Happy weekend everyone!

I wanted to bring back my “Reading Nook” series. I can’t believe I haven’t done one since November! The Reading Nook is all about showing you guys books, articles, recipes and just general stuff I’ve found interesting or inspiring recently. Hopefully if you are here reading this blog (and have gotten this far into the post) you have similar tastes to me and will find them interesting too!

1. The Happiness Project 

This book was so fun to read and given my current state of mind, I found it to be incredible insightful and inspirational. It’s all about making small changes to bring about an increase in happiness for yourself and those around you. I can’t wait to start implementing some of her ideas and start my own Happiness Project.

2. A Smart Woman’s Guide to Hormones

This book is a fantastic resource for an woman, regardless of age who is struggling with hormonal imbalances. While the fact that I was reading this book got a lot of laughs from a few male friends (cue the PMS jokes!) but it’s seriously about so much more than that. I know I took a lot from it and this every woman should own a copy. Lorna Vanderhaeghe is an expert in her field (and Canadian!) and I seriously admire her and all her work.

3. Firming and Softened DIY Body Scrub from Pure Ella

This awesome DIY scrub comes from the lovely Ella at Pure Ella. Not only does it justify making a pot of coffee (;o)) but it has amazing health and beauty benefits, just in time for skirt and shorts weather!

I made it the other day and it smells AMAZING. Forget drinking coffee in the morning, this will perk you right up! I've also used it a couple times and my skin is so soft already!

4. Five Mental Habits that Steal Years from your Life from Natural News

A great article about why we need to kick negative thinking and thoughts in the pants! We all know worrying and self-critique gets us no where, but did you know that it contributes to chronic stress which seriously reduces your life span and risk of disease and illness? Let’s all try and replace the bad with good!

5. Find Your Yoga Style Infographic from Mind Body Green

With so many yoga styles out there, it can get confusing. This is a great infographic to help you target the classes that will help achieve your own goals and suit your mood! Click the link or picture for a larger version.

Enjoy your weekends everyone! 

Wow this week flew by! I mean I know it was a short week with the long weekend and all but still!

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Vegan Friday!

We had 48 delicious submissions last week! In case you haven’t seen the post or all the awesome submissions, head on over to check it out.

For those of you who don’t know, Healthy Vegan Fridays is a weekly blog hop hosted by myself, Carrie @ Carrie on Vegan and Katherine @ Green Thickies. it is a place to share your healthy vegan recipes that make use of whole ingredients and minimize the use of processed and refined foods. The recipes shared on this link up are intended to emphasis the beauty, creativity and benefits of a healthy, plant-based diet!

First though a recap of last week:

Most Popular Submissions

Drink This Lose Weight from Judee @ Gluten Free A-Z

In this post, Judee discusses a recipe for a detox drink that uses some seriously awesome ingredients like apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and cinnamon! Helps to balance blood sugar too!

Flourless Dark Chocolate Brownies from Tessa @ Tessa the Domestic Diva

Black bean brownies that look insanely delicious- I have yet to find my perfect recipe so will have to try this one!

Vegan Budget Project: Shame of Week 9 from Chastity @ My Healthy Chef

Keep learning budgeting tricks in this edition of Chastity’s Budget project!

My Top Picks

Favourite Sipper: Sunshine Juice from Heather @ Gluten Free Cat

If I had a juicer, you can bet I’d be making this- it’s like grown-up orange juice with golden beets, carrots, ginger and of course, oranges!

Favourite Main Event: Mushroom Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers from Davida @ Healthy Maven

The flavours in these sounds fantastic- tahini and mustard, yes please! Oh and the mushroom and sweet potato aren’t too bad either ;)

Favourite Indulgence: Raw Strawberry Cream Tart from Janet @ the taste space

Just look how pretty this tart is!! So stunning for summer and no added-sweetener!

Now for Healthy Vegan Friday #44!

My Submission for the Week:

Raw Coconut Lime Layered Bars

Perfect for when it’s far to hot to turn on the oven. These raw treats come together really quickly and are packed with healthy fats and very little sweetener!

And just a quick request- PLEASE put a LINK BACK to this blog party on the post you are linking. We want to try and spread the word about Healthy Vegan Friday and would really appreciate your help doing so!

So, if you have a healthy vegan recipe (or 2) to share, please add it to the list below! If not, feel free to browse the submissions and get inspired! You can also check out our Facebook page,Pinterest board and feel free to tweet about it using the hashtag #VeganFridays. Feel free to grab our button (code is on the sidebar) to help promote this even and show your vegan pride.

You don’t have to be vegan to submit, just needs to be a vegan recipe. so share that creativity of yours!

Thanks and happy Friday!

Submission Guidelines

• maximum of 2 submissions per week

• you do not have to be a vegan food blogger to link up, but all recipes must be 100% vegan.

• all recipe submissions should focus on the most whole, unprocessed and unrefined ingredients as much as possible, although we will still accept recipes that make use of some processed/refined ingredients.

• you may submit current or past recipes, just make sure they are not ones that you have shared previously on this blog hop.

• besides recipes, feel free to submit informative posts that are aimed at promoting vegan, plant-based diets.

• you must provide a link back to this blog party on your submitted post. You can either grab our badge to display or a clickable link back somewhere on the post you are submitting.

• when linking up, please make sure to link back to the post you are submitting, not the homepage of your blog

Legal Disclaimer

By linking up to Healthy Vegan Fridays, you guarantee that the pictures and posts are your own and not that of someone else. You also agree to give permission to all hostesses (Gabby, Katherine and Carrie) to make use of your pictures and posts on our own Healthy Vegan Friday posts, as well as giving us permission to re-post them on Pinterest, Twitter and/or Facebook.

Hello my lovely veggies! Thank you all so much for all your votes in the Vegan Recipe Challenge! I came in 3rd and that was way more than I was hoping for!

It’s been a busy week around here- I'm so sorry to my fellow bloggers whose blogs I've been neglecting. I am trying the best I can to catch up and will read every one of your wonderful words. But I’m back and eager to share a ton of stuff with you! You can expect some delicious food coming up on the blog!

I’ve been playing around with my diet again, trying to come up with a combination that helps my tummy feel it’s best. For those of you who are new readers, I’ve suffered from very uncomfortable digestion for years and I’m on a quest to correct it! Read this post for a few things that I’ve found helpful recently.

So in playing around with my diet, one thing I’ve done is cut out grains. I know, crazy right? It’s something I never thought I would do and I always thought that “paleo inclined” eaters were insane! What do they do without quinoa? Fresh baked goods? No sushi? No BREAD?

turns out you just need to find the right kind of baked goods!

Just goes to show you the lengths I’m willing to go to fix this problem. And it actually hasn’t been too bad! I don’t really miss them the way I thought I would (except when out at restaurants- even harder to find options now!) and I do think it is helping.

You see, due to the make-up of grains, people with delicate digestive systems often find them aggravating. The carbohydrate content of the grain is primarily made up of starches as well as some sugars that require extra steps to digest. If you are unable to digest them properly due to a weak system, we are left with undigested fragments that are then used to feed the no-so-good bacteria in our system. This can lead to an overgrowth of harmful bacteria and a crowding out of the good guys. The bad guys can also begin to produce toxic substances that can damage our intestinal lining, leading to something called leaky gut. And what leaky gut basically means is that the tight junctions between your intestinal cells become “loose” due to damage and now undigested proteins and particles can make their way into your bloodstream and cause inflammation, allergic responses and general havoc! All in all, not a pretty picture for proper digestion.

So through cutting them out, I’m hoping to further help to heal my digestive system. I by no means think this will be a permanent move for me, but I will continue with it for as long as I feel I need to.

Now, one of the upsides to this dietary change is that I get to experiment in the kitchen! Grain-free baking was really daunting to me, but my recent success with my berry crisp and now these muffins is making me feel like all that fear was unwarranted. Now I can say I LOVE grain-free baking!

I love that when you bake with nut meals and coconut flour, there is a ton of natural sweetness and healthy fats in there- meaning you can use less added oil and sweetener! Not only that, nut meals and coconut flour are so healthy! Lots of healthy fats and fibre! While they are not exactly low in calories, you’ll find that you are wonderfully satisfied after a small portion.

Like take these muffins. They certainly are not light bites. BUT they are filling, nutritious and delicious. And they surprisingly don’t feel heavy- they have a wonderful crumb that would satisfy the most traditional baker. I hope you all try them- I’m certain you’ll love them!

Grain-Free Carrot and Zucchini Muffins (Vegan, Gluten-free, Sugar-Free, Paleo, SCD)

Adapted from these at Amazing Paleo.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease with coconut oil or line a 12 muffin pan.

Mix all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix your applesauce, honey, coconut oil, vanilla and cinnamon. In a final small bowl, whisk together the 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, water, baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Now add the applesauce mixture to your dry ingredients and combine well. Now add in the coconut oil and baking soda mixture. Finally, mix in the carrot, zucchini and raisins.

Spoon the batter evenly into your muffin pan. You want to do this fast since you want to make sure the baking soda and vinegar will still be reacting to give some lift in the oven. Bake for 35min, or until tops are browned and a knife inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Friday is here, and I’m especially excited because it’s actually a weekend for me! And a long weekend at that! Yes my friends, I get to spend the May long weekend happily not working with family. Both sets of grandparents are celebrating 60th wedding anniversaries (holy geez eh?) so my parents and I are travelling to each sides for a little celebrating! It’ll be nice to get out of Toronto for a couple days!

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Vegan Friday!

We had 52 delicious submissions last week! In case you haven’t seen the post or all the awesome submissions, head on over to check it out.

For those of you who don’t know, Healthy Vegan Fridays is a weekly blog hop hosted by myself, Carrie @ Carrie on Vegan and Katherine @ Green Thickies. it is a place to share your healthy vegan recipes that make use of whole ingredients and minimize the use of processed and refined foods. The recipes shared on this link up are intended to emphasis the beauty, creativity and benefits of a healthy, plant-based diet!

First though a recap of last week:

Most Popular Submissions

My Top 10 Tips for Eating Healthy from Chastity @ My Healthy Chef

Another good post from Chastity with some simple but important tips to help you on the road to eating healthfully, easily!

Enlightened Carrot Cake from Amber @ Chef Amber Shea

I have been drooling over this one since Amber posted it- an actual grain-free, nut-free, low-fat, low-calorie raw cake. Insanity! And it looks delicious to boot.

Superfood Cups from Heather @ Sweetly Raw

Dessert cups with loads of superfoods packed in- lucuma, maca, mesquite, oh my!

My Top Picks

Favourite Cravable Salad: Kale Waldorf Salad from Jodi @ Purely Nourished

Just can’t have too many kale recipes, and this salad with the apple and the mustard dressing sounds amazing!

Favourite Main Event: Braised Tempeh with Green Beans in Sesame Sauce from Janet @ the taste space

Hard to deny anything covered in a rich, creamy tahini sauce isn’t it?

Favourite Indulgence: Grain-Free Ginger & Lemon Tar in a Glass from Vicky @ Gluten Free SCD and Veggie

A delicious parfait that sounds perfect for spring and it looks so pretty!

Now for Healthy Vegan Friday #42!

My Submission for the Week:

Sprouted Grain Cereal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Making the most of a store-bought cereal for some seriously delicious crispy on the outside but soft on the inside cookies. My favourite cookie recipe yet!

And finally before you go….

If you could all head over to Ethical Ocean and vote for my Raw Chocolate-Coated Key Lime Pie, in the Eat What’s Good Vegan Recipe Contest, that would be amazing!. You can vote everyday so even if you voted once I would sure appreciate a second (or third, or tenth!). Thanks!

And just a quick request- PLEASE put a LINK BACK to this blog party on the post you are linking. We want to try and spread the word about Healthy Vegan Friday and would really appreciate your help doing so!

So, if you have a healthy vegan recipe (or 2) to share, please add it to the list below! If not, feel free to browse the submissions and get inspired! You can also check out our Facebook page,Pinterest board and feel free to tweet about it using the hashtag #VeganFridays. Feel free to grab our button (code is on the sidebar) to help promote this even and show your vegan pride.

You don’t have to be vegan to submit, just needs to be a vegan recipe. so share that creativity of yours!

Thanks and happy Friday!

Submission Guidelines

• maximum of 2 submissions per week

• you do not have to be a vegan food blogger to link up, but all recipes must be 100% vegan.

• all recipe submissions should focus on the most whole, unprocessed and unrefined ingredients as much as possible, although we will still accept recipes that make use of some processed/refined ingredients.

• you may submit current or past recipes, just make sure they are not ones that you have shared previously on this blog hop.

• besides recipes, feel free to submit informative posts that are aimed at promoting vegan, plant-based diets.

• you must provide a link back to this blog party on your submitted post. You can either grab our badge to display or a clickable link back somewhere on the post you are submitting.

• when linking up, please make sure to link back to the post you are submitting, not the homepage of your blog

Legal Disclaimer

By linking up to Healthy Vegan Fridays, you guarantee that the pictures and posts are your own and not that of someone else. You also agree to give permission to all hostesses (Gabby, Katherine and Carrie) to make use of your pictures and posts on our own Healthy Vegan Friday posts, as well as giving us permission to re-post them on Pinterest, Twitter and/or Facebook.