Caprese Stuffed Avocado

 Where are the avocado lovers at? 

I personally have a love hate relationship with them myself - when trying fresh ones they are either rock hard not ripe or rotten brown inside and that sweet soft pale green spot in between always eludes me 🤣 seriously …

However these Caprese Stuffed Avocados look so tasty presentation wise but I would likely use the frozen avocado chunks thawed and tossed right with the other ingredients cause it’s just easier than trying to time that sweet elusive ripe but no rotten state!

CAPRESE STUFFED AVOCADO ~ Sweet and juicy grape/cherry tomatoes with fresh mozzarella balls are tossed in basil pesto with a touch of garlic, then stuffed into avocado halves! Drizzle with a balsamic glaze.

RECIPE here

Bon Appetite 

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love 

Be Totallyawake4-life 

 

Took a GelMoment today!

OK I Dove Right In and got some self care pampering time in this afternoon with new fingers and matching toes! 

I’ve given myself a Lovee Dovee accent nail - thinking I want to eventually add some nail art to it! Just need to narrow down a choice cause there are so many choices in my head! 

I could do an ombré of blue polka dots, a flowery or mandala stamping plate with Dove Right In tinted gel, the rainfall technique with blues/silver, a silver Cullinan shimmer or SSpectrum Chrome … how’s a girl to choose?

Be as Bold as your Polish!

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

*this post has affiliate links 

Natural Sunscreen & bug repellent in one

 It’s that time of year again! 

Homemade Natural Sunscreen Ingredients

1 cup almond oil (natural SPF 5)

1/2 cup coconut oil (natural SPF 4)

1/2 cup cocoa butter chips

1/2 cup beeswax chips

4 Tablespoons Non-nano Zinc Oxide (natural SPF 2-20)

2 teaspoon Red Raspberry Seed Oil (natural SPF varies 28-50)

2 teaspoon Carrot Seed Oil (natural SPF varies 38 - 40)

2 tablespoons Shea Butter (natural SPF 4-5)

2 tablespoon Mango Butter

1 bottle doTERRA Terrashield bug repellent 

Using a double boiler method add all ingredients except essential oil into the pot and melt together until smooth. Suggest wearing a face mask when adding the zinc powder or being VERY careful not to inhale when in powder form. Once bees wax is well melted and blended into the mixture let simmer on low for about 20 minutes to ensure that your lotion does not get 'gritty' when it cools. Take off burner and allow to cool a bit before adding essential oil as heating oils can reduce effectiveness.  

Pour into a glass mason jar or air tight container and allow to cool.

Apply 20-30 minutes before sun exposure.

Be sun safe!

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Dutch Keto Chocolate Cupcakes!

 Is chocolate part of your self care routine?? 

I love these Keto chocolate cupcakes - they are perfect on their own or you. An dress them up with some Chocolate Buttercream icing for a more dessert feel. 

Grain free & Sugar free so all the mouth orgasm pleasure of chocolate flavour and none of the insulin spike! 

Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 3 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal finely ground
• 1 tablespoon coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum or 2 tsp more golden flaxseed meal
• 1/4 cup unsalted grass-fed butter or 4 TBS coconut oil + 1 TBS coconut cream
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream or coconut cream
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee (optional)
• 1/3-1/2 cup xylitol or coconut sugar if paleo
• 2 eggs eggs at room temperature

I personally add peppermint extract or hazelnut extract instead of the expresso suggestion cause I am not a big coffee flavour fan. I also used dark dutch style cocoa for that deep rich chocolate colour.

If you can get your hands on sugar free chocolate chips - we love the Lily’s white chocolate or dark chocolate or the salted caramel chocolate chips -  they are a nice addition to this recipe too! 

Instructions 

• Each batch of cake is good for one 8-inch layer of cake (or 6 cupcakes). 
• Position a rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat to 350°F/180°C. Grease, dust with cocoa powder, and line an 8-inch cake pan, set aside. Or use 6 silicone cupcake liners.
• Add almond flour, flaxseed meal, coconut flour, baking powder and xanthan gum to a medium bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined, set aside. 
• Add butter, heavy cream (or coconut oil and cream), cocoa powder, salt and espresso powder (optional) to a large heatproof bowl. Melt over a water bath whisking constantly (or use the microwave in small bursts). Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly. 
• Add in the sweetener and one egg at a time, whisking well after each one until completely incorporated. The texture should appear smooth and thick, with all the sweetener dissolving into the mixture (if using erythritol, some granules may remain). Add the flour mixture, whisking vigorously until fully blended (about a minute). Pour batter into prepared pan or cupcake liners.
• Bake for 15-19 minutes, or until set and a toothpick inserted comes out just clean. Check often after minute 15 to ensure your cake doesn't dry out, and always keep in mind, however, that your cake will continue to cook while cooling! 
• Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes in the cake pan, before transferring to a rack. It'll be particularly fragile right out of the oven if you made it with xylitol or allulose, so you need to let it set. 

Bon Appetite!

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Protect your skin!

Ohhh I am excited to try this new line from doTERRA!

I have been making my own sunscreen for the past few years because so many on the market are full of crap and aggravate my sensitive skin and the natural brand ones were always hard to find in stock locally! The challenge with homemade is making sure you combine the right ingredients in the right ratios to get the proper SPF. 

The new doTERRA SUN COLLECTION is launching July 1st just in time for summer vacations.

Review a convention attendee who got to try it early:

 “You are going to love this line ☀️

There is nothing like this on the market!

• Super clean ingredients + botanicals such as raspberry seed oil, avocado oil, shea butter, Vit E, turmeric extract, carrot seed, jojoba esters and non nano zinc oxide

• SPF 30 Broad Spectrum UVA/UVB

• Protective, lightweight, water resistant, moisturizing, and nourishing for your skin

• Vegan friendly, reef safe, cruelty free

• Infused with the protective + nurturing properties of our pure essentials oils such as helichrysum, frankincense, copaiba, lavender + peppermint. 

It’s a must have in your summer skincare collection.”

D E T A I L S:

• July 1st: Launching out of US warehouse. 

Note: the After Sun Mist is a little delayed and will launch mid July 

• Limit of 2 of each product per account

Note about Canada: these product will launch later in the year ... health canada is taking longer and longer to approve products in the natural health category. 

Be sun safe!

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love  

Be Totallyawake4-life 

It’s National Vitamin C Day!

In the spirit of National Vitamin C Day here’s a tasty little dessert option to try! 

Keto Lemon Bars 

Recipe credit

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 3/4 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp. Vanilla 
1 cup powdered erythritol
3 medium lemons
3 large eggs

Instructions
Mix butter, 1 cup almond flour, 1/4 cup erythritol, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Press evenly into an 8x8" parchment paper-lined baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F. Then, let cool for 10 minutes.

Into a bowl, zest one of the lemons, then juice all 3 lemons, add the eggs, 3/4 cup erythritol, 3/4 cup almond flour & pinch of salt. Combine to make filling.

Pour the filling onto the crust & bake for 25 minutes.

Serve with lemon slices and a sprinkle of powdered erythritol.

Bon Appetite

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life  

dōTERRA Mālama Blend

Celebrate Mother’s Day this year with our new dōTERRA Mālama Blend. 🤍

Like the breathtaking beauty and vibrant culture of the Hawaiian Islands, Mālama Nurturing blend is a sparkling combination of bright citrus, enchanting floral, and centering wood aromas. 🌿

Mālama means to care for, tend, preserve, and protect. Much like mother figures tend to us, we are committed to preserving Hawaii’s native trees. dōTERRA has partnered with the Kealakekua Mountain Reserve, home to the largest reforestation effort in Hawaii’s history and 238,000 native trees have been planted to date. 🤎

Join us in celebrating mother figures everywhere this month with the Mālama Nurturing Blend.

✨Shop for this new blend at the link below!

www.mydoterra.com/totallyawake4life 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love 

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Do you have a Saturday ritual??

Sharing is caring - drop us your must haves to help you recharge in the comments.

 

 

 

We spent some time out in the backyard cleaning up the deck to enjoy sitting out by the fire and discussing plans to have an overgrown pine tree removed, got creative digitally making fun content, Love my Aloette Muddy Up detoxification mask, added some DoTERRA lavender to my Epsom salts to help with the relaxing, currently working my way the through an Audible book Cognitive Behaviour therapy in 7 weeks by Seth Gillian PhD., Aloette has an amazing Hand polish and cream that helps turn back time on the hands & GelMoment cuticle oils are a must for healthy nails, we are currently working our way through the Mandilorian for Saturday night family movie night, I love using wool dryer balls with a couple drops of doTERRA Serenity make for amazing fresh linens and Sundays are the perfect day to plan for a sleep in - hopefully my brain cooperates!

 

Be well and if you are looking for more clean living, eating and self care tips and tricks come join our Totallyawake4-life & Nailin' It Together community!

 

Margaret

Live. Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

 

*post contains affiliate links

Living with Chronic Illness

This is so very very true and sometimes we can pay dearly for that one day of “enduring for sake and benefit of some socialization” with days afterward of increased pain and decreased coping cause we used up all the resilience and energy we had in one go!

Sometimes I think of chronic illness as waking up with, let’s say 5, energy chips and I have to be reflective of which activities I will do to make it through the day without running out of chips  - and if something I am being asked to do is going to take 20 energy chips that means I am going to have to accept that for the next 3 days after I am likely gonna be useless for doing anything. And sometimes that’s ok one is willing to go into debt so to speak cause I really want to participate and other times something is offered to me that I really WANT to do but I have to decline because I already used up all my energy chips on something else and I am now in debt and I KNOW from past experience if I say yes and borrow any more energy chips from my tomorrows that my autoimmune system will start demanding significant interest on said debt in way of new symptoms to knock me back a peg! 

It is a delicate balance and sometimes someone with chronic illnesses can get into that spiral of borrowing more and more chips from tomorrow because they hate having to miss out on things and hate that their disease controls so much of their life that they end up hitting rock bottom again with a nasty flare that sets them back that peg or two  before remembering that unlike others they cannot gamble with their chips and hope that they will somehow win more of them and it will balance out in the end.

Just a little PSA that when someone says yes to one persons invite and the next day says no to another persons invite it’s often nothing to do with the INVITE and often much more to do with the timing and the same invitee just being out of energy chips to be able to say yes. Please don’t take it personally and KEEP inviting them out for the next times so that they can trust that it’s ok to say no to “this time” and do get into the spiral of borrowing energy chips from tomorrow out of FOMO in future.

We never know what someone else is going through which is why it’s important to act with empathy and kindness to all! 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love 

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Tasty Tuesday Teas!

Good morning - this quote is SO true! 

Hands up if you’re a tea lover? 

Did you know that GelMoment also carry’s an amazing tea lovers line??

Not only are the ingredients that make up our amazing teas sourced from women-owned farms, they are also really delicious loose leaf teas that also contain biotin to help nourish healthier nails and hair. 

Seriously I came for the polish but I stayed for the TEA! I love that we have black, herbal and caffeinated and caffeine free choices depending on the time of day I am relaxing with a cup! Plus with the weather warming they make GREAT iced tea flavours too! 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life.com 

*post contains affiliate links 

Do you need a Dessert for One?

Keto Strawberry shortcake for one? Yes please! 

In a mug:

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup almond flour

2 tbsp sweetener of choice 

1/2 tsp vanilla 

1/2 tsp baking powder 

1 large egg

1/4 tsp Cake Batter extract 

2 tbsp heavy cream 

Mix all ingredients together well 

Microwave 90 seconds - poke with fork to ensure cooked in middle add 10 second intervals if fork doesn’t come out clean.

Either turn upside down onto a plate or if you hate extra dishes like I do just prep the rest right in your mug! 

Add 4 fresh cut strawberries - sliced

Top with 1/4 cup Sugar free whipped cream! 

Nutritional info

470 Calories 

 42 G Fat

 16 G Protein 

   8 G Fibre 

   7 Net Carbs 

Depending on your total carb goals this is definitely an occasional treat recipe coming in at 7 net carbs however it’s a contender for our Valentine’s Day dessert! 

Bon Appetite 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Don’t get Rusty Waiting on the Gyms to reopen!

Who else is excited for the gyms to reopen?! 

Just over a week until the gyms can reopen I totally can’t wait to cannon ball into the pool I have missed it so much - in the meantime if you’re feeling the need to get moving at home here’s a few staples right from the comfort of your couch!! 

Keep moving! 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love 

Be Totallyawake4-life

Are you a nail polish smudger?

Do you tend to SMUDGE your polish when you try to do them yourself?

The quick cure results of the GelMoment at home nail care line is definitely what drew me to give it a try when I attended a virtual party of a friend. Bring a klutz I love that with the quick cure time I can choose to do one finger at a time and still have quick results for a complete manicure! 

It’s THIS easy!

And well I am FRUGAL so being able to get amazing results at a FRACTION of the cost sealed the deal 🤣

If you want to make your life easier too grab an essentials kit - link to my GelMoment shop is here.

Be As Bold as your GelMoment polish! 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

*post contains affiliate links

How cute is this little Santa manicure?

Is it this the cutest little Santa that you ever did see! 

Let’s recreate this look!! It’s as easy as 1,2,3….4!

I would recreate using:

• In the Mood is a nice nude for skin tone
•  Lovee Dovee 
•  Ravens Kiss
• Gilty Soirée or Chandelier for your buckle
• Choose whichever Christmas Red you want for Santa’s

Be as Bold As your Gelmoment Nail Polish 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh,Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

*this post contains affiliate links 

November Nail Art winners

 Congratulations to all of our November 'Nails of the Month' Distributor Contest Winners! 🏅

📸: Ebony Wylie, Jamie Leigh, Kimberley Klassen, Shauna Dewar-Siwik, Sheralyn Guilleminot, Stephanie Thiessen.

GelMoment is great for recognizing its distributors and offering lots of chances to win prizes and awards! So many wonderful Lee Asian to join the team!   

Be as Bold As your GelMoment nail polish! 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be a Totallyawake4-life

*this post contains affiliate links 

Ooey Gooey Queso cauliflower with Lime Guacamole Pork Chop!

If you’ve been following me you know I just LOVE Epicure meal solutions and seasonings! 

They make clean eating a snap! 

Plus you can think outside the box so to speak and use items anyway you want to explore! 

Tonight I used the Ooey Gooey Queso dip to make a sauce for our roasted cauliflower side! I used half the suggested amount of milk and stirred it up and poured over chopped cauliflower florets in the large steamer. Added handful of bacon bits and chives and tossed to cover the cauliflower evenly. Sprinkled 1/2 cup shredded cheese over the top and baked in oven on 400F for 45 minutes until the cauliflower was tender and the cheese browned up on the edges.

I created a marinade for our pork chops using the Guacamole seasoning, lime juice and a wee bit avocado oil. 

Popped it all in a ziplock baggie and let the pork chops sit in fridge for a couple hours before grilling them on BBQ! 

So delicious! 

What’s your favourite Epicure meal solution? 

Bon Appetite 

Margaret 

Like, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life  

Keeping Your Glass top clean

 Ok I cannot be the only one who has members of the household who do not wipe the glass top down before turning it on? Or they attempt to wipe it down but do not use a clean cloth so end up leaving it like this with nasty watermarks baked into it?

 Thank goodness for Enjo and the smallest of elbow grease! The awesomeness of Enjo is that the fibres do most of the work so you just need to provide the motion for them cause they have yet to develop a self cleaning Enjo fibre - but one can hope! Wet your Kitchen scrub with water, scoop out some marble paste because this is baked on mess so a little helper is needed, and than spray the surface with extra water and than swirl around the paste adding more as needed! Water is the magic ingredient here if you feel somethings stuck add more spritzs of water!

When you are confident all the mess is loose and ready to be wiped up switch over to the green fibre side and wash off all the marble paste with cool water - rinse as needed until stove top is clear. Dry behind with your kitchen Enjofil and whola!

 It works amazing! Shiny mess free glass top again!

 

Happy cleaning! If you need an Enjo representative please contact Lynn she is amazingly knowledgeable!

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life