Kale Chips!

Those who know me know that I have a new favorite in kale!  I eat kale probably 3-4 times per week in salads for lunch, dinner, juiced... you name it.  I love kale, it's simple and great for you.  This versatile green is so chock full of goodness, you must try it.  Today I dressed it with a homemade dressing recipe combined from several others I found on the internet.

First start with good quality organic kale.  I had 3 bunches fresh from Whole Foods yesterday ready to go.  Clean, dry, and de-stem the kale and set aside (stems can be tough).  You can use any kind of kale, I used the dino kale.  It's darker green and resembles reptile skin!

For the dressing, in a small mixing bowl combine the following.  I broke down a larger recipe so forgive my 1/6 cup measures:

• 1 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/6 cup water
• 1/6 cup liquid aminos or soy sauce
• 1/6 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 cup of olive oil
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• Juice of one lemon

To make it easier: 1/6 cup = 8 tsp or 2 tbs + 2 tsp

I am dehydrating them to preserve more of their goodness.  You could also bake them in the oven to dry them out, but be careful - they burn easily!

The dressing is delicious!  I left a small bowl of the raw kale with the dressing to the side for lunch, yummy!

They are now in the dehydrator for a few hours and we'll see how they turn out!

More Pancakes!

So today Maisie asked for her favorite again - you guessed it... pancakes!  Being that we haven't shopped for groceries in a bit, I have no eggs.  So my search for an eggless pancake recipe began.  I found a good base recipe on a couple of websites and added my own substitutions to customize them a bit. 

Eggless Protein Pancakes

• 1 cup flour (I used Trader Joe’s white whole wheat)
• 2 heaping teaspoons unpacked brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup lowfat milk
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used an olive/grapeseed/canola mix)
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 scoop protein powder (I used Trader Joe’s chocolate Designer Whey)
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• Combine dry ingredients and mix slightly.
• Add milk, vegetable oil, water, and vanilla.
• Whisk together until just combined.
• Be careful not to over mix - it should still be slightly lumpy.
• Set aside to rest for a few minutes.
• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot.
• While pan is heating, add coconut oil to melt if solid.
• As soon as the coconut oil is melted, stir into pancake batter and return pan to stove.
• When the pan is hot, pour batter into the skillet for each pancake.
• Cook pancakes until bubbles form on the surface.
• Carefully flip pancakes and cook until golden brown.

I made 6 medium sized pancakes and have totaled the calorie count to be approximately 180 calories per pancake.

I have to say they were quite fluffy and delicious! I added the protein powder for more a more balanced meal. I'm also a big fan of the benefits of coconut oil (yes it's high in fat - but it's the good kind). Please see this reference: http://www.livestrong.com/article/399804-is-coconut-oil-high-in-saturated-fat/.

Enjoy!

Pancakes!

I regularly look for recipes online to modify or  make healthier to enjoy our favorites.  Maisie loves pancakes and I tried to convince her into some coconut flour pancakes today, but no success.  She does not like even a hint of coconut, while I on the other hand love it!  So I opted for my Trader Joe's White Whole Wheat Flour.  I found this recipe online and decided to divide it in half to make just a few pancakes.

I pinned the original recipe on my Pinterest board for Healthy Recipes...

I cut everything in half and made minor adjustments, as I like a bit more cinnamon and brown sugar:

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp organic brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup 1 tbs almond milk

This made about 5 good size pancakes.  I opted to use the almond milk as I already had the other ingredients in the bowl and realized we were out of milk!  They turned out pretty good.  I may opt to substitute the egg in the future to make them vegan.

I figured I'd start to keep my recipes here for my own future reference!

Happy Sunday...

Things of interest this weekend... 

A great documentary for those interested in food/health/wellness.  I saw this movie a month or so ago and I have to say that I think about some of what I learned every day.  HUNGRY FOR CHANGE...Your health is in your hands. 

I really enjoyed this movie.  I was able to watch the free preview and it's definitely an interesting one to watch.  I have used a couple of the recipes and foods that are mentioned in the movie and I hope to add more of them to my diet.  I'm trying to focus on adding the good things, not focusing on the things I "can't" have.  Let's see how that goes!

Another good movie I saw this weekend about the puppeteer of  Elmo, Kevin Clash.  It's called BEING ELMO... A Puppeteers Journey:

Here's a link to the website.  I thought that it might ruin some of the magic for Maisie, but it really didn't - she understand that they are puppets, but loves them just the same.  This is a really inspiring story of someone with a dream as a young child who realizes his dream as an adult and inspires people along the way.  I loved it!!

Homemade Preserves! Yum!

So today I made home made preserves for the first time!!  We have a Pineapple Guava tree in our front yard.  For those of you who don't know...   Feijoa sellowwiana are originally from Brazil.  It is a cold hardy guava that grows as far north as middle Georgia and as far west as my front yard!  These evergreens have  glossy-green leaves that are silvery white underneath.

Mine look like this:

After inspecting a few online recipes, I created my own!  I used about 4 cups of the mashed guava fruit, 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice, 4 cups of sugar in the raw and pectin!  We'll see how it turns out.  I have 7 jars of it.  Can't wait to taste it on toast in the morning!

Heading into Fall

Wow how time flies.  I can't believe that we are already heading into October.  I haven't really succeeded in getting back on my diet bandwagon - it's one day at a time right now as things go.  Two things I've become interested in lately... more plant based eating and juicing.  Dare I use the V words... Vegan or Vegetarian.  From what I've read and watched, the plant based lifestyle if really compelling... but I do like steak.  How do you compromise that?  I can skip the chicken, no problem there.  If we think of all the good things plants provide for us...all of those daily nutrients that most processed foods leave us depleted and deficient in, it's really something to consider.

Two documentaries I've seen lately:
Fat Sick and Nearly Dead is an awesome documentary on the benefits of juicing and
Forks Over Knives is another great case for switching to a plant based diet.

Check them out - both are on Netflix.  I also love my Breville juicer.  Thank you for the recommendation Joe!

Motivation... trying to find it everyday!

So these days it's getting harder and harder to keep up the motivation to work out, eat right, etc. When I start to feel that way I just need to remember how different things actually are now than say 2 years ago. I was feeling badly since I only worked out two times last week. What a bummer... in the past I didn't work out AT ALL. I even did a little jogging last week, though my shins hurt for 3 days after! So that being said... I've made improvements! I'll also start the week with a goal for at least 3 workouts, that's my target. If I do more, GREAT, if not, no biggie. We have a new dehydrator and Jim is going crazy making lots of dried goodies. Dried bananas so far are a favorite in this household. So yummy to snack on goodies that are sweet and healthy too, not processed junk! Pineapple is in there tonight, can't wait. Disneyland blackout lifts on my season pass today, so I think it's time for Maisie to catch up with her Disney friends tomorrow. That will be a day full of walking! We love hanging out at Disneyland and not feeling pressured that we have to do everything. We do what we can and have fun, gotta love the season pass! So that counts as a workout right ;o), all that moving around!