I enjoy a good challenge of re-creating mainstream foods with whole natural ingredients. My entire home smelled of chocolaty goodness when I finished these homemade Oreos and very excited to share this recipe with you! *And these won't cause the same stuck in your teeth for hours feeling that store bought Oreos produce.

Ingredients:
¼ cup tapioca flour
¼ cup cacao powder
3/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup ghee or organic butter
1 Tbsp. organic coconut milk
2 Tbsp. non-alcoholic vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. Coconut Nectar (adjust the amount of sweetener to your liking)
2 Tbsp. cold water

Middle Gooey Cream:
1/2 cup coconut butter, room temperature*
1 Tbsp. non-alcoholic vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. cold water

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a bowl, mix together the coconut flour, tapioca flour, and cacao powder.
   
3. In a different bowl, mix the ghee/butter, coconut milk, vanilla extract and coconut nectar.
   
4. Add wet mixture into the flour bowl and stir together until combined. When mostly mixed together, add the 2 Tbsp. of cold water and continue to mix together until a firm dough forms. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
   
5. Spread a piece of parchment paper on top of a baking pan.
6. With your hands, roll about 2 TBSP. worth of batter into a ball and then press the ball into the pan and create a small flat circle.
   
7. Bake at 350°F for about 11 minutes.
   
8. While cookies are baking, add all the cream filling ingredients to a bowl and mix together.
   
9. Remove the cookies from the oven and let the cookies completely cool.
10. Once the cookies are cooled, place about 1 TBSP. of the cream filling in the center of one cookie and top it with another cookie.
11. Store in the fridge and enjoy as a pleasurable treat!

I love staying in on weekend mornings and lounging around and creating delicious and nourishing brunches. I have been making these for several weekends now. They are so easy to make and such a great way to start off the weekend!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup onion, diced
3 mushrooms, diced
5 asparagus, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 TBSP. Ghee or butter
4 eggs
1 TBSP. olive oil
Lemon
Salt
1/2 tsp. cumin (optional)
Pepper
1/2 Avocado

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Put diced onion, mushrooms, asparagus, garlic, and butter in a pan on the stove top on medium heat. Sprinkle with salt and let saute for 5-10 minutes.

3. While vegetables are cooking, place 4 eggs, olive oil, a small squeeze of lemon, optional ground cumin, and a sprinkle of salt into a bowl and whisk together.

4. Once vegetables look cooked and onions are translucent, put vegetables into egg mixture and mix all together.

5. Place egg mixture in a muffin tin with liners or use this silicone muffin pan which I absolutely love and is incredibly easy to use and clean up. 

6. Cook egg muffins for 20-25 minutes until tops look golden brown.

7. Remove from the oven.  Place each muffin on your favorite plate and on top of each muffin place a slice of avocado and top with a sprinkling of pepper.

8. Chew thoroughly and enjoy your weekend!

When someone close to me has a birthday I absolutely love asking them what kind of treat they would like to celebrate their existence and life. Then it is a wonderful challenge to explore how I can make that treat with the most quality ingredients with the least amount of sugar as possible. I recently made these and was told it was one of the best desserts I have ever made. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Ingredients:
½ cup coconut flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons Frontier Non-Alcoholic Vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons mushed banana
½ cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons ghee
6 tablespoons coconut butter
1 tablespoon Frontier Non-Alcoholic Vanilla
¼ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon (or more if you like)
Dash of salt
3 pieces of bacon, cooked

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the coconut flour, baking soda and coconut sugar. Make sure there are no lumps in the mixture.
3. In a different bowl, mush a small banana up with a fork until smooth.
4. In another bowl, whisk eggs, vanilla, almond extract, add mushed banana and coconut milk. Add to the coconut flour mixture and mix until thick and smooth.
5. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and spoon the batter into each cup. (I use these reusable cupcake liners here.) Will make about 9 cupcakes.
6. Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.
7. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the icing. In a bowl put the ghee, coconut butter, almond extract, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon and mix together with a fork until thick and smooth.
8. Cook 3 pieces of bacon (I use this brand which is sugar free here).
9. When cupcakes are completely cool, spread on the icing and top with bacon.
10. Put on your favorite plate and thoroughly enjoy!

I have multiple people in my life who are obsessed with Kind Bars. While I think they are a better bar out there I recently tried one myself and all I could test were how the nuts did not taste fresh. This sparked a desire within me to create my own Kind Bar that has less sugar and crisper tasting ingredients. This first attempt came out tasty but has more sugar in it than I would like. So back to the drawing board! I am still sharing this recipe though as this can be a great sweet substitute for the more processed sweet foods out there. I'm already on my second attempt at creating my Kind-of Bars so stay tuned!

Ingredients:
*This recipe will make about 18-30 bars
1.5 cups almonds
1.5 cups walnuts
1 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/2 cup coconut nectar
2 TBSP raw honey
1 TBSP non-alcoholic vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Throw all your nuts in a big bowl and cover with water and soak overnight or for at least 5 hours. This will clean your nuts and make them more digestible.

2. Once the nuts have been soaking for a period of time, drain the dirty water, rinse the nuts and place them in a dehydrator at 165 overnight or place in the oven at the lowest temperature until the nuts are completely dry.

3. Once the nuts are dry (you can test them by snapping them in half to make sure they are back to being crisp), place them in a plastic baggie and start to crush them up either with your fist or whatever kitchen utensil you like. I find the back of a measuring cup does the trick.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5. Once the nuts are crushed up, place them all in a big bowl and add the shredded coconut, coconut oil, coconut nectar, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.

6. I love getting my hands dirty when cooking so get your hands in there and start mixing all the ingredients together (you can also use utensils to toss together if that works better for you).

7. Once everything is mixed together, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or get out a muffin tin and put in baking liners. (I tried two batches here, one with trying to make these into bars and one in a muffin tin with liners. I use reusable liners which you can find here. I absolutely love these liners and they can be great to make egg muffins as well. I found this recipe worked better in smaller batches and using the muffin tin and the bars didn't hold together as well. Experiment and discover what works in your home!)

8. If using the muffin tin method, which I find did work better here, take a small scoop of the nut mixture and press into the bottom of the muffin liner. Just have enough to cover the bottom of the liner. You don't want to fill the muffin tin up to the top.

9. Place in oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes. These burn really fast so you'll want to watch them carefully. The nuts will look crispy on top and they may be bubbling a little bit when you pull them out.

10. Let the Kind-of Bars rest for 15 minutes out of the oven so that they can cool and begin to harden. Once cool they can be stored outside of the fridge for 2-3 weeks.

11. These Kind-of Bars can be great to carry around with you while on the go or for a quick snack mid morning or afternoon. Enjoy!

When you're strapped for time or haven't been getting in enough nutrient dense meals into your day, a smoothie is a great way to get quality nutrition in with a punch of lots of nutrients, fat, fiber, and protein to keep your blood sugar levels stable so you can stay grounded throughout your day. This is an all green smoothie, which means no fruit. Ultimately, sugar is sugar is sugar and even if you eat too much fruit that all processes as sugar in our body and can make blood sugar levels unstable which can ultimately lead to inflammation. A blog post on my favorite alternative sweeteners coming soon but enjoy this fruitless smoothie! And if you're really needing more sweetness and want some fruit you can certainly add 1/4 cup of berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries) to this smoothie as well.

Ingredients:
2 zucchinis OR 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash, peeled and cut up into pieces
1 tbsp Morningstar Minerals Vitality Boost HA (totally optional but incredibly amazing at increasing your nutrients in a day and providing more long lasting energy than your cup of coffee)
1 tbsp coconut oil or sesame oil
1-2 cups spinach
3 tbsp avocado or 1/2 avocado (or more if you like)
3 squirts Sweetleaf Chocolate Stevia (or to your desired sweetness)
3/4 cup water
4 ice cubes
Pinch of sea salt
Optional add ons: 1 tbsp nut butter, 2 tbsp hemp seeds, 1/4 cup berries, 1 tbsp cacao nibs

Directions:
1. At the bottom of the blender put in the water, morningstar minerals, stevia, and oil

2. Throw in your cut up zucchini, avocado, and spinach (and any extras you might want to add)

3. Last, sprinkle a dash of sea salt on top and add your ice cubes

4. Blend until very smooth

5. Enjoy in your favorite mug, put on some music, and start your day with positive thoughts!

I love vegetables. Absolutely adore them. But it took me some time to get to where I am today that I could literally eat vegetables all day long. Incorporating more vegetables into your daily eating is all about baby steps. First find the vegetables that you love to eat and start incorporating a vegetable at each meal. And you can add some fun foods to your vegetables like BACON! This scrumptious recipe you'll get your vegetables in and some tasty sugar free bacon (make sure you check the label as most bacon out there has sugar added in. Wellshire Farms has started making a sugar free bacon and let's face it bacon really doesn't need sugar added to it).

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and cut in half
6 strips of bacon
Optional: Sprinkle of Garlic powder or Red pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Place the Brussels sprout halves in a roasting pan.  Sprinkle lightly with garlic powder or red pepper and salt.

3. Cook the strips of bacon until just barely cooked. Place on a paper towel while they cool. Once cooled break up the bacon and scatter all over the Brussels sprouts.

4. Drizzle leftover oil from cooking the bacon over Brussels sprouts or drizzle olive oil or even a mixture of both!

5. Place the roasting pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, toss the Brussels sprouts and bacon in the pan so that the sprouts are evenly cooked.

6. Continue roasting for another 15 minutes.  To finish, turn the oven to high broil and broil for 5 minutes, mixing halfway through so that the sprouts crisp evenly.

7. Remove from the oven.  Plate, serve and enjoy as a snack or side dish to your meal!

I grew up eating asparagus. It was always a stable side dish to any home cooked meal by my mom. So whenever I eat asparagus now, I feel like I'm getting a huge hug from my mom. I hope that as you eat these crispy asparagus that you feel that same love and nourishment I feel every time I make these.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
15-30 stalks asparagus
1 tsp sea salt
1 garlic clove (optional)

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Wash asparagus and cut off the ends. Place asparagus in a baking dish or pan and drizzle with oil, salt, and optional sprinkle cut up garlic on top. 

3.  Toss asparagus with the oil, salt, and garlic until thoroughly worked into the asparagus.

4.  Bake until crispy about 15-20 minutes. *Thicker asparagus may take longer to crisp up

5. Add as a side to any meal or even chop up and toss into a salad as a substitute crouton for an extra baked crunch!

I adore Indian food and this is one of my favorite recipes! What I often hear from my clients who have sensitive stomachs is that they have to be careful when they go out for something like Indian food as there can be so many potential allergens like dairy, nightshades, and gluten. Here is an incredibly easy and simple recipe to bring some tasty Indian food into your home.

Ingredients:
3 cups spinach
1 medium onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil or coconut oil
1/2 tsp. ginger powder or 1 inch ginger, chopped
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. turmeric
2 ½ tsp. garam masala or chinese five spice
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 chicken breasts

Directions:
1. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil and add in onion, garlic and ginger. Sauté on medium to low heat until the onions are translucent (about 5-10 minutes). Add all spices and sea salt, except for the garam masala and lemon. Cover and cook for 5-10 minutes on medium to low heat, the smell of the spices will change and the mixture will turn to a deep color. If the mixture looks like it may burn, add a bit of water.

2. Meanwhile, cut up the chicken into pieces and put into another pan with 1 Tbsp. coconut oil, cinnamon, and sea salt.  Cook on medium heat until the inside of the chicken is white and tender.  About 15-25 minutes.

3. Add the spinach and salt to onions and cover the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes, occasionally stirring the spinach around the pan to soak up the spices.  Remove the mixture from the heat and blend in a blender or food processor until it is a thick mixture.

4. Put the sauce back in the pan and on very low heat add the garam masala and lemon juice.  At this point, you can add extra cumin or chili powder to adjust to your taste buds.  Cook for another 3-5 minutes until spice and lemon juice are incorporated.

5. Put the chicken in your favorite bowl and pour saag sauce over the chicken.  You can garnish with sea salt, red pepper flakes, cilantro or parsley. 

6. Turn on some music, light some candles, and enjoy!