Tasty Tuesday: Cocoa Oat Cookies

It’s Tuesday, which means I can talk about food, right? Well, here goes. I’ve taken a wonderful recipe from my most favorite plant-based foodie, Deliciously Ella and I’ve just shifted a few things to make these Black Bean cookies that are REALLY so good. Soft, sweet (but not too sweet), chewy, packed full of protein and fiber and containing no gluten ingredients or sugar, they’re a perfect cookie for literally anytime!

Cocoa Oat Cookies

Ingredients:

4 Cups black beans (I’ve been making my own now in a pressure cooker, but you can use canned beans too!)

4 heaping Tbs cocoa powder

4 Tbs melted coconut oil

14 medjool dates, soaked in hot water for 1-4 hours

3 1/2 cups rolled or quick oats

3/4 cup raw cacao nibs (optional, but super yummy!)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil (I use coconut oil) two cookie sheets.

Combine the cooked black beans, cocoa powder, coconut oil and dates in a food processor or powerful blender and blend it all up! The mixture should be sweet, smooth and thick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transfer the combined “wet” ingredients into a bowl and mix in the oats and cacao nibs. Form into balls on the cookie sheets and bake for about 12 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned and the tops are firm(ish).

Take a few of these cookies with you for a long day out and about, they’re a perfect pick-me-up snack when you need something sweet and flavorful that contains protein!

Enjoy!

Peace, Love and Black Beans,

~kiki

Healthy Chocolate Mousse!

Happy Sunday! It also happens to be Valentine’s Day, which, for me, is an excuse to eat more chocolate, and I’m always looking for a reason to do that, so it’s great!

Dark chocolate tastes incredible and actually has many health benefits…

Avocados are also wonderful and can do really incredible things both IN (ingested) and ON (hair and skin) our bodies!

SO naturally, I wanted to combine my obsession (I take full responsibility for it) with both of these power foods and make some kind of delicious treat for Chocolate Consumption Day.

And starting with these….

I proceeded to make the most delicious and decadent chocolate mousse in 5 minutes.

Ingredients:

4 ripe avocados

1 cup raw cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk of choice (I used almond milk)

8 Tbs maple syrup

Combine all ingredients, blend them up in a food processor or blender and store in the fridge. Serving tip: The icing on THIS cake is when you top the mousse with cacao nibs and fresh raspberries!

NOTES: The less milk  you use, the thicker the mousse will be, the more you use, the thinner and creamer it will be. Chef’s choice! You may also need to adjust the sweetness according to your taste, and you can obviously sub a different kind of sweetener if you choose.

Go forth and be chocolate-full!

Peace, love and healthy fats,

~kiki

Make The Most Of YOU

Happy Tuesday!

I’m so pleased to announce that I’m co-hosting (with two other fabulous ladies) a FREE 5 Day Meditation and Self-Love challenge. It’s going to be five days of mindful meditation, clean eating, mini workouts to get your body and spirit moving and accountability from others going through the same thing!

 

Meditation: There are many benefits of meditation including stress relief, clearer mind, higher functioning body and growing intuition. Taking some time in the morning to breathe and come into yourself fully after sleeping can be so beneficial to your most pro-active and productive self!

 

Clean Eating: Eating McDonald’s today won’t kill you (probably.) But eating like that for years on end is incredibly detrimental to your body. Similarly, if you eat cleanly for one day it won’t make your life immediately incredible, but over time, your body will function at the highest possible level, with the nutrients, love and attention you’re giving it! There will be a vegan (I’ll be providing this one!) and non-vegan meal plan in the group.

 

Mini workouts: Getting your body moving every day is a very large part of living an actively healthy life. The short workouts in this challenge will not take up much time, but they will get your heart pumping, your blood moving and your energy up!

 

Optimal health is made in your mind with how you accept and process events/things, in the kitchen with how you eat and in your body with active movement. Make the most of you and join us for 5 days of living your most optimal life in these three areas! Message me for more details on how to sign up!

Peace, love and love,

~kiki

Thankful Thursday: Clean-O-Ween Clean Eating Challenge!

Happy Thursday goons and ghosts!

Firstly I love these cute and healthy Halloween Treats from one of my favorite trainers, Autumn Calabrese. Check these adorable “boo”nana pops and other ideas here!

Also, I’ve loved following the adventures of raw guru, Fully Raw Kristina, and she just posted a great video of raw chocolate peanut-butter filled cupcakes! Check it here!

OKAY now that you’re making awesome treats and probably also eating a lot of candy for this evil/wonderful Holiday, I’m going to tell you about my Clean-O-Ween Clean Eating Challenge that I’m hosting next week! There will be vegan and non-vegan meal plans, short daily workouts and accountability to stay on track! It’s going to be fun and a perfect way to detox after your Halloween food/candy adventures!

If I do say so myself, this Clean Eating Challenge will go perfectly with my November Squat Challenge! There’s still time to join us for that, so message me if you’re IN or have any questions!

I look forward to getting in shape and clean for the holidays!

Peace, love and detoxing,

~kiki

Fitness Friday: got sore muscles?!

Happy Friday!

We all get sore muscles sometimes, right? After a super hard workout or one that you haven’t done in a while… Sometimes you think you’re fine and then two days later you can’t walk. And when you’re super sore you look hilarious as you try to walk, it’s hard to make it up (but especially down) the stairs, and lifting a cup of tea to your mouth may be a huge feat. Half of your body is so upset and half of your body is so proud because it’s no fun to workout and then not be sore, because then you feel like you didn’t do any work! We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt like this…

But there isn’t much option for lying around after leg day, right? So let’s talk about some of the things you can do to help relieve your muscle-soreness and still support your fitness progress without giving up on making it through the day!

Close to your workout: 

STRETCH (after you warm up your body). Lightly warm up your body with some jogging/jumping jacks/jumping rope/punches etc and then stretch before you go into your full workout. Stretching cold muscles can cause injury.

FOAM ROLLER: This is for after your workout. Foam rollers get deep into the muscle tissue and can help release tension and get the blood flowing. You can target specific places in your body to roll too! It’s a funny sensation, but so wonderful.

HEAT THERAPY: There are heat patches to apply directly to the skin, but also a good long soak in the tub can really help increase blood flow after a heavy workout. (You can even do a hot/cold treatment to open the vessels even more!)

Eating/drinking: 

WATER: The ultimate hydrator. Drink a LOT of it. Shoot to drink 1/2 to 1 oz of water per pound of your body weight. It will seem like a lot at first, but take it a little at a time! In no time you’ll be drinking a gallon of water a day easily and you’ll feel so good!

DARK COLORED FRUIT: Tart cherries and blueberries (and nutrient dense raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and plums) can reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and additionally they help raise the melatonin levels in the body for a more restful sleep!

LEAFY GREENS AND CRUCIFEROUS VEGGIES: Chard, collards and kale can reduce the insulin response and contain many nutrients to help eliminate free radicals that slow recovery. Leafy greens are very low-glycemic carbs so you can and should eat them all the time! They are SO good for you.

HIGH GLYCEMIC FRUITS AND STARCHES: Glycogen is the power source for your muscles. Replenish your glycogen store by eating high glycemic fruits and starches! Watermelon, pineapple and kiwi are wonderful fruits for this purpose (and have other nutrients/antioxidants that help reduce inflammation!) Potatoes, one of my favorite foods, have a little bit of almost every nutrient that our bodies need plus really important starches. Get your sweet potato on!

OMEGAS: You’ve heard this before! Omegas support protein synthesis and reduce inflammation. The most popular way to get your omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and DPA, is through fish and/or fish oils. I am vegan and get mine from these pills.

ALMONDS AND OTHER NUTS: Eating nuts can help your body to accelerate the repairing of damaged tissue. Our bodies need a variety of fats to balance each other out. Almonds are omega-6 fats. Vary the nut! Stay away from salted nuts though… 😉

FERMENTED FOODS: Fermented foods are SO good for our bodies. They help improve digestion and boost immunity. Get your probiotics in with foods like high quality yogurt and kefir and for the vegans, we can get it through miso (try this one from where my dad works; I’m biased but it’s the best!), sauerkraut, kim chi, kombucha and pickled vegetables.

CINNAMON: Cinnamon is my favorite topping. On almost anything! It’s great that it’s so good for me too! Cinnamon improves insulin sensitivity and blood sugar tolerance. It also helps with glycogen replenishment.

GINGER AND TURMERIC: Two of my other favorite spices, these two really help reduce DOMS. Turmeric contains curcumin which has been used for many medicinal purposes, from wound healing to cancer treatment. It’s a great anti-inflammatory agent. Again, I use these two spices in almost everything I make.

I hope you incorporate some of these tips into your daily life so that you can workout every day with no problems and with lots of progress!

The article that I used for writing this blog is here. They go far more into depth on these subjects and provide additional suggestions as well!

Peace, love and health!

~kiki

Power Bowl!

This is my go-to meal. Whenever. I try to always have some sort of amount of the ingredients in my fridge/cupboard so that I can make it anytime. It’s totally my comfort food.

And it’s all plant based whole foods. There is nothing artificial in here. The soy products used (tempeh and miso) are fermented and therefore support very healthy digestion, as opposed to processed soy. Here’s a good article about fermented vs processed soy if you’re unfamiliar.

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Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Quinoa

1/2 Cup legumes (I’m usually choosing between chickpeas, lentils and black beans and sometimes I mix n match!)

Kale

Spinach

1/2 Baked Sweet Potato

1/3 Cup tamari pan fried tempeh (I like the Organic 3 grain tempeh from Trader Joe’s)

1/2 Avocado

1 tsp miso (I like to use South River Miso, but I’m biased because my dad makes this amazing miso in the mountains of Western Massachusetts)

Dash Nutritional yeast

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Directions:

Fill half of your bowl with a beautiful mixture of kale and spinach.

Rinse the potato, poke holes in it and bake it (or for a quick fix, you can even microwave it… 4 mins for a medium sized potato).

Cook your quinoa (I cook mine in a rice maker, and just with plain water, but you can get a little crazy here if you desire).

Cook your beans too, unless you’re using canned/boxed beans! While that is happening…

Pan fry the tempeh! I like to cut the package into cubes, put a little water in a cast iron pan, throw the cubes in there, douse them with tamari, and let them heat up and soak in the goodness.

Mash together the half avocado and miso. This acts as a dressing/sauce!

Now assemble the quinoa, legumes, potato and tempeh into the bowl. Top with the avocado sauce and nutritional yeast. ENJOY.

As with all my recipes, you can get crazier and more innovative! Sometimes I add beets or carrots, lemon drizzle, wild rice, caramelized onion… Man, my mouth is watering.

Let me know what you discover!

~kiki