Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan

May 21, 2014

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan

What a treat I have in store for all of my readers who suffer a gluten intolerance or happen to be following a vegan diet 🙂 Today I want to introduce you to Bisogno Pasta! They are a California based brand and currently sell their products in Southern California. Luckily for all us Northern Californians, Bisogno Pasta are currently expanding to the Bay Area, woo hoo!

I came across Bisogno Pasta and was instantly intrigued by them. Why? Because they are the only fresh gluten free and vegan pasta currently on the market. Their nutritional values were super impressive, boasting 20g of protein (as much as 4 ounces of chicken) and 23g of fiber (basically fulfilling how much fiber you need in a day). Their pasta is made from lentil flour and water and so absolutely no gluten, wheat, corn, rice, soy, dairy OR eggs were used at all!

I really wanted to try Bisogno Pasta because I have tried a few gluten-free pastas for fun but honestly, they were all kind of … lacking. Bisogno Pasta kindly sent me samples of their three flavors of pasta: beet, lemon parsley, and spinach. My boyfriend and I had a lot of fun thinking up some recipe’s to try out the pasta and were seriously so impressed. The texture and taste were both fantastic, and I would never had known that it was missing wheat and eggs if I had not known beforehand. I think my favorite was the spinach pasta (who doesn’t want a way to incorporate more veggies into their diet?) but my boyfriend preferred the lemon parsley. All flavors were fantastic though, and I encourage you to try them!

Here are some photos of what we made followed by the recipes 🙂

Spinach and lemon parsley pasta with cashew pesto and smoked salmon

Ingredients

1 serving of spinach bisogno pasta
1 serving of lemon parsley bisogno pasta
4-8 ounces of smoked salmon (I used honey smoked salmon)
Cashew pesto – I used walnuts instead of cashews in mine however because I had run out of cashews!
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese to garnish
A few basil leaves to garnish

Serves 2 people

1. Prepare the cashew pesto first and then set aside for now.
2. Prepare the bisogno pasta according to instructions – boil in hot water for 4 minutes.
3. Serve pasta and top with a generous serving of cashew pesto, smoked salmon and parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Beet pasta with Thai style chicken

Ingredients

1 serving of beet bisogno pasta
16 ounces of chicken
1 can of coconut milk
1 cup chicken stock
1 sliced carrot
2 cups of cauliflower
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fish sauce
1tsp red chilli flakes (feel free to add more if you like spice!)
OPTIONAL – 1 cup enoki mushrooms

Thai style chicken will serve 4. Make 4 servings of bisogno pasta to use all of it or store the rest away as leftovers.

1. Prepare the thai style chicken 1 day in advance. Using a slow cooker/crockpot, put all of the ingredients (minus the bisogno pasta) into your slow cooker and set on ‘LOW’ for 7-8 hours. Keep in slow cooker on ‘WARM’ setting until you make your pasta.
2. Make bisogno pasta according to directions – boil for 4 minutes.
3. Serve pasta with 1/4 of the chicken that you made. The chicken will serve 4 people and is a great leftover meal!

I cannot waaaait until Bisogno Pasta expands to the Bay Area. When it does it is going to be a constant in my kitchen! Can’t wait to make people think they are eating normal pasta and then tell them the nutritional profile hehe.

I am curious, how many of you are actually gluten-free and vegan?

Honestly yours,
Alice

DISCALIMER: I was not paid to write about bisogno pasta. I only ever write about brands which I believe in and have high quality and healthy products.

Friday Fare

Dark Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

May 2, 2014

As you may (or may not know, it’s cool if you don’t lol) I have been working on a yummy dark chocolate chip coconut cookies recipe for this week’s Friday Fare! The inspiration for this recipe honestly came about because I had all the ingredients in my cupboard and I reeeeally was craving cookies .. I love cookies, hehe. These cookies are kind of like a beginner’s guide to taking the healthy step forward – a few people have commented on how even though the recipe’s look great, there are several hard to get or expensive ingredients in them. And I totally understand, not everyone can live near a Whole Food’s with a bulk bin section!! So these cookies have ingredients that should be easy enough for you to get at your local supermarket 🙂

Dark Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Don’t they look awesome?

I used a combination of oat flour (which you can make your own by just putting some rolled oats in a food processor and whizzing it about for a few seconds) and whole wheat flour, coconut oil and dark chocolate to make a healthier chocolate chip cookie. I really like oat flour because it has quite a lot of fiber and protein in it, and I used whole wheat flour because a) it is super easy to find in supermarkets and b) as opposed to white wheat flour which usually is stripped of all its nutritional goodness, whole wheat flour contains all of the fiber and vitamins that are supposed to be there. Coconut oil makes everything taste better (in my opinion) and contains a lot of healthy fats, and the dark chocolate is there to balance out the sweetness that comes with the brown sugar. Although brown sugar really is not that much healthier than white sugar, it gives a richer flavor and more moistness to the cookie. Like I said, this is a beginner’s guide to healthier cookies!

They are also dairy free as I used Almond Breeze’s almond and coconut milk.

Dark Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Alice Williams

Melt in your mouth dark chocolate chip cookies with coconut.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp unsweetened almond milk I used Almond Breeze's almond and coconut milk blend mmm
1/2 cup or 4 squares of 70% dark chocolate pieces I buy the Lindt kind and break it up into small chunks, you can use a knife to chop them too
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp high quality salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit
2. First, mix all of your dry ingredients (MINUS the dark chocolate) and then mix all of your wet ingredients. Now you can fold in the dark chocolate chunks.
3. Roll the batter into small balls (should make 12) and then use a spoon to flatten them out on your baking pan.
4. Bake the cookies in the oven for 8 minutes and then take out.
5. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes and then enjoy!

Notes

The cookies are meant to be a bit more cake-like in taste 🙂

I hope you all enjoyed this edition of Friday Fare. I had a lot of fun making these (and eating way too many in the process) and I hope you have just as much fun as I did. Next week I am thinking of featuring a sweet oatmeal dish but made using an interesting and different process from just boiling the oats or letting them soak overnight … 🙂 Either that or some sort of Thai curry.

If there is ever anything you would like me to make (a breakfast, dessert, salad or etc) then please let me know. I say this every week but I truly love hearing from you and appreciate your input and suggestions.
Have a great weekend everyone!!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Health

40 easy meal ideas

April 23, 2014

40 Easy Meal Ideas

Okay, so this is not really a post, but more of a post share. I came across this awesome infographic with 40 easy meals ideas the other day on Ben Greenfield’s website (someone I admire and trust in the realm of fitness and nutrition) and thought I would share it with you all. Although it is titled ’40 easy meals for busy athlete’s’, I do not see why you cannot incorporate some of these meals into your own diet!

Mmm .. oh my, I am getting hungry now after seeing all 40 easy meal ideas haha! Hope this helps you, and bear in mind that most of these 40 easy meal ideas are high energy, so you should not be gorging on the dipped dark chocolate every few hours, for example!

Honestly yours,
Alice

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