You’ve had a long day and just need to crash on the couch. The last thing you want to do is think about making dinner. And if you’re like my family once was, you like the idea of reaching for the take-out menus. Some days, it’s just the easiest way to feed the family. But as we found out, it’s easy for the “once in a while” delivery meal to become a twice-weekly ritual. Before we knew it, our clothes became tight and we felt more sluggish. Now that I eat clean, I’m always interested in exciting my family about healthy, wholesome comfort food especially pizza. For all those who celebrate Pizza Friday, try adding this easy and healthy recipe into your rotation. It takes only a few minutes to prepare and even less time to cook. Better yet, my son loved creating his own pizza, making it a fun family activity even before he took a bite.
Easy Kid Recipe: Healthy Homemade Pizza
Easy Recipe: Veggie Chili
There are times that I love the cold and dreary weather. When I’m wrapped in a furry blanket, nestled into my couch or eating piping hot, comfort food like chili, I actually don’t mind winter. One of my favorite seasonal foods is a satisfying veggie chili. A bean-filled, spice induced vegetarian chili is a good, ol’ comforting meal that provides a ton of nutrients. It’s easy to prepare and cook, plus it’s satisfying with just a small serving. Dump these simple ingredients in a crock-pot before work. Then return home early evening to a ready-made meal. Plus, there’s often enough to freeze, so chili leftovers are a breeze.
Image of chili spices
My not-so-secret ingredient is the cacao powder. What special ingredients do you love in your chili?
Simple Chili Tools
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Recipes: Wellness Smoothies & Green Juice
It’s Wellness Wednesday and I typically post our latest Pretty Wellness Health Minute YouTube episode today. However, it hasn’t been such a well week for us. Was it the after effects of the flu shot? Too little sleep due to our ever-so-busy schedule? Or just a little bug that will eventually go away without really harming anyone? Nobody knows (yet). Nonetheless, our energy is zapped, so our regularly scheduled program will return next Wednesday. And while we may be down and out, we still embrace wellness, so I thought I’d share our latest healthy drink favorites. Here are some nutrient packed smoothies and my latest zesty green-juice. In case you missed them on the Pretty Wellness social media accounts, I wanted to post them on the blog.
Be well and feel well.
Easy Recipe: Healthy Zucchini Muffins
Open a health book, read a wellness magazine or talk to any doctor about which foods are valuable to live a long life and the answer is often a well-colored mix of vegetables. As a cancer survivor and fitness magazine lover, I adapted to a plant-based diet easily. For my family, however, this has been more of a challenge, especially for my 5-year old. So when I heard about the #ONENEWFOOD challenge, I jumped on board. I’m the mom that makes her son try everything, so this is right up my alley. Since we get stuck in a food rut often, the initiative motivated me to be creative and re-introduce foods we don’t eat often. Last week, we enjoyed kale chips daily. This week, we made zucchini three different ways.
Knowing that raw vegetables contain a ton of nutrients and antioxidants, I started there. I figure if my son likes them raw, it’s an easy snack. I cut the zucchini in chip sizes and added a scoop of sunbutter (sunflower seed butter is a great alternative for those with nut allergies) and ketchup as dips. I wouldn’t say he devoured it, but ate enough to call it a minor success.
The following day, I tried shredding the zucchini and roasting it. He dilly-dallied, leaving the veggies for last, but did take two bites. He claimed it was “disgusting” and gave it a thumbs down while he strung it across his plate.
So lastly, I opened up a cookbook of old family recipes, one of which was for zucchini muffins. I tweaked my mother’s original recipe, making substitutions like whole wheat flour, coconut sugar and blueberries. I knew this would be a hit because frankly, muffins are just little healthy cakes. However, knowing that a home-baked healthy cake is healthier than store-bought, packaged waffles, I figured I could sell this as a breakfast item. Of course, he loved it. My husband even thought it was sweet and tasty.
Easy Recipe: Healthy Zucchini Muffins
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 3 tsp. vanilla
- 3 tsp. cinnamon
- ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups zucchini (with peel)
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 cup frozen blueberries (or ½ cup raisins)
- Grease/spray cupcake pans
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees
- Whip eggs until fluffy.
- Add other ingredients in order mentioned until moistened. Do not over beat.
- Bake 25-minutes on 350 degrees. Cool for five minutes.
Please comment below on your favorite homemade healthy goods?
Join the #ONENEWFOOD challenge. Check out the other trials and tribulations of mother’s encouraging kids to try new foods, many recipes are included.
Easy Recipe: Kale Chips
After any health scare, it’s fairly easy to adopt new healthy habits. Now 11 months into my plant-based eating diet, I continue to stay focused because I understand the health benefits and feel vibrant within my own body. While I’ve found some new nutritious cravings, it’s not necessarily easy to entice my family to drink green juice, veggie-packed smoothies or daily salads. My family eats a lot cleaner than it did a year ago, but I’m still working on adding more vegetables to their meals without them kicking and screaming. So when I stumbled upon the #ONENEWFOOD initiative, I jumped on the bandwagon. The goal is to introduce kids to one new food a week with the hopes of finding a few favorites. This week, I reintroduced kale by making these kale chips. It was a grand slam … so much so, in fact, that we’ve eaten them the past few nights.
For those who don’t like to cook, this is easy to prepare and takes only a few minutes. If I’m in a rush, I take bagged (and washed) kale salad, throw it on a baking sheet, drizzle oil and salt to taste. Oftentimes, I just put it in the oven at whatever temperature my main dish is cooking. For higher temperatures, I cook for about 6-8 minutes each side flipping once. The best kale chips, however, follow this recipe.
- 1 bunch curly kale
- 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp. Himalayan sea salt
- Wash and dry kale, then remove the stems and rip into pieces
- Spread kale in a single layer on a baking sheet (I use a 9x16 baking sheet)
- Bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes
- Take out, flip and drizzle 1 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil and add 1 tsp of salt
- Bake (at 300 degrees) for another 10-15 minutes
- Take out and cool for 2 minutes
Join in the #ONENEWFOOD initiative. Please comment and let us know what new foods you plan to share with your kids.
What I’m Drinking Now: Maple Water
It wasn’t that long ago that my beverage intake consisted mainly of Diet Dr. Pepper, powdered fruit punch and low-calorie sports drinks. I seldom even sipped water because it was tasteless and boring. I didn’t understand the importance of good hydration to help detoxify my system. Now that I’m eating clean, water is a staple in my diet. Though sometimes, a new drink is exciting after a long workout. Recently, I stumbled upon my new favorite beverage, maple water.
I don’t find maple syrup all that appealing, so I wasn’t initially drawn to the product. But after regularly seeing it in health food markets and continually hearing its claim of being a natural way to hydrate, I broke down and gave it a try. And to my surprise, I really liked it. And on the plus side, it’s low in sugar and calories, unlike coconut water.
While I no longer count calories, I do try to limit my sugar intake. I found the sweetness of maple water to be subtle and thankfully, not as rich and heavy like maple syrup. The light taste grew on me, too. Like coconut water, I also felt replenished after drinking a 10-ounce bottle post workout. The price is a tad bit higher than raw coconut water, but the few extra pennies won’t prevent me from buying maple water regularly in the future.
If you’re looking for a healthy alternative to sports drinks without the artificial ingredients, colors or added sugars, I strongly recommend maple water. Try my favorite kind: Happy Tree. However, I’m not sure if I will jump on the bandwagon for its health benefits alone. Since it’s such a new product, there is no proof of the claim that their vitamins, nutrients and polyphenols promote bone and thyroid health. Stay tuned. I’m sure the media will inquire more if maple water becomes a mainstream drink.
What is your favorite post-workout treat?