Paleo Banana Almond Butter Chocolate Muffins

@happilyeverastor on instagram

@happilyeverastor on instagram

What’s better than muffins? Paleo muffins! This recipe is super simple to make and is so delicious! As for as the popularity goes, this is definitely a crowd favorite!

Ingredients:

• 3 medium overripe bananas
• 4 eggs
• 3 tbsp light agave syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/2 cup coconut flour; sifted
• 1/4 almond meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 4 oz 70% cacao chocolate bits

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In one small bowl, mix all dry ingredients (coconut flour sifted, almond meal, baking soda/powder, salt).
3. In a medium bowl add your mashed bananas, eggs, agave, vanilla extract, and almond butter. Whisk until smooth.
4. Slowly add in your dry ingredients (mixture should be slightly thick but definitely not a dough).
5. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Enjoy!

Make sure to share this post with friends, family, or just anyone that you think would enjoy this recipe!

– Astor

Paleo Veggie Chicken Soup

@happilyeverastor on instagram

Although flu season is out the door, the sniffles still remain. To help cope with my stuffy nose and sore throat, I made this 100% paleo veggie chicken soup from scratch! The broth is so delicious and pairs perfectly with these veggies. The secret is to sauté the veggies first until nice and soft and then to add that mix to the broth. Here’s how to make this amazing soup:

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 3 bell peppers (whatever color you prefer)
• 1 zucchini (outer skin peeled into zoodles, rest chopped up)
• 2 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1.5 tsp cajun
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• basil
• orgeano
• sprinkle of salt and pepper
• 1/2 – 1 tbsp olive oil to sauté veggies

Directions:

1. Bring 8 cups of water to a boil, cool chicken entirely and season with salt
2. Cut up cooked breasts and begin broth (or you may store and cool broth for later)
3. Heat up 1/2-1 tbsp of olive oil in medium sauce pan and add all chopped veggies
4. Sauté with all spices until veggies are very soft/border line mush
5. Add veggie mix to broth and simmer for at least 1 hour
6. Add chicken and optionally kidney beans and enjoy!

**This recipe can serve about 4 people depending on serving size**

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Baked Paleo Chicken Nuggets

Adult, teenager, or kid, chicken nuggets are an essential. However, after switching to a Paleo-Based diet, it can be difficult and expensive to find chicken nuggets that are gluten/grain free. So, here are my current favorite baked paleo chicken nuggets that are both easy and simple to make!

Ingredients:

• 1 thawed chicken breast
• 1 cup almond meal
• 2-3 tbsp canjun
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• pinches of salt and black pepper
• egg whites/eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2. Cut your thawed chicken breast into about 1-1.5 inch cubes
3. Dip your chicken cubes into egg whites to get it fully coated, shake off excess
   1. **Make sure to get as much excess egg white off to prevent soggy breading!
4. Generously coat your chicken cubes with breading, you can double bread if you want
5. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cook for 10-12 minutes
   1. **store in an airtight container and enjoy cold, or rebake them in a toaster oven/oven on fan bake at 350 degrees F for a few minutes!

Chocolate Paleo Zucchini Brownies

 

Credit: Astor Wu

Credit: Astor Wu

After testing multiple paleo-friendly brownie recipes, I’VE FINALLY FOUND THE BEST ONE. These Dark Chocolate Zucchini Brownies are creamy, moist and super chocolatey! They are kind of a hybrid between chocolate muffins and brownies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cashew butter (or almond butter)
• 2 medium zucchini finely grated (skin too)
• 1/3 cup of honey
• 1 large egg
• Splash of vanilla extract (or 1 tsp pure vanilla powder)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp of cinnamon (or more)
• 1/2 3 oz. dark chocolate bar (1/2 melted and 1/2 chopped up)
  • melt with 1/2 tsp of coconut oil to help melt easier and smoother

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease your muffin tin with coconut oil.
2. Mix all ingredients into one bowl. Simple right? Let’s not forget easy clean up as well!
3. Note: This batter rises very little after being baked, so, feel free to fill the tin to the top so you get a “muffin top” and your brownies are nice and fluffy.
4. Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean (keep in mind that there are chocolate bits in the batter, so know the different between a toothpick covered in raw batter and a toothpick covered in melted chocolate!).
5. Enjoy!

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Foods You Should and Shouldn’t Buy Organic

While roaming the produce aisles in the grocery store, it’s hard to not be overwhelmed with the variety of types of produce you can buy. Words like organic, farm-raised, antibiotic free, etc. can be truly scary. Today we will be covering the world of organic fruits/vegetables and what you really need to be buying organic!

The upside of buying organic is your produce will be mainly free of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and dyes. Sounds good, right? The downside of organic produce is the price tag. Grocery stores tend to majorly bump up the price on locally grown and organic produce, which makes it very difficult to buy all your foods organic (especially on a budget!). After some research here is what you really should and shouldn’t buy organic!

⇒ High Water Content Foods ⇐

The reason you want to buy organic when it comes to fruits and vegetables like apples, potatoes, peaches, tomatoes, etc. is because these foods tend to be higher in pesticides. For a list of high water content foods click here.

⇒ Leafy Greens ⇐

If I were to stress one category of fruits/vegetables the most, it would be this one. Due to having a large surface area, leafy greens are much more prone to carry many pesticides. So, make sure to start buying your spinach, lettuces, kale, herbs, etc. organic.

⇒ Peel-Free Produce ⇐

I personally tend to buy fruits and vegetables organic that don’t have an outer skin or that aren’t peeled when eaten. This is because when pesticides stick to the outside of a food, it is difficult to wash them off. So, I tend to buy fruits like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes and vegetables like bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes organic.

DO NOT BUY ORGANIC: avocados, pineapples, onions, mangos, kiwis, etc.

Why? These foods have a thicker outer skin, which, as I said above, prevent pesticides from contaminating the goodness inside.

I hope this list helps you save both stress and money at the grocery store! Make sure to subscribe and share this post with friends and family!

Healthy Banana Avocado Brownies

Don’t judge a book by its cover. I know, trust me the name sounds gross. But, please try these and take a look at my video of these chocolately brownies before shutting them down. If you’re up for the challenge here’s the recipe:

• Ingredients
  • 2 ripe bananas; mashed
  • 1 avocado; mashed
  • 1 cup almond meal
  • 1/2 cup raw cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt
  • dashes of almond milk
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • dark chocolate nibs
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

• Directions
  • Preheat oven to 375°F
  • In a large bowl, mash bananas and avocados
  • Add almond meal, cocoa powder, sugar and baking soda
  • Add yogurt and milk to thin batter
  • Fold in dark chocolate nibs and honey
  • Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean

WATCH HOW TO MAKE TUTORIAL HERE!

Seven Sick Day Remedies You Need

This past week, I caught quite a nasty cold, pulling me out of school for multiple days. In efforts to help you and others fight off the cold season, here are seven amazing home remedies that helped me get back on my feet.

• Chicken “Noodle” Soup
  • There is nothing better than the feeling of eating hot chicken noodle soup when feeling congested. The reason I put noodles in quotation marks is because in my family, we don’t eat our chicken soup with noodles, we eat it with rice. Personally, I like to eat it with brown rice over white rice because of its more chewy texture and it never fails to soothe my sore throat.

• Sleep
  • Please know your body and listen to it. As painful and stressful it may sound to some (including me), cutting out the hours of homework/work at night sounds like a horrible idea. But, trust me, let your body rest. Talk to your teachers if you need extensions and don’t stress over getting every inch of studying and homework done. You will only make your body worse.

• Cut Out Physical Activity
  • This is sometime I unfortunately learned the hard way. Of course, as the heath nut I am, last week when I was beginning to get sick, I decided that if I go running, maybe I can work off my sickness and feel refreshed. WRONG. Please don’t ever do this to yourself. My chest got tight, I was coughing and now a week later, I’m even more sick. This goes hand in hand with knowing your body and not worrying about missing out on some obligations (ex. sports practice). The quicker you let yourself truly rest, the quicker you can get better and catch up on those responsibilities.

• Hot Towels
  • This is definitely one of my favorites on this entire list. Hot towels are pretty self explanatory, but here is how to make them. Turn your sink on to a fairly hot temperature and soak a small, clean hand towel in the hot water. Then squeeze a majority of the water so the towel doesn’t drip and place the towel over your face to open your nasal congestion and help relax your sinuses.

• Orange Juice
  • Vitamin C is going to be your best friend during these sick days. As you likely know, vitamin C helps boost your immune system to fight off that cold. If you get sick on chugging down orange juice, try mixing it into your morning smoothie to get your fix on vitamin C in a more versatile and delicious way.

• Saline Spray
  • My least favorite part of being sick is probably the horrible clogged nose and the never ending running. To help with clogging and dryness for blowing and wiping so much, try a saline spray. Here is the one I used.

• DayQuil + NyQuil
  • When you have a million obligations but are sick, sometimes you need to fake your body out into thinking you are okay. It sounds bad (it kind of is), but when you have homework, work, etc. sometimes you have to fight on and drug up on cold medicines. I used DayQuil to help with my congestion and running nose at school, and NyQuil to help me get a full night’s rest and quality sleep.