'Energy All Day' Home Made Granola

How you feel throughout the day is directly impacted by what you eat in the morning. Are you eating a morning meal that steadily fuels you? OR do you climb onto the sugar roller coaster?

I am going to hit you where it really hurts and tell you that during peri-menopause, because your hormones estrogen and progesterone are diminishing, the cells of your body become less receptive to insulin and the sugar that is in your diet becomes responsible for your midlife muffin top.

Many of us spike our blood sugar levels first thing in the morning, with boxed cereals, jam toast, pastries, drive through breakfasts and coffee. Yes coffee. The caffeine in your daily joe actually kicks your body into “fight or flight” which gives us a brain buzz we love, but also floods our bloodstream with glucose.

Those of us sipping lattes and flavoured coffees are also spiking our blood sugar levels with the milk sugar, lactose. When are hormones are causing our cells to lose their sensitivity to glucose in the bloodstream, this leaves us vulnerable to energy crashes, mood swings and that hangry bitch mode later in the day.

When we flood our system with too much sugar on a daily basis and the hormones estrogen and progesterone are no longer initiating insulin sensitivity in peri-menopause, our body will eventually become insulin resistant. This is when the cells of the body do not respond to the hormone insulin, released from your pancreas which is poured into the blood stream to encourage each and every cell in the body to absorb its share of sugar and to protect the veins and arteries of the cardiovascular system from sugar damage.

The trick to balancing blood sugar levels all day and avoiding energy spikes and crashes, is to eat a nutrition dense healthy breakfast. Eating a breakfast that is rich in fibre, healthy fat and protein impacts your body positively in four important ways.
1. Jumpstarts your metabolism, the body’s internal furnace.
2. Reduces anxiety. The brain will de-stress when it’s been fuelled.
3. Increases cognitive functioning and mental accuracy throughout the morning.
4. Improves mood. Breakfast sets the bar for blood sugar levels throughout the day. 5. Initiate metabolism so that the thyroid gland can ‘rest’.

Look at this bowl of goodness!
Nuts and seeds are rich in minerals that support our thyroid health and are involved in hundreds of tiny chemical reactions within our cells on a daily basis.

Slow burn carbs support our energy levels throughout the day and also help midlife women to burn fat and maintain a joyful mood daily. We need our carbs ladies, just the real food, slow-burn ones that don’t put us back on the sugar roller coaster.

This granola recipe is packed with flavour as it contains the spices cinnamon and cloves. Cinnamon supports the body to become more sensitive to insulin so that you can balance your blood sugar better and both spices are helpful in maintaining the balance of the microbiome.

Serve with berries and yoghurt, milk or a milk substitute.

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats 

1 cups crispy brown rice cereal

1/4 cup sunflower seeds 

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

3/4 cups shredded unsweetened coconut 

1/4 cup sliced almonds 

1/4 cup walnuts (or whatever other nuts you like)

1 Tbsp ground Cinnamon 

1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves

1/3 cup coconut oil 

1/3 cup (real) maple syrup 

Instructions

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside

In a small bowl melt the coconut oil and maple syrup together

Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix until well coated

Spread evenly on one or two baking sheet s so that the ingredients are spread evenly.

Bake at 250 for 60 minutes or until golden. (I got a little impatient and turned it up to 300 or maybe even 350 at one point. Just keep stirring it every few minutes so the bottom doesn’t burn

Let cool and store in a container.

If like a breakfast that helps you to balance your blood sugar levels but tastes like a dessert, you might like this Turmeric and Honey Oatmeal. You can find the recipe here.

Sweet Kale and Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Dressing

I think that we can officially say that it is the start of summer when I hit publish on this recipe!

Baby kale has never tasted so sweet and delicious as when paired with strawberries and tossed in a honeyed balsamic vinegar dressing.

Packed with vitamin C from the berries, immune boosting zinc from pumpkin seeds, antioxidants in the berries and kale, and the mineral dense nutrition of leafy greens that provides our bodies with iron, our relaxation mineral magnesium and easily absorbed calcium for strong bones.

Did you know that the most healthful source of calcium in our diet is leafy greens such as kale?

The calcium in leafy greens is more bioavailable to our bodies, which means it is not ‘bound up’ in the food source and can be more easily absorbed and utilized, unlike dairy based calcium.

…And then there is the food group in which the majority of us are deficient and that is fibre. This dish is fibre rich!

Start with the dressing lady and throw those ingredients into a large salad bowl.

Give them a whisk to combine and then in with the four elements of the salad. Leaves, berries, seeds and onion.

The real star of this salad is the spicy warmth of the copious black pepper ground straight into the bowl and bringing out more of the sweetness of the seasonal strawberries. Black pepper, balsamic vinegar and strawberries are great flavour friends together.

With so much beauty in one bowl and only taking 10 minutes to make, this salad is going to be on rotation all summer long.

Ingredients

4tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

2tbsp balsamic vinegar

2tsp local honey

1 small clove garlic minced

1/2 tbsp black pepper

I box baby kale or large bunch of kale finely chopped

1 punnet of fresh strawberries

1/2 red onion finely diced

1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds

Instructions

Add all the dressing ingredients into a large salad bowl and whisk vigorously to combine.

Add the pumpkin seeds, finely chopped onion and kale leaves. Slice the strawberries into the bowl.

Using your hands gently combine all the ingredients being sure not to bruise the delicate berries.

Share with family and friends at your next summer barbecue.

Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Sometimes in life we just need a sweet treat, a chocolate fix and to spoil ourselves

When it comes to sweet treats, I take the same approach as I do to all the other food I eat; I am actively building my health and so how can I add in more nutrition?

These Chocolate Zucchini Muffins are easy on our digestion because they are gluten and wheat free.

Instead of empty calories from refined carbs almond flour provides us with protein, vitamin E, antioxidant rich healthy fats and fibre.Raw cacao is packed with magnesium, our relaxation mineral, iron and anti-oxidants. Cacao also boosts the level of our feel good neurotransmitter, serotonin in our brains. Yes! it is true, chocolate makes us feel happy! Trust your body ladies.

In place of blood sugar spiking refined sugar, these muffins are sweetened with maple syrup which contains the B group fo vitamins to support our nervous system and boost our energy. Maple syrup is also rich in chromium which helps the body to process sugar in our diet. Nature is smart that way.

Olive oil is rich in heart healthy mono-saturated fats which help to prevent atherosclerosis and eggs further boost the protein value of this muffin.

But the absolute beauty of this recipe is the addition of zucchini.

Every sweet treat should contain a vegetable!

Here in North America and Canada the majority of us are deficient in one food group; and that is fibre.

The addition of zucchini helps to provide us with one of our 7-10 portions of vegetable a day and also makes for a deliciously moist and tender muffin.

Quick and easy to make and packed with real foods and nutrition, these muffins are the kind of sweetness that we should be choosing when we want to indulge.

You may find you enjoy these muffins as much as my Sugar free Grain Free Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup almond flour

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 large eggs

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon maple syrup

• 1 tablespoon vanilla

• 1 cup grated zucchini

• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350°F, 180°C, or gas mark 4

• Place muffin cases into a muffin pan or grease muffin pan throughly with olive oil

• Add the almond flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt to a bowl and stir to combine

• Add the grated zucchini and chocolate chips if using and stir through the dry ingredients

• Add the eggs, oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and grated zucchini to another bowl and whisk to combine

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir gently to combine

• Fill each of the muffin cases and place in the oven for 20 minutes or until the muffins spring back when touched.