It's a PARTY!!! Part 1- Cool Prize

Welcome to the Ebook launch of "The Healthy Happy Family" I can't tell you how excited we are! This has been a long road and it has been an exciting one!

So to celebrate this amazing book we are going to be having a massive giveaway day! These prizes will stay open  until October 26! The winners will be announced on October 28, giving everyone plenty of time to enter. You can enter into all the drawings...and who knows you may just walk away with more than one prize...it's all selected at random! Each post will be a prize, be sure and read them all leading up to the GRAND PRIZE! Each post will also give an excerpt from the book....and tell you a little bit more about our baby

Should we get this party started?!?!? I agree

Cool Prize: The cool prize is awesome. Some of my favorite things to use in our whole foods kitchen...Ground Flax Seed and Chia Seed!

I use these babies for everything...egg replacers, I mix them into breads, jams, smoothies salads and they both provide a tremendous amount of nutrients without even tasting a difference!

Rules for the cool prize....leave me a comment saying what your favorite way to use flax or chia seeds are! Now if you have a preference between which one you'd like...specify! There will be two winners of the cool prize.
One for the Flax one for the chia....so get writing!

-
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese. Obesity invites so many different conditions including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes and certain types of cancer – all leading causes in death. The saturated fat associated with fast foods, red meats and cheeses are a leading culprit of heart disease. Did you know heart disease was not a common occurrence a little over a century ago? In some parts of the world today, there is little to no heart disease. Yet, in the U.S., heart disease is the leading cause of death." pg. 6

 We felt it to be very important to give a good explanation about the importance of great health. Sometimes when you are able to visualize something it really helps it sink in more! We share an amazing story about the country of Norway in the beginning of book, it really gets you're mind thinking!

Alright leave your comments for the Cool prize and we'll get started!


Links for the book:
www.healthyhappybudget.com PDF

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NNHSDW  kindle version

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!

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?

Vegan Strawberry Cobbler

Okay here is my promised, not forgotten "U" day! Alphabet days is coming to close. I switched up "V" day and today because I was so anxious to share the Rumbi Salad. This is also a stretch for the letter "U", I'm going to pretend to call it strawberry upside down cake, but really it's a cobbler...it's no big deal!

Have you ever sat in your quiet house, if you have kids, after the kids go to sleep and just had a craving for something sinfully delicious to enjoy while escaping into your favorite TV show? Introducing this cobbler! That is exactly what I experienced last night! I needed something sweet, but healthy so I could sit and soak up the drama of Army Wives....okay yes I love Lifetime shows, it's not a problem!!!! This was such a fast prep work I couldn't believe it, and the end result fit my need. This will not be as sweet as traditional cobblers, however the upside is you can eat two servings without so much guilt! I'm all for that. This would be delicious with some vegan ice cream snuggled right next to it, melting all over the place with the warm cobbler!

I'm going to try this cobbler in our dutch oven soon and see how the end result turns out. You can use any fruit you'd like. I was going to use peaches, but Derek requested that I didn't, he just isn't a peach fan that crazy guy! So I pulled out the strawberries. It was wonderful too. Please excuse the pictures, it was dark outside and my house lighting is just the pits, it looked amazing and tastes even better!

Vegan Strawberry Cobbler

Crust

3/4 C whole wheat flour

1/4 C coconut sugar (optional)

1/4 C agave

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

5/8 C almond milk

1 tsp vanilla

Filling

4 C chopped strawberries frozen or fresh

1/8 C  coconut sugar

1 T chia seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place all the filling ingredients in a 9x9 baking dish and place them in the oven to heat while you mix the crust ingredients.

 Pull baking dish out of the oven and pour crust mixture over the top.

 You can sprinkle top with raw cane sugar if you'd like but that is optional. Bake for 30 minutes until crust is baked all the way through! Serve warm! Enjoy

Peach Crumble Muffins

Muffins are such a fun breakfast to make. You can make them super bad for you, or you can add wholesome ingredients and make them a welcome guest to your stomach!

My friend from work handed me a delicious looking bag of fresh peaches from her tree yesterday! Some of them didn't make them home, I ate them! Some of them barely made it in the front door, the kids ate them! Others are being saved for peach soft serve, they will be eaten! But this morning a select few were made into a delicious peachy crumble muffin! I didn't look at a recipe for these muffins, this is all me. I was very happy how well the sweetness in these muffins complimented the grains so much! I'm happy to serve them to my family, even though my crazy husband doesn't really like peaches, how can that be?

He ate them though and said they were good, he added they weren't his favorite like the zucchini muffins, but they were good. For someone who doesn't like peaches, that makes me perfectly happy!

All the grains rolled and snuggled next to the sweet peaches and syrup call for one great start to the morning! Feel good about your food without sacrificing taste! It's a wonderful feeling!

Peach Crumble Muffins

2 C whole wheat flour

1/2 C cooked quinoa 

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 T cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Wet 

1/4 C maple syrup (or agave)

1 tsp vanilla

1 C almond milk

1/4 C applesauce

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 1/2 C chopped peaches

1 Flax-Chia egg (1 T ground flaxseed, 1 tsp Chia seed + 3-4 T water)

Crumble Topping

1/2 T coconut oil

1/8 C coconut Sugar

1 T cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make flax-chia egg and set aside into small bowl. Combine all dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Mix remaining wet ingredients with flax egg and add to dry ingredients. Fold ingredients together well. Spoon batter into muffin tins. Add crumble ingredients to a small skillet, mix together until all the oil is melted and absorbed into the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle topping over the top of the batter. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving! Enjoy

Quinoa Salad w/garlic vinegarette

Welcome to lunch on "Q" day, and it's going to be a GREAT day! Okay I admit, this "Q" meal was designed for mom and mom's taste buds! Yes I didn't share with anyone, but they already ate lunch so I'm cleared right?

Even if this was for my lunch this would make an excellent side dish at a potluck, or for dinner or for the meal, whatever your feeling! It was amazingly fast and very nutritious! I really enjoyed the dressing that I made to go along with everything, please don't pour the whole amount that the recipe makes over a little salad...that may not go over so well :)! Quinoa is very easy to prepare and it goes a long way. I put 1/2 C uncooked quinoa and covered it with a cup of water. Just double the amount of water to whatever amount of quinoa you're using, and simmer until the water is all absorbed! Mix this with whatever veggies, in my opinion peppers added an awesome flavor to this! I think I'm overcoming my texture issue with peppers. YAY!

Want some healthy benefits of Quinoa? Well you're going to get some :)
- Quinoa is a complete protein. One cup of quinoa has more protein than and egg!!! It also has all 8 of the essential amino acids

-It helps you keep your blood sugar regulated!!!! It is digested slowly so no blood sugar spikes

-Quinoa is a complex carbohydrate so it helps clean out the digestive tract, in other words it keeps you regular, less bloating and super uncool constipation.

-Quinoa has a ton of calcium, postassium and magnesium, these assist with bones, your heart and nerve functions!

-Quinoa is high in iron which supplies energy to the blood stream. It also has B vitamins which assist in brain function and helps keep your mind "with it" Sweet

info found here

Quinoa Salad w/ Garlic Vinegarette

1/2 C uncooked quinoa

2 C romaine lettuce

1/4 red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 C shredded Carrots

1/4 C onion, chopped

1 T sunflower nuts

Garlic Vinegarette

3 Garlic Cloves, shredded

1/4 C extra virgin olive oil

4 T red wine vinegar

1 T raw cane sugar

1 T chia seeds

Cook quinoa in sauce pan with 1 cup of water. Simmer until completely absorbed and tender. Combine quinoa with remaining salad ingredients. Set aside. Combine all dressing ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to boil, remove from heat and stir constantly until sugar is completely dissolved. Let dressing cool slightly before pouring it over salad. Toss salad so it's well coated

*the salad is for made for one person, the dressing supplies you with several servings so don't pour all the dressing onto your one salad!

No Bake Mint Carob Fudge

Does the Transiberian Orchestra ring a bell with anyone? Well I LOVE them, yes I know they are a Christmas band, but today my daughter wanted me to play her "ballet" music! She is a ballerina whenever the they are on the ipod :)

So I decided today would be great day to make a vegan fudge since we were dancing around to Christmas music in August! I've decided to start preparing for my holiday baking. I want a lot of healthy recipes to throw around for my own family and to also bring to parties and whatnot. I also have never used carob chips or carob powder in place of cocoa, so I thought I'd give it a go, I changed a few things from the original recipe here. Carob has less calories than cocoa does so all the better. I had to add mint to these, I was saddened though I thought I had peppermint extract, but no I didn't. Oh well, I dug around a little bit and found my mint extract, so it'll do.

 These fudge squares turned out super chewy, it was not the texture I'm used to. My mom's fudge is very dense and not so chewy. I really, really enjoyed the taste I would like to discover a way to not make them quite so chewy though. Next go around I will use peppermint and maybe top them with a peppermint whipped topping or candy cane pieces....we'll just have to see. Fudge is like a staple Christmas treat for me! I think over the next few months these little babies are going to kick my other fudge recipes out of the water! Awesome!  I suppose if you didn't want to try the carob powder, cocoa would work fine too.

Mint Carob Fudge

1 C maple syrup or other liquid sweetener (agave)

1 C carob powder

1 C peanut butter

1 T vanilla

1 T mint extract

2 T cornstarch

1/8 C chia seeds

Combine sweetener and peanut butter in small sauce pan. Heat until melted together. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Spread fudge in the bottom of a pie dish or 8x8 baking pan. Put in fridge to set up for about 2 hours before cutting. Enjoy!

Healthy Nutty Crunch Salad w/ Orange Chia dressing

After our fun celebrating today with Harry Potter and the almost overwhelming sweetness from our Homemade Butter Beer I remembered what I had planned for our Alphabet Day "N" day! For a reminder of Alphabet Days, here is the link.

Thank goodness for "N" day, it's one of those meals that just makes you want to pat yourself on the back for eating something so healthy, but it tastes so good! If you are like me I like some texture to my salads, I don't want just a boring, lettuce, rabbit bite! Give me some ziiiing, ya know! Well this was just what I wanted! I loved the orange dressing as well, it made it really sweet and I just love citrus. Surprisingly it was the celery that tasted so wonderful with the orange to me! This is no wimpy salad either! I had a HUGE plateful, because I could! It's full of the healthy fats from the nuts, why not add tons of low cal nutritious greens, I had it topped with quinoa and I didn't feel any ounce of guilt with the dressing...score!!!! When your looking for a quick meal for lunch or dinner and you don't want any heat in your house, put together this bad boy and you'll be satisfied I'm sure!

Nutty Crunch Salad

3-4 C Romaine lettuce

1/8 C cashews

1/4 C Whole Raw Almonds

1/8 C rice noodles

1/4 C cooked quinoa (optional)

1 celery stalk chopped

Other optional toppings

tomatoes

apples

blueberries

flax seeds

sunflower nuts

sesame seeds

avacodo

beans

carrots

broccoli 

etc.

Combine all ingredients to a large bowl and toss until completely combined

Orange Chia Dressing

1 peeled Navel Orange

2 T chia seeds

1/4 C almond milk

2 T agave (optional, you could use a medjool date for sweetness if you'd like also)

Combine all ingredients to a blender. Blend until completely smooth, about 90 seconds. Pour over top of salad! Enjoy

Energizing Overnight Oats

Well for "E" day in the alphabet days I decided to have breakfast waiting for us in the morning, with "Energizing" overnight oats...okay okay, I'm stretching the "E" a little bit, but I was going to make an egg white omelet, but I want to save my veggies for a pasta salad I'm making for a baby shower, and we are going to be super busy around dinner, which I had planned something like eggplant parmesean or enchiladas, but those will just have to wait!

So the idea for overnight oats came from ohsheglows.com she has a lot of overnight oat recipes, but how to make this "Energizing" overnight oats and why! Well I don't know about you, but my kids wake me up super early, my husband gets home super late sometimes so he wakes me up, not on purpose, then my kids wake me up looking for breakfast...and last night and this morning I knew would be no different and since we're on the go today there is no time for any R&R, so instead of feeling weak and possibly getting a caffeinated beverage I decided to start the day out right with some natural sources of energy! So the specific things added for energy:
 Raspberries, these little babies are chuck full of natural energizers through all the vitamin C these berries contain and good carbohydrates! One cup of raspberries provides 50% of your daily vitamin C intake for only about 50 calories! It also gives you 14 g of carbohydrates! So you can feel awake from the get go!

Bananas, again bananas are an excellent source of good carbs and vitamin C but also potassium which can help regulate your blood sugars, if your like me sometimes I get spikes if I'm not eating the way I should and go into dizzy, shaky spells! Bananas provide us with 30 g of carbs in a single banana, 15 % of our vitamin C intake, and 13% of our potassium intake!

Chia seeds, chia seeds are full of the omega 3 fatty acids which provide a whole list of benefits for our bodies, but also providing energy to our muscles and organs!

Almond Milk, the almond is a great source of protein which provides the energy our bodies need! Combined with the almonds from the super bars this breakfast is full of proteins. Almonds are known at times to have more protein than some meats, but with the good fats included!

So there is a lesson on some foods that can give you the natural pick me up without turning to refined sugars and caffeine! Now onto breakfast...I need to top these with something crunchy, so I used some left over super bars from yesterday. They are really soft in the morning, so if you don't like that texture add something crunchy and it's just like cold cereal to me!

Energizing Overnight Oats

1 1/2 c of raspberries

2 c oats

2 c almond milk

2 T chia seeds

1 tsp ground flax seed

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp almond extract or vanilla

1 banana chopped, (add in the morning)

1 cup granola (add in the morning)

Combine all ingredients except banana and granola, into a dish. Mix together and put in the fridge overnight, or over 3 hours. In the morning top with banana and granola! That's it, enjoy! Add anything else you'd like, fruit, nuts, make it your own!

*Gluten Free option use gluten free oats

Overnight Buckwheat Parfait!

I had a jar of buckwheat that I had sprouted and I wanted to use! I found this recipe at my favorite vegan website for a buckwheat parfait! It sounded perfect! It almost has no prep time! It would be a super healthy breakfast and really easy! Buckwheat is full of nutrients, it has been linked to helping with varicose veins, lowering cholesterol and it is full of amino acids! Who wouldn't want to tie these little babies into something! The parfait turned out really great! I loved it and you can add so many different things to make it taste exactly how you'd like it to! We all kind of made it our own at our house. My little girl wanted just a few chocolate chips and my husband added  some crumbled up butter bean scotchie cookies! On my parfait I sprinkled some cinnamon! It was really tasty! Just be aware to use sprouted buckwheat you can find some instructions on how to do that here, it does take a few days! But the powerhouse of nutrients it brings is worth it! You can find the original parfait recipe here

Overnight Buckwheat Parfait

1/2 c sprouted buckwheat

1 c almond milk

2 T chia seeds (these thicken it up)

1 banana

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

Place buckwheat in small container and cover with water. Place it in the fridge overnight. Combine remaining ingredients, be sure to mash the banana really well. Whisk until there are no lumps, put in a bowl, there is no need to cover  it if you don't want and put it in the fridge over night. 

In the morning rinse and strain buckwheat until any starchy residue is off. Add buckwheat to the banana chia seed mixture and completely combine. Place in glass, with any toppings desired! Finish by topping with maple syrup or cinnamon!

Possible Toppings

Kiwi

Strawberries

Raspberries

Banana

Granola

Oats

Chocolate Chips

Mango

Blueberries

Blackberries

Nuts, seeds

Cinnamon

Coconut Sugar

Coconut Flakes

Nut butter

Protein Powder

Chocolate sauce

Crumbled muffins/breads

The sky is the limit

Raspberry Almond Crumble Squares (GF)

Raspberries are about the tastiest berry out there to me! Put them with something nutty, and sweet and they're even better. I found this recipe at ohsheglows and I really wanted to try them! They are gluten free and I wanted to make them for my mom who has Celiac Disease! I have attempted some gluten free treats before for my mom and I think I've had about three turn out good, I'm slowly learning the tricks to gluten free treats, so I was nervous to try these out, but I am very happy with the result! I love the almond taste with the raspberry.I've never used almond extract before...I know crazy huh, that stuff smells so stinking good I think I'm just going to carry with me everywhere! not really guys...I think these are great for a sweet breakfast, snack, or with ice cream yum. The original recipe used cherries, but I used raspberries. Any berry would work really, so pick your favorite and go with it. This bar comes with the super simple jam filling recipe or you can really use store bought jam if you'd prefer! I've linked the original recipe so you can view it here! 

Raspberry Almond Crumble Squares

1 1/2 c almonds (or 1 1/2 c + 2 T almond meal)

1/4 c brown rice flour

2 T ground flax

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 c almond butter

6 T agave

1/2 tsp almond extract

Raspberry Chia Seed Jam

3 c raspberries

2 1/2 T agave

2 T chia seeds

1/2 tsp almond extract

 Heat oven to 350 degrees. Blend almonds until into a flour consistency, be careful not to blend too long and release the oils (unless you use almond meal, just combine it with the rest of the dry ingredients). Combine almond flour with remaining dry ingredients. Combine all wet ingredients and mix them into dry ingredients. Set aside 1/2 c dough for crumbles. Press dough in 8 inch pan. Poke holes all over with a fork. Pre-bake 8-10 min. Meanwhile, make jam. Add raspberries and agave to small pot, bring to a boil stirring often. Stir in Chia seeds and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add almond extract. Spread jam over dough in pan and add remaining dough for crumbles over the top. Bake another 12-13 minutes, or until the crumbles are golden. Let the bars cool for 30-40 minutes before removing them, the dough is pretty crumbly when it's warm so it falls apart pretty easy! Enjoy