4 Quick, Tasty, Healthy Snacks

The next time you are getting the munchies, are craving sugar, needing a boost or are wanting food NOW try out one of these snack. They are easy and quick to make, will give your body a nutrient and energy boost and will make you feel good for choosing a healthy snack.

1. 2-3 Brazil nuts stuffed into 2-3 pitted medjool dates
2. 1 sour apple sliced and dipped in 2 tbsp almond butter
3. 1 banana blended with 1 handful of spinach and 1 cup of water (yes I'm for real)
4. 2 big chard leaves spread with hummus and rolled up

Quick, tasty, healthy. What is your favourite snack? Post it below. Or let me know on Twitter @marissamakesp.s. See those little black spots on the banana? That means it is ready for eating. Don't eat it before it gets those tiny spots because it is not fully ripe and you may get a belly ache.

Super Pretty Smoothie

I do love my Greenies. Greenies are smoothies that I make with either spirulina, E3Live, a green drink powder or a good handful of fresh spinach, kale, romaine or other dark leafy greens. Greenies give me a quick and long lasting energy boost, make me feel refreshed and focused. The only problem with them is they are very green. They actually taste good. They are made with other ingredients, which are banana and/or berries and hemp milk. But sometimes I just want a nice, creamy and pretty smoothie. So today I made exactly that and boy was it pretty and tasty. It was thick, smooth, raspberry filled and pink. Yum!

I still drank my greens, just on the side. I had a heaping spoon full of spirulina, shaken, not stirred (spirulina does not stir well, it gets lumpy) with a bit of water and juice. I also chewed on some lettuce after to protect my teeth from all those good but acidic fruit sugars.

My recipe for the smoothie was simple. I used my own homemade hemp milk, which I will also give the recipe for. I am putting in the effort to make my own hemp milk for a few reasons. Hemp milk is a bit pricey and contains thickeners and is sometimes very sweet. I have been buying almond milk and rice milk, which are okay but again most contain thickeners and/or sweeteners. I do use the unsweetened almond milk but I don't totally love it. I wanted a really nutrient rich and natural milk alternative. Also, one major thing is that I am feeling bad about all those tetra packs going in the garbage because they are not recyclable. Not here at least. Oh, yah one other thing is that almond and rice milk are produced far away and have to be shipped a long way to get to me. Hemp seeds are farmed in Canada and don't have to be shipped so far. Plus I can make a lot of hemp milk with a bucket of hemp seeds and I can store my milk in a glass bottle. I am waiting for my roomie to use up the rest of her organic milk so I can poach the glass bottle from her. Meanwhile I am using a large mason jar to store my mylk.

That's the story of the hemp milk and here is how you make it. Hemp Mylk 1 cup hemp seeds 6 cups water a pinch of Himalayan salt 1-2 tsp honey or sucanat (optional) 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Put hemp seeds and 2 cups of water in a blender and blend on high for 2-3 minutes. Then add water to 2 inches below the top of the blender plus salt and optional sweetener and vanilla. Blend for 1 more minute. Pour into jars and top up with remaining water.

You can also use dates, figs or raisins to sweeten the mylk. Just blend them in. Super Pretty Smoothie 1 cup hemp mylk (or other milk of choice) 1/2 a ripe banana 1 cup frozen raspberries (use fresh in the summer) Blend until smooth and frothy. Hemp makes this smoothie rich in protein and healthy fats. Have it for breakfast or a snack. Add 1 tbsp of ground flax to increase the fibre content and to fill you up for longer. Enjoy!

Find Your Passion through Chocolate

Are you the worlds biggest chocolate lover? You can't live without it right? Well you don't have to!

There has been a lot of hype in health magazines recently about how chocolate is good for you. You already new that, but did you know what the best type of chocolate is? Raw, organic cacao (ka-kow). It's the real thing, the cacao bean is where chocolate comes from, it is raw, unprocessed chocolate and it's a beautiful thing. The cacao bean is full of anti-oxidants, magnesium, zinc, energizing properties and much more. Raw cacao actually contains mood enhancing "bliss" properties that will help you tap into where your passion lies. Cacao can be used as a tool for finding your life passion and purpose and when you are connected to that abundance flows. When you find your passion abundance of joy, ease, love, friends and the well sought after dollar comes to you. According to cacao's history money does grow on trees; chocolate trees that is. Cacao was used in ancient Central American cultures as currency. Edible money forced currency to be used before it was useless. No hoarding of money then! If you are in Squamish you can take part in an amazing workshop filled with raw cacao tasting and making, experiential exercises and a chance to tap into your passion. Sign up by February 2nd and save. Check out the details of this amazing workshop here. Here is a teaser recipe, many more will be revealed at the workshop.

Better than Chocolate Ice Cream 1 can of organic coconut milk (not light/lite as it is just watered down) 1 tsp organic extra virgin coconut oil 1 ripe avocado 1 ripe banana 1/2 cup raw cacao powder 1/3 cup raw organic agave nectar

Spoon the creamy part out of the can of coconut and into a blender; you can save the clear part for smoothies. Blend all ingredients until super smooth. Have a taste and add more agave nectar if needed or desired. Pour into a glass dish or molds; you can make these into fudgsicles! Freeze for at least one hour and enjoy! You are going to be amazed at how incredibly tasty and satisfying this treat is! Sign up for this chocolate experience now!

Watermelon Blender Drink

I bought a really nice, bright red organic watermelon. I cut into it and had a couple of sweet, juicy slices. Grommit (the dog) had ignored the piece of watermelon that fell to the floor when I was cutting but after she saw me eating it she enjoyed some herself.

I thought a blender drink would be really nice and I had some sparkling mineral water in the fridge. I am going to give this one to you how I made it, which is how I make most of my recipes; without a recipe and without measuring. I start cooking or preparing a dish with an inspiration, which may be an ingredient or many, a photograph, a smell, or someone mentioning what they had for dinner the night before. Then I begin creating it. If I am trying to make a classic dish with my own twist I will find a recipe first to see if there are any key ingredients that make it up. Then I start playing with it, adding healthier ingredients, different grains or veggies and more flavour.

This time I was inspired by the tasty watermelon. My watermelon had seeds, just the way I like them as you can see from the photo below. That was my prize for counting the most seeds in my slice of watermelon at the fall fair (I was a kid). The button is sitting amongst my future crop of tomatoes.

After I sliced the watermelon I cut off the rind of 3 big slices and chopped the watermelon into a blender (including the seeds). Try to save all the juice and get it in the blender. The blender was about 3/4 full of watermelon chunks. I added 1 big spoon of local, unpasteurized, red clover honey. I also squeezed in half a lime. Then I blended it up until it was smooth and frothy. You may have to stop the blender a few times and give it a stir if it is not blending well. Don't add any water though because once it does get blended it will be very juicy.

Now find some pretty glasses and fill them half way with sparkling mineral water then top them up with the blended watermelon. You can add a sprig of fresh mint and some drops of red currant sauce. The key to adding perfect little drops of red current sauce is to use a teaspoon and put just a little sauce on it and then drop the sauce right above and very close to the drink. Patience and gentleness is needed so the drops float. If you don't have patience or don't want to make the sauce then just drink them as is.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Hearts

I usually make birthday cakes. It's not often that I buy one, especially for my boyfriend's birthday. But I was a little overwhelmed and busy so I did. I bought a cake and it was really good. It was made with good ingredients; the real deal. It was filled with cocoa, butter, sour cream, raw cane sugar, good eggs; it was a "real" cake. When I was standing in the store deciding whether or not I was going to take the easy route I realized that it was Ryan's birthday and I should do what he would want. Which meant a "real"cake, not one made with spelt flour, agave nectar and rice milk. Although my cakes are really good and he loves them, I thought that maybe I should just buy a cake that he would really love and be done with it. So I did. That's my confession. The great part of it all was that we were having such a good time hanging out with friends, eating nachos (birthday boy's desired dinner, organic of course) andchoosing the wine that our friend's would serve at their wedding that I didn't have any food anxiety. I ate it and enjoyed every bite and stopped when my taste buds were happy and my stomach was full.

Enjoying food is the best way to digest it; it beats any digestive enzyme. When your body and mind are relaxed and you are in a place of joy what you eat is not an issue. Ponder that.

I did have to add my own touch to the cake, which was super luxurious and very well received. I topped it with these totally decadent chocolate hearts. Easy to make and soooooo amazing.

All you need is:

1 can of premium (NOT lite) coconut milk

160 gram of really good dark organic chocolate

Love

Heat the thick part of the coconut milk in a medium saucepan. The trick to separating the coconut milk is to put it in the fridge, right side up, for at least 20 minutes. Then take it out, turn it upside down, open it and pour out the watery part (save it for a smoothie or soup). Then scoop out the thick part and put it in the pan.

Now grate or finely chop up the chocolate and stir it into the hot, but not boiling coconut cream.

Once it is all mixed in pour the chocolate into molds. I used heart shaped ice cube trays.

Put it in the freezer for at least one hour.

Pull them out and enjoy the yummy-ness!

Smoothie for a Hot Summer Day

I love smoothies right now. With all the fresh berries arriving with the hot days, a smoothie makes a nice breakfast or snack. Smoothies are good if you eat breakfast on the run because they are portable, quick, packed full of nutrition (if you make them right) and are easy to digest. If you eat in a hurry or when you are in motion you will not digest your food as well as when you eat while seated at a table relaxed. Any stress in the body, like being in a hurry, causes your digestion to slow down. While you work on giving yourself more time and a relaxed environment to eat, do eat meals that are simple and easy to digest. Smoothies are already blended for you, making things easier.

In order to have a complete meal in a smoothie you need to add some key ingredients. The carbs are easy to put in, those are your fruits. Fruit is a healthy carb in that it is filled with nutrients, fibre and natural sugar. Choose fruits that are lower in sugar such as berries, apples and pears. Bananas and other tropical fruits are fine too, just use them to compliment a less sweet fruit like blueberries. One tip about blueberries; use only 1/2 a cup per smoothie or your smoothie will get all thick and jelly like. Not in a good way either.

Next you need some sort of protein. I like plant base proteins myself because they have more than just protein; they also contain fibre, minerals and enzymes. Hemp is a great protein, brown rice protein is also a good choice. The most popular type of protein is whey, which comes from dairy. If you choose whey protein look for New Zealand based in order to avoid growth hormones. Whey does mix well but I recommend trying out a plant based protein for it's added value.

The next ingredient is fat, good fat that is. Flax, hemp or borage oil are all good choices. Add about 1 tbsp of oil to get your omega 3 brain food for the day.

Finally I like to add something green. Greens are important to balance out the sweetness of a smoothie. Too much sweet will leave you hungry for more. The slight bitterness of greens will balance out the sweet. Don't worry it won't make your smoothie taste weird or bitter, not at all. I promise. It will change the colour a bit though. Good greens are spirulina, chlorella, wheat grass juice or plain and simple a handful of spinach, kale or romaine lettuce. Yes, that's right, I am suggesting you put spinach in your smoothie. It's good, trust me.

Here is a recipe to get you started. Look for more smoothie ideas in the future and let me know your favourite blends.

Standard Smoothie Recipe

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup pear or apple juice
1/2 banana
1 cup berries/peach/pear/nectarine
1 scoop hemp protein
1 tsp Spirulina or 1 handful of spinach
1 tbsp EFA oil (I like Barlean's Flax the best)

Blend it all up and enjoy.

To make your smoothie even easier use Vega's Smoothie Infusion. It includes complete protein and greens all in one and it is vegan.

Healthy Snacks for Active Kids (and big kids a.k.a. adults)

It is important to provide your active child with adequate nutrients for energy, growth and repair. A variety of fresh whole foods throughout the day will meet their needs. Be sure to provide a source of protein with every snack and meal; protein helps stabilize blood sugar and provides long lasting energy. Protein sources can come from animal products but can also come from plant sources. Plant sourced protein is easy to digest and convenient. Try adding nuts and seeds to your baking recipes, make dips with beans and experiment with different nut butters.
Try out this recipe for apple sandwiches. They are a fun new way to make a sandwich using apple slices as bread. These snacks are great for after school, lunch bags and birthday parties. You can lay out the ingredients and let the kids put them together. This snack is all naturally sweet, no added sugar here just the sweetness of fruit.

When buying dried fruit try to stick with organic as non-organic contain preservatives such as sulphites which can cause allergic reactions especially to those with respiratory problems.

Apple Sandwiches

What You Need:

1 apple for every 2 children, core the apples and then slice horizontally, keep slices to about 1cm thick. If the apples will be sitting for awhile before serving, squeeze on fresh lemon juice to prevent browning.
Natural unsweetened peanut butter, almond butter or other nut/seed butters
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Sliced almonds or other nuts
Raisins
Dried cranberries
Thinly sliced organic dried apricots or other dried fruit (mango, pineapple, etc.)
Sliced banana

Kids can spread on nut butter and then arrange other ingredients on their “bread”.

Encourage children to be creative when decorating their sandwich. Raisins and sliced apricots can be used to make faces.

Sandwiches can be open faced, closed up with another slice of apple or triple layered like a clubhouse.

Get more recipes and articles here.

Chocolate Crunch Cookies

These little tasty bites will satisfy any sweet tooth. I have a love for chocolate, I won't deny it. Yes I am a nutritionist but I am also an enjoyer of life. Part of that enjoyment for me is the savouring of good chocolate. Now I am not talking about the "chocolate" bars you get in line at the grocery store. How much chocolate is there in those anyway? Not a lot, most of those bars main ingredients are glucose, fructose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, maltose... you get the idea. All of those ose's mean one thing, pure sugar and lots of it. Highly refined sugars that cause a massive sugar high, especially in the sugar sensitive like myself, followed by a jittery, delirious, foggy and quick spiraling crash downwards. High fructose corn syrup is a know contributor to adult onset diabetes, now called type 2 diabetes since many children are growing into it. It is an epidemic problem. These so called chocolate bars are also filled with artificial flavours, like chocolate flavour, as well as harmful fats and artificial colours. They are nothing close to being chocolate in my mind. Which leads me to what is chocolate.

Chocolate is a bean. Yep it does fit right into the food guide. This bean is called cacao and is grown mainly in Central and South America. It has a bitter flavour, not so appetizing to the average palate, so it is doctored up to taste better. Hmmmmm, I have tried both cacao beans and these so called chocolate bars and I pick the cacao bean any day. The cacao bean is filled with natural chemicals and nutrients including many anti-oxidants, magnesium and bliss chemicals. Ooooh, bliss chemicals. Anandamide is the name of this neurotransmitter, which is found in the human brain and in cacao.Anandamide is the chemical released in our brains when we are feeling good! Anandamine is derived from the Sanskrit word "ananda" meaning bliss.

You can enjoy quality chocolate by buying only organic chocolate like Cococamino, Denman Island and Whistler chocolate. These do still contain sugar but at least it is organic and less refined. I like to make my own raw cacao treats of course, many clients have asked me to start producing them but that may take the joy out if for me. So instead I pass on recipes to you. I made these yummy little cookie like chocolates. The recipe is not precise and that doesn't matter. You can make them as sweet or as bitter as you like.

Here is roughly how to make them:

1/2 cup cacao nibs

1 tbsp extra virgin organic coconut oil

2-3 tbsp honey

peanut butter for the middle

Grind the cacao nibs in a coffee grinder until powdery. Mix these in a bowl with coconut oil and honey. Taste it as you go and add more honey if you like. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and then flatten the balls onto a piece of parchment paper. Put these in the freezer for 20 minutes. Pull them out and spread a dab of peanut butter or other nut butter onto half of the cookies. Sandwich the cookies together and put them back in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.

Enjoy these bite by bite, really taste all the flavours, notice the texture and note how real they taste. No chemical after taste. Now sit back and enjoy the bliss.