We have finally had a break from the humidity and 90-degree temps last week. It was perfect weather for taking the kids to pick blueberries. We are so lucky that we have these local blueberry farms right in our own backyard. Food doesn’t get much more local or seasonal than this!

Hailey was going for efficiency and tied her bucket around her waist!

Jake was sampling berries as he picked.

We have been picking blueberries for quite a few years now, and these were by far the biggest, fattest, plumpest blueberries I’ve ever seen! We each swore we had The Biggest Blueberry Ever!

So, half an hour and lots of samples later, we went home with 9 and 1/2 pounds of fresh picked blueberries. All for about $12!!!

Be prepared to see an obscene amount of blueberry recipes coming up! We have talked about blueberry donuts, waffles with blueberry sauce, blueberry mojitos (for the adults), blueberry crumble with ice cream, and of course I will be throwing them into smoothies, salads, and chia pudding!

I started off by tweaking my oatmeal bar recipe to make these Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Squares. Perfect for afternoon snacks or packing up to take to the beach.

Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Squares

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned oats

1/3 cup walnuts, chopped very small

zest and juice of 1/2 of a lemon

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

1/3 cup honey

2 T. chia seeds

1 heaping cup blueberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix chia seeds with 6-7 Tablespoons of water and set aside to thicken into a gel (the chia gel is used in place of an egg for extra nutrition since my kids already eat a lot of eggs. Feel free to swap in 1 egg instead).

Add oats, walnuts, and lemon zest to a large mixing bowl.

Melt coconut oil in a glass measuring cup and stir in honey and lemon juice.

Pour liquid ingredients into dry and mix well. Add gelled chia mixture (or egg) and stir. Gently fold in blueberries being careful not to smash them.

Pour mixture into an 8×8 square baking pan that has been brushed with a little coconut oil.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until set and beginning to turn golden brown on top. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

The Happy Family loves this Healthy Plate because:

Oats – contains soluble fiber, which helps to lower cholesterol by removing some of the plaque build-up in the arteries. It is also a rich source of magnesium, a mineral which is involved in the body’s use of glucose and insulin secretion, to help stabilize blood sugar levels.

Blueberries – one of the highest antioxidant containing fruits, helping to combat the free radicals that can damage cellular structures and DNA. Many years of studies have shown blueberries to benefit the nervous system and brain health.

Chia Seeds – one of the richest plant-based sources of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, specifically alpha-linolenic acid or ALA, which help to reduce inflammation, enhance cognitive performance, and reduce high cholesterol. Per 2 Tablespoon serving, chia seeds are an excellent source of fiber (10 grams!) and calcium (18% of the daily recommended intake).

Coconut Oil* – contains a saturated fat called lauric acid, a type of medium chain triglyceride. Lauric acid has been shown to increase the good HDL cholesterol in the blood to help improve cholesterol ratio levels. The breakdown of these medium chain triglycerides in the liver helps increase metabolism. Coconut oil also has antifungal and antimicrobial properties to improve immunity and fight off yeast, fungus, and candida. It also positively affect our hormones to boost thyroid function and improve insulin use within the body.

Walnuts – high in a particular form of Vitamin E which is beneficial for cardiovascular health and protects skin from harmful oxygen-free radicals. Walnuts are also rich in Omega-3 essential fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory actions to help lower blood pressure, decrease risk of coronary artery disease, strokes and some cancers.

*This, as well as all nutritional highlights featured on my blog, are my own opinion based on my own personal research. For further detailed information on coconut oil, here are links to two well-respected doctors and their science-based research:

http://coconutoil.com/mary_enig/

http://products.mercola.com/coconut-oil/

One of the many things I love about summer vacation is a little more time in the morning to make breakfast for my kids. They both love smoothies, but I just don’t always have the time to make them on busy school mornings. So I started off this morning by blending up 2 cups of kale, some strawberries, half of a banana, half of a cucumber and some frozen pineapple.

I will usually serve that alongside some oatmeal for the kids, either at the same time or a little later on in the morning.  I have been loving these overnight chia oats.  I have discovered that I really like cold soaked oatmeal like this.  The chia gives it an extra nutritional boost.

To make Overnight Chia Oats, combine:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats
2 T. chia seeds
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 banana, mashed

Stir to combine, cover, and leave in the refrigerator overnight.  In the morning, I divide the mixture into 2 small mason jars and layer it with different combinations of fruit, nuts, coconut, etc.  It is a great breakfast to make ahead of time and take on the go!

For lunch, I have been obsessed with this kale salad lately. I start with a huge bowl of washed bite-size kale leaves. In a small bowl, I mash up about 1/4 of a large avocado and the juice from 1/2 of a lemon, and season it with sea salt. Then I massage the lemon avocado mixture into the kale with clean hands. Its topped with edamame, diced mango, red onion, lightly toasted sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, chunks of avocado, cucumber, cherry tomatoes. This salad is such a great mix of flavors and textures, and I love that its filling without weighing me down at all.

When I am making a big salad like this for myself for lunch, I will usually chop up extra fruits, veggies, edamame, etc. to throw on the kids lunch plates. They love having lots of little tastes of different things, and I can generally get them to eat a fruit or veggie they may not like if its just a few little bites versus a whole side of it.  If you saw this photo on Instagram, it is a great example of one of their chopped fruit and veggie lunches!

This afternoon, the kids and I snacked on some whole wheat pita chips, hummus, and carrots before dinner and I did not snap a photo of that 

For dinner, it was just me and the kids so we had their favorite Breakfast For Dinner.  Jake did a Gourmet Cooking camp last week and came home every day so excited about the recipes that he was making. He loved these little baked eggs and called them Egg McMuffins. The original recipe had a circle cut-out piece of bread at the bottom, but I left it out and he didn’t even notice.

We whisked together a few eggs (1 egg per muffin), poured it into a lightly buttered muffin tin, and each added in the toppings of our choice – chopped spinach, sauteed red pepper, diced roma tomato, chopped nitrate-free ham, and shredded cheese. This is a great recipe to use up any little bits of leftover veggies in your fridge! Jake was very insistent that the cheese went on the very top! We baked them at 350 for about 13-15 minutes.

While those were baking, I mixed another egg with a splash of almond milk, a few drops of vanilla extract, and some cinnamon. I dipped slices of Ezekiel sprouted grain cinnamon raisin toast into the mixture and cooked them in my cast iron pan for a few minutes on each side. Ta da! Easy, yummy, healthy french toast!  They had a little side of 100% real maple syrup to drizzle on top or dunk their french toast.

 Enjoy the rest of your week!

Summer is definitely in full swing around here! We are soaking up every moment of sunshine that we can get!!! I have been trying out all kinds of new frozen treats for the kids lately and thought I would round them all up into one post.

These are all super simple no-recipe recipes!! Just eyeball it and use what you have on hand. Easy stuff!!!!

First, we started off with making strawberry ice cream. This involved a tiny bit of planning ahead of time in order to have frozen fruit to blend. We chose bananas (for creaminess and sweetness) and strawberries.  I froze about 2 bananas and a big handful of strawberries for this version.

If you ever have leftover banana from making a smoothie, you can throw chunks of it into a storage container and keep it in the freezer for this purpose! I sometimes do this with random fruit if we have some that were not going to use up before we leave town for the weekend.

When you’re ready to make your ice cream, throw the frozen fruit into a food processor and let it run for a few minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides. I added a little coconut milk to thin it out just a bit and get it blending. Scoop into a bowl and add the toppings of your choice. I love that this was healthy enough to serve in the middle of the day!!!!

Next up, frozen slushies. Everyone was posting their pictures from free Slurpee day at 7-11. So I went on a mission looking for an alternative that didn’t have all of the sugar and food coloring. Behold…..frozen fruit slushies!!!

These are so incredibly easy. Pick a fruit and blend with ice. That’s it!  Serving it inside of the fruit is optional, but fun!  This one was Lemondrop melon, a squeeze of lemon to make it more lemony, and ice.

The kids were begging for them the next night, so I blended up half of a mini seedless watermelon, a few strawberries, and some ice.  Don’t think I wasn’t tempted to throw a splash of tequila into these and turn them into watermelon margaritas for the adults!!!!!

Next up, frozen yogurt tarts!  My kids have been taken out for frozen yogurt a few times this summer.  After reading this post by Food Babe breaking down all of chemicals and loads of sugar in commercial frozen yogurt, I decided to make my own healthy version for the kids.  I threw these together with odds and ends that I had on hand – they are totally flexible!!!!

In the mini food processor, I blended up a handful of nuts (pecans, because its what I had), a couple of dates, and a couple of spoonfuls of shredded unsweetened coconut. I think this could probably be made with just the nuts and a bit of coconut oil and a little drizzle of honey. I pulsed it a few times until it was coarsely crumbled and pressed it into the bottom of a muffin tin.

Mix some plain Greek yogurt with a little honey. Lots of options here too – blend fruit and yogurt together for a ton of different flavor combinations.  Then top with a little fruit and freeze for a couple of hours.

Take them out of the freezer for about 5 minutes and use a butter knife to loosen them from the pan.  My kids thought this was such a fun treat! I felt good knowing it was full of calcium, protein, probiotics, antioxidants, and healthy fats. Thats my kind of treat!

I hope you’ll try out one of these frozen treats!  Let me know if you come up with any good flavor combinations!

We made our first purchase from the local farm stand near our cottage this past week.

I always look forward to my conversations with the owner/farmer because he is so passionate about the food that he is growing.  He recognizes me and knows that I enjoy learning about where my food comes from.  On this visit, he was explaining the new fertilizer that he is using in his soil.  Apparently there are 90 potential minerals to be found in our soil.  Because of current farming methods of growing one crop over and over and using pesticides, most of our soil is now depleted, therefore contributing very few nutrients to the food that is grown in it (he claimed that the average soil has about 30 of the 90 minerals).  The one place that we can still find all 90 minerals is in the ocean.  There are a growing number of companies that are creating fertilizer out of dried seawater (similar to sea salt) in order to replenish these minerals, including SeaAgri, Inc and Ocean-Grown.  If you are into gardening and growing your own food, check out these links because these are products that you can buy in smaller quantities for your own garden!

I love knowing that the food that I purchase from him is full of nutrients, grown with love and respect for the earth, and free from harmful pesticides!

On this trip, I picked up strawberries, rhubarb and a dozen eggs from his chickens.  Often, when he has abundant kale growing, he will throw some in for free because he knows it is my favorite!

My kids request these muffins every summer when they see me bring home strawberries and rhubarb.  This year, I experimented with replacing the white sugar with honey since it is a whole food and has some antioxidants.  They loved them just as much and I am thankful to have this yummy healthy portable snack on hand as we transition into our first crazy week of summer vacation.  Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

adapted from this CSA recipe

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 egg

3/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

1/3 cup oil (I used unrefined coconut oil, gently warmed so that it is liquid)

1/3 to 1/2 cup honey, depending on how sweet you like your muffins

1 cup finely chopped rhubarb

heaping 1/2 cup chopped strawberries

2 tsp grated orange zest

Directions

preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat egg and add in milk, oil, and honey.

Gently combine dry and wet ingredients being very careful not to overmix.  Fold in rhubarb, strawberries and orange zest.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners and fill 2/3 full.  Bake 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

My favorite Veteran, my dad!

We had a great kickoff to summer at our cottage.  Our weekend guests treated us to dinner one night, which was very much appreciated.

On Saturday night, we grilled up an awesome meal that seemed to get a lot of interest on my Facebook page – Darren marinated some pork tenderloins in his famous whiskey/soy sauce/brown sugar marinade and grilled them up.  I tried two new side dish recipes….chipotle lime grilled sweet potatoes and a cold brussel sprout salad.  They were both awesome!

The brussel sprouts were great because I made them up in the morning and then they just marinated in the refrigerator until dinner.  So easy!  We will definitely be making these a lot this summer!

Maple Dijon Brussel Sprouts with Cranberries, Walnuts, and Bacon

Ingredients

1 lb brussel sprouts, washed, bottoms trimmed and sliced in half lengthwise

3-4 slices organic, uncured, nitrate-free bacon (vegetarian option – see below*)

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 T. cider vinegar

1/2 T. real maple syrup

1/2 tsp. dijon mustard

1 small clove garlic, finely minced

1/8 – 1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/8 – 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

kosher or sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Directions

Cook bacon in a medium-sized frying pan until brown and crispy.  Remove to a plate covered with paper towel.  When cooled, crumble into bite-size pieces.

Drain most of the grease out of the pan, reserving just enough to lightly coat the bottom of the pan (I used a paper towel, but be careful!).   Add brussel sprouts to pan, cut-side down.  Saute for about 4-5 minutes until cut side is nicely browned.  Flip and add a little water to the pan to help steam them.  Cook an additional 5 minutes, tossing them around if necessary so that they don’t burn.

Mix together olive oil, cider vinegar, maple syrup, dijon, minced garlic, and season with kosher or sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Toss brussel sprouts with dressing and refrigerate for a few hours for flavors to mix.

When ready to serve, mix chopped bacon, dried cranberries, and chopped walnuts in with the marinated brussel sprouts and serve.  I left the dish out while we were making dinner so that it was room temperature instead of being cold.

*Vegetarian option – saute brussel sprouts in olive oil or butter instead of bacon grease and omit bacon crumbles from topping.

I feel like I haven’t done a “What I Ate Wednesday” post in awhile.  I’d really like to get back to writing about other things besides just the food that I eat — like the benefits of chia seeds and coconut oil, why we should avoid artificial dyes in our foods, and maybe even touch on the gardening I am roughly attempting to do this summer — but seeing as how I spent over 3 hours this morning writing essays on the nervous system for my Anatomy class, it is just difficult to find the time for putting together those types of posts.  So I am just not really sure of the direction of this blog.  As long as my readers are interested in recipes and food that I’m eating day to day, I may just have to stick with that for now.

Moving on.  For breakfast, I had some of the Strawberry Lemon Ginger chia pudding that I made a couple of weeks ago.  I love this because I can make a big batch of it in the blender in just a few minutes and then its ready in the fridge whenever I want it.  It’s flavorful enough that I can eat it plain if I don’t have time to top it, but it’s definitely better with the fresh strawberries!

I needed something to hold me over for my workout before I was going to have lunch.  Quick and easy apple slices, celery, and almond butter.

For lunch, I made egg salad with mashed up avocado instead of mayo (seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little dried dill) and served it in lettuce wraps with some carrots and cherries.

For dinner, we made use of all kinds of leftovers and made this Corn Chowder.  This is a great soup to make in the summer when sweet corn is in season.  We had some left over from dinner on Sunday night that worked perfectly since leftover corn isn’t usually very good reheated anyway.

Corn Chowder

adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

1-2 T. extra virgin olive oil or butter

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped celery

1-2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 tsp jarred garlic)

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

2 T. flour (gluten free, whole wheat, etc)

3 cups milk (I used 2%)

2 cups roasted or grilled chicken, chopped

1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernals removed from the cob

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 can cream-style corn (as an alternative, you can use 1 cup canned, fresh, or frozen corn and add a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of salt and pulse it a few times in a mini food processor)

vegetable/chicken broth or additional milk or water to thin soup if necessary

kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

optional –  we happened to have some leftover baby potatoes from grilling out the other night so I chopped those up and added them in too

Directions

Add olive oil or butter to a large stock pot over medium heat.  Cook onion, celery, jalapeno until tender.  Add in garlic near the end so that it cooks but doesn’t burn.  Add flour, cook 1 more minute, stirring constantly.  Stir in milk and add in chicken, corn, thyme, cream-style corn, cubed pre-cooked potatoes if using.  Season with salt and pepper (just a bit, you can add more at the very end).  Bring soup to a boil and cook until thick (5-10 minutes).  Thin out with broth, milk or water if necessary (I ended up adding in about 1 cup of vegetable broth) and adjust seasonings to taste.

This past weekend we took our moms out for Mothers Day Brunch, and although the restaurant is known for their amazing seafood, we all went nuts over the salads!  I knew at the first bite that I would be trying to recreate both of them at home.  The first one is a mixed green salad with pretty simple ingredients.  I knew that it would just come down to getting the dressing right.  The other salad was a cold brussel sprout salad that will take a little more experimenting.

To make this great summer salad, start with a base of mixed baby greens.

Top with the most perfectly ripe, in-season strawberries you can find.

Add some sliced cucumbers, red onion, crumbled goat cheese, and lightly toasted sunflower seeds.

For the dressing, I just adapted this recipe to include half raspberry vinegar and half balsamic vinegar.

Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/2 of 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 of 1/3 cup raspberry balsamic (mine was a gift from a specialty vinegar store)

1 clove of garlic

1 tsp honey

fresh ground salt and pepper

Add vinegars, garlic, honey, salt and pepper to blender and blend well until garlic is pureed.  Slow blender to low speed and slowly drizzle in 1/3 cup plus 1/2 of 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil.

**I apologize for all of the odd fractions in this recipe!  I couldn’t make a big batch of dressing since I didn’t have much of the rasberry vinegar.  Feel free to double the recipe in order to have nice even measurements!

Top salad with dressing and enjoy!  This will definitely be a staple around here all summer long!