Smoothies make me happy, and this one is specifically designed to ward off depression and anxiety, nourish you with mood lifting minerals and make your spirit soar with ethereal delights. To really boost your mood, try this, positive affirmations can have a huge impact on how we feel, this is one of Louise Hays suggestions for depression, I am enough just as I am. It may seem silly but say it with meaning a few times a day and you may be surprised at the peaceful feeling that grows within.
Fall has arrived, I don’t know about you guys but shorter days for me, bring on a bit of the blues. There are so many foods that can help fight depression, an illness that ails more than 121 million people worldwide. I’ve noticed huge differences in my mood when I make sure I’m taking good care of myself. Adequate omega-3, magnesium,vitamin D and probiotics are among the most important tools in your armament for fighting off the blues. Self-love and equipping ourselves with the knowledge of how to feel better on a holistic scale can drastically improve depression and anxiety (and a lot of other diseases). Smoothies are a really enjoyable way of getting those nutrients into your life and feeling happier every day.
2 handfuls of raw cashews are the therapeutic equivalent to a dose of prozac.
Coconut helps fight off candida and parasites which can inhibit good bacteria and cause brain fog.
Organic plain yogurt is packed with probiotics for healthy gut flora which is necessary for serotonin (the happy hormone which is formed in the gut) to pass the blood brain barrier and work its magic upstairs.
Berries are filled with antioxidants and help reduce inflammation and improve digestion.
Bananas are high in the amino acid tryptophan which coverts into serotonin.
Chia seeds are high in omega-3 fatty acids, a factor commonly overlooked when treating depression.
Bee pollen contains key neuro-nutrients such as GABA, tryptophan and norepinephrine which help to correct brain chemistry.
Elderflowers magical essence adds sweetness and imbibes powerful renewal of energy.
Elderflower Syrup
Honestly, it’s like nothing I’ve done lately works, and it was really bumming me out all weekend. I tried to make 3 different things for the blog and nothing was good enough (I only want to give you the best of the very best!) Frustrated and anxious to DO more and BE better I had to really step aside and pop my own bubble. Hello, this isn’t about perfection, it’s about sharing and growing and learning. I’m not perfect, I burn the roast chicken, I make butt ugly but darn delicious beetroot tarts with cauliflower crust, I dust coconut flour all over the camera and piss off J but whatever. Everybody is going through it, every person is looking at the state of the planet and looking at their children and thinking- wow, how can we change this for their sake? Well I guess my answer to that,from my humble perspective, is we need to love ourselves more, with all our hearts wide open the world can change. Every day is a new day and a chance to improve, whether it be physically, spiritually or mentally, all those realms play a huge part in our happiness. I am enough just as I am.
2 handfuls raw cashews- soaked for 6-8 hours and drained
¾ C fresh or frozen mixed berries
1 banana
½ C plain organic yogurt
3 tsp coconut oil
¼ C coconut flakes
2 Tbs elderflower syrup or honey
1 C water
1 tsp bee pollen, for sprinkling on top
1 tsp chia seeds, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
In a blender add cashews, berries,banana,yogurt,coconut oil, coconut flakes and elderflower syrup or honey. Blend on high until smooth and creamy, you can adjust the consistency by adding more or less water, start with ½ cup and work your way up from there.
Sprinkle chia seeds and bee pollen on top with a drizzle of honey or elderflower syrup
3.2.2802
I would love to hear your ways of fighting off the blues, drop me a line in the comments, by e-mail or on any of my social networks.
Want more awesome recipes, be sure to sign up in the sidebar for my weekly newsletter!
The beauty of flatbread is that there are no limits. You could choose to make a creamy garlic spiked chili avocado mash with smoky red wine chorizo like I did (it’s delicious I promise) or you could use this simple flatbread to soak up egg yolks, scoop hummus,slather with nut butter and apples, roll chicken and greens into a wrap. You know I could go on for at least 12 paragraphs about all the things you can do with a versatile grain free flatbread such as this. But I won’t, that would be annoying and your a lot smarter than that, I know you have your own 12 paragraphs of ideas.
Every culture has some variation of flatbread, scooping up saucy dishes with bread is synonymous with happy times. Aish Merahrah in Egypt, Bammy in Jamaica, Bannock in Native American culture, Bazlama in Turkey, Bhakri in Pakistan, Bing in China, Bolani in Afghanistan, Chapati and Naan in India, Farl in Scotland, Flatkaka in Iceland, Green Onion Cake in China, Himbasha and Injera in Ethiopia, Khanom bueang in Thailand and Cambodia, Lavash in Armenia, Lefse in Norway, Malooga in Yemen, Pane carasau in Italy and Sardinia, Pita in Greece,Qistibi in Tartarstan, Tortillas in Mexico, Tunnbröd in Sweden and Taftan in Iran. There is something innate within human beings that needs flatbread in its dietary spread. Before modern agriculture Native people made similar types of bread using acorns and other nuts and seeds growing wild. This paleo flatbread is akin to the latter, a higher protein more nutrient dense flatbread which will leave your human flatbread desires securely quelled. Soak up the goodness friends.
Now I want to tell you a short but beautiful story, since I’m certain you’ll have lots of time seeing as this flatbread recipe whips up so quickly. There is a village in Iran, where they sit at night and eat Taftan together by the fire. A mother and a father go off to work in the fields for the day, leaving their infant and young toddler with the neighbour girl to look after them. As they walk home from their day the young girl runs up to them, frantic, terrified. The little boy is missing, she was distracted by the baby and lost sight of him. He’s gone. Nowhere to be found. They turn the village upside down, inside out and everyone joins in the search. A day goes by and they haven’t found him yet, a sleepless night for the young parents. The next day they travel to the next village, everyone joins in their search, high and low they look. No boy, another night filled with despair. On the third day the father rounds up some men to go looking in the high mountains. The likelihood of a 16 month old baby getting so far from home is slim, but the will of a parent is impossible to break. They search every cave, every nook and cranny. Then they hear it, a faint whimper, a delicate weeping child, from deep within the cave. It smells of bear and they know it is a den, but they can hear the boy. The men enter, and they find the young boy nestled up against a mama bear, nursed and smelling of milk. Unharmed, the mother bear found the boy and fed him, protected him, and by some miracle the missing baby boy was safe and sound.A gentler universe than this one it seems, but it happened, only a few years back. I can only pray if my baby ever gets lost, that a mama bear will find him.
Inspired by the original paleo naan bread recipe at my heart beets.
3 Ingredient Paleo Flatbreads with Avocado and Chorizo
Author: Chantelle
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2
Makes 2 large flatbreads or a bunch of wee ones
Ingredients
½ C tapioca flour
½ C finely ground almond flour
1 C coconut milk or raw milk
pinch of sea salt
oil or ghee for frying
2 avocados, mashed
glug of olive oil
pinch of salt
½ jalapeño chili, finely chopped
1 clove garlic,minced
a few strips of bell pepper
½ a chorizo sausage, finely sliced
Instructions
Heat a large frying pan and melt some ghee or other fat source, when the pan is nice and hot, add half the batter and spread it around by tilting the pan in all directions. Turning the heat to medium,let it get nice and bubbly and golden brown, flip and let it get golden on the other side.
Mash the avocados and mix in the olive oil,garlic,chili and salt.
Top the flatbreads with this mix and adorn with peppers and chorizo, you could also sprinkle some green onion or parsley, whatevers on hand.
Repeat with a million different topping/dipping variations.
So stoked on this Paleo Banana Bread with Pears and Honeyed Chocolate Sauce, for reals, it’s gluten and grain free, super moist and indulgently delicious. All I wanted today (and most days) was something rich and chocolately, warm and comforting, with a nice hot chai, and it doesn’t get much better than this banana bread folks. We have these two bountiful pear trees bordering our driveway, most of them are still unripe but one was ready, I wanted to make something special with the first pear of many to come. The bottom of the bread is caramelized gooey pears, which is surprisingly easy to achieve with a little coconut sugar and oil, the loaf pops right out, truly worthy of a pat on the back, a nice book and a cozy blanket. Monday moods.
We had to go to the court house today for a little ‘business’, apparently babies aren’t normally guests at such places since no change table was present anywhere. All the serious lawyers were ogling Mavi’s monkey pants, and he had plenty of smiles to share with all. What a gift children give to the world with their endless joy. The little one is starting to eat some solids, we’re taking a bit of an unconventional route and holding off on the grains and fruits. Instead, pastured egg yolks and grass-fed beef liver are the first foods. Quite the stretch from Pablem and other processed baby gruel. The reasoning behind this is that babies don’t produce amylase, the enzyme needed to break down all carbohydrates. Babes are much better equipped to digest protein and fat. At about 6 months they don’t have any iron stores left from when they were still inside momma, stealing all her iron for their journey outward. Liver is rich in iron and many vitamins, and the egg yolk from pastured chickens is high in healthy brain building cholesterol and lutein. I’m grateful to have this knowledge for our son, I’m sure at his age I was downing cheerios and goldfish, and I actually remember those vanilla baby cookies that one would just suck on until they disintegrated, yum?
Banana Bread with Pears and Honeyed Chocolate Sauce
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients
For the banana bread
3 ripe bananas,mashed
2 eggs
1/4 C almond butter, raw or roasted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 Tbs+1 tsp coconut oil,melted
2 Tbs coconut sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 C dark chocolate chips
1 ripe pear, thinly sliced
1/3 C coconut flour
For the chocolate sauce
2 Tbs coconut oil, melted
2 Tbs cacao powder
2 Tbs honey
pinch of salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F or 170C
Combine bananas,eggs,almond butter,vanilla, baking soda,sea salt, coconut oil and 1 Tbs coconut sugar until smooth and creamy.
Add coconut flour and baking soda until well incorporated, then proceed to mix in the chocolate chips.
In a loaf pan spread 1 tsp coconut oil on all sides until well coated and sprinkle a Tbs of coconut sugar over top, spread pear slices evenly over top.
Carefully pour the batter over top of the pear slices and smooth it all out.
Bake for 50 min. until a toothpick comes out clean.
Makes about 10 slices
For the chocolate sauce
Combine all ingredients and leave at room temperature to thicken. Stir well before pouring over your finished banana bread.
This salmon is ahhhh-mazing. It tastes way better than the candied salmon from the market loaded with weird preservatives and junk. Bourbon glaze is good with just about anything, I mean really, it’s syrupy liquor tainted goodness that you will want to douse everything in, yes, even salad. Maybe even brownies, if you leave out the savouries. The salmon is broiled to crispy perfection, and coated with a thick layer or glaze, some sesame seeds and greens onions, the whole marvellous dish comes together in under 30 minutes. That is, if you don’t nearly light your house on fire like I did, but at least we got to test the smoke alarm. J is a firefighter so while I frantically wave the door open and closed trying to do…something, he actually deals with the situation and I love him for it. My track record for starting fires is, ahem, not favourable. But J got over my negligence as soon as he took one bite into this melt in your mouth nom nom salmon.
It’s the time of year where the Kokanee salmon spawn, what a beautiful sight of red fish flowing in the river. A feast for the grizzlies and black bears of the region, not to mention the eagles and osprey. There are a few places around us to go and marvel at the fishies. This time of year is always challenging in that summer is over, you can feel the haze of endless sun dissipate. The shift occurs so rapidly you barely notice it until the tip of your nose is red and frozen and your little babies feet now need to be covered with a pair of woolies. And here we are, my favourite time of year, pumpkins, colours everywhere, calm acceptance that the sun still shines and the world is turning. You can expect more soups and roasted delights, comfort foods and pumpkin spice being churned out, especially once we get all settled in to our new nest.
Bourbon Glazed “Candied” Salmon goes great in a salad, I made a dressing with a Tbs. of the glaze, olive oil, apple cider vinegar and a touch of dijon mustard which was tantalizing. This recipe was inspired by the one at How Sweet Eats with a few little tweaks and a whole lot of extra smoke.
Oh you are going to love these morsels of ooey gooey comfort! They are so akin to my favourite childhood chocolate chip cookies that it sort of scares me. Because they’re not, these cookies are blow your mind grain free goodness, no weird hydrogenated oils or any of that nonsense. Simple to put together but very difficult waiting for them to cool. I shed a tear for my pops who’s doing a ketogenic/atkins diet and couldn’t indulge, his strength in resisting these babies is inspiring.
The original recipe is from Slim Palates Josh Weissman, he adds a touch of flaked sea salt to each cookie to really amp it up. The original recipe calls for raw almond butter, he says it adds to the caramelized effect. All I had was roasted almond butter so I used that and it turned out just lovely. Its up to you- either way these cookies are a hit and will find a permanent home in my cookie collection.
4 ounces dark chocolate coarsely chopped (I recommend 70-85% the actual cookie is fairly sweet so a darker chocolate contrasts best) or chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
Combine coconut or cane sugar with the almond butter until smooth, add baking soda,vanilla and salt.
In a separate bowl combine the egg and egg yolk, add to the almond butter mixture and combine until well incorporated.
Mix in the chocolate chunks.
Drop about 1-11/2 Tbs of the dough onto baking sheets, make sure to leave adequate space between cookies as they spread out quite a bit. 6 cookies per sheet works well, or you can do it in batches.
Bake for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
3.2.1311
The past 2 weeks have been a veritable whirlwind whipping by. Seriously hard to believe it is September and the leaves are commencing their shift into auburn shades. I missed you all, the writing, the sharing, all that good stuff. Along with our transition into a new community, we’ve elevated our internet prowess to the high speed variety. Now I can actually have more than one window open at a time, hip pity hip hooray! Integration is slow and steady, smiling faces welcome us and the mountains here give you even more of a feeling of sitting in the palms of mother nature herself. Living in a small town seems to be more impact prone than a rustic woodland cabin but I am already seeing the opposite is the case. No more driving 20 minutes for a dollop of cream, now we can just go for a stroll. With a manageable amount of garden to tend, and a plethora of local producers around, I feel we’ve found a lifestyle that we can sustain. The blessings showered by my parents to help us make a little home were monumental and so appreciated. Thanks to my crafty dad we now have a hefty island to roll around to places with the best light for photographing all the gorgeous food we procure. I promise next summer we’ll have our sh!t together and you can actually have fun and go for some hikes and adventures!
This Almond sauce I make always makes everyone happy. It’s multi-purpose, I make a really similar sauce for my pad thai, but you could use this sauce for satay dipping sauce for skewers, salad dressing, stir-fry sauce, roasted sweet potato…My parents are visiting, so I toned down the hot chili spice and focused on creating a flavourful umami dish even the pickiest of eaters will love. I’m betting even kids would gobble down this sweet & sour almond chicken. Roasted sweet potatoes are the perfect side, they soak up all that luxurious sauce just perfectly.
As the move continues I realize how much stuff we have amassed in the past year, and just how much of it is unnecessary. It’s nice to have a well stocked kitchen, and I’m a sucker for cool gadgets and pretty things but I’m realizing I could fare pretty well with just my cast iron skillet and the vita-mix. Those are the two things I would bring to my desert island if it had electricity. And a stand up paddle board, those are rad, I really want one wide enough that you can do yoga on the water.
This meal is a cinch to whip up, it’s paleo friendly, but you’d never know.
½ tsp sambal chili sauce of ½ of a bird chili, seeds removed
1½ tsp lime juice
1 Tbs tamarind concentrate
2 Tbs honey or coconut sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 Tbs coconut aminos or tamari
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs tapioca starch (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F
In a blender or food processor add almonds,coconut milk,garlic,chili,lime juice, tamarind,honey, fish sauce, coconut amino or tamari and rice wine vinegar and blend until smooth.
For a thicker more gravy like sauce, mix 1 Tbs tapioca starch with 1 Tbs cold water to form a paste and add this to your sauce.
Heat a skillet on high and add coconut oil, place chicken skin side down and lightly salt. Allow skin to get nice and crispy, about 3 minutes per side.
Hey I'm Chantelle, my alter ego would be a mermaid if I wasn't such a terrible swimmer. I love writing authentically and cooking in my pyjamas. My favourite pastimes include eating avocados, travelling the world and hanging out with a toddler.
The best gooey paleo chocolate chip cookies 
