strawberries

The Most Decadent and Healthy Dessert You Can Make for Mom this Weekend

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Decadent Healthy Dessert Mothers Day

It is common to end the meal with a rich, chocolatey dessert, or fudge, cookies or brownies.

This decadent and healthy raw vegan cheesecake will absolutely change the way you think about healthy desserts.

You don’t need to have processed sugar, gluten, flour, milk, eggs or fake frosting to make a dessert taste spectacular. Actually, quite the opposite!! When you create a recipe with real food, real ingredients and keep it as raw, organic and natural as possible, the flavours combine to create a magical, decadent dessert that will knock your socks off! And Mom’s too!

Jo’s Raw Vegan Cheesecake Recipe

Ahead of time:

  1. Take frozen blueberries, cherries and strawberries out of the freezer and let thaw separately in small bowls. You can use fresh berries, but when the frozen option thaws, it creates a nice juice that adds to the flavour of the cheesecakes.
  2. Begin soaking 1.5 cups of raw cashews in water

For the Crust:

1 cup packed pitted dates
1 cup raw walnuts

Decadent DessertAdd dates and walnuts to a food processor and chop until small bits remain and it forms into a ball. Pour into a bowl. If too wet, add a few more walnuts, or if too dry, add a few more dates.

Put 12-15 muffin cups into a muffin tin and press the mixture almost 2cm deep into each muffin cup. Set in freezer while creating the next steps.

For the Cheesecake:

1.5 cups raw, soaked cashews (for a few minutes while making the crust)
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup of coconut milk (if you can separate the solidified cream from the milk in the can, the thicker consistency is much better) or use coconut cream
1/2 cup real maple syrup (or less to taste)

Decadent DessertAdd all ingredients to high speed blender and blend on high until creamy and smooth. Adjust to taste with a bit more or less maple syrup. Pour into bowl and then spoon on top of the walnut-date crust (that was hardened in the freezer).

For the Topping:

Spoon the defrosted fruit onto the cashew cheesecake and press some of the berries into the cheesecake so they don’t roll off. Add a little juice on top. Use your favourite fruits for the topping – I used blueberries, strawberries and black cherries.

Freeze the muffin trays for an hour or so until the cheesecake is firm. Move to the fridge until you serve. They soften quickly and this is the best time to serve them to your special guests.

Decadent Dessert

Enjoy!

Healthy Summer Recipes

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Healthy Summer Recipes

Summer is on its way – can you feel it? I certainly can. That warm breeze pouring in my windows has me on the edge of my seat for summer salsas, delicious salads and refreshing mocktails.

These are my favourite recipes right now!! I’ve personally created them and tested them with many family members, and they’re all a huge hit!

Here is your It’s-Almost-Summer-Let’s-Celebrate Recipe Compilation…

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I Feel Like I’m at the Beach Tropical Mocktail

To your high speed blender, add…

3 peeled oranges (leave them whole)
2 cups frozen pineapple chunks
5 large frozen strawberries
1 frozen banana
1.5 cups water
6 ice cubes

Blend and serve!! Enjoy this kick of immune boosting vitamin C, fat busting bromelain and packed in nutrients from these superfoods!

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Sweet and Spicy Summer Salsa

To a medium sized bowl, add…

1 chopped mango
2 chopped roma tomatoes
1/2 red onion chopped tiny
1 chopped avocado
1/2 chopped jalapeño pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt sprinkled over it
Then add juice of 1 lime (which will disperse the salt throughout)

Stir well and enjoy as a side to barbecued chicken, with as-healthy-as-you-can-find-or-make nacho chips or as a dip for vegetables.

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Summer Spinach Raw Vegan Caesar Salad

To a large bowl, add…

1 bunch shredded organic baby spinach
1/2 head of red leaf lettuce (or romaine – choose your favourite! This adds texture and different green nutrients)
1 sweet pepper – choose your colour and chop
1 roma tomato – chopped
1/2 cucumber – chopped
1 bunch of grapes – sliced in half

Raw Vegan Caesar Dressing

(Ditch the store bough chemicalized, food-like dressing and make your own!! This literally tastes IDENTICAL to Caesar dressing, it’s SO delicious!)

To a high speed blender, add…

1/3 cup raw cashews
2/3 cup water
2.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
10 shakes sea salt
6 shakes pepper

Let this soak for 15 minutes before blending to allow cashews to soften and make the recipe creamy. Pour over your salad bowl, mix and enjoy!

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Drinking Diet Soda Increases Your Risk of Stroke 3-Fold

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Drinking Diet Soda Increases Your Risk of Stroke 3-Fold

“Individuals who consumed at least one artificially-sweetened beverage a day were 3 times as likely to develop ischemic stroke and 2.9 times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease dementia within the next 10 years as compared to those who did not consume diet soda.”

These are alarming yet not surprising numbers taken from the Framingham Heart Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and Boston University.

From 1991 to 2001 the researchers followed 2888 individuals over the age of 45 to track strokes, and 1484 individuals over the age of 60 for dementia, from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts.

The researchers reported that in the case of diet soda consumption, the artificial sweeteners consumed were saccharin, acesulfame, neotame, sucralose, and aspartame and found increased risks of stroke and dementia by approximately 3 times, compared to those individuals who don’t consume soda.

They also reported that those individuals who consumed sugar sweetened beverages showed very different, yet significant side effects.

Whether the beverage was sweet fruit juices or regular soda, there was evidence of accelerated brain again such as smaller brain volumes, poorer memory function and a smaller hippocampus, an area of the brain that consolidates memories.

Additionally, according to Dr. Josh Axe, drinking 4 cans a day of diet soda creates a 30% higher risk of depression compared with those who do not consume this toxic product.

If you can believe it, daily soda drinking also increases your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 67% or more!! It wreaks havoc with your blood sugar, insulin response and throws your body int a fat storage mode because of the negative effects on your metabolism.

It also destroys your teeth and enamel, as these products are almost as corrosive as battery acid. Not to mention the terrible damage you do to the vulnerable cells of your esophagus, stomach and digestive tissue from the acidic residue soda leaves behind.

What Should You Drink Instead?

Drink WATER!! Your body needs plenty of fresh, clean water every day. Aim for at least 3-4 litres. If you are bored by just plain water, try these delicious combinations.

Infused Water:

Chop up various fruit and vegetables and let them sit in the fridge in your water overnight for the most powerful flavour pop. Or, just throw them in and stir them around and enjoy right away!

• lemons and limes
• oranges and grapefruit
• basil and strawberries
• mint and oranges
• cranberries and apples with a cinnamon stick
• pomegranates and pears
• blackberries and raspberries
• watermelon and mint
• kiwi and strawberries

Experiment with various combinations of your favourite fruits and vegetables and enjoy a refreshing glass of water instead of a deadly soda.  For further information click here to read Stroke And Heart Attack Linked To Drinking This!

With Sources From:

http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-04-25-shock-drinking-just-one-diet-coke-or-pepsi-per-day-triples-risk-of-stroke-and-dementia-researchers-find.html

http://theheartysoul.com/diet-soda-health-risks/

How To Read Labels Like a Pro and Cut Grocery Shopping Time In Half

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How To Read Labels Like a Pro and Cut Grocery Shopping Time In Half

Are you confident in your ability to read food labels?

Maybe you haven’t really taken the time to ever read a label properly before, or you are so overwhelmed by the information presented on the label that you just don’t bother.

It is time to get on the label reading train so you can be properly educated on what you are feeding your family and you can get in and out of the grocery store in half the time. No more staring at a label for 5 minutes trying to decipher if you should put it in your cart or not.

First off, it is critical to note that you won’t find a label on anything in the produce section of the grocery store – and this is where the majority of your food should be found!

The reason for that is that those foods haven’t been processed. The focus of your grocery shopping trip should be concentrated to the produce department, filling your cart full of wonderfully nutrient rich fruits and vegetables. It is important to be mindful on what produce should be purchased organically if funds and availability allow for it.

Leafy greens, strawberries, grapes, celery, and apples are some of the most highly sprayed crops and therefore should be purchased organically if possible.

As you move into the packaged food section of the grocery store, you will want to focus on the following tips to ensure you are reading labels properly.

1. Check the serving size first, and consider what a realistic serving size is for your family. In the case of most packaged products, the serving size is an unrealistic estimate of what a typical person would eat and therefore causes the caloric values, fat and sugar content to appear more acceptable.

2. Most people only focus on the top half of the label where you will find the caloric content and nutritional breakdown. While this information is important to know, the list of ingredients will be more helpful in determining just what additives might be present. Remember that the ingredients are listed in descending order based on their volume, so if a harmful item is listed as one of the first five ingredients then you may want to reconsider what you are buying.

3. Choose products with the fewest number of ingredients. But, also make sure that you know and feel comfortable eating what all the ingredients are.

4. Purchase frozen vegetables and fruit instead of canned to eliminate exposure to preservatives that are used in the canning process.

5. Beware of endorsements on products and clever marketing campaigns that make any special product claims. Just because a label claims it is sugar-free, diet, all natural or trans fat free doesn’t mean that it is healthy. 

6. Finally, avoid ingredients like monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial sweeteners (Splenda or aspartame), sodium nitrate, food dyes, high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, refined grains, and any other items on the label that are almost impossible to pronounce.

By following these tips, a trip to the grocery store should be a lot less confusing and time consuming. Remember that life isn’t perfect, and neither will your grocery shopping experience be. 

Select products that are as close to natural as you can and always keep your eyes open for higher quality alternatives.

How To Throw A Sugar Free Kids Birthday Party

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Sugar Free Kids Birthday Party

What do you get when you mix a group of children with too much cake, junk food, candy and party games? A recipe for overtired, cranky, and overstimulated children.

The excitement of a birthday party can be enough to trigger emotional behaviour in children. The tradition of eating pizza and cake, followed by presents and games just doesn’t make sense anymore.

Children are sensitive to what they eat, and because they don’t have the same emotion regulation that adults have developed, hosting a birthday party for your child could be more than you had bargained for.

Below are some tips to host a kid-friendly party, that considers their health. Trust me, other parents are going to thank you!

The Cake

Food colouring and dyes that are used in cake icing have been linked to hyperactivity and allergic reactions. Ultimately, cake icing is a mixture of sugar, unhealthy fats, and chemicals. The cake itself is not much healthier being high in sugar, gluten and is likely high in fat as well. Opt for a homemade cake that is lower in sugar and fat and free of harmful food dyes. To avoid the traditional cake altogether, there are plenty of ideas on the internet to make a beautiful cake out of fruit. The base is a large watermelon and other fruits are used to decorate the “cake.” 

The Drinks

Avoid high-sugar drinks like pop and juice that can cause children to be on a sugar-high. Create a buffet of chopped strawberries, raspberries, orange slices, lemon slices, and cucumber slices to add to water. Children will be excited to make their own flavoured drinks and they can experiment with different combinations.

The Food

Serving a group of children a meal that they all like can be the largest obstacle of any birthday party. It’s pretty safe to say that most children like pizza and chicken nuggets and French fries. So, rather than buying these highly processed options at the grocery store, make your own at home so you have control of the ingredients. Make individual pizzas on pita bread so each child can select the ingredients they want on their pizza. Homemade chicken fingers and baked French fries are also a fast and convenient solution.

The Goodie Bag

Most parents can agree that the junk that comes home in a goodie bag from a child’s birthday party is ready for the garbage. Candy, chocolates, and little plastic toys do not offer any health benefit for the child. Instead, opt for activities like painting a picture or a craft that children can take home with them in place of a goodie bag. Alternatively, have children decorate a picture frame and take a group photo and print a copy for each child to put in their picture frame.

The Activities

The key to a fun birthday party is to be prepared with more activities than you think you might need to fill the time of the birthday party. Create a dance party and have kids be creative in making a music video. Have a scavenger hunt where children have to work together to find clues and a prize.

Save the Bees! Without Them, Humanity Can’t Survive

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bees and dandelions

Stop. And. Listen. Do you hear bees buzzing in your yard, hard at work? If we aren’t careful, that could soon be a sound of the past.

Whatever you do this spring, don’t pull out the dandelions that pop up in your yard or garden. Yes, I know that we have all been convinced by yard maintenance companies and marketing that dandelions are not aesthetically pleasing and therefore they should be sprayed or pulled out. But, dandelions are the first source of food in the spring to feed our precious, hard-working bees (and other insects).

Bees are responsible for the pollination of approximately 35% of our food supply and it is our job to protect them.

With the widespread use of pesticides and chemicals on crops we are killing off the bee population at an alarming rate.

While the world stopped to listen to the story of Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbery last year, we missed noting that bees have been put on the endangered list.

Without bees, we can expect to see a significant impact on the agricultural industry.  Although bees are not necessary for the pollination of all crops, they do play an integral role in the pollination of melons, squash, nuts such as cashews, brazil nuts and almonds, apples, berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries), and stone fruits.

As the bee population continues to be affected, the concern is that these fruits and vegetables will be available in lower yields, which would drive the cost of these up as availability is reduced. Understanding that these are the staple foods of a whole food diet, it is concerning that a diet consisting of whole foods is likely to become less accessible and therefore could have a negative impact on the health of our communities moving forward. 

Spread the word about the bee population. Talk to your neighbours, friends, family and whoever else you come into contact with. Start a conversation in your community about what can be done to reduce the use of chemicals and pesticides. Starting a community gardening program is an excellent way to educate the community on the importance of the bee population while growing organic produce. If that isn’t an option in your community, starting a small backyard garden is easy and extremely rewarding. Bees love flowers, fruits and vegetables, so pick your favourites and start growing!

Finally, by purchasing local, raw honey you are supporting a local farmer who is working hard to maintain the bee population. The nutritional benefits of eating raw, locally sourced honey include providing anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial properties. Raw honey is also rich in vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Most honey that we buy in the grocery store has been processed at high temperatures and has additives, which radically reduces the effectiveness of the honey in your diet.

We encourage you to do whatever you can to help save the bee population. It could be as simple as planting a patch of wild flowers, eliminating the use of chemicals on your lawn or letting your dandelions thrive this spring!

Favourite Healthy Recipes Volume 1

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I love experimenting with new recipes, finding ideas and changing them to make them my own, and experiencing new flavours and palettes that are exciting and delicious.

The most important things to think about when you are preparing are:

  • Will this meal provide me with a broad range of vitamins, nutrients and minerals?
  • Am I eating a wide variety of colours?

It’s hard to eat a lot of colours if you have only meat and potatoes on your plate.  So this is why eating fruit and vegetables is essential to reaching all of your daily nutrient requirements.

Here are a few of my most favourite recipes that have been in my family’s meal rotation lately.

Breakfast

Breakfast is your first opportunity of the day to start consuming as many nutrients as you can, to jump start your day.  Ideally, the very first thing you should do to start your day is moving out the toxins that have accumulated overnight.  So try and drink a tall glass of water with lemon.  Then, enjoy this smoothie at least 20 minutes later.

Funky Monkey Smoothie

  • 1 frozen banana
  • 10 large frozen strawberries
  • 1 large handful of spinach
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • 2-3 cups almond milk
  • 1 tbsp hemp seeds
  • 1 tbsp cocoa

Add all ingredients to a high speed blender.  Cover with almond milk, and blend until smooth.  Your children will love this smoothie and won’t even notice the greens hiding inside!  Love smoothies for breakfast??  Click here for our Breakfast On The Go – Mixed Berry Smoothie recipe.

Lunch

Lunch is best if it’s an easy salad or something that is pretty mobile.  I mean, who knows where life will take you by lunch time!!  So pack something that is easy to throw together and enjoy on the run.

Mango Salad

  • 1 ripe mango, diced
  • 1/2 head of romaine lettuce, washed and torn
  • 1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced1 roma tomato, diced
  • 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds

Combine lettuce, vegetables and sunflower seeds.  Dice mango, being careful to save the juices.  Add the mango and juice from the mango to the salad and toss.  To learn more about why you should include mango’s in your diet click here for 10 Health Benefits of Mango’s.

Dinner

This is a great dinner option that you can enjoy at your home.  It replaces the empty nutrients in white or whole grain pasta with spaghetti squash!  Feel free to tweak the recipe with whatever vegetables you have on hand.  This recipe is also great as a left-over lunch option.

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

  • 1 spaghetti squash
  • 1 pound grass fed ground beef
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 zucchini, chopped
  • 1 jar tomato sauce (check label for no added sugar) or use your favourite homemade spaghetti sauce recipe

Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and place on a baking sheet face down.  Bake squash at 350 F until spaghetti-like consistency.  Scoop the flesh out of the skin with a fork.  Cook ground beef in a skillet until no longer pink.  Add garlic, green peppers, onion, zucchini and mushrooms and sauté until vegetables are tender.  Add tomato sauce and heat through. Cover spaghetti squash with sauce and enjoy!

Do I Always Have to Buy Organic? Here’s What You NEED to Know!

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organic

I hear this question all the time when discussing the fact that organic produce is so much more expensive than traditionally grown options.  I also hear questions like:

“Why do we need to buy organic anyway?  Is it really that much better?”

Well, you don’t HAVE to buy organic.  However, there are certain items that you should. While others aren’t completely as necessary.  Before outlining them, I want you to consider some of the hidden dangers that lurk in our produce.

pesticides

Pesticides!  What Are They & Why Are They Used?

Pesticides are used for the eradication of pests.  They are extremely toxic substances that are sprayed all over produce to kill any bugs on the food in that in addition pests that may be trying to eat the produce.

What Are Herbicides & Fungicides?

Herbicides are for the eradication of weeds and other plants that interfere with the growth of the crop.  Fungicides are used to eliminate the growth of fungus or diseases that attack the crops.

What Is The Problem With These Chemicals?

Pesticides have been linked to many human health conditions, such as:

  • Nausea
  • Headaches
  • Cancer
  • Reproductive issues
  • Eendocrine disorders

There are also dangers like:

  • Nerve, skin & eye damage
  • Dizziness
  • Systemic poisoning

However, these conditions are more likely to occur in those individuals applying the chemicals.

Most concernedly for the general population are the compounding effects due to long-term exposure or ingestion.

pesticide warning

Potential Dangers Of Pesticides

Pesticides are responsible for causing my types of cancer, such as:

Click here to read, “The Important Role Fruit Stickers Play On Our Health!”

organic produce

Organic VS Non-Organic Produce, What To Buy!

So, how do you stretch your dollar while still protecting your health?  Listed are fruits and vegetables you should really buy organically and those you can get away without paying extra for organic.

The Dirty Dozen (in order of contamination as of 2019)

This list of The Dirty Dozen are the most heavily sprayed products and should be purchased organically if at all possible:

  • Strawberries
  • Spinach
  • Kale
  • Nectarines
  • Apples
  • Grapes
  • Peaches
  • Cherries
  • Pears
  • Tomatoes
  • Celery
  • Potatoes

The Clean 15 (in order of least contamination as of 2019)

This list of the Clean 15 can be purchased as conventionally grown produce, as the risk of toxic accumulation and contamination is significantly lower.

organic meat

Do I Need To Buy Meat Organically?

Meat should always be purchased organically whenever possible.  You should also try to source out meat that is free range (chicken), grass fed (beef), wild caught (fish) and everything grown antibiotic free.

This is because these animals, especially cattle and pigs, are so large, they have a much greater ability to accumulate higher degrees of toxins.  For example, they need to eat hundreds of pounds of feed to grow into adulthood.  If they are continually eating feed that has been coated in pesticides while it was growing, they are accumulating these toxins rather quickly.

Add to that the antibiotics and growth hormones in their feed, you are setting yourself up to ingest a toxic stew if you are purchasing meat that is not organic.  I always recommend that if you are going to eat meat, it should be organic!

Organic meat is very expensive at the grocery store, so buy right from the farmer!  Try to find a local farm that raises animals ethically and organically.  Click here to read, “What Meat Do You Eat?” for further information.

For Further reading on ways to live and eat clean, click here to read, “Clean Living – How To Detoxify Your Life!”

With Sources from:

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/food/what-are-the-dirty-dozen-and-the-clean-fifteen/
http://www.toxicsaction.org/problems-and-solutions/pesticides