Ingredients:
1 Cup Organic heavy whipping cream
8 oz Mascarpone cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Monk Fruit (or another sweetener such as Swerve)
1 to 2 shots Coffee Concentrate from Trader Joe’s – chilled (OR you can use espresso)
1 tablespoon Cacao Nibs (for decorating)
1 tablespoon cacao powder

1- In a large bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Place in the refrigerator to keep it chilled
2- In a separate bowl, with the hand mixer, mix cheese, vanilla, sweetener and coffee until smooth.
3- Incorporate the whipped cream by folding into the cheese mixture (I used a wooden spoon)
4- Place in a clean plastic bag, cut a tip and squeeze mixture into small serving jars.
5- Sprinkle cacao nibs and Cacao powder on top of each jar.
6 – Chill, until ready to serve.

For the vegan version:
Mascarpone cheese:
1 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked overnight
1/2 cup Coconut Cream (comes in a can)
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in your Vitamix (or another high-power blender) and blend until smooth.

For the Tiramisu:
1 cup Coconut Cream chilled for 1 hour in the fridge

Whip the Coconut Cream with a hand mixer until peaks form. Then follow the directions for the rest of the recipe, using 8 ounces of the vegan Mascarpone instead of the regular cheese.

As we all navigate in these uncertain times, I know that many of my friends, followers and community have been asking what we can do to protect ourselves from the virus. Unfortunately, I don’t know if there’s much we CAN do, other than take the necessary precautions that the CDC has been sharing (wash your hands, don’t touch your face, avoid crowded places, practice social distancing).

I also recommend a few other steps: Eat healthy, exercise, take your immune-boosting supplements (which might help) and make sure to add stress-coping practices to your life. Whichever that is – prayer, meditation, yoga – are all good practices. The panic, stress and fear that many of my friends and family members are facing right now with all this uncertainty doesn’t help our immune systems stay strong.

Social media, while an amazing way to stay in touch with our friends and family, can also add to the stress. I have read SO much misinformation on the web lately. Well-meaning people sharing that you can “self-test” if you have the virus by holding your breath, or drink water every 15 minutes, etc. Again, unproven steps that are not based on science and have been debunked by Stanford University,  healthcare professionals and several articles from reputable sources.

Here are a few tips that might help protect you from misinformation AND stress:

1. Be mindful on what you read and who you follow – try to keep your mindset positive
2. If you see a post with information, research, verify. – It truly only takes a few minutes
3. Try not to share information that is based on fear – we can do better
4. Beware of people promising a cure or having a “remedy” for the virus.
5. Go to scientific-based websites for valid, verifiable information

And please, don’t buy into the panic. I know it’s scary and uncertain. We have never faced something like this. I know that many businesses have started lay-offs. Please reach out to your friends by phone, text or email to check on them. Check on your elders. Check on your neighbors. Offer some help if needed. Be a resource for others. Be kind.

As far as steps to take to protect yourself, here are a few supplements that might help boost your immune system:

1. Vitamin C
2. Vitamin D3 and K2
3. Astragalus Root
4. Dandelion Root
5. Omega Fatty Acids

Follow a low-inflammatory diet and avoid sugar and processed foods. Stick to real, whole, healthy foods, stay hydrated (for the sake of staying hydrated – not because of the virus) and make sure to include some type of fun activity in your daily routine. These are steps that we should ALL follow, all the time, not just now. Take care of yourself and take care of your loved ones.

This too shall pass.

I have been following the 131 Method for a few weeks now, which is a diet-phasing program, meaning, you follow a specific diet in cycles. I am LOVING it.  My digestion has never been better, my sleep has improved drastically and I am preparing delicious recipes that my whole family enjoys. The program is designed with our health in mind. Restoring health and restoring whatever imbalances we have in our body created by stress, bad diet or simply eating foods that don’t agree with our body.

One of the recipes that I have enjoyed the most is this Flaxseed Focaccia Bread which is not only low-carb, but the flaxseeds are incredibly beneficial to our hormones. The best part? This recipe is fat-burning and is extremely simple!

My family says that I’m an expert at taking an unhealthy recipe and creating a healthy one that tastes the same. I’ve always thought that eating healthy doesn’t mean we have to eat bland foods. I stand by that statement.

My daughter’s birthday was approaching and I’ve been truly focused on following a specific plan to step up my healing – including balancing my hormones as well as my gut which has been a work in progress for me. One of the things that I have noticed is that when I eat certain foods, like wheat, I tend to not sleep well and feel bloated. In order to avoid this, I decided to experiment a bit with this recipe and created one of my daughter’s favorite cakes: A carrot cupcake! The best part? Not only is it wheat-free, it’s also ketogenic, it has NO artificial sweeteners and no sugar.

So what did I use in place of sugar? I used monk fruit! Monk fruit is a natural sweetener, it has no calories and doesn’t affect blood sugar levels (since it’s low in the glycemic index). It’s also safe for children and pregnant women AND has other health properties as well. Monk fruit owes its sweet flavor to something called mogrosides. A 2013 study concluded that mogrosides reduce oxidative stress (so it works as an antioxidant)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup monk fruit
• 3/4 cup grass-fed butter, softened – you can also use coconut oil or ghee
• 1 tbsp Maple flavored Monk fruit syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large Eggs
• 2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Sea salt
• 1 1/2 cup  blanched almond flour
• 1 cup Tiger nut flour.
• 2 1/2 cup grated carrots. Make sure to measure them loosely after grating.
• 1 1/2 cup walnuts – use 1 cup for mix, save 1/2 cup for decorating (you can also use pecans)
• Cream cheese frosting (recipe below)  – you can also use coconut cream frosting

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In a large bowl, mix the monk fruit sweetener along with the butter and vanilla until it has a creamy consistency. Then add the eggs one by one while continuing to mix. Set aside
• In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (tiger nut flour, almond flour, sea salt, cinnamon, baking powder.
• Once well combined, stir the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Then add the carrots and stir. Fold in the 1 cup of walnuts. Setting aside 1/2 cup for garnish.
• Pour the batter into greased cupcake molds (fill to half)
• Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until the middle of the cupcake is completely cooked (I use a toothpick to check)

Pull out of the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool, about an hour. In the meantime, you can prepare the frosting:

Ingredients:
1 package cream cheese (from grass-fed cows)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup Monk Fruit
4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp butter (softened, cut in cubes)

Mix all ingredients together with a mixer. Add more whipping cream if needed until you have it at the consistency you’d like. Refrigerate until you’re ready to decorate your cupcakes.

Garnish your cupcakes with the whipping cream, add walnuts to garnish (I chopped mine and left a few whole walnuts to garnish). Serve and enjoy!

These tasted SO good!

I absolutely love how versatile quinoa is. But how exactly do you pronounce quinoa? It’s pronounced KEEN-WAH. A super nutrient-dense seed (not a grain), packed with 5 grams of fibre and 8 grams of protein per cup, not to mention iron, magnesium, zinc, potassium, Omega 3 fatty acids and vitamins B1, B2, B6

Quinoa has a bit of a nutty flavor, which makes it a perfect alternative to breakfast! I made this recipe by doing the following:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Raw Quinoa
2 cups water
1 dash cinnamon
1 cup milk of your choice (I used coconut milk)
Fruit of your choice (I used sliced bananas)
A drizzle of almond butter and chia seeds (for added nutrition)

In a small sauce pan, place water. Bring to a boil and add quinoa and cinnamon. Cover and simmer until all water is evaporated (about 15 minutes). Serve on a bowl (I found 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa to be filling. Add coconut milk, sliced bananas, a drizzle of almond butter and chia seeds.

Serve and enjoy!

Because I’ve been SO interested in improving my gut health and helping my clients do the same, one of the things I focus on is adding a lot more variety to my diet and my family’s diet. I never shy away from trying a new veggie or looking at what other things I can do to add nutrition-packed foods to my meals.

One of the MOST interesting things that I have learned along my journey is that the more flavorful the food is, the more nutritious it is. Our body was designed to identify nutrients by flavor. A common misconception is that in order to eat healthy, our foods are supposed to be bland. We have gotten so used to eating foods that are full of preservatives and flavors created in a lab (thanks to the food industry) with little to no nutrition, that many of us have bought into this marketing strategy.

I am hear to teach people that this is not true. The more flavorful your veggies and foods are, the higher the nutrient density. That’s how we have survived for so many centuries. And due to us straying away from this concept, we have high incidences of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity in this country.

i recently have started to use micro-greens from Hamama Micro Greens which are PACKED with nutrition (from 4  to 40 times more nutrients than their mature counterparts!) And the best part? They take about 10 days to harvest! If you’re as much as a researcher as I am, you can read about the benefits and nutrition content of micro-greens by clicking here

Now moving on to my recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger minced
• 4 tablespoons almond butter
• 1 lime zested and juiced
• 2 tablespoons Bragg’s Aminos (it’s like soy sauce but it’s better for you) OR you can use coconut aminos instead
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons Avocado oil
• 2 cups chicken cooked and shredded
• 3 yellow squash (or zucchini) spiral sliced
• 1 large carrots spiral sliced
• 1 Medium size sweet potato spiral sliced
• 1 red pepper spiral sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro chopped
• 1/4 cup green onions diced
• chopped unsalted roasted almonds and lime wedges (optional as a garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

1. Add the garlic, ginger, almond butter, lime juice and zest, soy sauce and red pepper flakes to a small bowl and mix together.
2. To a large frying pan add your avocado oil on high heat.
3. Add the squash, carrots, sweet potato and bell peppers to the pan and cook until just wilted, 3 – 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   Add in the chicken, sauce, cilantro and green onions and toss together until all warmed through.
4. Garnish with almond slivers and wedges of lime if desired. (I topped mine with Micro Greens to add more nutrition). Serve and enjoy!

If you would like to purchase your own kit of micro-greens (super fun to grow these with your family too!) click here

And if you’d like to purchase your own spiralizer, the one I use is on Amazon, just click here to check it out. 

• Super foods,
• Indulge foods,
• Enjoy Foods,
• Minimize foods and
• Avoid foods.

And you guys… my results were totally different than my hubby’s results and his groups of foods are different than mine! The best part? It tells you what the servings should be so it takes that guesswork out of the equation.

So back to the basil salmon recipe. I always do my best to purchase sustainable salmon from reliable sources. If you want to see which fish is sustainable, you can go to the  Seafood Watch  website and do a search for sustainable salmon as well as other types of fish. They also have a nifty app that you can download to your phone and take with you when shopping.

I have been making this recipe for a LONG time and every time I make it, it gets a ton of compliments. I’ve had visitors from other countries call me or write to me asking me to share the recipe with them. The interesting thing is that it’s SO simple!

Why use parchment paper?

I use parchment paper because I’ve discovered that this is a good way to seal in the flavors. You can also use plantain skins or even banana leaves to wrap the fish. I have done this when using a tropical marinade like a papaya, mango salsa for example. What’s cool is that it gives the fish a completely different flavor when preparing it this way. I’ve grilled shrimp using this method as well as chicken breasts.

Here is what the parchment paper covered fish looks like (it had already been cooked on one side in this picture).

Ingredients:
1 lb. Wild Salmon (thawed)
No wax parchment paper

For the marinade:
1 tablespoon per piece of salmon of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped FRESH basil
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
A dash of salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients of the marinade into a small bowl. Place the salmon on top of the parchment paper and coat with the mixture on the flesh side of the salmon. Seal the parchment paper by folding the ends like wrapping a burrito; making sure no part of the salmon is exposed. Then grill on medium heat with the skin side facing the fire for 15 minutes, then flip it over and grill for another 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy! I served it with a side of kale slaw with homemade roasted pumpkin seed dressing. A family favorite!

Ingredients:

4 small salmon fillets, cleaned and deboned

For the sauce:

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

1/4 red onion

1 cup water

mango chunks (set aside)

5 leaves of fresh basil

Bragg’s Sprinkles (spices you can buy at any health food store)

a dash of Cayenne pepper

Black pepper to taste

Juice of 1 lime.

Preparation:

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Boil the bell peppers in the cup of water, once the water boils place the bell peppers under cold water to remove the skin. Make sure to de-seed them too. Add the spices, fresh basil,  black pepper, sprinkles, cayenne pepper, add chopped onion and mango. Add lime juice, black pepper and salt to taste.

Place the salmon on a pyrex, add some additional spices on both sides of the salmon. Then bake it for about 20 minutes. Serve with a side of greens and the mango salsa on top.

Kettle & Fire is one of my favorite products. Don’t get me wrong, I love making bone broth but there are times when I haven’t made any and I need it for cooking purposes. I often use bone broth in my recipes so having this readily available in my kitchen is helpful, especially after a long day at work and having to come home and cook.

I was so grateful when I received the two boxes of this awesome product in the mail. My birthday was coming up and I had decided I wanted to make some meals during the weekend that would taste delicious but wouldn’t take me hours to prepare.

Bone broth is NOT  a cure-all. That being said, I have found bone broth to be very soothing for the gut. It’s high in beneficial collagen which helps with joint pain. Your skin will also benefit by helping reduce the appearance of wrinkles. And the best part for me of course, is that it adds some delicious flavor to my dishes when cooking and makes my job a lot easier. Note: I used the Instant Pot for these recipes but you can also use your slow cooker if you don’t have one.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes that I used:

Portobello Mushroom Chicken:
Ingredients:
1 cup Kettle & Fire chicken bone broth
1 cup of a good quality red wine (I used a Pinot Noir for this recipe)
1 whole organic, pastured chicken (thawed)
2  tsps. Bragg Organic Sprinkle Seasoning
1 sliced portobello mushroom
1 tsp avocado oil

Preparation:
Sprinkle each side of the chicken with the seasoning. Add the avocado oil to the Instant Pot and program to “sauté”. When the oil is hot, place the chicken in, breast side first. Brown for about 3 – 5 minutes then flip the chicken and brown the other side for another 3 – 5 minutes.

Add broth, wine and mushrooms. Turn sauté program off, close the instant pot and program to “poultry” cooking on high for 30 minutes. Allow a natural release on the Instant Pot. Carve the chicken and serve.

Drunken Steak and Olives

Okay I had a REALLY hard time naming this dish! It has 8 SIMPLE ingredients and is SO freaking easy to make but tastes like you’ve been cooking for hours. You will need a slow-cooker for this dish.

Ingredients:
4 Grass-fed Sirloin steaks chopped into long pieces
4 oz pastured bacon chopped in pieces (don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water after handling the bacon)
16 black olives
1 cup Fire & Kettle beef broth
1 1/2 cup good-quality white wine
1 organic yellow onion chopped in big chunks
1 tsp Bragg Sprinkle
1 tsp nutmeg

Preparation:
In a pot, cook the chopped bacon thoroughly and set aside, leaving the bacon fat in the pot. Cook the onion slightly and quickly in the bacon fat for about 1 minute (so it won’t get translucent). This is just to add a bit of flavor to the dish and not overcook the onion. Set the onion aside.

Add the steak pieces and cook in the same pot for about 5 minutes on each side, allowing it to brown. Place the steak in the slow cooker. Add broth, wine, nutmeg, Bragg Sprinkle, olives, bacon and onion. Cover and cook on high for about 3 hours. This will allow all the flavors to set in

.

Roasted Red Potatoes (In the Instant Pot)
Ingredients:
2 lb. red potatoes
1 tbsp coconut oil (you can use ghee if you prefer)
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (I have it in my garden)
1/2 cup beef (or chicken) Kettle & Fire bone broth
A dash of salt to taste

Preparation:
Wash, dry and then stab tab each potato with a fork. Set your instant pot on the sauté setting and add the oil (or ghee). Add the potatoes and stir to make sure that the oil coats each one of the potatoes well. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the bone broth, rosemary and salt. Close the lid on the instant pot. Shut off the “sauté” setting and turn on the manual setting on “high” for 8 minutes. Once the instant pot is done cooking, allow it to release naturally.