I hope everyone reading this had a stress-free, relaxing Labor Day! I ran into the supermarket today, and while I am grateful it was open for what I wanted, the truth is that it could have waited and I felt bad for the people working.
We woke up this morning and I made some blueberry vanilla almond flour pancakes. I love love love using almond flour and sometimes an almond/coconut flour combo instead of packaged gluten free pancake mix! The recipe I use is just so simple!!
Gluten-Free Almond Flour Pancakes
1 cup almond flour ( I sometimes sub 2 tbsp. for coconut flour) 3 flax eggs ( or other egg replacer or organic pastured eggs if that is your thing)
3/4 cup almond milk ( or water or any other plant milk)
You can add in whatever you like!! I added 1 tsp vanilla powder and a big handful of organic blueberries.
I cook mine in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. They do take longer than regular pancakes- maybe 3-5 min per side. I like to top mine with coconut oil, real maple syrup and more fresh berries!
This recipe makes enough for two big appetites and a baby 🙂
After such a delicious but heavy breakfast we played outside with Amethyst in her sand box and did some more tidying. For lunch I wanted a salad!! I made this and it was sooo good! Farmers Market kale massaged with avocado and lemon juice, with grated carrot, chopped apple and spring onions all seasoned with sea salt and pepper and topped with homemade Dill Kraut! So perfect!
Amethyst didn’t really eat much salad so I made a big smoothie that we all shared with banana, avocado, frozen blueberry, cacao beans, dates and almond milk topped with fresh berries.
We went for a drive and met this Elder who let us take some of her berries! We are going to tincture our haul this time and have some wonderful immune support this winter! We were so pleased as we hadn’t been able recently to get to know a lot of Louisiana flora. Glad to know that Elder lives here too!!
After that I was hungry and tired so I stopped into the stupormarket where I bought pineapple and some purple corn on the cob (so surprised to see this) which we had for dinner! I had my corn with coconut oil and black pepper. Delicious and satisfying!!
What’s up? Things have been going here, it’s all kinda crazy and some days I don’t really know which way is up or down or have time to even catch my breath, much less scrub the bathtub and vacuum the floors. Any other mamas out there feel me? But I wouldn’t change a thing, and the days of having an impeccable house can wait until the babe is older and/or I can afford some help 🙂
This smoothie here is perfect for one of those days when everyone seems to need a piece of you and it’s three o clock in the afternoon and you still haven’t had time to have lunch, much less make it to the gym!! Take care of yourself, get enough nutrition in, and most importantly ENJOY it!!!
-4 frozen bananas -3 cups almond milk (or whatever type of milk you do) -2 tbsp vegan protein powder ( I use my own Sacred Strawberry Pure Plant Protein blend, but anything mild will work) -2 tsp green powder ( I use my Sacred Strawberry Pura Vida blend, but again, anything green will work.) -2 tbsp raw chocolate hazelnut spread (I used my own, but there are some great ones on the market OR just add one tbsp nut butter and one tbsp cacao powder) -1 tsp vanilla powder
-10 drops Medicine Flower banana flavored extract (optional)
Blend in a high speed blender till smooth and creamy. Makes 2 biiig servings.
If I had to make a list of ten things I miss most about living in Spain, mangos would be on it! Not just any mangos, but the ones grown by a man named Rufino who has a food forest in the south of Spain near Granada. His finca, Fruta y Sol, has the most diverse offerings of anwhere- mango, cherimoya, passionfruit, green coconuts, fresh dates, macadamias and so much more!! Southern Spain has microclimates that are so much more tropical than most people realize. Anyway, every time mango season came around in early Fall, we would buy huge cases- like 15 kilos big ( a bit over 30 pounds!!!). I don’t even know what to say about these mangos. They were the ripest, juiciest, most luscious pieces of fruit to have ever graced these lips. Mango is a funny fruit, it most definitely has it’s own distinctive flavor but a truly tree ripened mango will tease you with other flavors- hints of coconut, pineapple, passion fruit, even vanilla! We would basically mono-meal on mango for a while, and then I would freeze lots of it for the richest and simplest sorbet ever- simply frozen mango in the food processor. Best Ever by far! The other day, i came across some nice looking mango in my local supermarket that smelled nice and fragrant ( yes, i am that crazy lady at the grocery store sniffing the fruit, LOL) so I bought a few and made a smoothie that was just beautiful and simple and delicious.
And it inspired this trip down mango nostalgia lane. Is there a fruit that holds a piece of your heart?
This was that smoothie, by the way:
Mango Love Smoothie
3 ripe mangos 2 bananas lots of crushed ice, 2 tablespoons of lucuma powder
1 tsp ashwaganda powder for some adaptogenic goodness!
Blend in a high speed blender until ice is fully blended and the texture is light and creamy. Feel free to add in any fresh greens or green powder you fancy. Green is always good 🙂
I am still smoothie-ing it up! Although today I also had a raw lunch. My morning smoothie was this one, and I was just blown away by how complementary these two flavors are until today! So if you have ever wondered what to do with mesquite powder, try this out.
Blueberry Mesquite Smoothie
3 frozen bananas 2 cups fresh blueberries 2 tbsp mesquite powder 1 tbsp lucuma powder (optional) 1 tsp purple corn extract (optional) 1 tbsp Vitamineral Green (or other green powder, chlorella, Spirulina, etc.)
2 cups coconut water
Blend and serve! Makes 2 large servings.
I’ve been feeling sort of blah lately, lacking the energy to make it to the gym regularly or yoga class at all and then getting really frustrated with the lack of progress I am seeing towards my fitness goals. Well, as the adage goes, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity! So, I decided to shake things up again and do smoothies all day! Really, what a difference in how I feel already- and with absolutely NO sacrifice!!
For breakfast, I had this little delicious thing here:
This one had frozen banana and peaches, strawberries and blackberries from the FarMar, wild dandelion greens, Malabar spinach and spearmint from the garden, maqui berry powder and soaked hazelnuts. It kept me going for hours and fueled me through my workout today at the gym.
When I got home, I was sooo ready for this variation on the carrot cake smoothie:
Organic carrots, frozen banana, more Malabar spinach, vanilla, almond milk and a packet of Vega protein powder in Vanilla Almondilla flavor. So so good!
Dinner tonight was a big ol green salad and a bit of Amy’s Kitchen gluten-free vegan pizza doctored up with artichoke hearts, sautéed mushrooms, onions and red bell pepper. Maybe not health food, but good for the soul of this tired mama who did not want to cook tonight 🙂
I leave you with a vegan ice cream recipe that takes advantage of the seasonal bounty of delicious berries. I used strawberries and blackberries but any kind of berry would work here. Get your good fat on!
Berry Coconut Hemp Ice Cream with Chocolate Flake
2 cans full fat coconut milk 1 cup hemp seeds 1 cup strawberries 1 cup blackberries 1 cup coconut sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or extract 1 tsp maqui berry powder (or acai)
1/2 tsp strawberry extract (optional)
For chocolate flake: 1/2 c coconut oil, melted 1/4 c coconut sugar
1/4 c cacao powder
Stir or blend until smooth
Blend in high speed blender until smooth. Transfer to ice cream maker and freeze as per manufacturers instructions adding in chocolate during the last 5 minutes or transfer to a freezer safe container, stir in chocolate and freeze, stirring every two hours until frozen. Let thaw briefly before serving.
Makes about 8 servings.
Thanks for reading!
xx
Here we are again! And I did it this week 🙂
This week is especially beneficial for me to focus on the good right now. As I said last week, we are dealing with some health issues in the household right now which has been crazy making and then yesterday I woke up with some really bad back pain. It is really the only time my back has ever hurt, barring some soreness while I was pregnant. Anyway, it can be easy to dwell and feel sorry for myself! So, the good!
1. The carrot cake smoothie posted in Facebook this morning by The Raw Food World. It was incredibly delicious and when I make it again I will double or triple the recipe if it is to be shared with anyone else. Haha, THAT good!
Carrot Cake Smoothie
I large carrot
1 cup almond milk
1 frozen banana
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp vanilla brown rice protein (like Sunwarrior, which is my fave!)
2 tsp vanilla powder or 1 tsp extract
pinch cinnamon
1 tbsp coconut oil (optional as it was not in the original recipe but hubby asked me to add some)
Add almond milk first then other ingredients into Vita-mix or other high powered blender and blend until creamy and smooth.
Serves 1 (or 2 small servings)
2. The garden! My mother has always been proud of her yard, so this year we are just putting some things in pots as it would have been traumatic to my mom for us to rip our something for a veggie patch! Starting out so small, but I love the things we have so far:
Here is some lavender, a stevia plant, a peppermint, a Malabar spinach plant and a poblano pepper:
Here is some more of the Malabar spinach. It is meant to be a heat-loving perennial edible green which tastes a bit like spinach although it is extremely distantly related.
This is another poblano, a hibiscus my mother had previously and a mulberry sapling we got for free!
Here we have a loquat sapling, parsley and some pineapple sage that smells heavenly next to two strawberry plants and a jalapeño.
&nb
In addition to the things that we planted, we also have a satsuma tree here, a pear tree and a whole load of blackberry (or dewberry) bushes around the property. I picked a good handful of them today. They were tart but tasty!
This post is getting long, so I will leave it at that. Short list, but sweet 🙂 Have a wonderful rest of the week, y’all!
Today is hot in Madrid, and I wanted something cool and refreshing. I also had a Galia melon that needed to be used. I started thinking about the canteloupe icees my mom used to make me when I was a kid and decided to do something similar. The result was super yum!
You need:
- half a Galia melon*
- 2 bananas, frozen
- half a cup ice cubes
Blend thoroughly and enjoy! Serves 1
* A Galia melon looks like a canteloupe on the outside but like a honeydew on the inside. The taste is more like a honeydew melon. Feel free to substitue either of these melons if you don’t have access to galia melons.
Hoy en Madrid hace un calor tremendo y por eso me apetecía algo fresquito y refrescante. También, tenía un melón que necesitaba usar urgentemente. Empecé a pensar en los granizados de melón que mi madre solía hacer cuando yo era pequeña y decidí hacer algo parecido.
Batido de Melon Galia
Ingredientes:
- un melón galia
- 2 plátanos helados
- media taza cubitos de hielo
Instrucciónes:
¡Batir y disfrutar! ¡Así de fácil!