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
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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.
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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.
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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!
The title for this entry could have been really long. Like it could have been miso ginger sesame marinated grilled eggplant and zucchini with vegetable fried rice, because that’s what it is for real. But it sounds a bit daunting and I certainly don’t want to scare anyone off, because you should make this dish. Even if you don’t love eggplant, you will love eggplant marinated in other delicious tastes. Eggplant is akin to a sponge, it just soaks up whatever you immerse it in, making for a versatile little vegetable. It’s beauty epitomizes the nightshade family, that deep purple skin which makes eggplant the most gothic and mysterious of vegetables (ahem, I mean fruit). For many years I feared this mysterious creature, but now I embrace its dark allure, in all of it’s variations.
Strips of grilled yellow zucchini make this dinner plate appear as night and day and since you’re going to be left with quite a bit of tasty marinade, you may as well make fried rice and call it a meal. A very vegan friendly, garden spotlight of a meal.
You can’t go wrong with a 2 in 1 sauce, you could even mix in a bit more oil and use it as a salad dressing, but the fried rice is smashing alongside grilled veggies.
We brought a few things to our new place and tried to go camping the other day. Our spot ended up being full so we slept on the floor of our new home. Days later, still sore, I got into some familiar old yoga poses today alongside baby Mavi. Of course it didn’t last long and I ended up blowing zerberts and nursing the voracious bean sprout little peanut ( I know my pet names all have to do with food :P). Which got me thinking about dedication. How many things can you truly be dedicated to at once? There was a time when I was passionately dedicated to my yoga practice, and in my heart I know I will get back to that someday. The replacement is more important and the dedication deeper when it comes to my little man. It doesn’t matter so much where our devotion lies, more so that it exists, that there is something we pour our soul into expecting nothing in return. This zeal is what makes life worth living, and we all have our different callings, our dedication grows with ardor in an ideal world. Can you imagine if we all got to live our lives based on what we care most about, if money were no object. What would you do? I think I would grow food, and host large dinner parties every weekend for all to enjoy, you’re invited 🙂
Mix together coconut amino or tamari, sesame oil, sesame seeds, honey or sugar, miso and ginger.
Add eggplant and zucchini to a ziploc bag and add marinade. Let this sit for 1 hour to overnight.
Heat for grill to 425F, grill pieces of eggplant and zucchini 3 minutes per side.
For the fried rice
Cook basmati in 2 cup water or as per instructions on the bag.
In a wok or large frying pan add sesame oil and onion, when the onion starts to brown add the egg and scramble, add vegetables and half of marinade. Cover and let the veggies steam for a few minutes.
Add rice and the rest of marinate, mix it all up and raise the heat to high for 2 minutes to finish and evaporate any excess moisture. Garnish with chopped basil.
This is so extravagant, I want to eat this brazil nut pesto on absolutely everything! Why haven’t I thought of this before? The magical mineral rich nut is the ideal candidate when you don’t have/want pine nuts. Sunflower seeds, yes, very yummy substitute as well as almonds, but they still don’t equate to the awesomeness of selenium rich brazil nuts. Its pesto season, my friends, and I am lapping it up and licking the spoon, I suggest you do the same.
Potato salad is quintessential summer food and the addition of pesto is bloody good. Adding in little additional greens helps to mop up extra saucy goodness, crunchy onion,kale and swiss chard were on hand and worked beautifully. New potatoes or baby potatoes work the best since they are so tender and the texture is just melt in your mouth. Check out your local farmers market for the best of the best, after all, food that grew close to home always tastes better. Today at the store I needed some garlic and there was a sale bag full of organic garlic imported from Chile for 3.50, then there was a brilliant purple hued russian heritage variety grown locally and each bulb was the same price as the entire bag from Chile. Although I go throw garlic like a mad woman, I had to get the local stuff, I know it’s a million +1 times better. Still, this discrepancy in local fare costing far more than imported needs to change. Maybe a time will come when we can barter skills and trade commodities instead of fueling this global trade economy, because lets face it, we’re not doing the environment any favours, nor ourselves. I’m not saying that it will ever be 100%, there are plenty of useful things we can only get from other countries, but when our food security is at stake, or worse, doesn’t exist at all, something has got to give.
It’s the little things that count, one person cannot change the world, but collectively we can shift this paradigm. Our hearts know this beautiful world is possible. A new UN report says small scale organic farming is the only wayto feed the world, that’s right, not GMO’s and mono crops, humanity has always known this. Our amnesia is only temporary, as more reports like this start to come out it becomes blatantly obvious that we need to reconnect with the earth & remember, we are all connected. Thanks for reading friends.
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese, or nutritional yeast for vegan version
1/4 tsp sea salt
fresh cracked pepper
For the potato salad
1 lb new potatoes
1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
3 leaves swiss chard, kale or other greens, finely chopped
1/2 C mayonnaise
1/2 C pesto
Instructions
Pesto
In a blender or food processor, start by adding the garlic, brazil nuts, basil and cheese, start blending and slowly add the olive oil until mixture starts to become smooth, add salt and pepper.
Potato Salad
Boil water for the potatoes and cook until tender. Allow potatoes to cool before proceeding.
Mix the pesto and mayonnaise together, or leave the mayonnaise out for vegan
Add the cooled potatoes, kale, chard and onion to a large bowl and incorporate the pesto-mayonnaise until everything is well coated. I like to use my hand and mash the potatoes up a bit so that they absorb the most sauce.
Do you like to smash things? Weird question perhaps, but certain things are good for smashing, like plates at a Greek wedding, or smashing the world record for the most Pi places memorized, or smashing new potatoes and roasting them in chili garlic butter. If that last option sounds appealing to you, try these chili garlic smashed potatoes, I promise you will love them, I don’t feel it’s possible not to. You could smash the plate afterwards too, but I happen to like this plate and what a mess that would be!
Little beauties, little buttery delights just plucked from the ground. The skin of new potatoes just peels away so easily from its flesh, resulting in a crispy skin with a supple interior. A farm down yonder a few miles grew these treats as well as lamb bratwurst that just blows your mind. There is something so enrapturing about eating a meal that’s 100% local, or even coming close. In such a world where most of our food is imported and transported across the continents, it’s special and secure feeling to eat food grown close by. What doesn’t make sense to me is that I can get walnuts from California for a lower cost than walnuts from my next door neighbour. I guess it’s just all the more push to start growing our own food if that option is there.
Add potatoes to the boiling water and cook for 10 mins. until just soft
In a bowl of ice water, immerse the potatoes allowing them to cool
With a flat spatula or the side of a knife apply a bit of pressure to the whole potato until it starts to flatten, careful not to smash them too hard ( red potatoes tend to fall apart easier than yellow fleshed)
Melt butter with garlic and chili
Lay potatoes on a baking tray and coat with this mixture.
Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes finishing on broil for a few minutes
You had me at golden beets, darling. Rare gems which only show themselves for such a short window of time. They overwhelm me with their golden hue, to be turned into a multitude of lip-smacking creations. I want to shred them to top my salads, juice them to give me zesty energy, slice them thinly to show their stripes to the world, roast them and allow their sweetness to burst forth. Since I only had 3 golden beauties, I chose the latter option, because roasted beets alone are wonderful, but combined with roasted cauliflower to form a perfect summer golden beet soup, they really shine. Hot or cold, this soup is divine, I served it chilled since it was such a hot day and we enjoyed it with bumble berry BBQ sauce smothered roast chicken, which was really something. This super simple soup has side effects of: contentment, you are what you eat syndrome, and sunshine spewing out your every orifice. Ok maybe not that last one.
Stunning, right? If your ever wondering what to do with beet greens, well you’ve come to the right place. Just a few ideas…
Lightly steamed with some butter, salt, pepper and lemon
Stir fried in sesame oil and copious amounts of sesame seeds
Blended into a nourishing smoothie with berries, banana and yogurt
Finely chopped and fried with garlic to stuff a piece of chicken or an omelette
Raw in salads
And now, a tiny monologue…for any friends who care to hear my life ponderings.
What I’m realizing lately, is that everything gets better with practice. From taking care of a baby to communicating effectively in our relationships to photography, to washing the dishes. The parallel of practice is change. We can never stop practicing, because we and all things around us are constantly changing. One hurdle may be overcome but the natural progression of things simply brings us to the next obstacle. Natures design for our elevation, also exists to humble. I’ll take a piece of that pie, and come to realize that we are always learning, growing, shrinking, changing, and it’s okay if some lessons take time. Sometimes I think it’s not good enough, I need to be better. But I stop and ask the question, am I doing my best? Is that not all I can ever do? Yes, that’s all we can do, and everything, in time, gets easier.
I’m grateful to have this blog, this space, to write and share my passions with all of you lovely readers. Le sigh, life is good.
Ps. This pesto is great with scrambled eggs, zucchini noodles, or with some lemon and olive oil for a proper salad dressing.
Golden Beet & Cauliflower Soup with Parsley Pumpkin Seed Pesto
Author: Chantelle
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
3 golden beets, cut into 1 inch chunks
½ a head of cauliflower, broken into florets
2 carrots
½ tsp sea salt
some fresh cracked pepper
1 tsp+1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 cup coconut milk
1½ cups water
½ tsp tumeric
bunch of parsley, stalks removed
4 small garlic cloves or 2 bigger ones
½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup olive oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F
In a roasting pan combine the beets, cauliflower and carrots coat with 1 tsp sesame oil and salt + pepper. Toss to coat. Roast for 30 mins.
In a blender or food processor add pumpkin seeds, parsley, garlic, olive oil and sesame seeds and blend until well combined. Set mixture aside.
Add the roasted vegetables to your blender or food processor with coconut milk, water and turmeric, process until you achieve a smooth and creamy soup.
Top with pesto, fresh cracked pepper and sesame seeds.
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 
