Lentils & Okra

When you’re hard at work, whether it be on a spiritual, physical or mental level, feeding your body the minerals it needs to keep it sustained on life can be quite a challenge if you don’t know the health benefits and factors of foods that will literally give you life. Recipe for today are lentils and Okra. 

Because Lentils have a great source of folate and contains a good amount of copper, creating a simple dish was a vital way to fuel the body with alkaline food of the earth. In addition to their health benefits, lentils are filled with iron, manganese, potassium, protein, vitamins B1 and B6. 

My overall goal is to make life and cooking simple without spending hours in the kitchen. So creating meals for my hectic schedule which include kids sports practices and games, running a household, running two businesses and homeschooling my kids. I don’t have much time any longer to cook for hours in the kitchen. However, I still want to provide nutritious meals for my family so now I break my meals down to 20-30 minute cooking times but mostly under an hour including prep time.

Below, you will find the simple recipe to add protein and import vitamins and minerals to your vegan, vegetarian, or carnivorous diet. 

ENJOY!

RECIPE:

1 cup raw green lentils

4 cups water

1/4 cup fresh parsley-chopped

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves-chopped

1 tsp sea salt

15 okra pods- sliced in half or thirds
DIRECTIONS:

1. Rinse lentils.  Add hot water to saucepan
2. Boil lentils on high heat approximately 30 minutes
3. Turn heat down to Med heat and add herbs. Stir. 10 minutes 
4. Add sea salt and Okra pods. Stir. Approx 10 minutes. (When you notice okra starting to sweat, stir) then Simmer on low heat covered. 

Muddy Green Smoothie

Replenishing and rejuvenating your cells is an important ritual that we should focus on when it comes to overall health. Just by adding 1 superfood per day will help to get you on the right track when it comes to heart health, your blood flow, and digestive trac.

The Muddy Green smoothie is a combination of leafy greens and a mix of cherries and berries. Because getting a good amount of nutrients and minerals in my body, I’ve been creating various smoothie recipes that are simple, quick and affordable to make.

This smoothie helps to relieve stress in your cells and help to support a healthy digestive system. the lime helps to relieve constipation, improve heart health, joints, supports healthy blood sugar levels and assists with regulating your temperature.  With the added parsley, it increases the strength of vitamin K which promotes bone strength and assists with limiting neuronal brain damage. You may be wondering what is neuronal brain damage. Neuronal brain damage is a condition where there’s inflammation in the brain in addition to a break down of the blood-brain barrier.

Benefits: Loaded with Vitamin A & C, B-6, Protein, Fiber, Magnesium, potassium.

RECIPE:

1 cup coconut water

4 collard green leaves

2 parsley sprigs

1 cup cherries

1/2 cup blueberries

1 lime

 

DIRECTIONS:

Blend all ingredients until desired smoothness. Approximately 2-3 minutes

T 25 Weightloss Journey

Starting a new journey to anything is always hard. Whether you’re  moving, starting a new school, a new job, a new workout plan or a new meal plan. 

My journey to health, healing and happiness started with having my daughter. In the beginning, change was rough and patchy but I moved through it. There have been many ups and downs and in and outs but I am still here moving through the daily struggle of being a mom of 3, a fashion designer, an author, a wife. 

In this 3 year journey to weight loss, I have lost weight, gained weight, had fibroids, lost weight, gained a little, hit plateaus, maintained at 170, gained 20lbs and now I’m getting back into my routine to working out. 

Eating clean in the past 4 years has not been a problem but being consistent with my fitness level has been a struggle, my weakness. So last week was my first week of doing T25 with Shaun T. 

Because my sons play baseball and my oldest made the District team, my schedule surrounds his practices and games. I don’t have much time to drive to the and I don’t like working out at home because I need my space to clear my thoughts and having kids run around while trying to focus on me for an hour is a struggle. 

T25 allows me to wake up at 8 am and workout before the kids even eat breakfast. With No interruptions, I can sweat hard with minimal time and still do everything I can within the time I have to work with. 

My only problem with T25 was the 5 day fast track meal plan. As you know I’m 93% vegan and 7% vegetarian. Every once in a while, I will have a thin crust cheese pizza with vegetables. The meal plan was not my standard of eating so I created a plan similar to the plan included in the package. This week, I will be posting my 5 Day Vegan fast track meal plan. 

Follow my 5 day journey to T25. 

Simple Snack

Life is Simple and so are our bodies. The snacks, fruits and vegetables do not need to be difficult to digest and stored or expelled. So my goal is to make life a little simpler by sharing some of my easy breezy meals, smoothies, snacks to your kitchen table.

Here’s a simple Finger snack to munch on for the kids after school.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 cup dry oats
2. 5 medjool Dates sliced
3. 1 ripe banana
4. 2 Tbls Sunflower Seed butter (any seed/nut butter)
5. 1/2 cup almonds or walnuts (roasted-option)
6. 3 Tbls Agave
7. 1/8 tsp Sea Salt

 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Slice Medjool Dates and remove seeds
2. Whisk Banana until smooth
3. Add seed/nut butter of choice
4. Add dates
5. Stir
6. Add nuts, Agave, sea salt
7. Stir
8. ENJOY?
9. or create round balls and place on cookie sheet
10. Preheat oven on 250 degrees F
11. Mix makes 16 rounds
12. Place in oven for 7-10 minutes
13. Let cool and Enjoy!

 

 

 

Meatless Monday-Electric Lentils

Known for being a powerhouse packed with folate and protein and low in calories. These Legumes have earned their name on the charts for being the third highest level of protein because the protein in them makes up 26% of the calories that people consume.

As a staple food, I personally enjoy them alone or paired with other foods because my Iron levels drop if I don’t keep enough Iron stored in my body. Not only are Lentils delicious but they are great for the digestive, nervous and immune system.

It is said that they derive from the Middle East over 13,000 years ago. From Syria to Turkey are different countries that cultivated this legumes. However, at that point in time, the Middle East was still part of the continent of Africa but formerly known as Aethiopia (Ethiopia).

Please Enjoy this recipe made with love!

---

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup dried Lentils

1/2 Red Onion

4 tbls chopped cilantro

1 tbls Sea Salt

4 cups water

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground sage

1 tsp Basil

 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Soak cleaned lentils for an hour
2. Sautee chopped onions in skillet with oil of choice approx. 2 minutes
3. Add cilantro. Cook 1 minute
4. Add Spices and lentils in pan. Stir
5. Add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
6. Simmer about an hour covered.

 

ROASTED Mushroom Wrap

Experiments make the best meals! So says my kids tummies. Every now and then, I get ideas in my head on what would different ingredients taste like together. Off to the kitchen I go to recreate the vision I saw in my head.

With sharing my recipes, my goal is to make things that appear difficult simple. Because Life is simple, the body is simple, it is us who make things difficult.

I hope to help with making living an abundant and clean life through simplicity all while having vegan/vegetarian food pleasant to the tongue.

Please try this recipe. This will definitely be the go to tortilla to add just about everything in it. From breakfast wraps to dinner ensembles.

NOTE: Roasted Okra and Greens Recipe will pair well with this wrap.

---

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Roasted Mushrooms

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Basil

1/4 tsp Ground Sage

2 cups Quinoa Flour + 1/2 cup flour of choice for rolling

Sesame seed oil, Grapeseed oil, or Avocado oil (for heating the tortillas)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2.  Place uncooked Bella Mushrooms on a baking sheet

3.  Bake about 15-20 minutes

4.  After mushrooms are roasted, bring water to a boil

5.  Place water, mushrooms, and seasonings in a blender

6.  Blend until mushroom becomes a thick paste or approx. 2 minutes

7.  Pour mushroom mush in a mixing bowl and add Quinoa Flour

8.  Stir or blend until it looks like dough

9.  Take medium size balls and rolls them

10. Sprinkle flour on a flat surface & your rolling pin

11. Place mushroom ball on it and begin to roll the ball into a round shape

12. Heat a skillet with oil of your choice

13. Place tortilla round in skillet once hot and cook approx. 20 sec on each side or until the tortillas starts to turn brown and form air bubbles.

14 Day Detox Book

Hi,

My name is LaDaska, I’m a fashion designer and I write this blog called, FOOD Junkie 21 where I share my healthy recipes and fashion concepts through story telling. My passion for food and health brought me to write this book! After giving birth to three children and having five pregnancies, my body changed dramatically. I was close to 300lbs after having my third child. I was unhappy and felt depressed, maybe post partum depression. I was at a weight that I had never seen. I never wanted to leave my home. I was hesitant to go out and meet new people because I was not happy with my weight. But when I was tired of being cramped inside my home and my knees hurting from my weight, I wanted to change my life. So I started changing my diet which led me to change my life.  Hopefully, this detox book can help you whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned body cleanser.

 

To purchase EAT Like You’re NAKED…14 Day Detox, it is available on my website at http://www.ladaskamechelle.com/#!product-page/c6np/39f8c81e-40d6-9702-80b2-2207ac6a1ae8

Hope you enjoy it.

14 Day Detox Book

Hi,

My name is LaDaska, I’m a fashion designer and I write this blog called, FOOD Junkie 21 where I share my healthy recipes and fashion concepts through story telling. My passion for food and health brought me to write this book! After giving birth to three children and having five pregnancies, my body changed dramatically. I was close to 300lbs after having my third child. I was unhappy and felt depressed, maybe post partum depression. I was at a weight that I had never seen. I never wanted to leave my home. I was hesitant to go out and meet new people because I was not happy with my weight. But when I was tired of being cramped inside my home and my knees hurting from my weight, I wanted to change my life. So I started changing my diet which led me to change my life.  Hopefully, this detox book can help you whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned body cleanser.

 

To purchase EAT Like You’re NAKED…14 Day Detox, it is available on my website at http://www.ladaskamechelle.com/#!product-page/c6np/39f8c81e-40d6-9702-80b2-2207ac6a1ae8

Hope you enjoy it.