Thursday, November 5, 2015

1-2-3 Smoothies and Breast Cancer Awareness

Greetings! Breast cancer awareness is always important, so please browse through the helpful infographic below. The group that is spreading the word are here :) Besides sharing their info here, the help I have to offer is FLAXSEED!

There is substantial evidence that ground flaxseed because of it's bountiful lignans is very helpful in cancer prevention, slowing, and improving survival rates! It's also beneficial to men, related to prostate cancer. So here you go!

You know how I love my videos, so here's one for you! In it, you can see potentially a 20-40% reduced risk of breast cancer with regular flaxseed intake :)

Three delicious combos that you can prepare in seconds! Blend either combination of ingredients and drink immediately!

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie Yum!
1 ripe banana
small handful peanuts (plain, or roasted)
3/4 c unsweetened almond milk or water (vanilla Silk is great!)
handful of ice
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed (I get a huge bag of organic from Costco!)

Chocolate-Covered Cherry Smoothie Yum!
handful frozen cherries (~3/4c but I just shake some in from the bag)
1 cup almond milk or water
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie Yum!
1 or 2 pitted dates
1 tsp pumpkin spice (try my homemade version)
1 cup almond milk or water
handful of ice
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
These are more like a creamy juice or milk than a smoothie; these drinks are not thick. They're tasty, quick, and most importantly, provide us with a powerful dose of those commanding lignans!

For more: A Dr Maize article (doctoroz.com), A Dr Greger article (links to great videos within article), and more ways to eat flaxseed from me (eggplant parm, banana bread, oatmeal, muffin tops, and more!).

BONUS TIP: Flaxseed oil is void of the majority of the lignans and all of the fiber that flaxseed offers, so stick with the dry, ground version :)



Thursday, October 1, 2015

Top 10 Reasons to Chew Cinnamon Sticks, the New Red Hots!



Some reasons why I always want to have a cinnamon stick handy to nibble on (TEENY, TINY bits)!

1. Fresh breath
2. A healthy alternative to gum chewing AND Red Hot candies
3. Appetite suppressant (perhaps, read here for more; link also includes help with blood sugar control)
4. Keeps your mouth busy so you aren't eating out of boredom (also may help with smoking cessation by keeping mouth and hands busy)
5. Cleans teeth, gum and mouth health, cavity prevention

Some other benefits that have been associated with cinnamon, many for thousands of years!

6. Anti-microbial, (check out effectiveness against H. Pylori -- cause of ulcers), anti-fungal, antiviral, antioxidant
7. Flatulence, indigestion, bloating
8. Pain reducer
9. May help with cancer, cholesterol, blood pressure, arthritis, and inflammation


From Dr Michael Greger's Update on Cinnamon for Blood Sugar Control video on nutritionfacts.org
I delayed this post by a month because I became concerned about which type of cinnamon to recommend. There is more research showing benefits of cassia cinnamon on blood sugar control, but getting too much could be harmful to the liver. Ceylon cinnamon is considered the safer cinnamon. Sometimes the cinnamon you shake is a combination, and doesn't even say which kind(s). But looking back to the big picture, it's cinnamon! It tastes delicious (reason #10) and may be good for our health too! We shouldn't go too crazy with it, like everything, just like grandma used to say, everything in moderation :) Grab a stick today!

Here is a link to my other posts about cinnamon, including recipes!

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Chocolate Brownie Muffin Top Cookies!

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

These butter-free, sugar-free, and guilt-free snacks are so delicious! They are a great sweet for school lunches, or a couple of these cookies are so healthy that they can serve as a quick on-the-go breakfast!

2 c pitted dates (40 pieces)
2 and 1/4 c hot water
1/4 c ground flaxseed
2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder

Heat oven to 375 convection (400 conventional). In a food processor, chop dates into a sticky ball. In mixing bowl, stir dates, water, and flax, until well mixed. In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda). Mix wet and dry just until dry is wet. Put scoopfuls onto cookie sheet (I love silicon my bakeware). I get two sheets of 12-13 cookies per recipe. If you enjoy pecans, add a few on top before baking. So pretty! Bake about 20 minutes and enjoy!


If you choose to make cupcakes, recipe should make about one dozen.

For the last batch I made, I added 3 pecans per cookie, coming together in the middle in a "Y" shape, for a very pretty presentation. Plus, the pecans get toasted, really adding to the flavor :)

Other similar recipes include:

Banana Breakfast Cookies
Peanut Butter Banana Crunch Breakfast Cookies
Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Plant Powered Kitchen! Trans Fat Ban

Good evening!

I hope you enjoyed How to Peel a Mango in 15 Seconds! Now, you can watch another "how to" video as my way of showing you Plant Powered Kitchen, just introduced to me, that I am sure to be reading a lot!




EXCITING NEWS! In June 2015, the government banned artificial TRANS fats! It is a huge step toward a healthier food supply! One fear is that food manufacturers will create some other artificial fat to replace partially hydrogenated oils. Other unhealthy fats to look out for are PALM OIL and MONO- and DIGLYCERIDES. Remember also that there are trans fats in animal products.

"[This change] is expected to prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease every year", New York Times. On the other hand, Dr David Katz reminds us in the Huffington Post that choosing plant-based, whole foods is STILL the MOST IMPORTANT thing we can do for our health.

Check out the Washington Post's article/videos regarding the Trans Fat Ban in the US.

ALSO check out these awesome: Flourless Chai Sandwich Cookies! by MWFL Melissa (I adore her!).

I am working on my Pinterest Boards. It's a nice way to organize some things :)

Friday, June 12, 2015

Mango Peeling Made EASY!

Mangos are SO UNBELIEVABLY easy with this trick that we've eaten a dozen mangoes in a few days! Peeling slippery mangoes used to be our limiting factor in this mango-loving household! Here you can see my 4 year-old son do it for the FIRST time in less than a minute! I found this trick from No Meat Athlete who found it from Crazy Russian Hacker.




Mango Peeling Made EASY!


Step By Step How to Peel a Mango
  • Cut off stem so you have a flat base.
  • Cut off two large sides of the fruit, parallel cuts on each side of the flat, oval, disc pit.
  • Hold a mango side piece, outside of mango resting in palm of your hand.
  • Hook a bit of mango skin on outside of a beer glass.
  • Pressing hard on glass, and slide mango down the side.
  • Bite into your perfectly peeled mango piece or chop as you like. Yum, yum!


No Meat Athlete is awesome proof that you can be a healthy, successful athlete "without meat", and there are lots of ways to simplify whole food eating too!

Crazy Russian Hacker has lots of other cool tricks with kiwi, ice cream, watermelon, and more!

You're very welcome for all the extra beta carotene and phytochemicals you'll get now that you can eat fresh mango with such ease!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Smoothie

A super-delicious smoothie that takes seconds to make! It is basically Happy Herbivore's Neapolitan Smoothie. She has an awesome website and services to offer with VERY simple recipes and menus that anyone can make! Please check her/it out! I can't wait to try so many of her recipes!!!




My version has more chocolate and less banana, comparatively, but I give all creativity credits to Lindsay Nixon of Happy Herbivore (this is an egg-less "egg salad" recipe I am anxious to try!)

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Smoothie

1 c unsweetened, vanilla almond milk
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
2 ripe bananas
2 c frozen strawberries

Fill blender in above order, blend (in my Blendtec this takes about 10 seconds!), and enjoy!

This makes about 30 ounces of smoothie to be served immediately!

We divided the batch into three 10-oz smoothies, and made more for the family twice today! 

You might also enjoy the 3-Ingredient Super-Smoothie!

Lots to share, so hopefully I'll post again soon! Be well :)

Friday, February 6, 2015

Pumpkin Pie Lovers Post

Today's valuable post includes: a natural remedy for belly aches, a pumpkin pie spice recipe, a breakfast spice muffin~Jamaican ginger cake~pumpkin cookie recipe, a trick for a flavorful, chemical and sugar-free cup of chai tea, and an amazing benefit of ripe bananas!

Improve quality and save $$$ by making your own homemade pumpkin pie spice with Whole Foods Market organic spices!

Organic Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 c organic cinnamon
1/2 c organic ginger
1/2 c organic nutmeg
1/4 c organic cloves
1/4 c organic allspice

Combine and store in spice container. I use an old cinnamon container from Costco shown below. Great in desserts, oatmeal, muffins, coffee, and more!


Breakfast Spice Muffins OR Jamaican Ginger Cake OR Pumpkin Spice Cookies
1 1/2 c pitted dates
1 1/2 c hot water
1 ripe banana (optional...in case you don't like banana flavor)
1 1/2 c pumpkin puree (Costco's organic ~$1/can!)
3 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 inch cube fresh ginger, peeled (optional, delicious addition!)
1/2 c ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 c whole wheat flour
Jamaican Ginger Cake

Pre-heat oven to 375 (convection: 350). Blend dates and fresh ginger in a food processor; next, combine with flaxseed, pumpkin spice, water, and pumpkin puree, in a mixing bowl. In separate bowl combine last three dry ingredients, and then add dry to wet ingredients, and gently mix only until dry ingredients are wet. Pour batter into baking pan (I love my silicone collection!), muffin tin, bread pan, or simply scoop spoonfuls on baking sheet. Bake for around 25 min, or until it looks done on top (bread pans and regular size muffins will take longer, cookies will take less time). Cut bread when cool. The beauty of no raw eggs - you can eat the batter! Yes, this is a sugar-free, vegan recipe, that we've made probably a half dozen times in the last two weeks!


Pumpkin Gingerbread Ginger Cake
To use a bread maker, just pour the wet and dry ingredients into your machine, activate "cake" setting, and off you go! I also choose "dark" for crust control.


Quick and Easy Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea
After you've prepared your treat, you should sit down for a cup of chai tea. Simply pour a cup of black tea or a cup of hot water (for caffeine free) into your dirty mixing bowl after everything is in the oven, stir it all up, and viola! Either way, you have a perfectly delicious cup of chai tea :)



Do you ever get tummy aches? Mine come when I eat too much candy/junk...and usually my bellyache worthy choices come in batches. So I use this really great remedy, which works for me nearly every time! I can only think of once when I took a second piece of ginger (because I was still uncomfortable) and that tummy ache turned into a few days of me being very sick, so maybe nothing was stopping that bout. Anyway, as soon as my belly starts to hurt, I pop one of these candied ginger pieces! Shortly after, I feel so much better :)

Of course it'd be better if there wasn't added sugar, but I am not sure I could eat a large chunk of ginger on it's own. Each candied ginger piece is like a spicy gummy bear :) Even candied, they are still really strong. Now that I am used to the flavor, I pop them in my mouth every few days for the general anti-inflammatory effect.

See MebMD for ginger's many helpful USES. They discuss studies which have found nausea following surgery to be greatly reduced with use of ginger. It's also been used to help relieve morning sickness, and been found to be as effective as anti-nausea drugs following chemotherapy (this provided insufficient evidence, but if it may work AS WELL as someone on chemotherapy taking another medication, that seems a pretty good chance to take).

Last, but not least, the really ripe bananas that are so great for their sweetness, are also much more effective in boosting the body's immune system than bananas with a green skin, according to Japanese researchers. Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) is produced when the brown spots appear, and the more brown spots, the more TNF. TNF helps to break down cells that aren't needed, such as, and most importantly, cancer cells. In my quest for the original source, I came across this well-written description of the research/benefits.

COMMENTS: when I was first married, my hubby and I lived in London, and came across Jamaican Ginger Cakes, yum! My recipe reminds me of that treat from long ago, and the fun times we had in London. Have you ever had a McVitie's Jamaican Ginger Cake? Or is there a food that brings back memories, like these do for me? Happy weekend everybody!

Monday, January 19, 2015

Fast, Chopped, and Clean -- FROZEN Rules!

Slushy Spritz Spheres!


Lucky 7 Benefits of Frozen Vegetables and Fruits

  1. Fast -- pre-cleaned and cut
  2. High in nutrients -- picked and flash frozen at perfect ripeness
  3. Perfectly ripened -- until the moment you need them!
  4. Won't go bad -- no wasted food or money
  5. No added salt -- 2 cans of veggies exceed a healthy daily sodium intake/limit
  6. High value -- overall prices are great, especially at Costco, and you aren't buying any waste (peels, etc)
  7. Delightfully delicious dessert -- frozen fruit pureed, or as is :)

MY FAVORITES!
  • Mangoes (slippery to peel and chop myself)
  • Peppers and onions (oh, the tears!)
  • Broccoli (from Costco, you get organic and all florets -- awesome!)
  • Cherries, berries (the most delicious candy!)
BONUS: chopping fresh herbs yourself and freezing for later is one of my favorite useful tips! Just last night, I refilled my cilantro supply!

COMMENTS: Frozen, the movie, love it or hate it? I most enjoy my kids belting out the songs together ...including my little boy :)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...