Chia Seed Pancakes

For those of you that don't know, I have a slight addiction to Chia Seeds. They have high nutrient value and they make food just look pretty...
I purchased 50 lbs of them about a year ago and have been using them like crazy and have barely put a dent in the container. Today I asked my 3 year old what she wanted for breakfast. Preparing myself for the standard answer of macaroni and cheese, I was surprised to hear her say "pancakes." I'm happy to usually make what my kids request in hopes of getting them to actually eat.

I surfed the pins on pinterest I had already pinned, and found a lemon poppy seed pancake recipe from PICKYCOOK.COM. I didn't love the ingredients, so because I can't leave something alone, I changed a lot of the ingredients...so much, so, that I'm sure if I published this, I wouldn't have a problem...haha.

Here is my attempt on chia seed pancakes....this family thought they were DELICIOUS.
*On a side note, I usually like to eat my meals with no white flour, and on a more clean pallet, however, since it was a new recipe, I just did half white, half wheat flour. Next time I will use all wheat.

1 Cup white unbleached flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 Cup of brown sugar
pinch of salt
2 Cups milk (I used 2% for fattening my kids up...well and this baby getting large in my gut....)
(almond milk or a milk substitute would also work in this as well)
2 eggs, beaten lightly
2 T melted butter
3 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbs honey
1/3 cup chia seeds

Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine ingredients and break up any brown sugar clumps you might have. In another bowl, combine milk, eggs, butter, lemon juice, honey and chia seeds. Stir to combine ingredients. Combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir till just combined. Try to not over mix or you will have flat pancakes.

Heat skillet or pan with olive oil and add pancake mix. Flip when bubbles that will form on top of the pancakes are popping, then cook on the other side till there is a nice golden brown color on both sides.

This made plenty of pancakes for my family of 4.5, and I will have enough for freezer pancakes for a quick breakfast another day. I served these with an assortment of jams and syrups, but my little guy wanted them with just butter, and my little lady wanted them with butter and homemade strawberry jam. I followed suit and had strawberry jam. I didn't even eat these with a fork, I just picked them up like slice of pizza and consumed. In the words of Rachael Ray-- "YUMMO!"

much love,

Annisa

Crepes, oh I'm going there

Well, I guess I've found another breakfast that I'm liking. See, when you put your mind to something, you can accomplish anything. (or however that saying goes...)

I've always liked crepes. Really, I have. But I usually like them for dinner and I like to put things like eggs, or meats and cheeses etc in them. However, this morning when I was going through my wake up ritual of checking emails, Facebook etc, I found this recipe, and they gave me the great idea of yogurt as the "cream", and fresh fruit as the filling. I have tons of peaches left to can tomorrow, and bananas that are turning. The light went on!

These babies turned out great!!! You could taste the vanilla in them so it gave a sweet flavor without adding sugar to my fruit.

First thing though, get it through your mind that crepes are not hard to cook. Really! Stop rolling your eyes! Use a non stick pan, and add a tad bit of cooking spray (I use an olive oil pump so I don't add all those extra chemicals to my food) then pour a small amount in the middle of that already hot non stick pan. Swirl it around so it makes a circle and then just let it cook. You'll know when its getting done when the edges start pulling away from the pan. then using a silicone spatula, just flip! cook till it has color then its done...now just do that about 20 more times. I'm not going to lie, once you get to the bottom of the batter, you'll be praying there is no more batter left!

I got this recipe from Super Healthy Kids. For the most part I've been happy with what recipes I've tried from this group of fine folks. Without further ado:

Whole Wheat Crepes

3 Eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1 T honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 T butter

Put all ingredients in blender (I use my blendtec) and mix well. Let stand for 10 min, then blend again.

Spray a small non stick pan with cooking spray.

Angle pan and pour enough batter on one side to thinly and evenly cover the pan. Very quickly swirl the batter around to cover the pan in one thin layer.

Once the crepe is golden brown on one side, carefully flip it over without tearing the crepe.

Cook another minute on the other side until it is golden.

Serve with yogurt and berries, strawberries or a savory chicken filling.

Thats all there is to it! During the 10 min of waiting, I cut up my peaches and bananas. The kids didn't give me any guff about eating today. My oldest is always scared to try things she hasn't but after she tried a bite, she kept saying, "this is soo good!"

much love,

Annisa

Blueberry Bliss

I'm not in love with breakfast. There, I said it. Its never been high on my "to do" list. Its also not on any of my bucket lists...yes I have more than one bucket list. But I digress.....

I've been trying a few new breakfast options the last month or so, and I've come across three, yes three, that I'd make again. Today was one of those successes! I made what are called Blueberry Breakfast bars, although, "bars" is a loose term. This turned out more like a cake. (which is a bonus right?? I've always wanted an excuse to eat cake for breakfast.)

I found this recipe from Blendtec
ages ago and tucked it away in the abyss that I call my recipe box. Box meaning the literal term of BOX. I'm not talking about our mothers mothers recipe boxes, I'm talking about a box that I recycled from something I got in the mail. Although, I did go through it the other day and cleaned it all up and started copying recipes from paper to recipe cards...and now we are back to how I found this recipe. wow. don't ever have children, your brain goes all to them, and yet I'm still left wondering how they often choose the wrong choice if they are so darn smart from my brain....oh well....

This breakfast cake is pretty good. I really didn't change anything about the recipe which is hard for me. This is CLEAN, Blueberry-y, and has great stuff in it that you can't even taste...yeah, I just went there. Shall we get started??

1 ripe banana
2 large eggs
1/3 C greek yogurt (I used vanilla flavored)
1/2 C applesauce (I use no sugar added)
2 T coconut oil melted
2/3 C brown sugar packed
1 tsp vanilla

Mix in a blender or with hand beaters until smooth.

Add to above mixture:
1 1/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I put more like 3/4 tsp just cause)
2/3 C pecans (thus the hidden items in this cake. I can't get my husband to eat really any kind of nut unless I hide it...it is perfectly hidden in this recipe)

Blend until incorporated. This is where my cake comes in. The picture of the recipe I took it from looked like a granola bar. I must have over ground mine cause mine was a batter. They said you could use this as a granola too, but they lied. There ain't no way you can get a granola from this.

After it is blended or mixed to your preference, fold in:
1 C fresh blueberries
(I didn't have fresh but I always have frozen. I let one cup frozen thaw in my fridge overnight and just used them and a tiny bit of juice the next morning. I found honestly no difference.

Put batter into a greased 9X13 pan. Add 1/4 cup granola to the top of the cake.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 min depending on your oven. A toothpick should come out clean when done.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't the kind of cake you'd want to serve for dessert unless you added some frosting or glaze or something...it is a breakfast item. I prepared the cake and popped it into the oven and showered while it baked. This is good warm or cooled off for a mid morning snack...which is how I ate mine. (you know, warm AND as a mid morning snack.)

Much love,

Annisa

An Oatmeal a day

As I sit here with my littles this morning, after a long weekend at grandmas, I'm thinking about all that I have to do. I have 50 lbs of peaches that need canned sitting on my counter, countless fruit flys to send "home", and laundry up to my nose. But right now, this very second, I'm eating one of the best overnight Refrigerator Oatmeals I've had in awhile. I always love my go to banana peanut butter oatmeal from The Yummy Life...I won't lie that where I get most my overnight oatmeal recipes from, or I use her base and add a few different ingredients depending on what I have on hand.

Last night we pulled back into our home at 9:30 PM, frantically got the kids in bed, and the truck unloaded. It was then 10:00 and I knew I was going to have "a day" the next morning with two appts coming before noon. Baking muffins just wasn't an option, and I always have frozen pancakes or waffles on hand, but I just wasn't feeling it. I had very few ingredients, so I opted for an easy and quick peach overnight oatmeal....cause remember, I have 50 freakin pounds of peaches on my counter! haha

Here is the recipe (with my changes) for a delicious fresh peach overnight oatmeal:

1 cup milk (any kind, but if you use sweetened almond, it will make it sweeter)
1 cup greek yogurt (I used vanilla, but there is a peach one that would probably be really great)
1/2 tsp of vanilla (recipe called for 1/4 tsp)
2 T honey
2 cups non instant oats

You can then add in any fruits/nuts/etc that you want. This recipe I opted for

1 LARGE fresh peach cut into chunks
3 T chia seeds

Other add ins:
nuts such as chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans cashews
frozen fruit
fresh fruit
wheat germ

Put the milk, yogurt, vanilla, honey, oatmeal, and any non fruit add ins (especially chia seeds) in a ball jar (or any container that will fit all your ingredients. stir first with a spoon to get things mixed around, then put on a lid and shake baby shake! Open jar and add in addt add ins and mix carefully till they are all incorporated. Place in fridge overnight and eat in the morning.

We have enjoyed refrigerator oatmeal in summer and in winter...and I won't lie, I've made it and put it in a cooler for breakfast when we have gone camping!

I hope you enjoy this...there are many variations, so look around.

much love,

Annisa

Pumpkin Waffles and a Freezer Tip

Good Morning everyone! (ok, that's not how I feel until about 30 min after I officially open my eyes.) I'm a slow waker uper and as much as I love my husband helping out, helping out doesn't usually, in this case, include bringing the kids into me BEFORE I've had a good 30 min of wake up time....love you babe! But we are moms, and dads, and our jobs never end. So for our troubles, let's treat ourselves to some clean pumpkin waffles.

enter pumpkin waffles

I initially got the recipe from HERE but since it has 2 cups of white flour, I had to revise. If you don't want them clean, feel free to use the above recipe....I'm sure with the white flour its not a miss. If you want to clean it up, exchange the two cups of white flour her recipe calls for and change it to 2 cups of Whole Wheat flour...thats what I did.

Here is what I learned:

because the wheat flour is more dense, you tend to taste it more than you would white flour. So the next time I make this, I will put in 1 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.

So, follow the recipe above, and change out the flour and add a bit more pumpkin pie spice.

We really enjoyed this recipe today and ate it with a small amount of butter and pure maple syrup. They syrup sweetened it up and gave it the edge it needed!

Now, for the freezer tip:

I'm a big freezer fan. I like to over-make the breakfasts I can so that when I AM in a daze, breakfast can be healthy and easy. Whenever I make waffles or pancakes, I make them as directed then place them on a plate so they can cool. Once they are cooled, I use wax paper and put the wax paper in between layers of waffles/pancakes. Then I put them in a ziploc baggie and get as much air out as possible. I put them in the freezer in a section I have dubbed breakfast (this section also has all my smoothie makings (bananas, spinach, fruit etc)). When I have mornings that I cannot make breakfast from scratch, I usually have something healthy in the freezer that just needs to be popped in the toaster and we are eating in less than 5 min. Perfect if you are Brian Reagan and need to be up and eating and out the door in less than 3 seconds.......and perfect if you don't want pop tarts.

Brian Reagan pop tarts

Enjoy the comedy, I need it this morning!!

Annisa

Muffin top....and muffin bottom

Do you ever have one of those lazy night watching Person of Interest or Elementary (my two drugs of choice currently) and see how "in shape" everyone seems to be? That was me Cira last night.  I vowed that I would get up this morning at 6:45 and work out for a half hour, get spiritually enlightened, and shower, all before thing one and thing two awoke. It all was going as planned until I was drowsily headed off to no mans land when my 2.5 year old woke up with "shadow syndrome"...you know, mommy! I'm scared of shadows. Ok, so I just made that name up but in my book it exists, and exists, and exists...all till 1 am. At that point I knew either I stick to my plan, or I'm nice to my kids today. I chose to be nice. ;)

I lieu of exercise, I knew I had to eat a really healthy but delicious breakfast....enter bran muffins.

Now before you go closing your browser, give me a chance! When I had my first baby, a friend of mine, Allison, brought me over these warm and delicious bran muffins. I was weary, but my man tried them first and before finishing one, said, hey, you need to get this recipe. They were really good and we ate them all. Jump forward nearly 3 years and a drastic change of lifestyle for my family. I had allison re-forward me the recipe and from there I made several revisions until today....I have found the hopefully final version of bran muffins.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce Annisa's Clean Eating Bran Muffins:

I'm really proud of this recipe, and I hope that you enjoy. I even took it to two neighbors today and they both said they loved them. Thanks Whitney and Audrey for being my guinea pigs!!


Annisa's Clean Eating Bran Muffins
Mix and let sit for 3-5 min:
1 1/2 cup All Bran Cereal (try to find a healthy one with no added anything....lol)
1 3/4 cup Skim milk
1 Egg
1/2 cup Coconut oil (melted, but not boiling)
1/3 C honey (if you want these to be more sweet, add more honey, but with that comes more calories and a world of "I should stop eating now...really, and now....") I find that 1/3 c is just right

Add to the cereal mixture:
3/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C Coconut Flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mix the above and put into baking wrappers. This will make about 14-15 good size muffins. I made 12 muffins, and 9 tiny tiny muffins. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 min. Just enough so a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy. I prefer no butter, but feel free to use the raspberry butter recipe on these or regular butter. Enjoy!!!

Butter, anyone?

My appologies for being...well, MIA for several months. I've had quite a summer, you know, moving, putting in a yard, raising kids, organizing my new homw, and sleeping a little somewhere in between all that. It's starting to get a bit cold here, and those of you who don't know me, will soon begin to understand that all I do in the winter, besides hanging out with thing one and thing two is BAKE, and COOK and GET CREATIVE!! So I told my husband a couple nights ago, I wanted to get back to blogging all my great finds. Which leads me to TODAY. Yikes, no more caps, I PROMISE.

This recipe is used for special occasions....big sigh....because its not clean...at all.
Although butter can sometimes be debated as clean or not, we use it here in our house and I feel its ok. The one debatable item here in this recipe is raspberry preserve. Ok, not debatable, its totally unclean, I'm talking high fructose corn syrup not clean. Thats why we don't make it very often, but we enjoy it when I do decide its ok. I found the recipe on Pinterest and you can go to that original post here.

There are several other recipes that call for additional sugar (I know, I was trying not to gag, because this is really sweet as it is. I would never want to add more sugar). In the future, I'm going to get the guts to try the no sugar raspberry preseve, and I'll post my finds on that as well.

I have not been able to duplicate my butter to look like the picture in the post provided, but trust me, when you taste this, it won't matter what it looks like. I'm still working on my photog or phratography skills, as my husband and I always joke. So todays wasn't stellar, but hey, its my first day back, its going to be rough!

This recipe is a huge hit wherever we go, or whomever we invite over, or whatever we put it on. I love to put it on our bran muffins...recipe forthcoming.

We are all smiles here and are looking forward to a great day!

As Ellen would say, "be nice to each other", and I wish the same. Cheers!

Annisa

Superbowl clean foods

CHIPS AND SALSA

I'm really excited for the Superbowl tomorrow. I mean, I hate professional football, but I'm excited to see two brothers coach against each other, and I really like the 49ers. So I'll be glued to the tv one one condition: good clean food to inhale.

Today I'd like to share a recipe that I borrowed from Green Shakes and Giggles. It was very easy to make, and got a standing ovation from my husband, my children, and my brother in law. 

Jacobs Garden Salsa

Recipe HERE

BUT WAIT!!!!!

Before you go making this salsa and not reading the rest of my blog....cause I do it too...I scroll down to the recipe and not read the boring mumbo jumbo of a lot of blogs. (you do it too, don't lie to yourselves....haha) I did make two changes to the recipe. 

1: I added GROUND CUMIN SEED to this recipe. I just love cumin, and to me, salsa isn't salsa without cumin. 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp.

2: I added a touch more jalapeno. Not a whole lot, but the amount in the recipe didn't cut it for us...EVEN after it sat overnight. 

After these two minor changes, the salsa was CONSUMED. I was actually asked to bring this to family dinner tomorrow night. 

NOW.....

What would salsa be without chips?? Here is an easy recipe to make your own chips, and feel like a freakin rockstar! (I can't guarantee people will want you to sign their boobs or anything...but rockstar ENOUGH)

Take a package (or two) of corn tortillas. You can find them pretty much anywhere, but make sure you READ YOUR INGREDIENTS!!!! Find a good compromise, and don't buy them with lots of additives. My rule is LESS than 8 ingredients, and if you can't pronounce the ingredient, DONT FOR THE LOVE BUY IT!  (remember, baby steps....I still have to purchase things that aren't entirely clean...ITS OK! you're not a failure, you're already getting there just by having a DESIRE) 

But I digress....

Package of corn tortillas

cut into wedges

lay out on baking sheet 

Spray olive oil on them ( I had to purchase an oil pump, 20$ at the local spoons and spice and I'm having a hard time thinking of how I would have done the chips without them)

Sea salt-sprinkle over chips

350 degrees for about 10 min...just check them. if they are still soft, let them go a tad more. 

Enjoy your Superbowl!!!!

hummm...us??

I'm a lover of wraps. . . I just am. I love the idea of putting anything I want into a wrap and having every bite taste just how I want it to!! However, eating clean does put a restriction challange into the dressings. But perhaps you can have your wrap and eat it too? Since the demise of putting ranch dressing on just about everything I put into my mouth, I've found a new love and use for HUMMUS. Hummus is great, you can make it bland, spicy, colorful, or well, bland!  I also love hummus for my family and especially kids because it is inexpensive to make, its high in fiber, and has a lot of protein. My kids love dipping things in it, and I don't even care half the time if they just suck the hummus off, because its the hummus I want them to have! Here is my personal favorite hummus recipe.


HUMMUS
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
(I've used the concentrate in a pinch)
2 Tbsp Tahini (recipe to follow)
1 clove of garlic (more if you like the flavor of garlic)
1/2 tsp salt
15 oz can chickpeas, drained and 1/4 c liquid reserved

Add ingredients, incuding the 1/4 c reserved liquid to jar in order listed and blend.
This wont be completely smooth, so blend as you will....you won't get it totally creamy.
This makes about 2 cups

TAHINI
1/4 C Olive Oil
3 C hulled and toasted sesame seeds

Add oil and seeds to jar and blend. You may have to stop and push down the sides of the blender and re-blend.
TO TOAST:
preheat oven to 350 degrees. spread sesame seeds on  pan. Toast seeds for 10-12 min. Stir seeds half way through (so at 5-6 min).

This makes about 2 cups and I keep it in the fridge for 8 weeks. You'll find that you will use the Tahini up in other clean recipes as well...don't fret. I can see the look on your face right now.....

*Recipes were taken from BLENDTEC Fresh Blends cookbook.

HOW I USE HUMMUS:

LUNCH:
I use it in wraps for the dressing. I spread it on the tortilla and then add red or yellow bell peppers, mozz cheese if I wish, spinach, tomatoes, salt and pepper.

My kids will eat the wraps too, but I put deli meat in theirs to keep them going (they love meat)

MID MORNING OR MID AFTERNOON SNACK
I also use it for just dipping vegetables. Its a great snack...you know, since we clean eaters are supposed to eat 6 times a day!

Don't love me for my skills to with lighting....

I think I wrapped this before I had more than spinach in it...not sure why.....yikes.

Eat and be well!!

XOXO

Inagural Post and can I get a shout for smoothies??

Welcome to healthyhearthappysoul!! I've been thinking about doing a blog like this for a little while now, but we all know how it goes....if not, let me help you out:

7:30 wake up to crying baby
7:40 feed crying baby
7:50 attempt in vain to put baby back down to sleep so you can squeeze 20 more min of sleep
8:00 pick baby back up due to nonstop screaming
8:15 2nd baby awakes
8:30 sit down to breakfast
8:45 kids still are waiting on breakfast while watching you run around your kitchen frantically looking for something "healthy to eat"
9:00 still waiting on breakfast all the while asking yourself, can kids eat this for breakfast??

Sound familiar? perhaps you are a little more on top of things than I? Well, if this sounds like something  you would do, or have ever done, this blog is for you!

I've recently begun the conversion to Clean Eating. You can find information on clean eating here. I stumbled upon this way of eating after trying for 4 years to have children and finally being told by an OBGYN that children just weren't in the cards for us. I refused to believe this! we exercised, ate "healthy" (I used to use this term in place of not being overweight....I wasnt very smart) and there was no family history of infertility. A neighbor gave me a book called pH Balance (purchase herethat she loved...thus my eyes were opened to a whole new world! After jumping on board with this way of eating, we were pregnant within 2 months. NOW, not everyone's experience will be the same. After further research, it was my hormones that were stopping me from conceivng. Once I cleaned the crap  processed foods out of my body, my hormones were able to get back in line and boom! two babies in a year!

As I don't like the idea (yet at least) of cutting out dairy and wheat and fruit from my diet, I love the idea of eating a more "from the ground" type of diet and my love of clean eating was born. So I guess you could say 3 BABIES in one year...or not. haha

I want everyone who comes across this blog to feel comfortable. Some blogs are so hard core and gungho, that I feel like I'll never be that good, or I'm not good enough to comment, or if I do comment, I think I'll look like a doof. NEVER ON THIS BLOG WILL YOU FEEL THAT WAY! I'm just starting my conversion so guess what, there are still processed foods in my pantry!!! WHAT, WHATS THAT YOU SAY?? yes, I have a hard time wasting food, so I've thrown out anything with high fructose corn syrup, and many things like that, but I will use what I have and continue to replace all my pantry items as I go. I wish I had a million dollars to just go out and buy EVERYTHING I need, but you know what? Im learning a LOT, like A LOT A LOT about the foods in my pantry as I read labels and throw away. Its good motivation on a daily basis. So hang in there, you don't need a pantry full of nuts and seeds and wheat to be good at this. I PROMISE. Step by step, day by day.....we'll get there!

Here are a couple of Green smoothies to kick things off for you.

How I use green smoothies in my life:
Breakfast
For me AND the kids
They are fast and easy to mix up and PACKED with nutrients. You can also pre-package your green smoothies and freeze them (only suggested if you own a Blendtec or vitamix that can handle lots of frozen foods) or just buy large quantities of Spinach and bananas and freeze those two things.
Mid morning or Mid afternoon snack
After dinner as a treat (make a sweeter version if you are used to dessert every night. There are lots of fruit smoothies you can make or some with greek yogurt that are yum.

Peach green Smoothie HERE
Non green peach Smoothie HERE

Also, I've since stopped using yoplait yogurt and I'm all greek now...if you need vanilla flavoring in yogurt, just use greek yogurt, and a small amount of vanilla extract. about 1tsp to 1 cup yogurt.

ENJOY!