Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad

This salad was always one of my favorite summer salads. It's light, It's crunchy, it's both sweet and tangy at the same time and it fills you up. The original recipe called for a mayonnaise dressing but I lightened it up with plain Greek yogurt. If you're dairy intolerant or just don't like the taste of yogurt, using a light mayonnaise thinned with a little 1% milk if necessary would work fine, just adjust the calorie count for it. You can start with this basic salad and then add things. If you need a protein boost, diced hardboiled egg, diced cold chicken, and diced cheddar cheese all go well in this salad.

Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad: 137 Calories for a large bowl


Ingredients:

78 grams chopped fresh broccoli stems and florets
(about 1 cup finely chopped)
122 grams chopped fresh cauliflower stems and
florets (about 1 cup finely chopped)
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion like Vidalia or red
1 Tbl apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup Fage Total 0% plain Greek yogurt
Salt, pepper, sugar substitute

Directions:




Chop broccoli stems and florets into small pieces and place in 3 cup bowl.

 Chop cauliflower stems and florets into small pieces and add to broccoli. Mix well.











Chop onion and add to broccoli-cauliflower and mix well

In a separate small bowl, mix yogurt and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a teaspoon of Swerve or other sugar substitute or add the calories for a teaspoon of sugar or honey. This sweetening is really necessary to offset the vinegar so don't skip it.

Combine the dressing with the vegetables. Refrigerate for at least several hours to allow the vegetables to absorb the seasoning. This salad will keep well in the fridge for a day or two.

Blueberry Muffins - The Lighter Version

The one food I really found myself craving since starting on the Noom program was muffins, but I really have never found a lite muffin that tasted good. For the past few weeks I've been on a mission, though, to try to find a recipe for one that would satisfy my muffin-hunger. I found a recipe for 100 calorie Banana Craisin Muffins on SparkRecipes and submitted by a member onelesspound that looked like a good place to start. I heavily adapted it and ended up with this blueberry muffin recipe. They clearly weren't bakery muffins, the 580 calorie kind with a moist, high texture due to a pound of sugar, but they were good, and I found them even better the second day after sitting in a closed up leftover container. They were moist, pleasantly sweet due to the blueberries, and had the delicious, more substantial taste of whole wheat. The adaptations that I made from the original recipe were to substitute almond milk for the  If you make them and change anything that you like better, please comment below so we can all benefit.

I also didn't take step-by-step photos of this recipe yet because I wasn't sure I was going to like it. When I make them again, I'll do the step photos.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins-116 calories per muffin-dairy free and vegan

This recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 medium bananas, mashed, about 1 cup
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup almond milk
1 cup blueberries. If frozen, thaw and drain

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°. Either grease the bottoms of the muffin tin or line with paper.

Mix the flour, flax seed, sugar, soda and salt well with a whisk. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas and measure to 1 cup. Add vanilla, applesauce, and almond milk to bananas. Stir well. Add dry ingredients and mix just till combined. Over-mixing will result in dense, tough muffins. Gently fold in blueberries. Divide evenly among 12 muffin tins. If desired, sprinkle tops with a brown sugar substitute like Swerve. Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or till toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool completely. Store in covered container. These freeze well.