What summer looks like on my plate

My Gluten Free Breakfast Faves

These are my faves for a quick gluten free breakfast!

I love baking GF muffins or having pancakes but these are my quick breakfast standards for myself and my kiddos. I find the chia plus waffles and the chocolate chia muffin tops in the freezer section of my local Giant grocery store. The kids love the panda puffs when I put them in a cup for on the go too!

Happy Sunday.

Mac-n-Cheese fit for a Gluten Free Queen!!

Before I was GF I was known for my awesome Mac n cheese. I would bake it in the oven and it would be cheesy yummy with a crispy top to it. Well that was then and this is now!

I was craving comfort food and Annie's products that are GF are a staple in my home. So I just altered it a bit. Instead of butter or milk like it says on the box I put Organic plain low fat yogurt. Then the cheese packet then topped it with some shredded cheddar leftover in my fridge. Let me just say yum-o and picky kid approved!!

Now I'm just waiting for my Sunday shows to start! Bring on Don Draper (Mad Men) and Mr. Selfridge! And maybe some Revenge hopefully : )

Peanut Butter, Banana Chia Smoothie

This morning I wanted something a little more filling than my usual juice, so I whipped up this little gem!

Peanut Butter, Banana Chia Smoothie
For one:

1 Banana
Little bit of ice
Cup or 1 1/2 of almond milk (depending on consistency you like)
2 tsp of peanut butter
2 tsp of Agave nectar
2 tsp of chia seeds

All of the ingredients you can add more or less depending how sweet or peanutty you like it. This formula just works for me and I like to not go over board with the calories in it. For the kids I add more peanut butter for extra protein and make it a tiny bit sweeter too.

My favorite almond milk is always "Almond Breeze" Vanilla 30 calories per serving.

Whole Foods peanut butter, agave nectar and I also pick up my chia seeds there too : )

Salad..it's what's for dinner!

I'm loving a new dressing by Annie's, called Lite Poppy Seed. It's gluten free and sooo yummy!!

On my plate tonight with the dressing is tomatoes, baby spinach, goat cheese and raisins. Tangy & Sweet!!

In my Starbucks Mermaid mug is Tazo awake tea, my fave!

In a pinch this green juice works perfect!

If your tired of cleaning the juicer daily (the constant cleaning can wear me out) and just need a little break for a week try picking up a bottle of Naked "Green Machine". It's available in most grocery stores and Starbucks locations.

Recently we drove to Florida, which was a pretty long drive and I didn't want to fall into bad habits of junky road trip food. So I packed a few of these baby's, some Kind bars, bottled water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and some Tazo tea bags.

I recently found out I have a gluten intolerance with skin rashes to boot so it made it difficult as well. I will have a longer post of that later!

"Apple Lemonade"

For breakfast today I am having an "Apple Lemonade", it is awesome!!! It tastes just like sweet lemonade. Recipe is below:

1/3 of a lemon

2 apples

Ice

You sandwich the lemon chunk between the two apples, put through juicer

Then I like it to be real icy so I add a few ice cubes and pour into the magic bullet to make it cold and frothy!

Enjoy, I know I will : )

Tonight's din-din

I'm still doing the cleanse but tonight I needed to chew. So as Jason Vale suggested "eat an avocado" if you need to actually chew something. So that is what I did, with my spin on it!!

1 Hass Avocado cut and mushed with a fork

6 cherry tomatoes cut up

1 T lemon juice

Sea salt

Mix up together, yummy!
(Pic is meal eaten half way, so it makes more than shown)

Must have #1, turbo charge your life in 14 days! Jason Vale book

Here is my first must have when your starting your juicing journey!

Jason Vale is "the man" in the juicing world! He is from the UK so for us here in the US we are just learning about him. Google him, you will see!

Green Juice dinner

Tonight I am drinking dinner and its a green one!!

This is a hodge podge of greens from my fridge,

Kale
Spinach
Celery
Zucchini
Broccoli
....and to sweeten it up a bit I tossed in 1/4 pineapple!!

Since I'm on day 4 of my cleanse my energy is soaring and I'm reaping the benefits of all these great nutrients!

Hope I'm inspiring some to drink up your greens and feel awesome, goodbye holiday bloat! Day 4 is when I always see the bloat disappear.

Stay tuned for more ; )

Juicing photos from Monday

Here is a few pics of one of yesterday's afternoon juice. It gives you an idea of how much fruit goes into a juice.

I had planned on a lot more posting the past two days but unfortunately I have had a massive migraine. I think it's weather related and I needed a good adjustment from the chiropractor! So tonight I'm doing a little better.

I usually have nothing but juice/smoothies throughout the whole cleanse but with the migraine these past two days I did have a afternoon banana, spread with peanut butter and it took the hunger edge off and helped the headache.

I do notice that by day 2 I'm getting a funky taste in my mouth which usually is a good sign in the detoxing phase!

As far as the wheatgrass goes that is used in most juice recipes I usually opt for the powder which I add the recommended water amount and put it in the bullet blender so there is no chunks. I added 2oz shot to this juice, which is the standard. It takes some getting used to but it's amazing stuff for your health!

Hope to have some more pointers tomorrow.

Day 1, January juice cleanse!

And so it begins! I'm so excited to start the cleanse this morning! It will last 7 days ( if I'm brave I may try 14 like I did last year ).

I am following the "7 pounds in 7 days" plan by Jason Vale.

To start the day off right I have a cup of hot lemon water. I boil the water in my tea kettle, then add a generous amount of lemon slices. I sometimes add a packet of Splenda for just a touch of sweetness. It is like hot lemonade!

I will be posting all day on tips, and must haves for the cleanse as well as pics of the juices.

Stay Tuned!

Holiday Season Wrap up

So yes, I did slack on the blogging the past few months. It's almost if I had the "Holiday Blues". Constant sick kiddos, holiday shopping, and the high standards I always set in my head for "the perfect holiday season" with a checklist of things that are supposed to make it feel perfect. Well this year was the complete opposite of that and probably the most special for our family. Here are some highlights of the season and due to our weird schedule we celebrated on different days but it worked for us!

1. Our usual trip to the local Christmas tree farm ended early due to the tree we picked having a split tree trunk and our tired toddlers. So off my hubs and 4 year old went to Lowes and came home with a gorgeous tree that's was $20.00 bucks cheaper! Maybe this will be a new tradition?

2. Our usual Christmas card on the beach, (one year in Maui), ended up being our 1st card on our front porch with the whole pet crew in it. It was quick, easy and done in 5 minutes!

3. Our train never got put up due to our new goldendoodle puppy and her love of chewing. This one I do feel bad about : ( but the pup is Soo worth it ; )

4. Our usual fancy smancy dinner on Christmas Eve was cancelled due to my kids kinda being in that "not good in a expensive restaurant phase", you Moms know exactly what I mean!! So we went to a quick sushi dinner and my 4 year old mastered the practice chop sticks, I was a proud sushi Momma!

5. Santa came after the New Years ball dropped, New Year's Day was our "Christmas Morning" . Kids didn't know any different and it really felt so much more relaxed. Now if we had a choice I would have gone with the 25th but our schedule was not in our control. It did prolong the Christmas feeling though doing it later! It just proves Christmas is a feeling not a day!!

All the things that made it different this year made it all the new and fun!

So... On to 2013!