Three Bean Vegetarian Chili

For my healthy dinners!

INGREDIENTS:
1 Chopped Onion
1 Chopped Green Pepper
Pinch Cumin, be careful with cumin, I made the mistake of putting too much and it overpowered the flavor
Sea Salt, to taste
Generous Amounts Chili Powder
1 Crushed Garlic
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
1 Can Stewed Tomatoes, or you can just do another can of diced
1 Can Corn Niblets
1 Can Red Kidney Beans
1 Can Black Beans
1 Can Pinto Beans, optional, my chili got too big to put this in. lol!
Red Crushed Chili Peppers, to your finicky or fiery taste
1 or 1.5 Packet Club House Hot N Spicy Chili, totally optional

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large pot with olive oil to coat the bottom glaze the onions, crushed garlic, green peppers, sea salt, pinch of cumin (once again watch out for this as you don't want to make a mistake and put too much and over power the beautiful chili flavor like I did! lol!) and a generous amount of chili powder. Glaze the onions until they're see through.
2. Then get a good can opener and a strong wrist and open all the cans and have a party pouring it all in there!
3. Stir and add more chili powder, sea salt and Hot n Spicy Chili packet (optional) to taste. This is when you'll add in the crushed chili peppers. Add whatever floats your boat. A dash for the timid, and a dump for the daring hawt one's. ;D

NOTE: Can adapt this easily for meat lovers by adding ground beef after glazing the onion mix.

Enjoy!

My last hurrah!! ...

till Miami beach!!

Homemade Sticky Toffee Pudding. Nuff said!

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:
1 cup Plus 1 Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
¾ cup Pitted Dates (Preferably Medjool)
1 ¼ cups Boiling Water
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
¼ cup Unsalted Butter, softened
¾ cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 large Egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp Vanilla

Toffee Sauce:
½ cup Unsalted Butter
½ cup Heavy Cream, (is 35-37% fat which is the same as whipping cream)
1 cup Packed Light Brown Sugar
1 cup Whipping Cream (For Topping Or Icecream), whipped

DIRECTIONS:
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (I use 325℉ as my oven is hot). Butter a 10-inch round or square baking dish or ramekins.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl.
3. Chop the dates fine. Place in a small bowl or blender and add the boiling water, blend in the blender and then add the baking soda; set aside.
4. In a bowl of electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until blended. Gradually beat in the flour mixture.
5. Add the date mixture to the batter and fold until blended with a rubber spatula.
6. Pour into the prepared baking dish or ramekins. For ramekins be sure not to over fill as the baking soda will make it rise alot. Bake until pudding is set and firm on top, about 35 minutes.
7. Remove from oven to a wire rack.

Toffee Sauce: 
1. Combine the butter, heavy cream and brown sugar in a small heavy saucepan.
2. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil gently over medium low heat until mixture is thickened, about 8 minutes.
3. Using a skewer, toothpick or fork poke holes into the pudding whether in pan or ramkins.
4. Then spoon the sauce onto each pudding so that it soaks in, leaving a ½ cup of sauce to drizzle over when serving.
5. To serve later reheat puddings and leftover sauce in microwave. (OPTIONAL: Preheat broiler. Spoon about ⅓ cup of the sauce over the pudding. Spread evenly on top. Place pudding under the broiler until the topping is bubbly, about 1 minute.)
6. Whip the cream.
7. Serve warmed puddings in dessert bowls. Drizzle with warmed toffee sauce and top with a spoonful of whipped cream OR serve with vanilla icecream.

A Truly Green Green Smoothie

Finally my truly green green smoothie...

Banana Berry Spinach Spirulina Smoothie

I have a tendency to make berry smoothies with blueberries and blackberries that always come out dark. So this time I decided to make a delectably delicious banana, strawberry, raspberry, spinach and spirulina green smoothie — that's a mouthful! — that tastes divine and gives that wondrous green colour instead of the muted dark sludge colour that doesn't look so appetizing in pictures but is none-the-less divine in taste.

This is another one of my yummie anti-aging smoothies that I always have in the mornings. I just mix up the fruit and the various powders in it to create the different flavours.

Spirulina My Super-Duper-Food

I suffer from low iron stores. Or should I say used to suffer from low iron stores. My doc told me I can get good iron from kale but to remember to add vitamin C to it in order to absorb the iron. I went a step further and researched and found out that Spirulina, a blue green algae superfood, has a super high iron, protein and vitamin A content. It has 93 times more iron than steak, 2.5 times more beta carotene than carrots, 2 times more protein than ground beef and 8 times more chlorophyll than spinach! It packs a wallop! So with just adding that to my smoothie every morning — which by the way you don't taste with all the other fruits your adding — along with sodium ascorbate vitamin C powder, I went from an iron store of 9 (below 10 is BAD) to a whopping 30! I have never been 30 in my life and I used to eat alot of protein. I even have my Dad taking it now.

My favourite brands are Nu-Greens Spirulina that I get at my favourite local health food store. They have THE best prices in the city. And Pure Hawaiian Spirulina Pacifica by Nutrex in a dark glass bottle that I get from iherb.com, an amazing, great price, great shipping online store. Would you believe that Nutrex Spirulina lasted me 3.5 years and was as fresh as the day I got it. When I first got it a had a health crisis and couldn't take anything, no supplements, no superfoods for 3 years. So it went in the cupboard for all that time. When I finally took it out I couldn't bear to throw it away before trying it as it smelled and looked as fresh as when I bought it. Well surprise, surprise it was! And I was able to use it up. You can't say that about many health foods. Lol!

• Baby spinach
• 4 Baby carrots
• 1/8 Slice of avocado (for creamy smoothness)
• Frozen bananas, strawberries, raspberries
• Spirulina
• Goji berries (more beta-carotene then carrots, high in zeaxanthin for eye health, health tonic)
• Maca (hormone balancing, energizing, libido boosting, fertility boosting to menopause calming miracle food. lol!)
• Ground flax and chia (great source of omega-3's and fibre)
• Sodium ascorbate Vitamin C (to absorb the iron, immune boosting, no more colds, or viral conjunctivitis! Yeah! It also alkalizes you and is perfect for gout sufferers! Another yeah!)
• Protein powder (I use unsweetened plain whey, can use plant based)
• Milk or unsweetened almond milk

Simply put all ingredients in a blender (LOVE my Nutribullet! Tip: for Canadians, Canadian Tire has great prices.) and blend until smooth and creamy. Only takes about 20 seconds or less in my Nutribullet. If you feel inspired and want to go for that yummy chewy goodness garnish with some more goji berries, fresh fruit, oats, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried blueberries, currents, etc. The sky's the limit.

Sip or spoon and enjoy the breakfast of champions!

Kitty Bloopers

Did you just garnish
me Mommy? I seem to
have a third eye.

I wanna!

Why thank you Mommy 
you shouldn't have!

Feeling for Spring — Ah Spring Rolls

Spring rolls are so light and refreshing and they're so healthy too. Great way to kick off a clean eating and clean those arteries plan especially when you let a few too many indulging binges set in. It's time to regroup and recorrect. I already did a nice stretchy yoga practice the other day to stretch those arteries — Dr. Oz says elastic arteries are very good for you and yoga is the best way to get there — so now, what better way to blast them clean with a clean eating plant based diet. Besides, it makes me feel like spring even though we're heading into ol' man winter again. ;) 

Ingredients

• orange peppers (go wild and choose whatever colours you like)

• alfalfa sprouts (go wild again and choose whatever sprouts float your boat)

• baby spinach or mixed greens

• shredded carrot slaw

• rice paper

• hummus (I have a red pepper version here)

• protein of choice (quinoa, fish, shrimp, chicken, etc. I used chicken.)

Directions

Start by putting very warm water into a large frying pan. Soak and roll one rice paper at a time. Place the rice paper in the water and soak for about 30 seconds to a minute until pliable. Gently place on a cutting board and place your ingrediants in the bottom third of the paper lengthwise. Fold over one end and roll halfway then fold the sides and complete the roll. Continue doing this one at a time. To serve put a dollop of hummus or as I do go wild with the hummus on every bite. Yum! 

If you don't plan on eating them right away wrap them individually in saranwrap or wax paper and store. 

My Youth Infusing Anti-Aging Super Foods Green Smoothie Breakfast

Very refreshing and surprisingly filling in the morning. And it makes me feel like I'm starting my day out on the right foot and getting in a good quota of my veggies, fruits, anti-oxidants, vitamins, omega-3's and super foods. What a great way to start my day! 

Along with my veggies and berries — I only use berries to stay low glycemic since I have a severe sugar sensitivity, can't even use stevia(!), though in the pic above I cheated with a sliver of orange as I was wrestling with a cold trying to get it's grubby hands on me — here's a sampling of some of the superfoods I like to put in my green smoothie:

I like to add some chard grown straight from my organic windowbox garden on my balcony. How neat is that!

And here's the final product pulverized in my amazing NutriBullet. It got darker because I used some blueberries and dark berry powders. Depending on the fruit (i.e., light fruit) and greens (i.e., baby spinach) you can get a really beautiful bright green drink:

Don't let the looks fool you, it tastes absolutely divine and SO nutritious! Because the cell walls of the veggies and fruits are pulverized in the high powered blender it's literally like your giving yourself an intravenous shot of nutrition. Your body absorbs and assimilates it way better than chewing! Yet you still get the beneficial fiber which slows a bit of the rate of absorption so your not getting such a glycemic load on your system.

I used to think it was all a bit of hype the better absorption with blending than with chewing. But I found out quickly that though I can eat baby spinach salads, yet for the longest while (about 3 years) I couldn't drink blended baby spinach or chard even. The magnesium in them was WAY too bioavailable this way and I was getting way too vivid and trippy dreams from the magnesium overload. I'm very sensitive to magnesium can ya tell! Lol! Now that I've finally built up a tolerance I can blend them to my hearts content.

My Green Smoothie Recipe

Here's my base smoothie recipe. Note that I choose organic whenever possible. Since I'm ingesting this everyday, I need to be as organic as I can make it otherwise you're just defeating the purpose ingesting so much pesticides day in and day out. For liquids I usually use milk or unsweetened vanilla almond milk:

Veggies:

• Greens to rotate: kale – great for iron, chard, baby spinach, collards, romaine, arugula, watercress, go wild)

• Baby carrots

• Cucumber: sometimes, very refreshing, apparently great for hair

• A sliver of avocado: gives a lovely creaminess to the smoothy!

Fruits:

• Frozen organic berries: just a little for a touch of sweetness and flavour, it's low glycemic and sometimes safe for me to have, organic whenever possible

• Orange: 1/8th slice, if I have a cold

• Mango: when cheating, gives great flavour and a lovely creamy texture

Superfoods:

• Goji berries

• Maca powder

• Spirulina powder: I like Pure Hawaiian Spirulina by Nutrex, the freshest taste ever! High in protein and iron, fantastic blood builder, etc. I'll alternate this with barleygrass or wheatgrass.

• Sprouted ground flax with cranberries: for omega-3's, sometimes I just grind my own

• Vitamin C: Sodium Ascorbate powder: to absorb the iron in my kale, as I have low iron stores

• Whey Protein Powder: Great muscle, collagen, hair, skin and nails builder! My nails have never been so diamond hard and grow so fast in my life. And my muscles, holy cow, respond super-fast to weight work with it and maintain their shape longer. Amazing! I try to buy only cold-processed so it doesn't denature the proteins. And also I try to look for whey that's high in glutamine for gut repair and high in BCAA's for great muscle recovery. For strict vegetarians there's a great variety of non-animal based one's to choose from.

And there you have it my breakfast of champions!