What I Ate: Sat, Nov 13th

As a diet and lifestyle consultant and a "healthy," mostly-raw, mostly-vegan mom, I get constantly asked one question time and time again by clients and friends... "what do YOU eat?"

So, today I decided that I am going to start doing a log once or twice a week detailing what I have eaten. Some days will be "good" days and some days definitely NOT! Although I do strive to eat as healthily as I can, sometimes life gets in the way. Life is not about perfection!

Today was a "good" day, meaning that I woke up and had a delicious green smoothie, ate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, made a nutrition packed juice and even had a treat (or two!)

You would think that weekends would be a difficult time to stay the course but on the weekends I actually have time to make juices and don't have as many distractions as during the week when I am balancing school runs, clients, kids activities, my workout, the dog's walks and writing deadlines! So, here goes...

Food Log:

8 a.m. Shot of E3 Live Brain On- this got my day started to a bang! Tastes terrible but I definitely notice an energy lift!!! Go to my post on my website Blue-Green Algae to find out more about this and other products I recommend!

10 a.m. Green Smoothie- this green smoothie was delicious and I felt so energized yet calm. So here is what I included in it:

Green Smoothie Recipe

- 6 stalks of Locinato kale

- 1 tbsp Sun Warrior Vanilla Protein Powder - 2 tsp Vita Synergy's Ultimate Superfood

- 2 tsp maca

- 1 tsp Sacred Foods coconut butter

- liberal sprinkling of chia seeds

- 3 slices frozen bananas

- 1 cup homemade almond milk

It is bright and sunny and in the 60s in New York and I could not wait to get outside and enjoy the day! So, between breakfast and lunch when the kids were occupied, I took a 7 mile run. Felt like I could have gone on for ages powered up by my smoothie but I came back home STARVING!

12 p.m. Raw Avocado, Lettuce,Tomato and Macadamia Nut Cheese"Sandwich" with Side Salad and Green Juice

Raw Sandwich: Love Force Bread, slice of heirloom tomato, few slices of avocado, mixed lettuce, Dr. Cow's Aged Macadamia Nut Cheese

Salad: Romaine, raddicio, and the leftover tomato and avocado topped with Sproutman's Crunchy Sprouts and dressed with Olive oil, sea salt and lemon juice.

Green Juice: Spinach, celery, cucumber, romaine, 2 slices apple

Took kids to the park until late afternoon and, after lots of pushing on the swings, lifting up to the monkey bars, pogo sticking and generally chasing kids around, came back needing a little pick-me-up and something a bit warm so made my yummy, I-can't-even-tell-it's vegan hot chocolate for everyone!

4 p.m. Hot Chocolate: ok, I have to admit, I forgot to take a picture of my hot chocolate so used a picture I had used in a previous post on chocolate! Anyway, mine looked just the same and was delicious!

Hot Chocolate

- Almond milk

- 1 tbsp raw chocolate powder

- healthy squirt of agave

- 2 tsp maca

Blend in a Vitamix until hot. Truly, it is not so hard to be vegan when you have such delectable heathy treats! Felt great and powered up after I had it!

6 p.m. Early Dinner with Caroline/ Huge Salad: Bibb lettuce, heirloom tomato, avocado, sprinkling of hemp seeds, walnuts (yes, I know, not totally perfect food combining but oh well) all dressed with lemon, olive oil and sea salt. Sprinkled some dulse on at the last minute for good measure Yum!

Took a nice relaxing bath and in the mood for something sweet...

7:30 p.m. Snack/Dessert: Coconut Cashew Cream with shaved coconut, raw chocolate sauce (so easy to make!) and a few blueberries, the coconut cream was from a few days ago so this took two seconds to put together!

Cashew cream: 1 cup cashews and 1 cup dried coconut, 1/2 cups coconut water, vanilla bean, dash of agave; mix in vitamix on high until smooth and creamy and that's it!

"Chocolate sauce": tir raw cacao powder into maple syrup until hit "chocolaty" consistency and that is it! I make a larger batch and then put it in the fridge to put on top of raw puddings, ice creams or even bananas...

Plan on getting all the kids in bed, cozying up into pj's and renting a movie. Bliss!

Pears for Dessert?

So, today my son got home from his track meet and was starving and exhausted! AND, after dinner he wanted something sweet. Oliver loves pears so I decided to make his favorite pear dessert! If you are looking for something sweet and healthy to serve your family, this is a great recipe! It is so simple so here goes:

Pears for dessert

2 sliced d'anjou pears

Honey

1/2 lemon

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Slice 2 pears and put them in a large bowl. Drizzle an ample amount of honey over them, squeeze a bit of lemon, and then dash some cinnamon and nutmeg on top (3 to 1 ratio.) Then, stir. They are absolutely delicious. Here is a picture of Oliver gobbling them all up!

If there ARE any left, then cover and put in the fridge. They are even possibly better the next day!

Salad with Ranch Dressing the Raw Vegan Way!

Last night I was so incredibly envious of my husband's delicious salad topped with pistachios and creamy ranch dressing that I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own!

So, here is what I had for lunch today:

Salad: Locinato kale with shaved carrots, raddicio, and tomatoes topped with raw pistachios and yum- my new Raw Ranch Dressing, which I plan to use later for dips, more salads and maybe even on top of steamed vegetables. I probably made it a bit thick and, if I use it again for dressing, will probably add more coconut water but this consistency is great for dips and sauces.

Raw Ranch Dressing

1 cup macadamian nuts (preferably pre-spoaked, rinsed and drained)

1/2 lemon

1/2-1 clove garlic

Dash of sea salt

Coconut water (approx 1/4-1/8 cup but add slowly to desired consistency)

Mix in a food processor until smooth.

Last minute addition: Chocolatree Italian "Pizza Bread" Crackers!!! Chocolatree Cafe's products, particularly their Chocolate Chip Cookies and their Chocolate Love Cups (ie. a grownup, healthy Reeses Cup), are truly and deeply my newest addiction!

Almond Milk and Homemade Mixed Berry Pancakes

Today I had my eye operated on and you would think that I would just want to come home and do nothing but to be honest I was feeling a bit bored so I decided to putter about in the kitchen and make my homemade almond milk and make some mixed berry pancakes for my week of recouping at home! These two recipes together literally took me under 10 minutes and I have almond milk and mixed berry pancakes for the week!

Almond milk is so nutritious-AND easy to make and it tastes so much better than the kind you can buy in a box! This recipe takes me less than 10 minutes and is well worth the effort! To watch how easy it is to make, you can watch my video on you tube by clicking here! Below is an easy recipe for the almond milk. You can use it in smoothies, over cereal or berries or even add chocolate powder and have a delicious and healthy chocolate milk!

Homemade Almond Milk

2 cups of almonds (pre-soak and rinse for 4 hrs if can)

2 cups of filtered water

Agave nectar

1-2 vanilla beans (or vanilla extract in a pinch)

Optional: maca, 1 tbsp coconut butter, dash on cinnamon

Nut bag or muslin cloth to strain

Place the almonds and water in a blender. Squeeze a healthy dash of agave nectar and add vanilla and whatever optional thing you want to add such as maca, cinnamon or coconut butter. Blend and strain. Delicious!

So, what to do with the leftover pulp? Mixed berry pancakes!

I am a big believer in not wasting what you can use and I had about 2 cups of almond pulp leftover from straining the milk as well as some berries and an avocado that were almost past their due dates so I decided to make some Mixed Berry Pancakes...

Mixed Berry Pancakes (Raw and Cooked)
1-2 cups almond pulp (or ground up almonds, walnuts or any nut really)
1/2 cup ground flax
1/2 cup ground chia seeds
2 tbsp hemp powder
1 tbsp maca
1 avocado
1 tbsp coconut butter (optional)
Dash or organic, alcohol-free vanilla extract (optional)
Dash of cinnamon
2 tbsp agave nectar
Almond milk (just enough to get mixture a good consistency)
Mixed berries (today I used strawberries, rasberries and blueberries but you can use any fruit really!)

Mix all of the ingredients into a cuisinart or blender. Mix in the berries or other fruit by hand. Shape into pancakes and place into the dehydrator for 6-8 hours and turn them over and dehyrate for an additional 4-6 hours. If you have children (or a husband) who are not so open to raw, then throw these in an omelet pan and cook these as you would any other pancake and they won't know how "healthy" these are!!!

Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows Tranformed!

One of my favorite things to have at Thanksgiving and around the holidays are Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows! But, we all know that these types of dishes are always laden with butter, sugar and more butter and sugar. When the kids and I came upon a recipe in New York Magazine, they begged me to make it. So, I decided to make one with a twist of my own.

Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows

3 sweet potatoes

1/4 cup maple syrup

1-2 cups silk milk soy creamer

1 vanilla bean (use pods inside)

Dash of sea salt

1-2 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp pumpkin spice (optional)

Marshmallows (I used the fat-free, gluten-free ones from Elyon)

Bake sweet potatos in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour until soft and let cool. Place the sweet potatoes and all other ingredients (except, of course, the marshmallows) into your food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into a casserole dish.

Then, top with marshmallows. The "healthy" marshmallows I found only came in a large size so I cut mine in half.

When you are ready to serve the sweet potatoes, place in the oven at 350 degrees and reheat. Place the oven on broil and brown the marshmallows a bit.

My crew loved it and couldn't believe I served "dessert" for dinner!