Sweet Potato Fries with Spicy Cashew Mayo

August 31, 2014Leave a comment

This is one of my absolute favourite sides to make, and it’s not even for the kids (although they love them too). They are so simple to prepare and they’ll make you go “mmm soooo good” when you eat them. The spicy mayo is a grown-up addition. Unless your kids like to eat fire, they’ll love to dip their fries in the regular cashew mayo instead.

I’ve always loved to eat my fries with mayo, so this recipe let’s me eat “mayo” in front of my kids with zero mommy guilt. They eat what we eat so it forces us to come up with healthier options for old favourites, which is a very good thing.

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Sweet Potato Fries

2 large sweet potatoes
approx. 3 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cut sweet potatoes into large chunky french fry shapes roughly the size of your thumb. Chop off the pointy ends to avoid the ends burning in the oven.

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Place cut fries into a large bowl and top with coconut oil and sea salt. You do not have to melt the coconut oil first.

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Here’s the fun part: Mix the fries with your hands, making sure they are all covered in sea salt and oil, and then dump them onto a large baking sheet.

Arrange the sweet potato as shown.

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Cook at 375 F for 20 minutes, or until slightly browned on the bottom. Flip the fries over and cook another 15 minutes until the opposite side is slightly browned. When done, remove them from the oven and cover with tin foil until ready to enjoy.

Spicy Cashew Mayo:

1/2 cup cashew mayo (recipe below)
1/2 tsp chipotle chili pepper powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
Tabasco to taste

Put ingredients in a small bowl and stir until combined. Refrigerate if you have time to let the flavours set, and enjoy with your sweet potato fries! You’re welcome to use whatever combination of spice you like – I’ve always loved chipotle so it’s what I tend to use in all of my recipes.

Cashew Mayo:

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup water
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate.

If you don’t have a high-speed blender simply combine all ingredients and let sit for an hour or two before blending.

All You Have is NOW

August 28, 2014August 26, 2014Leave a comment

In every moment we have the opportunity to be present. If you’re not careful, your life can pass you by in an instant. I notice this with my kids every single day. I am so busy trying to get through the day, making sure that everyone is fed and intact, that I have to remind myself to stop and smell the flowers, aka, find the joy. It’s not so easy sometimes with 3 little boys who I swear are trying to kill each other off… So, after I yell at them (I’m working on that, but seriously, 3 boys…) I make sure I tell them that I love them, even though I don’t like their choices sometimes. Because, I love them, I want them to hear it every single day, and I want to be present with them as much as I can.

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Who/what brings you joy? Who do you love? What do you love to do? What are your goals? What makes you happy? If there is one thing that I have learned in life it is this: Find what you love, and love it now. Show your loved ones that you love them, and show them now. Daydream about your goals every day, and do something every single day that brings your goals closer to realization. Be happy now. I guarantee that if you start doing these things right now that you will bring more happiness into your life immediately.

Asking myself these questions pretty much always leads to me texting Yuri and telling him that I love him – unless he happens to be here, in which case I tell him in person, obviously. At night, it leads me to the kitchen where I make a Turmeric Latte, and then it leads me to the couch with my computer where I sit down and write. Before I started writing tonight, I pulled an oracle card from Doreen Virtue’s “Life Purpose” deck. I was wondering why I even bothered to do so because I knew what card I was going to get. Sure enough, I pulled the Writing card: “You heal, inspire, teach, and entertain with the words you write.” Thank God that I know this.

I’ve always known that I loved to write. It’s too bad that I didn’t think to declare English as my second major in University. Nevertheless, I am finally listening to my inner voice that tells me to just do it. I want to write a book. I want to help people. Do I know where to start? Not exactly, but that doesn’t matter. I’m happy just to write, however, that oracle card was spot on with my intentions.

Who knows what the future has in store for us. It could be very different from the future we’re imagining. Anything can happen, so don’t put anything off. Do it now. Be happy now. There is no reason not to live your best life. If you’re not living you’re best life, then there is something getting in the way, and that can only be you. If you’re ready to step aside, let your Divine purpose in and let your light shine, then I invite you to try a little exercise before you go to sleep tonight:

Sit in a quiet room and think about what your ideal life looks like. Think about it as if it has already happened. Believe it, and be grateful for this amazing life you lead. Thank the Universe (or your angels, or God if you’re so inclined) for every aspect of your life as you have imagined it to be. Give thanks as if it has already come to pass. Feel how wonderful this feels. Bring attention to your heart chakra and feel the love in your heart space. Feel your entire body relax and fill with light. Know that as you do this, your angels are working very hard behind the scenes to make your vision a reality.

Be very clear with your vision and your intentions and things will begin to happen. Make sure that you believe in your vision and most importantly that you believe in yourself. Believe that you deserve this life. I will say it a thousand more times until you hear me: You are WORTH it.

It’s no secret that what you think about, you bring about. What you focus on, expands. Focus on the bad things and you’ll get more of the same. Focus on your best life ever and you’ll get more of the same. This has proven itself to me time and time again. So I invite you to use your NOW in the most positive and productive way possible, in each moment of each and every day. And when you think about it, take a moment to envision and be thankful for the life of your dreams. I can’t think of a better way to go to sleep each night.

Raw Key Lime Pie

August 26, 2014August 26, 20144 Comments

We were in Montreal this week for a family wedding, and after it was all over it felt like we had pretty much eaten non-stop for 36 hours. Feeling that we needed to get back on track instantly, we went for a grueling morning run to Mont Royal and then up and down, up, down, up, and down the staircase of death that is the Mont Royal Staircase.

Starving and barely able to walk, we were so excited to try out Montreal’s raw food restaurant: Crudessence. Once there, we were bitten by the raw food bug once again. When we got home I dug out my dusty raw food word docs and pulled out this gem! Here is a recipe that I initially wrote 8 YEARS ago, back when I discovered raw food, David Wolfe, and was attending the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition!

Raw Key Lime Pie

Crust:

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 cup walnuts
1 cup pecans
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt

Place walnuts and pecans in food processor and pulse until nuts start to stick together. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until well combined. Press into the bottom of a tart pan and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Filling:

2 cups cashews
1 cup coconut cream (the solid mass in one can of coconut milk)
2/3 cup fresh key lime juice (or regular lime juice)
1/3 cup local honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into your tart shell and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Enchilada Quinoa Bowls

August 22, 2014August 23, 2014Leave a comment

We LOVE Mexican food, so when I came across the idea to use Quinoa in a Mexican dish, it became an obsession. I am happy to present you the finished product! It looks a little overwhelming but once you read through the directions you will realize just how simple I have condensed the steps.

When indulging in cheese we try to opt for goat’s milk cheeses because they are more easily digested by our bodies than cow’s milk products. As for the sour cream, it didn’t make much sense to make a dairy free version out of cashews if I was already adding cheese…so cow’s milk sour cream it was.

This recipe has a bit of heat so I carefully concocted a separate recipe alongside this to feed to my kids, who then proceeded to steal my spicy dinner instead…

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Enchilada Sauce

1 tbsp butter or coconut oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 can diced tomatoes (28oz)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Fry the onion in butter or coconut oil over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Transfer to a blender and add the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth. Set aside.

Quinoa

1 cup quinoa
1 tbsp butter or coconut oil
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 tomatoes, choppped
2 ears of corn, kernels removed (or 1 cup frozen corn)
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1 cup goat cheddar
1 cup goat mozzarella

Place quinoa in a saucepan along with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Once the liquid is almost gone, turn off the heat and cover.

Meanwhile, fry the onion in butter or coconut oil over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook 7-10 minutes or until desired.

Remove from heat, and mix in quinoa along with 2 cups of enchilada sauce.

Place in an oven safe dish and top with cheddar and mozzarella.

Cook at 350 for 10 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Serve topped with extra enchilada sauce and/or cumin sour cream.

Cumin sour cream

1 cup sour cream
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp sea salt

Place ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Sweet Shepherd’s Pie

August 17, 2014August 19, 2014Leave a comment

Anyone with kids will tell you that dinnertime is usually a massive battle. It’s so hard to get them to eat anything some nights that I wonder why I even bother making dinner! This is the dinner dish that my kids most consistently eat. I feel like I’m sitting on a goldmine so I won’t keep this recipe to myself any longer! Oscar polished off TWO bowls of it tonight. Shocking, and completely awesome!

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Sweet Shepherd’s Pie

2 large sweet potatoes
1/2 cup coconut cream (solid top part of canned coconut milk)
1/2 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp coconut oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
4 medium carrots, chopped
3/4 cup sweet peas (fresh or frozen work)
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp gluten free flour
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 lbs ground lamb
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme

Peel and cut up the sweet potatoes. Place in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then simmer until soft. Drain water and mash with a potato masher. Add coconut cream and salt and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

While potatoes are boiling, cut up red onion and carrots and place in a large pot with the coconut oil over medium heat. Cook 5 minutes. Add garlic, lamb, rosemary, and thyme and cook until lamb is no longer pink.

Mix in flour and cook for another minute.

Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and peas and stir.

Transfer meat mixture into a large oven safe baking dish and top with sweet potato mixture.

Bake at 400 F for 25 minutes.

The Simple Salad

August 14, 2014August 10, 2014Leave a comment

Think you don’t have time to make a salad? Think again. And before you balk at how simple this salad is, I urge you to give it a go. It just may be your new favourite side dish. I’ve been eating a salad every single night since I remembered how much I love flax oil. It tastes amazing, and it’s full of good fats, containing both omega-3 EFAs (essential fatty acids) and omega-6 fatty acids. Keep it simple, and you too can enjoy delicious greens every evening 😉

The Simple Salad

Organic mixed greens
Flax oil
Sea salt

Toss some greens in a bowl, splash some flax oil on top, and dash with a large pinch of sea salt. Mix and enjoy!

See Only Love

August 13, 2014August 13, 20142 Comments

It seems that the angels are answering all of my prayers lately. My life is streamlining in the exact fashion that I wish it to, and I have a feeling that it’s no accident. That’s what happens when you make the decision to be happy. All you have to do is decide right now that you’re not going to give away your power to anyone else, that you are going to be happy no matter what is going on around you. You are an extremely powerful spiritual being, and you have the power to be happy whenever you choose. You can also choose to stop criticizing, stop comparing, stop expecting the worst, and and you can choose to see only love. If you’re always judging and complaining about things, maybe you’ve trained yourself to focus on the bad things.

I challenge you to retrain yourself. For 24 hours, I challenge you to focus only on the good in all areas of your life. Focus on what you love about your kids, your partner, your job, your parents, etc. How may people do you know who constantly complain about their jobs? Take a moment and just be grateful that you have a job. Many people are struggling to find one. Focus on what you love about yourself. What does your mental chatter sound like? Do you tell yourself how amazing you are, how smart you are, or do you belittle yourself? Send yourself loving thoughts.

See how your partner reacts when you stop criticizing them for not taking out the garbage. Instead, shift your focus. Say “You know, it really means a lot to me when you take out the garbage. Thank you for doing that every week.” Focus on the positive instead of the negative. Why did you marry your partner in the first place? What made you fall in love with them? Relationships improve immediately when you stop focusing on the bad and start focusing on the good. Look past the misunderstandings and mistakes, and see only love. If you catch yourself complaining, judging, comparing, etc. that’s ok! It’s great! It means you are becoming more aware of your negative thoughts! Awareness is what you want. Control your thoughts or they will control you.

Love is light. The opposite of light is dark; the opposite of love is fear. Where there is love there cannot be fear. For some reason, so many of us are living in a fear-based reality, and we don’t see a way out. Well, the way out is love. It all starts with digging deep and finding out what you love about yourself. What makes your spirit happy? What do you simply love to do? What makes you smile? What makes you laugh? Do some of those things right now. Show yourself some love. Loving yourself is the first step out of the fear-based illusion we have created for ourselves.

Realizing that I could instantly create a happy life all by myself was the first step to setting myself free from the fear-based illusion I was living in. I was always striving for perfection, but since perfection doesn’t exist, I was holding myself back. Realizing this, my self-imposed walls broke down, and suddenly I was free. I am the creator of my life. Whatever I want, I can make it happen. With that realization came excitement. I used to be scared to be in charge of my own life, but now, the exact same realization makes me feel so powerful. What changed? I chose love. I chose happiness and excitement over fear. How do you want to feel? Stop focusing on what’s wrong in your life, and start focusing on what’s right. Start focusing on creating the life of your dreams.

Once I started focusing on being happy, I realized that all I have to do to make my dreams come true is work on them a little more each day. How cool is that? No matter where you are today, just imagine where you could be a year from now if you did one thing each day that carried you closer to the realization of your dream. It doesn’t matter how big or small the steps are, it’s the direction that matters. Don’t let fears make you take steps backward. Realize that you are a powerful co-creator of your dreams. Step into your power. Own your dreams. You are worth it.

The Power of Intention

August 10, 2014August 10, 2014Leave a comment

There is something extremely powerful about intention. It’s a goal that is present in the now. The problem with most goals is that they are feats that will occur “someday,” but someday never happens. Don’t wait for someday. Do it now. What I like about setting intentions is that they laser focus your attention so that there can be only one outcome. The intentions I have on the front-burner right now include creating a fitter body than ever before, and the intention to be happy. There is no other option in my mind. I know I will get to my goal physique and I will be happy – most of the time anyway.

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Once you set your mind on something it is as good as done. Simply making the decision to do (or not do) something is a game winner. Once you make a clear decision, the universe has your back. Your angels will go to work behind the scenes, setting up synchronistic events that help to ensure the outcome you desire, so long as it is in the best interest of anyone else involved. Of course you still have to do the work, but setting the intention to get something done sets you up for success.

For instance, I love to run, test my boundaries in a hot yoga class, and push myself with a 24kg kettlebell. I have always loved to work out, but since setting the intention to get the body of my dreams, getting a workout in every day has been incredibly easy. There is always someone who is willing to help me out so that I can get to the gym or that yoga class. I even dropped my 2 month old off at the local coffee shop where the owners looked after him for 2 hours so I could play hockey! Life is full of synchronistic events that want you to succeed. All you have to do is ask for help, and recognize that help when it comes along.

We all have guardian angels who want to help us, but since we have free will, we have to ask for their help. They won’t interfere in our lives without our permission. I ask my angels on a daily basis to help me, and I tell you it works. My inner dialogue in the morning sounds something like this:

“Angels, I ask that you help me to release the pounds that no longer serve me. I love my body. It is an amazing place to live and I am so grateful to have it. I am excited about what I have accomplished this far and I am so excited to see my progress every day. Thank you for helping me to make healthy decisions so that I can have the body of my dreams.”

Our angels communicate with us through our intuition, little gut feelings that make us aware of this and that. They even communicate to us through the intuition of others. It’s why we may look at the clock every day at the exact same time, and why we tend to hear or see the same tidbit of information over and over. It’s said that if something catches your attention 3 times, your angels are screaming to send you a message!

I feel the support of the universe constantly when I am running. I get gut feelings that cheer me on. When I run past people on the sidewalk, they often smile at me, or even better, they say things like “great job!” I wish they knew just how much that encouragement means to me, but on some level I think they do. Often, I get these rushes of encouragement exactly when I need to hear them. It makes me think that it’s all in divine timing; my angels are pulling strings to ensure I succeed.

Since I ask my angels daily for help with my fitness intentions, my intuition is pretty bang on for steering me toward healthy foods and away from complete dietary disaster. I can have one piece of chocolate and not want to eat the entire bar. I can have a monster burger for lunch and have a salad for dinner. I’ve always known that my body craves movement every single day, but I made excuses before and I was unhappy for it. Now I listen to my intuition about fitness and my spirit is happy. I’m in a place of balance for once in my life and it feels pretty amazing.

In fact, I set the intention to write this blog post tonight while I was at the gym earlier today. I decided that I wouldn’t let how tired I might be (my usual excuse) get in the way. And so it is!

Homemade Infant Formula

August 4, 2014Leave a comment

I always wanted to make my own formula but my first 2 boys refused to take a bottle. This time around, we forced the pacifier over and over, an endeavor that made the introduction of a bottle much, much easier. This combination of soother and bottle has made my fitness journey much more feasible, because it means I can have some time alone!

I found the base of this recipe on Capramilk’s website 3 years ago and was re-introduced to it by some friends recently, so I took it as a sign that both Arlo and I were ready for it. My milk supply was decreasing and I had a feeling Arlo was starving half the time but couldn’t bring myself to give him formula. Thank you Divine timing. Capramilk is a powdered goat’s milk, a go-to base for those seeking alternatives to shelved baby formula. For the rest of the recipe I worked with our Naturopath. We used the carrots for the beta carotene, spinach for the folate, flax oil for the GLA, and nutritional yeast for the B vitamins. Arlo is getting about half formula and half breast milk at the moment, which means I can relax knowing that he’s not going to starve if I leave him for any length of time!

Homemade Infant Formula (for an 8oz bottle)

1 tbsp Capramilk goat’s milk powder
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp flax oil
1 tsp olive oil
200 mg DHA
1/8 tsp blackstrap molasses
100 iu vitamin D
1 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp carrot juice
1 tbsp spinach juice
1 scoop HMF Natogen by Genestra
pinch of sea salt
filtered water to get 8 oz of formula.

I usually multiply this recipe by 4 and mix everything but the coconut oil in a litre Mason jar, adding water until the jar is full. Since the coconut oil is solid I put it in the individual bottles and pour the rest of the formulation in. When I heat the bottles, the coconut oil melts and he drinks everything as long as I don’t give him too much at a time. 5 oz seems to be his maximum at 5 months old. If I give him more, he throws everything up Poltergeist-style which is no good for anyone involved!

It is a bit labour intensive because I juice the spinach and carrots myself, but it also ensures that I make fresh juice for the family every 2 days. Once the juicer is dirty I may as well make more juice!