Month: September 2014

Growing up there was nothing I loved more than Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes. I didn’t care what day it was or what meal it was, it was always a favorite treat of mine. Now that I’m (only a little) older, I don’t quite indulge in them as much as I used to and they tend to be a bit more of a production than I’m willing to undertake during the week but I love them just the same. This morning after an exhausting week, I decided to veganize and healthify my old favorite so that I can enjoy some banana chocolate chip vegan pancakes in bed with my tea! They came out absolutely delish and are super simple to make, I hope you enjoy and tag me in your pictures on instagram if you whip these babies up this weekend!

bananachopancakes

 

Banana Chocolate Chip Vegan Pancakes

2 cups of Traders Joe’s whole grain baking mix (you can use any brand though – just read the ingredients!)

1 cup of unsweetened almond milk

3 tsps of coconut oil ( and some extra for the pan!)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 or 3 shakes of cinnamon

1 banana sliced

1/3 cup of Pascha Organic Vegan Allergen Free Chocolate Chips (or your fav brand of vegan chips!)

2 flax-eggs ( 2 tsps of flaxseed w 6 tsps of water whisked)

 

Whisk it all together in a bowl and heat a medium size frying pan on the stove with coconut oil in it for cooking.  I decided to add a dollup of my cashew yogurt on top and garnish with more chocolate chips and bananas! Enjoy your banana chocolate vegan pancakes in bed with tea like me, or share with friends and loved ones if you’re feeling generous. 🙂

 

When my girl, Alyssa, posted a pic of these babies on her instagram – I nearly started salivating on my phone. I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about this but I have a SERIOUS weakness for potato pancakes! My mom’s maiden name is Mc Donald so I’m  a good part irish and all parts a fan of potato pancakes. Now add to that the fact that she added some whipped avocado (something I’m certain you know how obsessed I am with) and pomegranate seeds, making this the perfect dish for just about any meal. Literally, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack time, can’t go wrong! Give her amaze balls recipe a whirl and check out her blog Suppin Good for even more fabulous and creative culinary delights..

LAYERED POTATO PANCAKES WITH WHIPPED AVOCADO AND POMEGRANATE

The color, texture and the pleasure of assembling this dish could only be matched by the joy of sharing it with people you care about.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Potato Pancake

8 small Yukon, 1 1/2-2 Russet potatoes

1/2 onion

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1tsp Old Bay (optional)

Grapeseed Oil

Whipped Avocado

1/2 Reed avocado or 1 hass

1/4 onion

pinch salt

zest and juice of 1/2 lime

Garnish

1/4 cup pomegranate kernels

1 T red chili flakes

DIRECTIONS

First, prepare your garnishes of 1/4 cup pomegranate kernels and 1 T red chili flakes in separate bowls.

Then combine 1/2 Reed avocado or 1 whole Hass, 1/4 onion, chopped, a pinch of salt, the zest and juice of 1/2 lime in a blender until smooth and chill in the fridge while you make the pancakes.

To make the pancakes, shred 8 small Yukon potatoes or about 1 1/2-2 Russet potatoes and onion on large box grater onto a laid out kitchen towel. Gather the sides around the mass and squeeze out as much liquid as possible into the sink or receptacle then discard liquid.

Season potato and onion mixture with 3 crushed cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper and Old Bay (optional.)

Heat pan on medium heat (cast iron, preferably) with a layer of grapeseed oil. When it sizzles after you place one strand of potato, add about 1/4 cup of mixture (big 3 finger pinch if you’re like me and don’t measure) to the pan and spread the mass out into a pancake size, as flat and even as possible. Flip when golden brown. Repeat until mixture is through, adding oil as needed. Place pancakes on wire cooling rack or paper towel lined plates.

Season with sea salt or smoked sea salt.

Assemble

With a small offset spatula, spoon, or knife, spread a thin layer of whipped avocado on the bottom of the serving plate so the pancakes don’t slip about. Place one pancake on the plate. Spread a thick layer of avocado followed by another pancake. Repeat, garnish with chili flakes and pomegranate kernels.

Suppin’ Good is the culinary mind of Alyssa Noui, Los Angeles-based food blogger and food stylist. She writes simple recipes from scratch and from the heart. Local, organic, farm-fresh, seasonal ingredients are the core of her home-cooked cuisine but she gives them new life with playful combinations of flavor and texture. She encourages you all to try them at home and come up with your own spin!

For those of you who didn’t get this little baby of a recipe a month or so back, sign up for my healthy recipes and happy living inspiration above so that you don’t miss the next one! I send out exclusive, incredibly delicious recipes to my newsletter subscribers sometimes months before they actually make it to the website. I mean, you could have been blissfully eating these vegan, gluten free, healthy chocolate chip hazelnut cookies that are like a little bite out of heaven MONTHS ago! Tsk,Tsk.

Anyways, I couldn’t hold out any longer. They are too delicious, super easy to make and perfect for any ‘ole night of the week to not share. Give ’em a whirl, get creative and tag me on Facebook [facebook.com/gosweetandskinny] or insta when you make them! [ @gosweetandskinny] Can’t wait to see your goodies!

 

VEGAN GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP HAZELNUT HEAVEN COOKIES

1 1/2 cups of GF oat bran
2 tbsp of cashew butter (can use almond or hazelnut but I like the creamy sweetness that cash abutter naturally has)
2 tbsp of chia oil ( can also use coconut but I like the extra omega 3 boost of chia)
1 large organic banana
1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced hazelnuts
1 tsp of cinnamon
2 flax “eggs”

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Toss it all in your mixer. Lightly grease your sheet pan with coconut oil and use a mini ice cream scooper or tsp to ration the dough. It will be a little bit stickier than normal cookie dough but should be manageable. Let the cookies cook for 5-10 minutes depending on your oven. Watch them and pull them out when the edges are becoming golden brown. ENJOY! 🙂

Ah, how to quiet the mind!? The number one response I get when I tell people that I’m a mediation and wellness guide is, “I’ve tried to meditate but I can never really quiet my mind”. Sound like a familiar sound bite? Well let me tell you that you CAN indeed quiet your mind, yes it can take a little practice, and you will have to work on it day after day but isn’t having a quiet mind something beyond worthy to work for?

When we quiet our mind we can hear our truth.

When we go behind all the noise, the “shoulds”, the “what ifs” and center into  ourselves, we are able to connect with our inner guide or intuition. We have all the answers inside of us, we merely need to remove all the garbage we’ve thrown on top of them. This is why I became a meditation guide, this is why I wake up every morning and sit on my meditation pillow for 20 minutes and why I return back to that place of surrender and quiet whenever I need an answer to a question in my life.  Meditating allows us to relax, release all the stress and strain we carry along with us through the day (and yes, even wake up with!) and it allows us to come home to ourselves, our love and light, our highest selves. So whether you meditate to clear your mind, for more focus, to relax or to be more productive, doesn’t really matter to me, it will help with it all, what matters is that you start! If only for a few minutes a day, take the time, listen to one of these guided meditations below and begin your journey to quieting your mind.

– A great morning meditation to start your day off right!

– A releasing, relaxing meditation for those days where you really need to let it go or unwind at night!

– A on the go meditation for when you’re at work or at the supermarket and you lose your cool.

Still saying to yourself that you don’t have enough time!? Too busy to meditate? Well check out this article on Well + Good this week about 7 busy women who ALWAYS make the time to meditate. Maybe it will give you just kick you need to get going!

 STILL STUCK? NEED HELP GETTING GOING OR WANT A PERSONALIZED MEDITATION FOR YOUR LIFE?

A lot of times starting out can be the hardest part, taking that first leap, deciding what’s the best meditation to begin with and just committing to doing it. That’s why I offer EMERGEN-ZEN sessions, these sessions are great jumpstarts for your new meditation practice or powerful additions to an already regular practice when you’re yearning to go deeper and tackle the big stuff. Together we’ll talk about your personal situation, I ‘ll guide you through a couple meditations tailored to your needs, record them and send them to you so that you can keep up with it at home and discuss with you the homework you need to do on the day to day to keep your mind quiet and calm. Feel free to discover more about these sessions here or email me for full details and scheduling at cassandra@gosweetandskinny.com.

Guest Post by Kelsey Cook

Kelsey is a healthy lifestyle blogger and Health Coach based in New York City. Kelsey specializes in helping her clients reach an ideal level of health and wellness while still enjoying life and allowing for indulgences without the guilt attached. A few of Kelsey’s favorite things are the beach, green juice, yoga, puppies, margaritas, music festivals, pizza and traveling. You can hear more from Kelsey at http://www.bananasandbellinis.com.

In my early 20s, being “perfect” was something that I strived for. This desire manifested itself most prominently in my quest for the perfect body through a strict, vegan diet that eventually morphed into orthorexia. While I had the best of intentions, I became so obsessed with being perfect and healthy that I completely lost sight of who I was, how to take care of myself and how to enjoy my life…the biggest problem was that I didn’t even realize it.

Eventually, as quite often happens in these cases, I reached a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was exhausted, stressed out and just generally miserable, even though I had reached a weight I considered “perfect” and had the healthiest diet of anyone I knew. I decided to seek help and was able to work through my issues in a way that was healthy, productive and sustainable. In the years since, my goal is no longer to be perfect, but to be balanced. I work to maintain a lifestyle that makes me happy, keeps me healthy and doesn’t create unnecessary stress in my life. Do I have my moments? Of course. Who doesn’t? But, the difference is that now I know that happiness is achieved through balance, not perfection. Here are my top three reasons why being balanced is better than being perfect:

  1. Balance doesn’t allow for “cheat days” because it’s impossible to cheat. When you are working around the clock to maintain a perfect diet and avoid “bad” foods, a well intentioned “cheat day” can easily turn into a full-on binge where you inhale every cookie within a 10-mile radius because, “it’s okay, I’ll be good the rest of the week”. When you’re balanced, you eat the cookie if you want to eat the cookie no matter what day of the week it is. You skip the gym to go to happy hour with your girlfriends if that’s what you want to do. And you know what? It’s fine. One cookie or one skipped gym session isn’t going to derail everything you’re working for. Eating every cookie in the tri-state area? That could cause some problems.
  2. Balance alleviates stress and anxiety. Letting go of the idea of perfection is seriously liberating. As soon as I stopped trying to be perfect, the feeling of anxiety that always consumed me was just not there anymore. I could go about my day without spiraling into panic over what I was eating for lunch, when I was going to be able to make it to the gym or if the shirt I was wearing made me look fat. When you’re not stressed out over trivial things, you can focus your energy on things that are important, like spending quality time with your friends, getting work done productively and accurately and pursuing hobbies that you are interested in.
  3. Balance is sustainable. When I was maintaining a strict vegan diet, I had this terrible habit of getting drunk, housing an entire pizza and spending the next day mentally bashing myself and swearing that I would never do it again. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to find out that it did happen again. Many, many times. What can I say? I love cheese and was forcing myself to completely avoid something that I really enjoy, all in the name of trying to be perfect. Now, I maintain a mostly vegan diet and when I feel like having a slice of pizza, I eat the damn slice of pizza and I rarely go overboard. When you deny, deny, deny all the time, you are bound to overdo it when your self-control eventually wears thin, and this goes for anything, not just food. Perfection is not sustainable over a long period of time…listening to your body, however, is.

So, here’s the thing. “Perfect” doesn’t exist. And the chances of you being happy, healthy, enjoying life and maintaining the lifestyle you’ve created in the pursuit of perfection are slim to none. You’re allowed to be obsessed with green juice and yoga while also being obsessed with pizza and taking naps. I am. And not only is it okay, it’s normal and nothing to be ashamed of. Once you let go of the idea of being perfect and find a level of balance that you can maintain, your life will take on a new form and you will be the happiest, healthiest, most perfectly imperfect version of yourself possible. I promise 😉

 

A lot of my clients are total cereal addicts when they come to me, and if not cereal, then granola. So naturally, I knew there needed to be a delicious alternative to some of the over processed, over sugared things out on the grocery store shelves. This recipe I whipped up for the Gluten Allergen Free Show and was so delicious and easy to make that I just had to share it with you. It takes no time to make and is a great Sunday project to make a nice big batch for the rest of the week. The granola in that you’ll get from this recipe is enough to feed you for probably two weeks, so share with friends, give out granola baggies to people you love or just cut the portions down if you don’t want to make as big of a batch! Enjoy!

 

GLUTEN FREE ALLERGEN FREE CHOCOLATE CHERRY VANILLA GRANOLA

4 cups of Gluten Free  Organic Rolled Oats

1 cup organic buckwheat groats

1 cup organic raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup flaxseed meal

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/4 cup hemp hearts

3 tbsp of pure vanilla extract

4 tsp of pumpkin spice

1/2 cup organic brown rice syrup

1 1/4 cups unsweetened dried tart cherries

1 1/2 cups of Pascha 55% organic vegan allergen free chocolate

1/4 cup chia seed oil (I used to grease the pan)

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet. Combine all dry ingredients (minus the cherries + chocolate) and then add your vanilla extract and gently fold in the brown rice syrup 1/8 of a cup at a time so that the granola evenly clumps. Place the plain granola on your baking sheet as evenly spread out as possible and bake for 5-10 minutes or until just slightly browned. Remove the sheet from the oven and let it cool for 20-30 minutes before adding the cherries and chocolate. Take your time with this because you don’t want melty chocolate granola. 😉

 

Check out my recipe for how to make a quick yogi bowl for busy nights! This is one of my favorite go -to dinners, it’s easy to throw together, fills you up and is packed with good for you foods. Making a yogi bowl makes eating healthier even easier and gives a fun name to mixing and matching your favorite veggies, grains and homemade dressing!

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked quinoa

1 avocado

2 cups of steamed mixed veggies ( you can use frozen, steam fresh bag for an easy, practical option or some fresh, chopped and steamed broccoli or cauliflower or sliced zucchini)

1 cup of black beans, rinsed and heated over the stove

Enough for two servings. In a large bowl place a scoop of quinoa, 1 cup of steamed veggies, a scoop of black beans, and ½ of an avocado sliced.  Next add your favorite healthy dressing!

 

My favorite is a simple Dijon vinaigrette

4 tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

4 tbsp of Dijon mustard

2 tbsp of fresh horseradish

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

(optional to add some grade B maple syrup to make it a maple-dijon)

Well, technically, it may be the second day of September but I know most of you were out enjoying your “last day of summer” yesterday and have only clicked in to full September mode today! I wanted to share with you a practice that is very near and dear to my heart and has proven very effective for my wellness + meditation coaching clients, intention setting! Since we were little, September signified a fresh start, it was the start of the school year, a new grade, new classes, new teachers and a chance to re-create ourselves after the blissful relaxation and adventure we had all summer.

WELL WHY NOT NOW?

Hey, maybe we’re a little older, JUST a little, but September always feels like the start of something new to me and I still love to imagine I’m starting the next school year of life!

So last night, I whipped out my bad ass “Manifest Journal” given to me by the ever-lovely and inspirational Kelly Bennett ( she creates them all individually and infuses them with lots of love and good energy for your manifesting). I keep mine specially for times like these and use my regular pink moleskin for the day to day breakthroughs and brilliant ideas. Regardless, you can use whatever you’d like, you can even get all crafty with it and bring paints, construction paper and the whole nine yards and make it really fun!

Now comes the good part, the actually setting intentions part. Here’s where you start brainstorming what you want to create / manifest in your life for the month ahead.

What this looks like for me is spending about 15-20 minutes in a meditation, connecting with my higher self and really asking for guidance surrounding what the next step is for me. I allow whatever comes in to come in with out judgement and then I start scribbling! I just let the information flow and allow myself to be surprised by what pops up and excited about any and everything I put down on the page. You can have one or two intentions or many, listen to what resonates with you and feels good while your setting intentions.

What are my September intentions?

Well, my overwhelming theme for this month is **FALL OF FOCUS** so everything fell under that massive intention. I’m determined to eat ONLY high vibe foods that help me stay CLEAR and focused, which means for me, no sugars and no alcohol. I don’t eat very much sugar or consume a lot of alcohol but I recently came across the saying “99% is a bitch, 100% is a breeze” and it truly resonated with me. It’s fine for my day to day life and for my clients to indulge in moderation, however, this is my FALL OF FOCUS, and that for me, means going big and really fueling my mind + body to be performing at it’s peak. And I know, even the occasional vegan cookie or glass of red wine, certainly gets me to a “less than crystal clear” place and I’m just not willing to make that sacrifice right now. It also means, earlier wake up calls because I’m at my best in the AM and creating more programs so that more people have access to my coaching than the people who are able to work with me one on one. I have a lot going on this month, creating a new online program, my first ever group coaching program is launching (details below!) and I’m finishing up my book. I’m excited to make a fresh start this Fall towards being the clearest, brightest version of myself so that I can show up as my highest self for all of you!

For more information about my FRESH START FOR FALL group coaching program, click here and email me to reserve your spot today. Class size will be VERY limited to keep it intimate and allow everyone personal access to me.