Oatmeal Sundaes and Kale

Not together, silly!!

This morning was oatmeal Sundaes! My kids got excited when I told them what we were having. Anything with the word Sundae at the end just sounds exciting and delicious, right.

I soaked my Gluten Free Oats overnight. Just a pot full of the oats, covered in water, with a Tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar. Overnight it sat. You can read more about soaking oats here if you want.

This morning I drained the water and put in fresh. Then I cooked the oatmeal as usual.

After the oatmeal was cooked I put a scoop in each of the kids bowls. 

Then they got to take it from there.

I had chopped up

almonds

walnuts

bananas

blueberries

and kefir if they wanted to mix some of that in as well, which of course they did!

They anxiously filled their bowls with whatever they wanted.

They totally loved it!!!

And yesterday I made these again for the first time this season. I had some extra Kale from my harvest bin and it needed to be used. The C cousin loved the kale chips as much as B-Rax.

Time to Spring Clean your Body!!

Remember when I talked about Candida and how I think everyone in our nation is suffering from it's ill effects? Remember how I promised I was going to go into more detail on it and teach you how to self diagnose it and how to treat it?  Remember that I never did that?

Well.....

Come on over and cleanse out your system with me!! My good friend, Brenda Wollenberg, is a licensed Holistic Nutritionist. She does this for her career and she is amazing. She is coming to my house to do a  5 hour group session/detox program and you really don't want to miss it. This woman changed my life. She is smart and healthy and she has a wealth of knowledge on women's bodies.

So join us!

Saturday, April 20th. 12-5:00pm

Email me or comment if you want more information or to reserve yourself a spot. The program is a 2 week cleanse and then adapting your lifestyle to healthier choices after that. The cost is $150 which is a killer savings compared to what she charges her clients. It includes a real food vitamin supplement and  If you chose to participate you will fill out paperwork before hand so that Brenda can adapt the plan to your personal body type/needs. This is a worthwhile opportunity for anyone seeking better health, increased energy, weight loss,...

Check out Brenda's website here!

Here is an expert from the website about the program you will be participating in:

For those looking for a short and sweet gentle dietary detoxification or weight loss kick start, In Balance also offers a four week 4Real program. With a base price of $325.00 (HST included) and the addition of our cost-effective all-in-one whole food multi vitamin/mineral, antioxidant and cellular communication supplement ($75.00 including HST), for a total of $100.00/wk, participants get four weeks of nutritionist support, 4 - 75 minute long weekly group sessions, a supervised and personalized food and lifestyle plan and an In Balance 4Real Guide to help keep you focused and on track. Because of the short duration of this program In Balance provides more time per session and supplies an additional amount of daily whole food nutritional supplementation to support you through cleanse and any needed weight loss kick start.

lemon quinoa muffins

These were a hit with my Sunday School Class today. They are gluten-free, dairy-free, and are sweetened with pure maple syrup. They were yummy!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Mix together 1/3 cup softened butter (butter isn't considered dairy, it's considered a fat)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 eggs
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Once that is all creamed together add
1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats (I soak mine overnight first)

In a separate bowl combine
3/4 cup quinoa flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 Tbs. chia seeds
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt

Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix together. Add grated zest from one lemon.

Spray mini muffin tins. Fill with batter.
Bake for 20 minutes or until done, maybe a couple minutes less would work ;)

Eat your heart out!

*remember quinoa is high in protein and chia seeds have more calcium than milk and loaded with omega 3's

Granola bars take 2

My 7 year old put it best when he said, "she just keeps adding and adding stuff trying to get the perfect granola bar."

My 4 year old was shocked to hear some of the ingredients and said, "what? There's beans in there?"

So, my friend suggested adding a ripe banana for moisture and I had left over black beans so I tossed them in too.

Today's granola bars were more moist than last weeks, and, I think they tasted better. Plus, the bananas were the only sweetener (aside from the chocolate chips of course) so that was handy.

Here is the new and improved recipe:

1/2 cup pureed black beans
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas
1/3 cup softened butter

Mix all that together then add:

1 Tbs. vanilla
1 cup Raw Almond butter ( I use this brand)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. chia seeds
1 tsp. sea salt
1/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
4 cups gluten free oats

Mix until combined and cook in 9 x 13 sprayed pan at 350 degrees for only 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Yum!

Dairy Free Breakfast Casserole

So I never claimed to be a photographer... for the record.

Good thing looks aren't everything ;)

The other night I made this for dinner and it was really delicious. Common folk think that breakfast casserole has to be smothered in cheese and loaded with cream and bread but we over here aren't your everyday common folk.

So I took a package of ground sausage out of the freezer. Jimmy Deans, baby. I do not think Jimmy Deans is "healthy", but I do think it was in my freezer and when things are tight you somethings have to make use of what you've got. So, that's what I did. 

So I put the frozen hunk of goodness and stuck it in my crockpot with about an inch of water and cooked it on low for the day. You can't get much easier than that.

At around 4:30 I chopped up 3 leftover baked potatoes into hefty chunks. I put them into my 9x13 favorite pan in the world (stoneware pan). Then I drained the cooked sausage and poured it evenly over the potatoes. Then I cracked 10 eggs into a bowl and whipped them with 1/2 cup of water and a little pepper. I figured Jimmy Dean took care of the salt for me! I poured the egg mixture on top of the sausage and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes? Basically until the eggs are cooked... I actually do not remember if it was a half hour or maybe an hour?? Maybe in between the two somewhere. Just watch it. 

So this was gluten free and dairy free.

It was really good and really simple.

We had veggies on the side. You could add veggies and cook them in it but I knew my kids little girl would prefer it without the broccoli cooked in. So, improvise. Enjoy!

Granola Bars from scratch

The more I learn about gluten, the more I try to avoid it. My family is not gluten-free per se but we only eat gluten in really minimal amounts. For instance I buy gluten free oats to make our granola bars.

There are some foods that I really try to avoid. I am not perfect at it but I try tremendously hard. Sugar is one of these "foods."

So here is the granola bar recipe that I am still perfecting. They are a little dry still but they taste really good... like I made this 9x13 pan yesterday and after my kids and their friends had one my husband ate the other 1/3 of the pan. 

Here it goes:

Preheat oven to 350

I use a stoneware pan so I don't grease it, but if you use glass or metal I would spray the pan with olive oil. 

In a large bowl mix:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups almond butter

3 eggs

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt

1-2 Tbs. chia seeds

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

5 cups rolled oats ( I prefer gluten free)

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix that all up and flatten it into your prepared pan. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan.

So here are the dirty details of what goes through my head.

Sugar is in most everything you buy, so I try to make homemade to cut sugar.

But.... kids will only eat something that tastes good. Sugar makes things taste good.....

so this is definetly a balancing act and one that I have to constantly work to improve.

These granola bars fill both desires of my heart to give my kids something that I know is nourishing their bodies and something that they enjoy eating. 

These bars are filled with protein between the oats, the eggs, the almond butter and the chia seeds.

These bars are gluten free.

These bars do not have any refined sugar, except for what is in the chocolate chips.

These bars have calcium from the chia seeds.

These bars have the good fat from the butter, the sunflower seeds, and the almond butter.

These bars have the fiber from the oats, the coconut, the almond butter, the sunflower seeds and the chia seeds.

My goal is almost always to balance the sugar content to the protein content to the fiber content to regulate the blood sugar and provide a healthy snack. I don't have a nutrition label to put on these babies but in my head these bars do exactly that.

Enjoy!

Chia Seed Pudding!

The other day while browsing my favorite recipe websites I found this recipe for Chia Seed Pudding. I am a sucker for Tapioca. Love it! But it's made with all the good things I don't eat... dairy, sugar... So the chia seed pudding was really tempting. I altered the recipe a bit and this is what I came up with! Delicious!

In my Ninja blender I combined the following:
1 cup organic coconut milk (the pure stuff sold in the can)
1 cup filtered water
1 tsp. vanilla
6 Tbs. Raw Chia Seeds
small pinch of stevia

I blended it all together until it was combined and put it in this glass bowl, in the refrigerator  overnight. And then, the next morning, we feasted on pudding for breakfast. All my kids loved it, my husband loved it, and I, as usual, loved it too. Try it. The texture is nothing short of yummy tapioca and the flavor is vanilla goodness.