Vanilla banana espresso "ice cream"

I am desperately trying to stay away from sugar. It has always given me a headache but for some reason I continue to eat it. Eliminating sugar from your diet is quite the challenge but I have to say that I feel a million times more energized and healthy when I leave it out of my diet. Plus, after not eating sugar for about 3 weeks or so, it gets much easier. The cravings get less and less significant. Now my taste buds think fruit is the sweetest thing ever!

So, one night I decided to make vanilla espresso banana "ice cream," without all the nasty sugar and junk.

My recipe was so simple and DELICIOUS!

Vanilla Espresso Banana "Ice Cream"

4 Frozen organic bananas

1 c. Almond milk (you can add more depending on your preferred consistency)

2 T. Vanilla espresso almond butter

1/4 t. Vanilla extract

This Wild Friends almond butter is incredible! I chose the vanilla espresso almond butter because it sounded amazing (me being the coffee lover that I am), and it proved to be wonderful.

I puréed all the ingredients in our Ninja blender on high for about 1minute. The ice cream turned out so smooth and way better than "normal" ice cream. Plus it's such a healthy alternative.

Now I can't imagine having ice cream any other way...

Artichoke pesto fish en Papillote

One of my favorite foods is an artichoke, so when I saw a recipe on Cooksmarts for Tilapia en Papillote with artichoke pesto, I was all over it. We used Wild Caught Hake for our fish because my husband and I are not big fans of tilapia.

The artichoke pesto was made with 4 cups organic spinach, 1 can artichoke hearts, 1/4 cup pine nuts, 5 cloves garlic and 1/2 cup olive oil. Plus salt and pepper to taste. All blended in the handy food processor.

I lathered the artichoke pesto on the fish, topped it with sliced lemons, and put them on parchment paper. Notice the parchment paper is cut into a heart shape.

The heart shape allows the fish to easily be pinched and folded, to keep all the goodness inside with the fish.

I made three pieces of fish because we had a guest. These went in the oven at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.

I decided to make a garlic herb quinoa/ brown rice on the side. I also made steamed cauliflower and mixed some leftover artichoke pesto in with it. It turned out so yummy!

The fish was perfectly moist and the artichoke pesto on top was incredible! This dinner was definitely a hit!

Vegetable lentil soup with a side of guitar

I love lentils and therefore I'm a big fan of lentil soup. This recipe was super easy and yummy.

Lentil soup
3/4 c. dried lentils
4 organic single celery stocks, chopped
3/4 lb. organic carrots, chopped
1 white onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, diced
2 T. olive oil
1tsp. thyme
3 c. organic veggie broth

Make sure to soak the lentils in water over night so you won't have to cook the soup as long.

In a medium pot, sauté the garlic in olive oil for about 1 minute, then add the onions, celery, and carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes. 

Then add lentils, thyme, and broth. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium for 15-20 minutes, uncovered. 

This soup was surprisingly extremely flavorful and much better than most lentil soups I have had.

Our one-year old helped daddy sing and play the guitar while mommy made dinner :)

 

Stir-fry and Ticket to Ride

With all the many things to do in one day; work, laundry, picking up after your toddler, it is stressful when the clock reaches 5pm and you have no idea what you're going to make your family for dinner. I also had a difficult time at the grocery store because I was never sure what I was making for dinners during the week, and often over-shopped, which wasted a lot of food by the end of the week. Now, I use Cooksmarts (a meal planning service) to organize my dinner meals 4 days a week. I love having a plan for meals ahead of time, and having a prepared grocery list. Below is a meal from this week's menu that turned out pretty great!

We made a delicious tofu noodle stir-fry! It has garlic, tomatoes, tofu, spinach and baby bok choy in it. The sauce the recipe called for was a soy sauce, brown sugar, cornstarch mixture. After I mixed in the sauce with the stir-fry though, it was just a little too bland. So I spruced it up a bit.

I added a little extra soy sauce and Szechuan hot sauce to bring out more of the flavors. It definitely did the trick!

Then my husband and I played one of our favorite board games, Ticket to Ride, with a friend of ours. Somehow, the boys often win this game, but I'm determined to win one of these days!

The never sleeper

Just when you think you're getting a hold of your baby's eating habits, likes/dislikes, and sleeping/nap schedule, something happens....they suddenly change everything! Our one year old boy has decided he just doesn't have time for naps anymore. He is obviously exhausted, yet somehow he keeps himself awake by walking around his crib and tossing any stuffed animals or blankets he has, over the side onto the floor.

Sometimes he eventually falls asleep after pure exhaustion. Other times, I just give in and go up to rescue him ;) The red lights at the top of the monitor means he is yelling hehe poor baby

And pure exhaustion it is! Phew! Now I have an hour to relax/get house chores done.

With this kind of chilly morning, something warm is definitely a necessity.

Ahhh Saturday morning coffee...

A simple, filling breakfast of granola, honey peanut butter, sliced bananas and almond milk.

Pizza pizza

Making pizzas is quite the norm at our house. We often do a chicken-less BBQ or a magherita style pizza but tonight was different. We did a semi-Turkish style pizza inspired by Cooksmarts.

The crust is a garlic herb dough from Trader Joes that was delicious!

We topped it with Mediterranean hummus, feta cheese, sliced olives, shallots and just for fun we added...

Some chopped parsley :)

There's no way we could stop at just one!

Fish fish hurray

There's nothing like a complete meal of baked salmon, sautéed brussel sprouts and fresh sourdough bread.

Seasoned salmon baked at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Yum!

Sautéed brussel sprouts seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder. 

Sourdough bread is my husbands favorite! He often has a little sourdough bread with his butter ;)

The Remedy

Being out of town last week for business was exhausting. It's difficult to get out of your normal routine of working out and eating healthy, and trading it in for a week of long work days, very late nights, and trying to pick the most healthy item on the menu of a burger joint. Needless to say, it is SO great to be home! I have felt more tired than usual so I am doing my best to remedy that! This weekend was a weekend of juicing, vitamins, salads, sautéed veggies, and healthy soups!

This morning, I started with freshly juiced veggies and fruit! 

A new Trader Joes opened near us on Valentines Day so we went shopping this weekend. I love TJs. We bought lots of yummy organic veggies to juice!

Love love love.

Freshly juiced veggies and fruits always look like a science experiment gone wrong hehe

Oh so good!! All those delicious vitamins and nutrients all packed freshly into one glass! My energy should be back in no time.