring you a great breakfast recipe!

It is quick and easy. This recipe gives you a great nutritional punch first thing in the morning and there is an awesome energy boost that comes with it! Maybe it can replace the morning coffee? Maybe you aren’t ready for that. Oh well. I tried!

However, this recipe offers tons of antioxidants which are awesome for your health. Watch my video below for some great information on antioxidants’ powerful punch!

Okay, you ready for this awesomely healthy, simple, quick, and tasty breakfast idea?

Here it is:

Fruity Breakfast Delight

Mix 1 banana and desired amount of water (about 1/2 cup) in a blender for desired consistency similar to milk.

Place desired amount (about 1-2 cups total) of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and kiwi or any combination of fruit in a bowl.

Pour banana milk over fruit. Enjoy!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Get Healthy Recipe: Crazy Banana Berry Green Smoothie

Healthy Eating, Organic/Raw, Recipes 8 Responses »

Oct 012010

Welcome to another friday recipe! Can you believe it is already October? Just because fall is here does not mean you have to give up great tasting fruits! Frozen berries can be great in smoothies!

This week I am so excited to bring you my very first friday recipe that is on video! I decided to demonstrate the recipe this week because I love the Crazy Banana Berry Green Smoothie! It is so hard to get more fruits and vegetables a lot of times, especially for your kids.

This smoothie is a great power start breakfast or snack and is packed full of vitamins and minerals that will help you increase your energy and overall feel great!

Check out the Crazy Banana Berry Green Smoothie in this recipe video:

So, what do you think about this nutrient rich smoothie? Did you know green smoothies could be so cool and great tasting? You are now on your way to a healthier YOU!

If you missed the recipe on the video this is what it consisted of:

1 banana, 1/2 c. of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, 1 c. of blueberries, a handful of spinach, and water as needed. Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think of this recipe and my first recipe on video! Do you have any ideas for changing up this smoothie recipe? What are some things you love in smoothies? Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this video with your friends on twitter and facebook by clicking below!

Please VOTE for my Smoothie Video for the NaturalNews.tv recipe contest!!!! http://bit.ly/c3fkR5

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Get Healthy Recipe: Captivatingly-Creamy Carmel Syrup

Healthy Eating, Recipes No Responses »

Sep 242010

Last week, I shared with you guys an awesome Raw-Dark Chocolate Syrup. I heard a ton of awesome feedback about that recipe and how much you love your desserts. Click here if you missed that wonderful and healthy chocolate syrup recipe!

Because of all your positive responses, this week’s recipe I am bringing you Raw-Dark Chocolate’s Partner in crime: Captivatingly-Creamy Carmel Syrup! What is a great dessert without these two toppings?

By using these two delicious recipes, you will sweetly surprise your guests that they are actually eating something healthy! Imagine how impressed they will be that you came up with this before they did!

This healthy recipe only has 3 ingredients and requires a blender. How much more simple can it be? It was masterminded by an awesome raw food chef, Matthew Kenny! It is a completely raw recipe which means it is made using ingredients that are at their greatest nutrient value!

This recipe does include cinnamon which is an awesome addition to any recipe in both flavor and health benefits! Some of its latest health benefits include: anti-clotting, anti-microbial, boosts brain function (how many of us can’t use that?), helps control blood sugar, has calcium and fiber that promote colon and heart health, and it is a great source of manganese and iron.

So, let’s get on with this recipe! It is so simple; you will be making this for your kids in no time and getting rid of those processed unhealthy toppings with extended shelf lives due to all the preservatives and chemicals in them!

Ingredients: (yield- 2 cups)

2 cups raw agave nectar

½ tsp sea salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Blend all ingredients together in blender until smooth. Chill in freezer for at least 2 hours. Remove until softer, about 20 minutes, before serving.

Hope you enjoy this awesome and healthier alternative to traditional dessert toppings! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below and don’t forget to “share the love” by sharing this recipe with your friends!

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!