Grilled Chicken Kebabs With Peanut Sauce

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Chicken kebabs
Peanut sauce

Nothing screams summer like barbecued anything. As soon as the temperature starts to warm up, and the sun starts to shine I get immediate cravings for barbecued meals. Eating food fresh off the grill just tastes like summer. As the summer months are approaching, and warmer weather is upon us, I’ve been barbecuing as many dinners and lunches as possible.

These chicken kebabs are a super quick and easy meal to prepare and make. They have a dry rub spice mixture so you don’t need to worry about marinading them for hours in advance. Just throw on the spices as you are making supper. I like to serve these kebabs with a side of rice or roasted potatoes. Topped off with a delicious peanut sauce makes for the perfect barbecued summer meal.

What to put on the kebabs?

I have a few “go to” veggies for these kebabs which include bell peppers, red onion and zucchini, and for a delicious burst of flavor I add pineapple. This adds a little sweetness to the meal and a whole lot of deliciousness. You can, however, use whatever veggies you have on hand, like brussel sprouts, mushrooms, egg plants, cherry tomatoes, etc.

Peanut Sauce

The peanut sauce is easily what makes this meal go from good to great. I like to give it a slight spiciness by adding a little chilli sauce, however it’s not a must have if you don’t like spicy food.

Chicken and Veggie Kebabs

Serves: 4 Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 Boneless skinless chicken breast
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 bell peppers (colour of choice)
  • 1-2 Zucchini*
  • 2 cups chopped pineapple
  • 1 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Notes

*Like I said before, none of these veggies are required, use whatever you have. I had Brussel sprouts on hand so I threw those on the skewers.

The amounts listed for each spice is only meant to be approximate. I always tend to add more spice then a recipe calls for because I love when things are extra flavourful. So feel free to add more of these spices if you see fit.

Method

  1. Turn the barbecue on to high heat
  2. Chop all your veggies and pineapple into bite size cubes that will fit on the kebabs.
  3. Place them in a large bowl.
  4. Cut up your chicken into cubes as well.
  5. Place chicken in separate bowl.
  6. Then measure out your spices and put them in a small bowl.
  7. Sprinkle your spice mixture over both of the veggies and the chicken.
  8. Toss to coat the spice mixture over all of the food.
  9. Place all the chicken and veggies onto your kebabs.
  10. Put on the grill and cook for 5-7 minutes.
  11. Turn them over and cook the other side for 3-5 minutes.
  12. Veggies don’t take long to cook so to make sure the kebabs are ready check the center of a piece of chicken to make sure it’s cooked all the way through.
  13. Enjoy with the peanut sauce below!

Nutrition

Per approximately 1/4 of this recipe

Calories: 205 Total Fat: 3g Sodium: 479mg Fiber: 3g Sugar: 13g Protein: 32g

Peanut Sauce Recipe

Servings: 4 Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/4 c Natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 Unsweetened almond milk*
  • 2 tsp Soy Sauce
  • 2 tsp Chilli sauce (optional)

Notes

*This is an approximate amount for the almond milk, however you can continue to add 1 tablespoon at a time until you get your desired consistency for the peanut sauce.

Other milk substitutes as well as regular milk can also be used instead of almond milk.

Method

  1. Put peanut butter, chilli sauce, and soy sauce into a medium size bowl.
  2. Add milk and stir to combine, continue adding little bits of milk until you have reached your desired consistency.

Nutrition

Per 1/4 of the recipe

Calories: 98 Total fat: 8g Saturated fat: 2g Sodium: 199mg Carbohydrates: 4g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 2g Protein: 4g

All About Sourdough

During this global pandemic, like many others, I have found myself with a little extra time on my hands, hence how this blog came to life. As seen basically anywhere on the internet, people are making bread like no other as a pass time. So obviously I had to hop on the trend.

One of my absolute favourite kinds of bread is sourdough. A local bakery just 15 minutes away from my house makes all sorts of delicious sourdough breads, including apricot, olive, baguettes, etc. I’ve always known that sourdough is “healthy” but that was the extent of it.

What is it?

First of all, what is sourdough bread and why is it different than regular bread? Sourdough is bread that is made from a sourdough starter in place of store bought yeast. Yeast reacts with the gluten in flour which is what causes the dough to rise. Sourdough bread rises from “wild yeast” instead of added yeast. The yeast and bacteria grow inside the flour and water. The bacteria that is present produces lactic acid which ferments the dough. AKA why the dough has a sour taste.

Health

Sourdough is healthy because of the grain fermentation process. All you need to make a sourdough starter is flour and water. Within that there is “wild yeast” and lactic acid bacteria which act as natural leavening agents. Lactic acid bacteria is a bacteria found in other fermented products like kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut, miso, and beer to name a few. This bacteria makes sourdough bread easily digestible and therefore all the nutrients are more available to the body. The lactic acid in the bread also causes it to have a lower glycemic index than regular bread. This means that sourdough is a slower digesting carbohydrate and it won’t spike your blood sugar as much.

Getting Started

I wanted to try making my own sourdough bread, which requires a sourdough “starter”. I followed The Kitchn step by step guide to make my own starter from scratch.

I like to think that after a few months of successfully starting and maintaining my starter that I have become an expert. But, I honestly just look up any questions I have.

The thought of growing and maintaining a starter seems like a lot of work at first. Having to feed it everyday, and waste all of the “discard”. But I can honestly say it’s much easier than it may seem. Whenever I know I won’t be be baking for a longer period of time I just put my starter in the fridge. It’s recommended to leave it in the fridge for no longer than a week before taking it out to feed it. There are also a bunch of really cool ways to use sourdough discard.

Sourdough starters are also really cool because you can share them with other people so they don’t have to do the initial phases of building a starter. Here is another great website that explains all the basics about having a sourdough starter.

Feeding/Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter

To feed your starter follow a 1:1 ratio of flour and water in weight. If you have a kitchen scale that is an easy way to measure equal amounts. For example I usually do 4 ounces of water and flour. If you are using measuring cups, 3/4 cup of flour is approximately 1/2 a cup of water.

Sourdough starter

I started out by making a simple white sourdough bread recipe, and then began branching out to try different recipes. I then decided to attempt making a whole wheat flour starter and have had equal success!

I’ve made many different loaves of bread with my starters as well as bagels that are to die for! I’ve even made a few of my own recipes along the way. So stay tuned for lots of sourdough content to come.

Quick snack #1

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Ever find yourself wanting a little something sweet after a meal? Or needing a quick bite to eat to hold you over until supper. These stuffed dates are your next snack. They are super easy to make and you can prep them in advance and throw them in the freezer for a quick grab anytime.

All you need for this deliciousness are some dates, nut butter of your choice and a freezer. Of course it is only a recommendation to put them in the freezer, but not really, because its way better that way. My favourite nut butters to use for these are almond butter and cashew butter. If you prefer peanut butter that would also work.

Start by pitting your dates (or save yourself the time and buy pitted dates). Cut a slit into the date, then stuff some nut butter into the centre. It doesn’t have to be a lot as dates are pretty small, about one teaspoon should do it.

When you have them all prepped throw them into the freezer and grab a couple for a snack whenever you’re craving something sweet.

Health

Not only are you curing your sweet tooth by eating this snack, you are also gaining a bunch of great nutrients. Dates are a source of natural sugar, full of vitamins, and contain fiber as well. They are also great to help with digestion. This paired along with some nut butter makes for the perfect combination of carbs, healthy fats and protein for a simple snack or dessert.

Frozen Stuffed Dates

Serves: 20 Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 20 Pitted dates
  • Nut butter of choice

Notes

This is just a super quick and simple version of this snack, but if you are feeling extra special these would also be great dipped in dark chocolate, or putting a little extra in the filling like chocolate chips, or little bits of nuts. Customize them however you like! But trust me, they are amazing just like this.

Method

  1. Cut date open and pit them if they aren’t already pitted.
  2. If they are already pitted cut slit in date.
  3. Take around 1 tsp of your nut butter of choice and stuff it in your date.
  4. Repeat this for all of your dates.
  5. Put them in the freezer and grab one for a quick snack whenever you need to sweeten your taste buds!

Nutrition

Per 1 date

Calories: 56 Total fat: 2.5g Sodium: 1mg Carbohydrates: 8g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 6g Protein: 1g

Healthy Oat Flour Blueberry Muffins

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Mmm. There’s nothing like a light and fluffy blueberry muffin. Blueberries are one of my favourite berries out there. I love putting them on salads, blueberry pancakes, yogurt bowls and of course in these muffins.

I’ve used blueberries in this recipe because we had some frozen blueberries in the freezer but you can put in other berries or chocolate chips as well.

These muffins are an ideal pre/post workout snack as well. They are great pre-workout because they provide some carbohydrates through the banana, oats and honey. AKA fuel! They are also great post workout to replenish your glycogen stores after all the hard work. They’re super light and airy so you don’t need to worry about any discomfort while you workout either.

For this recipe I have used oat flour by blending old fashion rolled oats in a high speed blender, but regular all purpose flour or gluten-free flour can be used as substitutes as well. To sweeten these muffins up I used two ripe bananas with a little honey to go along with it. You also get some sweetness from the blueberries. An important tip for these muffins is loading them with blueberries, they are definitely the star of the show.

These muffins are super quick to prepare and take around 17 minutes to bake. They make for the perfect sweet snack on their own, or with a little nut butter on top. If you are like me today, with my afternoon iced coffee.

Oat Flour Blueberry Muffin Recipe

Yield: 12 Muffins Prep time: 10 minutes Bake time: 17 minutes Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 C oat flour (made from old fashion rolled oats or quick cooking oats)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 medium ripe bananas
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 C honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 C unsweetened almond milk*
  • 1 C blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Notes

I used unsweetened almond milk but you can use whatever type of milk you have on hand.

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350℉
  2. Start making oat flour by blending or food processing 2 cups old fashion rolled oats or quick cooking oats.
  3. Place oat flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in large bowl and mix together.
  4. In seperate medium bowl, mash two bananas with a fork.
  5. Then add honey, vanilla, almond milk, and two eggs.
  6. Stir to combine all wet ingredients.
  7. Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients.
  8. Add in blueberries and mix all together.
  9. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
  10. Pour batter evenly into 12 muffin molds.
  11. Place in oven and bake for 15-17 minutes. (I found 17 was perfect but ovens may differ slightly.)
  12. Take muffins out and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes if you are patient enough.

Nutrition

Per muffin

Calories: 87 Fat: 2g Sodium: 220mg Carbohydrates: 17g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 9g Protein: 2g

Asian Style Sweet Potato Noodles

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When people say carbs are the most fun to eat, they are so right. Sweet Potato is easily in my top 10 favourite foods. I have it at least once a day if not 2 or 3. With that, Asian flavours are some of my favourites to make recipes with. It’s so versatile and delicious. So this side dish is one of my faves!

Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes are an incredibly nutritious, sweet tasting root vegetable. They contain many vitamins and minerals and they are over 75% water. Sweet potatoes are also awesome to promote gut health because they are high in fiber and antioxidants.

In one small sweet potato there are around 110 calories, with 26g of carbohydrates, 2g of protein, 0g of fat and 4g of fiber.

Material

My spiralizer is one of my favourite kitchen tools that I highly recommend purchasing if you don’t have one. You can easily find spiralled vegetables in store but the quantities are super small and the price is jacked up. There are so many different spirallizers on the market, some are super high tech, but you can also find mini ones if you only plan to use it once in a while. You can find these pretty much anywhere in stores as well as on Amazon.

Asian Sauce

Like I said before Asian cuisine is one of my favourites. There are endless possibilities. In this recipe I made a sauce that has a salty taste with a hint of sweetness. I used almond butter instead of peanut butter (which is commonly used in many Asian sauces), but peanut butter would be delicious as well.

Asian Style Sweet Potato Noodles

Serves: 4 large side dishes Prep time: 10-15 minutes Cook: 7 minutes Total time: 23 minutes

Ingredients

  • 5 medium sweet potatoes peeled and spiralled or roughly 5-7 cups.
  • 2 zucchini spiralled*
  • 3 stalks green onion finely chopped
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 2 tbsp minced ginger
For the sauce
  • 1/4 c almond butter
  • 1/4 c soy sauce
  • 1/4 c chicken broth
  • 1/4 c rice wine vinegar
  • Juice of one lime or about 3-4 tbsp
  • 1 tbsp chili sauce (optional if you like a slight spiciness)

Notes

*Zucchinis are optional but I really like to add them to give the dish more depth and I find it really lightens it up as well.

Method

  1. Start by spiralling your sweet potato and zucchini into noodles if you do not have store bought.
  2. Mince and chop the garlic, green onion and ginger.
  3. Prepare your sauce in a medium size mixing bowl.
  4. Add all sauce ingredients and stir together.
  5. Heat up a large stir fry pan to medium hot with one tbsp of oil. (Sesame oil gives it amazing nutty flavour and aroma, but olive oil works as well.)
  6. Add the garlic, green onion and ginger to the pan and sauté for 2 minutes.
  7. Add sauce to the pan.
  8. Right after sauce, add sweet potato noodles and toss with the sauce. Cook for about 4 minutes before adding zucchini noodles as they take much less time to cook and you don’t want them to get mushy.
  9. Once you add zucchini mix it all up and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
  10. Make this the perfect Asian inspired meal by serving with my Lemongrass Chicken Recipe.

Nutrition

1 of 4 servings

Calories: 254 Total Fat: 9g Saturated fat: 1g Sodium: 1059 mg Carbohydrates: 38g Fiber: 7g Sugar: 10g Protein: 9g

Lemongrass Chicken

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One of my favourite flavours is lemongrass. It is a unique tasting herb that adds a burst of flavour to whatever dish it is added to. It has a light you guessed it, lemony taste and makes whatever you’re eating taste refreshing.

If you aren’t familiar with lemongrass and maybe have never cooked with it before I highly recommend looking for it the next time you go grocery shopping. An important tip when preparing lemongrass is to chop it very finely as it is quite tough.

Health

Lemongrass tea is a very common tea flavour that is known for its health benefits. Lemongrass contains many essential vitamins and minerals. It’s a good source of calcium, potassium, magnesium and vitamin A to name a few.

So I’ve come up with a super simple pan fried lemon grass chicken recipe that is healthy and delicious. All you need to do is marinade the chicken and then pan fry when you are ready to eat.

Lemongrass Chicken

Serves: 4 Prep time: 10 minutes Marinade: 2-8 hours Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 Chicken breast
  • 5 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2 stalks lemongrass finely chopped
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
  • Chopped cilantro to serve (optional)

Method

  1. Place chicken breast into ziplock bag.
  2. Mince garlic and chop lemongrass
  3. Put in ziplock bag along with all other ingredients and place in fridge to marinade for at least two hours.
  4. When you are ready to make heat large pan to medium high with 1 tbsp olive oil or non stick cooking spray.
  5. Place chicken in pan along with all the juices from the marinade.
  6. Cook chicken fully through. Roughly 6 or 7 minutes per side. Time will vary depending on the size of the chicken breast.
  7. Serve with side dishes of choice (I highly recommend making this with my Asian Style Sweet Potato and Zucchini Noodles).

Nutrition

Per 4oz chicken breast

Calories: 172 Total Fat: 5g Saturated fat: 1g sodium: 1 075mg Carbohydrates: 5g Fiber: 1 Sugar: 0g Protein: 32g

How to Make Homemade Almond Butter

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Most of my favourite snacks consist of something with almond butter on top of it. Banana, rice cakes, bagels, basically anything you can think of.

There are many delicious natural almond butters in stores that only list raw almonds as ingredients. Most of the time you can find these for a reasonable price and they are nice and creamy tasting. That being said, nothing beats the taste of homemade almond butter, trust me.

Making homemade nut butters is a very simple process, all you need is almonds, an oven, and a food processor.

As you can see in the picture above, I have used a mixture of plain raw almonds, as well as blanched almonds. I found this helps to get the creamiest almond butter. Having the blanched almonds helps the creaminess of the butter while the skin on the almonds provide a more almondy flavour. Almondy is a word right? But that’s just being picky when it comes to what kind of almonds you use, I have made it with only blanched or only regular, and they all taste delicious.

By buying raw almonds you can roast them at home, and make your almond butter when they are fresh out of the oven as it is easier to blend when the almonds are warm.

Bonus: It will smell amazing in your kitchen!

Your almonds will blend in what I like to think of as four different stages before reaching perfection.

Stage 1: Finely chopped almonds.

Stage 2: This looks like almond flour.

Stage 3: Looks like almond butter but its not creamy

Then stage 4, and usually around 15-20 minutes later, when you will have the creamiest most delicious almond butter.

Health

Almonds are an excellent source of healthy fats and are a good source of protein as well! They are jam packed with many nutrients such as fiber, manganese, magnesium, Vitamin E, and many more.

How to Make Homemade Almond Butter

Cook time: 10 minutes Prep time: 10-20 minutes Total time: 30 minutes Yield: Approximately 1 cup

Ingredients:
  • 1.5 Cups Raw almonds
  • 1.5 Cups Blanched raw almonds
  • Optional: 1 tsp sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
  • OR 3 Cups Raw almonds
Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350℉
  2. Place almonds on baking sheet into preheated oven and roast for 10 minutes.
  3. Place roasted almonds into food processor and blend.
  4. Add In salt if desired.
  5. You will need to scrape the sides every few minutes to get all of the almonds well blended.
  6. Be patient! You will need to let it blend for around 10-20 minutes!
  7. Place in a jar and lick the spoon.
Nutrition:

per tablespoon:

Calories: 90 Total fat: 7.5g saturated fat: 0.5g sodium: 96.9mg Carbohydrates: 3.5g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 0.5g Protein: 3g

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Who doesn’t love a good oatmeal chocolate chip cookie? The famous cookie that deserves all the hype it receives. Sometimes cookies can get a bad rap for not being the healthiest snack option around, so I wanted to experiment and try to make my own chocolate chip cookie recipe that is healthier, still delicious, and satisfying to that sweet tooth we all get once in a while.

What Makes Them Healthier?

Most classic chocolate chip cookie recipes have a large amount of butter and sugar, so in this recipe I used a small portion of coconut oil, and a touch of brown sugar to give the cookies the perfect amount of sweetness and softness that are of course required. I also made them gluten free by using oat flour rather than wheat flour.

This recipe is kept simple with the classic addition of delicious semi-sweet chocolate chips, however there are many different ways to evolve this recipe with different add-ins.

Optional add-ins:

  • Raisins
  • walnuts
  • Ground flax seed
  • Pecans

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 7 minutes Total time: 25 minutes Yield: 12-15

  • 3/4 C Oat flour*
  • 3/4 Old fashion rolled oats
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 4 tbsp brown sugar**
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp milk of choice (I used unsweetened almond milk)
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil (melted)***
  • 1/3 C Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375℉ and put parchment paper on baking sheet.
  2. In medium size mixing bowl, mix together all dry ingredients until combined.
  3. In a small bowl whisk egg, then stir in vanilla, milk, and melted coconut oil.
  4. Pour wet ingredients in with dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.
  5. Add in 1/3 C of chocolate chips. (More or less if desired!)
  6. Place 12-15 heaping tablespoons of cookie dough on prepared baking sheets.
  7. Bake for 7-8 minutes.
  8. Take out of oven and allow cookies to cool completely.

Notes:

* To make oat flour simply take quick cooking oats, or old fashion rolled oats and use high speed blender or food processor to finely grind the oats. (I used my ninja bullet blender)

** I have also tried this recipe with coconut sugar and have had equal success as well.

***Coconut oil can be replaced with butter.

Nutrition:

Per Cookie (Based on 13 cookies with semi-sweet chocolate chips).

Calories: 89 Total fat: 4.4g Saturated fat: 2.8g Sodium: 188.5mg Carbohydrates: 11g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 6.8g Protein: 2g

My First Post

Welcome to my blog! My name is Jules and I am a high school student who loves sunny days, quiet mornings, being active, matcha and of course, food! I love trying new recipes using other people’s delicious creations, and I enjoy coming up with my own unique food combinations that are super delicious. I love eating nutritious foods that fuel my body in the best way possible, and of course that includes treats like a gooey cinnamon roll from time to time.

I decided to name this blog Athl-eats because 1. I am an athlete, and 2. I eat a lot. So it seemed fitting lol! I have been involved in sports ever since I was 4 years old when I started playing soccer. Since then I’ve played just about every sport you can think of. I love the social aspect of sports and the way they make you feel physically and mentally. Growing up as an athletic person, I’ve always been motivated to make good decisions when it comes to food.

Three years ago I started a new sport that has become super popular in more recent years; CrossFit. I knew about it because 6 years ago my uncle opened his own CrossFit gym. I thought it was such a cool idea and I was very intrigued. In January of grade 8 my mom and grandmother both joined our local CrossFit gym. My grandmother could honestly probably beat me in an arm wrestle! Then that following summer I joined the gym. I instantly loved CrossFit in a different way than I had ever loved any other sport. I loved how the sport provides individual goals, but also has a team dynamic thanks to the gym’s great community.

The more I began to train at the gym, the more passionate I became about the importance of being active, and how important nutrition is as well.

I decided to start this blog in hopes of creating a website that you can use to get some food inspiration, try out new recipes, talk about living healthy lifestyles, and more!

Please let me know what kind of posts you would like to see, or anything you want me to try making first so you don’t have to!

Stay tuned!