citrus ginger smoothie to fight colds

Fighting off another family cold, Arlo and I decided to make "flu-fighter sunshine smoothie" from the oh she glows cookbook. Delicious! Citrus, ginger, lemon & cayenne to fight off any cold or flu, plus maple syrup to sweeten it up. Packed full of goodness!

flu-fighter sunshine smoothie by Angela Liddon

2 oranges
2 tbsps lemon juice
1 tsp grated ginger
1-3 tsps maple syrup
3 to 5 ice cubes
pinch of cayenne

throw in a blender and mix until desired consistency

check out http://ohsheglows.com/ for tons of amazing vegan recipes or pick up a copy of oh she glows cookbook (my current favorite cookbook) and be on the lookout for Angela's newest cookbook oh she glows every day (it's on my Christmas list!)

Vegan Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins

After an amazing day apple picking, I got straight to baking this morning. My oldest son Levi is now going to school, so we are on the lookout for new and creative lunch box treats. Naturally, my top choice is muffins. After searching for a new recipe I came across this one (see below). Levi hasn't had a chance to taste test them yet, but they are Arlo (21 months) approved!

These muffins came out super moist and tasty. To make them lunch box friendly use soy milk instead of almond milk (to avoid the nuts), and depending on your love of cinnamon, you could reduce the total amount to 2 tsp.

Vegan Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins 

by Averie Sunshine

Ingredients:

Apples
1 1/2 cups apple, diced small + 1/4 cup apple, diced small, reserved for topping
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Batter
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I used soy to make it lunch box friendly)
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted (vegetable or canola oil may be substituted)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup plus all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt, optional and to taste
optional for sprinkling; pinch of turbinado sugar & cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a non-stick 12-cup regular muffin pan very well with floured cooking spray or grease and flour the pan; set aside. (I don't prefer the cosmetic look of muffin liners and I am not sure if the paper will stick to the muffins)
2. For the Apples - In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups apples, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, and toss to coat. The flour helps prevent apples from sinking during baking; set aside.
3. Batter - In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork.
4. Add the sugar, milk (room temp milk will prevent coconut oil from re-solidifying; if it does anyway, some small clumps are okay), oil, vanilla, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, nutmeg, and whisk until combined.
5. Add 1 cup flour, baking powder, optional salt, and stir until just combined; don't overmix. Batter is quite thick and if yours is seemingly too thick, add a tiny additional splash of milk to thin it.
6. Fold in 1 1/2 cups apples and any loose flour in bottom of bowl.
7. Divide batter equally among the cavities of the prepared pan. Each cavity will be about 3/4 full. Spraying a one-quarter cup measure with cooking spray so the batter slides right off is handy here.
8. Using the reserved 1/4 cup diced apples, top each muffin with a couple pieces, divided equally.
9. Optionally add a pinch of turbinado sugar and pinch of cinnamon to each muffin top.
10. Bake for about 17 to 18 minutes, or until tops are domed, puffed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling but no batter. Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 10 to 15 minutes before removing and placing on a rack to cool completely. Muffins will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

vegan banana and chia muffins

I made these muffins recently when I had a bunch of over ripe bananas and a large bag of chia seeds waiting to be used. I googled #vegan #banana #chia and found this recipe. Normally I'm not a huge fan of gluten free muffins, but these ones were good, and the kids LOVED them! They are super easy to make, and turned out nice and moist.

I substituted ground flax for ground almonds, and rice flour instead of tapioca flour, as I didn't have any on hand.

Vegan Banana and Chia Muffins

Author: Paleo With Mrs P

Recipe type: Breakfast, Snack, Treat, Kids

Serves: 10

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• 2tbsp Chia
• 4 ripe bananas (approx 650g)
• 1 cup almond butter
• 70g ground almonds
• 2 tbsp tapioca flour
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 ° c
2. In to a large mixing bowl place your bananas and mash until smooth and gloopy
3. Add in your almond butter and mix thoroughly
4. Now fold in the tapioca flour, ground almonds and baking powder and combine
5. Add in the maple syrup and mix in
6. Add in the chia seeds, mix in and allow to stand for 3-4 minutes
7. In to a non stick muffin / cup cake pan place about 1.5tbsp mixture in to each and then place in to the oven for 25 minutes until they have risen and the tops are firm
8. They might still feel a little soft, but don't worry- as they cool they will firm up a lot
9. Allow to fully cool before taking out of the muffin pan and enjoy!

from kidney stones to cute glass water bottles

A couple of months ago I ended up in the emergency room with extreme pain and 2 kidney stones. The most likely cause being dehydration. With 2 kids, breastfeeding and lack of sleep, I was not drinking enough water. It's no excuse, but it's what happened. As much as we are told how important it is to drink water, we forget, or at least I did. It's not just a fad, it's super important, not just to make our skin look better, but to maintain our health. So my recipe for today is very simple:

water

directions: pour it in a glass or cute bottle, sip often, bring it with you

optional: add lemon or cucumber slices

To help make water drinking more desirable, I searched for a cute, eco-friendly water bottle, and discovered an awesome company called bkr run by 2 women who hold the same ideals as me.

Tal Winter and Kate Cutler were two intelligent, fashionable, cultured women in love with everything glowing and glamorous—but realized they were drinking from trash: cheap, disposable, plastic water bottles. Not glamorous. Instead, they wanted to drink from something clean, clear, soft and beautiful that felt like a couture accessory and not camping equipment. A product to be loved, not tossed away—a product they believed they could design. So they quit their jobs, said yes to the adventure, and recreated their lives.

Four years later bkr has gained a dedicated following, earning its reputation as a coveted beauty essential and the solution to staying hydrated. Each season bkr releases limited edition collections inspired by runway trends in New York, London, Paris and Milan. Always BPA-free, phthalate-free, adorable and addictive. Welcome to your newest obsession.

I wanted to support this company, and make water drinking attractive for others, so I decided to sell them at our yoga studio. For every bottle sold, we will donate $2 to an awesome foundation that is located across the street from us, and who's hardworking employees practice at Luna; the Make a Wish Foundation "granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy".

healthy sweet potato apple muffins

For the past 3 years I've been hosting a Hudson Harvest Retreat in my hometown. It's a day filled with some of my favorite things: yoga, apple picking, delicious vegetarian food, market browsing and lots of fresh country air. Everyone goes home with a bag of organic apples ready to be eaten.

If you've read my blog before you know that we love muffins in our house. They're great for snacks, and kids love them, so I'm always on the look out for new healthy recipes. With a fresh bag of apples in my fridge and some homemade applesauce, I searched for a new recipe and found a sweet potato muffin recipe from Haute and Healthy Living on Yummly. Yummly is an amazing source for recipes, it's easy to use, and allows you to save recipes, rate them, etc. I altered the sweet potato recipe I found and came up with this...

 

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 3/4 cups of pure maple syrup
• 1 tbsp. of chia seeds
• 2 cups of kamut flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• Top with a light sprinkle of chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Peel and chop sweet potato into small chunks. Boil for 10 mins. Mash the sweet potato well in the mixing bowl.
3. Add the milk, vanilla, oil, maple syrup and applesauce (wet ingredients). Add chia seeds and let sit.
4. Combine all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
5. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until well mixed.
6. Take a muffin tray and spray each muffin round with cooking spray. Pour the muffin mixture evenly into 12 muffin rounds.
7. Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.
8. Bake another 5 minutes until nothing sticks to a sharp knife when inserted into the center of the muffin.
9. Enjoy when cool enough to bite into. Let them sit a good 10 minutes and they'll lose some of their moisture. At first they may seem very dense.

Nutrients per serving (for one muffin):
Servings: 12 • Calories: 178 • Fat: 5.6 g • Carbohydrates: 31 g • Fibre: 3.4 g • Protein: 3.2 g • Sugar: 14.3 g • Sodium: 227 mg • Cholesterol: 0 mg

Culinist: recipes + fresh ingredients delivered to your door

The Culinist is an amazing concept. They create meals using fresh, seasonal ingredients each week, then deliver the exact ingredients + recipe to your door. The recipes are created by chefs, then put up online for you to choose from. Most take less than 35 minutes to prepare. Once you've chosen your recipes, the ingredients are carefully selected and sent to your door weekly. All the packaging is recyclable or biodegradable. It comes out to approximately $8-10 a meal (per person), and you can cancel at any time.

I love the idea as I often find the toughest part about cooking is choosing what to make, and then making sure I have all the ingredients. The only downfall for us is that there are only 2 vegetarian options. If there was a vegan version (or just more vegan options), I would be totally into it!

If you're interested in trying it out, let me know and I can send you a coupon for 2 free meals, that's how I found out about it from my friend Marissa!

www.culiniste.ca

Vegan EnerChia Bars

I'm definitely a snacker, and have tried many healthy bars in my lifetime, but I never found one that I really liked until now... My husband came home a couple of weeks ago and said a guy came into our yoga studio selling healthy bars that were locally made and vegan, so he bought a box to resell. I rolled my eyes and questioned whether he'd made a good decision. I'm on maternity leave, so he's in charge. People come into the studio to try to sell us stuff all the time. Most of it we either don't like, or we don't need. We don't have a huge retail section, and many of our students are rushing out after class so they don't have time to 'shop'. We've also tried selling granola bars in the past, and I ended up eating most of them.

The following week I went to the studio for our Mom & Baby Yoga class. I grabbed one of the bars (with the lowest expectations), and was so pleasantly surprised, that I stocked my purse with a couple extra ones. They are moist, chewy and delicious! The fact that they are vegan and locally made only makes them that much better. I thought the peanut butter chocolate one would be my favorite, but I've been addicted to the chocolate coconut & almond one. Apparently the almond, cranberry & goji berry is very popular amongst yogis, but I have yet to try it.

We are proud to support EnerChia, and now sell all 3 flavors at Luna Yoga.