Pineapple Coconut Smoothie

Today was such a gloomy and rainy day. I feel like Mother Nature is confused, one day it's 74 degrees outside and the next it's down to 40 degrees. I needed a little pick me up to remind me that summer is just around the corner and I also had a pineapple that was waiting to be cut. I thought that a pineapple coconut smoothie sounded delicious. 

2 cups of fresh pineapple

2 cups of coconut milk

1 tray of ice cubes

3 tbsp honey

 

Throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Top with toasted coconut shavings and you can even throw in a tbsp of chia seeds for the added nutrition.

Coconut Chai Tea with chia seeds

This week Louis and Jowell managed to catch a cold, I'm pretty sure it was my fault because I jinxed us by saying we probably won't get sick this year because we haven't gotten sick this far...now I'm kicking myself for that. Now this morning I woke up with a little tickle in my throat so I quickly took a spoon full of coconut oil and stuck it in my mouth to oil pull so I could stop this cold in it's tracks. And it completely worked, no more tickle and no more sneezing, now only if I could get Louis and Jowell to oil pull (haha yea in my dreams) then we can get rid of this cold once and for all. I'm just glad that the cold doesn't seem to be that bad for Jowell, just a runny nose and sneezing, he did unfortunately get sick all over his blanket last night so I had to throw in a load of laundry at 3am, but he woke up happy so that was a plus.

My little one is also starting to get little teeth. I actually had no idea until his Abuela noticed when she was babysitting two days ago so me and Louis could run to the store. Thankfully he hasn't gone through the rough part of teething because he has been wearing an Amber teething necklace since he was a week old. The most that he has done was drool a lot and chew on his hands. I'm so glad I still have my happy little baby, I can't wait to see those little teeth pop out in a week or two! 

I also decided that since I was getting a little sick I needed a healthy morning breakfast. Yesterday I made some Chai tea concentrate and also bought Silk coconut milk so some coconut chai tea sounded delicious and for a healthy boost I added some chia seeds. 

Coconut Chai Tea with Chia Seeds:

2 cups of coconut milk (I used Silk vanilla coconut milk which I found at shoprite)

1/4 cup of chai tea concentrate

2 tbsp chia seeds

Pour the coconut milk and chai tea into a cup and mix around, add the chia seeds and let sit for about 2 hours in the fridge until the chia seeds are puffed up. When you are ready to drink stir the chia seeds and the chai spices that settled at the bottom of the cup, sprinkle some cinnamon on top and enjoy.

Cauliflower buffalo bites

Who doesn't like buffalo wings? They are the bees knees in my book but they can obviously be pretty unhealthy considering they are deep fried. A healthy and really scrumptious alternative is cauliflower buffalo bites. And don't worry they taste just as great as buffalo wings, the only down side in my book is they aren't crispy like wings would be. They are extremely easy to make and they are like potato chips, once you pop one in your mouth you won't be able to stop. 

What you'll need:

1 head of cauliflower

3/4 cup of flour

1 cup of milk

1 heaping tablespoon of garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of butter

1/2 cup of franks red hot sauce (I choose the buffalo flavor)

Preheat the over to 450 degrees. 

Rinse off the cauliflower, chop off the stem and the leaves. Cut the cauliflower into little bite sized pieces.

In a bowl all the flour, garlic powder and milk, whisk together until smooth.

Season with a bit of salt and pepper

Grab a hand full of florets and dump them in the batter. 

Now use your hands and make sure to coat all sides of the florets. Make sure to let any extra batter drip off.

Take a baking sheet and line with aluminum foil and grease with olive oil spray. 

Take the florets and spread them onto the pan.

Spray another layer of olive oil on top of the florets

Place in the oven and bake for 18 minutes.

Remove them and let them sit for a few minutes to cool down a bit.

In a small pot melt the butter into the franks red hot sauce. 

Now that the cauliflower is cooled a bit remove them from the pan and put them in a bowl

Pour the hot sauce mixture over the florets

Use a spoon and gently coat all of the florets.

Spray a little more olive oil on to the aluminum and place the florets back into the baking sheet and bake for another 7 minutes. 

Remove from the pan and serve with ranch of blue cheese dressing.

Original recipe from: http://m.self.com/blogs/flash/2013/02/recipe-pinterest-found-cauliflower-buffalo-wings.html

Not so hot Mexican Nutella chia hot chocolate

Louis really hates when ever I try and get him to try something healthy. I have to twist his arm or sneak it into something with out him noticing. He wasn't a huge fan of the coconut banana chia pudding I made last night, and he had asked me to make some Mexican hot chocolate. I decided to keep a mug full to add some chia seeds into it and see how it turned out in hopes that Louis would warm up to it a little more. I tried it today and it's not as thick as the chia pudding but it reminds me more of a bubble tea just with smaller bubbles and healthier for you. This hot chocolate isn't the healthiest version of hot chocolate that can be made so feel free to swap out some of the ingredients to your liking but I just used what we had on hand. 

What you'll need:

1/2 tablet of Abuelita's Mexican hot chocolate

2 cups of 2% milk or you can use coconut, almond or soy milk in it's place.

1/8 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbsp Nutella 

2 tbsp chia seeds

In a pot heat the milk on medium heat until it slowly starts to bubble, make sure to watch the pot closely because the milk can boil over extremely quickly.

Next add in the 1/2 Abuelita's hot chocolate tablet and mix until dissolved

Next add in the chili powder, cinnamon and Nutella and whisk into the mix.

Take the pot off the heat and add the vanilla extract.

Pour the hot mixture into a mason jar or cup and stir in the chia seeds.

Let the mixture sit over night in the fridge.

When you are ready to drink it stir around a little to loosen up some of the chia seeds that got stuck together, sprinkle some cinnamon on top and enjoy. 

Coconut banana chia pudding

So lately my news feeds have been filled with people getting fit for summer. I have been dragging my feet in getting back to taking care of myself, I think I just got so comfortable eating like crap while I was pregnant. Before I was pregnant with Lennox I was on a all natural health kick, which was seriously awesome, I had never felt so great in my life. I was making clean, fresh meals, taking vitamins everyday and working out 6 times a week. I had lost 20lbs and had so much energy. So when I started becoming really tired all the time, I had headaches all day and felt nauseous I knew something was up...low and behold I was pregnant. I unfortunately used that as an excuse to stray from the healthy life style I was living, so now I have to start all over again and get back on track. I'm not going to go on one of my binge diets so don't worry I will still have delicious (not so healthy) recipes on here once in a while but I am also going to try and find healthier meals to cook. My goal is to ease my way back into a healthier life style. I don't like any of those crazy fad diets because trust me I have tried them all, and while yea some of them work they make you hate your life because you don't get to enjoy the things you like. It makes you start despising the idea of eating healthy, which in turn makes you give up and revert to your old ways. 

I am in no way trying to be a skinny Minnie because that's not my body type. I have always been on the chunkier side even when I was fairly small. I just want to feel better and healthier over all. And don't get me started on "cheat meals" I really hate those, because while yea it's nice to treat yourself once in a while I feel like people put themselves in diet jail so you start getting ravenous for that cheat meal after eating like a rabbit for a couple of weeks, then once it's time for the cheat meal you can't really refrain your self from eating more than what your "diet" allows, then you feel horrible, want to give up because now your a horrible slob that doesn't have any self control (don't worry I'm not talking about you, this is just from personal experience), you suck at life and now you want to die because you are never going to loose weight (I know I'm a bit dramatic). So if you are eating healthy but want that cookie then eat the dam cookie, but also remember not to go over board and eat the whole box of cookies. 

I also have to be extremely creative when I start eating healthier because even though Louis is a type 1 diabetic he hates being reminded at every meal that he is, and he refuses to eat like a rabbit, so I always have to make some thing healthy and something that also tastes good. That's why I liked the idea of chia seeds, it's something small that you can add to a dish and it will give you that burst of nutrition with out you even really noticing....

I have been reading about chia seeds a lot. On little seed that packs so much punch in the health department is a winner in my book. It has no taste but will amplify the taste of what ever it is added too. It also helps balance blood sugar which is a huge plus because Louis is a type 1 diabetic. 

So this is my new favorite go to health food, and when they say it helps cut food craving they are 100% right. I am notorious for night time binge eating but ate a couple of spoon fulls if the chia pudding I made last night because I was curious of how it would taste and that filled me up like crazy. I had no craving at all to eat some of my Ben & Jerry's ice cream even though it was very tempting. The pudding I made was coconut milk, banana cinnamon and it is extremely easy to make.

You will need: 

1 1/2 cups of coconut milk (either from the can or you can get the one that silk makes, they don't carry it at Walmart but they have it at shoprite)

2-3 tbsp honey or agave nectar (I like the agave because it doesn't mess with a diabetics glucose levels at all)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp chia seeds

Mix that all up in a cup or bowl (I used a mason jar) cover and place into fridge for about 4 hours or even over night. This will allow the chia seeds to absorbed the liquid from the coconut milk and puff up a little to create the pudding. Then when you get ready to eat it, slice 1/2 of a banana into it, sprinkle some more cinnamon over top and enjoy. (Also if you think it is too thick for your liking you can always add 1/2 a cup of coconut milk or even 2% milk into the jar and mix) 

I also made hot chocolate last night and added a little Nutella to the mix and decided to try and add some chia seeds to that to see how it will turn out, I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you know how it was and if it's good I'll post another recipe for it :)