National Relaxation Day and Sweet Potato Muffins

Today is National Relaxation Day! So it seems like the perfect time to talk about….well, relaxation. Relaxing is not something I’m great at.

I’ve got a Type A personality, so of course, I always want to be in control of everything. This is counterproductive when you’re trying to let everything go. I make a conscious effort to set my stress and any issues I’m facing aside so that I can chill out because relaxing really is important for both the mind and body. I can definitely tell, though, if I haven’t been relaxing enough. My headaches become more severe. My back is much more achy. My memory becomes cloudier, and I have trouble remembering where I parked the car. I’m learning to pay more attention to these signs so I can learn to live more stress free and be generally more relaxed.

Here are some of my favorite ways to relax:

1. Take a hot bath (bonus relaxation: Add Epsom salts and/or essential oils)
2. Read an interesting book
3. Go for a walk (with or without music)
4. Watch a funny TV show or movie
5. Exercise (My favorites include dance, strength training and yoga)
6. Write (Whether it’s a blog, journal, diary or just on a scrap of paper)
7. Stretch
8. Play with your pets (Volunteer at an animal shelter or visit a friend if you don’t have pets of your own)
9. Practice mindful deep breathing
10. Take up a new hobby

It’s #10 I’ve been focusing on a lot more recently. My new hobby is cooking, as I’ve mentioned before, and I’m really enjoying finding new recipes and trying them out. Thank goodness for the power of Pinterest. My “recipes to try” board is growing quite quickly, but I sometimes get in the habit of making favorite foods over and over again. Not that there’s anything wrong with revisiting old favorites. I know I like them, and I know what I’m doing when I cook them. But I also know that I can’t really grow my cooking muscles if I don’t explore new recipes. With that in mind, I took on a few new ones this weekend with great success (if I do say so myself)! I made taco hand pies for lunch this week (which we’ll get to in another blog post), and I made sweet potato muffins for snacks.

pre-baked sweet potato muffins

Recently, I’ve been on a sweet potato kick. More specifically, mashed sweet potatoes. If I had known how easy they were to make and how delicious they are homemade, I would have been making them ages ago. Alas. I know now and they’re basically all I want to eat. I had some leftover in my fridge when I stumbled upon this recipe for sweet potato muffins.

Baked sweet potato muffins

They sounded delicious, but I wanted to see if I could make them a little healthier. I researched ingredient substitutions and discovered that you can sub agave for sugar (⅔ agave to 1 cup sugar) and applesauce for vegetable oil (I did about ¾ cup applesauce for ¾ cup oil). This was the first time I had ever attempted to modify a recipe, and I have to say I’m very pleased with the results. My muffins came out delicious, moist and flavorful.

I apologize for my crappy food pictures. Unfortunately food photography is not a skill I have mastered. This muffin was delicious though.

Sweet Potato Muffins (modified from Good + Simple blog)

Ingredients
3 cups of mashed sweet potato*
2 cups flour (I used whole wheat flour)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
⅔ cup agave syrup
¾ cup applesauce**
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup ground flaxseed meal
Pecans (optional) (I added nuts to mine)

Instructions

1. To prep the sweet potatoes (this can be done a day or so ahead if you want to break up the muffin-making process): Pierce the potatoes with a fork and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, or until the inside is soft when poked with a fork. Remove and let cool. When the potatoes are cool, peel off the skin and mash the sweet potato filling with a fork or masher until any big lumps are gone. Measure out 3 cups worth of filling. Or you can make mashed sweet potatoes ahead of time (see below).
2. To make the muffins: In a large bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the agave syrup, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and then add the sweet potato (and pecans).
3. Pour into muffin tins/cups. Sprinkle flaxseed on top of the muffins. Bake at 325 for approximately 30 minutes. (It took about 40 minutes for mine to bake through. I tested with a toothpick to see when it came out clean).

*I used leftover mashed potatoes I made with this recipe – I subbed brown sugar and cinnamon for salt and pepper

**I didn’t measure this exactly – I used 2 individual serving cups of unsweetened applesauce

Mondays and cheesy pesto chicken

I’ve taken up cooking as a hobby over the past couple of years. It began in my closet-sized kitchen in my old studio apartment. The kitchen, though small and dollhouse like, was nice and filled with new appliances. I’m a very picky eater with the eating habits of a 5 year old. (My friends have been known to hide veggies in food.)

I love home-cooked meals but rarely ate them because I’ve never really had a huge interest in cooking. It all started with the purchase of my crock pot. I became obsessed with all things slow cooker. I waxed poetic to literally anyone who would listen about the benefits of crock pot cooking and how amazing it is to come home after a long day of work to delicious smelling food all ready for consumption. One of my favorite recipes is for bacon-wrapped bbq pork chops (the recipe calls for chicken but I like to do it with pork chops). Yes, they’re as delicious as they sound.

I still love my crock pot and use it often. A recent recipe I enjoy is the Mississippi roast. Talk about comfort food. About a year and a half ago I upgraded from a studio to a one bedroom. One of the biggest draws to my new apartment was the open floor plan in the living room and the big kitchen with a great peninsula/island part. Plenty of counter space to create, and I’ve been venturing into more real cooking. Like, on my stove and in my oven. One of my favorite pastimes is to peruse the recipes on Pinterest and plan meals accordingly. As a novice cook I have plenty of hits and misses and “well this doesn’t taste that great but it’s not terrible and I need to eat” meals.

One area I still struggle with is lunch. I’m getting better with meal prepping but I fall into a serious lunch block. For the past few weeks I’ve been eating tomato basil sausage and brown rice. It’s quick, easy and delicious. I’ve also eaten a lot of sandwiches. Nothing against them, but they get boring pretty quickly. Plus, [all together now!] processed meat is not great for you. I enjoy bringing home-cooked food for lunch but for some reason I also have trouble figuring out what to make. But let’s face it, Mondays are a little more bearable when you know you have a delicious meal waiting for you come lunchtime.

Recently, I’ve come across some great-sounding simple recipes that are easy to throw together on a Sunday afternoon, leaving you with lunches for at least a few days. One such recipe is this cheesy pesto chicken from Kiddielicious Kitchen.

Pesto? Yes.

Cheese? Yes.

Chicken? Yes.

I was sold. Three ingredients and then you bake it. What could be more simple? I decided to try this recipe for lunch this week, and I gotta say, it’s a winner. Not too heavy but the cheese and pesto blend together nicely with the chicken. I feel satisfied but not weighed down. I paired it with green beans seasoned with a little butter and garlic powder. I’ll definitely make this recipe again!

BAKED PESTO PARMESAN CHICKEN

PREP TIME: 10 mins
COOK TIME: 30 mins
TOTAL TIME: 40 mins

INGREDIENTS
4 chicken breast (preferably organic)
6 tbsp pesto
black pepper
(pinch of salt)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (I used a Parmasan/Provolone mix)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200 Celcius/390 Fahrenheit degrees.
2. Prepare the pesto. (I used jar pesto)
3. Place chicken breast in a baking tray that is lightly sprayed with cooking oil.
4. Season with black pepper and a pinch of salt if you like.
5. Top chicken breasts with pesto and grated Parmesan.
6. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes depending on the size of the chicken breasts. (I baked this for about 33 minutes)