Live and Love

Amen.

Brownies

I'm not usually a big fan of Healthy desserts because most of the time it just never "hits the spot" but in this case this brownie totally had my taste buds doing somersaults! It's seriously THAT good!

Ingredients:
3/4  cup coconut nectar (or if you’re not cleansing you can use raw honey)
1/2 cup coconut oil (softened but not liquid)
1/2 cup raw cacao powder OR unsweetened cocoa powder OR carob
2 cups almond butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 ounces dark chocolate (I use cleanse-friendly Gnosis bars; the ones sweetened with coconut nectar), melted or better life chocolates.
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
optional: 1 cup dark chocolate (unsweetened) chips or broken up Gnosis chocolate Bars OR for a special treat, I add chopped up Gnosis truffles. Feel free to be creative by, adding nuts, coconut, dried fruit, whatever you like.

Directions:Grease a 9×12 baking pan. Preheat oven to 325.

In a small pot over medium-low heat, being careful not to scorch it, slowly melt the 4 ounces of dark chocolate until just barely melted. It helps to occasionally stir with a wooden spoon as it’s melting and remove from heat as soon as it’s creamy. Hopefully it’s timed to be done just as you’re ready to add to the other ingredients below.
In a large bowl put the cacao powder in first, then add in this order: coconut nectar, almond butter, coconut oil, vanilla, baking soda and sea salt. Mix well, making sure the coconut oil is well mashed and incorporated. Doing it this way ensures that the cacao powder doesn’t explode into a chocolate powder cloud as you’re mixing it all together! 

Then add the melted chocolate and the chocolate chips, truffles, or whatever you decided to get crazy with and combine it all together. Pour the batter in the baking dish and let it cook for 30-40 minutes. Let them cool for 20 minutes because they are so soft and gooey that cutting them will make it a little difficult. 

Enjoy!

Spiced Chicken and Spinach

This my last meal for the day! Overall it hasn't been so bad and the fact that I'm trying new foods and discovering how to cook new things is exciting. Tomorrow on my list is a beet salad and I'm excited because I've never made beets before so it will be a new kitchen adventure. I will post that tomorrow. 

Here was our dinner. The girls had this too, but because the chicken was a little on the spicy side I made theirs separate by not using the spicy seasoning. They enjoyed every last bite.

What you need:

• 1 4-5 ounce chicken breast (vegetarians can use 1⁄2 cup cooked chickpeas)
  
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 teaspoons ground paprika
  
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground coriander seed
  
• 2 tablespoons sliced red onions
  
• 1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into large chunks
  
• 2 large handfuls of fresh spinach
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  
• 1 teaspoon sea salt 
  

What you do:
Preheat oven 350°F. Place the chicken breast in a baking dish, coat with olive oil, sea salt, paprika, cumin and coriander. Bake for 12 minutes or until fully cooked. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a cutting board, once the chicken is slightly cooled, cut into thin pieces. Meanwhile, heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and gently cook the onions for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously. Add the mango and cook until warmed through. Add in the sliced chicken breast, gently toss then add in the spinach and lemon juice. Cover the pan and allow the spinach to steam. Sprinkle in a touch of sea salt and serve immediately. 

Enjoy!

Fish "Tacos"

As for my second meal today, lunch was amazing! I made wild cod fish tacos with some homemade mango salsa. This definitely took some prepping, but I got lucky because the girls were outside in the backyard playing on the swings while I did some creating in the kitchen (One of the best benefits is having a kitchen that faces the backyard).

What you need:

8-12 ounces of cod or halibut

1/2 cup plain unsweetened coconut milk

3/4 shredded coconut 

1 tablespoon of curry powder

1 teaspoon of sea salt

4 large lettuce leaves (for the shells)

Directions to make fish on skillet:

If there is skin, skin the fish first and cut into 1/2 thick slices. Soak each piece in the coconut milk, then into the curry- coconut mixture. Make sure to be generous and coat all the sides of the fish with the mixture. Cook each fish in coconut oil over medium heat  and flipping them until both sides brown up and fish is cooked through. 

Directions to make fish in Oven:

Add cod into a shallow baking dish and preheat oven at 350 and let it back for 10-15 minutes.

What you need for Mango salsa:

1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/8 cup cilantro, chopped

2 teaspoons of grated ginger

Freshly squeezed juice and Zest of 1 Lime.

You can blend all these ingredients together in blender to make it more of a liquid, but if you like chunks like I do then just add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix it up and serve as is. 

Enjoy! 

Blackberry Buckwheat

Now that the new year is here and things have finally slowed down, getting back into routine is priority. Last year I did the Clean Program and I loved it! It's taught me so much about the food that I put into my body but also the food I put into my daughters bodies. I never knew I was intolerant to dairy, soy and gluten until I started this program. I'm actually going to the the cleanse again which is a detox but it's not a pure liquid thing. Instead you incorporate food into it and you can have protein shakes,which I need because I work out 4-6 days a week. Today was my first day of eliminating certain

foods that sort of got into my diet, which normally wouldn't be there but hey, the holidays tend to be a hard time to keep on track.  For the next three days I will only be eating three meals a day and that's it. Here is my first official meal this morning....

This is the blackberry buckwheat porridge, I made a good amount because I need to store some away for tomorrow morning. Having two kids under the age of 5 means I don't always get to spend time in the kitchen, so this keeps me on track.

What you need: 

1 cup whole buckwheat

2 cups of water

1 cup fresh fruit

2-3 cinnamon sticks

1 teaspoon cardamon seeds (optional)

1 vanilla stick

To make the porridge:

First start off by rinsing the buckwheat in hot water. Add the buckwheat to water and add in the rest of the ingredients into the pot and let it boil. Once it starts boiling turn heat down to low and let it cook for about 20 minutes while stirring occasionally. When the water is gone, the porridge is about ready. Remove the Vanilla and cinnamon sticks from pot and rinse them in cold water and store away so you can re-use them for next time. 

Serve with fruit and there you have it! Enjoy.

My little Humans

High Protein Cupcakes

People think I'm insane for working out early in the morning, but truth is, it's the only reasonable time for me to workout. With two daughters and a husband that works many hours in day, the morning workouts are the only time I can get out of my house without screwing up anyones schedule. At first waking up early was very difficult and thats partly because I wouldn't go to bed at a decent hour and felt that "catching up" on my recorded shows was important. However, once I got into routine and forced myself to go to bed early the morning workouts got easier.

I usually get home around 7:30am from my workout. The girls are usually awake and my husband is heading out the door for work so having a high protein meal can be difficult to make especially when your burnt out on shakes. Besides if you can find a great healthy breakfast that the kids can eat too then it's a win for all, right? This is my favorite and so EASY to make healthy high protein breakfast...

What you need:
Turkey slices
Egg whites (approximately around 8-12 eggs if not just using liquid container)
Spinach
Broccoli
Onions
Pepper
Sea salt

Preheat your oven at 350 before your start prepping

First: you need to sauté the onions, broccoli and spinach in a medium skillet.

Second: You line cupcake tins with the turkey slices  (12 count)

Third: you spoon in the sauté veggies inside the cupped turkey

Fourth: then you poor the egg white mix over the cooked veggies (whisk in a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper before)

Last: you put the 12 cupcake tin into your preheated oven and let cook for about 20-30 min or until the eggs looks nice and puffy. (A friend of mine said it took her 30-40 min, depending on the oven it could be slightly different so just keep checking on them:) )

Enjoy.

My girls love this breakfast. It's easy and we have left overs for the next morning and it even makes a great snack.