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 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.

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.

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.

Here's a tasty and healthy option for a quick weeknight meal.  Did I hit all the right words...tasty...healthy...quick?!  Not lying, this meal can be made in 20 minutes flat.  We all need more of those in our busy lives.

You need a good fried rice in your weeknight repertoire. You really do. I wrote up this recipe as a supplement to my previous post "Simple Beer Braised Pork" as one of a few ways to make a single braised pork shoulder and turn it into multiple delicious meals by freezing portions of it to pull out as needed on busy weeknights. (See also my post "Pappardelle with Pulled Pork & Wilted Spinach" for another scrumptious meal idea). 

I generally abhor salad prep. I love to eat salad. But the prep, no. So much washing and spinning and trimming and seeding and cutting. But these rolls and the dipping sauce. Oh I'll do it for them. They are one of my favorite ways to eat a load of vegetables in one sitting. The filling can be quite versatile. The only 'formula' (for me) is the inclusion of buttery avocado + crunchy carrots + refreshing cucumber + something leafy. Beyond that, almost anything goes. 

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.