Get The Facts: Eggplant

Eggplants are a beautiful thing!

Filled with: antioxidants, fiber, vitamin A, B6, B1, B3 and more!

B vitamins promote healthy skin and keep you energized!
But are best know for being the anti-stress vitamin! Helping with sleep, easing anxiety and helping with memory loss.

So stack some up and dive in with this quick and yummy recipe!

What you’ll need:

1 small eggplant
2 tablespoons olive oil
Spices (parsley, basil, dried garlic)
Fresh lemon juice
Hot sauce
Soya sauce

How to prepare:

Heat oil on medium heat with spices
Cut eggplant into 1/4 inch slices
Add to pan
Squeeze a lemon on-top of eggplant
Fry for 12-15 minutes turing often until golden brown
At the last few minutes drizzle a little hot sauce & soya sauce on top
Turing often

Coconut Pancakes!

I’ve been craving pancakes for far too long! So today I finally got all of my ingredients together and decided to whip of a little batch of delicious coconut pancakes!

What you’ll need:

•1 cup of coconut flour
•4 egg whites
•1 cup of Coconut Dream or coconut milk
•1 tbsp brown sugar
•1 tbsp honey
•1 tsp baking powder
•Pinch of salt
•Coconut oil or butter

Method:

•Heat coconut oil or butter in a frying pan at low-medium heat until it’s melted
•Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth
•Spoon 2 tbsp of batter into pan per pancake – turn up the heat slowly to medium
•Cook for 2-3 minutes per side until cooked
•Grease the pan for the second batch

Top with fruit, icing sugar, syrup or honey!

Makes 8 small/medium sized moist and fluffy pancakes!

Flax on flax off!

Ground flax seeds play a very important role in anyone’s health, especially woman.

It can be hard to add flax seeds to your daily meals, but adding it to your baked goods, pasta sauces, cereals, smoothies or oatmeal makes it easy!

Flax seed is a super fiber! Is high in antioxidants, helps lower cholesterol, has been know to reduce hot flashes in woman, helps manage symptoms during HRT and during pre/post menopause, plus it’s high in Omega-3!

1-2 tablespoons of ground flax seed a day is sure to get you on your way!

Raspberry Flax Smoothie

Raspberries are full of antioxidants! They are a good source of vitamin A, C and fiber! Organic raspberries carry more antioxidants, but using frozen ones will still give your benefits still too.
This great fruit helps manage weight loss and has many anti-cancer benefits!

Lets get smoothing!

1 1/2 cup of frozen raspberries
1/2 cup 90% lactose free plain yogurt
1 tbsp ground flax
1 tbsp organic honey

Add all of your ingredients to your magic bullet and blend until smooth!

Voila! Enjoy!

*I am not involved with any health care studies, this information was found during extensive research.

My Beloved Avocado…

How I love thee! Not only do avocados taste delicious, they make you feel full (help with weight loss) have anti-inflammatory nutrients (help to prevent arthritis) contain a ton of fiber, packed with carotenoids, and Vitamin C! They are also known to do wonders for your skin.

Many people use avocados for facials.. By mashing it up and using alone, adding organic honey or plain organic yogurt. For those with sensitive skin against harsh chemicals, this would be the perfect and most natural mask to use! Add a slice of cucumber to each eye and relax! (Cucumbers are known to reduce puffiness under your eyes.)

If you are scared you will eat your mask before it gets to your face, here is an awesome and easy vegetarian meal you can use avocados with!

I am not a nutritionist, or involved in any health practices. This information comes from extensive reading and research.

*These instructions are guidelines only. Cooking times and oven temperatures may vary*

Quesadillas!

What you need:

• Kidney Beans 1/4 cup
• Black Beans1 1/4 cup
• Crushed tomatoes 1/4 cup
• Half of an avocado
• Red peppers
• Hot peppers
• Shredded cheese
• Tortillas

Preheat oven to 375F

• Place parchment paper on baking sheet
• Mash your avocado
• Dice your peppers
• Load up your tortilla, fold and even out the middle
• Cook for 10minuts
• Flip and cook for another 10mintues
• Let cool for and serve!

*These are just guidelines. Oven temperatures may vary*

Yogurt Passion Fruit Pops!

From Brazil, the passion fruit smells exactly like the body wash you once bought. AMAZING! But it has a very acquired taste! It’s sweet when ripe, but mostly sour (to me)! I love what it is known for, and how rich it is in antioxidants. It is a very good source of fiber, and contains great levels of vitamin A (good for your eye sight, skin) and C (helps develop resistance against the flu.)

If you are on the go, or just want a quick vitamin A, C and fiber fix. This is a great option, and so easy to make. Passion Fruits are ripe when the skin is wrinkly and soft.

I am not a nutritionist, or involved in any health practice. This information comes from extensive reading and research.

*These instructions are guidelines only. Freezing times may vary*

Yogurt gives you calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12 and so much more!

Prep time: 10 minutes Freeze: 4 hours

What you will need:

• 2 servings of Fat Free Vanilla Yogurt (200g)
• 2 Passion Fruits of your choice
• Popsicle sticks
• Ice cube tray
• Makes 12

How to make the pops:

• I chose two passion fruits and divided my yogurt and passion fruit goodness in half
• Scoop out the fruit and add to your yogurt
• Mix it up, and divide evenly to your ice cube tray
• Freeze for 4 hours or overnight
• Pop out and enjoy! Rub hot water on the bottom of the tray if your having a hard time popping them out.

For more pops – just double the yogurt to 4 servings (400g) Makes 24

*Freezing times may vary, these are just guidelines*

Fruit & Veggie Chip Mix!

I’m a strong believer that what you eat reflects your skin, hair, and well being. I love that fruit and vegetables can heal, that they can cure health problems, and make you feel good! Food truly is, for the soul.

But don’t get me wrong, I can down a bag of sour cream & onion chips and a Twinkie in minutes! Which is one of the reasons I started making my own homemade treats.  Now lets be honest… many of us just don’t have the time to dehydrate an apple for 12 hours! So I always have a few fruits or vegetables in the kitchen, and I prepare food in advanced.  It’s a great way to stay on top of a snacking addiction, and fulfilling all of your cravings!

Lets get cooking!

Prep time: 15mins
Cook time: 45mins-3hours

Here’s what you need:

1. 1 banana
2. 1 apple
3. 1 sweet potato
4. A mandolin (for slicing)
5. Parchment paper
6. Cinnamon (optional)
7. Salt (optional)

• Preheat oven to 220F
• Place parchment paper on your pans
• Wash apple & potato
• Slice banana very very thin with a knife (Penny size thin)
• Slice apple with mandolin or sharp knife (Loonie size thin)  You can core the apple or leave it in, some people prefer the core in (less crispy.)
• Slice sweet potato with knife or mandolin.  About 2cm thin
• Place fruit & veggies on pans (make sure the pieces are not touching or overlapping)
• Cook bananas for 30-45 minutes turning halfway through until crispy and no longer gooey
• Remove from oven, cool on rack.
• Continue cooking sweet potato & apple for the remanding 2hours and 15mintues. Turning half way through, swap racks if using two trays. Cook until crisp!

The thicker the fruit or vegetable – the longer you will have to cook! You will know when it’s the crispiness you desire.

Let cool on a rack & voila! A healthy chip mix!

*Sprinkle cinnamon & brown sugar on apples and store separately if desired.
Sprinkle salt on the sweet potatoes if you really want a delicious chip fix!*

Store in an air tight container.

Oh and did I mention your dog can eat all of that too? Only if you have left them plain of course and you have taken the apple seeds out. Apple seeds are very, very bad for dogs!!

Now the benefits!

Apples:
Cardiovascular benefits, an antioxidant, high in fiber & vitamin C

Bananas:
Great for your eyes, high in vitamin B6, C, manganese, fiber & potassium

Sweet potatoes:
An antioxidant, high in vitamin A, C, manganese, B6, fiber, B5 + so much more!

Please note: I am not a nutritionist, or involved in any health practice. This information comes from extensive reading and research.

*These instructions are guidelines only. Freezing times may vary*