iheartwellness.com

Happy Friday Y’all!

What better way to start the weekend off than with a nice, easy, wonderfully amazing recipe??

I was pleasantly surprised when I received my newsletter from Elana at ElanasPantry.com and saw this recipe. I had all the ingredients and decided to make them right away.

Elana’s Chocolate Espresso Power Bars:

10 dates
2 tsp espresso (I used Starbucks via)
1 1/2 cups pecans
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp agave nectar

If you are using dried dates soak them in warm water for about 5 minutes.

In your food processor place the pecans and coffee and blend into a meal.

Add in the cocoa powder and process.

Drain dates and add to the food processor along with the vanilla and agave. Pulse until mixed well.

Place in a 8X8 glass dish and press flat. Place bars in freezer until hard.

Oh my goodness….these bars taste just like the mocha Larabars! They are so delicious and so easy!!

These bars are so fudgy and have the best smooth taste!

Elana’s Pantry is the best site for easy desserts. Yesterday I also made what was supposed to be chocolate chip cookies, but they turned more into paper mache as I think I had a tad too much oil in the batter and each little cookie spread across the cookie sheet while baking! I ended up cutting them into a cookie bar instead They are very yummy, just a bit on the thin side.

Has that ever happened to you? Your cookies got their “spread” on?

And of course, my absolute favourite recipe from Elana’s Pantry are these Pecan Clusters - My “Turtles”! They are freezing as we speak and I am bringing a batch to our dinner party at my Nana’s tomorrow night! Perfectly vegan and they rock your socks off!

I am off to the Chiropractor and then meeting my Sis for a coffee date downtown! I hope you all have a great Friday!

What are your plans for the weekend?? What is your best vegan dessert you make?

XXOO

Kris

Howdy Everyone!

What a beautiful day here!! We decided it was such a beautiful day out, what better way to spend it at Ryan’s favourite car dealership, and walking around a favourite place of mine - Granville Island!

On the way into town (15 minute drive LOL!) we swung by ‘bucks and picked up a nice morning bevy and then off to Porsche we went!

We frequent here often as its Ryan’s second home

After seeing all the new 2010 models we hit the ocean and walked around Granville Island. The temp is like spring, the sun is out and the organic veg were rocking at the market! Nothing could be better

(Source)

Ok loves, onto the FOOD!

I am lovin’ cilantro lately! I put it on everything savoury. Ryan won’t touch the stuff with a 10 foot pole as he used to be a chef at a restaurant and he sliced the tip of his thumb off while choppin’ up these little fragrant leaves….so I am a solo cilantro eater

My salad for lunch had like 1/2 a bunch on it and my dinner last night was covered with it.

Dinner was Mexican black beans with veggies on salad. Perfectly fresh, filling and just right!

Mexican Beans:

1 can organic black beans (I used salt free beans)
1 red pepper
1 large zucchini
1 small onion
2 carrots
3 - 4 tbsp organic salsa
1 avocado
a whack of cilantro
3 cups greens
1 tbsp evoo

Heat evoo over medium heat, add onions, peppers, zucchini, and carrots and cook until tender

Add black beans to veggie mix and cook until heated

Add salsa to mixture and mix well.

Add bean and veg to plated greens and top with avocado and cilantro and a splash of salsa

Left overs are for lunch!

YUM!

I have the most amazing bar recipe to post tomorrow!! You will love them!

Do you use cilantro in many dishes? What do you love it in? Do you juice it??

XXOO
Kris

Guten Morgen my fine friends!

Weekends are always so wonderful when they are jammed packed with fun things. We went and saw Alice in Wonderland last night in 3D. What a fun movie! Johnny is definitely on my fave actors list and he amazes me in all the different “out there” roles he plays. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? I love, love, LOVED the red witches character, I think she would be the perfect Halloween costume for this year

Of course we never travel into a theatre empty handed….well empty pursed. The treats and water always seem to end up crammed in my handbag so we can sneak them in. Last night we brought some crackers and some cookies with us.

I tried a new recipe for cookies over the weekend and this one was hands down the bestest!

They have some added protein powder in them to give them a real PowerHouse punch! They are great for pre workout sessions and great to keep you full and going through a long day of shopping

Beautiful!

I found the original recipe here on fitnessista.com (thank you Gina!), but tweaked it just a smidgen I am always tweaking and modifying to what I have in the house or to my own diet. I love baking and am always up to the challenge of thinking up modifications

I don’t know about you, but when I make cookies, bars, etc. I always leave myself enough in the bowl to lick clean. I can’t wait for the bowl when I am done….I am like a little girl all over again!

Vegan PowerHouse Cookies:

Dry:

1 1/4 cup oat flour (or flour of choice)
1/2 cup rolled oats (I used organic quick oats)
1 scoop vanilla chai vega powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Wet:

1/4 cup coconut oil (or oil of choice)
1/2 cup agave nectar
3 tbsp almond butter

Mix the dry ingredients together

Mix the wet ingredients together and combine the two well.

Scoop cookies onto baking sheet and bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Today is my Mom’s Birthday!! Happy Birthday Mom

We will be heading down to the big city today and will take her out to enjoy a beautiful dinner at The Sandbar on Granville Island. Such a beautiful restaurant!

On a side note ladies, I am looking for a fab mineral makeup that works really well. I feel with mineral makeup half way through the day it is off my face or changing colour - anyone else have this issue? Do you know of a good one?? Please let me know!!

XXOO
Kris

Howdy Everyone!

Happy Friday

I wanted to take the time to go over a few of my favourite things with you all today! I fall in love with something and then I am hooked for a long time.

I recently found this super cute mug at an outing to Ikea! I love, love, LOVE this mug! Doesn’t it look like a Milk Shake glass? “My milk shake brings all the boys to the yard…..” I was singing that as I wrote it Anyways, this very trendy, pink mug is sans handle, which I thought might be a bit weird for me to get used to, but honestly it is way easier than a regular mug with a handle!

So cute!

So next on my “love” list right now is Kraut - I can’t get enough of this stuff! Now, I am not sure if many of you out there even enjoy sauerkraut, but I was raised on this stuff being part German. My nana would lay the delicious German spread out for us and we would all be in heaven

We have been topping our salads with this at lunch time and it adds such a wonderful kick to a bunch of greens

Kraut is not just a wonderful salad topper, it has many health benefits as well.

Sauerkraut’s benefits are two-fold. First, it’s made of cabbage, which is known to fight cancer, treat peptic ulcers and provides vitamin C, fiber, manganese, vitamin B6 and folate. However, because sauerkraut is fermented, it has added benefits over regular cabbage.

Fermenting produces good bacteria known as probiotics, which produce beneficial enzymes, aid digestion and promote healthy flora in the digestive tract. Fermentation also produces isothiocyanates, compounds that have been shown to prevent cancer growth in test tubes and animals.

Moving along….

I finally made these Tropical Muffins found on OhSheGlows.com!

Muffins are a wonderful baked good to keep frozen in the freezer for a quick grab snack on the way out of the house. These muffins are super healthy and full of wonderful, beneficial ingredients. I used quinoa flour in replacement of the spelt flour the recipe originally called for, I think they turned out pretty darn good You can find the recipe here.

Lately I have also been stoking my freezer with these little guys:

These “turtles” have been on my Love list for quite some time and I seem to have 1 as I graze throughout the day……I don’t even think Ryan knows they are in the freezer, so they seem to be all mine

There you have it! These are my new obsessions for the last few weeks.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I know Hudson is starting his off very relaxed. He seems to move from one sun spot to another all day

Do you like Kraut? What do you eat it with??

XXOO
Kris

Happy St. Paddy’s day everyone!!

What a beautiful day we are having here today! I don’t know about you, but these sunny, longer days keep me super excited for the hot weather that is on its way! To keep my ’sunny’ feeling alive throughout my day I have been indulging in some tropical snacks

This has been my most favourite snack or treat right now:

Fresh organic pineapple, 1 banana, shredded coconut and a sprinkle of vanilla chia vega powder - Hello Hawaii!!

My tropical passion has also blessed my smoothies in the mornings. I have replaced the usual organic apple I use in my smoothies for fresh pineapple and 1 frozen banana, unsweetened almond milk (my fave!) and a heaping scoop of vega. Woohoo this is paradise first thing in the morning! Sometimes I even get a little crazier and add a tsp of fresh ginger to my smoothies.

On my quest for more ‘vacation feeling’ eats, I came across these wonderful looking tropical muffins on OhSheGlows.com - I have yet to bake these puppies up, but I will be greasing my muffin tins for these bad boys very soon!

Here is a tid bit of info on Pineapple - It is full of vitamins and minerals and is a wonderful source of Calcium, Potassium, fibre and Vitamin C. Pineapple is also know for its bone strengthening abilities. It is super rich in manganese, which is a trace mineral needed to build bone and connective tissue. Just 1 lovely cup of pineapple gives you 73% of your daily amount of manganese.

Although we all wish we could be eating fresh picked pineapple from the sunny sands of Maui today, for those of us who are not there just yet, good ol Whole Foods can provide your tropical cravings today!

Do you love pineapple? What is your favourite way to enjoy it? Do you add it baking?

XXOO
Kris

Happy Monday Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! What did you get up to?

Thank you all for the beautiful emails and comments on my last post on Happiness! Isn’t happiness the most important thing in life? I know now how absolutely important it is for me to survive

Friday during the day I went out with my nana for a nice cup of coffee at a local starbucks and we chatted about life and just chilled out. After my day out we decided to stay in and relaxed Friday night and watched the movie 2012. Have any of you seen it? It has me so nervous and I couldn’t finish watching it all! I am not sure what to think about all this 2012 talk…..so I pretend non of it happening. Is that right of me to do? Ugh. I don’t know.

Saturday we had some running around to do, I went to my parents for some dinner and some wine Nothing beats a glass of red on the weekend!

Sunday was pretty relaxing, just the way I like it. The time change did funk me up a bit and I ended up sleeping in this morning because of it. I think I am back on my internal clock now and was back to my full energized self today. I had a really good workout to prove it

I have a New Cooking Tip from the Nana! While we visited on Friday, we discussed cooking and she showed me how she steams her veg quickly in the oven! She uses parchment paper and seals the chopped veggies up, drizzles them a tad with oil and places them in the oven. Zero clean up! I was so excited to try this, I made some delicious steam sweet potato that night

East, Oven Steamed Sweet Potato:

Preheat the oven to 425

Clean the sweet potatoes, and chop them into bite size pieces.

Take a piece of parchment paper large enough to place a whole chopped sweet potato on with enough paper left to fold over and roll up.

Sprinkle the parchment with oil and place the potatoes on, and fold the edges of the parchment together.

Place the paper wraps on a cookie sheet and place in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes. Done! So yummy and So Easy!

Thanks Nana

Do you have any quick, tips for preparing food? Do you like steamed veg? I love oven baked sweet potatoes, but understand steaming is better?

I am off to make some veggie burgers and then finally the night has come when I set up my own office

XXOO

Kris

Happy Friday My Blog Friends!

Wow, this week is over and I am so excited for the weekend! We are meeting up with a friend tonight and then possibly going to see Alice in Wonderland. Saturdays are always busy for us and Sunday we have some meetings planned, so we are looking forward to that!

I watched this very interesting TED talk with my parents last night when I was visiting with them. It is all about Happiness.

Who doesn’t want Happiness in their life? I can honestly say when I ask someone what their ultimate goal is in life, they all say Happiness. In this video titled “Plug into your hard-wired Happiness”, Srikumar Roa explains that we have true happiness already in us and we do not have get anything, do or be anything to be happy, we are hard wired with happiness and it is in our DNA.

Interesting…..so you may ask - then why am I am not happy? why does my life suck? The reason explained in this video is we have spent our entire life learning to be unhappy. HUH! Wow, I heard that and I almost fell off my seat! It makes so much sense to me!

We have all been buying into mental model of “this is how the world works” “life is supposed to be hard” “you need this type of job to be happy”, etc, But we don’t know as humans that we have these mental models.

Growing up I always loved nice things and I still do, but I am realizing as I get older it isn’t the Louis V’s and the BMW’s that are going to make me happy (they help and feel good to have ) But I don’t need these things to get me to my internal happiness. We need to be happy now within ourselves with the items and family and job we have for us to grow further.

Most of society lives in the “If then” scenario - “If I move to California, Then I will be happy” or “If I was in a relationship, Then I would be Happy”. But people find that when these things actually happen and they pack up shop and move to Cali….they don’t find their happiness.

What can you do to be Happy Everyday?

I am a firm believer in setting goals, and that everything happens for a reason. So set a goal and that might be to start your own business, keep that goal in mind but focus and enjoy the Process, not the Outcome. The outcome isn’t necessarily going to make you happy, but if you love the process (this is why I believe you have to love what you do everyday!) you will always be in Happiness or bliss.

So enjoy your processes! Everything always works the way it should when you are on the right path

I believe our lives are too short to be wasted and everyone should love more!

I know this is a tough topic for most people, so I would love to hear what you all think?? Let me know if you watch the video!

This little guy makes me happy!

To your Happiness this weekend Everyone

XXOO
Kris

Howdy Everyone!

It is Wednesday night and I am finally sitting after a very busy! My feet are up, my tea is on my table and I am enjoying some quiet music

Day 2 of my Vega 7 day challenge was a success! I didn’t snack in between my plan and I felt wonderful!

My day looked like this:

Breakfast - 1/2 serving of vanilla chia vega powder, with 1/2 apple. 1/2 banana and a tad of almond milk and filtered water.

Lunch - Mondo Salad with 1/2 an avocado, some sprouts, broccoli and my minimal dressing (1/2 tbsp evoo and 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar)

Snack - 1 apple

Dinner - I did not follow my dinner meal plan as we went out for dinner for my sis birthday. I had a rice and beans dish YUM! Happy Vegan eats out.

Snack - 1/2 serving vega in water

I felt steady and fuelled again all day

Dinner out was so nice and a great relaxation time for me. I had a glass of red wine and chilled….

Today on the other hand has been quite busy. I baked some Extra healthy cookies for Ryan and he loved them!

Kris’ Extra Healthy Cookies:

2 cups oats
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup almond butter
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
a few vegan chocolate chips

Mix the oats, coconut, cinnamon, raisins and chocolate chips together

In a separate bowl mash the banana and add the nut butter, vanilla and coconut oil

Add the wet bowl to the dry - Mix and place spoonfuls of batter on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 13 minutes

No added sugar and extra healthy = Perfect morning, afternoon or evening snack!

I am just looking at my arms and realizing I am super pasty so I am off to go self tan. I am looking for a good, natural self tanner. Do you know of a good one? Have you ever got spray tanned?

I think my sister and I will go hop in the mystic tan booth one of these days

XXOO
Kris

Hello Everyone!

Happy Tuesday to you all! Today is a very special day as it is my sisters birthday and we are going to enjoy the day together and then the family is heading out to dinner tonight. I just love birthday celebrations!

Thank you all for the wonderful comments and emails on my last post on the quick and easy red soup and of course Hudson’s new accessory. He loves the attention

I have been lacking these last couple days on the baking. I am sad about this because baking is my way to escape and relieve stress and I decided for 3 weeks I was going to stick to this 7 day vegan meal plan that I found on the Vega site and commit to it.

My reasons for following this diet was really to see if I noticed a difference in my energy. Following a vegan diet isn’t just about eating potato chips because there is no meat, but I have noticed over these last few months that it is really important to get variety, proper protein, and nutrients. The vega brand is my favorite and I know they have their stuff together when it comes to a well rounded vegan diet, so I figured heck, I will give it a try and see if they way the food is being combined makes a difference in the way my body absorbs it.

I learned that when you combine pumpkin seeds with a citrus fruit your body will absorb the iron way better! Who knew?!

I am on day 2 today and it feels really great to have all my meals already planned! On Sunday I made a list of everything I needed and loaded up!

Yesterday was a little difficult as I am such a snacker…..I wanted to eat cookies, and more fruit and I said “No” I am sticking to this so I drank a lot of water and tea’s when I felt my inner snacker appear! It was hard, I am not going to lie.

The funny thing is through these last 2 days I have noticed that I eat a lot just because it is there and I might not even be hungry at the time. Do you find that with yourself? Being at home is different than when daily office trips were made as my lunch was always set and packed and had no option to add to it. But now, wow, I could graze all day when I am home!

Day 1 of my challenge:

Breakfast - 3/4 cup of quinoa with almond milk and 1/2 sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon

Lunch - 1/2 apple, orange, and banana with vega fruit “dip” - 1/2 serving vega meal replacement and 1/2 tbsp hemp seeds.

Snack - 3 (I had 5…shhh) dates with nut butter

Dinner - 3 cups salad with 1/2 cup broccoli, 1/4 cup chick peas. 1/2 avocado. Dressing was 1/2 tbsp evoo and 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar.

Snack - 1/3 serving vega with water

Day 1 down and now onto day 2!

Surprisingly I had a lot of energy yesterday and I went to the gym in the morning worked the treadmill out and my weights and then went down to the treadmill AGAIN with Ryan in the evening! That is a lot of treadmill for me in one day

Have you ever followed a set meal plan? Do you have any tips for that snacky feeling that pops up between meals?!

XXOO

Kris

Howdy Everyone!

How was your weekend? I can’t believe it is Sunday evening already and the weekend is all over.

Our weekend was full of beach visits, meetings, shopping and eating When we go out on our weekend treks we always bring a whack of snacks with us to keep us fuelled and fresh. I made a total of 3 batches of these orange-cocoa cookies! I didn’t eat all of them myself, I did share and handed some out as our days went on

Today was a tad rainy and when we came home we decided it was a perfect night to make some soup….well it turned out more like stew - Hearty, Beefy, Good. Minus the Beef of course! Lentils were the mean protein source of this soup!

Instead of my usual bouillon cubes I went a little more high class today and used this Pacific Natural Foods brand Vegetable Broth - Amazing!

Here is the red soup:

Easy Red Soup:

2 large beets
3 carrots
1 onion
2 broccoli heads
1 large sweet potato
1 1/2 cups lentils
1 tbsp evoo
1 500 ml vegetable broth
2 cups water
sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In your soup pot, heat oil over medium heat and add onion

Cook onion until tender, add chopped carrots and beets

Pour in the broth and water, add lentils, broccoli and sweet potatoes

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, season with salt and pepper and serve!

This is such an easy and nutritious soup!

Since last week I have been drowning myself in organic pineapples from Whole Foods. I can’t stop eating them. On Saturday night we made a special trip to whole foods just for my pineapples….I am that crazy in love with them right now! I don’t know about you, but my favourite treat is pineapple and chocolate so tonight after my coffee meet up with my good friend Melissa I ate some of this:

Tasty, Sweet, Chocolaty Goodness!

Take some good (It has to be GOOD pineapple) and add some delicious dark, vegan chocolate chips! I usually melt some chocolate and drizzle it over my pineapple chunks, but I didn’t have the time for that tonight. Just straight to the goods for me!

Tomorrow I will be sharing something I am starting with you all!

OH! I almost forgot - Hudson got a new harness today! Isn’t it spiffy? Thanks mom and dad, you are the best grand doggie parents ever! I tell ya, this guy is so spoiled. Last week my sister bought him a bag of all natural peanut butter and parsley treats, and my nana treats him to some good ol’ german sausage whenever he stops by. He thanks you all

What is your Favourite fruit to drizzle with chocolate or pour chocolate chips over?

XXOO
Kris