Homemade Guacamole Recipe

 I believe avocados are one of the best and most nutritious foods available.  It’s what I fed my youngest two children as their first food.  Yes, instead of jarred (nasty) baby food, I mashed avocados (thinned a little with formula or water) and fed it to my kids when they were babies!  I’m happy to report that they are lovers of vegetables, even today.  Even if you buy organic produce (avocados, bananas, etc), it’s still cheaper than jarred baby food you can buy at the store and so much more nutritious.  

 I love guacamole, and if avocados were cheaper, I would make this all the time.   I’m secretly hoping I can grow them in a greenhouse here in Virginia!   Here’s my extremely simple recipe for homemade guacamole that goes really well with homemade crackers or carrot chips (slice carrots thinly and voila! You have raw carrot chips)!

HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE

Ingredients:

• 1-2 organic avocados, mashed
• 1 small organic yellow onion, chopped
• Juice from 1organic lime (approx 2-3 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
• Optional:   1 T freshly chopped cilantro, 1 chopped tomato, or for a spicy kick, add 1 T chopped jalepenos.

Directions:  Combine all ingredients well.  

I'm linking up this recipe to Serentity Now!
Serenity Now

My Weight Loss Journey (part 2)

This is part 2 in my series “My Weight Loss Journey”.  If you think you need to spend money to find online recipes or menu plans, you are sorely mistaken!  Everything I’ve found online has been free.

FREE ONLINE RECIPES & MEAL PLANS

I mentioned that my mindset changed after reading Made to Crave.  I believe the most important change was that I stopped looking at food as the problem.  I realized *I* was the problem.  I started looking at food as fuel for my body.  I looked at nutrition instead of just the calories.  It was a big wake-up call when I decided to stop eating diet food.  I thought to myself, “Why would I eat food that I can’t give to my children?”  So I searched for healthy recipes online, and for blogs that would point me in the right path.  

First, I found Skinny Taste thanks to a friend in our accountability group.  She said they had recipes with Weight Watchers points and that most of the recipes were recognizable ones made healthier.  It only took one recipe to get me hooked! 

Then I thought, if I could just make this transition easier and have meals ready to go, then I wouldn’t be as likely to make or buy “bad foods”.  So I came across Once A Month Mom.  Her site was amazing, and again, free!  I picked the “diet” menu plan and made enough food to last my family for more than one month.  In fact, we had lentil stew in the freezer for more than 6 months!  My accountability group was interested in doing the same, so we set up a day to put together a monthly menu plan at one of our houses.  Another time, we did a meal swap where we each brought 6 dinners (one recipe) and 6 snacks (one recipe).  It was great to go home with so many different meals that day! 

Since that time, I’ve discovered that the easiest way for me to do freezer cooking is to pick 1-2 weeks of meals and double the ingredients for my grocery list (obviously, I have to go weekly to get fresh veggies).  Then, each night I cook a double meal – we eat one and I freeze the other.  When I do this 2 weeks in a row, I don’t have to cook for two whole weeks.  It’s great!  But for those just starting out, I recommend you pick 7 dinners, double the ingredients, and then cook for just one week, freezing your second meal each time.  It’s an easier way to get introduced to freezer cooking and not as much money up front.

 But even though Skinny Taste and Once A Month Mom are great sites, I still find that they use fat-free or sugar-free ingredients in some of their recipes.  I also started realizing that boxed mixes and many prepared items are just not healthy.  We wanted to avoid refined sugars as much as possible, so after some searching, I discovered 100 Days of Real Food.  Here was a mom, just like me, who decided to start feeding her family healthy, nutritious, real food.  She inspired me, and she made it so easy to make meals and snacks that my whole family enjoyed, while I still dropped pounds!  It was her inspiration that helped me to create my homemade wheat thin recipe.  And what's really cool is that she has partnered with Once A Month Mom to bring whole food menus to the monthly meal planning convenience.

I’ve also found Snack Girl and Chocolate Covered Katie to have amazing, low calorie snacks that we all enjoy.  Who knew you could make a healthy chocolate chip cookie dough dip?!   Chocolate Covered Katie did!  

Definitely take some time to browse the sites from this post.  Write down some recipes and try it out yourself.  Cooking healthy, organic meals doesn't have to cost a lot and it doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming. I would be surprised if you come away from this post and not have enough information to get started making healthy, nutritious meals!

Stay tuned for part 3 of this series where we will go through the non-recipe sites that have taught me everything I know about proper nutrition.

Coconut Almond Pancakes

I've pretty much cut out cold cereal in the mornings, so finding healthy and filling breakfasts for my family has been a priority. These pancakes were an experiment yesterday that my family loved!  The almonds and almond meal add the protein your family needs to start the day.

I made a large batch on purpose so that we can freeze the leftovers (between sheets of aluminum and stored in a freezer ziploc).  This morning, we had pancakes ready to go -- we just heated them up in the toaster on the highest setting!  We enjoy ours with local maple syrup, but feel free to use your favorite toppings.

COCONUT ALMOND PANCAKES (makes 36 medium pancakes)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs (farm fresh are the best!)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 tsp organic cinnamon (there really is a difference in taste when you use organic)
• 4 cups milk or buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1 cup almond meal
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sliced almonds (I crush them for the perfect consistency in the pancakes)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (I use unsweetened organic, medium shred)
• butter or Olivio spread (for the griddle)
• toppings:  maple syrup, apple butter, Olivio, peanut butter, jelly or jam

Directions:

1. Heat skillet.
2. Mix eggs, salt and sugar together.  
3. Stir baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla into milk and add to egg mixture.
4. Stir in baking powder, almond meal, wheat germ and flour, just until mixed.
5. Fold in almonds and coconut.
6. Melt butter or Olivio onto heated skillet.
7. Use a large scoop (I use the large Pampered Chef cookie scoop for uniformity) & drop onto heated skillet.
8. Flip pancakes when bubbles appear.
9. Serve warm with your choice of toppings!

I will update this post later with calories/fat and a few more pics.