"Riced" Cauliflower

More nutritious than rice X100! You can find the original recipe here.

A BETTER Almond Pancake Recipe!

This morning's breakfast was absolutely delicious as you can see in the photo! The last time I made pancakes, although it was a Maximized Living recipe, I felt it could be better. Then my chiropractor told me about Kimberly Roberto's blog. Kimberly is the co-author of the Maximized Living Nutrition Plans book. Her recipes are categorized extremely well and so far I like her recipes better than some of the recipes in the actual book. 


Here is the recipe for these almond pancakes which taste a little bit like a cookie! Remember.... no pancake syrup, maple syrup, or agave nectar can be poured on top. I simply tossed some wild blueberries on top of mine. EXTREMELY delicious and.... gluten-free! I didn't have almond meal at the time so I used almond flour.

• 1/2 cup ground almonds (or storebought almond meal)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons xylitol (or use stevia to taste)
• 1 organic egg
• 4 additional organic egg whites
• butter

Mix almonds, baking powder, cinnamon, baking powder, xylitol, and egg.  In a seperate bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks.  Fold egg whites into the almond mixture.  Heat a non-toxic skillet (no teflon!), add a pat or two of butter.  Drop batter into hot pan to size you prefer – silver dollar size to CD size.  When browning occurs around the edges flip and cook the other side.

Original recipe can be found here.

INSPIRED TIP: Be sure to beat the egg whites for quite a while before adding them to the mixture.

Wonderful Weekend Grainless Pancakes

Grainless Pancakes 

Pancakes - a real weekend treat, right?! This morning I decided to make the Grainless Pancake recipe from the Maximized Living nutritional plan book. On the ML plan there is no sugar of any kind so what the heck do you have with pancakes in place of maple syrup? Got me stumped so off to the fridge I go. I ended up throwing a few organic raspberries in a bowl, mushing them with a fork, and adding half a teaspoon of coconut milk and a teaspoon of Xylitol. I used this spread sparingly over the pancakes and as small as these pancakes were, I could only eat 2! That's the thing about Maximized Living: the food not only fuels you, it fills you up which means no hunger between meals. That's what sucks about DIETS right? The hunger.

Leftover Pancake Batter

I doubled the recipe which gave me enough batter for another 2 breakfasts, and I stored it in the fridge. This all a part of my scheme to be super "food organized" mwahhh ha ha! I have to tell you, the pancake recipe in the book doesn't look as good as the one on the Maximized Living website. I think that this is a better recipe: Almond Meal Pancakes. There have been several recipes in the book I have prepared now that I found the online version much more preferable. Another one of those is the Chocolate Almond Protein Bars: use the recipe online, not the one in the book. I will be making another batch of these bars today and will post photos :)

SUCCESS: When Preparation Meets Opportunity

I'm sure you've heard it that quote about "success" before. It's not luck when someone is successful at what they do - it's because they did what was necessary while waiting for the right opportunity to arrive. I apply this principle to my business and personal life so why would it be any different with my Maximized Living nutritional plan? I would like to share with you a few simple preparation techniques and tips that I incorporate into my daily living to ensure that I will experience health and wellness success!

• Wash, cut, and store food in advance. I know this sounds terribly simple but how many of us do it? Before putting your groceries away, place on the counter anything you know you can wash, separate, and store right then and there. Do it right now. I wash, cut, and store as many fruits and vegetables as I can for the week ahead. Some go to the fridge and some are headed for the freezer as an ingredient for smoothies.

• Prepare, prepare, prepare! Even when it comes to the simple things like pouring your coconut milk (which is a constituent of many of the Maximized Living recipes) in a glass jar in the fridge. Pour your organic coconut milk in a Mason jar with enough room to shake like the one here in my fridge, and when you need 3 tablespoons or half a cup for a smoothie, it's readily available (and cold!). You will see that I have Mason jars for just about everything. What I did in advance for this week was (from left to right): make trail mix; bottle organic coconut milk; make green pomegranate tea to add to water several times a day; and make my own Maximized Living granola. Green tea has many health benefits and drinking it cold in the summer is an easy way to consume and reap the benefits! For this particular jar of iced tea I added 2 teaspoons of Xylitol (optional). I can't say it added enough sweetness to make it worth adding to be honest.

• Make recipes ahead of time, especially snacks! I make sure that I am prepared for emergencies - those times when you're running out for a meeting and don't have time to prepare food. Sometimes, a snack has to replace a meal so have some Chocolate Almond Protein Bars and trail mix ready to throw in your briefcase or purse! When I make these protein bars I divide them up in groups of 6-8, wrap them in parchment paper, and then place them in a snack size ziplock bag. I put them in the freezer and every few days I take a little snack-size baggie of them out of the freezer and transfer them to the fridge. If I'm on the run - I grab a baggie and I'm off! This means my diet doesn't suffer and I have fuel for the next few hours. Sugar-free, packed with protein........ YummO! Even my young grandchildren love these bars!

Refreshing Lavender Lemonade

I made this last night as a nice treat for the weekend. It chilled overnight, I tried it this morning and ohhhh soooo refreshing!

• 8 cups filtered water
• 2 tsp spoonable stevia (I used Xylitol)
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/8 cup dried lavender (or 1/4 cup fresh lavender flowers)
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice (I juiced my own with organic lemons)
• lemon slices or blueberries (optional)

Combine 4 cups of water, stevia, lavender, and lemon zest in a pan.  Bring to a boil and simmer until water turns a light shade of pink - about 10 minutes.  Strain sauce and discard flowers.  Pour into a pitcher and add the lemon juice and remaining water.  Serve over ice with lemon slices or blueberries.

Inspired Tip: Definitely use organic lemons for this one and freshly squeeze or juice the lemons. It makes ALL of the difference in the taste.

Choco-nut Mint Smoooothie

• 1/2 can whole coconut milk (canned)
• 1 Scoop chocolate whey protein (I use the Harmonized Protein from Maximized Living)
• 1 scoop greens powder (Greens +, anything with lots of greens!)
• 5 drops unsweetened, no preservative mint extract
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 1 tsp organic raw cacao nibs
• lots of ice!!!

Blend and ... enjoy! 


Inspired Tip: Either add crushed ice in the blender or pour over LOTS of ice because remember, your liquid (coconut milk) is not coming out of the fridge so you need the freeze factor to be added manually :)

Caribbean Chicken

I can't believe how simple the Maximized Living recipes are. Seriously! This recipe has only a few ingredients and I had enough for 3 days :)  YUMMO! I made a variation of this recipe by adding avocado and sweet potato chunks (photo on left). The lighting makes it look green but it's not - it's the same colour orange as the photo on the right without the sweet potato and avocado. Sweet potatoes are for the core program only - I bought one without realizing this (I'm hard-core advanced program). I will eat it this one recipe and then no more yams for a couple of months :)

Inspired Tip:  Serve over a mixture of lightly pan-fried veggies OR put it in a whole grain, gluten-free wrap to take for lunch.