Long distance birthday ideas?

I absolutely love birthdays! What could be better than an excuse to bake and indulge in something wonderful and tasty?!
This week it is my fantastic Grandmother's birthday. She is seriously the absolute best. One of those amazing youthful, feisty, yet still wise types.
The down side of the whole thing is that we aren't living in the same city! I hope on her special day I can still let her know how much she means to me! Here are the options I've considered so far:


1. Mail her a good old fashioned card! Filled with heart felt sentiments of course! Poetry is not an option unfortunately, as I don't want any anxiety filled flashbacks from high school English class :)

I bought this cool card at Chapters! May have treated to myself to some Starbucks too :)

2. Call her!

3. Write on her Facebook wall. Ya, that's right, my Grandma social networks :)

4.  Get flowers delivered! What  woman on earth wouldn't love flowers on her birthday?

5. Next time I visit, bake her something to make up for not being there on her real birthday!  My Grandma doesn't eat very many dessert type things, but I know her weakness! Mwahaha! It is.... Creme Brulee! 

Clean Eating Chai Creme Brulee       

[source]

Ingredients
1 cup of 1% milk
3 chai tea bags
3 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
2 cardamom pods
8oz firm tofu, drained of all water
1 egg
2 egg whites
1/3 cup plus 2 TB organic evaporated cane juice divided (this is a sugar)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In a small saucepan heat milk to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and add tea bags, cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom. Cover and let stand for at least 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine tofu, egg, egg whites and 1/3 cup can juice. Process until VERY smooth.
4. Remove tea bags and spices from milk. With food processor running slowly pour milk through feed tube until combined. Divide mixture equally among 6 ramekins. Place ramekins in a baking dish and fill dish with hot water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
5. Bake in oven for 18-22 minutes until set. Remove from oven and chill until serving. To serve top each creme with 1tsp cane juice and place under preheated broiler until crystals melt and become browned.

Serves 6. Per serving: 126 calories, 3g fat, 1g carb, 0g fiber and 7g protein

This recipe is not vegan, but you vegan master bakers out there could probably figure an alteration out! :)

Happy living,
~Princess

Icing topped happiness

Maybe you've already figured out where this post is going :)

I've got cupcakes on the brain.
In fact, if it were not for my neighbours who might question my sanity, I would feel like running around like this today:

Sadly, I do not own an outfit like this, so there is no chance of that dream coming true today.

However, I still can bake some cupcakes! Firstly, I need to find a good recipe. Here are the "musts" I have for a cupcake:

1. Must not require advance dessert chef skills. Meaning the cupcakes below are kind of out of my league.

2. Must be something a tad more exciting than plain old chocolate or vanilla. Don't get me wrong, those are great flavours, but I want to try something a little new.

3. Must not be filled with ingredients that induce 'cupcake guilt.' Therefore no refined sugars, no butter, and lower fat.

4. Must taste good! No cardboardy taste allowed!

And now I journey into the cyber world of cupcakery!

Chocolate sour cream cupcakes (CleanEating)

 Banana Split Cupcakes (Ohsheglows) Vegan

Coconut carrot cupcakes (toneitup) Vegan

Hidden Gem Cupcakes (CleanEating) Vegan

I've actually made these once before, they were great!!

For when you're alone and want to treat yourself:

Pina Colada Muffin for One (Chocolatecoveredkatie) Vegan

And if you happen to be baking these muffins for children (or just want to finish your masterpiece with a flourish), you can print off these toppers from bakeitpretty:

As I head to the kitchen, I leave you with one timeless piece of advice, 

Happy living, 

~Princess

Avocado

This post was inspired by my wonderful sister who lives in Maui, Hawaii.

[source]

She is a phenomenal cook, and will hopefully contribute to the blog with some recipes/ideas/insights in the future. She called from paradise yesterday to chat about sisterly things, including how she has a bounty of home grown Hawaiian avocados at the moment.

Avocados are an amazing superfood! Here are some cool avocado facts:

• contain more potassium than bananas
• highest protein of any fruit
• contain monounsaturated fat (THE GOOD FAT!) that helps reduce cholesterol, blood pressure, and increases basal metabolic rate
• naturally sodium and cholesterol free
• the healthy fat and fibre helps reduce appetite, and therefore helps in maintaining a healthy body weight.

Once she planted the idea, I knew I had to cook up avocado something! Seeing as it is avocado season, I have no excuse not to. I searched the web for some tasty avocado recipes, and after slewing through all the guacamole ones, I found some new ones I'd like to try. I found a whole days worth of avocado recipes!!

BREAKFAST:

 Avocado Breakfast Pudding (vitaljuice)

 Avocado Breakfast Burrito (istrivefitness)

LUNCH:

Avocado Cream Verrines (ohsheglows) Vegan

SNACKS:

Avocado Cookies (cakewhiz) Vegan

 Avocado Toasts (Wholeliving)

DINNER:

Avocado Soup (Countryliving)

Creamy Avocado Pasta Shells (littleyellowkitchen) Vegan

DESSERT:

Avocado Chocolate Fudge Cake (funandfoodcafe) Vegan

Avocado Lime Frozen Yogurt  (Clean Eating)

Well perhaps that would be avocado overload... maybe just one per day max!
Happy living, 

~Princess

Eat your breakfast, ya darn kid!!!

Hey! This post goes out to my Auntie! Apparently she's been having trouble finding breakfast foods that her kids both enjoy and are nutritious. Her 3 little first graders (that's right, 3! They're triples!) have a bit of a picky streak. So I thought I would try and attempt to help, seeing as I am the numero uno picky eater of the family.

But first, what exactly makes a good breakfast for kids??
- Whole grains: A good source of carbs to energize them for the day, like whole grain breads and hot or cold cereal.
-Lower fat protein: This keeps their little legs and imagination running all day. Good ideas are eggs, nut butter, low-fat cheese, milk, yogurt.
-Fruits and veggies: So important! Kids need those vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Fruits and veggies also offer a source of healthy fibre.

QUICK MORNINGS

Fresh Berry smoothie [Thefamilykitchen]

 Fresh fruit breakfast pizza [Canyoustayfordinner]

Peanut butter Banana Sushi [RachaelRay]  

 MEDIUM MORNINGS

 

Egg in a hole [Weelicious]

breakfast quesadilla  [Weelicious]

WEEKENDS

Whole grain chocolate waffles [heartandstroke]

Double chocolate walnut muffins (Surprisingly healthy!) [theparentingmagazine]

"GET OUT THE DOOR NOW,  WE ARE LAAATE!!!!" MORNINGS

Kashi Honey Sunshine: High fiber (5g), 20 g whole grains, no artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors or preservatives.

Van's maple 8 whole grain waffles

And save this baby for yourself..
Peanut butter cocoa banana smoothie:

[vegweb]

But obviously, I have no idea how difficult it would be to feed kids of my own! These are simply ideas that I hope may serve as some use to those who already have little munchkins. So if my future kids have a breakfast table looking like this, no calling me a hypocrite :)

Happy living,
~Princess

Muffins made pretty!

Happy Monday!! And what, I ask you, goes better with Monday than muffins? Pretty muffins of course!

And why not use these these printable muffin wrappers to beautify your own muffins? They also work great if you bake a batch of cupcakes. No child (or child at heart) will be able to resist your baking when you use these!

From foodartparty :

 From pixeltrashmania :

 Even more designs available at tipnut.

They would be perfect on any kind of muffin, but I'm eager to try them on Cinnamon swirl muffins, from fatfreevegan.

Happy living,
~Princess

Healthified chocolate chip cookies

I just finished making a batch of these yummy chocolate chip cookies, which are a perfect weekend treat!

Healthified chocolate chip cookie balls
(makes about 8 cookies)
Adapted from Chocolate covered Katie 

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup + 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp to 1/3 cup chocolate chips (or cacao nibs)
• 2 Tbsp natural brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp white sugar (or stevia)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (or melted butter or margarine)
• 3 Tbsp milk (regular, soy, any type is fine)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix dry ingredients...

2. then add the wet ingredients...

  
3. Feel free to taste test at this point. The picture below is CLEARLY not posed haha.

4. Form cookies and bake 6-7 minutes...

5. Take them out when still underdone, they’ll continue to cook while cooling.

6. (OPTIONAL) make a cookie snow man:

This step was not necessary, but was a good procrastination technique for putting off washing my dishes :)

 
Well I'm off to clean up!
Happy living,
~Princess

Heat wave remedies?

Whew! This summer is definitely a scorcher! I'm doing my best to try and embrace the weather, and do what I can to cool myself off. Here are some recommended techniques:

IDEA ONE:

ICED CHAI TEA LATTE

[source]

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups milk (regular, soy, or whatever type you fancy!)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (or you can also use stevia or other sweetener)
•  2 chai tea bags
• ground cinnamon (to garnish)

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients, except the cinnamon in a saucepan, bring to a boil stirring frequently.
2. Remove from heat, let stand 3-4 minutes, Remove the tea bags.
3. Chill in the fridge.
4. Serve over ice cubes with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

 IDEA TWO: 

MAKE A CHOCOLATE BANANA FREEZER PIE --- I LOVE THESE!!

 

Sooooo good, and phenomenal nutrition stats. No sugar added! Recipe here. Did I mention how much I love Clean Eating :)

AND IF ALL ELSE FAILS, IDEA THREE:

HAVE A POPSICLE PARTY!!!!! Because what could be more classy???

Popsicle polka dot party printables from Party box: (five P's!!!)

Healthier popsicle recipes from:

 

Women's health

 

Tipnut

 

blisstree

Happy living, 

~Princess