breakfast

 

 

 

 

Tis’ the season for our favorite flavor of them all… pumpkin spice! Luckily, I teamed up with Lori Corbin from ABC7 news to show you how to get your pumpkin spice on with out all the added sugar and chemicals that come along at some pretty popular chain cafes or restaurants. Making your pumpkin spice treats at home is a sure fire way to get it the healthy way!

 

After all, did you know that pumpkin spice actually does NOT include any sugar?

That’s right. You can make your own Pumpkin Spice at home using just 3 tbsp of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of nutmeg, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 1/2 teaspoon of all spice and 1 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves. Now you can even buy “pumpkin spice” already mixed together for you in the spice section of your local grocery store. Put a little shake of this baby in your morning coffee or mix it into your favorite coconut creamer for a healthy, sugar free way to add a little pumpkin spice to your day.

 

Below are two of my favorite ways to celebrate the season, a savory (and super decadent) pumpkin basil cream sauce for your favorite gluten free pasta and my pumpkin spice donuts — both of them so delicious and simple to whip up that you will have a hard time believing just how nourishing they are for your body! Enjoy!

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PROTEIN + FIBER PACKED PUMPKIN BASIL CREAM SAUCE

1 can of cannelloni beans

1 can of organic lite coconut milk

1 can of organic pumpkin puree

1 tbsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice (more if needed after you taste)

handful of fresh basil and 1 tbsp of dried spice shaker basil

1/2 white onion, chopped and sautéed with olive oil

1 bulb of garlic, chopped and sautéed with olive oil

1 tbsp of EVOO

Salt, Pepper to taste

This simple a decadent Pumpkin Basil Cream Sauce recipe is easy for you to whip up in minutes. If you don’t have fresh onion and garlic on hand to brown in a frying pan with a little olive oil, you can also use onion powder and garlic powder to taste to help with the savory flavor. Combine all your ingredients together in a food processor or high powered blender. Taste the sauce and add more basil, pumpkin pie spice or salt and pepper till you get the perfect sweet and savory balance for you!

Ladle it over your favorite gluten free pasta, I love brown rice penne as shown here but whatever your usual go to is will work fine!

 

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HEALTHY VEGAN PUMPKIN SPICE DONUTS
2 cups of trader joe’s whole grain baking mix ( you can use any baking /biscuit mix – for gluten free try Bob’s Red Mill’s!)
1 cup of organic pumpkin puree
3 tbsp of coconut oil
2 flaxs -‘eggs’ (2 tsp flaxseed meal + 6 tsp of water whisked)
3 tsps of pumpkin pie spice (or to your taste, I like a lot of spice!)
1 tsp of vanilla extract
—— dust top with coconut sugar + pumpkin pie spice OR crushed cacao nibs———
Super easy to make! Whip all ingredients in together in your mixer, place in a pastry bag (or a ziploc baggy that you cut a corner off! 😉 ) for easiest dispensing into your doughnut pan and bake in the oven on 375 degrees until golden on the edges. Plop out on cooling rack and sprinkle your dusting ingredients to your liking! Enjoy! Tag me on your photos when you make them and I’ll repost some of my favs!

In this episode of “Eat with Intention TV”, I’m sharing a vegan, gluten free recipe for berry scones from my book, “Eat with Intention” that I have remixed using Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Flour and using some beautiful summer berries. We also chat about the power of embracing your quirks, the mantra that goes hand in hand with my favorite scone recipe in the book and how this has had a profound impact in my life. When you embrace your quirks, own all of the out-there beliefs you may have or weird things you love doing, you give yourself permission to LIGHT up and invite others to get on with their freaky selves too! We are all so beautifully unique and bizarre and too often dim our shine to fit in or feel loved. I think you are going to love both this delicious vegan, gluten free, paleo (all the things!) scone recipe and really resonate with this loving reminder to fly your freak flag and have fun with this one precious life we have!

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PALEO VEGAN BERRY SCONES

Ingredient list + click to shop links for your convenience:

1/3 cup melted raw extra-virgin coconut oil
2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Flour
3 tablespoons date sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup culinary lite coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract 
1 cup organic blueberries (fresh at farmer’s market or grocery store)
1/2 cup organic strawberries

1. Preheat your oven 375 degrees and grease a small baking sheet (or scone pan) with 1 teaspoon coconut oil. Set aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix throughly, breaking up any clumps. Add the melted coconut oil, coconut milk, vanilla extract, almond extract and mix thoroughly, and then fold in your fresh berries. (The batter should be thick like cookie dough)

3. Roll the batter into the ball, place it on the greased baking sheet, and then press down to make a 2-inch thick disk (or use a cupcake pan like I do in the video). Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, or until the edges crisp and fork comes out clean when inserted. Set aside and cool for fifteen minutes.

Healthy, Vegan, Gluten Free, Breakfast Tacos

(that will make you want to brunch all week long)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE brunch, I’m not sure words can describe my affection towards this combination, weekend indulgence meal but I think you get the idea. When I first went plant-based and discovered all my food allergies, a wave of sadness washed over me at the thought of giving up my decadent egg-cheese-avocado laden brunch favorites. Was I going to be sentenced to smoothies and oatmeal — even on the weekends!? Clearly, I needed to get back in the kitchen and get creative. I also should mention that I love to host brunch just as much as I love to eat it so I wanted to find some FUN (and delicious) options that not only I could eat but that would also be a great meal for guests. These Bruncherific tacos simply make a breakfast better. They are easy to make, fun to serve and totally satisfying to indulge in. When I found out the Hilary’s Eat Well came out with a maple apple veggie sausage, which for those of you who aren’t familiar are totally ALLERGEN FREE (dairy free, soy free, gluten free, egg free, heaven!) — I could not wait to get my hands on it and play around with one of my favorite taco recipes. These guys came out so incredibly delicious that it was hard to wait to finish taking pictures to eat them.

I’ll be making them LIVE on Facebook today (9/15) at 1pm PST but feel free to head over to my page to watch that replay as well.

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Ingredients:

Sweet Potato Hashbrowns:

2 large sweet potatoes, skinned and cut into 1-inch square chunks

4 tsp of curry powder

2 tsp of tumeric

1 tsp of paprika

2 tsp of garlic powder

2 tsp of onion powder

1 tsp of salt

1 tbsp of coconut oil

Tofu Scrambled ‘eggs’:

1 package of extra firm tofu

2 tsp of cumin

2 tsp of curry

2 tsp of tumeric

2 tsp of onion powder

2 tsp of garlic powder

1 tbsp of EVOO

Veggie Sausage crumbles:

1 pack of Hilary’s Eat Well Apple Maple Veggies Sausage (4 patties)

1 tsbp of coconut oil

Sauteed Spinach:

3 cups of baby spinach

1 peeled and chopped bulb of garlic

1/2 white onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp of EVOO or sesame oil

2 avocados for garnish

Corn tortillas or your favorite gluten free taco shell ( I love coconut cassava ones) to load it all on!

Start by making your hash browns because they will take longest to bake. Preheat your oven for 425 and get out a large baking sheet. In a medium sized mixing bowl, toss your sweet potato chunks along with your spices, salt and coconut oil. Mix around the mixture till it’s thoroughly combined and has an equal coating of seasoning. Pour and spread your hash brown mixture out on your baking sheet and place in the oven for about ten minutes while you prepare the rest of your tacos.

Place a medium sized frying pan on the stove with a tbsp of olive oil and turn the burner up to medium heat. Drain your tofu in the sink and then begin to crumble it up and place it in your frying pan. Add in all your spices and use a spatula to keep mixing around the tofu so that it evenly cooks and the spices are evenly distributed. After a few minutes, you can turn this down to a low heat and periodically check on it while you complete the rest of the items.

In a medium sized frying pan, toss in your baby spinach, olive oil and sliced garlic + onion. Turn the heat up to medium and use your spatula to move around the kale till it’s bright green and wilted. Remove from heat and place in a small bowl.

Slice your apple maple veggie sausage patties into small bite sized cubes. I cut them four parts across and down to make nice bite-size chunks. In another medium size frying pan (or the same one if you transfer your spinach to separate bowl) add your coconut oil and bite-size veggie sausages. On medium heat, let them cook for 3-5 minutes while moving around with the spatula. Remove once browned to your desired level.

In a large frying pan or on your griddle, turn your heat up to high and place your tortilla shells to warm and crisp slightly. They should take no more than a minute on each side and then place them on your plates. Make the tacos yourself or invite guests to make there own.

My preferred method of assembly starts with a nice helping of the baby spinach, then a scoop of sweet potato hash, toss on some chopped veggie sausage bites, topped with tofu scramble, and a slice or two of avocado. These tacos are massive, delicious and an incredible brunch treat!

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I had a blast sharing some of my favorite gluten free and vegan recipes with Thrive Market recently. These gluten free strawberry banana oatmeal cakes are a great easy vegan recipe to make on Sunday night and have for breakfast all week long. They also make a delicious addition to your weekend brunch, just place them in a bowl with some steamed nut milk and chopped strawberries for a complete upgrade from your average oatmeal!

Strawberry Gluten-Free Baked Oatmeal Cakes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups gluten-free oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 “flax eggs” (see below)
¼ cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
2 bananas, ripe
½ cup chopped strawberries

For one “flax egg”
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
3 tablespoons water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make the flax eggs
In small bowl, mix together flaxseed meal and water until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes to come together.

Make the muffins
In medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Distribute batter evenly into muffin tin cups and bake for 10 minutes, or until set.

Serve with almond milk, nuts, fresh fruit, and/or nut butter.

I admit it, I’m a total granola junkie. I love the easy, peasy-ness of throwing together some coconut yogurt, berries and granola for breakfast in the morning, I love granola on my smoothie bowls, I even like putting some on top of my apple slices with almond butter for an afternoon snack. The only real “problem” with my granola love is that not all granolas are created equally. In fact, MANY granolas you buy at your grocery store, even if it’s a super organic healthy store, contain evaporated cane sugar, brown sugar and sometimes agave. All stuff that no longer flies with this lady! So naturally, I decided to take to the kitchen to solve my dilemma and have come up with numerous granola renditions to satisfy my urge without having to get tons of added and unnecessary sugar. This particular mix is nut-free for anyone who has an allergy but can be easily made with nuts if you fancy. I add brown rice syrup for a low-glycemic slightly sweet sticky joiner but you could play with raw honey or grade b maple syrup as well or go totally without it and just have a less clumpy granola!

 

Green + Clean Granola

1 cup old fashioned oats (GF optional)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (unsalted)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (unsalted, no shells)
3 tbsp of flax seed or flax seed meal
3 tbsp of chia seeds
1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup hemp hearts
2 tbsp of cinnamon
1 tbsp of vita mineral greens powder
1 tbsp of tumeric ground
1/4 cup brown rice syrup

Toss it all together, adding the brown rice syrup last. Grease a baking sheet with coconut oil and spread out the granola mixture generously. Put your oven on “broil” and let granola brown for 3-5 mins and remove. Cool before storing.

Totally over the oatmeal but love that feeling of something hearty and warm in your stomach in the morning? Well I have the perfect breakfast for you! Quinoa porridge is packed with protein, has none of the gluten and will give you the fuel to shine bright all day long. Plus, it only takes a few minutes to make which is always a mega bonus in the AM!
Banana Berry Quinoa Porridge

1 cup of cooked quinoa

1 cup of coconut milk (unsweetened vanilla)

Handful of fresh or frozen raspberries

1/2 of a banana

3 tbsp of chia seeds

Handful of sliced almonds (or nut/seed of your choice)

Handful of hemp hearts

In small soup pan on the stove, place your quinoa, coconut milk and about half of your raspberries and banana. Next, add three tablespoons of chia seeds while continuously stirring the pot. Keep the the burner on medium to low and stir till the mixture gets thicker and almost a reaches a boil. Remove from heat and let it sit a moment. Go get your bowl, hemp hearts, almonds and leftover fruit while its cooling. Put your quinoa porridge in the bowl and proceed to enjoy garnishing with your remaining ingredients! Enjoy! #letfoodLIGHTyouup #eatwithintention

In this video I’ll show you my EASY, healthy hash brown recipe! I’m a huge fan of brunch and just because you’re eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to miss out on what in my opinion is the best meal of the day! Stay tuned for my healthy tofu scramble recipe that’s a great compliment to these.

Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE for more videos each week to help you create a life that LIGHTS you up!

Nothing compares to freshly made, at home, GREEN JUICE! I have been relying on the amazing juice spots around NYC and San Fran these past few weeks while traveling and then being on the run at home and could not wait to get my hands back on the juicer and chop up some of my favorite greens! This green juice is nice and light – it’s great for the morning or for that mid-afternoon energy slump when you need a little boost but don’t want to reach for the coffee.

Green Juice Light

8 leaves of romaine
4 celery sticks
1 green apple, chopped
1 lemon, skinned

Feel free to add a little ginger to give it a kick or make it a little strong by adding darker greens like kale or spinach but I love this green juice light when I’m looking for something refreshing but not heavy.

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Tis the season to make healthy snacks to have on hand before and after decadent holiday meals and social events! These vegan snickerdoodle protein muffins are the perfect little nosh to make a batch of, freeze some, put some in plastic baggies and stuff in your suitcase so that you always have a healthy snack or light breakfast on hand. These vegan snickerdoodle muffins are easy to make, so good you’ll hardly believe they’re healthy and perfect to keep you full with loads of clean, organic, gmo-free protein and healthy fats! I was so ecstatic to find Aloha’s clean, plant based protein powder, it made a great addition to the recipe and it’s a breathe of free air to find a protein powder that’s organic, gmo-free and clean enough to use in my smoothies too! 🙂

Watch me make them in this week’s video and be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel for new videos every wednesday to help you go big and shine bright!

 

baibowl8   I’m totally obsessed with pitaya bowls these days, I mean come on, look at that gorgeous, bright, hot pink color! It really makes me feel like a little girl eating something Barbie would of. So although I try to stick with eating a lot of seasonal produce, I do make exceptions for my smoothies from time to time because they’re just so darn good with some tropical fruit! And with the dreary NYC weather lately, I have been craaaaaving something that would make me feel like I was on a tropical island for a bit. Add to that, finding the Molokai Coconut flavor of Bai 5 (a super fruit infused, antioxidant drink) which pretty much tastes like a non alcoholic pina colada but is actually good for you and not loaded with sugar, and it became crystal clear that I needed to make a smoothie that felt like “vacation in a bowl”. I had entirely too much fun recipe testing for this one and I’m super excited with how delicious the finished product was. I added cashew butter for some creamy, decadent, good for you fat and protein and maca superfood powder for sustained and balanced energy. Plus the Bai5 is a great low glycemic way to get those even more antioxidants in! So this tropical smoothie bowl is a lot more than it’s pretty exterior, it’s packed with nourishing ingredients you’re body’s going to love. Give it whirl at home and let me know if you come up with any fun additions or substitutions.

PS. What island are you going to pretend to be on while eating this magical bowl? I think I’m going with St. Barts. 😉

 

TROPICAL PITAYA SMOOTHIE AKA VACATION IN A BOWL

1 pitaya plus packet (frozen organic, raw dragon fruit!)

1 mango chopped (save a little to garnish!)

1 cup of Bai5 molokai coconut

1/3 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes (plus some for garnishing)

3 tsp of chia seeds (plus extra to garnish)

2 tbsp of cashew butter

1 tbsp of maca superfood power

1 unripe banana ( I used an unripe one because it’s not so sweet ie. loaded with sugar, but still adds the creaminess)

Toss it all in your blender and then pour into your favorite bowl. Sprinkle remaining coconut flakes, chia seeds and mango on top to make it even more festive! Enjoy slowly while visualizing your favorite island get a way.

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I am honored and thrilled to be a part of Well + Good’s Amazing Pumpkin Recipe round up! Who can ever get enough healthy pumpkin recipes?! Not me for sure, so it’s a delight to have my healthy vegan pumpkin balls in the mix with some other fabulous treats like pumpkin pie smoothies and my girl Jordan’s pumpkin chocolate chip bars! Click here and check out these 10 healthy pumpkin recipes so that you can celebrate halloween right this year! Althogugh, let’s be real, I’ll be making them well into the holidays! #Pumpkineverythingplease !

Don’t forget to tag me @gosweetandskinny in your delish pumpkin creations! I can’t wait to see and regram some of my faves! 🙂

It’s the most magical time of the year! PUMPKIN SPICE season! Seriously, I am getting in the mood lately, and whipping a little organic pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves into just about anything I can get my little hands on. So it’s no surprise that this morning I was inspired to give my usual smoothie bowl a fall spin and it came out so delicious, it’s borderline dessert.

PUMPKIN SPICE SMOOTHIE BOWL
1 cup Anita’s Coconut Yogurt
1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree
2 tbsp almond butter
1 tsp maca powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg)

top with: quinoa chia seed maple granola / extra chia seeds / crumbled pumpkin choc chip cookies

enjoy!! xo! Comment below and let me know what you’re favorite smoothie bowl mix-ins are!:)