Today's blog post is short and sweet! Homemade salad dressings are incredibly easy to make at home and are a logical way to really reduce refined sugar, refined sodium, industrially refined/processed oils and food additives and preservatives from your day-to-day diet.⁠ ⁠ So, today I introduce to you my (plant-based) Caesar salad dressing option that takes just minutes to make in your blender! Enjoy! Garlicky Creamy Caesar Dressing Yield: approx. 1 1/2 cups Prep Time: approx.

I'm a HUGE fan of a high-quality protein and fat-powered breakfast that can be prepared in just a few minutes the night prior to enjoying it! Cue the "Overnight Oats"! With so many ingredient combinations and flavour profiles available as options, Overnight Oats make for a versatile and reliable breakfast that keeps me satiated leading up to lunch! When we're considering how to incorporate high-quality protein into our breakfast, we can consider relying on: Raw nuts and/or se

Juicing, particularly with a vegetable-heavy, alkalizing (green) juice, provides the body an opportunity for gentle cleansing and detoxification. Given juicing removes the fiber from your ingredients (a component of plants that helps slow down digestion), the concentrated nutrients that remain are rapidly absorbed by the body. In consideration of this factor, it is important to keep a juice vegetable-heavy, so as to not insult the bloodstream with a concentrated dose of natur

In needing to change up my smoothie game as of recent, and given that I found myself staring at an almost-full container of Moringa sitting on my counter(!), it was time to pick up that Moringa and experiment with it! It is a pretty new ingredient to me, in terms of incorporating it into my day-to-day, so I'm excited to rely on it more often in the near future! Moringa, from the Moringa oleifera tree native to northern India, is highly valued for both its nutritional properti

Your body will THANK you for ingesting this anti-inflammatory, powerhouse of a tonic! Turmeric is an acquired taste (in my humble opinion!). Therefore, turmeric-based beverages, including this one, may not be for everyone! Regardless, the health-related benefits just cannot be denied, and when enjoyed in a liquified form, the goodness is rapidly and easily absorbed by the body. With strategic ingredient-combining and a touch of sweetness, you can arrive at a pleasing blend th

If you're looking for a probiotic-rich, good-for-the-gut, fermented beverage that you can make at home quickly and easily, then homemade COCONUT KEFIR is for you! Pre-digested (by its beneficial lactic acid bacteria), and therefore easily digested by the body, you can't afford to NOT make this health-promoting recipe for yourself! Resembling a yogurt-like beverage, coconut kefir may be flavoured in COUNTLESS ways! Beyond the minimal prep time, I love that such a nutritious ad

Homemade nut and seed milks are not only incredibly pure, refreshing and delicious, they are extremely easy to make! The beautiful thing about nut and seed milks, like juicing, is that by extracting the fibre, you are left with a nutrient-dense beverage made very bio-available to the body. This means the nutrients are quickly and easily absorbed into the bloodstream. In the case of organic nuts and seeds, you're getting double-whammy: high-quality protein AND a high-quality

KEFIR. A fermented beverage - therefore probiotic-rich, good for the gut, pre-digested (by its beneficial bacteria) and therefore easily digested by the body! Best of all, it can easily be made to be DAIRY-FREE if organic, dairy kefir is not of interest nor tolerable for you. Resembling a yogurt-like drink, kefir is just another way you may easily incorporate a lacto-fermented (lactic acid fermented) food into your day-to-day diet. Requiring just a few ingredients, and being

Sprouting organic seeds at home is an easy and economical way to obtain FRESH, NUTRIENT-DENSE goodness on a regular basis (especially during the thick of winter)! Sprouts are a hearty addition to your soups, salads, wraps, smoothies and ANY dish, for that matter! Sprouting requires just a few basic items for the following method of choice! The method I'm illustrating below involves: A fine-mesh, nut and seed milk/sprouting bag (likely available at your local health food stor

My first post of 2018! A high-quality, plant-strong, fuelling breakfast certainly needs to be balanced and source energy from complex carbohydrates (i.e. whole grains, fruit, vegetables), protein (i.e. nuts, seeds, nut/seed butter, high-quality protein powder) and high-quality fat (i.e. avocado, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, flaxseed oil). Even more ideal is when a breakfast can largely be prepared the night before, with the finishing touches added the morning of! Cue this Maple

'Tis the season for pumpkin anything and everything, including this Pumpkin Hemp Sunflower Smoothie, inspired and adapted from "One Green Planet"! Possessing welcoming flavours of the season of Fall now upon us, including pure pumpkin and nutmeg, this not-too-sweet and pleasing smoothie is just what the season ordered! And now, the recipe! Pumpkin Hemp Sunflower Smoothie Yield: ~2 cups Prep Time: 5 minutes Ingredients 1.5 cups plain/unsweetened (or homemade!) almond milk, or

With all of the anti-nutrient ingredients found in conventional condiments, and how difficult it can be to find one with "real food" ingredients (especially for those with particular food sensitivities), condiment-making in my kitchen has often come to happen "from scratch"! With how inexpensive and non-labour-intensive many of these types of recipes are, the undeniable flavour just keeps me returning to them time and time again! MAYONNAISE is no exception - especially a cre

BUH BYE, CALGARY WINTER!!! Let me count the ways in which spring is REFRESHING! With this particular change in season, that is so anxiously and excitedly anticipated after a long, cold and DRY winter(!), comes a change in key foods and a need to CLEANSE and HYDRATE the body! So, inevitably, out come even more green juices and smoothies, beets (can’t wait to get my hands on some golden beets at my local farmers’ market) and salads that wake your body UP from its recent hibern

I don't know about you, but am I EVER looking forward to SPRING!!! While I love a beautiful snowfall outside my window, or a good snowshoe or cross-country pursuit, by this time of the year, as are many of us I'm sure, we are more than ready for warm weather, greenery and the sights and sounds of spring! Along with the anticipation of spring comes this inherent desire to detoxify from winter, to refresh, rejuvenate and re-energize the body! I came across the following recip

While I love a fresh “Carrot Apple Ginger” juice from my juicer to kick-start my day or pick me up in the afternoon, I love to extend these three ingredients in different ways. My most recent take is adding parsnips, fresh lemon and aloe vera juice for a new and tart twist! Why Juice? Juicing is an invaluable way to make a nutrient-dense beverage in just a matter of minutes! Juicing, unlike blending ingredients together, extracts the fiber, making the nutrients more bio-avai

A chocolate-flavoured smoothie is my jam, so any smoothie with raw cacao as an ingredient is calling my name! Given the many nutritional benefits of raw cacao (see nutritional highlights below), it allows for guilt-free intake of this smoothie, whether it be for breakfast, as a snack, or as pre- or post-exercise fuel. As a balanced recipe containing complex carbohydrates (i.e. banana), a high-quality source of protein (i.e. hemp seeds and fermented protein powder) and a high-

Homemade nut & seed milks are not only incredibly healthful, pure and delicious, they are not complicated to make! Since learning how to make my own, I've now become preoccupied with experimenting with different spices and flavour so as to have a multitude to choose from, and this one is no exception! You're sure to love this recipe! The beautiful thing about nut & seed milks, like juicing, is that by extracting the fibre, you are left with a nutrient-dense beverage made ve

With summer in full swing, now more than ever, is the time for GREEN JUICE! Especially green juice that aims to detoxify the body. What I love about this juice recipe (beyond the beautiful shade of green that resulted!) is the flavour punch it packs when lemon and ginger are combined together. For more kick, simply amp up the volume of ginger root! Why Juice? Juicing is a fantastic way to make a nutrient-dense beverage in just minutes! Juicing, unlike blending ingredients t

An important component of the food culture of Mediterranean countries[i], fennel is such a TREAT for the taste buds and the body! With its crunchy, celery-like texture and slightly sweet, licorice-like taste, fennel is a flavourful and nutritionally powerful addition to a recipe, whether it be a juice, salad or dessert! As part of the Umbellifereae family, fennel is closely related to parsley, dill, carrots and coriander, and the bulb, stalk, leaves and seeds are ALL edible![

With the warmest months of the year in FULL FORCE (let alone vibrant and bustling farmers' markets...can you sense my excitement?!), farm-fresh greens, including the pea shoots shown below, are at my fingertips! In looking to add new types of greens to my day-to-day meals, pea shoots seemed like an intriguing choice! They’re versatile, as they can be used in smoothies (see sample recipe below), as part of your salads, in sandwiches/wraps and in main dishes (i.e. stir fry, pad