Meat Free Mondays: Easy Corn on the Cob

I found out about this delicious corn on the cob recipe about a year ago and have been dying to share/try it again! This recipe creates the most delicious, moist corn I have ever tried. It is so good, that I do not even use butter on it! What's even better is that this recipe is also the easiest recipe I have ever had for making corn of any type. ​All you need is your oven and some corn.

Ingredients

​​Serving Size: 4    Prep time: 5 minutes    Cook time: 20-25 minutes

• 4 whole corn husks. Husks should still be on
  

​Recipe

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Once heated, set corn directly on center rack in oven. Heat for 25 minutes, rotating halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes. Once cooled, remove the husks.

To remove husks, pull the husk downward towards the stalk one layer at a time. When you get to the corn fibers, evenly hold onto the fiber ends and pull away from the corn with a twisting motion. This should remove almost all fibers at once. Having the husks pulled down makes it extra pretty and extra easy to eat. 

Meat Free Mondays: Roasted Carrot and Asparagus

This dish is extremely simple, but tastes great! The green of the asparagus mixed with the bright orange of the carrot make for some fantastic presentation as well. I would highly recommend ​getting carrots with the green tops still on. If this is not available, some baby carrots will do ok.

Carrots are loaded with vitamins A and K. In fact, one serving of cooked carrots gives well over the daily recommend value of vitamin A. Vitamin A aids in cleansing the body, especially the liver, of extra toxins and fats. Carrots also have a high amount of beta-carotene (of course), beta-carotene acts as an antioxidant and helps reduce cellular aging. The high amount of beta-carotene and vitamin A combined help with our complexion, keeping skin luminous and healthy. ​

Asparagus is also packed with fiber, vitamins A, K,  and C. Having almost all the recommend daily intake of vitamin K. Like carrots, asparagus is also high in antioxidants that help fight free radicals. Both carrots and asparagus have been found to reduce the risk of colon, lung, and prostate cancer. ​

Ingredients

Servings: 4    Prep time: 10 minutes    Cook time: 30 minutes

• ​1 pound small carrots, peeled with tops cut to 1/8 inch
  
• 1 pound asparagus, whole with the ends cut
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

Recipe

Heat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is heating, peel carrots and mix all ingredients into a bowl, making sure they are evenly coated. Place carrot and asparagus mixture on an aluminum lined baking sheet. Roast in oven for fifteen minutes. Remove from oven after fifteen minutes and re-mix. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and roast for five to ten minutes or until vegetables are slightly browned and tender. Remove from oven, mix, and serve.

If you prefer, you can also cut the carrots and asparagus into 1-2 inch diagonal pieces. ​

This recipe has been modified from Martha Stewart and Epicurious ​

Meat Free Mondays: Veggie Burgers

When done right, veggie burgers are fantastic. There are a few ways to cook veggie burgers that I absolutely love, and some that are not so much my favorites. These veggie burgers top my must-eat list for those hot summer nights when a backyard barbecue sounds like perfection. Try adding some liquid smoke to any of these recipes to seriously kick-up that delicious grill taste! To make these healthy burger options even healthier, you can always swap out the bun for an English muffin, pita bread, or lettuce. Trust me, it will taste so good, you won't even miss the extra calories!

Mediterranean Burgers

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This Eating Well recipe looks fantastic and the ingredients list does not take learning a second language. ​Yes, the burgers take a bit longer to make than your average hunk of meat put into a ball, but these are much healthier for you. If you are having a problem keeping them together, try adding a little cooked quinoa. Both millet and quinoa work as a type of veggie burger glue to keep it all together.

Veggie Mini Burger Pita with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

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You had me at cucumber yogurt sauce, the mini and pita just sealed the deal. This burger looks fantastic and is the perfect dish when you are wanting something both hearty and refreshing. ​Just to make these sound even more incredible, the list of ingredients includes fresh cilantro, chili powder, and garlic. Yum.

White Bean and Sweet Potato Veggie Burger

This white bean and sweet potato burger sounds like one of the most incredible burgers out there. The mix of the beans and the sweet potato make this burger a power house of nutrition. Add in the super simple recipe and we have a winner! ​These guys should only take a few minutes to cook, but you just might be able to fool people into believing they took all day.

Meat Free Mondays: Flaxseed Dessert Recipes

Last week, we talked about the benefits of flaxseed and a few of their purposes. I thought it would be a great use of this week's Meat Free Mondays to go over a few fantastic flaxseed recipes, especially for desserts. Although desserts are not the most healthy thing on the food chart, having a few ways of making them a bit healthier never hurts.

Namely Marly's Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

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Goodness, cookie cakes are so good, and cookie bars are super fantastic. One of the aspects I love most about this cookie cake is that the only dairy component is the chocolate chips; everything else is vegan! The recipe does call for some ingredients not commonly found in one's pantry- like sorghum and brown rice flours, but most can be purchased at your local health food store. ​The cake is made in a 9x13 cake pan, so should be more than enough for 10-15 people.

Flaxseed Peanut Butter

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Peanut butter is not a dessert on it's own, but is used in so many desserts that it seemed just as fantastic a recipe as any other dessert. This peanut butter recipe is the simplest recipe I think I have had on the blog yet. As long as you have a food processor or good blender, some peanuts, flaxseed, and salt, you can have peanut butter- and in about three minutes too! I am so happy that I found this recipe while searching for healthier peanut butter options. Peanut butter is not too health (and by "not too" I mean not at all), so having a recipe that changes it up a bit is heavenly. Enjoy! ​

While you are checking out this peanut butter recipe, I highly recommend looking at some of the other goods at Made to Create. This girl knows her healthy food and has some fantastic recipes to go along with a healthy and active lifestyle. ​

Chocolate Bundt Cake

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Although I am not usually a fan of bundt cakes, I will make an exception for this one any day of the week. This bundt cake is a rendition of an Eating Well cake that was created by Barr Hogen. ​The cake serves about fifteen people and takes about two hours from start to finish. The recipe calls for some pretty interesting ingredients like prune puree, rice bran oil, and hazelnuts. The hazelnuts are what caught my attention off the bat. Hazelnuts are another hidden gem in the healthy foods community and, if you have ever cooked with hazelnuts before, you know how incredible they taste in almost any baked good. This cake is sure to be a success at any party, and with 1/3 a cup of flaxseed, you do not have to feel guilty eating it!

Here is one more recipe that did not make the dessert cut, but I just could not leave out. ​It is maple almond butter, can you blame me?