If you’re anything like me you score the internet for the best healthy living and food blogs, so I’ve simplified the process for you!. I want to share with you my top health food blogs. Enjoy!
Deliciously Ella– Deliciously Ella is a site that I truly go to on a regular basis for recipes that I actually cook, in real life. I love going to aspirational sites that show beautiful pictures of perfectly crafted culinary art, but there’s nothing better than a real site you use evey day, like your mom’s favorite stained cookbook with the pages ripped and stuck together from the years of use. Well, to me, this site is both. Not only is Ella adorable and unintimidating but she feels like a girlfriend I would call up to borrow a recipe from. And her recipes manage to be healthy while looking scrumptious and satisfying. Aside from the amazing food, Deliciously Ella has posts on happiness (one of my favorite topics), advice for living a healthy life, inspiration, fitness and beauty. She also has two cookbooks and an app. Ok, I kinda just want to be Ella, or be her best friend.
Image via www.delicouslyella.com
Sprouted Kitchen- The husband-wife team behind the Sprouted Kitchen bring a focus to healthy, seasonal foods, while maintaining a sophisticated yet rustic flare to their images and recipes. One of the things that Sprouted Kitchen does that sets them apart from other health food blogs is their food photography. It’s hard not to get inspired while poring over the images of their recipes. The vast recipe collection includes just about everything you’d want to find when trying to be the hostest-with-the-mostest, or just making a relaxing dinner at home. Looking through their recipe archive makes me feel like I’m at an elegant yet cozy farm-to-table restaurant and I want to order everything! It’s websites like this that make me say to myself, “I love food so much!!!”
Image via www.sproutedkitchen.com
Peachy Palate-Peachy Palate, run by Michelle, a nutritional health coach, has recipes as well as nutritional information and workouts (pretty much a one-stop-shop for everything healthy). The workout page is great for finding any workout you may be looking for. The recipe page is extremely well organized! You can search by cooking method, course, dietary needs, or key ingredient. I love this because if you don’t know what you want to make but are looking for something specific like grain-free, vegetarian, or paleo, everything is sorted for you. My favorite is the section on nutrition. She has posts on pretty much everything you might want to know about nutrition. Definitely a great site for finding well-rounded health information and inspiration.
Image via www.peachypalate.com
Cookie and Kate- Cookie and Kate has a whole slew of healthy plant-based recipes, many of which are gluten-free. But don’t get the idea that you’ll be eating twigs and berries. The recipes are all extremely diverse and appealing, you’ll want to become vegetarian just looking at this food. I’ve made several recipes from Cookie and Kate in the past, and they’ve always turned out to be major successes in my house. The recipes are creative, yet flexible so if you don’t have every single ingredient you can wing it and it will turn out great!
Image via www.cookieandkate.com
Lexi’s Clean Kitchen- Accessable clean eating is the goal in Lexi’s Clean Kitchen. Lexi, a passionate recipe creator, develops creative, tasty, and nutritious recipes using healthy ingredients. Her recipes encompass all needs and tastes from dairy-free, to gluten-free, sugar-free, and paleo; so everyone can find something that works for them. I can totally relate to Lexi’s story because she decided to make major liestyle changes to live a happier and healthier life, just like I did, and has found major success with eating a cleaner diet and leading a more balanced life. To that I say, right on girl!
Image via www.lexiscleankitchen.com
From The Land We Live On- Rustic charm perfectly describes the feel of this blog. Sophia, the brains and heart behind the recipes, shares her experiences in urban gardening, foraging, and food preservation, and focuses on the importance of eating food that is found close to home. Recipes include gluten-free, vegan and paleo options, and they all look beyond appetizing. I pretty much want to make everything I see here. Even if you don’t plan on making any of these delicious meals, just browsing the site will be a delightful experience because the visual component is so appealing.
Image via www.fromthelandweliveon.com
I hope that you find some wonderful ideas and inspiration from these sites. I have found them to be the tried and true sites that I keep going back to again and again.
Leave a comment with your favorite healthy recipe sites!
I find that the easiest way to consistently eat healthy is to have a well stocked pantry. Having the staples on hand will always simplify meal prep, as well as spontaneous whip-it-up meals. Here are my must-have healthy pantry staples to always keep in my kitchen, no matter what I’m making that week.
Healthy Pantry Staples
Almonds
Almond Butter
Cashews
Walnuts
Dates
Sunflower or Pumpkin Seeds
Coconut Flour
Almond Flour
Coco or Cacao Powder
Coconut Oil
Chia Seeds
Lentils
Canned beans
Canned crushed tomatoes
These ingredients are so important to have because they can be used in so many different ways. Many of these are used every day in my kitchen, whether it’s for smoothies, snacks, main dishes, or desserts.
Spices
Hymalayan Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Turmeric
Cinnamon
Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Cayanne Pepper
These spices are versatile and most commonly used in recipes. I’ve found that in making many different recipes over the years, the spice rack has seemed to grow…a lot. Random spices that have been used once, unfortunately fade to the back of the cabinet. These basic spices end up being the only ones I really use, and the only ones worth having.
Produce
apples
avocados
bananas
lemons
oranges
No matter what I’m planning on making each week, I always get these produce items. Mainly becuase they are portable, don’t need refrigeration, and don’t go bad that fast. I like to call them low-maintenance fruit.
Of course there are many others that I didn’t include here. I haven’t even begun to talk about my love for goji berries! But this is a great place to start if you want to incorporate more clean foods into your pantry.
I hope this helps simplify your healthy lifestyle!
This is the perfect smoothie for those chilly fall mornings when you want something healthy, but a pineapple and kale smoothie just feels too “July” for this time of year.
My Orange Spice Breakfast Smoothie with essential oils captures the flavors of the season while still being a super-charged breakfast. The added essential oils also provide a boost to your immune function. Huzzah!
I have to be honest, this recipe came out of pure despiration because I had almost nothing in my refrigerator. I had to get a little creative but it turned out better than anything I could have planned. That’s usually how it works.
Get ready for amazingness:
Take handfull of almonds (or cashews if you prefer) and a cup or so of water and pulverize in the blender for about a minute until it’s as fine as can be. (If you already have nut milk made just use that)
Add:
half a banana
spoonful (you decide how big) each of chia seeds, almond butter, coconut butter, coconut oil, chia seeds for some nice healthy fats
dash of honey, cinnamon, and vanilla
one drop each of orange and Thieves essential oils
Adding the essential oils is optional, as it will still be delicious without it, but I mean, WOW! Adding essential oils was a smoothie game changer for me. Thinkin’ outside the box.
One of the best ways to stay in a high-vibing mindset to achieve your goals is by surrounding yourself with others who share the same values as you, inspire you, and who may be further along a similar path as you.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet such powerful and inspiring women through masterminds, facebook groups and group coaching programs. One of whom is soulful business coach Celia Ward-Wallace. I’m so thrilled to continue my “Inspiring Women Series” with my interview with her.
In our conversation we discuss how to find your purpose, what “soul care” means, daily health and wellness routines, and starting/running a soulful business.
Celia Ward-Wallace is a Lifestyle Entrepreneur and Soulful Business Coach who leads women to discover their purpose, identify their core values and create a soulfully aligned online business. She teaches female entrepreneurs how to launch their first online business, attract their first client and make their first dollar in her signature program: The Super Fly Soulful Business Program.
Celia’s forward-thinking methodology focuses on the intersection of: money + meaning; business + self-care; action + receiving; strategy + soul and community building + collaboration. Her focus is to lead her community to create a life and business by intentional design with lot’s of ease, grace and cash.
One of my favorite things that she does is“The Super Fly Society” Facebook group which is FREE (and free is awesome). I encourage you all to head over there and connect with Celia and other heart-centered, world-changers. I can honestly say that I visit the group multiple times a day. It’s amazing!
One of the easiest things I’ve learned to make in a long time is homemade cashew milk.
It may appear like such a daunting task to make your own nut milk. It seemed a little too Suzie-homesteader, and it never actually occured to me that it was something I could even do. But when I finally did it, I realized how stupid easy it is and has way more benefits than buying it.
Why should I make my own nut milk?
First of all, the store bought version is kind of a rip off, because there’s less than 2% of almonds in a carton of almond milk. Most of it is water, added flavors, vitamins and thickening agents. So you’re getting very expensive water.
Secondly, have you ever looked at the ingredient list on the back of a nut milk carton? It’s longer than you’d expect, with unpronounceable words, so I’ll just give you the copy/paste version from google:
With 7 grams of sugar per cup you are getting a good portion of sugar from what we all consider a health food. A woman should have 25 grams of sugar per day. And the Vanilla variety has 13 grams of sugar per cup, yikes!
How do I make it?
Soak 1 cup of cashews or almonds (I prefer cashews) in water. Soaking them overnight or for several hours helps make them softer and it breaks down the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors in the nuts.
In a blender, mix soaked nuts with 3-4 cups of water. I give a range because everyone seems to have differing opinions. Judge how much you need to make and how big your container will hold. It’s not rocket science. It will come out good either way.
Optional additions for flavor can include dates, honey, maply syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. This part is up to you depending on how sweet you want it!
Optional: Use a cheese cloth to strain out the contents of the blender and separate the liquid from the pulp. Squeeze every last drop of liquid out. HOWEVER, if you have a really great blender you might not even need to strain it.
Store it in a jar in the refrigerator for up to a week. But if you’re anything like me it will be gone in 2 days.
And done! Enjoy it in smoothies, over granola or just by itself.
Bonus recipe!!!!!!
OK so what do you do with the pulp that is left behind? The first time I ever made cashew milk I just thew the pulp out, feeling like I had met my home-made quota for the day and was ready to sit on the couch. But it’s a lot of valuable food to waste and there’s a lot that you can do with it.
So here are some ideas of what you can do with it:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Roll or pat down flat the pulp onto a lined cookie sheet or in a baking dish. Bake it until the edges are lightly toasted and then you have crackers (15-25 minutes). You might also want to sprinkle it with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme or any other herb you like in a cracker.
Take that one step further and instead of using it as a cracker, wait till it cools, crumble it with your hands until it’s fine and mix it into your favorite granola recipe. In the picture above I mixed it with brazil nuts, honey, coconut milk, and cinnamon becuase that’s what I already had lying around.
I definitely encourage you to try to make your own nut milk just once. It’s faster and easier than you think!
Hi, I’m Caroline! Welcome to Bloom & Spark, an intuition led, wellness based lifestyle blog. With a focus on mindfulness and sustainability this space is for creating authentic engagement in what it means to live well. Here you will find insights and lifestyle tips for yoga & meditation, simple recipes, purposeful living, and realistic sustainability. Manifesting Generator, Gemini,
