I make a version of this smoothie almost EVERY DAY. I love how quick and nutritious it is.
Enjoy this Power Smoothie Recipe as you start your day, finish a great workout, or as dessert!
Read MoreChocolate Peanut Butter Bliss
Nourished Recipes
Nomato Enchiladas Recipe
As promised in my last Veggies You Never Thought You’d Love blog post, I present to you my tried and true Nomato Enchilada recipe! This recipe has transformed over the past year and only gotten better and better. As I even type about this recipe, I’m salivating! I’ll give you a little background info on this recipe and then let you have the big reveal.
With my long history of picky eating, I never got adventurous with trying new foods until I was in college. My husband actually deserves the credit for slowly stretching my pallet. I distinctly remember the first time I had enchiladas—we were at a little Mexican restaurant in Duluth, MN for a get-away weekend for our first wedding anniversary. There was nothing familiar on the menu and I gave my husband the typical deer-in-headlights panicked face of “what am I going to eat!?!” He suggested I try enchiladas. Whoa, that’s new to me. To make it worse, they served two varieties! Needless to say, as soon as I tried the red-sauce enchiladas I was sold. This recipe that you’re about to drool over is my attempt to recreate that delicious authentic enchilada I had over 6 years ago!
You may be wondering what is a “nomato” enchilada? Well it is simply an enchilada with no-tomato. Again, as I said in this post, I love, love, love tomatoes and all their health benefits. This year I’ve just had some issues with histamine intolerance and haven’t been able to handle the tomatoes. We loved having these enchiladas so much that I set out to create a tomato-free version. Although I love tomatoes and tomato sauce, it never ceases to amaze me that we hid SEVEN veggies into this one sauce that would normally just have a couple veggies in it.
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Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Nomato Sauce
What if I told you that you could magically transform a one veggie sauce into a mouthwatering, nutrient-dense seven veggie sauce? Would you call me crazy?
Well friends, I’ve done some extensive recipe testing and perfected my own version of what the internet calls “nomato sauce.” What exactly is no-mato sauce? This sauce is a delectable tomato-like sauce but without the tomato. Don’t get me wrong, tomatoes have wonderful health benefits, but some people don’t tolerate tomatoes and the rest of their family of nightshades very well, especially people with histamine intolerance issues.
Over this past year when tomatoes became increasingly problematic for me to process, I craved an alternative to top my beloved enchilada stuffed sweet potatoes (thank you Danielle Walker for developing such an amazing recipe!). After much testing and tasting, here I present to you my own Nomato Sauce.
As you’ll see in the recipe below, the sauce recipe I give is really the base from which you can develop your own creation. I give two options for seasonings to transform this sauce into marinara or enchilada sauce (note the enchilada sauce does include chili powder which contains paprika, a nightshade, so avoid this if all nightshades are a concern for you). Please share with us how you use this recipe!
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100+ Back-to-School Lunch Ideas
It’s back to school season which means many of us parents are scrambling to figure out “what do I (or my kids) pack for school lunch?” I (Caitlyn) am honored, excited, and overwhelmed joining for the first time the rank of parents and caregivers that are packing up their little lovebugs and sending them off to school! Whether school is a car drive a way, the destination of the sea of school buses, or across the kitchen table, back to school season requires some prep.
With school starting last week for my kiddo, I’ve been in the thick of washing school clothes, packing his backpack, and planning lunches. This week I want to share with you my round up of healthy school lunch ideas. Below you’ll find a couple Living Wellness original recipes and a bunch of links to other websites. Bookmark your favorites for later! I'd also love for you to share in the comments below your favorite school lunch ideas.
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AvoGuaco Part 2 - Uses & Health Benefits
Hello again! Last week, Peter and I (Arianne) took over the Living Wellness blog and shared our favorite recipe, AvoGuaco. We wanted to share some of our favorite ways to use this recipe as a side dish or a main dish.
Before we move into the various different ways you can use this wonderful mix, let’s talk about some of the health benefits that come from the ingredients in this living food mixture!
We’ll start with the most important ingredient in this recipe… Avocados! The health benefits from an avocado alone could arguably deem this the healthiest food of all time in my opinion. To name a few of the benefits that this nutrient-dense, superfood has inside of its shell: aids in digestion, skin, dental and hair care; it's anti-inflammatory; health fats help you stay full and many more (source). My favorite part of eating avocados is the satiety factor. You might be wondering what satiety is? To be satiated means that your body is satisfied with the nutrients it has received helping you feel full or not hungry.
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AvoGuaco Recipe Part I
Thanks for stopping by! My name is Arianne Lind. My Fiancé Peter and I are absolutely honored to share one of our favorite recipes with you on the Living Wellness blog.
Peter and I both became Living Wellness Facilitators in February of 2018, but we’ve been following the amazing life tips of Living Wellness for over two years!
After completing the Living Wellness Facilitator Training, we discovered profound ways to enhance our lives even more. Being a part of the Living Wellness community has fully inspired Peter and I to launch our own business. We are very small and in the beginning stages of creating the entity that we now call SimplyyElevated.
We are passionate about educating on food awareness, having a healthy lifestyle, and teaching people how to cook! This includes taking recipes that are traditionally not so healthy, such as pizza and brownies, and making them better by using healthful ingredients. One of our long-term visions involves having a meal service ready and available to the public.
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Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Sautéed Swiss Chard + Caramelized Onions
I absolutely love heading to our local farmer's market this time of year. Strolling down the aisles looking at the rainbow colors of produce just fills me with awe for God's creation.
This week we purchased a bunch of kale, Swiss chard, spring onions, and basket of green beans for under $10! Our local farmer's market also encourages kids to make healthy food choices by giving them a $2 token for any produce (fruit or veggie) at the market. I love seeing my son getting excited to pick out "his" veggie at the market and then proudly carry it in "his" bag :)
As I've mentioned in the other posts in this series (type in "Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love" into the search bar to read them all), eating fresh veggies have not always been something I enjoyed. In fact, I detested them! Over the course of many years, through the journey of learning that eating is not just about satisfying hunger but nourishing my body with the fuel it needs, I have come to love these veggies. With this series, I hope to encourage you to branch out and try a new veggie or two and share the experience with your kiddos or friends.
This week, I'm excited to share with you my favorite summer time veggie dish: Sauteed Swiss Chard + Caramelized Onions.
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Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Rainbow Bacon?
When they said “Eat the rainbow 🌈” they never said that couldn’t include bacon!
Weeknights can be a little crazy to get a meal on the table, let alone one with a side dish or a veggie. Even if I do manage to quickly whip something up with a veggie or two, it seems like I turn around the the dishes behind me in the sink have multiplied. That's why I've really been getting into sheet pan meals. One pan. One meal. Endless possibilities.
For this month's Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love recipe blog post, I wanted to share with you a tried-and-true favorite in our household: 🌈 Rainbow Bacon.
Yes 🌈Rainbow Bacon is packed full of veggies as the name would imply :) Okay in all seriousness the heart of this sheet pan meal is the bacon and you can toss in whatever veggies you have on hand. This recipe started out with onions, Brussels sprouts, and bacon but has morphed into so much more. The recipe below is by far our favorite. How did I come up with it? Honestly I opened up the fridge, freezer, and pantry and asked my toddler which veggies he wanted for supper. His first response was "bacon!" "No, what veggie do you want with your bacon?" :) We came up with the list of veggies below, some of which I knew he wouldn't eat, but as I said in our last post in this series: walk the walk.
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Living Wellness LIVE Episode 4 -- Cornbread Waffles & Smoothie Bowl Granola Recipes
Freedom, balance, and abundant life are a few milestones for a Living Wellness lifestyle.
Christina Zaczkowski and Ashley Darkenwald began Living Wellness Live as a way to reach more people. The show has a live audience and is filmed and produced! Our message is one that of hope and encouragement to those desiring to live a healthy holistic healthy lifestyle. We believe you don’t have to sacrifice enjoyment of life to be healthy-- you can have both!
The three components of the Living Wellness Live show include an interesting and insightful interview, a "body" segment, and a kitchen segment. We have en educational bent and an inspirational message about wholistic health.
For Episode 4, we have three incredible guests:
Roxane Battle, bestselling author of Pockets of Joy, Deciding to be Happy Choosing to be Free
Chef Phil Lutgen, owner of Pour Wine Bar and Bistro
Jennifer Menk, Senior Director of the YMCAs of the Greater Twin Cities
We hope you'll enjoy the show! Click here to go to the link from Facebook Live or stay tuned to for the edited version. You can read more about our guests here.
The recipes are below are extra special because restaurant owners usually do NOT share their secrets. But Phil and Diane from Pour are AMAZING and have shared a few recipes from their BRAND NEW Sunday brunch menu. I highly encourage you to check out their brunch at Pour Wine Bar and Bistro at either the Otsego or Champlin location*. I've had it a few times myself and I've been delighted! Keep reading for the recipes!
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All-Powerful Avocado! (Yes, even for weight loss!)
On the day, God created avocados he must have thought, “Let us create a fruit that can powerfully help prevent and combat disease, endless in its uses, and that tastes awesome!” Voila, the avocado was made, and it was good, really good.
I bet you knew that avocados are good for you but I wonder if you had any clue of HOW GOOD they are for you and your family? They are so good, basically the only thing they cannot do is watch your kids for you. Okay, and also, they will not do your dishes either. But everything else, they can do.
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Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Pumpkin Chocolate Brownie Muffins (GF)
On this very special day, Mother's Day, we want to share with you a recipe that's as sweet as mom :) We're back again for another post in our series Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love. Type this title into our search bar to find all the other delicious and nutritious recipes in this series. So with this month's recipe, I wanted you Moms (and everyone else too!) to have your veggie recipe but also have your dessert too. Have you ever heard of a dessert with a veggie in it other than carrot cake? I haven't!
As I mentioned in this post, my son is muffin crazy, and it brings me so much joy to see my kiddo go crazy for something I've made that is healthy too. This spring, I started experimenting with some egg-free Paleo muffin recipes for his birthday party.
I'm typically pretty good at adding the main components of a recipe on my grocery list, but this particular recipe I ran out of a few ingredients and had to improvise. The result was mouthwatering! What was once a pretty decent Paleo chocolate chip muffin, elevated into this chocolate peanut buttery goodness that melted in my mouth, completely masking the fact I was eating a veggie I didn't like: pumpkin! What's even better? They're super easy to make. Honestly the hardest part was scooping the peanut and almond butter from the bottom of the jars! Oh and I forgot to mention, my son loved them too!
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15 Budget and Kid-Friendly Super Foods + FREE Printable
I'm sitting beside Lake Geneva in MN watching the sunset as I finish this blog post. I actually sprinted from my guest room to get a glimpse of the space between light and dark, feeling the cool lake breeze on my cheeks. There really are some things money can't buy. God is the ultimate painter.
There were times and seasons in my life when I would get really upset about all of the things I couldn't buy because I didn't have the money. It wasn't until more recently that I realized my problem wasn't ever about not having enough money, it was about my attitude toward God. Anger and frustration about money wasn't the problem; it was about not having enough God. That was not a problem with God though...he is always enough. We need to check out heart to see who (or what) is on the throne. God has given me everything I need. He cares for me in every way. However, when I focus on my lack, God leaves the equation. When I focus on God's abundance and providence, God becomes the center of my life and I am content. I have enough.
The same is true about food. Whether you are on a budget, you have food allergies/sensitivities, or you're just a picky eater, it's easy to focus on all the things we CAN'T have. Have you ever done that? I have. It puts my heart in a bad place. My attitude of self-pity is usually taken out on those around me. However, as soon as I make the switch to looking at the abundance that God has provided for food, my heart is instantly grateful and calm.
Below is a list of budget and kid-friendly superfoods. Rather than taking an attitude of "Ugh, I'll never eat those or my little people will never eat those. . . " be still, my soul. My encouragement for you is to start with one pantry item at a time. Once you have mastered that one item (or meal), add another budget-friendly super food to your diet. Also, we have a fun new blog series called Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love that gives one family friendly healthy eating tip (focused on helping your kids be more accepting of new foods). Type this title into our search bar to see all of the blog posts and stay tuned! A new post is release each month and our next one is next week which features a veggie dessert!
We climb mountains one step at a time. We nourish our bodies one bite at a time. Blessings!
Read MoreBite by Bite: Finding Food Freedom -- Kale Chips Recipe
This picture makes a momma heart proud. It’s a picture of progress. It’s a picture of healing. It’s a picture of food freedom.
Although you may just see a toddler’s plate for a mid-afternoon snack, what I see is tiny taste buds that have shifted sloooowly with tons of love and guidance. Not just talking about my son’s taste buds but mine. Yes he went through the typical toddler picky phase but his started to go deeper than that. I couldn’t see it at first because I was blinding by the ease of serving him what I knew he’d eat. I saw it after I slammed the fridge door frustrated that I had served him the same meal 2x that day not counting how many times that week. I saw it as I watched the meltdown at the table when daddy offered a bite of carrot. I saw it when I looked in the mirror.
You see this plate is really a mirror. He eats what I eat, that is, what I eat now. Food and I go way back.
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Living Wellness LIVE Episode 3 Recipes
What an amazing Living Wellness LIVE Episode 3 we had this past Friday! We had such a great time learning from Stefanie Peters from Lady Boss Empire, Carisa Rasmussen from Clean & Lean, and Kelley Suggs from Lithe Wellness Solutions. If you weren't able to join our fun live audience and want to see the show, check out the full show here!
Also, if you missed our show in-person, you can still enjoy the amazing THREE course meal Kelley Suggs made by recreating those simple yet super flavorful dishes in your own kitchen. All three recipes are below!
For those of you who are not familiar with Kelley Suggs, she is a two-time guest on the Living Wellness LIVE show and certified health education specialist (CHES) at Lithe Wellness Solutions. You can learn much more about Kelley here!
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Nourishing & Easy Chicken Broth Recipe
Recently while grocery shopping, I noticed chicken broth was on sale. I love me a good sale (especially if you can get a case discount with it!) so I picked up a carton. Thankfully no one saw my disgusted face as I read the ingredients. I won't name any names, but I was disappointed that even a "natural" type of chicken broth had extra ingredients in it like natural coloring. Why did my stock need color added? Needless to say I put the carton back on the shelf and passed up the sale.
You may be wondering why I would use chicken broth in a recipe when there are so many great health benefits of bone broth. Great question! I recently was prescribed to be on a low-histamine diet for a short period of time in order to decrease my overall histamine levels to manage some health concerns that flared up. Bone broth can actually be high in histamine. Normally the high histamine in bone broth is not a problem for most people, but for this particular diet modification I needed something with lower histamine. I decided to do a little researching and ultimately decided to make up my own recipe for chicken broth.
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Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Sweet Potato Fries
Healthy eating has not always been something on my priority list nor was it something I was always willing to do. If I were to show my current diet to my 8-year-old self who often refused to eat anything except Campbell's Chunky Soup and Dinty Moore Stew (not making this up!), my 8-year-old probably would have fainted. When I look at the changes I've made, whether by choice or by medical-necessity, I'm quite proud of how far I've come.
One area though that I continue to struggle with and consequently see my toddler son struggle with being adventurous is veggies. Choose any color of the rainbow and there are a multitude of veggies with amazing nutritional value. I know how amazing broccoli is with it's calcium and vitamin C, Brussels sprouts with their manganese and vitamin B's, and sweet potato with it's vitamin A. I know how amazing veggies are for you, but that isn't always enough to challenge my palate to take a bite. As a former picker-eater and mother of a picker-eater, AND lover of honoring my body with nourishing foods, I'm excited to share with you a series of recipes I've developed over the years that have become a hit in our family and helped us to eat more veggies.
I'd also like to share with you a simple tip each post in this series how to help your kiddos (or yourself) becoming more adventurous with their eating!
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Pantry Makeover Series: Part 3
The Living Wellness Pantry Makeover Series is back for 2018! Check out our first two posts here and here!
Well welcome back our Pantry Makeover Series. I (Caitlyn) am excited to welcome you into my pantry to see a few of my favorite pantry staples. At Living Wellness we strongly encourage focusing on as much whole, unprocessed foods as you can. For that reason, I've included a few pantry staples that I use in conjunction with whole-foods to make meals or snacks.
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Living Wellness LIVE recipes: Whitefish Fajita Stuffed Peppers & Grandpa Apples’ Favorite
Today on the Living Wellness Blog we're excited to bring our second Living Wellness LIVE show into your own kitchen with two amazing recipes! Living Wellness Facilitator Bill Evans created these fabulous dishes for us this past Friday at Living Wellness LIVE. Check out the full recap video here including the cute story about the title for the Grandpa Apples' recipe below.
As Christina said in our show, Bill Evans is one of our talented Living Wellness Facilitators and also a food enthusiast. He hasn't always been super creative in the kitchen though. Bill's healthy cooking journey actually only started about 15 years ago when he decided that he wanted to find out how to make the commercially prepared foods he enjoyed at home without the additives. Bill also credits hunger and timing as sources of cooking inspiration as his work and hunger schedule allowed him to whip up new dishes for his wife to enjoy when she got home from work. Gotta eat to live right? :)
Trying new dishes and sharing them with others are some of Bill's favorite parts of cooking, but even more so, Bill has said that he loves finding foods that taste good and nourish our bodies at the same time. So, without further ado, here's two delicious and nourishing recipes. Enjoy!
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Pantry Makeover Series: Holiday Baking Edition
For many people who have recently changed or thinking about making changes in their health or wellness routines, the holidays and health can be stressful. Will I be able to keep up with my typical wellness routine with holiday parties, family time, work commitments? Maybe I should just skip working out or watching my calories until after the holidays, I mean could I really do it anyway? What am I going to eat at that holiday party...or...do I really have to avoid all of those amazingly delicious looking treats to follow my nutrition plan?
"The ultimate goal of eating is to nourish our bodies. My personal goal is to eat for nourishment 95 percent of the time and reserve that last 5 percent for healthy, natural treats" Living Wellness for Growth Groups, 2017, p. 20.
During this holiday season, we want to empower you to continue to make choices that will nourish your body, mind, and soul. That's why over the next 4 weeks we're going to be sharing some great resources with you to thrive during this season.
We’re back for the Living Wellness Pantry Makeover Series this time for our Holiday Baking Edition! We absolutely love the holiday season including all of the amazing treats that fill our homes, hearts, and tummies this time of year. This week's post will include a variety of pantry items that you may want to consider stocking up on as you prepare your lists for holiday baking and menus for holiday parties. We also wanted to let you know we're launching our....
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Join the Pumpkin Craze with These TWO New Recipes
I love fall for many reasons, but one of my favorite parts of fall is the harvest. Fresh squash, apples, potatoes, garlic, and. . . pumpkins! I have especially enjoyed making all sorts of pumpkin recipes over the years. Every where you turn it seems you see a new product with pumpkin spice!
With only 49 calories per cup, pumpkin is loaded with vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, potassium, and more! Sorry to break it to you, fresh pumpkin is what is loaded with these amazing nutrients...probably not the "pumpkin" in the coffee shop pumpkin spiced latte. Fresh pumpkin puree also has fiber and protein! This health food is tasty and versatile.
Join with me in celebrating the harvest with these two delicious pumpkin recipes--which just might hit your craving for pumpkin spice :)
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