by Caroline | Jul 8, 2015 | Lifestyle
I love healthy cookbooks. I have to restrain myself at the book store because I want them all. It’s important that the recipes in a cookbook are realistic. I won’t buy one if each dish has a long list of ingredients that I have never heard of and multiple complex steps, resulting in a multi-hour process. As much as I love learning about new ingredients and experimenting in the kitchen, I know I will rarely use it, and only collect dust on the shelf. And lonely books are just sad.
One that I use consistently is Against All Grain by Danielle Walker. I keep it on my kitchen window sill because I use it so much. I have endless praise for Danielle and her paleo pioneering. Although I am not fully paleo I definitely lean in that direction, consuming far less wheat, grains, and processed foods than I used to. She creates easy to make recipes using ingredients I’ve heard of. Some of the recipes are more time consuming than others, but when you want to make your health a priority it’s a given you will spend some time in the kitchen.
A definite keeper from this book is her Banana Bread. I ended up making it into muffins because I coudn’t find a bread pan and I had a muffin tray right there. Even better! Perfect portions!
Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
Wet Ingredients:
2 tbsp melted Coconut oil
4 eggs
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 banana mashed
1/2 cup coconut milk (you could also use almond milk if that is what you have)
Diretions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix coconut oil, eggs, honey, vanilla and vinegar in a bowl until combined.
- In a separate bowl combine coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, and sea salt.
- In a third bowl mash the bananas and mix with coconut milk.
- Combine all three bowls, mixing until everything is combined nicely.
- Depending on whether you are cooking it in a bread pan or muffin tin cooking time will differ. If you are using a bread pan the book suggests 40-45 minutes. If you are using a muffin tin 15-20 minutes should do the trick.
Additional Suggestions:
With this recipe feel free to add on some other ingredients, whatever excites you. The book suggests chocolate chips. I used walnuts because to me banana bread has to have walnuts in it.
Also it is helpful to make sure that the eggs and other wet ingredients are close to room temperature. True story: melted coconut oil will solidify with mixed with comething cold (eggs that you just took out of the refrigerator). Learned that the hard way, which made mixing very difficult.
Anyway, they turned out great. I ate four as soon as they came out of the oven.
by Caroline | Jul 5, 2015 | Lifestyle
I have recently been introduced to using essential oils for a number of physical and mental benefits. The absolute best oils to start with if you are a beginner are peppermint and lavender. They really are two essential oils you can’t live without because that both do so much!
My first thought was: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?
First let me begin by saying I don’t work for an essential oils company and I don’t make any money for promoting them. I’m just a person who uses them, and LOVES them! I’ve found that on my wellness crusade, these little guys have boosted my energy, enhanced my mood, calmed my racing mind, eased physical pain, and inspired further educating myself on plant based medicine.
If I can address a problem first in the most natural way, then I will. That is why I love these oils so much. I believe that for the most part nature provides us with what we need. What is important to keep in mind with essential oils is the quality.
Unfortunately the kinds you buy in the health food stores are not the highest grade and may contain other chemicals. They should NOT be used directly on the skin or ingested.
The essential oils that I use (Young Living) are therapuric grade and organically grown and produced. They can be used aromatically, topically and internally. My two favorites are lavender and peppermint.
Peppermint and lavender are like the swiss army knife of essential oils. They can pretty much be used for any malady or complaint.
Peppermint
- Topically I use peppermint on my temples, forehead and neck for headaches or tension pain after a long day.
- It’s cooling properties help when soothing a sunburn, reducing fever. Try soaking your feet in a bowl of water with a few drops of peppermint to cool off on a hot day.
- It’s also used to help aid digestive pain, heart burn and nausea when rubbed on the stomach or ingested with water.
- Inhale for congestion, mental clarity, waking up, and to boost energy.
- Use a carrier oil to rub on sore muscles after a tough workout.
Lavender
- I use it on my skin every night to reduce redness, scarring and to help me sleep.
- Apply to cuts, burns and bruises to help the healing process.
- It can also be used in a bath to relax, ease stress and detox.
- Promotes lash growth when combined with mascara
- Soothes itchy bug bites
- Reduced swelling and infection to cuts.
- Inhale to increase relaxation and reduce stress
This is really just the beginning. Contact me directly if you would like to know more. Otherwise check back for more posts about these wonderful oils in the future.
by Caroline | Jul 5, 2015 | Lifestyle, Recipes
It’s hard to filter out the noise of what to eat and what not to eat. Everyone has an opinion on which diet works for them. Everyone has their own food philosophy. How do you know what is right for you?
We can drive ourselves crazy. It’s easy to constantly analyze and monitor everything we eat.
There’s actually an eating disorder called “orthorexia” which is an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy. *fun fact!*
For a long time I lived in a cycle of anxiety and food control. I would have anxiety which lead me to need to control what I ate so that I could feel better. However, since that control came from a place of fear, it caused more anxiety. This fueled the cycle of anxiety and food.
I eliminated so many of the “bad foods” in hopes that I would feel better. In reality, I was in a constant state of worry over what I could and couldn’t eat. Being invited out to dinner with friends can be anxiety inducing because you freak out over what to order. It doesn’t feel good being out of control, I get it, but this can lead to not want to go over people’s houses or socialize at meals, which is like the definition of unhealthy.
What I realized after trying to be so strict about what I would eliminate, I caused more stress to my system.
While I may have been eating well, I was still feeling bad because my negative thoughts were acting like poison in my body, just like junk food would. We all have those thoughts when we want to eat well and we act like the food police “don’t eat that… you will regret it…” Everyone has thought this at some point.
While eating healthy is the goal, if it means deprivation from fun experienced and punishing thoughts, it’s not going to make us feel good.
I’ve learned a few things through my experience with anxiety and food. These nuggets of wisdom help me navigate through life and not over complicate my food choices.
- The approach is what matters. Instead of “I really want that piece of cake, but it’s so full of processed foods and sugar, I will feel so sick and hate myself” we can shift our approach to one of love and positivity “I deserve so much better than what that cake will do for me. The next special occasion that comes around I will treat myself to a slice and enjoy every minute of it. But right now I will honor my body and give it what it actually needs to function”
- Intelligent Indulgence. There will be times where you want to indulge, and I say go for it! But know your limits. For me the combination of alcohol and pizza is no good for me, I get super lethargic, my energy plummets and I feel sick which causes my anxiety to go up. So I try to not combine them. Pick an indulgence once in a while without indulging on everything in sight.
- Forgive yourself. Rigid diets don’t work for me (I’m not an all or nothing, black and white kind of gal). So there are times where I can make a decision that I regret later on. I’ve learned the most important thing is to forgive and remember what my food philosophy is. Don’t see it as a failure. Love yourself to forgive and move on.
Lovingly feed yourself what it needs to function optimally, not stuff that’s going to gunk up all the amazing processes that’s happening inside to keep us alive.
Now I want to hear from you! What is your food philosophy? How do you find balance and harmony in what you eat?
