The universe has not given canned Mackerel the love it deserves!

Mackerel has long been one of my go-to sushi choices. But as far as shopping in the canned fish aisle of the grocery store, I’m guilty of reaching for tuna most of the time, with sockeye salmon and sardine being my second and third choices. Why? Habit. Little did I know until now, canned mackerel is equally if not even more habit-forming. Case in point: these super simple and suuuper tasty Tartines with Mackerel and Refried Butter Beans are loved by my family and my foodie adult friends. The refried beans are creamy and savoury, and the mackerel fillets flakey and umami-packed. The parsley salad’s acidic and herbaceous freshness perfectly balances the other rich and creamy elements for a seriously delightful bite!

I’ve baked enough gluten-free cakes to confidently say that despite its bad rap, gluten-free cakes need not to be dry or dense or sandy in texture. They can be moist, light and often times in my opinion, more flavourful than wheat flour cakes depending on the ingredients used. In this case, I use a mix of almond flour (see - flavour boost right there) and gluten-free flour blend. Egg yolks provide richness and egg whites (whipped) provide airiness to lighten the denser nature of gluten-free flours.

Whenever stone fruit season rolls around, Marian Burro's infamous plum torte seems to pop up everywhere on my Instagram feed.  You may have missed it ... if you live under a rock ;) She wrote this iconic recipe for the New York Times in the 80s and they claim it is one of their most requested recipes.  I never did get around to making her original recipe but this grain-free adaptation of her plum torte is so dang good I don't think I ever actually will!?  

To state that we are a granola-loving family would be an understatement.  I have two Granola Monsters here.  Apart from the year when we were following a modified Paleo diet where grains like oats and quinoa are disallowed, granola is a mainstay here because it is such a healthy and convenient option for breakfast.  Not to mention totally addictive.

The girls showered me with their praises when they tasted this loaf.  And since I thrive off flattery and compliments (heehee), I made a second loaf immediately for next morning's breakfast which was greeted with the same gleeful enthusiasm.  

Stroke stroke stroke.  My ego.  

Never you mind that the judging panel was comprised of a 6 year old and a 3 year old.  I decided I would definitely share this recipe on the blog with you so you too can have your ego stroked.  Or at the very least, have your breakfast sorted.

I assume most people's mornings are just as hurried as ours.  Mine goes like this:  wake up, get self ready (aka barely splash some water on face and put a bra on), dress children, make breakfast, pack lunches and most importantly drink that coffee that's getting cold dammit.  The saving grace of warmer mornings now is more simple options for breakfast, such as chilled overnight oats or overnight chia puddings.  Lately the girls have been obsessed with chia pudding parfaits and they really get a kick out of choosing their own fixings and assembling their own little parfaits.  Which is a complete score for me.  I can sip my hot coffee while they take over that part of the morning routine.

Besides hurried mornings, this Do-It-Yourself concept translates really well for overnight guests or a weekend brunch gathering with friends too, as the main event (as it is definitely filling enough) or a hands-off component of a larger spread.  The assortment of goodies is more or less the same, although you may add more options to make it extra special (see my suggestions further below).  All you need to do is scale up in quantity.  The best part is how it can be styled beautifully into an impressive spread, as I've done for this blog post.  Isn't it pretty?  As a mama of a daughter with food restrictions, it's bonus for me that it is suitable for both adults and children, as well as people with dietary constraints since the entire set up is dairy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar free, vegan and paleo-friendly (if the granola is omitted from the parfait for those individuals).  

I'll concede that as far as food trends go these days, you're much more likely to see a chia pudding appear on your Instagram feed than a tapioca pudding! You might even say the latter is a little old-school. But to me, this MANGO TAPIOCA PUDDING has a special nostalgia and holds a supreme ranking as far as desserts that delighted me as a child. And as an adult :)

I wrote about my daughter's grain-free / dairy-free (essentially "paleo") diet in a previous post here.  This meant our beloved weekend pancakes became a fond memory.  Until NOW.

In my previous post, I wrote about my family's (temporary) grain-free and dairy-free diet. Since then, we had our follow up visit with the naturopath and received an 'okay' to consume rice, oats and quinoa in small amounts.  I won't pretend to understand naturopathy at all. I don't. As a fairly science-based household (my husband is an intellectual property lawyer with a specialty in biotechnology and medical devices, while I worked nearly a decade at a global pharmaceutical company in a Finance capacity), this venture into alternative medicine is a giant leap of faith.  A leap we had not choice but to take since traditional medicine failed to help my daughter beyond full-body topical steroid cream applications to treat her eczema and absolutely nada to diagnose or treat her mild but persistent, daily stomach aches.  

I made this the other day because I had hella pumpkin puree to use up.  It's only mid October and I'm still on my annual pumpkin (and pumpkin spice) bender and I wannit in EVERY. SINGLE. THING.  

It doesn't get any more simple or nourishing than this!  This smoothie is filling, nutritious, free of refined sugar yet delightfully kissed with just a bit of sweet.  It is a perfect breakfast, post-workout snack or even a light meal.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, they say, and yet it seems rather over-represented with not the healthiest options involving bread, fatty cheese and salty meats.  When my first born was around 2 years old, I somehow got away with serving her oatmeal cooked in unsweetened almond milk with a sprinkling of raisins (no sugar) every single day for an entire year!  Then she got wise.  

Okay Fall, you win.  I guess you're coming whether I'm ready or not.

But I win too, because Fall means apples and pumpkins and pumpkin pie spice in everything.  In this case, there is pumpkin pie spice in both the egg mixture for the french toast and the apple compote (like I said, pumpkin pie spice in errrrthing).  This french toast is served with a scoop of luscious apple compote and a good drizzle of warm salted caramel over top because apple + caramel are the original bff's.  How Fall vibe-y is that?  

I guess Fall isn't so bad.

This is a healthy, dairy-free take on the nostalgic flavor combination of sweetly acidic orange juice and creamy vanilla.  These may seem like an odd marriage of flavors for those who didn't grow up getting creamsicle popsicles from the corner store but they play so well with each other - like pb&j or chocolate & strawberries!  I really like it, can you tell? 

So when vogue.com asked me to contribute my recipe for this healthy creamsicle smoothie for a feature on their site, I gleefully agreed! You can read my wee feature here. No big deal ;) 

This is a gold star muffin recipe! I adore this recipe because it begins with walnuts and rolled oats ground into a coarse flour which gives the muffins substance, keeping you full longer because of the healthy oils in the walnuts and the heartiness of the oats. Buckwheat flour is used which happens to make this gluten-free. Muffins have a bad rap as the evil breakfast food loaded with hidden fat and sugar, but it doesn't have to!  I hope you like this one.

Golden french toasts, crunchy oat crumble, warm peaches spiked with maple syrup and bourbon and a luscious fried egg. I call this a perfect weekend indulgence!

Like, am I even allowed to call a double chocolate muffin 'healthy' when it is this chocolate-y good? But truly, these muffins are naturally sweetened with dates and ripe bananas (no processed sugars), are gluten-free, has fiber and heartiness from rolled oats and has only healthy oils from ground up pecans and extra-virgin olive oil. The chocolate-y goodness comes from a combo of raw cacao powder and melted dark chocolate.  Because sometimes we just need a little chocolate at 7am, don't we?   

My family LOVES this granola recipe. It has heartiness from the old-fashioned rolled oats. It has crunchiness from the almonds. It has chewiness from the dried blueberries (or other dried fruit like currents, cranberries or raisins). And important to me, it has healthy fats (extra virgin coconut oil) and is sweetened naturally with medjool dates and maple syrup. Indeed, it has all the qualities of Granola Greatness! Do you think they care about that? Nay. They love it because it is really, really yummy.

"Alkalizing". What does that have to do with juice? Remember grade school science class when you learned about the pH scale - as in, vinegar is acidic and baking soda is alkaline? As it turns out, our bodies are constantly balancing a pH too and plenty of literature informs us that bodies having a high pH (alkaline) versus a low pH (acidic) function better and are healthier.