I've Got the Munchies Again!

Hello Friends! It has been such a long time since I posted a Munchies with Mello Blog! Just over 3 years to be exact! What I can tell you is that a lot has happened in my life since then. This blog post is going to be a review of the last few years of my life, and what led me back to the Munchies with Mello lifestyle I once started! If you have something to smoke, I would light it up and be ready to read because I talk a lot!

The last few years have been a fun adventure! I have experienced many different things and have learned a lot about life. One major accomplishment that was long overdue, is that I finally got my Bachelors Science Degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Health Promotion. Getting this degree was a very stressful rollercoaster of a ride, but I finally graduated in May of 2016. Much of the reason why I have not worked on this blog was because I put 100% of my focus into school and work...and Music Festivals... Haha! In August of 2014 I transferred colleges, and I was told I had 2 years left. When I started at my new school (GO LEO's!) I decided it was time to live the college experience I had always wanted, but never experienced. So, after many years of keeping my diet tight and clean and my body on the go non-stop, I let loose...with everything!

During my time at the University of La Verne, I went back to a party lifestyle I had once put behind me and I also let my diet start to slip as well. I remained active, and very focused in school and even made the Dean's List! Although I kept my exercise levels super high, my nutrition was no longer a priority and over my 2 years at this new school, I gained a lot of weight back. I cannot say that it was completely horrible, and even on some level necessary. For 20 years of my life my diet was unrestricted and I was addicted to eating unhealthy foods, and then for 4 years I went completely opposite and ate only healthy foods. The mental stress of constantly worrying about my diet was emotionally draining, so I felt a little less tension on my diet was warranted. Well what I learned was, you do not feel weight coming back on the same way you do when you are losing it. Before I knew it, I was 3 sizes larger with a new degree emphasized in health and fitness. This didn't add up to me.

I cannot lie, my time at ULV was amazing and I don't regret any part of it. I got an Amazing education, made new friends, and got to have the college experience I always wanted. It was almost as if I gained my freshmen 15 in my super junior and super senior years of my college career! Haha, well maybe that was not the most ideal highlight during this time, but I a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and there was a lot learned from that situation. I learned that sometimes to find out who you are as a person, you have to lose yourself for a short time to find the path you are meant to follow. Even though I lost focus on my diet, I began to find myself as a person.

School was just one of my experiences during this mini hiatus of the 5 blog post I did years ago! I also found a new hobby that took up much of my time and so much more of my money. I was introduced to Music Festivals and Raves, something I never carried interest in before. Friends of mine who had been recruiting me to go for years, finally got me to go to one of these events, and my life slowly but surely changed for the better. I had never before experienced an intense energy like the energy that is at these musical events. The music was top notch amazing, and the so were the people who attended them. Everyone at these events has an understanding of being the realist form of you there is and to let that person out completely. They also have an explainable amount of positivity and kindness that was truly breath taking and contagious. This was my kind of crowd and matching the energy they brought with the music was so awesome. I made a lot of new friends and reconnected with old ones through going to these events, and they all helped bring out the person who was deep down inside waiting to come out. After I graduated, I started to make a much better and conscious effort to take what I have learned in and out of school and pertain it to a more balanced lifestyle that is healthy and active. The experiences I gained from school and the new groups of people I surrounded myself all led me back to this idea and vision I once created, which is Munchies with Mello.

When I started this blog all those years ago, I always had a vision and dream of seeing this turn into a YouTube series, and maybe even one day something bigger. Now that I am graduated, and in a more comfortable place with myself as a person, my focus is ready to see this idea through! A month ago, on 4/20/2017 I posted my first Munchies with Mello video on YouTube. With the help from a close friend, I was able to finally make this vision come to life and I am so excited to keep making more! In conjunction with my YouTube Channel series I will also be posting more blogs on here. I also have an Instagram you can follow @Munchies_with_Mello and on Twitter @MellosMunchies.

These future blogs I am going to post will be about a variety of different topics. Because this is after all, MUNCHIES with Mello, I will post about things like: WEED and the Food I eat/cook. I might also post about just my daily activities, workouts, or even just random thoughts on my head. I have a plethora of thoughts going on in my head at all times and some of them I would definitely like to share with you! Now that I have given you the longest version of very little that has happened in the last few years of my life, I invite to stay tuned in for more posts which will hopefully be much more concise, and also to Subscribe to my YouTube Channel series Munchies with Mello and watch my first video posted (Link is Below!). Be ready for the second one which will be up next week! Thank you for taking the time to catch up with me! I hope to bring you guys a few laughs and few good ideas for healthy and fun recipes, and some inspiration to be active and workout!

Smoke Up and Eat Fresh!

-Mello :)

https://youtu.be/S06zbHxJ9BQ

Oh How It Can Crumble!... Figuring Out the Quinoa Burger and Plant Domination

Hello Bloggers! My it has been sometime since the last post. With school starting up and work, life seems to get in the way! Rest assure though, this brain has been cooking up many recipes for you all to try out! My latest kicks: More raw and plant based foods and the Quinoa Burger Patty! I am taking it back to that crazy weird protein filled grain again! First things first; after much research and talk with different peers who are in the Health and Fitness world I have began to switch some things up and take a new stride to the way I eat. This new stride is not just one to try out for me, this is going to be the new me. I am turning a new leaf... or few leaves.. Yes, I am taking a more Plant Based diet now, however No, I am not going Vegan, and No, I am not going vegetarian. What I am working on is a more Plant Dominated Diet. I like to use ideas of both Vegans and Vegetarians and even use their different tools and ideas. I am working on consuming nearly all foods that are Plant Based and limiting all meat intake. If it does not need meat, and can be just as delicious, than meat won't be necessary. If meat is on my plate at all, it's the smallest portion of the meal and is completely surrounded by Fruits and Veggies of all sorts. As I continue on with the future post you will see how all of this forms together more and more. Since I have decided to nearly give up all Red Meats (despite my two real burgers a month) and Pork (except the bacon that goes on that burger) and most dairy (you know... except the cheese on that burger or occasional pizza) I have been creating recipes to fill my voids. The first thing to work on has replacing those ground beef burger patties into Quinoa and Black Bean Patties, filled with all sorts of delicious Veggies creating an amazing healthy alternative! Now I have created a few different patties, however I shall start with my personal and tested favorite.

Ok so here we go, ingredients:

Bag of Quinoa, Black Beans, 2 Red Potatoes, 2-3 Anaheim Chilis, Whatever Bell Peppers you like, Brussels Spouts, Carrots, Red and White Onions, Salt, Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, EVOO.

The process is a little lengthy, but so worth it. First, wash all your Veggies that need washing. Cook your Quinoa however you desire too. I cook it with water, but to add flavor I add Salt, Garlic Salt, and Chili powder. I than chop my red potatoes and roast them on 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes with EVOO drizzled along salt and black pepper with a sprinkle of Garlic Powder. I than roast these Anaheim Green Chilis on 425, or you can grill them until the skin is nice and roasted on the outside. They key to the chilis is, you have to peel the skin away after they're cooked. The way go about this, once the chilis are done, immediately put them in a bowl and cover it with foil and let them steam for about 20-30 minutes. After thdn, slice the chilis in half and peel the skin off, it should peel off easily. Chop them up and you're ready. I than take the Brussels Sprouts and dice them up, it should a pile of Brussels leaves everywhere. Chop and dice the red and white onions.Chop or shred your carrots. Once your Quinoa, Potatoes and Chilis are done, add them to a bowl. For each Patty, you want about 3/4 cups of Qunioa, along with about 1/4-1/2 cup of black beans. Add your raw veggies in the desired amount you want, just don't over load it too much, if you do, just add more quinoa or black beans to help it bind together. Once you have found the right consistency, put your helping into a bowl and form your patty. From here, throw it on a pan and let it cook on each side. Carefully flip it over and once each side has a nice brown crunch to it, eat and enjoy! I eat them on whole grain or whole wheat bread sometimes, but I also eat them without any bread as well. In the future, I will show how to replace bread with grilled eggplant/portobello mushroom sliced. I also roasted kale as a garnish on top of the patty.
I did not have many pictures of this process, I sometimes just get these ideas in my head and cook them up and realize I forgot to take pictures, but as I continue to work on the blog, better pictures and maybe even some videos will be shared on how to this. I also promise to get a little more accurate on the serving amounts. Cooking is fun especially when you don't really know what you're doing, and is even more enjoyable when it's delicious and healthy! Have fun with it, take away and add things you like or don't like!

Green chili is raw, but that's the skin of a roasted green so you can get an idea of what you want it to look like when it's roasted and ready to be steamed. 

So Many Flavors

What's good bloggers?! This will also be a nice change in flavor from the previous dishes. I don't really have a name for this dish yet, but its kind of like stir fry without the noodles that I came up with when those munchies were killing me! Ingredients include: Shredded Carrots, Red Onion, Shrimp(cooked or fresh), Diced White onion, Rice Vinegar, Sriracha (My favorite thing ever), EVOO, Black Pepper, Rock Salt, Garlic Salt, Soy sauce, Brown Sugar and not pictured are Coconut Oil, and Lime. Start off by getting the pan Hot (Medium High-High) with a light layer of Coconut oil. Get a good size bowl for ingredients. Slice about half a cup or more of Red Onion (long thin slices). Add 1/3 cup of Diced White Onion. Add about a cup  of Shrimp (More or less, your decision). 1/2 cup of Shredded Carrots (more or less). Now I will keep it real on the spices, as I tried to do before, a lot of these measurements are just based on how much of the flavor you really like, add as much or take away as much as you'd like! I would add about 3/4 TBS of Black Pepper, sprinkle of Rock Salt, 3/4 TBS of Garlic Salt, 1/3 cup of Soy Sauce, 1-2 TBS of EVOO (I just drizzle it all over), one strong squeeze of the Lime, and just a light light sprinkle of brown sugar, maybe a 1-1.5 TSP. Stir all of it really well and let sit for 1 minute then add it to the pan, turn pan on high and stir about every minute for about 3 minutes. Let it simmer for about 1-2 minutes on low heat with a top over man, stir 1 more time and than pour out on or into bowl or plate and enjoy! Side note: when I created this dish the first time I had spinach with this. I added fresh spinach during the last part of the cooking directions, when you let the dish simmer for the last 2 minutes, add the spinach all over the dish and cover.

I like Italian Herb..s

Hello everyone! Hope everyone has had an incredible day! Here is the thing, after I made those breaded zucchinis, they were so good, it inspired me to enhance it a bit, and get to working on one of my new favorite dishes to make! Now, people always say eat a low carb diet, stay away from carbs.. Lets get one thing straight, carbs ARE NOT BAD FOR YOU! You just have to eat the right carbs! So, what we have is: Whole Wheat French Bread (whole wheat, a good carb!) 4 Portobello Mushrooms, Sliced Eggplant, and left over Sliced Zucchini ends. These are oiled with EVOO, seasoned with Rock Salt, Black Pepper, and Garlic Salt. The mushrooms should sit on the grill at Medium High for a minimum of 5 minutes per side, they're filled with water so you want that to drain it out and, get them slightly crisp (it kind of looks burnt, don't be scared of that!). The eggplant and zucchini are grilled until each side is lightly browned with nice grill marks. While these are grilling, heat oven to 400 degrees. Next is our breading, it's almost the same has our last dish. Japanese Bread Crumbs, your desired amount of Red Pepper Flakes (I love spicy so I had a lot), Garlic Salt, a nice sprinkle of Oregano, and then about 8 Fresh Basil leafs finely chopped. Mix all these ingredients along with a light drizzle of EVOO in mixture, I don't know why I did this but I was glad I did, it helped the breading stick. Next, take your sliced french bread, and either lightly coat it with EVOO or whatever low fat butter you like (or none, but i suggest minimum of evoo). Lightly spread tomato sauce (organic from Trader Joe's) and then a light light sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese onto bread. After this, layer the zucchini with, with a light layer tomato sauce and the breading, then the same with eggplant, add some cubes of reduced fat buffalo mozzarella cheese on top of those eggplant slices (really bread those eggplants up!). Cut the mushrooms in half, then layer them on top of the eggplant, spread tomato sauce and completely cover the top of mushrooms with breading(I suggest maybe a touch of graded low fat mozzarella on top of the portobellos, but your call on how much cheese you want!). Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes. Slice, Eat and, enjoy!

Everyone should like Greens!

Good Day, Everyone! This weather is so amazing right now, isn't it?! Ok, I am starting you out with one of my favorite smoothies. Now, I have smoothies everyday, most mornings for my breakfast, this is not to get confused with juicing or anything of the sort! A friend of mine Brian, who is Vegan had suggested to me to try something out for awhile and see how I like it. He said, the first thing your body wants in the morning after that long fast is Water and Sugar, so what better sugar to give our bodies in the morning than its most natural form? FRUITS! Brian suggested to me, only have raw fruits and vegetables until Noon or later. I gave it a try, and since the beginning of July, I have carried this routine! I feel great in the mornings, and have tons of energy and just overall feel way better throughout my days! This is an easy smoothie to make and taste amazing! We have Ground Cinnamon, 1 Granny Smith Apple, Avocado, Banana, 4 Frozen Strawberries, and 2 cups of Spinach. As you can see, a snap of this green smoothie will really get your day going! No wake and bake here, all completely raw and delicious for those morning munchies. I sometimes cheat and add a piece of Dark Chocolate, just for a subtle chocolaty taste. To make this, cut up the apple, use at least half the avocado, LIGHT SPRINKLE of Cinnamon (a little goes a long way), throw in the Spinach with as much Ice as you'd like and you get a cup of what I like to call "Green Heaven". You can also add things I do not have for health benefits like Hemp Protein, or Chia seeds, or Macha. 

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Lunch time munchies! This is an experiment I came up with last night. Again, most of the day I am thinking Vegetarian, occasionally some chicken and turkey gets mixed in. Today though we have Breaded Zucchini! I was thinking more of a way to make healthy fried zucchini, along with a mozzarella sticks, and thought, why not make both into one?.. As you can see I cut the zucchini long ways, not to thin but not to thick. I put EVOO on them and let them just get the grill marks, I love crisp grill marks on most of my food. While those were going I got my breading mixture together. We have Japanese bread crumbs, Garlic salt, Rock salt, Black pepper, and Red pepper flakes. I just put in equal portions of each spice into the breading and mixed it together (you never can have to much garlic salt). After the zucchinis were done grilling, I oiled them lightly so the breading would stick. Once a good layer was on each zucchini slice, I put them in a large dish and lightly layered them each with Organic Tomato sauce from Trader Joe's (delicious), and than sprinkled a small small amount of low fat mozzarella cheese, then covered the cheese with another layer of our breading mixture. I put these in the oven on 375 degrees until cheese was melted. One suggestion I might have is oiling the dish you use for the oven first and layer that with the breading mixture first along with the other steps. Again, this was an experiment I just came up with and I feel that added touch could help make the dish a little better. Again, nothing hard about this, all healthy ingredients that help for a healthy day! It tasted great and I cannot wait to do this again but, with Eggplant! I have been on a huge Italian food thing lately, so expect more Italian infused dishes with these basic ingredients. Hope this satisfies those munchies you might have! Have a great day!

Natures Finest

Hey friends, happy to already be posting my second blog. First, I would like to send a fair warning, I will be typing freely in this blog and will not necessarily be paying attention to my grammar all that much, I am just going to let my thoughts pour out onto the keyboard and make sure it makes sense when I am done! Today's muchies were quite excellent! Since I have been on a more vegetarian thought process lately, today I made Veggie Stuffed Bell Peppers! Now, if you follow me on Instagram @dmells21, you have already seen this recipe, but today I had to get  creative with how I cooked them. What we have is Mini Bell Peppers, Red Onion, Diced White Onion, Avocado, a fresh Jalapeno out of my friends sick vegetable garden (good looks J Hunt), Black Beans, Quinoa and, EVOO. I made a mistake by cutting out the stem without realizing, that's the side that sits up when roasting on the grill. Luckily I made a contraption to hold the bell peppers with the frame my father uses when making beer can chicken (a post will happen next thats cooked, delicious!). After cleaning out the bell peppers I lightly coated them inside and out with EVOO, and then let them slow roast on the grill. While those were roasting, I diced up my vegetables, and mixed all the ingredients together. After the bell peppers roasted with a light char on them I stuffed them to the top and set them up in there frames surrounded with foil. I them topped with the not pictured, Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss Cheese. The cheese is very low in fat, and also super delicious. These peppers roasted on the grill for about 7-10 minutes on High. Just roast the peppers for however long you want for both roasting steps. Now, for those who are not familiar, Quinoa is the only grain that is a protein as well. It reminds be of brown rice and couscous ("So good, they named it twice"). Although, I did not calculate Calories, Grams of Fat, and so on, I just know this a very low fat meal. It's a vegetable stuffed with more vegetables, a grain with protein, black beans ( I eat a lot of these, high protein, low fat, high fiber) and also delicious avocado which is packed with healthy fats we need that also contains fiber! YUMM!!! Like I said, this a laid back blog, it's all for good fun, healthy/delicious food, and satisfying those times you have the munchies! Easy meal, tasted great, nothing special, healthy lunch! The best part about all of this, it was fun!... Not pictured is also the amazing smoothie I had today! Red Grapes, Mixed Berries (raspberry,blueberry,blackberry), 2 strawberries, banana, green apple, a sprinkle of ground cinnamon, and a cup or 2 of kale! Delicious breakfast! I call it, throw everything you have in the blender and hope that shit taste good!... it did!

I also have to share today's workout with you! For a very short period of time I was without a gym membership, so I had to use the next best thing, nature! Natures gym is wonderful when you get to workout in these beautiful Southern Cali conditions! Today my buddies Nick and Garett and I broke out the hold pitching machine I spent hours of my childhood in front of. Started out with a warm up of running and playing catch with the football. Throwing the football with a friend is an awesome way to get started, the constant stop and go from throwing to running and catching back and forth gets a good sweat going and kind of simulates interval sprint training. After that, it was time to bring back the power swings! Up first was Nick, chasing curve balls and sliders while blasting out some deep shots. Up next was Garett sending fast balls far away into the gaps. Then up was none other than Me... Yeah, definitely a leeeettle rusty, but when I connected, it was sweet! After swinging the bat we ended with a light cool down of jogging routes while catching the football and enjoyed natures finest. How can you say no to natures gym when that is the view you have?! Plus after all that, the munchies came back super quick! :) Who needs gym!.. Until next time.

Special Shout out to my sister Renee! Happy Birthday Sister, you're amazing! Love you!

Hello, I am Mello...

Hello fellow bloggers! This is my first Blog ever, so I am new to all of this. Just for a quick introduction, my name is Daniel Mello, I am college student at Cal Poly Pomona in Southern California, studying Kinesiology and Health Promotion. My life consist of mainly school, work, working out, coaching, running, cooking, and time with family and friends. Throughout most of my life I suffered from childhood obesity which carried its weight on me just until a few years ago when I decided to change my life a bit. I had to make many big changes and with those changes came a lot of sacrifices. I began to dedicate most of my time working on my fitness and diet. After about 4 years of making tons of health changes to myself I was able to lose 110 pounds. It was no easy ride, it took a lot of work throughout those years, but I would not change anything about it for a minute. The one thing about losing so much weight is maintaining and keep it off. When you have the kind of mentality I have which is: ALWAYS HAVING THE MUNCHIES, it is extremely hard to maintain consistency with what I eat. I had to learn ways to make delicious and healthy food replacements for the fattening one's I use to love... Ok I still love, sometimes... A lot of times, I cheat and have fun with my food, but for the most part, I do my best to keep it relatively healthy. This blog here is to show my personal and collaborative efforts to make healthy/delicious food that reminds me of the unhealthy food I use to eat. I have always had a passion for cooking and used my creativity to make fun healthy snacks and meals. There is nothing overly complicated or special to these snacks and recipes I make. They're simple and fun and I hope to inspire people to try the recipes out and even make your own recipes to go with them as well. Lately I have been on a huge Smoothie kick, lots of smoothies, everyday. Hope you all enjoy my post and share with friends!