Strawberry Shortkale Smoothie

Okay, so get ready for puns. I was craving a strawberries and cream type flavour this morning, but wanted to throw some greens in there too. The result? A strawberries and greens flavour! I was going to take a picture, but if I’m being honest the colour was not so appetizing. Green and red equals a muddy brownish colour, but tastes delicious and refreshing!

Strawberry Shortkale Smoothie 

(See what I did there? Like strawberry shortcake? But with kale?)

2 handfuls of frozen strawberries

1/2 frozen banana

1 large handful of spinach

2 stalks kale

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 cup coconut water

1 tbsp hemp seeds

1 scoop vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder

 

Blend up all that sheeeit and driiiiiiink it!

Sweet Potato Workout Cake

I think sweet potato has got to be one of my all-time favourite slow burning carbohydrates. Not only because it’s delicious and can be used in both sweet and savoury recipes, it also has a minimal impact on your blood sugar levels (depending on how you prepare it, that is. A baked sweet potato has a higher glycemic index than a boiled or steamed sweet potato). What better way to spend a rainy long weekend than playing in the kitchen? This single-serve cake is a perfect pre-workout or afternoon snack, breakfast, or dessert. It provides hours of fuel and loads of deliciousness!

Ingredients

2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and steamed

1/4 cup brown rice or quinoa flour (or even protein powder could work)

1 tbsp coconut oil, plus extra for greasing

1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking soda

Pinch sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a ramekin or small dish with coconut oil.
2. Steam sweet potatoes and mash by hand or toss ‘em in the food processor.
3. Add flour and mix or process with the sweet potato. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix.
4. Scoop mixture into your ramekin and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy. Bonus: stick a square of dark chocolate into the middle of the cake when you pull it out and let it melt. Yummm. 

The Chocolatiest Breakfast Bowl That Ever Was

I have always been a chocoholic. Nine times out of ten, I will choose chocolate over any other flavour. While some people crave savoury flavours for breakfast, I use it as another opportunity to eat chocolate. And you know what? I don’t see anything wrong with it. It makes me really happy. A few weeks ago I found I had an abundance of chocolate-flavoured items in my house and decided to make the chocolatiest breakfast bowl that ever was.

The Chocolatiest Breakfast Bowl Ever

1/2 cup chocolate almond milk

1/2 cup chocolate (or regular) coconut water

1 serving chocolate Sunwarrior Warrior Blend protein powder

1 serving chocolate Amazing Grass greens powder or 1 large handful of spinach

1/2 frozen banana

Optional optimizers: 1 tsp maca powder, 1 tbsp coconut oil

Optional toppings: 1 handful chocolate Kaia raw granola (or regular granola), goji berries, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds

Directions

Blend all ingredients (except toppings) and pour into a bowl. Top with your, erm, toppings, and enjoy! Smoothies in a bowl taste better. Especially ones of the chocolate variety. Happy weekend! XO

 

Infuse Some Love into Your Mornings

I just have a short post for tonight! I wanted to share how happy little things make me, a realization I’ve been reminded of recently. The last couple of weeks I’ve been using a heart-shaped ice cube tray to freeze leftover Americano and other liquid goodies. Each time I pop out a little cube, I feel a little burst of rainbows explode inside of me. It’s magical! It also reminds me that summer is coming, because that’s one of the biggest associations I have with iced espresso. Anyways, I love remembering how happy I get from such small changes in my everyday routine. It’s inspired me take some cool pictures and write up new recipes. Here’s my latest:

Sweetheart Espresso Floats

1 cup of almond milk

5-6 drops of English toffee stevia

8 ounces of frozen heart-shaped Americano

Mix milk and stevia together and drop in the heart cubes. Allow the cubes to melt a little bit and sip away. Optional: warm the milk and stevia first make melting a bit easier.

Homemade Mocha Iced Capps

I can smell spring in the air when I step outside. Nothing quite says summertime like a good ol’ iced cappuccino. I remember the milk-and-sugar-laden concoction from Tim Hortons well. The whipped cream on top with sweet sugary frozen caffeinated goodness underneath. The almost flavourless ice left at the bottom every time.

The bloating and the blood sugar crashes. Good times.

Needless to say when I woke up to a particularly balmy morning here in Vancouver, I immediately went to my freezer to pull out some frozen Americano cubes. Enter, vegan mocha iced capps.

Ingredients

8 ounces of frozen Americano

½ cup almond milk

1-2 teaspoons cacao or cocoa powder

8 drops English toffee stevia

½ tsp maca powder (optional)

Directions

Add all ingredients into the blender and slurp away! Sun, warmth, and tan not included.

No leaves in my salad please!

No leaves in my salad please!

You know those days when you look in your fridge and see so many great ingredients, but no clue what to do with them? I realized that all you have to do is toss them in a bowl together and drizzle them with dressing. Cool, eh? Lately I’ve been into super simple “chunky salads”. These salads are fully forkable, with no leaves in sight (I’ve preferred to drink my spinach and kale leaves these days).

Creamy Citrus Chunky Summer Salad

Serves one, multiply to your hearts content!

Ingredients

½ avocado

½ cucumber

½-1 orange

Small handful of parsley

¼ lemon

1 tbsp oil

pinch sea salt

¼ tsp dill

Directions

1. Chop up the ‘cado, cuc, orange and parsley into chunks.
2. Whisk together the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad. Toss and serve.

Cool Black Bean Cucumber Chunk Salad

Serves one, multiply to your hearts content!

Ingredients

½ cup black beans (Eden Organic canned and washed, or homemade)

1/3 cucumber

½ pear

1 tsp honey

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Pinch sea salt

Directions

1. Chop up cucumber and pear and toss in a bowl with black beans
2. Whisk together ingredients and pour over the salad. Toss and serve.

Living, and Eating, In the Moment

I was happy to discover that the Maple Leaf Lounge has some healthy options

Traveling does a funny thing to me: I tend to “allow” myself to eat foods I don’t normally consume (keep in mind, I am an avid flexitarian, and I set flexible guidelines for my dietary choices based on how my body feels). During my trip to Toronto, I woke up one morning to some freshly, made-with-love whole wheat bread. Normally I forgo wheat, since it doesn’t get along with my body all that well.  But hey, it was still warm from the oven, what was I gonna say? No, I don’t want your beautiful bread topped with local Ontario honey, almond butter and banana? Sorry, I’d rather stare at it longingly wishing that “I ate wheat”?

I could also make the argument that the dialogue would be more like “Sorry, I don’t want to cripple my guts by eating gluten”.  I get that.

Instead I decided to live in the moment.  In that moment, my eyes widened and my stomach growled and my legs lurched me forward towards the kitchen where I carefully sliced two pieces of bread for Kelsey and I.

And you know what? I felt great.  The mindset you have while eating impacts your body that much. It’s not something I eat all the time, and the circumstance – made with love, fresh, and my body literally pulling me towards it – called for it. I didn’t think “Damn I’m going to have the worst stomach cramps after this,” I thought “Oh my gosh, this is freaking delicious” and savored every crumb.

So what’s the difference between eating and living in the moment, and letting your food “exceptions” get out of control? Well the first way to tell the difference is by checking in.  You already know which foods you usually avoid and why.  If you find yourself craving them or being drawn to them, stop and ask yourself why that is. Is it because you don’t have any other choice, or is it because you had a crappy day and it’s your comfort food? Change your mindset: If you’re travelling and really don’t have any other food choice, reframe your thinking. Try, “Wow, I’m so grateful to have this food! My body loves and can handle eating this right now because it’s nourishing me.” If you simply crave the food, not because you’re hungry (and are probably quite emotional at the same time), try thinking “I am safe to be in control of my emotions.  I fill myself only with the clean food that my body enjoys and absorbs. I eat only foods that make my mind, body and spirit feel good.” Breathe. Pause. Repeat.

I love traveling. I love the excitement of the plane taking off, and exploring new cities.  The places I will travel to might not always be able to accommodate my food choices. The friends I have don’t all subscribe to the same dietary guidelines as me. Living in the moment keeps me grounded, and eating in the moment keeps my body and mind happy. Don’t take life so seriously, you’ll miss out on Kodak moments and freshly baked bread.

Sometimes it helps to have someone hear you out on your food cravings, and help you sort out why you’re drawn to certain foods. Sometimes, that someone is me abigail@abigailchristens.com.

The Ins and Outs of Reading Nutrition Labels

If only it were this easy!

It’s recently been brought to my attention that people still pay attention to calories.  I chuckled a little bit when I realized this.  It’s been so far off of my radar, I kind of forgot about it. Every so often I get this urge to write a post about nutrition.  I mean, I’m a CNP and all that but my focus has been elsewhere these days. Nonetheless, this is a question that is often overlooked.  What’s the deal with food labels?

Okay, well let’s start with the obvious. What is a calorie? It is the energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water through 1 degree Celsius.

Did anyone else just have a WTF run through their head? Even as a nutritionist, reading this definition just boggles my mind. We’re so focused on the word “calorie” when it comes to weight loss and weight gain.  What bears more importance on food labels are the macronutrients: fat, carbs and protein. If it was all about calories, you could eat a specific amount of ice cream or cookies, and still lose weight (sadly, there are people that have made money off of this idea).

Does your cereal have 14+ grams of sugar in it? You’re basically eating candy for breakfast. Does your total protein intake average of 30+ grams of protein? Your body is going to have a tough time digesting that.  Sorry, how many grams of hydrogenated fat are in your food court lunch? Jeeze louise, that’s a little worrisome. Some labels try to justify these ridiculous numbers with the micronutrients, “Contains 50% of the daily recommended vitamin B6…”.  That’s great, but what form are these vitamins and minerals in? Foods that have been “fortified” don’t count (sorry, Wonderbread) since your body can’t recognize and absorb them.

Also check out the serving size. If the serving size is ridiculous compared to the other numbers (for example, if there are 34 grams of sugar in each cookie you have at Starbucks, that is WAY too much for just one cookie!).

Above and beyond the numbers of your meal, what are the ingredients? This is what you should be looking at. Food labels are listed with the most amount of ingredients to the least.  If the first ingredient is sugar… well, that means that there is more sugar than anything else in your food. And even if the last ingredient is FD&C Blue Nos. 1, it still means there is food dye that has been linked to ADHD and other “diseases” in your meal. A food with high fat content from coconut or avocado is WAY healthier and an encouraged choice, whereas if it is from a vegetable oil source, you should steer clear.

If you can understand the ingredients, you’re off to a great start.  If you still need some help, hit me up, abigail@abigailchristens.com

Breakfast Bowls: Layers of Morning Goodness

Recently I have started a new breakfast phase which I have dubbed breakfast bowls.  They are comprised of three parts…

Base: some sort of protein-packed pudding/porridge mixture

Chia seeds in Sunwarrior protein almond milk with Kaia granola, goji berries, cacao nibs, and banana

Middle layer: granola

Toppings: cacao nibs, goji berries, bananas… depends on my mood and what’s available

The base layer can be any slurpy mixture you like.  Recently I’ve used the new VegaOne chocolate whole food supplement, chia seeds with almond milk, vanilla Sunwarrior blended up with almond milk and frozen banana, or some Coconut Breeze Boring Porridge.  All of these are just bursting with healthy fats, proteins and deliciousness!

For granola, if you don’t have your own homemade granola on hand, I highly recommend getting some Kaia raw chocolate buckwheat granola – I eat the stuff by the handful.  It reminds me oddly of Clodhoppers (which I also used to eat by the hand).  Otherwise look for a naturally sweetened whole food organic granola (are labels confusing for you? Shoot me an email, let’s talk).

Toppings can be any kind of magical sprinklings you like.  Sometimes I go without, depends on the base of my breakfast bowl.   Be creative! There are no limits or boundaries, kids.

Abby’s VegaOne Chocolate Breakfast Bowl

Blend…

½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 scoop chocolate VegaOne powder

1 teaspoon cacao powder

½ frozen banana

2 ice cubes

Pour into a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes.  All that nutritious, omega-3 rich flax will thicken up as it stands.  Top with granola, and sprinkle with love and cacao nibs. Enjoy and eat slowly with a spoon.

Vega Chai Carob Muffins with Protein Icing

I’ve written a post on carbohydrates before (click here), so you all know that I’m not against carbs by any means.  In fact, I freaking love them.  That being said, I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I love baking.  So any chance to come up with a new healthy baked good recipe, I’ll take.  But seeing as I have a big tub of Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer sitting my on counter, I thought I’d do something a little different.

What if I used protein powder instead of flour?

I don’t ever find myself waking up craving this Vanilla Chai superfood mix.  It’s awesome in a pinch, but it’s not often I use it just because.  I wanted to find a way to reap the benefits of it, because in just one serving (220 calories), you get…

26g protein

6g EFAs

15g fibre

2.5g maca

1 serving of chlorella

Probiotics

Superfood berry-blend

Digestive enzymes

100% RDA vitamins and minerals (not that I subscribe to what those values are, but nonetheless you can see that it’s rully healthy!)

One serving is two scoops, but I always feel full after just one scoop in a smoothie.  From the Vega website,

“Easily digested, alkaline and great-tasting, Vega is clean and green, containing no animal products, dairy, egg, fillers, gluten, soy, sugar, wheat or yeast. Absolutely no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners and GMO and pesticide-free.”

I’ll be honest… this Vega product kind of tastes like the earth.  I’m used to super earthy natural flavours, but if I have an equally healthy alternative I usually take it.  How to mask this? Bake it and slather it with icing.

Vega Chai Carob Muffins (~7-8 muffins)

2 cups Vanilla Chai Vega Whole Food Meal Optimizer powder

2.5 tbsp ground flax mixed with 1/3 cup water (let sit for 5-10 minutes to create flax egg)

5 tbsp carob

1 banana, mashed

½ cup berries

3 tbsp sunflower seeds

½ scant tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp baking soda

2 tbsp coconut oil

½-1 cup water (I think I added too much, the powder makes the batter quite thick though so use your best judgment)

1. Preheat oven to 350F and oil a muffin tin.
2. Mix together Vega, flax egg, carob, banana, salt, vanilla, baking soda, coconut oil and water.
3. Add in berries and sunflower seeds, stir.
4. Pour into muffin tins and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I iced them with a protein icing I was inspired by on @powercakes Instagram.  I didn’t follow it to a T, but it was roughly…

2 scoops vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp almond butter

Water to thin out

Pinch of pink sea salt

Mix together until you like the consistency.  I tasted it quite a bit along the way

These muffins are DENSE.  Seriously, I put some in the freezer, and they could probably double as weapons if I were ever attacked.   These little weapons each have:

293 calories

23g healthy carbohydrates

11g fibre

5.7g sugars

21g protein

Plus, micronutrients up the wazoo.  Next time, I think I’d add cacao powder instead of carob, and add less water, maybe omit the coconut oil.  It took quite a while for them to bake.