Coffee Talk and a Chocolate Cherry Smoothie

April 19, 2013 by

It’s Friday, which means we’re in the home stretch for the weekend to start. Hopefully you’ll be greeted with better weather than we’re having in my neck of the woods. Regardless, the weather won’t make or break my weekend.

Enough weather talk, let’s get to this weeks Coffee Talk, or in other words my random thoughts, obsessions, foods, and other things I’m loving lately.

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1. My smoothie addiction is still going strong, I know a few of you understand this. Speaking of smoothies, I have a new recipe to share with you!

No joke, I’ve been searching for frozen cherries for years now and just found some at Costco. To say I was excited is an understatement.

chocolate cherry smoothie

Dark Chocolate Cherry Smoothie

  • 1 cup milk of choice (I used unsweetened almond milk)
  • 1 cup frozen cherries
  • 1 tablespoon cacao powder (I use dark chocolate)
  • 1 scoop protein powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon each of guar and xanthan gum (for added thickness)
  • 1 cup ice cubes (about 10)
  • 1 tablespoon coconut butter* (optional, but adds such a nice flavor to the smoothie)

Place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and mix until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately.

2. For the first time, I watched Food Matters.

food matters

Not sure what took me so long to finally see this documentary, since I’m clearly health obsessed. Everyone should see this. It’s really a fantastic and well developed documentary.
If you’re interested in the science behind food and how our body processes our food correctly, this is for you! Embarrassingly enough, I found myself talking notes while watching it, since that’s obviously what all normal people do. I’m a little bit of a research-a-holic, so this was perfect for my information obsessed brain.

3. Have you ever tried Zevia before?

strawberry zevia

I’ve discovered my favorite flavor. Oh goodness, this stuff is top notch. I don’t even like soda, but I love this stuff! Honestly, I only grabbed this can because it was cute, pink, and I’ve never tried them before.
Anything with good packaging, and I’m instantly suckered into it, luckily this tasted good on top of its looks.

4. A lot of you wanted to know where I got this dress from…

pink bebe dress

Instead of answering e-mails and comments individually, I figured it would be easier to mention it in this post. It’s a “crochet lace scalloped dress” that I bought at the bebe online store. Not sure if it’s still available, but I’ll take a look around and let you know if I see it!

However, even if it’s not available, I highly recommend their store for online shopping. They’re one of the only clothing stores I’ve had success with buying online. The quality of their outfits are really good, so they last quite a while and I find the sizing very decent.

5. These carrot cake luna bars have been popping up in the blog world lately, and I have to admit I’m a little jealous about this fact.

carrot cake luna bar

I’ve never actually tried carrot cake before, but from what I hear these bars are amazing.
That being said, I’m almost tempted to create my own healthier version myself.

6. These two Essie colors are the perfect Spring time polish.

essie nail polish

Since pastels are all the rage this season, I thought these were very appropriate with the trend. It took me ages to find a pretty color like this. I was up island in Nanaimo a few weeks ago, and happened to randomly come across these.

Pretty sure I squealed when I spotted them. Our nail polish selection here is very slim, and even though I don’t love the staying power of these polishes (I prefer OPI). The colors are much better from Essie than OPI, in my opinion.

7. This made me smile.

types of espresso

 It also reminds me that it grinds my gears when people write “expresso”. No, it’s espresso.

8. One last note, anyone have any quinoa recipes they’d like to send my way?

quinoa

I’ve been all about this grain lately…

9. I lied. Just one more thing. I start my pilates teacher training in one week now! Eeee.

anatomy of pilates

Okay, that’s it for my random ramblings today! Off to get the day started.

*****

What’s your favorite way to eat quinoa?

Do you like soda? Have you tried Zevia before?

Have you seen Food Matters? Or another health related documentary? 

Have an amazing Friday!

{42 Comments }

Lovely Things and Strawberry Ice Cream

April 8, 2013 by

Good morning and happy Monday!

Our Spring weather decided to pull a disappearing act this weekend, too bad since sun is more fun. Even so, it was still a delightful weekend.

strawberry ice cream

[Read more...]

{50 Comments }

Spring Things

March 11, 2013 by

It’s Monday once again, but it’s of course a marvelous day still!

baked oats for one

[Read more...]

{25 Comments }

Workouts & Recipes & Miracles, Oh My

February 4, 2013 by

Good Morning! I hope everyone has recovered from their weekends and are welcoming this Monday with open arms. Or maybe just with some Breakfast and a big cup of coffee will do.

This morning I couldn’t believe my eyes when I woke up and saw that it was 7:30. That means I got 9 hours of sleep!!! Honestly, it’s been a few months since that has happened! Splendid.

Obviously, I shared a photo of my morning Breakfast on Saturday, now let’s get to that wonderful recipe, yes.

vegan banana pancake

Vegan Banana Pancake for One [Read more...]

{39 Comments }

Healthy Gluten Free Gingerbread

December 20, 2012 by

Holy moly. I just finally walked through the door and it’s 4 PM.

I have no idea where the day went to. I was very tempted to just park myself on the couch all day, since I’m still feeling sick. I think it’s worse than it was yesterday and Monday.

Oh well, I’m hoping it will just go away.

overnight oats

{ For breakfast this morning I had Coconut Overnight Oats - I blended 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup almond milk, frozen banana, stevia, 1/2 scoop protein powder, 1 tablespoon coconut flour, with a little guar gum to thicken more. Topped with strawberries and almond butter.}

Guess what I did…I finally bought a Christmas present…yes, just one. Boy, it’s hard to shop for people when Christmas is less than a week away.

Lucky for me, I still have more people to buy for.

We managed to have snow for approximately half a day, before it started raining like mad. I’ve never experienced rain so intense. It was nutty.

Anyone else hate driving in the rain?

Anyways, I’ve been telling you how I finally got up to some holiday baking last weekend. I made a few different treats, but I thought I’d give you this gingerbread one first since the other two need to be cleaned up a little bit still.

gingerbread

This gingerbread is super delicious. I used a different mixture of flours and they ended up coming out great together!

I was very impressed with how well this bread held up, and was nice and moist (again, sorry if you hate that word) when I sliced into it.

Gluten Free Gingerbread (makes 1 loaf)

  • 1/2 cup millet flour
  • 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
  • 1/2 cup almond flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup egg whites
  • 3 tablespoons un-sulphured molasses
  • 1/4 cup hot water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.

Lightly spray a loaf pan (or use parchment paper).

In a large bowl add in your flours, baking powder, spices, stevia and salt. Mix and set aside.

In another bowl, mix together your molasses and hot water first. Once combined, add in pumpkin, greek yogurt, egg whites, vanilla and coconut oil.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Don’t overmix.

Add the mixture to the loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

ginger bread

Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes before you eat! Enjoy.

This recipe took me three times before it came out right, even though the other ones failed, they all tasted pretty dang good though!

I hope you love this holiday bread as much as I did.

What’s your favorite holiday flavour?

Would you like me to remake any other holiday recipe?

What’s your favorite type of baked good?

Have a great Thursday!

{17 Comments }

Parsnip and Sweet Potato Soup and Giveaway

October 29, 2012 by

Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was swell!

It was Hallo-weekend over here, and if you know Halloween, things can get a little crazy.

I had plans to go out, but since it was basically a monsoon, I decided it was better to take a rest weekend and not get drenched in a tiny Halloween costume.

It was nice to have a simple and relaxing weekend instead.

I also did a guest post for my beautiful blog friend Heather yesterday, so make sure you check that out!!!

It’s my recipe for vegan fudge. You don’t want to miss it!

Back to the weekend. I got in a nice walk, which actually it only lasted about 5 minutes, because it started pouring. And my hair was getting ruined, I won’t have any of that happening. I’m high maintenance…

When I got home after being in the rain, all I wanted was to make some hot soup to eat.

I had a few parnsips and sweet potatoes in the fridge and decided to combine the two for a simple soup.

Parsnip and Sweet Potato Soup

  • 1 large sweet potato (chopped into cubes)
  • 1 large parsnip (chopped into cubes)
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 2 cups low sodium vegetable stock
  • 1 cup cannellini beans
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon curry spice
  • a dash of salt and pepper (to your preferred taste)

Roast the sweet potato in the coconut oil at 400 for 40 minutes, half way through mix around and add the parsnips.

While the veggies are roasting, add the broth to a pot and bring to a boil, add the cannellini beans and spices.

Once the veggies are done, combine the veggies into the broth mixture and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes.

To finalize, simply process or blend the soup ingredients together and serve!

This was perfect for the cold evening and let’s face it soup is the perfect comfort food!

The rest of the day was spent in relaxation mode, watching scary movies with my sister. Now who’s ready for a marvelous giveaway?

If you remember the Healthy Living Summit I went to back in August, you may remember the top sponsor of the Summit was Wild Harvest.

Before the event, I received a package of goodies from them that contained:

  • peanut butter
  • granola
  • animal crackers
  • black beans
  • ginger
  • cayenne pepper
  • apple sauce
  • raisins
  • and a coupon for eggs

[Source]

They are offering one of my readers the perfect opportunity to snag one of the boxes for yourself!

I’ll give you 4 different ways to win this!

1. Mandatory – leave a comment here and tell me your favorite item in this box and how you’d use it

2. Follow @lisa_lately on twitter, and comment saying you did this.

3. Follow @wild_harvest on twitter, comment saying you did.

4. Like Lisa Lately on facebook, comment saying you did.

That’s it. *Giveaway is now closed!*

Congratulations to Ashley!! E-mail me at lisa.lately@hotmail.com with your mailing info!

{74 Comments }

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

October 9, 2012 by

Morning!

Yeah, get excited for the recipe in my post title. I’ll get to that in a bit. A few things first; like breakfast.

I’ve been trying to get a bit more creative with my breakfasts. It’s going well some days, but other times I just like to eat a nice bowl of eggy oat bran. That is something I never get sick of.

It’s been a toast kind of morning in my neck of the woods. This mornings bread was toasted, one half with an egg and almond butter, and the other half with almond butter and homemade blueberry and banana jam.

*******

With all the fun holidays happening the next few months, it definitely gets me into the baking mood. There’s nothing better then having a cozy day inside; along side some movies, a cup of hot tea, and eating freshly baked goods straight from the oven.

This vegan pumpkin bread is like a magical mixture of all things wonderful.

pumpkinseedbutter+bread

In honour of the plant power challenge, I knew I needed to attempt baking using one of my favourite things. Pumpkin. I decided a bread would be the best bet.

Todays challenge asks for post workout meals, and I’m pretty sure this here would fit the bill.

Vegan Pumpkin Chia Bread (gluten and sugar free, vegan)

  • 1 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup protein powder (I used sun warrior, I recommend not using a whey protein powder, or it will get rubbery when baked)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1-2 teaspoons stevia or 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (to bring out the sweetness)
  • 3 tablespoons chia seeds plus 6 tablespoons water
  • 1½ cups pumpkin puree
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2-4 tablespoons almond milk (if needed)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350.

2. Combine the chia seeds and water in a small bowl and set to the side.

3. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.

4. In another bowl mix together all the wet ingredients including the chia “egg”. You may want to melt your coconut oil beforehand, so that it mixes well into the wet ingredients.

5. Add the dry to the wet mixture, and add more almond mild if added moisture is needed. The batter should be thick.*

6. Line your loaf pan with parchment paper or lightly grease your pan.

7. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and allow to cool at least 10 minutes before you take it out of your loaf pan.

8. Enjoy!

*Do not over mix!

This is good stuff. I am always slightly weary with vegan baking. I’m not too sure why because it can be pretty easy to adjust and it is just as tasty!

I love how this bread is slightly crispy on the outside, but remains incredibly smooth on the inside. I’ve been eating these slices with a little dab of cashew butter. Heavenly.

Do you like baking?

Do you tend to bake more during certain months?

Are you sick of everything pumpkin yet?;)

Have a wonderful day!

{40 Comments }

Pumpkin Pie Frosty

September 24, 2012 by

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a swell weekend!

I don’t want everyone to get too excited over this news, but its my birthday in 7 days!!! So excited. I don’t know when its socially acceptable to start celebrating for your birthday, so might as well start now;)

For breakfast yesterday, I enjoyed a bowl of greek yogurt, granola, chia seeds, banana, and almond butter. Followed by the usual Saturday trip to Starbucks, for coffee.

It ended up being a relaxing day. Spending time with my Mom, a little fitness, and some food fun. I also got pretty excited to get started on the Fall decorating and picking out pumpkins. I am such a child.

We’ve been blessed with beautiful weather these past days, it hasn’t rained in weeks.Which if you know Victoria, is a miracle. I decided to spend these last few days of nice weather out for a walk.

And I finally got the chance to test out my new Fitfluential shirt. Loving the pink colour, it makes me happy.

After my mom and I went and got a pedicure, which was fabulous on a Saturday afternoon. When you get a pedicure, it’s also a must that you read trashy magazines.

*******

Now that the Fall season is finally upon us. I had to start the first day of Fall with a pumpkin recipe to enjoy.

When I saw these new cans at the grocery store I stocked up. I’m pretty excited that these organic pumpkin cans are now BPA free. Foodie nerd over here. It also says Fancy Grade on it, not too sure what that means. If its fancy it must be good stuff.

I am going to be orange in no time. Between all the pumpkin, sweet potatoes, carrots, and kabocha I’ve been enjoying.

Okay, back to the recipe. You have got to try out this frosty. It was honestly SO tasty. I wanted to eat it again and again. Its my new favourite thing. Even if I’ll be eating it next to my heating fan during the Fall season.

Pumpkin Pie Frosty

  • 1 cup lite coconut milk (canned, this is a must)
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin
  • 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon stevia
  • vanilla stevia drops
  • pinch salt

Blend the following ingredients together until combined, place into an ice cube tray and freeze for at least 2-3 hours. Place ice cubes back in the blender and blend until it reaches a creamy consistency. You may have to add 2-4 tablespoons more milk to get it to blend properly. Now eat!

 

Oh man, I want to have this again right now.

I ate the following with a side of strawberries. I can’t believe they are still good right now. I guess because we had such a late start on the Summer weather and we’ve been lucky that it has continued on.

One more marvelous thing was enjoying this clip from Chelsea Lately.

I love Chelsea Handler, she’s a classy lady. And since PSY is the new artist phenomenon at the moment, its just the perfect combination of awesome.

Check out Katie’s Marvelous Monday post, for more wonderful things happening!

What was marvelous about your Monday?

Did you do anything exciting for the first day of Fall?

Have a splendid day!

{48 Comments }

Sunflower Protein Muffin

September 22, 2012 by

Happy Saturday!

Have you all heard of Swanson Health Products?

If you haven’t or even if you have and haven’t yet checked out their site you should definitely get on that. They have a ton of health related products for sale. Everything from beauty products, household products, vitamins, and some of my favorite food products. And the best part is that they are super affordable! Most of the things I came across on this site are MUCH more affordable than at the stores over here. Plus there are more options to choose from.

* recipe at the bottom! *

Whenever I am looking for food products to try online, I always look for good quality nut butters. Now, we do have lots of them where I live, but they are very pricey. Especially the organic or raw kinds. I love being able to buy nut butter with no added salt and sugars, because I personally prefer nut butters with no added funky ingredients.

I was offered the opportunity a $25 value coupon to spend on their site. I was pretty excited, and had a really hard time deciding which items to pick out. I ultimately went for the nut butters and flours.

When I went to their site, the first things I looked at were the nut butters, there were so many to chose from I had a hard time deciding. I ultimately went with this roasted almond butter. And I said before that it was the best almond butter I’ve ever tasted!

I’ve been using it in everything from Pumpkin spice bars to simply topping my toast with it, alongside eggs.

Another product I’ve been dying to try is sunflower seed butter. I finally had my chance to score some. And of course I also had to restock my supply of coconut flour as well!

And I managed to create a recipe using those following two ingredients

Sunflower Protein Muffin

  • 2 tablespoons coconut flour
  • 1 tablespoon sunflower seed butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon stevia
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 small banana
  • 1/4 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup egg whites

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together. Microwave for 3-3:30 minutes. Allow to cool, and enjoy!

Overall, Swanson is a great company with awesome prices and I definitely appreciate that. Winner for me!

And check out Kasey’s power meal a week link up!

Do you ever order products online?

Have a super Saturday!

{24 Comments }

No-Bake Protein Bars + Strawberry Goat Cheese

August 3, 2012 by

Morning!

Yesterday, I took a much needed nap. I woke up with a throbbing headache, and needed some extra sleep. This new sleep schedule isn’t working out so well thus far. I’m still staying up way too late. Oopsy.

*beautiful sunrise a few days ago. I love waking up to a beautiful sky!*

I’m not even kidding when I say I have been having nightmares about peacocks the past 2 nights in a row. Some may find this random, in fact reading that makes me sound totally ridiculous.

We brought up peacocks after spin class the other day while stretching, and now I can’t stop have dreams about them! Fun.

I actually have a HUGE fear of peacocks, like I am insanely afraid of them and think they are the scariest animal ever created.

Anyways, moving on to more normal things…

Before my siesta yesterday, I decided to try out a new protein bar recipe to have for later. I didn’t want to fire up the oven and also didn’t want to make a whole bunch of bars in one sitting. So, I made a little creation and hoped for the best.

Exciting and breaking news, it was delicious! And some fun extra tidbits, these are gluten and sugar free and also vegan!

No Bake Single Protein Bars

  • 1/4 cup oats (I used bob’s red mill, gluten free)
  • 2 tablespoons protein powder (about 1 scoop, I used vanilla sun warrior)
  • 1 tablespoon coconut flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin puree (or applesauce, banana, etc.)
  • 3 tablespoons almond milk
  • a dash of cinnamon and stevia
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt (to bring out the sweetness)

Melt the coconut oil in a bowl, add the dry ingredients and incorporate together.
Next, add in the pumpkin and almond milk and stir to combine.
Once it’s all mixed together, shape into bar form and place it on some tinfoil or plastic wrap.
Place in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes, more if possible.

It was so filling and delicious. Has no funky ingredients and is bigger than your average protein bar.

*******

Breakfast was a delicious combo of some of my favourite things. So good and simple!

*I toasted up 2 slices of bread and spread on side with strawberry goat cheese (recipe below) and the other half had an egg mixed with 1/4 cup egg whites with added spinach after the picture.*

Some jammin’ recipes happenings over here today, clearly. Goat cheese is just the greatest.

I’ve been neglecting this item for some time since rediscovering avocado, but I needed a bit of variety added in once again.

Strawberry Goat Cheese

  • 1/2 cup goat cheese, creamy
  • 12 strawberries, medium sized
  • 1/4 teaspoon stevia
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

This is super easy, I don’t even think it can classify as a recipe.

First, microwave the strawberries for about 30 seconds, so that they become more mixable.
Next, I simply took the goat cheese, strawberries, vanilla extract, and stevia and mashed them all together with a fork until they were combined.
Chill before serving.

So dang yummy! I know this beautiful diva agrees with me.

Two of my favourite things coming together!

I’m now mad at my grocery store for not having more berries. Don’t they know I love strawberries and want them daily?;) I guess I need to find a new fruit to become obsessed with for now.

Off to grab a coffee and then get my hair did!

Are you afraid of any ridiculous animals as well? Please make me feel less like a loser…

Any fun plans for the weekend?

Have an amazing and fun filled Friday!

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