I promised my friends from Dun­field that I would share my daughter’s favourite guilt-​free after din­ner treat. There are a few vari­a­tions but here it is in it’s sim­plest form.

You’ll need:

• a food proces­sor (not a blender — it doesn’t whip the bananas into a creamy bowl of deliciousness!)
• 2 ripe bananas, peeled and frozen (I peel my brown, spot­ted bananas and keep them in a reseal­able bag in the freezer. They’re great to add to your pro­tein shakes).
• 2 tbsp plain non-​fat Greek yogurt. I really like Lib­erte brand.

Add ingre­di­ents to food proces­sor fit­ted with a steel blade and blend until smooth and creamy. It takes a few min­utes so be patient.

Feel free to exper­i­ment with flavours. We’ve tried frozen straw­ber­ries, dark choco­late, pure cocoa pow­der, peanut or almond but­ter and vanilla bean.

Thank me later!!! Enjoy!

Hi there!

Just whipped up a batch of fluffy pro­tein pump­kin pan­cakes and thought you might like to give them a try. They’re nice and fill­ing and loaded with healthy ingre­di­ents. These are dairy free which makes them one of my favourite recipes but we can talk about dairy another day…

Noth­ing from the box here. Enjoy!

Per­fect Pump­kin Pancakes

1 cup rolled oats (whirled in the blender till it resem­bles flour)

¹⁄₂ cup liq­uid egg whites

¹⁄₂ cup unsweet­ened vanilla almond milk*

¹⁄₂ cup canned pure pumpkin

1 T chia seeds (optional)

¹⁄₂ tsp each cin­na­mon, ground ginger

¹⁄₄ tsp each nut­meg, allspice

or 1 tsp pump­kin pie spice

pinch of salt

sugar, honey, sweet­ener, to taste (I don’t think they need this but it’s optional)

If you’d like to bump up the pro­tein, please feel free to add a scoop of vanilla pro­tein pow­der. Enjoy!

1. In a mix­ing bowl, com­bine oat flour with remain­ing ingre­di­ents and stir until thor­oughly incorporated.
2. In a non-​stick or sprayed fry­ing pan, over medium heat, drop about ¹⁄₄ cup bat­ter into pan­cake rounds.
3. Cook until browned on one side; flip and con­tinue to cook another 5 min­utes or so. These are dense so be sure to cook them all the way through.

Serve with your favourite pan­cake topping.

* I really like this brand. Great nutri­tion­als too.

I’m not a big fan of fall weather. In fact, you could say that I’m a sum­mer girl through and through and although end­less dark days and cold tem­per­a­tures can some­times get me down; I always look for­ward to dig­ging into all of my very favourite com­fort foods. The foods that warm you from the inside and taste bet­ter the longer they sim­mer on the stove or bake in the oven. One of my favourite go-​to meals is soup — pretty much any vari­ety, so long as it’s pip­ing hot and brim­ming with loads of yummy goodness.

I love its ver­sa­til­ity and ease of prepa­ra­tion; it can be a light in-​between meal or a quick yet sat­is­fy­ing sup­per. This split pea soup recipe is one that I return to over and over because it’s so sim­ple to pre­pare and always delicious.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. This recipe can eas­ily be dou­bled and freezes well.

Split Pea Soup

1 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 car­rots, peeled and diced

2 cel­ery stalks, diced

2 gar­lic cloves, minced

¹¹⁄₂ cups split peas*

6 cups low sodium chicken or veg­etable broth, canned or homemade

1 bay leaf

2 T fresh dill, chopped

2 T fresh Ital­ian pars­ley, chopped

sea salt and freshly ground pep­per, to taste

1. In a large stock­pot, over low heat, sweat onion, cel­ery, car­rots and gar­lic until slightly soft­ened, about 10 minutes.
2. Place split peas in medium-​sized bowl and cover with cold water. Pour off water and repeat twice or until water is no longer cloudy.
3. Add rinsed peas to pot and cover with broth; add bay leaf and bring to boil.
4. Reduce heat to sim­mer and cook for approx­i­mately 45 min­utes. Stir occa­sion­ally; adding water if soup appears too thick.
5. Add fresh herbs and con­tinue to cook for another 15 min­utes or until peas are soft.
6. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Pour soup into blender (optional, but it gives the soup a lus­cious tex­ture) and blend until smooth and creamy.

* Peas are an excel­lent source of sol­u­ble fibre and help to bind up cholesterol-​containing bile and move out it out of your body. A sin­gle cup of cooked dried peas in your daily diet pro­vides 65.1% of the rec­om­mended daily fibre. They also con­tain a good amount of pro­tein, two B vit­a­mins and sev­eral impor­tant min­er­als. Peas also con­tain isoflavones which may be help­ful in reduc­ing the risk of breast and prostate cancer.

I love Sun­days, don’t you? Whether it’s get­ting together with friends for a long, lazy brunch, relax­ing at home with a great book or cook­ing your favourite recipe with a deli­cious glass of red wine in hand. Yep, I’ve been know to enjoy a glass or two of red wine over the weekend!

This morn­ing, after a killer cir­cuit work­out at home, I met a girl­friend for a yummy grilled veg­gie egg white omelet and way too many cups of cof­fee. Her 17 year old daugh­ter has recently embraced fit­ness and nutri­tion and has been hav­ing some trou­ble lately per­fect­ing her pro­tein pan­cakes. My ulti­mate pro­tein pan­cake recipe guar­an­tees suc­cess every time. So Carly, this one’s for you!

The Ulti­mate Pro­tein Pancake

¹⁄₃ cup liq­uid egg whites

¹⁄₃ cup rolled oats

1 scoop vanilla pro­tein pow­der (I use GNC)

1 T chia seeds*

3 T hot water

¹⁄₄ tsp bak­ing powder

¹⁄₄ tsp bak­ing soda

dash of cinnamon

pinch of salt

1. In a small bowl, com­bine chia seeds and water. Let stand approx­i­mately 5 min­utes or until thick and gel-​like.
2. Pour bat­ter into sprayed or non-​stick omelet pan. Cook until bat­ter sets and sides pull away from pan (about 5 minutes).
3. Care­fully flip pan­cake with a spat­ula and con­tinue cook­ing for another 5 min­utes or so.
4. Serve on its own or with your favourite guilt-​free pan­cake top­ping. I love it with my home­made apple­sauce (as shown) but fresh fruit, sugar-​free syrup or nat­ural peanut or almond but­ter would be won­der­ful too.

*What are chia seeds? These pop­py­seed “super­food” looka­likes deliver the max­i­mum amount of nutri­ents with min­i­mum calo­ries and when soaked in hot water, they make an amaz­ing sub­sti­tute for whole eggs, in bak­ing recipes. Chia seeds have sev­eral of the same ben­e­fits as the more well-​known “super seed” flax, but unlike flax seed, you don’t need to grind them to reap the health ben­e­fits which include fiber, omega fatty acids, cal­cium, antiox­i­dants and much more – even pro­tein! Chia absorbs up to 12 times its own weight and expands to curb your appetite, so adding just an ounce or so of chia seeds to your diet can reduce caloric intake and help lower the energy den­sity (or calo­ries) of foods, plus dou­ble the amount of fiber you receive. Con­tribut­ing to its super-​seed sta­tus, ounce for ounce, chia seeds have more omega-​3 fatty acids than salmon! and is one of the most con­cen­trated sources of omega-​3 in any food.

I buy my chia seeds in bulk at the Bulk Barn but you can find them in just about any health food store.

Just got back from a great work­out this morn­ing. It’s amaz­ing how fresh the legs can feel when you com­mit to the foam roller every day! If you haven’t invested in one of these (they’re cheap — Win­ners!), then you must! It’s espe­cially great for all you run­ners out there suf­fer­ing from tight IT bands. Yuck.

Any­ways, I thought I’d share a recipe for a deli­cious and easy side dish which my hubby and I enjoyed last night with grilled salmon (my fave)! I usu­ally try not to eat starches in the evening but this bar­ley risotto is too good to pass up and hey, it was Fri­day night after all. Bar­ley actu­ally, is a great choice of com­plex car­bo­hy­drates, so you really don’t need to feel too guilty eat­ing it. Just watch your por­tion size, 1÷2−3÷4 cup cooked, should do it.