In honor of St. Paddy’s Day and my very Irish roots I was in the mood for some good ole’ Shepherd’s Pie! I thought of ways of making a healthy version and did some google searching! I found a great recipe (http://www.ovenloveblog.com/shepherds-pie-with-cauliflower-topping-gaps-paleo-grain-free-dairy-free-option/) that I adapted!

I thought it was brilliant to substitute cauliflower for the usual potato on top!! I thought about using bison meat but could not find it at the store today so I purchased ground turkey instead.  What a delightful and tasty dish! This will be staple in my house when I’m craving that Shepherd’s Pie taste!

Here is the recipe step by step!

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Then boil one head of cauliflower in a large pot. I let it come to a boil and then lowered the heat.

2) While the cauliflower was in the pot I sautéed carrots, onions, celery, and garlic in a pan with vegetable broth.

Note: Since writing this original post, I’ve actually added more veggies! Recently I’ve added mushrooms and frozen peas for even more nutrition, flavor, and texture! DELICIOUS!

3) After about 5 minutes I added the ground turkey.

4) After let the meat brown for a few minutes I added a tablespoon of tomato paste,  2 tablespoons of parsley, Himalayan salt, and pepper.

5) I reduced the pan’s heat to a simmer and then drained with the cauliflower.

6) Next I added 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, and a sprinkle of Himalayan salt and black pepper to the cauliflower. I then used my immersion blender to blend it all together.

7) Next I added the turkey meat and veggie mixture to the bottom of my baking dish.

8) On top of that I spread out the mashed cauliflower.

9) It then baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

10) Last step – enjoy!!!

I even made it work for the 21 Day Fix portion control program lol! I added a salad for some extra greens. If you are not familiar with the program, it’s based on portion control. For instance, I am allowed 4 red containers for protein and at least 3 green containers for vegetables. If you want more information on that particular Beachbody program then you can find my email on the Contact Me link and message me! 🙂

If you try this recipe please let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you!!

 Here’s a summary of the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 large head cauliflower, chopped into florets • 
1 tablespoon coconut oil
 • 1 small onion, diced
 • 2 celery ribs, diced
 • 2 carrots, diced • 
2 cloves garlic, minced
 • 1.5 pounds ground turkey, bison, or beef • 1/4 cup vegetable broth (to sauté) • 1 tablespoon tomato paste • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley • salt and pepper to taste • 1 cup chopped mushrooms (optional) • 1/4 cup or more frozen peas (optional)

Directions: 

1)   Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Then boil 1 head of cauliflower in a large pot. Let it come to a boil and then lower the heat.

2)   While the cauliflower is in the pot, sauté carrots, onions, celery, and garlic in a pan with vegetable broth. Optional: add mushrooms and frozen peas.

3)   After about 5 minutes, add the ground turkey.

4)   Let the meat brown for a few minutes and add 1tablespoon of tomato paste and 2 tablespoons of parsley. Add Himalayan salt and black pepper to taste.

5)   Reduce the pan’s heat to a simmer and then drain the cauliflower.

6)   Next, add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, and a sprinkle of Himalayan salt and black pepper to the cauliflower. Mash the cauliflower by hand or with an immersion blender.

7)   When assembling, add the turkey meat and veggie mixture to the bottom of the baking dish. On top of that, spread out the mashed cauliflower.

8)   Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

9)   Last step – enjoy!!!

Ok, now in the morning I am usually a major smoothie person. Especially because I love my Shakeology so much (it is my daily dose of dense nutrition you know 🙂 ). However after several requests from the hubby, I decided that I needed to change our morning routine and make some pancakes from scratch. Pancakes with real, whole foods ingredients of course – not instant from the box! 🙂

The original recipe can be found here (http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/breakfast/perfect-paleo-pancakes/). To my delight, these 4 ingredient Paleo pancakes turned out amazingly well! One batch calls for 3  bananas, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup nut butter (I used almond butter), and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. All of these ingredients go in a high speed blender or food processor.

You will want to preheat your skillet and “grease” it with coconut oil. Because coconut oil has a unique composition of fatty acids (90% saturated), it is highly resistant to oxidation at high heats. This makes it an ideal oil for cooking food at higher temperatures.

When purchasing coconut oil, it is best to choose the unrefined or (extra) virgin form. It is even more beneficial to choose a variety that is organic and raw. Refined coconut oils can be compromised during high heat processing and treated with chemicals, destroying the health benefits.

The trick with these pancakes (and luckily I caught this tip from reading the comments) is to make sure you keep the pan on LOW heat. I cannot stress this enough! Out of 10, I kept my dial between 4 and 5. Now they do take longer to make, but trust me when I tell you it is totally worth it so you get the pancake consistency that you are used with a boxed brand or IHOP lol!

And, just like with typical pancakes, you want to see the bubbles forming before you flip the pancakes.

If you want to change up the flavor, you can get creative and add cacao nibs, berries, or nuts. I usually pour the batter in the pan and then slowly sprinkle on my  “extra” so that the base of the batter remains unadulterated and you can make a variety! For example, I added cacao nibs for a chocolatey crunch (seen below on left) and I even tried a chocolate chip/blueberry combination (see below on right). Yum!!

They may have taken a few extra minutes to prepare, but they were so worth it! And they tasted so good that I couldn’t get them to the plate fast enough because my husband was gobbling them up!!

I even stored the leftover pancakes (I managed to sneak 2 away from my husband’s sight lol) in the frig and then we enjoyed them later in the week just by reheating in the toaster oven.

Top them with pure maple syrup, extra cinnamon, fruit or any of your favorite toppings and enjoy!

If it’s the Fall season, try adding pumpkin puree!! I added 3 tablespoons of organic pumpkin puree and they came out wonderful!

Another Fall season tip, you can add Pumpkin Syrup as a topping! See the recipe for homemade pumpkin syrup in another blog post, “It’s Pumpkin Recipe Time!!”

Or you can get really creative like my best friend Monica, and you can take the same batter and turn them into muffins!!

Please enjoy and don’t forget to let me know how they turn out if you make them!

My husband and I are starting off the New Year with the tail end of the flu. But not to worry! We are going to bust it with a flu buster juice that I discovered in an organic cafe in Seattle called Chaco Canyon.

I knew the ingredient list of: apples, oranges, lemon, garlic, ginger, and cayenne pepper based on the menu at the restaurant. So I experimented with the amounts and inputted my new recipe into my MacGourmet App.

I gathered what I had from the refrigerator and started juicing! Please note the first time I made this I did use 2 apples, but only had 1 available today!

Normally I drink juices cold, but the restaurant serves this one warm. My husband suggested adding a little bit of hot water!

The juice was a success! It tasted delicious and I know it will help finish off this flu!

The fruits and herbs used in this recipe have a great deal of benefits! Here’s a list of just some of these benefits that make them helpful for busting the flu:

• Apple: detoxifying, Vitamin C, B-complex
• Orange: Vitamin C, potassium (electrolyte mineral)
• Lemon: detoxifying, Vitamin C, maintain pH levels in the body
• Ginger: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant
• Garlic: antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, immune boosting
• Cayenne: blood purifier

This year for Thanksgiving we went over to Evan’s brother’s house for Thanksgiving! All of his relatives made an excellent effort to purchase high quality, organic ingredients for the rest of the dishes so I was excited for a yummy, healthy dinner! We decided to bring a total of 4 homemade dishes to contribute to our healthy holiday meal including cranberry sauce, kale/butter lettuce salad, vegan-gluten-free-dairy-free-no bake pumpkin pie, and a vegan-paleo-dairy-free chocolate pudding! So why am I making cranberry sauce and not just grabbing a can? Well, here’s a brief and to the point article explaining from Food Babe why, discussing BPA (Bisphenol A) and GMO’s.

I decided to get 2 of the dishes done the night before to keep my Thanksgiving day a little less hectic, so I focused on the cranberry sauce and the pumpkin pie. The cranberry sauce consists of organic fresh cranberries, orange juice (I have a juicer so I juiced my own oranges), maple syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger (optional). Here’s the original recipe from Multiply Delicious.

Once you have all of your ingredients ready, simply add to a pot, bring to a boil, and let simmer!

The recipe recommends a simmer of a least 20 minutes or when the cranberries start to burst open. I made sure to keep stirring and to do frequent taste tests. I will admit that I upped the maple syrup to about 3 1/2 tablespoons because I thought it was a little too tart. Could have to do with the fact that I made my own orange juice so the sugar content would be much lower than a store-bought brand. In the morning, I tasted it one more time and decided to add more sweetener – but I turned to coconut palm sugar (1 tablespoon) because it is low glycemic.

After another quick boil and about a 20 minute simmer – I thought it was finally just right!!

So, on to the pumpkin pie! Evan gave me the idea of using the homemade larabars as a crust for the pie! I thought it was an awesome idea and decided to give it a try! They are simply made with dates, almond butter, and nuts (in this case I used soaked walnuts). I made about 2 batches worth to make sure I’d have enough and it worked out great! I even had leftovers to make 5 bars lol!

After smoothing my crust onto the pie plate, I moved on the pumpkin filling! I used 2 containers of pumpkin puree, 1 ripe persimmon, about 2 1/2 cups of dates, a scrape of vanilla bean, and a dash of ground ginger and cinnamon. For the pumpkin puree, I prefer to used boxed instead of canned – again for the same concern about BPA.

I wound up filling the Vitamix to the top lol, so not gonna lie, it struggled a bit to blend everything properly so I had to take the lid off quite a few times to mix stuff around. Not to worry though – after the 4th or 5th time it all blended just fine!

Once the pie was complete I put it in the freezer since we weren’t going to consume it until the next day. After a long night of cooking and washing dishes, I finally got myself to bed around 2am (Evan and I are such night owls, so it’s actually easier for me to work late into the evening then to get up early lol)!

On Thanksgiving day, I decided to go to the gym in lieu of a turkey trot (gotta love the flexibility with sleeping in longer!) and then spent afternoon making my salad! By 3pm I had all of my dishes completed!

And of course, Evan made his famous chocolate pudding! It’s made with bananas, avocados, honey, cacao powder, a few pieces of dark chocolate bark, almond milk, and almond butter. It’s soooo delicious – hands down our favorite homemade dessert!

All in all, it was a healthy, happy Thanksgiving! I’m thrilled to say that all of my dishes had rave reviews  – but I think the pumpkin pie was one of the top favorites!!

Another one of my favorites from Thanksgiving (well in addition to the turkey) had to be my brother-in-law’s simple sweet mashed potatoes! All he did was bake them in the oven, and sprinkle on cinnamon! They tasted like candy! Unfortunately they went so fast I couldn’t snap a photo in time lol!

Here’s to wishing all of you a healthy, happy Holiday Season! 🙂

Dairy-Free Tuna Salad!

I love having this homemade dish for lunch! As long as I have a 3 oz package of Wild Albacore Tuna in my pantry, this is a guaranteed easy and delicious meal! For all of these ingredients I’d like you to use organic and local whenever possible.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz package of Wild Albacore Tuna
• 1 celery stalk, deveined, chopped
• 4 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (i.e. champagne, rice, white balsamic)
• fresh lemon Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• himalayan salt
• black pepper
• lemon pepper (or substitute another seasoning of your choice)
• 4-6 leaves of kale (or any leafy greens of your choice, i.e.  spinach, butter lettuce, romaine, etc)
• 2 -3 medium sized heirloom tomatoes (feel free to change the amount based on much you want!), chopped
• 1/2 of a cucumber, peeled and chopped
• sauteed mushrooms (I like to sauté about 4 ounces with a little broth in a pan for a few minutes on medium heat)
• 3 – 4 tablespoons (and more as needed) of low sodium broth
• 6-8 marcona almonds

Directions:

• Using low sodium broth (or even water) saute about 4 ounces of mushrooms in a pan over medium heat for approximately 6 – 8 minutes. If you like to multi-task then go ahead and get this started while you prepare the rest of the salad.
• Open the package of tuna and use a fork to scrape it out into a large bowl. Then squirt lemon juice, about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and a dash of himalayan salt and pepper onto the tuna and mash it altogether.
• Next, add the chopped and deveined celery to the tuna mixture. A simple way to devein the celery is to use a peeler to peel off the top layer of the stalk. This step is particularly helpful for people who do not care for the taste of raw celery.

• Either make space in the bowl or remove the tuna and set aside to make room to whisk together my favorite dressing! The dressing is made with the following ingredients: 3 tbs. olive oil, 2 tbs. vinegar, a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp. mustard, and a sprinkle of himalayan salt and lemon pepper seasoning. I simply use my  fork and whisk away!
• Next I like to add my greens to the bowl, typically kale. The sooner the kale is in the dressing the better, so the bitterness can be broken down. If you are using kale, remove the leafy part from the stems (either discard or save for another use). As I’m adding more chopped kale to the bowl I like to constantly whisk it around to coat it thoroughly with the dressing.
• Next I tend to chop up the more water-based veggies to the salad  (again I feel like it helps to break down the bitterness of the kale). So I would typically add the heirloom tomatoes, and then cucumbers before adding root vegetables like carrots or radishes.
• Before serving I like to sprinkle on a handful of marcona almonds for some crunch! Feel to substitute any nut or seed that you prefer or of course you can omit this step altogether!
• Serve and enjoy!!!

Servings: 1