I'm sure you've seen on Indian restaurant menus either Palak Paneer or Saag Paneer. It's actually never been my favorite, but then I found a recipe made with Kale and chickpeas and gave it a try and really enjoyed it! It made enough to be my lunch for the week at work.

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon ginger root, minced

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons garam masala 

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

10 oz of kale

½ cup low-sodium vegetable broth

1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk

¼ cup raw cashews

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 can of chickpeas

Greek Yogurt

Directions

1. Saute onion on a large skillet for 5 minutes, adding water by the tablespoon if needed to prevent sticking. 
2. Add the garlic, ginger, and cumin seeds and cook for 1 minute. 
3. Add the remaining spices and cook for another minute, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Reduce heat to medium. 
4. Stir in the kale and vegetable broth. Cover and cook until the kale is bright green and tender, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
5. While the kale is cooking, put the milk, cashews, nutritional yeast, and tomato paste in the blender and puree until smooth. 
6. When the kale is done, add it to the blender and blend until smooth. 
7. Transfer blended mixture back to the skillet and bring to a simmer.  
8. Stir in chickpeas and continue simmering about 10 minutes. 
9. Add salt to taste and serve over rice.

Nutritional Analysis
5 servings
173 cal, 9g protein, 7g fiber




I served this one serving of wild rice and a 2 TB of Fage 2% Greek Yogurt. So the total calorie count came to 334 cal, 18g of protein, 9g of fiber

One serving of wild rice has 6g of protein! While white jasmine rice only has half that amount. Likewise wild rice has double the amount of fiber, is high in b-vitamins and manganese.

Recipe Source: Fat Free Vegan

One of my co-worker is a vegetarian so I always like peaking at her lunches to get ideas for things I can make. One day she had spinach linguine which I can't remember the last time I had so I went to my local grocery store and only found one box of spinach pasta, a fettuccine. Then I looked for interesting recipes to pair it with and found a non-traditional pesto that is light on oil but super high in protein!


Ingredients:

Nutritional Analysis 
4 servings
359 cal, 22g protein, 11g fiber, 5g fat 

Recipe Credit: PostPunkKitchen

I found this amazing veggie burger recipe that has now become my new protein rich breakfast! It freezes great too so I make a batch for the whole week. I used Trader Joe's Steamed and Ready to Eat Lentils and TJs Just Cashew Meal which is just ground up cashews. The nutritional yeast is what gives this recipe flavor plus it's high in protein, B-12 and amino acids. This was a super easy recipe of just mixing things since the ingredients in the cakes are already cooked, you just crisp the outsides on a frying pan to warm the cakes.


Lentil Cashew Cakes
makes 5 cakes

Ingredients:
1½ cups cooked lentils
1 cup cashew meal
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ onion, diced
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Empty the lentils into a large mixing bowl and mash them. I used a meat pounder.
2. In another bowl mix the cashews meal, nutritional yeast and spices. I do this in a separate bowl to make sure the spices are evenly distributed. Then combine both bowls.
3. Chop and fry the onion, then fold into the mixture.
4. Form the mixture into cakes, about three inches wide and a quarter to a half inch thick. Add the cakes to the hot pan and cook 2 minutes on each side.
5. Remove cakes from skillet and allow to cool slightly (to help the cakes bind a bit) before serving.
6. Serve with a dollop of greek yogurt on top.

Nutritional Analysis 
5 servings
246 calories, 13g of protein,  7g of fiber

Recipe credit: Lunchboxbunch 
                                                                                             

I like to make my own sauces and I came across this amazing super easy recipe (scroll to bottom) for vodka sauce without the cream! Basically you sub almond milk, nutritional yeast, cashews and white beans for cream and the result is extra protein! I added onion and garlic to this and used fresh spices. The recipe makes 6 servings and then I added baby portobello mushrooms and broccoli on top of whole wheat fusilli pasta. I made enough for lunch for the whole week and put it in separate containers in my fridge so its easy to just grab in the morning. The pasta I measured before cooking to make sure I was only eating one serving each day and whole wheat pasta has a lot of protein in it.The whole bowl is 320 calories, 14 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber.

My morning snack is cashews and my afternoon snack is shakeology mixed with fresh pineapple. Yesterday afternoon my co-worker asked me if I had any candy and I said no and that I never eat candy. He was in disbelief, maybe because the office candy bowl used to be by my desk so perhaps people see me as the source of candy. Anyway I just happened to be drinking my shakeology and said this is my candy! It's sweet and a great afternoon pick me up to fill me with energy! I'm so full after I drink it, I don't even think about snacking.