Comfort Foods

This week was a rough one for me. My 15 year old kitty Panther passed away. He was actually my sister Hannah's cat, but when she moved to Cedar City and wasn't able to take him with her, I took him in. My roommates welcomed and loved him, almost as much as I did. He had such a friendly, calming and comforting spirit. He made friends with anyone who approached him. He got very sick though and wasn't responding to medicine. It was his time, he's not suffering anymore and he lived a good full life.

So I have been very un-motivated and mopey lately. I haven't wanted to make the effort to actually cook anything. I decided yesterday, that it would be a comfort food day.

I started my day off drinking warm honey and lemon water. On an empty stomach, this helps start digestion and it also helps to wake me up when I'm having trouble getting out of bed. For breakfast I made a chocolate smoothie. Cocoa is really good for depression, it triggers the production of serotonin and dopamine in the brain. In my smoothie I used a whole banana, 1/4 cup coconut oil, handful of spinach, one kale leaf, 3 tbs cocoa powder, vanilla protein powder and 1 cup dark chocolate almond milk (add more to make thinner) It was the chocolaty goodness I needed to start my day.

My wonderful mother gave me a new cookbook for my birthday. I finally tried out a recipe from it yesterday! It's Called The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, but no worries, I don't have cancer! I just thought it would be a great book to have around for fun and if anyone gets cancer, I'm covered!

Since soup is such a great comfort food for me, I decided to try out the recipe on the cover. It's called Thai It Up Chicken Soup. This soup was so glorious! So much flavor, so nourishing and definitely comforting.

Something I get a lot with eating healthy is "I would rather enjoy life and eat 'good' food" I assume by "good" people mean flavor. The thing is, is what I eat is absolutely incredible. I am a major foodie so I will never ever sacrifice flavor for nutrition in my meals. I have gone back and forth with clean and non clean eating a lot lately. My body hates it, but it's allowing me to really compare the two lifestyles. For me, sugar and fat filled foods are natural comfort foods because it's what I grew up with. My body never ever craves these foods, but it's my emotions and subconscious that crave them. When I am feeling depressed or anxious, these foods are the first things I think of. As I enjoy more and more clean recipes, though, they are becoming my comfort foods. I feel like I am enjoying my life a lot because I'm not being drug down by disease and the ill-affects of malnourished food. My body feels lighter, I feel abled, creative, empowered and I have energy. This is enjoying life to me.

This soup was amazing!! I really, really like Thai food and soups though. What I love about this soup is when you first eat it, it's an explosion of flavor in your mouth. The broth is so rich and full, I could probably drink it alone it's so good. Not only was the flavor great, but I could feel the nutrients in the soup disperse throughout my body. Such nutrient-rich foods cause almost a second flavor reaction. It feels like my whole body is tasting the soup and just soaking in all of the great nutrients. I wasn't even able to finish my bowl of soup because it was so filling and I had so much left over. This could easily feed a family or a good group of people.

I really hope that you enjoy this recipe and that it will help nourish your life with lots of nutrients and goodness!

Thai It Up Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

8 cups chicken broth

2 shallots, or 1 small red onion, peeled and halved

6 1-inch pieces of unpeeled fresh ginger

1 stalk lemongrass, bruised and cut into chunks

2 kaffir lime leaves, or 1 teaspoon lime zest

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 15-ounce can coconut milk

3 1/2 ounces rice noodles, broken into 2-inch pieces

1 cup peeled and finely diced carrot

Pinch of cayenne (optional)

1 organic chicken breast half, cut into 1/8-inch-thick diagonal slices

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

2 tablespoons sliced scallion, cut thinly on diagonal, for garnish.

Directions:

Combine the broth, shallots, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt in a soup pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop out all of the solids and discard. Stir in the coconut milk and continue to simmer, being careful not to boil, for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the rice noodles into a bowl of hot water and soak until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Stir the carrot and cayenne into the soup, simmer for 2 minutes, then add the chicken and simmer for an additional 7 minutes, until the chicken is tender and thoroughly cooked. Stir in the noodles, lime juice, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. You may want to add a bit more salt and 1/8 teaspoon of maple syrup. Serve garnished with the cilantro and scallion.

Variation: For an extra immune booster, add 1 cup of stemmed and sliced shiitake mushrooms when you add the chicken.

Blueberry, Lemon and Almond Birthday Cake

My birthday, February 13th, was this past weekend. It was by far the best birthday I've ever had. This is the first year I have been living my life true to myself and only allowing people who truly care about me, to be a part of my life. My birthday was so filled with love and support from all of my closest friends and family.

In celebration, I made this amazing birthday cake for myself. It was a huge hit at my party! Everyone loved it and I started getting requests from friends to make different things for them! All of the love and support was extremely encouraging.

I found the original recipe on Green Kitchen Stories but I changed the oil to coconut oil because I prefer to use coconut over any other kinds of oil. I made this cake twice, the first time using chia seeds in place of eggs, and it turned out just as well as the cake with eggs.

Blueberry, Lemon, Poppy Seed & Almond Cake
Serves 8-10

4 cups (400 g) almond flour
3 tbsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (120 ml) melted coconut oil
1/2 cup (120 ml) honey or maple syrup
2 small organic lemons
3 large eggs (replace with chia seeds* if you are vegan)
2 cups (300 g) blueberries (save half for topping)

Glazing1 cup/240 ml (250 g) Turkish yogurt, drained (use vegan cream cheese if you are vegan)
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Combine almond flour, poppy seeds, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl and set aside. Heat oil and honey in a sauce pan on very low heat until combined. Grate the zest from the 2 lemons and add it to the honey/oil batter. Divide them in half and squeeze the juice from three of the halves into the mixture, saving one half for the glazing. Add the batter to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs and then fold them into the batter together with 1 cup of the blueberries. Stir gently around with a wooden spoon until combined. Grease a 8-inch spring form cake tin, and add the batter to it.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes (depending on size of the pan and oven), or until golden on the outside and baked all way through (you can cover the cake with tin foil during the last 15 minutes of the baking time, if it starts looking burned) . Remove from oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes before removing the sides. Meanwhile, start making the glazing. Drain yogurt in a milk cloth or coffee filter for about 10 minutes. This is to make the yogurt less runny. Discard the water and combine the thick yogurt with honey vanilla extract and the juice from the remaining lemon half. Leave to chill in the fridge. When the cake has cooled completely, cover it with glazing, top with the remaining blueberries and serve. You could also just serve the cake with blueberries and yogurt on the side.

* You can replace three eggs with 3 tbsp chia seeds and 9 tbsp water that you combine and let sit for 15 minutes.

Chocolate

I'm obsessed with chocolate and it was the one thing I swore I would never give up.

Which is why I am thrilled that chocolate is actually really good for you! In this article put out by the Collective Evolution, an 110-year-old man states that chocolate is the top five foods that will help you live longer. My plan is to live until I'm at least 100, so that was incredibly good news for me. I can eat all the chocolate I want!

I buy my chocolate from Sprouts and get fair trade 70% or above, anything much lower won't give you the same benefits. Eating it straight is fantastic, but I love baking with it. This past week I made a delicious chocolate cake! It turned out very moist and delicious! This recipe calls for eggs but you can use chia seeds as a substitute. The best thing about healthy cake is that it's good for you and you can eat as much as you want! It doesn't weigh you down or give you the crazy sugar crash.

I got this recipe from Green Kitchen Stories. If you are into healthy eating and haven't heard of this blog, you NEED to look at this blog. It's seriously incredible.

Enjoy!

Banana, Almond & Chocolate Cake10 servings

This recipe calls for a lot of cacao, so make sure to choose a good tasting one. It’s a quite small cake but very rich, so 10 servings should still be enough.

200 g / 2 cups / 500 ml almond flour
25 g / 1/3 cup / 6 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder 
1 tsp baking powder
sea salt
2 eggs
2 bananas
1/3 cup / 80 ml cold pressed rapeseed oil or olive oil
1/2 cup / 120 ml maple syrup or honey

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F.
Add almond flour, cacao powder, baking powder and sea salt to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Crack the eggs into a medium size mixing bowl and beat for about a minute. Mash the bananas with a fork and add to the eggs together with oil and syrup. Beat until all is well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a whisk to stir until everything is mixed. Grease a small/medium size baking pan with oil. Mix a little almond flour with cacao powder and coat the sides with the mixture to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan. Pour the batter into the greased form and bake for about 45 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely before carefully tilting it out of the pan and adding the ganache. Serve with fresh berries and a dollop of turkish yogurt.

Cappuccino Ganache80 g / 3 oz dark chocolate (70%)1 single shot (4 cl) hot espresso or strong brewed coffee4 tbsp heated milk of choice (plant based or regular)

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl. Pour the hot espresso and heated milk over the chocolate and leave for a minute to melt. Use a spoon to stir until completely smooth. Pour the ganache over the cake and watch as is firms up. If the ganache thickens before you have poured it over the cake, you can melt it again over a water bath.

Zucchini Spaghetti

I absolutely love spaghetti but part of my diet is avoiding anything gluten. So I came up a very filling, gluten free spaghetti option. I am super proud of myself for this recipe because it's one of my complete originals and it turned out super well. I've never written a recipe from scratch before and I'm not use to writing out measurements (I usually just throw whatever in and play by taste) so please bear with me on this one. Also feel free to take something out, put something in or change it to whatever suites you!

I know sometimes it's hard finding a balance with loved ones with food. At least for me, some of my friends and family think many things I eat are strange or undesirable. That's why I love this recipe, I can make it for myself and whoever I'm with and it's not a pain to try and make two different things to please everyone. I made this the other night for my boyfriend and I and he really loved it! So try it out with the whole fam!

Ingredients:

1tbs coconut oil
1/4 onion chopped in small pieces
1 garlic clove or 1 tsp garlic powder.
1tsp oregano
1tsp basil
1 roma tomato
1/2 red pepper
1 can tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup meat of your choice (optional)
(I used chicken one time and it turned out great.
Ground beef would go best but chicken is leaner)
2 small zucchini

Start by boiling 5-6 cups of water in a medium pot for the zucchini noodles. Meanwhile bring the coconut oil to medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the onion, garlic, meat, basil and oregano. While the meat is cooking cut the zucchini into thin spaghetti-like pieces and add to the boiling water. Boil for about 8 minutes. Cut the tomatoes and red pepper in onc-inch pieces and add to the frying pan once the meat is fully cooked. Let cook for about five minutes. Add the tomato paste, water and apple cider vinegar and stir until all is combined. Salt and pepper to taste. When the zucchini noodles are done, put the noodles and sauce together in a bowl and you are done!