Happy Meets Healthy

🥥COCONUT PECAN MUFFINS🥥

If you follow my Insta-stories, you’ll know how much I LOVE baking, especially muffins... 😍 THESE guys are my husband’s all-time favorites! They are buttery, nutty, fluffy, easy to make, so satisfying, and made with simple clean ingredients. 🤤

🍌INGREDIENTS🍌(makes 20-22 muffins)

WET:
🍯4 bananas
🍯1 cup unsweetened nut milk
🍯1 cup coconut oil
🍯1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup or agave)
🍯2 tsp vanilla extract
🍯2 flax eggs (or 2 regular eggs)

DRY:
🥥1.5 cups oat flour
🥥1.5 cups flour of choice (oat, almond, whole wheat, buckwheat, coconut, etc)
🥥1 cup rolled oats
🥥2 tsp baking powder
🥥1 tsp baking soda
🥥1/2 tsp sea salt
🥥1 cup chopped pecans
🥥1 cup coconut shreds

📖DIRECTIONS📖

👉🏼Preheat the oven to 350F & set aside greased muffin tin.
👉🏼Make flax eggs (2 tbsp flax meal mixed with 4 tbsp water - place in fridge for 10+ minutes)
👉🏼Blend all wet ingredients (except flax eggs) together in a food processor or blender.
👉🏼In a large mixing bowl, add & mix all dry ingredients together.
👉🏼Add blended wet ingredients to the dry ingredient bowl & mix well. Fold in flax eggs.
👉🏼Scoop batter into tin with a 1/4 cup, top with coconut shreds & pecans & bake for 25 minutes at 350F.
👉🏼Keeps in refrigerator for 7 days or freezer for 2 months.

If I have learned anything in my years of health coaching and studying nutrition & the psychology around food, it’s that a healthy relationship with food comes in MANY forms, but at its foundation it’s:

✨personal
✨diverse
✨joyous
✨mindful/conscious
✨guiltless
✨enriching
✨freeing
✨life changing

Now are you ready to be triggered? 🙃

In order to claim your personal power & cultivate a sustainable & healthy relationship with food, you must be willing to dive in & look at:

👀 the assumptions you hold around food & what “fuels you”.
👀 the societal expectations that hold you back.
👀 your fears of real change & how you self-sabotage.
👀 your daily habits in all areas of your life.
👀 your past traumas & how they relate to food.
👀your ego or the mental blocks you carry around what you “know to be true” about your body & food.

😳 Are you uncomfortable yet? GOOD! That’s the first step. 🦸🏼‍♀️

Although WHAT you eat is extremely important, there’s also the HOW, WHY, and WHO:

➡️HOW (in the physical process of eating)
➡️WHY (in the emotional process of eating)
➡️WHO (in the mental process of eating)

What’s been your journey like to a healthy relationship with food? 🥦

Curious to learn more? Message me! 💌

🌱CASHEW BASIL PESTO🌱

Do you have a condiment fave that goes great on ANYTHING?! This is mine!! 🙃

PAIRS WELL WITH: Eggs, pasta, avo-toast, veggie dip, sandwiches...honestly anything savory. 🤤 AND it’s a tasty way to add healthy fats to any meal or snack! 🤓

🍋INGREDIENTS🍋

🧄3 cups basil (packed)
🧄4 cloves garlic
🧄5 tbsp lemon juice
🧄1/2 tsp sea salt
🧄2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
🧄2/3 cup roasted unsalted cashews

🌞BASIL DIRECTIONS🌞

👉🏼 Add all ingredients except cashews into food processor & pulse for 4-6 times until basil & garlic are broken down.
👉🏼Add the cashews & pulse a few more times. Make sure not to over-pulse. You want your pesto to have texture!
👉🏼Taste, blend, & add to your preference! Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks

This platform is for me to share my business, my passions, and my life. ✌🏼 My brand is health, wellness, & exploration through food, travel, tips, and self-love. At the beginning of the black lives matter movement, I was questioned as to why I would so intensely switch my content on Instagram & step away from “my brand”. 😰

I didn’t even blink when I shared my first InstaStory of George Floyd’s photo. 🖤 After that question I received and the 80+ followers I lost from speaking out, my answer was so clear: although this platform is ultimately a marketing tool for my business, MY PASSION IS PEOPLE. 🤗 And my passion is to chase after the best version of myself & hold space for others to do the same; if I am not learning, teaching, listening, standing up, and speaking out in support of the black community, then I am not being my true authentic self and I would be cat-fishing all of you. 🙃

I feel outraged, guilty, devastated, misinformed, lied to, ignorant, shocked, embarrassed, numb, uneducated, heartbroken, and empowered. 🌟 I will begin to post regularly again, but I will not stop fighting, listening, sharing, reading, educating, expanding, donating, signing, connecting, watching, supporting, diving deep, conversing, and endlessly loving, in my own personal circle and in this one. 🤓

This is not the end of a “fad”, this is the beginning of a revolution. ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏿

When you put together a meal at home (whether it’s from a recipe or your creative brain) is nutritional B A L A N C E one of the 1st things that come to mind? What makes a perfectly balanced meal? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Creating balance on your plate can be just as easy as forgetting it! 😅 That’s why I like to think of food balance in terms of your “Happy 4”! 😊

✅ High-quality fats
✅ High-quality fiber
✅ High-quality complex carbs
✅ High-quality protein

Can you identify each of these on your plate? 🍛 It’s a great start if you can! Now to balance them... ⚖️

🍳Protein source: (fish, tofu, eggs, chicken, legumes, nuts/seeds, etc) equal to or lesser than the size of your clenched fist. (About 1/4-1/3 of your plate.)

🥕 Nutrient dense complex carbohydrates: (quinoa, vegetables, squash, etc) - SAME RULE!

🥬 Green goodness/Fiber: (leafy greens, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, etc) - SAME RULE!

🥑 Heathy FATS: (avocado, olive oil, nuts/seeds, cacao, olives, etc) - 15% of your plate!

So the next time you have your bowl or plate in front of you, scan for your “Happy 4”! 😋 Your mind’s clarity & body’s energy will thank you for the mindfulness later!! 🌟

If you ever have questions regarding your meals & how to balance further, message or email me!! 💌

What brings you to a place of peace? 🧘🏽‍♀️

Is it an action you take? A place you go to? A person or animal? A mantra? Something you consume? A view? 🌱

What lights up your soul while at the same time, soothes it? What resets your mental rollercoaster & brings you back a sense of grounding? What always eases your feelings when your emotions are spinning? What helps realign your intuition back into a space where it serves you? When your world feels broken, what gently & lovingly reconnects everything back into place?

For me, it’s nature. 🌳 Always. Leave me be on a hike to nowhere so I can navigate with my senses & enliven my connection back from where I came. Art would be my second: music, painting, creating, dancing, cooking. 🎨🎧💃🏼🍲

What brings you back to a place of peace? ✨

🥕CARROT CAKE MUFFINS🥕

These are a staple go-to snack in our house! Filling, healthy & easy to make! 😋

🍌INGREDIENTS🍌

(WET)
🥥2 eggs (or 2 flax eggs)
🥥2 ripe bananas
🥥1/2 cup coconut oil
🥥1/4 cup honey (or sweetener of choice)
🥥1 tsp vanilla extract

(DRY)
🥥1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or flour of choice)
🥥1 cup oat flour
🥥1 tsp baking soda
🥥1/2 tsp sea salt
🥥1 tsp cinnamon
🥥1/4 tsp nutmeg

(OTHER)
🥥1 cup grated carrots
🥥1/2 cup chopped walnuts
🥥1/4 cup shredded coconut
🥥1/3 cup raisins

📖DIRECTIONS📖

👉🏼 Preheat oven to 350 & grease/line bread or muffin tin.
👉🏼 Place all wet ingredients into a food processor or blender & blend until smooth.
👉🏼 Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
👉🏼 Add the wet to the dry & combine, thoroughly mixing.
👉🏼 Fold into all “other” ingredients.
👉🏼 Place batter in muffin tin or bread tin 3/4 full & bake for 30 minutes (muffins) or 45-55 (loaf)

Is there ever a moment when you’re not reaching for something? Reaching for a goal, reaching for the next step, the next promotion, reaching for fame, success, or reaching for the finish line. 🚴🏼Or how about waiting for something... something to happen, someone to take action, the right time? ⏰

Is there any moment that you can think of recently when you were just being? No expectations. No reaching. No waiting. No action-taking. Just being. 🤔

As a society of “doers”, “seekers”, “creators”, “finders”, and “action-takers”, we feel a sense of guilt when just “being” comes up as even a simply thought, let alone the “doing” of the “being”, right? 🥺

“Being” can be harder than any action you might take in 1 day. Why? Because “being” lacks distraction - “being” lacks judgement - “being” lacks stress - “being” lacks a specific purpose - “being” sheds walls - “being” is vulnerable. Take out everything around you - your phone, your job, your coffee, your home, your people, your money, your goals. It’s just you that you must face & “be” with. 😳

Whether that sounds difficult or easy for you, today, try it. Breath in to what comes up for you & get to know the most foundational part of your without your labels, your goals, your to-do list and your schedule. “Be” - damnit. 🙃

📍 The SPACE.

🥜Peanut Butter Banana Granola🍌

I make a big batch of this twice a month to keep in the pantry to add to smoothie bowls, chia pudding, banana nice-cream, or by itself! Such a great staple food! 😋

🥥 I N G R E D I E N T S 🥥 (makes a lot)

🍌 2 ripe bananas
🍌 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (unsweetened)
🍌 1/3 cup tahini
🍌 1/4 cup coconut oil
🍌 1/4 cup honey (or pure maple syrup or agave)
🍌 1 tsp vanilla extract
🍌 4 cups rolled oats
🍌 1/2 cup raisins
🍌 1/2 cup slivered almonds (or nut of choice)
🍌 1/2 cup cacao nibs
🍌 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut shreds
🍌 3 tsp cinnamon

📖 D I R E C T I O N S 📖

👉🏼Preheat oven time 350F & line baking sheet.
👉🏼In a food processor or blender, blend all wet ingredients together. It should be pretty sticky.
👉🏼In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together.
👉🏼Add the blended wet ingredients to the dry ingredients & mix thoroughly.
👉🏼Spread evenly onto baking sheet & place into oven for 30-40 minutes TOTAL, stirring granola every 10 minutes (IMPORTANT!). After the 2nd stir, add a drizzle of peanut butter, honey, or cinnamon on top if you wish to adjust the flavor. 40 minutes gives the granola a crispy edge. If you like a softer feel, go for 30 minutes.
👉🏼Stores in pantry for who knows how long because we eat it within 2 weeks! 🤤

“Where do you belong?” 🌅

I was asked this in a journal prompt the other day & I had no idea how to respond. “Where do I belong? I don’t know!” 🤷🏼‍♀️

Places & people began to flood through my head, but that didn’t feel or sound right, so where I ended up was at ME. 🤓 It’s never about belonging to someone or some place, it’s about belonging to yourself. 🤗

So as I filled my journal, my mouth filled with a smile, knowing that I always have my back. I belong to ME. I am my own. I always belong. I am present. I am here.✨

Come get on your mat with me! Tomorrow, April 20th, for an all-levels Instagram Live yoga flow! 🤸🏼‍♀️

INSTAGRAM: ➡️ ⬅️

US/CA TIMES: ⏰
(PST) 8AM
(MST) 9AM
(CST) 10AM
(EST) 11AM

CENTRAL AMERICA: 9AM (technically CST, but the US & daylight savings screws everyone up 😅)

DONATION-BASED CLASS: Give what you can! If what you can offer is simply your presence, perfect! If you are able to offer a donation for the class: 💚

VENMO:
PAYPAL: [email protected]

I am SO excited to flow with you tomorrow! See you on your mat! 🤗💗

PHOTO: The SPACE. 📸

🥕Baked Carrot Fries + Basil Cashew Pesto 🌱

This app/meal/snack (whatever you want to call it) makes even the pickiest easters happy!! Crunchy, flavorful, sweet & salty carrot fries dipped into a rich, balanced, & perfectly texturized pesto. You have to taste it to experience this combo!! 🌱

🥕CARROT INGREDIENTS 🥕

🔸2 large carrots (peeled & cut lengthwise)
🔸2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
🔸1 tsp cumin
🔸1 tsp paprika
🔸1 tsp ground oregano
🔸2 tbsp oat flour (optional!)
🔸1/2 tsp sea salt

🌱BASIL CASHEW PESTO INGREDIENTS🌱

🧄3 cups basil (packed)
🧄4 cloves garlic
🧄5 tbsp lemon juice
🧄1/2 tsp sea salt
🧄2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
🧄2/3 cup raw or roasted cashews

📚CARROT DIRECTIONS📚

👉🏼Preheat oven go 425F & line baking sheet.
👉🏼Place carrots in a large bowl with olive oil & mix until carrots are properly “lathered”. Then add all of the spices to the bowl & toss until evenly coated. Take a bite & adjust seasoning if needed.
👉🏼 Lay & space out carrots on baking sheet & bake for 25 minutes, stirring the carrots at 10 minutes.

🍋BASIL DIRECTIONS🍋

👉🏼 Add all ingredients except cashews into food processor & pulse for 4-6 times until basil & garlic are broken down slightly.
👉🏼Add the cashews & pulse a few more times. Make sure not to over-pulse. You want your pesto to have texture!
👉🏼Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.

HAPPY SNACKING!! 😋