Let’s Talk Milk

Ok, let’s talk milk.
Ponder this: we are the only species who drinks milk post lactation. Having just learned in depth about evolution in my biology course, I know that it takes A LOT of time for a population to evolve. So, to make it simple, adult humans weren’t, and still aren’t, built to digest lactase (milk sugar). Our bodies produce lactase (the enzyme needed to break down lactose) when we are babies, but this production stops when we reach adulthood. Some people may be able to eat dairy as adults as be fine, but something tells me that it’s not really the best thing for my body. Additionally, I find it weird that we drink cows’ milk; aren’t we supposed to drink the milk from our own species?!
For whatever reason you may choose to cut dairy out of your diet, I’m sure that you’ve tried a couple of dairy alternatives in your day. I certainly have. Here’s what I have to say about them:
Soy Milk: This was one of the first milk alternatives.  Soymilk was around back in the day when a dairy free diet was “weird.” I, personally, don’t like the soy-ish aftertaste, but I’ll be honest, when I’m at Starbucks and it’s my only option, I’ll totally put some in my coffee. 
Rice Milk:  This option was created shortly after soymilk. Here’s bottom line: I don’t think it’s great. The sweetened variations of rice milk taste lovely, but drinking rice-y water laden with cane syrup doesn’t sound like too much fun to me. If rice milk is your only option, then by all means give it a try. However, it’s not that nutritionally beneficial and doesn’t taste that great, so I choose to stay away.
Almond milk: Now we’re talking!  I LOVE almond milk!  It’s so creamy and delicious!  It’s perfect to add to coffee, tea, smoothies, okay, basically it tastes good on/in everything.  (It also works very well for chia pudding…..)
Almond milk is by far my favorite milk alternative! I always have (multiple bottles of) it in my house and use it for multiple uses on the daily. It’s creamy, nutty, and perfectly delicious.
Cashew milk: I usually just have cashew milk for a treat. I bought cocoa cashew milk from Whole Foods one time and it was DIVINE.  It was a total impulse buy, however somehow I don’t regret it at all…! Due to its thick and creamier-than-almond milk texture, cashew milk is better to use in something like a smoothie rather than in coffee.  A glass of cashew milk on it’s own is definitely a treat!

Coconut milk: Coconut milk is creamier than almond milk, but not as thick as cashew milk. It doesn’t have the nutty flavor that almond milk offers; to be honest, it tastes like water.  When I use coconut milk, I usually use it in baking, because it has a subtle coconut flavor.

There are SO many options to choose from for someone who is in search of a dairy alternative. Although this multitude of options may seem intimidating on a grocery store shelf, I encourage you to give them a try! There are pros and cons to all of them, but they each have unique qualities that make them useful and delicious on their own or in one of your recipes.
And, if you’re interested, give the whole “dairy free thing” a try. You never know what your body might be able to do when it’s not working hard to digest something that it’s not meant to.

Sweet Potatoes for Breakfast?

Sweet potatoes for breakfast? Okay!

You might be thinking that this should be included in my post about the most important meal of the day, but no.  This deserves a post of its own.  I used to not like sweet potatoes.  At all.  But all of a sudden, something changed.  Now I love them!  I usually eat them for dinner, but lately I’ve been hearing all about people eating them for breakfast.  So I decided to give it a whirl.

This morning’s breakfast was a sweet potato topped with a hard-boiled egg, avocado, Daiya vegan cheese, and salsa.  

 

It.  Was.  DELICIOUS.  The sweetness of the potato mixed with the savory flavor of the cheese and the spiciness of the salsa was divine!  This breakfast filled me up and was a great start to my day.  (It was great pre-work out fuel!)

After this breakfast, I’m officially obsessed with sweet potatoes.  They are so versatile-you can even use them for baking!  Try using cooked sweet potato instead of canned pumpkin in my “everything but gluten, dairy, refined sugar, grains, and the kitchen sink muffins” Try a sweet potato for breakfast in the morning, like I did; add cheese, nutritional yeast, avocado, an egg, salsa, or greens. 

If you don’t have time to steam a sweet potato, you can pop it in the microwave for seven-ish minutes. (But first, stab holes in the skin with a fork.) This is a quick and easy way to get breakfast ready. 

So let’s talk nutrition, shall we?  You know that gorgeous orange color that sweet potatoes have? Think beta-carotene. I’m no medical professional, but I do know that you need this stuff in your body.  If you look up the nutrition stats for a sweet potato, you’ll find a long list of micronutrients with high percentages next to them-score!  Just one sweet potato has over 1000% percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin A.  Woah!

So try a sweet potato for your next meal, whether it’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even just a filling snack.  You’ll thank me later; I promise. 

Tips and Tricks for Eating a Rainbow Everyday

The other day, somebody asked me if I recommend any seasonings to add to vegetables to make them more appealing.  They said they were trying to incorporate more vegetables into their diet and they didn’t know how.  And that’s when I realized that I’m abnormal in that I LOVE vegetables.  I mean, come on, we’ve all heard “You can only have dessert if you finish all of your broccoli.”  or, “You’ll only grow big and strong if you eat your carrots.” I think it’s an instinct for parents to enforce the importance of eating vegetables to their child.  Why?  Because they’re healthy and we need to eat them!  I definitely didn’t love vegetables as a child as much as I do now.  I will always remember the moment when I found out that my mom had been putting cauliflower in my mashed potatoes for years…I was so disappointed.  But now I’m so thankful.  Funny how that happens, huh?!

We all know that we need to eat vegetables every day in one way or another. They are a host of fabulous micronutrients, fiber, and all of that good stuff.  And hey, they’re delicious!  For those of you who find that eating vegetables is a chore, here are some ways that I recommend incorporating vegetables into your daily diet. 

 

1. Smoothies!  Although I’m not the biggest fan of smoothies,  (I like to chew my food) they are a great way to hide some veggies.  You can disguise a whole handful of spinach in a smoothie and not even know it’s there! (Well, the green color might give it away, but don’t let that discourage you!  You won’t be able to taste a difference.)

2.  Make veggie noodles!  I have this fantastic tool-it’s kind of like a cucumber peeler-and it makes ribbons of vegetables.  Instead of eating pasta, I like to eat veggie pasta!  I use this tool to create zucchini noodles, carrot noodles, and cucumber noodles!  This is a great (and paleo) replacement for pasta and is a delicious way to eat some veggies.

3.  Chop them up really tiny!  I absolutely hate the texture of squash, but if I chop it up really small, it’s hard to find! If the texture of vegetables is what throws you off, add tiny pieces of veggies to anything-sauces, soups, or even eggs, and get the health benefits of vegetables without the texture. 

4.  Make a veggie omelet! Yum!  Some of my favorite omelet ingredients are mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, kale, and bell pepper.  Just give the veggies a quick sauté before you add the eggs to the pan.

5.  Learn to eat veggies plain and raw.  I know this may sound obvious, but eating vegetables in their most whole, raw, and natural state is the best way to get all of the health benefits that they offer.  Vegetables each have their own unique and wonderful flavors that are hidden so often by sauces, dressings, dips, and flavorings.  Try them on their own and discover how delicious they are!

 

Try these suggestions, and find what works for you.  Using whatever method you choose, be sure to eat your rainbow everyday! 

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Everyone’s different, especially when it comes to breakfast. Some would say it’s the most important meal of the day, while some don’t even bother to eat it. Some go for smoothies, and some go for salads! Some don’t feel like eating right when they wake up, and some could go to a buffet and get their money’s worth!
I, for one, always eat breakfast. (Let’s be honest, I’ve never skipped a meal!) I usually like to stay away from anything sweet in the morning. Unless I’m about to work out, I don’t like a rush of carbs that leaves me feeling jittery. That’s a gross feeling first thing in the morning. A typical breakfast for me is a hard boiled egg, raw spinach, avocado, and some Daiya, which is vegan cheese. If I’m feeling like it, I’ll have a piece of fruit as well.

This breakfast is the perfect balance of protein, fats, and carbs and leaves me feeling full for a few hours.
On rare occasion, I feel like having something sweet in the morning, which is when I turn to something like Linwoods flax. Whenever I make chia pudding, I love to top my pudding with the cocoa and berries Linwoods flax seeds. 

It’s a combination of flaxseed, cocoa, and dried strawberries and blueberries. It adds some more protein to the chia pudding, and tastes amazing! Linwoods also has other combinations, such as flaxseed, almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts, and Q10. These are all great additions to sweet breakfasts-they’ll add some protein to the mix, which will hopefully help you avoid the sugar-rush feeling. Try Linwoods flax on your next breakfast food…it’s especially yummy in smoothies!  For not-so-sweet breakfast eaters, try sprinkling some plain flax seed onto salads or eggs! Add a subtle crunch and lots of protein and omega 3s!
I love to eat so much that all meals are equally important to me, but I agree that it’s so important to start the day off the right way with something that’s good for your body. Remember, breakfast is the first fuel your body receives in the morning. Would your car run if you dumped some sugar-laden pancake batter in the gas tank? Nope, didn’t think so! Do breakfast the right way!!

Everything but Gluten, Dairy, Refined Sugar, Grains, and the Kitchen Sink Muffins

Every night when I got to bed I think about what I’m having for breakfast the next morning.  Having just written a post all about chia, that was all that was on my mind!  I was totally in the mood to bake something in the morning; I dreamt about baking with chia meal all night!  (not kidding) I have been 99% grain free lately, so the idea of using chia meal instead of gluten free flour seemed like a fabulous idea.  My search on the internet for recipes using chia meal was utterly unsuccessful.  So I decided to wing it!  What could possibly go wrong?!  If my creation turned out yucky, I wouldn’t blog about it.  But that was not the case!

I threw some things in a bowl, mixed them together, threw the mixture in the oven, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best.  Then this happened:

WOW.

They were pretty delish, if I do say so myself!  Ok, I’ll admit that they’re not the prettiest muffins in the world, but they’re nutritious, and that’s what matters, right?!  100% paleo, by the way!

These muffins are chewy and perfectly sweet.  I used a blend of almond flour, chia meal, and ground flaxseeds as a flour substitute. I call these pumpkin muffins, but I actually used canned butternut squash instead of pumpkin, just because I had a can in the cabinet.  Either way works!  As I write this post I am enjoying a muffin topped with a dollop of fruit preserve and a glass of almond milk to wash it down. Here’s how I made these lovely treats.  (I totally made up this recipe.  I used what I had in the fridge and cabinets and totally took a risk.  Feel free to change this recipe to your liking-increase or decrease the sugar, spices, etc.  These work for me, but everyone has different taste buds!)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup chia seeds

1/2 cup flax meal

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup coconut oil

3/4 cups water

1 cup canned pumpkin (Actually, I used canned butternut squash!)

1/2 cup coconut sugar

Spices-add to your liking!  (I used cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.)

Directions: Grind almonds and chia seeds in a blender or food processor until they have a flour-like consistency.  (I ground mine in a nutri-bullet.)  Heat up the coconut oil before mixing it into the batter.  It is a saturated fat, so it’s solid at room temperature.  (I put in in the microwave for 20 seconds.) Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and until combined.  Put the batter in muffin tins (fill each hole about 1/2 way to the top) and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.  You know the rule…if you can stick a toothpick in the middle and pull it out without batter on it, they’re probably done!  Enjoy!

What sounds better than home made pumpkin muffins on a rainy Sunday morning?  Nothing, if you ask me.  Especially if they’re made of good, nourishing food.

Ch-ch-ch-chia!

Ch-ch-ch-chia!
Haha, I’m not even supposed to know that jingle…I was only born in the 90s.
Thank goodness that chia seeds aren’t just used for little green fury animals anymore, because I love to eat them!
How do I use chia?!
I don’t usually like to start the day off with a sweet breakfast; my breakfast usually consists of eggs and greens or something of the sort. But sometimes I feel like something sweet in the morning. Like today.  Last night, I mixed together some unsweetened almond milk, chia seeds, and agave and left it in the fridge overnight. I opened the fridge in the morning and viola! Chia pudding!
(Rule of thumb for chia pudding is 3 tablespoons of chia seeds to 1 cup of water. This mixture needs to be in the fridge for a few hours in order for it to gel and get the “pudding” texture.)
Breakfast this morning was chia pudding topped with sliced banana.

More ways to incorporate chia seeds into your diet:
1. Use a chia egg as a substitute for a real egg in your baking. (Score for vegans!) 3 tablespoons of water and 1 tablespoon of chia seed is the equivalent of 1 egg.
2. Throw a tablespoon or two into your smoothie. This will add some protein and omega 3s.
3. Add some chia seeds into your cookie/cake/muffin/bread batter. This will add a nutritional boost and give your final product a subtle crunch. (Grind them up before mixing them into the batter and you won’t notice a difference in the texture.)

4. Grind chia seeds in a blender or coffee grinder to make chia meal-you can use this as a flour substitute.  This works well for baked goods, but also for breading chicken, fish, etc.  

You can add chia to just about anything. Be adventurous!  A little goes a long way. You never know what recipe you’ll improve by adding these itty bitty miraculous seeds!

Cake Therapy Paleo Cake

I had a blast at the Gluten Free Allergen Free Expo in San Francisco a couple weekends ago, and a highlight was definitely Cake Therapy’s paleo cake!  Let’s just say I tried a lot of new products, but this one really stood out.  Cake Therapy was sampling their chocolate and their vanilla cake at the expo.  I tried one bite and was amazed.  It. was. so. delicious.  So fluffy, so moist, and perfectly sweet.  And it was paleo(!), which means no grains, refined sugar, or dairy! How did they do it?  I have no idea, but it was so good that I went back to their booth for another sample.  And another.  And another.  I could still go for some more.  Usually, paleo desserts are so dense, dry, and mealy, but this was truly delicious.  One of the best parts is that the ingredient list is so simple: Organic coconut flour, arrowroot, almond meal, organic coconut sugar, vanilla powder, salt, baking soda, baking powder. That’s all that’s in the vanilla cake! I am so impressed with cake therapy’s work and am excited to buy one of their mixes and bake a cake at home. 

 

 

Hail Merry Miracle Tarts

Wow.  These tarts are amazing.  A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those days where I just needed to go to Whole Foods and get myself a treat.  I was so stressed out, and I needed something to get my mind off of schoolwork. I walked into Whole Foods, which by the way, I could navigate with my eyes closed, and walked straight for the Hail Merry’s Miracle Tarts.  I had tried the Meyer Lemon tart months ago because my sister made me, and it was absolutely amazing.  I knew the other flavors had to be just as good.  I grabbed the Chocolate Mint tart, paid, and practically ran to my car to that I could get home ASAP.  (I think the cashier was judging me a little bit-I was definitely jumping up and down out of excitement at the register.) I was SO excited for this tart!  I got home, dropped my bag on the floor, and dug in.  The thing was in my tummy within about 7 minutes.  It was incredible.  I enjoyed it with some unsweetened almond milk.  Hail Merry’s tarts are thick, creamy, sweet, and 100% irresistible.  They are sweetened with maple syrup and palm sugar, so they contain no refined white sugar.  They are dairy free and there are no grains in the tart-the crust is made out of almond meal.  I can’t wait to try the other flavors: Chocolate Raw Almond Butter, Coconut Vanilla, and Persian Lime.  Hail Merry’s miracle tarts really are little miracles.  I had to talk myself out of buying another one the next day.  I may or may not have had one the day after that….and I tried the Chocolate tart today.  It was amazing as expected.  I am so in love with these desserts.  The perfect treat. 

Larabars

 

Dear Lara Merriken,

Thank you for creating the BEST SNACK EVER!

I literally adore Larabars.  You can usually find one in my purse, car, backpack, or pocket at any given time.  I’ve tried almost every single flavor; my favorite is the Peanut Butter Cookie, but a close second is Snickerdoodle.  Let’s just say that at one point there were five cases of Larabars in my house….

They are delicious, chewy, and I never feel bad about eating them…because guess what? My favorite flavor, Peanut Butter Cookie, has three flavors.  How many?  THREE.  Peanuts, dates, and salt.  That is it. (None of the flavors contain any more than nine ingredients.)

I absolutely love knowing exactly what I’m putting into my body and that I am only consuming a few wholesome and healthy ingredients.  Bars are such an easy and convenient snack, but most of them are filled with not-so-good-for-you junk.  Larabars bring out the best of both worlds-they’re healthy, delicious, and convenient! (Okay, that was 3 things. Oops. They’re just so great.)

On top of everything else, the bars are all gluten free, non-GMO, and kosher.  What else could you ask for?!