Purple Power!

Throughout the month of October I did a cleanse (I'll tell you about it another time) which got me hooked on having a smoothie for breakfast.  I can't tell you how good having a morning smoothie makes me feel.  It hydrates me and fills me up with veggies, fruits, and good fats.  And its easily digested so my body isn't expending energy on the digestion process but on other more important functions; like powering my muscles to wrestle my kids into their snowsuits and out the door, or giving my immune system a boost to fight off whatever the germ of the day is.  So here's one of my favourite breakfast smoothies.  It's simple, pretty, super delish and packed with good stuff!



1 1/2 cups almond milk
3/4 cup frozen blueberries
2 scoops of pumpkin seed butter (I basically use a spoon and dig into the jar twice)  
1 date

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  

What we're eating: a vegetarian dinner plan

I'll be honest, I haven't been meal planning in a long time. I'm in the mode of "let's buy a lot of veggies and see what I can make" kind of mood. But I decided to take the bull by the horns and get back into it... at least for this week. So here's what I'm eating for dinner this week.

Monday: Swiss Chard with Chickpeas & Couscous. I had some leftover spinach and kale so I sautéed that up instead of the swiss chard. I also love roasting cherry tomatoes with shallots to go with this. It adds a bit of extra flavour. Also, I didn't have pine nuts so I toasted pumpkin seeds and it was delish.

Swiss chard with chickpeas and coucous from @real_simple. I added roasted tomatoes & shallots. Yummers.

A photo posted by Stephanie Fazio (@lealoulemonade) on Apr 4, 2014 at 3:47pm PDT

Tuesday: Sweet Potato, Black Bean, and Goat Cheese Pizza from Confections of a Foodie Bride

Wednesday: Spaghetti Squash Tacos from Marin Mama Cooks

Thursday: Chickpea Veggie Burgers with Tzatziki Sauce from Marin Mama Cooks

Friday: Harvest Wild Rice Skillet from Pinch of Yum

Happy Eating!
--Steph

PS: All photos used in this post are were used from their respective blogs except for the first one which was taken by me! 

Coconut Peach Oatmeal Muffins

I am slightly obsessed with coconut.  I've always loved the taste and felt like anything with coconut as an ingredient was delicious.  The fact coconut has so many health benefits makes me a bit more obsessed.  These muffins are inspired by that obsession and by R who requested peach muffins this morning! 

1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 1/4 cups oats
3/4 cup spelt
3/4 cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
2 tsp vanilla 
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 cups - 2 cups chopped peaches (I used frozen) 
unsweetened shredded coconut for sprinkling on top

Combine the milk and oats in a bowl and let sit 5-10 minutes.  Then combine all ingredients.  After its spooned into your muffin pan sprinkle coconut on the top of each muffin (I recommend being generous!)  

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  

Enjoy!

Why coconut flour?

Read this post on the Nourished Kitchen about baking with coconut flour!

Why switch to coconut sugar?

"Coconut sugar, more accurately coconut palm sugar, is made from sap of the coconut palm that has been extracted and then boiled and dehydrated. It provides the same number of calories and carbohydrates as regular cane sugar (about 15 calories and four grams of carbohydrate per teaspoon) so you wouldn't be gaining any advantage in these respects by making a switch. However, coconut sugar is 70 to 79 percent sucrose and only three percent to nine percent each of fructose and glucose. This is an advantage, because you want to keep your consumption of fructose as low as possible, and cane sugar is 50 percent fructose. Coconut sugar is caramel colored with a taste that is similar to that of brown sugar and can be substituted for cane sugar in most recipes. (Note: don't confuse coconut palm sugar with palm sugar, which is derived from the sugar palm tree. Palm sugar is often used in Thai dishes.)"  Dr. Weil