Today March 23rd is National Chia Seed Day! This day recognizes the tiny, yet powerful chia seed that has earned a reputation for being one of the MOST nutrient-rich foods on the planet!
Per gram Chia seeds have
8x more omega -3s than salmon 2x more potassium than bananas 🍌 6x more calcium than milk 25% more fibre than Flax seed 30% more antioxidants than blueberries
Today I'm enjoying a Table Spoon of Chia seeds in my over night oats for breakfast for #nationalchiaday
I'll be filming an overnight oats tutorial tonight for my YouTube channel and will share it here as well!
The recipe I used for todays over night oats is...
1/2 cup whole oats 1 Tbsp Chia Seeds 1 Tbsp almond slivers 1/2 tsp cinnamon Handful of organic dried cranberries Almond milk until it covers oats (equal parts dry to wet is the key) 1 Tbsp maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla extract
Put all dry ingredients into jar, add in almond milk, maple syrup and vanilla. If needed add in extra almond milk to ensure equal parts wet to dry for perfect consistency.
Screw on lid and place into the fridge over night.
Warm for 2 minutes in microwave if desired and serve with a scoop of natural peanut butter!
Mamma Chia has officially designated March 23rd as National Chia Day with the registrar of National Day Calendar!
This Recipe came from my Aunty Jane. We lost her 6 years ago and I miss her terribly still. I grew up in awe of her baking and cooking skills. And as I was older I was able to write down a few of her recipes and this is one of them. I truly wish I'd got more!
Here is one of the recipes she made for us kids when we came up to her farm! I remember going up to the fish farm at Easter time and she would have a big batch of these made topped with sprinkled sugar. She always made the best baked goods and I think my love of baking comes from her. I have modified the recipe to make it more healthy but you would never know because they still taste amazing!
At the fish farm she always put on the best Easter Egg hunts too. She had loads of note pads, fancy pens and pencils, sticky notes (she was a teacher), hair clips, stickers, and puzzles along with all the best candy! I've put together a list of Easter Candy Alternatives if you want to incorporate a few non candy items into your own easter egg hunt this weekend!
I'm making a batch today for our week ahead but I'm hoping to have a few left over to take on our Easter Long Weekend camping trip too! While I baked the boys were busy Colouring Easter Egg Wreaths to put on the window. They love going onto Pinterest with me and looking for fun colouring sheets and then printing them off. Fraser is finally at the age where he happy to sit in his high chair and colour or craft while I bake my heart out!!!! I remember Asher at this age and all the activities I would do with him so I'm excited to introduce Fraser to lots of Kid Kitchen Science Activities.
Easter Weekend Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 1/4 cups organic cane sugar or 3/4 cup honey
1 egg
1tsp pure almond extract
1 cup full fat Greek yogurt
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt 4-8 Tbsp milk
1 cup raspberries
Directions
Mix together Coconut Oil, Honey, egg and extract in bowl.
Add to the coconut oil mixture, 1 cup of greek yogurt. Set aside.
Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
Add Yogurt and coconut Oil mixture into the flour mixture and stir together slightly.
Add in Milk to the consistency you like. It will be thick.
Now add in berries of your choice and stir in being careful not to over stir.
Top with slivered almonds or a sprinkle of organic cane sugar.
Well YeeHawww!! While I was away last week on the Beachbody Cruise a New workout program that is sure to be this summers hottest fitness trend was announced on board!
Autumn Calabrese, the creator of 21 Day Fix, 21 Day Fix EXTREME, FIXATE and co creator of Masters Hammer and Chisel , is switching things up to bring a little YEEHAWWW to home workouts with Country Heat! Get ready to fire up your metabolism, burn calories, and melt away unwanted pounds while you have fun dancing to the hottest country music around.Country Heat will feature workouts that are 30 minutes long, low-impact movement to melt off the weight and reshape your body,toning and tightening your shoulders, arms, legs, and booty. The program incorporates simple moves for even beginners, but still has the energy to keep more advanced dancers burning calories and having fun!
Country Heat comes with Autumn’s famous portion control containers that were first introduced in ’21 Day Fix’ and have been one of the most popular nutrition programs in recent history! They are no brainer, color coded containers so you don’t have to count calories and can keep eating the foods you love. If it fits, you eat it!
Country Heat Test Group
I'll be hosting a Test group for those who have their kit ordered within days after it launches. I will start it 2 weeks after the launch date so be ready! I've set up a Country Heat Test Group Facebook Event o keep you in the loop as information becomes available.
You can bet that a test workout will be available on Beachbody on Demand prior to the program launch so when that happens I'll be sharing that information within the event. If you want to joint he event just click "Going" to be notified of all the latest info on the program release!
Want to be the first to know when Country Heat is available? Enter your name and address in the form below to make sure you're immediately alerted when Country Heat is on sale. Demand is already heating up, so sign up fast.
I made these tasty meatball lettuce wraps with Blackberry sauce a while ago now using the recipe from justataste.com and everyone loved them. So when I made the meal plan this week I added them to it. Last time I made my own blackberry preserves on the fly with blackberries, water and honey but this time I knew I would be a little more rushed for time so I picked up some organic Blackberry Preserves from the market.
For the boys I left out the green onion and made 4 meatballs without. But I can tell you the green onion MAKES these meatballs!
This batch made about 24 Turkey Meatballs but I wanted to make them fairly small as I was putting them into lettuce wraps. I also lined my muffin pan with silicon muffin cups and that made it SO easy to clean up!
Now these little guys cooked perfectly in just 15 minutes at 500 degrees. I know 500 degrees sounds SUPER high but I promise they will cook perfectly and quickly too!
Once cooked I let them cool slightly and then placed them on the washed lettuce leaves. I get the live butter lettuce in the round containers in the salad section at the store and they work perfectly. In the spring and summer I'll have LOTS of lettuce growing in the garden so I'll be able to go into the back yard and pick what I need. But until then these live butter lettuce from the store work perfectly.
The funny thing is everyone had a slightly different variation of the same dinner. Asher still enjoyed the Lettuce wraps but had no green onion and Frasers meatballs were cup up and I gave him cucumber slices and whole wheat nann bread instead of lettuce leaves. Then Gord and I enjoyed these beautiful little lettuce wraps dripping with blackberry Hoisin sauce. So good!!!
Blackberry Hoisin Turkey Meatball Lettuce Wraps
Yield:About 24 meatballs
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Ingredients
1/4 cup almond milk (or other milk of choice) 1/4 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey or chicken 1/4 cup finely chopped green onion 1 Tablespoon minced garlic (or 1 tsp powdered) 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger (or 1 tsp powdered) 2 Tablespoons braggs liquid aminos or soy sauce 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup hoisin sauce 1/4 cup blackberry preserves 1 head live butter lettuce, leaves separated and washed
Directions
Preheat the oven to 500ºF. Oil a mini-muffin pan or baking dish or line with silicon muffin cups.
In a large bowl, stir together the milk and breadcrumbs and let them sit for 5 minutes.
Add the ground chicken, green onion, garlic, ginger, braggs liquid aminos and egg to the bowl with the breadcrumbs. Use your hands or a large spoon to mix the ingredients just until combined.
Shape the meat mixture into balls using about 3 tablespoons of meat per meatball. Place the shaped meatballs into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes, or until the meatballs are fully cooked.
While the meatballs are baking, whisk together the hoisin sauce and blackberry jam in a small sauce pan over medium heat.
Remove the meatballs from the oven. Place one or two meatballs in each leaf of lettuce, drizzle with Blackberry sauce and top with green onions to serve.
