Browsing Tag

gluten free

Health, Products I love

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!

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan

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!

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with pesto

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with pesto

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with pesto

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!

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with thai chicken

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with thai chicken

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.

Health

Project Juice

May 6, 2014

If you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram you will no doubt have noticed the various photo’s of juice that have been posted.

I was kindly invited by Brandon Waloff, Project Juice’s community wellness manager and certified holistic health coach who attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, to visit their location in Russian Hill and to sample a few of their juices. I met Brandon at Mint Studio’s spring open house and chatted with him about Project Juice as he was giving out samples of their juice. Before I go any further, let me tell you a bit more about more Project Juice and what I think makes them stand out from other juice companies.

review of project juice San Francisco

 Brandon Waloff, Project Juice’s community wellness manager at their Russian Hill location

Project Juice is a San Francisco based company that was founded a few years ago by Rachel Malsin and is co-founded with two others, Devon Briger and Greg Malsin. Rachel had various food allergies and began to modify her diet by implementing raw foods and juices which inspired her to live a new healthier lifestyle and to bring this lifestyle to the Bay Area. Fast forward a bit to Rachel moving from Long Island to San Francisco and starting Project Juice after noticing a gap in the market for high quality, cold pressed and organic juices!

Project Juice opened their first location in the financial district in the summer of 2013, then opened their Russian Hill location the week before Valentine’s Day and recently opened another location in Palo Alto. So there is an option if you want to avoid San Francisco traffic!! Project Juice are also planning on expanding to new locations and have a lot of exciting new ventures, such as implementing food into their programs and creating a smoothie bar. Part of their mission is to provide the best juice possible, and all of their ingredients are organic and are locally sourced whenever possible. What I found really incredible about this company is that they realize that diets do NOT work. There is not one size fits all and Brandon, who Project Juice’s certified holistic health coach, will work with people on developing cleansing programs that fit YOU and YOUR needs as opposed to forcing you to stick with a rigid plan that may not make you feel nourished or energetic.

review of project juice San Francisco

So now that you know the deets on Project Juice, I can now continue! Their Russian Hill location was lovely; it had a great ambiance and they had various other healthy food products in stock if you wanted some nibbles with your juice.

review of project juice San Francisco

After sampling a few of their juices and learning a bit more about the company, I was given 3 juices of my choice to take home and try out. I was so excitedddd haha, it was literally like getting an early birthday present (which is on May 22nd, so actually pretty soon)!! I absolutely love all things healthy and Project Juice seriously has so many amazing flavors with unique ingredients. It was extreeemely hard to pick just 3, but in the end I finally decided on D-Tox, Turmeric Mylk, and Swiss Beetz. I had tried D-Tox before at Mint Studio’s spring open house so I couldn’t resist getting a bottle of that, but the other 2 were completely new to me. I chose them because they contained some pretty rare ingredients that I had never seen in a juice before!

D-Tox

review of project juice dtox drink San Francisco

Mmm, this drink was really unexpected for me … but in a very, very good way. I don’t know why, but whenever I see a product that says ‘detox’ I think of something kinda nasty and bitter. D-Tox was far from that, and it was actually very sweet and refreshing. It contains pineapple, mint, apple, and chlorophyll .. I know right, you’re thinking ‘what the heck is chlorophyll’ … Chlorophyll has a number of interesting properties, such as increasing your red blood cell count, is packed full of protein and nutrients, and has been said to help slow down the aging process (you can read more about chlorophyll here)! Very, very interesting and something I have never ever seen in a juice before! You should definitely make this juice one to try if you have a sweet tooth and want a healthy drink 🙂

Turmeric Mylk

review of project juice turmeric mylk San Francisco

Oh man, this juice is awesome!! I was surprised at how creamy it was and how the turmeric blended in perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. Turmeric (a common ingredient in curries) is a spice which has been linked to its ability to help fight various types of  cancer. This juice contains almonds, alkaline water, dates, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla bean, and sea salt … mmm, delicious. I made my boyfriend try it (he does not like juices lol) and even he admitted that it tasted great, victory!

Swiss Beetz

 review of project juice swiss beetz juice San Francisco

As the name makes oh so clear, this juice contains beets! It also contains apples, carrots, cucumber, lemon, and ginger which makes for a really cleansing and refreshing juice. It had a lovely sweet and sour taste and the flavor of the beets did not at all overwhelm the other flavors. All of the ingredients complemented each other really well, very impressive. As much as I love beets, they do have a very strong and distinct flavor which is hard to mask! I let my housemate try some as she is a nurse and always interested in trying new healthy foods, and she agreed that it tasted great. I adored the addition of lemon and ginger, my favorite healthy combo of all time. I swear, lemon and ginger tea works everytime I get sick.

So there you have it! Project Juice have so many more flavors to offer and I hope you all try them! They have several locations within San Francisco and a new location in Palo Alto. They have plans to expand so I look forward to seeing where their new locations will be.

review of project juice San Francisco

review of project juice San Francisco

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have any of you ever tried Project Juice before? If not, what brand do you usually buy, or do you make your own?

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!

40 easy meals idea's

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