Strawberry Vanilla Lemonade

My daughter and I had a free Saturday one day while my husband and son went on a hike. I asked her what she wanted to do and she requested to have a tea party at home. Just the two of us. How sweet. She said she didn’t want to drink tea. She wanted “fancy lemonade.” My parents’ lemon tree happened to have an abundance of lemons that week so I happened to have a zillion lemons on hand. I also happened to have some strawberries in my freezer that I save for making smoothies. Together, we made a sugar-free Strawberry Vanilla Lemonade. Served in champagne flutes, my daughter definitely enjoyed her fancy lemonade on our Mommy & Daughter Tea Party.

RECIPE

• 4-5 lemons
• 1-2 tsp of vanilla
• 1/3 to 1/2 tsp of powdered Stevia extract (or other sweetener)
• 6-8 fresh or frozen strawberries, washed, cleaned and cut in half
• water and ice

1. Juice the lemons and pour in a pitcher.
2. Add vanilla.
3. Fill with ice and water.
4. Add Stevia (or other sweetener). Add more to your preferred sweetness.
5. Add the strawberries and let them soak for an hour before serving so that the strawberry flavor enhances the lemonade.

Morning Muffin in a Mug

This Morning Muffin was all a buzz after Dr. Oz aired it on his show last February. It’s filled with guilt-free ingredients, and surprisingly, I had all the ingredients in my pantry. I love it when this happens! It’s actually very similar to my low-carb hamburger bun I posted a while ago (gluten-free, flourless, no sugar).

So I finally got around to giving it a try and it’s actually not bad. Not very sweet (because it only uses Stevia so it’s sugar-free) but pretty darn good especially when you smear it with butter and you watch it melt on contact. Mmmm! It was quite filling. I couldn’t eat the whole thing yet I wasn’t hungry at all until I realized it was already after lunch. Talk about a power muffin! And it only takes 1 minute to cook.

RECIPE

• 1/4 cup flax seed meal
• 1 tsp. of baking powder
• 1 tsp. of butter or coconut oil (Just scoop it out of the jar! No need to melt it.)
• 1/3 tsp of Stevia (or more depending on your preference)
• 2 tsp. of cinnamon
• 1 egg
• a handful of blueberries

1. Put all the ingredients in a mug and stir it well, making sure the egg and the dry ingredients are well incorporated.
2. Microwave the mug for 55-60 seconds.
3. Turn it over on a plate, slice in half, and butter generously!

For a chocolate option, substitute the cinnamon for 1 tsp. of cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla. Or you can check out heathereatsalmondbutter.com’s recipe. (Love her!)

Strawberry Pancakes

I woke up this morning and wanted Strawberry Pancakes. So I whipped up a batch of guilt-free cupcake batter, tossed in some fresh strawberries, and decided to make them into pancakes instead. Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! Best thing is that I didn’t even need to pour syrup over them because they were already sweet. (Option: Don’t add the agave nectar in the batter. Just pour over your pancakes before you eat.)

RECIPE

• ½ cup coconut flour
• 1 tbsp arrowroot powder
• ¼ tbsp salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup agave nectar (optional)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup finely chopped fresh strawberries

1. In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, arrowroot powder, salt, and baking soda.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, agave nectar, and vanilla extract.
3. Blend the wet ingredients into the coconut flour mixture with a handheld mixer until thoroughly combined, then fold in the strawberries.
4. Fry pancakes on griddle or in a greased skillet over low to medium heat. Watch closely as they burn easily.
5. Top with butter or a little dollop of whipped cream.

Guilt-Free Peanut Butter Cups

Look at that picture and tell me that doesn’t look JUST LIKE A Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. It looks like one but the difference is, this one is guilt-free! Very low in carbs, no sugar, gluten-free, vegan, and dairy-free. Plus it’s so easy to make! Indulge with these babies because it’s made with coconut oil which means you can practically not count the calories in your daily intake!

RECIPE

• 1 cup of unsweetened cacao powder
• 1 cup of good-tasting, good-smelling coconut oil*, melted
• 2-3 tsp of stevia (depends on your taste)
• Agave Nectar (optional)
• Peanut Butter

1. Fluff cocoa with a fork to break up any chunks.
2. Add melted coconut oil.
3. Mix in Stevia adding more or less depending on taste. Add a stick or a few drops of agave nectar to taste.
4. Line a mini-muffin pan with paper liners (or use a regular-sized muffin pan just don’t fill as much)
5. Pour chocolate into each cup about 1/8 inch deep. Place muffin pan in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes or until chocolate hardens.
6. After 10 minutes, spoon some peanut butter on top of each chocolate cup and pour a little more chocolate to cover the peanut butter.
7. Place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
8. Voila! Guilt-Free Peanut Butter Cups.

(Store these in the refrigerator at all times.)

*Note: It’s important to use good-tasting, good-smelling coconut oil. I like the brand Spectrum. I made the mistake of using some brand I’ve never heard of and I ended up tossing the whole batch. So be careful!

Chocolate Ice Cream

Here is a recipe for Chocolate Ice Cream which I absolute love because sometimes you just want to dig in a bowl of ice cream. I LOVE making this ice cream because it’s so easy. I always have a tub in my freezer because you never know when you might have a chocolate craving. This recipe is gluten-free, sugar-free, and depending on the kind of chocolate you mix in it’s dairy-free or vegan.

You’ve got to invest in an ice cream maker or put it on your Christmas list. That’s how I got mine. (Thanks, Christine!) You can make all sorts of sugar-free ice cream at home in so many flavors! Also, if you don’t have one you will need to stir this all by hand every 2 hours or so in the freezer for about 8-12 hours to get similar results. So don’t make this in the middle of the night.

RECIPE

• 2 (14 oz.) cans of coconut milk, unsweetened
• ¼ cup agave nectar
• 1 cup unsweetened baking chocolate (or 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder)
• a pinch of salt
• 1 T vanilla extract

1. Heat the coconut milk and agave in a medium saucepan until it boils.
2. Reduce it to a simmer for a couple of minutes then remove the pan from the heat.
3. Stir in the chocolate until it is completely melted.
4. Cool the mixture at room temperature for 1 hour.
5. Mix in the salt and vanilla.
6. Put the chocolate liquid goodness in your ice cream maker (follow the directions of your machine).
7. Eat!

You can easily store the ice cream in the freezer for later consumption – like after I get into an argument with my hubby and I want to drown my sorrows in chocolate. Or when I’ve baked a batch of Peanut Butter Stevia Cookies. I love crumbling one or two cookies over it. It’s such a delicious treat!

Chai Almond Latte

I gave up my caramel macchiatos and found a new hot beverage to indulge in on cold mornings: Chai Almond Latte. There are Chai teas mixes that you can buy but if you read the ingredients, you’ll see that it may contain sugar. This recipe has no sugar—unless you want to add your own sweetener. In my case, I like to add Stevia (or Truvia) to make it truly sugar-free. This latte is just as decadent as the real thing but not as fatty. (I found all my ingredients at my local Trader Joe’s.)

RECIPE

• Trader Joe’s Organic Spiced Rooibos Ruby Red Chai
• Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Vanilla Flavored Unsweetened Milk
• Sweetener of your choice

Make your tea as directed on the box. I like to heat my almond milk in a separate mug, add my sweetener in the milk, then use a milk frother (It’s like a magic wand!) before pouring it into my tea.  Voilà… Chai Almond Latte. It even looks like a real latte you order at a coffee shop!

Enjoy!

I’ve lost the weight, now what?

Here are my before and after photos. I might as well start with that because people are going to want to see. I’m not going to go into detail on how I lost the weight. There are different approaches and I’m not a doctor, so I don’t want to tell you what diet works best. Whether you’re exercising, counting calories, counting points, low-carbing, all-twinkie dieting, detox dieting, cleanse dieting, doing Shakeology, doing the latest Hollywood fad diet, etc.—the point is, it’s whatever works for you.

I was never a thin person and I wouldn’t call myself small by any means. But I also never thought I was fat until I saw pictures of myself last summer. When did I get so big?! I almost surrendered and accepted that I will now always be “this size.” But I just couldn’t accept that. I don’t want to be “this size.” I had to do something. I went on a hard-core diet and got off my butt and started walking my daughter to school at least 3 times a day (It’s a good 25 minutes one way!). I started eating right and watching how much I ate. The dieting part was very hard, and sometimes I really had to muster all the will power I could to stay on track. I had to learn how to say, “No, thank you. I don’t want a slice of ooey-gooey chocolate cake with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream,” while I sulked and bit into my boring apple. I stayed strong, stayed focused, and kept my eye on the prize! And in the end, it DID pay off.

So I’ve lost the weight, now what?

Yeah, yeah… dieting is hard but what’s really difficult is the maintenance. How do I stay “this size” now? Like I said before, you do whatever works for you. I’ve changed my eating habits and continue to walk at least 3 times a day. I’ve removed sugar in my everyday eating (no more caramel macchiatos with whip, no more sodas, no more baking brownies just because I’m bored). I now eat foods low in carbohydrates most of the time (sayonara white rice, white bread, and mashed potatoes) and eat more brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and quinoa. I am also eating more fruits and vegetables. And lastly, I started reading food labels. (There are lots of hidden sugars in our everyday foods!)

Don’t get me wrong. I still eat my faves like pasta, chocolate, and ice cream—just not everyday. And I’m not going to deny that every once in a while, I will have some mashed potatoes or an occasional Sprinkles cupcake. Hey, I’m not a saint! What I’m saying is that I changed my dysfunctional relationship with food. I started “eating to live” instead of “living to eat.”

The purpose of this blog is to post interesting “guilt-free” foods (mostly treats) that I’ve come across and made. I’ll let you know how they turn out and how they taste. To be honest, these foods cannot replace the real deal when it comes to taste, however some of them do taste pretty dang good, especially if you haven’t had the real deal in a long time! If you’re low-carbing, not eating sugar, or going gluten-free, and you want to eat a batch of peanut butter cookies, knock yourself out. I will not say you won’t gain weight, or it’s a healthier option, or you won’t get a face full of zits from eating a jar of peanut butter. But if you eat in moderation, it is somewhat guilt-free. In my case, I know that if I eat one gluten-free, no sugar, low-carb vanilla cupcake with vegan chocolate frosting, the scale will be kind to me the next day.

Enjoy and happy reading!