Reduced Ebook pricing!

Now that we are well into the new year, I wanted to re-post OUR EBOOK at an even lower price to help you keep going in your resolutions. By the end of January is when I'd rather let go of some of the 'uncomfortable' changes I've tried to make for myself. I hope that our book can give you some motivation to keep going, eat clean, add more fruits and veggies. You are worth it and I know you can do it, because you can do hard things.

Baby steps remember. Maybe add a few more vegetarian meals, a few more salads and work up from there. It doesn't have to be cold turkey on every guilty pleasure all at once!

Keep going, and hopefully this $0.99 book can help you along your way!

Lemon Garlic Quinoa

 

 

 

Well this whole food week has gone pretty good. I have really tried to put a lot of thought into my meals. I usually start the day with  a shake, then I have a lunch with a lot of fruits and veggies and maybe like a string cheese or something.

 

I ended up making some awesome steamed asparagus and baked chicken with a lemon, garlic quinoa!  I just kind of played around with some ingredients a I had so we didn't just have plain quinoa, it turned out really great! Super easy and an awesome healthy side for an awesome dinner.

 

Whole food living can be difficult, especially when you work or are chasing kiddos everywhere. I'm a big fan of pre planning and even pre- packaging your lunches...it's easy and all ready for you. The number one tip to remember is to stay as close to nature as possible and you'll be golden!

Lemon Garlic Quinoa

 

1 cup uncooked quinoa

 

1/2 lemon

 

1 garlic clove, minced

 

2 cups of water

 

Add quinoa and water to a medium sized sauce pan. Cover and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 lemon and garlic clove. Reduce to a simmer for another 10-15 minutes until water is all absorbed. Serve warm~ Enjoy

 

 

 

 

 



Summer Vegetable Quinoa Salad

I am so addicted to Quinoa lately, it is so easy and so nutritious. I have gotten serious lately about my baby pounds shedding...my progress was a little slower than I had wanted, I probably wasn't eating as well as I should though. So this week I have really gotten it in gear and have really been feeling wonderful. It's amazing how much revolves around what we put into our bodies. I was having intense tension headaches, they have left already and it's only been two days. I feel that my mood is better, which my little people enjoy, bear mom is not appealing. I also feel I have more energy which is priceless for me right now with my sweet little guy graciously waking me up in the middle of the night...and trust me this kid likes to play at night...it takes a good hour to an hour and a half to get that pumpkin snoozing again. 

Anyways on to the food. I saw this recipe here and it sounded delightful to me. Well the finished product did not disappoint and do you know the coolest thing ever...my kids devoured it! Seriously I watched my two year old son for the first time ever just stuff a piece of zucchini in his mouth without even blinking...and it stayed in his mouth! No spitting it back out...the only problem with this is I didn't make enough! Seriously even my husband said "Go ahead and make this again it's really good"

I hate the texture of peppers but even I ate every bite including the peppers. This is full of delicious bright vegetables and full of flavor. I hope you whip this up as the meal or as the side. your family will love it!

Summer Vegetable Quinoa Salad

1 cup Quinoa

1 zucchini

1/2 c shredded carrot (I used a full size carrot and grated it myself so it was very fine)

1 yellow pepper

3 green onions, chopped

1/2 cup slivered almonds

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T olive oil

dash of red pepper flakes

half a lime

Cook quinoa in 2 cups of water. Meanwhile heat oil in skillet, add peppers, onions, carrot, and garlic. Cook over med-low heat until tender, add zucchini, almonds and red pepper flakes. Continue to cook until zucchini is tender. When Quinoa is cooked add quinoa to skillet to combine flavors. Right before you serve it squeeze lime juice over the top to give the flavors some kick! Enjoy!

Vegan Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

Oh man do you ever wake up just craving some syrupy goodness? Today I did, it wasn't the pancakes I was craving it was my boysenberry syrup I bought a little while ago! I grew up on that stuff and I adore it...no it is not sugar free, but my pancakes were!

Pancakes warm my soul! I love the flavors and I adore the rich taste of any syrup really poured over the top of fluffy, hot pancakes. What makes me feel better is when I get the same comfort food with no oil and no sugar (apart from the chocolate chips of course :) ) I love watching the kids gobble delicious nutritious food up and ask for more...this morning in particular we had to make a whole new batch--I couldn't keep up with the demand!

I'm very satisfied with my end result this morning. I found these little babies here and I tweaked it just a little bit to make them oil free and a little more holiday spice! Delicious. I didn't even use that many chocolate chips, but they sure melted when I added them to the skillet and it made them quite homely looking! Even though they looked ugly they were very delicious. 

If you want a fast, healthy, satisfying breakfast for your whole family...you have got to try these

Oh and by the way...this only takes one bowl for mixing except a small bowl for the flax egg...pretty sweet.

Vegan Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

1 ripe banana

1 flax/chia egg (1 T ground flax +1 tsp chia seed +3 T water)

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c steel cut oats (or any oats)

1 T applesauce

3 T almond milk

1 T almond butter- melted down a little

3 T semi sweet chocolate chips or raisins

Mix flax egg and set aside for 5 minutes in a small bowl. Mash banana and baking powder together. Add flax egg, applesauce, almond milk, almond butter, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together well. Add flour and oats, combine until well coated. Fold in chocolate chips. Heat skillet and pour 1/4 c of batter onto skillet. Cook about 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. You may want to double this recipe...it only yields about 5-6 small pancakes...

seriously I could eat that by myself :)

*use gluten free flour and gluten free oats for a gluten free option

Enjoy

You may find that you have helpers that want to assist in making breakfast!!! Courtesy of my 18 month old!

Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal

Cold Cereal in the morning can get pretty boring, and it isn't the healthiest choice out there. I'm not perfect and you can find me many mornings placing cold cereal in front of my kids. I try to have healthier breakfasts, but I leave for work at 6 am most of the time...not a whole lot of time to make great breakfasts. 

My son has been on a picky cycle for awhile, I've been having a difficult time getting him to eat dinner, lunch, basically anything besides fruit. I'm happy with fruit, but I know he needs his vegetables, beans, and healthy fats. He's still my little guy and his brain is still busy learning and growing. So I sat and thought I need to give him something besides bananas for breakfast...that's all he eats! I wanted to either do avocado green smoothies or oatmeal...well my daughter voted oatmeal~ so here we are. I added some Adam's Natural Peanut butter, if you guys haven't tried natural peanut butter please do! The flavor is amazing and the price isn't that much different! We were sold from day one! Well anyways then I garnished the oatmeal with a few mini dark chocolate chips just to get the kids excited! And what do we have! Oatmeal that is like a peanut butter cup!

Moment of truth for me, this was not my favorite oatmeal. I prefer more fruity oatmeal flavor, but and a big but, the people I wanted to down this....DEVOURED IT! They loved it. My son actually ate his entire bowl without flinging it all over the floor! I was so excited...do you want to know what else...later that day he actually ate an entire hummus wrap from the tasty hummus I made! He was on a role yesterday...hopefully today is the same! 

Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal

2 c oats

2 1/4 c water

2 -3 T natural peanut butter

dark chocolate chips for garnish

Cook oats in a sauces pan with water until water is absorbed and the oats are tender and moist. Fold in peanut butter so it is swirled throughout oatmeal. Top with chocolate chips! Enjoy

for gluten free, make sure you use gluten free oats!

Skinny Enchiladas- trial 2

These magnificent enchiladas were initially intended to be part of the crock pot challenge. Well it ended up very mushy and a weird texture....so I ended up just baking them.

These are full of nutrients...seriously guys so good! I loved every bite and even told my husband "These are perfect for neighbor food! You know after a baby comes or something I'm taking these!" Everyone loved them...well my son is still being funny with food...he threw a lot of it, but my three year old gobbled them up like she had never eaten before!

Derek suggested that I call them What?! No Meat Enchiladas...catchy but I don't know I just didn't. These are ideal for the fall season that will be here in no time, they were colorful and delicious and I will be making these again shortly I'm sure! You can have a gluten free option by just using corn tortillas.

I added maybe a half a tablespoon of shredded cheese, I don't know why- I just did. It added nothing to this dish I couldn't even taste it, so next time I'll leave the unnecessary saturated fat out! I also found this adorable little bag of butternut squash pre-cut into perfect little squares so I didn't have to cut and peel a squash. If you guys want a delicious healthy, fall  meal to impress your family's without adding to the hips...ladies am I right? Then these are for you!

Skinny Enchiladas

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans or chili beans

1 c cubed butternut squash

1 handful of spinach finely chopped

1 can green chili enchilada sauce

1 T nutritional yeast

1 c cooked brown rice

10 whole wheat tortillas (or corn)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain and rinse beans. In a small bowl combine beans, squash, spinach, rice and a tablespoon of enchilada sauce. Coat well. In a baking dish fill tortillas with bean mixture and roll the tortillas over the mixture. 

top with remaining enchilada sauce, nutritional yeast and a small amount of cheese if you'd like. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Serve with salad and corn!!! You can thank me later!!!!

This is all that was left after we devoured them!

Crock Pot Peppermint Patty Brownies!

No dinner recipe to post this evening~ it's all sweet tooth tonight! These brownies have been made healthier, but still eat in moderation, the homemade sweetened condensed milk has some sugar in it! The good news....you can make these in a lot of different ways, I kept mine vegan, but you can use an egg, or real sweetened condensed milk, my version is just lighter in sugar than canned milk! It is much faster cook time in the oven for brownies, but you can't beat just throwing the ingredients in the crock pot and letting them cook themselves! And it was just kind of a fun shake up of things! These little babies are quite homely looking in my pictures, but they were so tasty, my kids wanted to eat all of them, I told them they had to save some for their dad who has been at school all day! I'd say these will be a nice treat for him to come home too!

The idea from crock pot brownies came from a blog I found on one of my many google searches for unique crock-pot meals! I obviously made some changes from the original to make it better for you, but I think they turned out as tasty as a brownie can be. 

Some ideas for revamping this recipe to make it your own, for your own tastes:

~ Blend 5 pitted dates with 1/2 C almond milk and throw that paste in for all sweeteners

~Use nuts instead of oats

~ add peppermint extract to the homemade sweetened condensed milk or brownie mix instead of using the candy peppermint patties

~ melt dark chocolate chips on top

~ Use a gluten free flour to make it gluten free

Wow, take your pick of how you make this, I'm sure it will still come out awesome!

Peppermint Patty Brownies

1 T vegan margarine

1 C water

1 chia -flax egg (1 T chia seed +1 T flax seed +3-4 T warm water)

1 1/2 C spelt flour (or any whole grain flour)

3/4 C cacao powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 C date paste (optional)

1/2 C oats

4-5 small peppermint patties

Homemade sweetened condensed milk

2 T vegan margarine

1/4 C raw turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw)

1 1/4 C vanilla soy milk

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional) 

Add 1 T margarine to crock-pot while on low. While it is melting begin making the sweetened condensed milk. In a small sauce pan add margarine and melt it, in another sauce pan add soy milk and bring to a low boil. Add sugar to melted margarine and stir constantly until it is a rolling boil. Combine with soy milk and heat until low boil. Stir in cinnamon.

After the margarine is melted in the crock pot add the chia -flax egg, water and brownie mix (make sure you mix the dry ingredients together first) Mix until the dry ingredients are wet,

 add sweetened condensed milk and top with oats.

 Cook on low for 2-3 hours. Check with a fork and see if it is done. Add patties to the top and cook another 30-45 minutes. Enjoy

* if you use a date paste add the paste before the brownie mix then mix it well and don't add sugar to the sweetened condensed milk!

We did enjoy dinner tonight, we didn't just eat brownies I promise. I wanted to show how I was able to utilize some great leftovers and make a tasty healthy dinner! I used the leftover sauce from the zucchini boats the other night and cooked up some wheat noodles. I mixed in the sauce so it was lightly coated and let the noodles cool slightly, then I mixed in some spinach and carrot chips and topped it will a small amount of balsamic, or you can use a little Italian dressing. The sauce from the noodles helps create a dressing! And there you go! A tasty quick meal full of healthy ingredients! Use those leftovers! Has anyone been able to create something deliciously healthy using leftovers?

Before Cravings...After Cravings

Things I used to eat before changing my lifestyle make me cringe at times. The worst part is I knew things were bad for me but I still ate them. I guess I didn't understand to the full extent why they were bad for me, which is why I'm so excited to launch our eBook...we go over the why!

This is what I used to crave before...literally! Does it look good to you? I would've eaten this whole thing

This is what I crave now! 

I am amazed at how my tastes and desires have changed! I love it, because I love my food! I rarely have guilt after I eat, and rarely when I get up for seconds! I still watch some things that I eat. I take it easy on pastas still because of the carbs, but when I do indulge in my lovely pasta it is filled with delicious vegetables like this! No grease drizzling down my chin with this!

Changing a lifestyle can be tough, but it really does change and evolve over time, I promise! And it's worth it! Keep working hard, try new recipes and take food off your list of frustrations and things to worry about!

Creamy Garden Pasta

1 package of whole grain pasta or gluten free pasta (you can also use rice instead of pasta)

1 crown chopped broccoli

1 C frozen corn

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 onion

1 large handful of spinach

2 cloves garlic

1/2 C raw cashews

1 1/2 C non-dairy milk

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp nutmeg

dash of paprika

dash of red pepper flakes

Cook pasta according to package directions. After you strain the pasta add spinach to the bottom of the pan and place the hot pasta over the top so it wilts. Add 1-2 tsp coconut oil or olive oil to a skillet. Add broccoli, corn, onion, and pepper to the skillet and saute for about 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, add remaining ingredients to the blender for the sauce. Blend on high for 2 minutes until cashews and sauce are completely smooth. Pour sauce over vegetables in skillet, heat together for another 2 minutes, then pour over pasta and spinach. Toss well so pasta is well coated! Enjoy

Have you lost cravings for certain foods? Or what do you still crave that you want to get rid of?