Berry Chia Parfait

This breakfast is light and refreshing and honestly it would even work as an afternoon snack or even a healthy dessert. I love starting my morning knowing I'm filling my belly with the healthy probiotics found in yogurt. It sets a healthy yet yummy tone for the rest of the day. 

 

Berry Chia Parfait

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened almond milk {I use almond milk for it's lightness but you can use cows milk or even coconut milk would be delicious}

1 cup plain whole milk yogurt {or 2% greek yogurt}

1 tablespoon pure local honey

1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chia seeds

1 1/2 cups of berries {if using strawberries dice them}

1/4 cup raw or toasted and sliced almonds

Instructions 

In a medium bowl gently mix together the milk, yogurt, honey, vanilla and salt until blended. Gently stir in the chia seeds. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for a minimum of one hour.

When ready to serve, in a medium bowl, mix the berries with the maple syrup.

Spoon the parfait mixture into 2 bowls or stemmed wine glasses and then top with the berries and sprinkle with the sliced almonds. 

Enjoy!

Love,

Christina 

Orange Almond Olive Oil Muffins {Grain Free}

I made these muffins this weekend and the whole family loved them. The combination of toasted almonds and fresh orange zest and juice made for a bright and exciting pop of flavor. A surprising bonus to baking these little guys was the delightful smell of orange that filled the entire house.

I adopted the idea for this recipe from a cook book my mom gave to me: 'Giada's Feel Good Food'. Since the original recipe utilized flour and my body doesn't seem to like flour I chose to change the recipe to accommodate the use of coconut flour instead. I felt like a happy scientist in the kitchen coming up with the proper ratios for everything. And I'm thrilled to say I love the way these muffins turned out!

Orange Almond Olive Oil Muffins {Made with Coconut Flour}

Makes 10 Muffins

Ingredients

6 eggs

4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp plain greek yogurt

6 Tbsp pure local honey

Grated zest of 1 medium orange

1/3 cup fresh orange juice at room temperature 

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup almond flour 

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 350. Arrange almonds on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 5-6 minutes. 

Using a hand mixer on medium speed, in a bowl beat the eggs and honey together until the color is pale, about 1 minute. Beat in the orange zest and orange juice, almond extract, vanilla extract, greek yogurt and olive oil. 

In a small separate bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt until combined. 

In small batches using the hand mixer add the flour mixture to the egg mixture until fully blended. Then with a spoon gently fold in 1/3 cup of the toasted almonds. Lightly oil muffin liners with olive oil and pour the batter to just the top of the liners. Sprinkle the remaining toasted almonds on the top of the muffin batter. Bake from 15 to 18 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and toothpick come out clean or with moist crumbs attached. 

Enjoy!

With Love,

Christina 

My Favorite Way to Eat Oatmeal

Oatmeal is my most visited breakfast staple. And while I've prepared it all sorts of ways from {honey and almond butter} to {blueberries, maple syrup and cinnamon}, my most favorite way to prepare it is with coconut oil, honey, salt, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. It makes for a clean tasting, simple, uncluttered, elegant start to the day.

Coconut oil is a healthy and delicious fat loaded with a whole slew of health benefits. 

My toddler eats what I eat in the morning and he loves this version of oatmeal. Of course he prefers his with raisins and his Elmo spoon. 

--  Elegant Vanilla Oatmeal  --

serves 2

Ingredients

1 Cup - Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

Small pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure local honey

1 tablespoon quality coconut oil

6-8 shakes of cinnamon 

Splash of milk {I like whole milk for it's creaminess but any milk will work nicely. Or since the coconut oil adds a creamy richness on it's own the milk may be omitted for a vegan friendly option}

Instructions

Cook the oats on the stovetop according to the package instruction. Add the salt to the water before placing in the oats. Once the oatmeal is cooked remove from heat and add in the remaining ingredients. Stir and serve.

Enjoy!

With Love,

Christina 

Blueberry Honey Vanilla Pancakes - Made with Coconut Flour

Do you ever find yourself in a breakfast rut? A few weeks ago I found myself in just that a seriouse breakfast rut. I was basically having oatmeal everyday. Don't get me wrong, I love me some oatmeal but I needed to do something to shake up my mornings and make them more exciting. So in efforts to pull myself from my boring breakfast routine I've committed myself to making new imaginative and exciting creations for the most important meal of the day. I've come up with and discovered some breakfast goodies that are easy to make, healthy and most importantly delicious. So I've decided to post and share recipes to my breakfast experiments every Monday for the next several Mondays. I hope you can find some of these recipes useful in spicing up your mornings too. Here's the first breakfast dish: It's grain free Blueberry Honey Vanilla Pancakes made with coconut flour.

Blueberry Honey Vanilla Pancakes

makes 12-14 pancakes 

Pancake Ingredients 

4 pasture eggs

1 cup milk (or milk substitute like almond or coconut milk)

2 full tablespoons of pure local honey or maple syrup

1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 rounded cup of blueberries (I like to use either fresh or the frozen wild organic blueberries)

coconut oil or butter for frying

Pancake Instructions

Whisk and combine the wet ingredients: eggs, milk, honey and vanilla.

To the liquid mixture add: coconut flour, salt and baking soda.

Stir well to combine

Gently fold in the blueberries

Let the batter sit for 3 to 4 minutes while you preheat your griddle.

Preheat griddle to about 300 degree or medium heat. 

Apply coconut oil to the griddle and allow to melt.

Pour 2/3 cup of batter onto griddle for each pancake. (The smaller size pancake makes for easier flipping)

When the pancakes start to have tiny bubbles all over the surface, it's then time to flip.

Once flipped allow the pancake to cook another minute or so until both sides are golden brown.

Serve with below pancake sauce recipe and fresh fruit if desired.

Enjoy!

- I like to make this special sauce for my pancakes. It makes me feel like I have a substantially moistly -topped pancake without all the excess sugar of a plate full of syrup.

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Coconut Oil Maple Sauce

recipe quantity for 1 pancake

Pancake Sauce Ingredients

1 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tablespoons maple syrup

4 shakes of cinnamon

Pancake Topping Instructions

Melt the coconut oil and honey on the stove top or in the microwave. Add in the cinnamon. Stir to combine then pour over your pancakes. Enjoy!

Tip: I like to double the pancake recipe and freeze the extra pancakes. They are great heated in the toaster for a quick on the go meal.

I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think!

Love and Light,

Christina 

Little Sleep - Lots of Love & an Abundance of Lessons

These past few weeks have been very challenging to say the least. My 20 month old son who is still nursing had been nursing to go to sleep at night and as a result was and still is still waking multiple times a night. My husband and I agreed to continue to co-sleep as it made sleeping easier on everyone but then over the course of the past 4-6 months our little guy had been waking at around 9am to both nurse and also to come to bed with us. This early waking made it impossible for my husband and I to have time to reconnect at night or to plane any date nights. Not to mention that none of us where getting the sleep we so needed. So we decided that it was time for our son to begin the process of learning how to fall asleep because that is skill he has yet to learn. And so we decided it was time to night wean in efforts to teach him other ways to fall asleep. We agreed on a gentle method of teaching Colin to sleep even though to be honest it doesn't feel gentle because even though Brett or I will hold and rock him he still cries in our arms because what he wants to do is nurse. Things are starting to slowly get better but in sort of like a 2 steps forward 1 step back kind of way. Last night for example I got 3.5 hours of sleep. So in the meantime we are all very tired and worn. Currently Colin wakes a few times before 3am during which times either Brett or I will go into his room and soothe him back to sleep. Then if he wakes past 3am we bring him to bed with us but now I hold off on nursing until the sun comes up. Since no nursing at night is new for Colin there have been days where he has refused to go back to sleep and has been up for the day at around 3am. So as we teach our little Colin new ways to fall asleep he is experiencing a lack of sleep in the process which breaks my heart in two.

Brett was out of town last night and so today I was feeling very tired and defeated from quite a difficult night. So during Colin's nap today I decided to get some release and clarity I needed to journal. I sometimes forget how comforting putting pin to paper can be. That when you clear your mind and let your heart take hold of the pen the most perfect and beautifully clear messages can come through. The below is word for word what I journaled to myself today.

Journal Entry 12.11.2013
This issue with Colin's sleep is very wearing and difficult. 
In addition to his current sleep issues he has also become a very picky eater when he use to eat so well. Also during his tantrums he has started to hit himself rather hard out of anger and frustration. I am trying my best to handle everything with grace and compassion for all involved but I too am tired and wore down. I feel that during this time there have been few to no times when I have nurtured myself and I know finding time to do that is vital. Still I need to start to be creative with how I find ways to nurture myself. I feel that during this time I have abandoned my use of a positive self dialogue so one way I can begin to get back to nurturing myself is through adopting a positive internal dialogue and to have positive thoughts about myself, others and have trust in the situation. Other ways I can nurture myself is instead of watching TV in the evening, I could take a lavender bath, do yoga for 5-10 minutes, meditate for 5-10 minutes and journal. 

I also need to be in the moment more. By being in the moment, really in it I can then be fully present and see things with clarity. Both the lessons that are before me as well as the blessings. Lessons are blessings. I need to remember that and be thankful for that. Be graceful and grateful, pause, breathe and allow divine love, beauty and stillness to come in and take up all the space where I might be feelings tired or anxious. There is love and light for me and my life. Abundance is available and waiting to flow in if I can just stop fighting and start allowing. Everything we go through in life is a blessed gift. This experience will teach Brett and I so so much about parenting, life and ourselves and will help carry us forward. This will also be a wonderful and abundantly helpful experience to share with others. 

Blessings surround and are within and are constant and are always. 
Stay steady. 
Breathe in the sweet air. 
Bring it down deep.
Let it cleanse away all worry and doubt.
Marinate in the peace of knowing all is perfectly whole and well. 

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Your Life is Your Playground

Life is beautiful. It’s colorful and complex and full of so much love and abundance. Children seem to be able to see the color of the world in brightness and wonder and tackle life in such a playful way. As we have experiences and start to grow up, most of us loose the ability to see the color of life. Then by adulthood the color becomes a sort of black and white shade. We allow certain life experiences to dull the color and beauty of our reality until everything becomes grey and serious. We then begin to reserve certain times on the weekend for “play”. But I don’t think it has to be this way. Play can and should be interwoven into everything that we think and do. In fact I think it is vital that we get back to seeing in color and in finding the playful moments in our everyday life so that we can get back to that raw since of living and seeing like a child.

When we are first born we are in our purest state. As we grow we allow our selves to get layered with labels and circumstances and we allow those to become part of who we are. But those labels and circumstances are not ours and all they do is dull our true reality. It’s important to shed those labels so that we can feel and see and live in our purest state.  It’s time to invite the child back in and start living in the moment and finding the play in every situation. I really believe we are here to love, play and heal ourselves and others. That is the bases for what its all about.

So I invite you to skip in the isle at the grocery store. Sing while you're washing the dishes. Do a happy dance on your way to the car in the morning.  Have your own concert in the car. Lovingly laugh and forgive yourself when you do or say something silly. Start seeing the color, vibrancy and beauty that’s all around you. Infuse that playful thread throughout your day until it becomes part of your life again. This has become a daily practice for me and I’m so glad because it brings with it beauty and blessings in abundance. Celebrate and play everyday and reap the benefits of the happiness a colorful life can bring. 

Releasing Fear. Accepting Peace.

In my last post I touched on how parenting can bring up fear and how it can be a wonderful opportunity of self reflection and healing. In this post I continue my thoughts on releasing fear and  accepting peace:

Fear is a tricky emotion. It can feel so powerful that we let ourselves identify very strongly with it and therefore make it an acceptable part of our lives. But fear is not part of who we are because who we are inside is beauty, truth and love. And where pure love lives there is no fear.

Fear can feel suffocating if we let it. I’ve recently found comfort in the knowing that fear is not part of our beautiful inner truth. The only real and tangible thing we need to know and hold close to us is that God is love and therefore everything he created is love. Therefore we are pure love.  Isn’t that so completely comforting and uplifting?

Still even in knowing the truth that we are pure LOVE there will be times when we allow fear to come in and take hold. It’s in those fearful moments when we actually have a beautiful opportunity of self-exploration! We can then use fear as a tool of self-reflection to ask and to see what exactly is causing the fear and then we can work to heal and move past it. In using fear as a tool of self-reflection and then self-healing we’ve actually turned fear into a mechanism to create good and light in our lives through way of healing. Once we dig deep to uncover the underlying cause of (the emotion that was manifesting as fear for us) we can then work to heal it and to shed light on the shadow of fear and realize that all that was ever there within us to begin with was beauty and love. After we’ve shed light on the real cause and healed it we can then boldly move forward with joy, tenacity and gratitude. 

- - Three exercises for uncovering the beauty of a situation and to let go of fear - -

1.) Close your eyes. Take in three deep breaths. Release and relax the jaw. Then relax the entire body. Think about what it is you’re feeling fearful of. Ask yourself what’s the real reason you’re feeling this fear. Is the reason for this emotion something real? Or something you are assuming or placing on the situation? Then visualize the situation at hand surrounded by pure love, pure joy and pure light. Allow your self to see it in a new and beautiful way. Then let the fear drop away and be replaced with joy and excitement. Picture yourself opening a door and walking forward without fear but with pure love and exhilaration. Take in one last deep breath of gratitude for all the love that is in you and around you. Open your eyes and walk forward without fear.

2.) Close your eyes and take in three deep relaxing breaths. Imagine that you are holding in your hand the very thing that has brought up fear. Then visualize yourself handing the fear directly to God and see him take it from you and turn it into something beautiful. Take in a deep comforting breath of gratitude and know that God is taking care of it.

3.) Close your eyes and take in three deep comforting breaths. Visualize that you are sitting on the sand at the edge of the ocean. In your hands you hold the thing that has brought up fear. Take in a cleansing deep breath then gently place the fear into the water. Then sit and watch the ocean take the fear further and further from you until it is completely out of your site. Take in a slow deep breath and know that the fear is not yours to hold on to and that the Universe is steering you towards the perfect path. Take in a deep cleansing breath and allow peace and gratitude to fill your heart.

- - -

I use some form of the above quick meditations/visualizations whenever I feel a roadblock of fear. In doing this it has then become easier and more lovely to learn to appreciate fear for what it teaches me about myself and what I still have to work on. Over time by accepting the peace thats within it becomes easier to allow love and faith to lift the burden of fear off us so that we can live in freedom and truth. It's beautiful to know the truth that if we allow it, fear can actually be used as a positive tool of self reflection and that once we have learned what we need to from it we can send love and gratitude to it, then let it go and allow happiness, abundance, freedom and love to flow in. Then the darkness of fear actually becomes a light and is therefore love. Everything is love.