Breakfast Pizza

 Happy FriYAY! 

Looking for a fun brunch item for the weekend? This breakfast/dessert pizza doesn’t disappoint! 

KETO FRUIT PIZZA 

CRUST::
•1 1/2 c Almond Flour
•2 TBS Sweetener
•1 stick Melted Butter
• Dash of Vanilla Extract

FROSTING::
•Full block of softened Cream Cheese
•2 TBS Heavy Whipping Cream
•2 TBS Almond Milk
•1/4 c Sweetener of choice
• 1 TSP Vanilla Extract

• Epicure Summer Berry seasoning (optional)

TOPPINGS: 
•Blueberries
•Strawberries (quartered)
•Raspberries 
•Blackberries
DIRECTIONS:
• Preheat Oven to 350F
• Combine all CRUST ingredients well
• Bake for 6-7 minutes
• Let cool, begin mixing all FROSTING ingredients
• Spread frosting on top of cooked crust
• Top with berries of your choice
ENJOY!!!

Bon Appetite  

Margaret
Live, Laugh, Love 
Be Totallyawake4-life 

Pancake Tuesday

 I’ll take any excuse for pancakes over here! 

My favourite recipe is from All Day I Dream about Food 

Ingredients
4 large eggs
¾ cup almond milk
¼ cup avocado oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour (about 250g)
¼ cup Swerve Sweetener
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Additional oil for the pan

Instructions
In a large blender, combine the eggs, almond milk, oil, and vanilla. Blend 30 seconds to combine. Add the almond flour, sweetener, baking powder, and salt and blend again until smooth. Let the batter rest 5 minutes.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat and add lightly grease with a little oil. Use about 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake and spread into a 3 or 4 inch circle. Cook the pancakes until bubbles begin to appear on the tops and the edges are set and dry, 2 to 4 minutes.

Carefully flip the pancakes and continue to cook until golden brown on the second side, another 2 to 4 minutes. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more butter or oil to the pan as needed.

Bon Appetite 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

#pancaketuesday #grainfreeliving 

Gluten Free Pumpernickel Bread

 I make this for Paul cause he doesn’t need to be grain free just gluten free! 

Moms Gluten Free “Pumpernickel” Bread

1 cup each Brown Rice and Tapioca Flour

1 cup Chickpea Flour

½ cup each Buckwheat Flour and Carob Powder

¼ cup Flax Meal

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 teaspoon Xanthum Gum

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons instant yeast

2 Tablespoons Instant Milk Powder

1 ½ cups warm water

1/3 cup dark molasses

1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 Eggs, beaten

Bread-Maker:  If using this method, thoroughly mix all the wet ingredients and place in pan.  Whisk together all the dry ingredients except the yeast, and put into centre of liquid.  Make a dent in the top and add the yeast.  Bake on the instant setting for a large loaf.  Maybe it’s my bread-maker, but I find this method leaves the loaf slightly under-done.

Manual Method:  (My preference).  Heat oven to 150 degrees F.  Thoroughly whisk together all the dry ingredients, including the yeast, in a large bowl.  Thoroughly mix all the wet ingredients, then add to the dry ingredients in installments until evenly mixed.  Do not over mix. Turn into a lightly greased 9” round spring-form pan or large loaf pan.  Turn oven off and put pan in oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours to rise.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees then put pan back in to bake, about 1 hour or so.  Let cool completely before attempting to slice.

Bon Appetite 

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Soft & Chewy Keto Bagels

Nom nom ... slowly making my way through my wishlist recipe try outs from over at Gnomgnom.yum blog!

Up today is the Soft & Chewy Keto bagels ... they were so easy to whip up although I might need fresher yeast cause not sure mine was as frothy as it should be but work with what you have when in self isolation 🤣

I have a bagel/donut mold so I rolled mine into it but you do not need a mold you can roll out onto parchment paper. I also used the Everything Bagel topping from Epicure. 

They smell awesome and have a nice squishy feel to them when I transferred them to the cooling rack! Took me all I had to wait for them to cool down so I could turn one into my BLT! My tomato was a wee bit thick but it was SO GOOD!

They have a great Net carb option allowing for my lunch to come in under 5 net carbs with my bacon, lettuce, mayo, cheese and tomato add ons! 

Bon Appetite! 

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

*Post contains affiliate links

Low Carb Perfect Portions Banana Bread

Baking in the kitchen today to use up some ripe bananas - gluten free banana and dark chocolate chip perfect portion petites ... each one has 60 calories, 6 carbs, 2 fat and 7.4 protein - nice little breakfast on the go for Paul and I and snacks for the kids - ended up with 60 of them for the freezer so we should be good to go for a while 🤣 

I doubled the recipe that come on the gluten free flour bag as I had 6 over ripe bananas to use up and I used egg replacer cause I have a little one with an egg allergy and I used Stevia in lieu of sugar cause Paul needs low carb now with his diabetes. Also added 2 tsp of Epicure Apple pie seasoning cause I like a little extra flavour kick with my banana bread! 

Happy Baking!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 25 Epic Life recap

Breakfast ... rationing out my coconut lime seasoning from Epicure because they retired it. Why is it that you fall in love with something and than boom its gone on you? I am hoping I have found a good replacement option with a splash of fresh lime and squirt of the Torani Sugar Free Coconut syrup

Lunch .... struggling with carb cravings a lot lately but trying very hard to stay on plan. Grilled cheese is definitely a comfort food and I love the Chia Seed Loaf by Promise Gluten Free Bread  paired with ranch dip made with greek dressing and Epicure creamy ranch.

 

Dinner was Turkey Taco Salad ... quick and easy and low sodium with the Epicure Taco seasoning.I prefer the jar so I can control how much I add but they also have the no think package option as well.

My back has been barking this week but I am still trying hard with the 30 day challenge - almost to the end!

Have an Epic Day

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 24 Epic Life recap

Breakfast Apple nachos with chocolate truffle yogurt ... this is a fan favorite snack for the children too! 

Lunch grilled cheese with cold veggies and dip ... cravings for carbs really getting the best of me the past week or so! Trying hard to maintain portion control to remain on plan.

Dinner Pesto chicken for dinner ... not shown protein bar and grapes after the gym.

Move more challenge plus 60 minutes in the pool at the gym

Have an Epic Day

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 23 Epic Life recap

Breakfast on the Go .... weathers warming up and that means spending more time outside in the forest or park with the kiddies so more picnic style breakfast options!

I love deviled eggs both traditionally spiced as well as I like to swap out the spice palette and make them unique - today I tried Mango Curry seasoning in the eggs with some Greek yogurt a wee bit of pickle relish and fresh ground pepper on top.

Lunch ... I was so sad when Epicure retired the Pho broth I stocked up with several jars to carry me over until something just as tasty is released to replace it!

Dinner .... caved to the craving for real pasta instead of using butternut or spaghetti squash but used my Epicure scoop to make sure I measured out the pasta and topped up with loads of veggies with the meatballs.

Move More Challenge day 21

Have an Epic Day!

 

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 22 Epic Life

Breakfast .... if you are a lover of strawberries and in the London area I highly recommend getting out to Heeman's when their strawberry season starts. I will resort to buying grocery berries when the Heeman's are not in season but once their berry's come in it is Heeman's all the way!

 

Lunch - cook once eat several times. This meal freezes well and makes a create encore of the Lazy Cabbage roll casserole! Thaw and pop into the microwave to reheat or reheat on the stove if microwave cooking is not your thing!

Dinner another cave to a craving today. Paul was having French Fries with his dinner and there was just a small bit left in the bag so I rationalized might as well cook them up! 

Move More Challenge - grateful for a rest day on 2 out of 5 of the Challenges I took on this month!

Have an Epic Life!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 20 Epic Life

Weekend Brunch - nom nom! A lovely veggie packed frittata is the perfect way to start the day! Seasoned with Epicure Greek Dressing seasoning - one of the great things about their seasoning blends that you can use them for other things than they are marketed for - I love greek seasoning in my omelette!

Afternoon went to the movies with my friend Kim and I succumbed to the movie popcorn today because I did not prepare and come with a snuck in healthy option from home! Fail to plan plan to fail!

Dinner - girls night out continued with dinner out after the movie. Brought the twice baked potato home for Paul to enjoy.

Move More challenge continues

Have an Epic Day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 19 Epic Life Challenge

Breakfast ... with the weather turning lovely we are out and about heading to parks for the morning which means taking my breakfast on the go! I really love the Smart for Life protien bars for those on the go meal options!

Lunch leftover BBQ chicken with veggies and balsamic dressing and Chevre cheese

Dinner ... my childhood self would never have believed that one day I would grow up to like beets! That said as a child no one ever served them to be BBQ'd in all their caramelized goodness!

Move more challenge ... was hoping it would get easier the second month through this challenge however my back is resisting the concept of move more be stronger!

 

Have an Epic Day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 18 Epic NSV

Breakfast ... there is something extra tasty about the combo of chocolate and cinnamon! Plus they say that cinnamon is a great metabolism booster!

Lunch leftovers to the rescue ... love that plain greek yogurt curbs the sour cream craving but packs a healthy punch of protien!

Dinner was a #NSV as one of my poor eating habits has always been that it’s too much trouble to cook just for myself so whenever my spouse travels (which is a lot specially in summer) than I tend to always go to the fast convenience food or get REALLY lazy and resort to Doritos and sour cream with salsa and call it dinner you know cause all food groups in there with protein and veggies and grains except I would eat the WHOLE tub of sour cream 😳

 I would also tend to binge watch chick flicks he doesn’t enjoy watching and mindlessly snack in movie snacks like popcorn and chocolate and drink my Baileys - I would literally go out and stock up on crap food I “needed” for my “me time” with challenge being that me time was often EVERY WEEKEND!

I really struggled my first challenge to break that bad habit but made strides with it each time making better choices - so its May and full swing reenacting seasons starting again and he’s off for 5 days and I used my Epic Life toolkit and I planned ahead to cook up proteins and have my veggies stocked and prepped and ready to go and tonight I whipped myself up Mini Chicken Fajitas with a side salad 💕 I am WORTH the trouble it takes - seriously it took 15 minutes to whip this together cause chicken was already cooked just needed to stir fry the veggies and reheat chicken and the mini corn tortillas

Move more Challenge ... putting the Cha Cha in challenge thank goodness for REST days cause my barking back was happy to only have to do a partial workout!

At the grocery store today that stupid autopilot brain if mine whose spent the past 15 years with the “me time” ritual ALMOST put some mini chocolates in the grocery cart for “movie time” they were in my hand before the other side of my brain said “hey you don’t need that crap to enjoy some me time put it back”

It takes a lot of mental effort to rewrite the brain to stop bad habits - I had gone into the store with my list and thought I was on fleck and next thing without even consciously thinking it the chocolates were in my hand!

Not this time brain not this time!!!

Thank you Epic Life 💕💕💕

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 17 Epic Life

Day 17 - bam 💥 

Breakfast to go this morning cause beautiful sunny day to walk to playgroup with kiddies so needed to eat as I walked.

Finished off the second half of the Guacamole tuna from earlier this week for lunch! Nom nom marinating in the flavor makes it even better the second time around!

Nipped out for dinner after the visitation to a lovely little place called State and Maine and had a half the Burrito bowl cause came with like a weeks worth of rice in bottom 🤣

Definitely battling my inner sloth right now but got my exercising in at quiet time because I knew I would not be getting to gym tonight doing to heading to a visitation for my dear friends sister who passed away from cancer this week. 

 

Have an Epic Day

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 16 Epic Life

Day 16 of the Epic Life Challenge and totally rocking the flavour palette with my balanced plates today! 

Lunch was lazy Cabbage Casserole - seriously just toss in some ground chicken, onion, celery and peppers diced and saute until cooked with some Epicure Garlic and Chili flakes add  a couple cups of shredded cabbage mix with a couple spoonfuls of low sodium tomato paste. 15 minutes from cutting board to plated.

Dinner BBQ chicken with sauteed Greek veggies and goat cheese topping.

 End of the day pain management craving - trying very hard to keep my cravings on plan with sugar free apple pecan crumble and salted caramel yogurt.

Seriously Epicure makes clean eating while loosing weight SO easy! Their spice mixes and meal kits make it a breeze to throw together a wide variety of flavour palettes so sticking to this lifestyle never gets boring - lots of variety so you can choose what works for you. 

Had to break up my move more challenge up today and do little bits throughout the day to cope with the joint pain but I did get them done eventually.  

Have an Epic Day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Day 15 Epic Life Challenge

Nothing like starting the day with a Torani inspired Irish Cream smoothie ... seriously love how these syrups can pack a punch of flavor with no calories!

Lunch was a Tuna Guacamole Salad - thank you Epicure for this taste sensation! If you have not tried the Guacamole seasoning blend highly recommend it great for making homemade guac in seconds but also create for adding to tuna or chicken or even an omelette!

Dinner was comfort food - soup for a quick and easy meal solution on a day when my pain level is very high at the end of the day I was just done!

And evidence of both increased carb cravings and poor pain management in having a dessert with my spouse for dinner! I had bought him these little single serve options from M and M's because well figured it would help me avoid temptation of making him desserts from scratch and than not getting to eat them - but epic fail on that part!

Thankfully got my workout done in the morning because I was toast by the end of the day and am heading to bed early and at least I can feel a little less guilty with my food choices knowing I got my workout in!

Have an epic day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life