Have Your Chocolate Cake and Eat it Too!

It's no secret that I love Dr. Joel Furhman's book, Eat To Live.  He advocates what he calls a nutritarian way of eating, in other words, eating the foods that have the most nutrients per calorie. What this means is basing your diet on plant foods: vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds.  A little meat once in a while is ok, but if your goal is being as healthy as you can possibly be, Dr. Fuhrman recommends avoiding animal products altogether.

Avoiding animal products presents a problem to those who love to bake, and to those who love to eat what is baked!  The following recipe solves that problem.

I haven't made this cake yet, but I assure you it is in my future, and I've heard some amazing reviews of it!

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2/3 cup chickpea flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups pitted dates, divided
• 1 cup pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 banana, peeled
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into pieces
• 1 cup shredded beets
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup shredded zucchini

• 4 tbsp natural nonalkalized cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup dried currants
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup raw macadamia nuts or raw cashews
• 1 cup vanilla soy, hemp or almond milk
• 1/2 cup dates, pitted
• 1/3 cup Brazil nuts or hazelnuts
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla flavor

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flours, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside. In blender or food processor, puree 3 cups dates with the pineapple, banana and apple.

Slice remaining 1/2 cup dates into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. In a large bowl, mix sliced dates, beets, carrots, zucchini, cocoa powder, currants, walnuts, water, vanilla and flour mixture.

Add the fruit puree and mix well. Spread mixture in a 9.5-x-13.5-inch nonstick baking pan. Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Or to make individual servings, bake in muffin tins lined with paper liners. Reduce cooking time to 20-25 minutes.

For the chocolate-nut icing, combine the remaining ingredients in a high-powered blender until smooth and creamy. Place a dollop over warm cake and serve or spread on cooled cake.

Simple, 3-Part Formula for Eating Healthy

I've been reading Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live, and it is the plan he presents in his book that I have been basing my diet on lately.  And I'm really loving it!  He advocates what is called a "nutritarian" diet, or basically eating high-nutrient foods and avoiding low-nutrient ones.  High-nutrient foods are whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.  Low-nutrient foods are meat, cheese and other dairy products, animal products, oils and highly-processed foods like white bread, for example.

On the surface, this may seem like a difficult way to eat, and for those of us (myself included) who were raised on hamburgers and sugary breakfast cereals with milk, it can be a challenge at first.  But the reality of it is, it is actually quite simple.  If it's highly processed, avoid it, and if it's natural, eat it.  It can take a little time to get used to, but the more you do it, the easier it gets, and you eventually PREFER to eat this way because you'll be losing weight so easily and feeling amazing!

You may be wondering, isn't this the same thing as a vegetarian or vegan diet?  It can be, but not necessarily.  You can still eat small amounts of meat and other non-plant foods, as long as you're making 90% of what you eat be plant-based.

When I say "diet," I don't mean a temporary way of restrictive eating to lose weight.  What I'm referring to is a different definition of the word, as in the food a person eats every day and for life. And I'm not saying eating meat is "wrong" or anything like that.  What I am saying is that the most nutritiously-dense foods on the planet are plants, and that's what I recommend we should eat most of for optimum health.  As a disclaimer, I'm not a doctor or dietitian, but I have spent a large part of my life researching and practicing different ways of eating, and so far this has been the best one I've found.  Now, my personal daily eating habits are a little different than Dr. Fuhrman's, but the basis of it is the same.

The formula is very simple; fruit for breakfast, salad with beans for lunch, and salad and two cooked veggies for dinner, fruit for dessert.  You can also add other things like mushrooms, quinoa and whole grain rice and nuts and seeds, but you'll want to limit these.  But that's basically it!

I'm still in the process of learning about this way of eating, but am enjoying every  minute of it!  If you're interested in learning more, please let me know!  You can ask questions in the comments below, or you can contact me here.

What do you think about the idea of a nutritarian diet?

6 Easy Steps to Get Started Eating Clean

Getting started eating clean can be a little daunting if you've never done it before.  In the past, I really, I mean REALLY wanted to eat clean, but it seemed so hard!  What I did without realizing it was, over the years, I gradually added more and more clean foods to what I was eating.  Now looking back, that was much more manageable than making huge changes all at once.

If you think it might help you to take some "baby steps" toward clean eating, here are some tips for you.  Do each one for a week or two, then move on to the next one.

1. Start with something easy, like bread.  Simply switch your white bread with 100% whole wheat bread.  Make sure it says "100% Whole Wheat" on the package, or it may actually be white bread in disguise. 

2. Replace sugar and/or artificial sweeteners with something natural and low-calorie.  I like using stevia and monkfruit sweetener.  They are both calorie-free and natural.

3. Instead of eating your sugary cereal for breakfast, try oatmeal.  Use stevia or a little honey to sweeten it.  You can add raisins to it, or even baking cocoa or bananas.  If you don't like oatmeal, try making your own granola or healthy breakfast cookies

4. Try herbal tea or fruit-infused water instead of soda.  There are so many different varieties of herbal tea, you're sure to find one that you love.  You can sweeten it with stevia and even add ice for a refreshing drink with zero calories.  You can easily make a pitcher of fruit-infused water and drink as much as you want throughout the day.

5. Replace your afternoon packaged snack with a healthier option.  Instead of heading to the snack machine or reaching for cookies, make your own No-Bake Snack Balls.  These are really delicious, and much lower in calories and high in nutrients, unlike what you'll find in the snack machine.

6. Cook one healthy, clean meal a week.  Try one new meal that you think you and your family will like, then maybe next week add another one. You can gradually increase how many clean dinners you make, and eventually you will be mostly eating clean.

This is by no means a complete list of how to eat clean, but it is sure to get you started.  I plan on future posts that will give you even more tips

Let me know how your efforts go, and if this list helped in the comments section below.

Absolutely Delicious Clean Vegetarian Burritos

I recently made the decision to cut back on factory-produced meat and animal products.  I'm not really going vegetarian, because I'm still occasionally eating meat and eggs and fish, but I'm taking steps toward mostly eating animal products that are "cruelty-free."  So when my family has, say, tacos and burritos, I make my own animal-friendly version.  But don't be fooled by it being labeled "vegetarian"--this burrito is every bit as flavorful as its ground-beef counterpart!  I'll bet even die-hard meat eaters would fall in love with this one!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 cup frozen mixture of chopped onions and bell peppers (or you can use fresh)
1 cup home-cooked black beans (or you can use canned)
1/4 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup already-cooked brown rice
1 Tbsp cumin (adjust to taste; I personally LOVE cumin, so I add more!)
2 tsp dried cilantro (or 4 tsp fresh)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
Salt to taste

Directions:

Heat a skillet (I prefer an iron skillet) with the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and pepper mixture and saute until soft.  Add the rest of the ingredients and and cook until heated through.

Wrap it up in either a low-carb or whole wheat tortilla or a large lettuce leaf and enjoy!

Tips:

If after adding the spices the mixture seems too dry, try adding a little water.

After wrapping it up in the tortilla, I like to put it back in the skillet and toast each side for a few seconds.  Talk about YUM!!


Do you have any clean and delicious vegetarian recipes?  If so, share them below, or let me know what you think of the one above!

Clean and Easy Coconut Snack Balls

Y'all, I came up with this recipe yesterday because I was hungry for a snack and wanted something sweet but wholesome.  So I threw a few ingredients together that I had in my pantry, and let me tell you, they are DELICOUS!!  

1/2 cup ground oats (I make my own by grounding old-fashioned oats in a blender)

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (I found some that is organic at Aldi!)

2 TBSP unrefined, cold press coconut oil (I also found this in organic at Aldi)

2 TBSP chopped nuts of your choice (I used pecans)

2 TBSP honey

Mix all ingredients together and then form them into about 7 or 8 balls, then store them in a baggie in the fridge.  

Tip: If the mixture is too dry, try adding a little more coconut oil or honey.  If it's too moist, add a little more ground oats.

I'm thinking of adding either some semisweet chocolate chips, or breaking up a really dark chocolate bar for even less sugar.  

If you try this recipe, come back and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Why You Should Be Drinking Water Every Morning

Just want to share with y'all a detox drink I started drinking yesterday morning, and plan to drink every morning.  Drinking water first thing in the morning is such a good thing to do for your health!

 Let's look at some of the benefits:

• Renews Your Cells
• Boosts Your Metabolism
• Helps You Lose Weight
• Purifies Your Colon
• Cures Illnesses and Diseases
• Balances Your Lymph System
• Makes Your Skin Glow!

Why is drinking water first thing in the morning so beneficial?  Well, first, our bodies are 70% water, so it just makes sense that we need a lot of it.  At night, we go several hours with no food or water, so drinking lots of water when we first wake up replenishes our bodies and gets everything moving.  It begins to purge toxins from our blood, renews our cells and balances our lymph system.  It also makes absorption of nutrients easier, and boosts your metabolism, a key factor in helping us lose weight!

Speaking of weight loss, this is one reason I'm starting to drink my detox water every morning.  I love my sugary treats, and tend to cheat more than I should. I workout hard almost every day, and I sometimes sabotage all that hard work by eating what I shouldn't.  So I decided to get really strict and try the morning detox thing.  Here's what I did yesterday:

• Drank my "detox tea" (recipe below) first thing in the morning.  I didn't drink it all at once, but sipped on it through the morning.
• Ate half a banana and a few walnuts
• Did my 21 Day Fix Yoga Fix workout
• Had a Shakeology smoothie (recipe below)
• Made another cup of detox tea, slightly different recipe (below)
• I know I had a snack later in the day, but can't remember now what it was!
• Ate a chicken breast and spinach for dinner
• Ate dinner before 6 pm, and no eating after 6
• Sipped on the rest of my detox tea until bedtime

After that routine, I woke up this morning and had lost a pound!  Awesome!!  I drank lot of plain water in addition to my detox tea as well, and made sure I got plenty of protein and veggies.  I didn't starve myself, and avoided sugar and too many carbs, and saw results!  Shakeology helps a lot with that, since it contains 40+ super foods and protein.  

To be clear, I won't be following this plan all the time, but just when I've backslid some, just to get myself back on track.  After that, I'll add back in my steel cut oats and more fruit, etc.  

Morning Detox Tea

1. Brew 2 green tea bags for one and a half minutes in about 12 oz of water.
2. Add a TBSP of honey, juice from a slice of lemon, and either a piece of fresh ginger or a half a tsp of powdered ginger.
3. Mix it up, then add water and ice to make yourself a big glass full.

Afternoon Detox Tea

1. Brew one or two herbal tea bags (I like Tazo Sweet Cinnamon Spice, but any flavor you like is fine) in 12 oz of water.
2. Add a TBSP of honey, juice from a slice of lemon, and either a piece of fresh ginger or a half a tsp of powdered ginger.
3. Mix it up, then add water and ice to make yourself a big glass full.

You Don't Have to Give Up Baking!! Make Your Treats Healthier with These 7 Substitutions

I personally love to bake!  But sugary and fatty baked goods don’t  go along with a clean eating lifestyle.  But rather than give up one of my passions, I’ve come up with some substitutions for the occasional healthy treat!

1)      White Flour: You can substitute whole wheat flour for white flour in most recipes.  There are different kinds of whole wheat flour, and my preference is what is called “white” whole wheat.  It still has all the fiber of regular whole wheat flour, but is made with a lighter, softer variety of wheat.  I automatically use this now in all my breads and cookies, with the exception of French bread, which I only make very occasionally.  You may notice a slight difference in texture when switching to whole wheat flour, so you could start by substituting only half, and then work your way up to substituting all of it. Tip: You may need to increase the liquid slightly in your recipes, as whole wheat flour tends to be a little drier than white flour.

2)      Sugar: Unsweetened applesauce makes a great substitute for sugar!  You can replace it cup for cup. Tip: If your baked items don’t end up as sweet as you’d like them, you can also add in a little stevia.

3)      Eggs: Two egg whites can be used in place of one egg in baking recipes.  Tip: I would recommend using a combination of whole eggs and egg whites for the best results.

4)      Sour Cream: Use non-fat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, and you decrease calories significantly, while also increasing protein significantly!  Tip: Greek yogurt can also be used in cream-based soups, dips and salad dressings, and instead of mayo in tuna, chicken and egg salads.

5)      Heavy Cream: You can use evaporated skim milk in place of heavy cream in baked goods. Tip: Add vanilla extract for extra flavor.

6)      Butter: Pureed avocado makes an excellent substitution for butter in baked goods!  It has a lot of fat like butter, but the healthy kind! Tip: Be sure avocado is blended well for the best results.

7)      Oil: Pureed fruit can be used instead of cooking oil in baking. Tip: Unsweetened applesauce is a convenient way to add pureed fruit to recipes, and it has a mild flavor, so you won’t notice it as applesauce in the final product.

Try these substitutions the next time you’re wanting a treat!  It should help you to stay on track knowing you can have your cake (and cookies and muffins…), and eat it too!