Mango Meringues

I am not the best baker, and most times find myself completely clueless and a total novice. With that being said I have a couple things that I am confident on and one of those is meringues. They're my absolute favorite cookie, and I've made them so many times that I could probably do it in my sleep. 

Everything else can pretty much be a hit or miss but not when it comes down to meringues. I've tried out many different recipes and methods but I stand by this one recipe that never fails me! 

I have no idea where I picked it up but I have the recipe and steps memorized at this point so I just go with it. It was the first recipe I ever tried, and it has ruined all other recipes after it. It's simple and only requires 4 ingredients: egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and vanilla. That's it! 

Well, except for this recipe where I decided to add a mango twist. But the mango is totally optional or you could always substitute another fruit for it! Mango just happens to be one of my favorites :)

There are two very important things to consider while making meringues: the weather and oven temperature. I'm not kidding you when I say that it needs to be a non-humid and non-rainy day when you're trying to make them. I thought it was absolutely absurd when I heard that but seriously, I tried it once and could not get the egg whites to whip up properly since my house was too muggy and humid! It sounds crazy but believe me, it can make a difference.

Secondly, I have seen many recipes that vary with cooking time and oven temperature. The key to meringues is lowww and slowwww. I've tried recipes for 30 minutes at 350 and they did not turn out to be proper meringues! When you bite into one, it's supposed to be lightly crispy on the outside and then melt away in the inside. These were like chewy marshmallows and I was not a happy camper.

So, I cook mine at 200 degrees for about an hour and a half, and then turn off the oven and allow them to cool for another half an hour while still inside the oven. I learned that trick by accident once when I forgot about the meringues in the oven after I turned it off. Turns out, it worked! I've seen it in other recipes, too and it just helps the outside shell to get crispy without burning.

For the meringues you'll need:
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup super fine sugar (don't panic there's a substitution)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 package of freeze-dried mangoes (or any fruit you want)

I've never used super fine sugar with meringues because I've never had it in my house or even know where to get it. All I do is throw the sugar in the food processor and turn it on for about a minute until the sugar is much finer. This just makes it easier to dissolve into the egg whites and not make the meringues so grainy. It's not necessary as I've seen recipes with just regular sugar. If you decide to do that then you just might have to whip the egg whites and sugar for a lot longer to really make sure the sugar dissolves into the batter.

Okay, so to make these:

1. preheat the oven to 200 degrees

2. Beat the egg whites on medium-high with a hand-held beater until they're foamy and fluffy

3. Add the 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar and whip the egg whites into soft peaks 

Soft peaks are when the egg whites are still soft enough that they can't hold their form. The peaks will kind of slump over and not remain fully up. 

4. Turn the beater on high and slowly add the sugar about a couple tablespoons at a time. I usually give it a good minute in between additions to really make sure the sugar incorporates. 

5. Once the sugar is fully incorporated (the batter won't feel grainy), add the tsp of vanilla extract and keep beating until stiff peaks form. These will hold their form and will be much thicker than the soft peaks. 

I split the batter up into plain and mango. I only used half the package of fruit but if you're not splitting it up, then use the whole thing. You want freeze-dried because you don't want any extra moisture. The egg whites are very delicate and any water from fresh or frozen fruits could completely ruin the meringues. If you haven't caught on by now, working with egg whites can be a pain! But totally worth it in the end. 

The bag I used was 1.7oz and it was pretty standard for a bag of freeze dried fruit. Anyway, it was probably about 1/2-3/4 cup chopped up. I just guesstimated and eyeballed it to make sure there was enough mango in the batter. 

I first spooned out the plain ones and then folded the chopped up mango pieces into the remaining batter. Make sure you are GENTLE when you do this as you don't want to upset the egg whites at all! 

Important note: DO NOT grease the cookie pan! I use either parchment paper or a silpat mat. Just something that is a non-stick surface. 

I got a total of 22 for this recipe-- 10 plain and 12 mango. Also, don't worry about the placement because meringues don't spread out while cooking. That's why my placement is really random because I didn't now exactly how many meringues I'd get sooo I just kinda put them wherever! 

Bake them at 200 degrees for an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes.

When they are done the outsides will no longer be so shiny and glossy, the outside shell will feel crisp, and the bottoms will be an off-white color (a tiny bit darker than the rest of the top). The test I use is if I'm able to pick up the meringue up and it doesn't cave in. I recommend cooking them for a minimum of an hour an a half.
Then, shut off the heat and allow the meringues to cool inside the oven for about 30 minutes or so.

One of my favorite parts about meringues? The macros!
Plain-- 27 calories, 6g carbs, 0g fat, and 1g protein
Mango-- 33 calories, 8g carbs, 0g fat, and 1g protein

What's your favorite cookie?

Mustard & Vinegar Broccoli Slaw

The last time I got a bag of broccoli slaw, it got accidentally pushed to the back of the fridge and I forgot about it. I think we've all done that at some point but I always hate wasting perfectly good food. Anyway, I picked up another bag on Friday and I promised myself that it would NOT happen again!

So Saturday for lunch I decided to make my own little broccoli slaw salad type thingy. I don't really know what to call it so call it whatever you like or what makes sense to you.

It's a low calorie and low-carb recipe, and easily fit into my macros for the day!

All you need is: 
1 1/4 cups broccoli slaw (serving size on the package)
1 sweet red pepper 
1 tsp of stone ground mustard (or whichever flavor you like)

                                       rice vinegar 

First, I cooked down the vegetables a bit. Not until they were cooked through but enough just to soften them. Probably for about 3-5 minutes. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and some roasted garlic. 

Like I said, I didn't full cook them. Just til they were softer and closer to a noodle-like texture.

My favorite thing to put on salads now is a mixture of mustard and rice vinegar. I do this because they are both "macro-free" which is what I call things without any carbs or fats. They give great flavor without any extra macros to track! I use this combination on my salads, wraps, or even my scrambled egg whites on occasion. 

I don't measure it out exactly but it was about a teaspoon of mustard, and a few dashes of the vinegar. You can also use any kind of mustard you like, stone ground just happens to be my favorite! 

I had my broccoli slaw with an egg-white fluff cake and a balance bar!

The total macros for the broccoli slaw were: 

50 calories, 10g carbs, 0g fat, and 3g protein

Hope you're all having a great weekend! 

10-Minute Salmon Wrap

With following macros, sometimes you end up with random combinations. I do it all the time because I'll plan out certain foods around what I need and throw it all together in a wrap or a bowl. It's not always the most creative but often times I sacrifice fancy elaborate recipes for convenience. 

Last night for dinner it was just one of those meals where it doesn't seem to be my typical dinner food because I was focusing on hitting my macros.

Which led me to a salmon wrap!

I also was just looking for something fast and simple before Amanda and I had to head out to our Bible study that we go to every Tuesday. Dinner is usually never fancy on those days because we have to be out the door by about 6 at the very latest. We also had plenty of leftovers from Saturday, and I wanted to use some of the roasted vegetable salad that I had made. 

So for dinner I made myself a wrap of sorts with the leftover salad and salmon on a whole wheat tortilla. It came out great and was very filling!

Usually I have chicken as my protein on my wraps but we didn't have any prepped so I used the salmon as a quick substitute. Plus, it's always nice to switch things up a bit!

This wrap had:
1 can of wild caught salmon (Trader Joe's brand)
1 whole wheat tortilla
2 cups of my leftover roasted vegetable salad
sprinkle of sunflower seeds
rice vinegar & soy sauce

I don't usually like canned fish but I do like Trader Joe's brand. It never has that metallic canned taste but I still prefer to saute the fish a bit to get some color and flavor added. I just drain all the juice from the can, put the salmon in a saucepan and brown it for a few minutes on high. I also added pepper, roasted garlic seasoning, and some salt. I get the unsalted salmon so it's only in water. If not, I wouldn't recommend adding extra salt because that stuff is usually salty enough! 

While my salmon was cooking, I prepped the tortilla and salad! There were plenty of leftover roasted carrots and peppers and a few walnut pieces that added some texture to the wrap. 

Then, once the salmon was cooked I added it on top of the lettuce. I sprinkled some sunflower seeds for more crunch, then a splash of rice vinegar and some soy sauce to give the salmon more flavor. 

And voila! A very macro-friendly wrap for my dinner that took me less than 10 minutes to make. 

Macros: 320 calories, 19g carbs, 51g protein, and 6g fat