Sippin' on Gin.... and Juice!

Ok, so maybe not Gin... But I am down with the Juice right now! I do love gin, but I'm currently on a healing mission!

So, when I saw this amazing masticating juicer on sale, I couldn't resist!

Isn't she beautiful? Ok, so it was important that I got a Masticating Juicer, according to my girlfriend Kate, owner and magical awesomness behind Raw Replenish, a cold pressed juice company in Pennsylvania! (If you are interested in reading more about masticating vs centrifugal juicers, go HERE). Basically, I love my friend Kate, and she knows Raw Juice, I mean, it's her business! SO I bought this! 

AS SOON as I opened it, I unpacked it and made celery Juice!

ACTUAL photo of me, sans makeup at about 6:30 am Christmas Morning with my fresh pressed celery juice!

Why might you ask? Well, I recently got this book: 

 In this book, it talks about SO many issues hormonal and otherwise, and how to heal them! Well, one of the things is celery! In the book, he suggests 16oz of fresh celery juice every morning on an empty stomach. Why? Well, celery helps with digestion. It strengthens the hydrochloric acid in your gut, and helps your liver produce more bile to break down food. Celery even has mineral salts, these stabilize and support the adrenal glands.  I mean, why isn't this on the list of superfoods, right? In addition, it also helps cleanse the thyroid, and bolsters the production of the thyroid hormone T3! WHAT?!!? Yes, it's basically totally badass! Want more info? Read this book! It's so amazing!

I didn't actually think my fresh celery juice would be very good. Though, I'm the girl that loves wheatgrass. Yes, it's true. Now that I have a juicer, I am thinking I will start growing some wheatgrass! ANyway, back to celery.... It was light, and sort of sweet. I do use organic celery, so maybe that had something to do with the fresh sweeter taste than I expected. Either way, I'm on board. I'm committed to juicing celery daily, and seeing how it helps!

Celery is not all, you should see some of the other crazy concoctions I've been coming up with! They are so amazing. Even my 9 year old boy is turning into a juicing pro! This thing is the bomb diggity! I should have bought a juicer sooner! Seriously, Why did I wait so long?

More juicing yumminess to come soon, as I learn more and explore more amazing veggie & fruit combinations!

#getyourjuiceon

Annastasia's Food Swaps

Annastasia's Favorite Desserts

Bringing out your inner Badass

Annastasia's Bootcamp

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K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S. = Keep it simple stupid

Sure, I get it. Stupid isn't a nice word. But, it gets the point across right? I use this acronym a lot. There are SO many things in life that I think we as humans really try to over-complicate.

We over analyze.
We over research.
We think the crap out of everything.

It makes things more difficult I think. Back when things were simple, and there wasn't as many choices .... life just seemed easier am I right? Well, today I bring you the issue of "What to make for lunch after church on Sunday" - Yes, it's an issue.

If I don't have things ready, my kids can't fend for themselves. I must have staples like bread, and peanut butter. These kids expect so much from me! (joking). This works well, if we remembered to make sandwich bread! #realmomlife  This brings us to this past Sunday....after church. NOTHING to eat. No bread was made. The kids had NO idea what to make themselves! What is a tired, and busy mom to do? I mean we already lost an hour of sleep, momma just wanted a nap! (Thanks daylight savings)

Enter my "mom's busy and didn't plan a lunch meal" - Salad! But not just any salad, this is the super amazing, full of flavor, tasty salad that my kids love, and it requires no bread! Crab salad!! YES! That is the answer! I highly suggest you keep staples to make a version of this in your own house at all times! :) I'm sharing my recipe with you so you too can keep this in your back pocket, for just those moments. You may even LOOK like you have it together! ;)


First, you start with some chopped up celery. I prefer to have mine diced.

Throw them in the bowl. 

Up Next, The Crab. You could used canned if that is what you have on hand. However, I prefer the Big huge chunks of the imitation crab meat from Aldi. You can see in my picture how huge these chunks are. Next, add about 1/2 C Avocado Oil Mayo.

Up Next is really the secret Sauce! The seasonings! I add by sight, and don't really measure, so these can totally be adjusted to your own taste & liking! I do about 1/2 Tsp of Each Old Bay Seasoning and Dill. If you have fresh dill, use that! The flavor will really pop. If not, Dried is great! 

Mix it all up really well. From here you can stick in fridge to chill, or you can eat it! We've been known to throw it on Crackers, Breads, Chilled cooked pasta..... Really, the possibilities are endless! :) 

I hope you enjoy this easy simple recipe! Let me know if you try it in the comments! 

PIN IT HERE ⇓

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* This post contains affiliate links. Thank you!

This pot is changing my life!

Have you heard about this amazing magic thing?

The Instant Pot?!?



This thing is Changing my life!

I only got it like 3 days ago, and I've seriously cooked SO MUCH in it already! Today's magical concoction was a super hit!

You know how we've all heard how much better for you steel cut oats are.... yadda yadda...
But those things take SOOO long to cook! Even with the quick cooking ones I have it takes over 10 minutes of "simmering"! Also, say goodbye to those amazing little things called "Overnight Oats" if you switch from old fashioned rolled oats to steel cut! Those things are amazing you all, seriously everyone picks their own and they are DONE overnight! Since we chose to forgo buying a microwave in our new house, those too have gone out the window because of the whole heating up part, but that isn't the point..... back to the pot. This thing makes the magic of "make your own oats" possible again, with the healthy steel cut version, and its fast and so good you all!

I came across this amazing blog post on Tidbits that lays out how to do this! My mind was blown! I just had to try it! I may very well blow my whole house up putting jars in the cooker, but I like to live dangerously.... I had to do it! (I also didn't do the "water test" you are supposed to do when you first get it, I have no idea where everyone even saw this info!)

I did make a few changes to the original recipe (find recipe here)

We all wanted to try the Carrot Cake oats! So we put in the oats, chia, and spices (we upped these a tad, as we love spices). I used chopped carrots instead of shredded (I love my food chopper, way faster then shredding), and we used coconut sugar (1 Tblsp per jar? I don't measure much) in place of the sweetener the recipe calls for! We actually did everything the night before, minus adding the water. Added all dry ingredients to the jars, and put the lids on til morning. We stored the chopped carrots ready to add covered in the fridge. My Instant Pot does not have a "delay" feature that I know of (maybe I should read my book), so I just finished them and put them in to cook in the morning with the carrots and water! 

Since I used my Bob's Red Mill Organic quick cooking steel cut oats, I did decrease my cook time to only 14 minutes vs the 20 called for in the original recipe. Once done, I quick released pressure then opened it up! I used my canning jar tongs to carefully lift them out and put them on a cooling rack. Let them sit there for a short bit to cool.

We opened the lids, stirred, and enjoyed! You guys, seriously these are OUT of this world good! SUPER easy for everyone to pick their own add ins, and then cook them all up! I actually think  I like the texture better cooking this way too! This is a SUPER win recipe for our family!  I hope you enjoy this great recipe as much as we did!

I created a neat little community on facebook to share clean eating Instant Pot recipes! Want to join us?  

Let me know what you love making in your pot!

PIN IT HERE!!!

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* This post contains affiliate links. Thank you!

Muffins are amazing!

Ok, so muffins aren't exactly healthy - but making them at home does make them a bunch more healthy!! Plus, my kids LOVE when I make muffins!! From scratch is ALWAYS better then those store bought!

Today was a lazy Saturday morning - so I decided to bake some muffins! They really didn't take too long, and were so yummy! I made banana crumble muffins - and they were made with all organic ingredients (<---- that means "healthy" right??) The recipe I originally found on all recipes, but made some changes for our family since we don't do any dairy. 

Whip these up on a lazy morning for your kids, they will think you are super awesome baker mom!! 

Ingredients:

1.5 C flour

1 tsp each baking soda & baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 mashed bananas
3/4 C granulated sugar 

1 egg

1/3 C coconut oil

Topping:

1/3 C brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 tbsp coconut oil

Cinnamon to taste

Preheat to 375. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl - set aside. Cream together bananas, sugar, egg, and coconut oil (soften with heat of necessary). Once well combined, add dry to wet - stir until just combined and moistened. Put into muffin cups it greased muffin tin. Bake 18-22 minutes. Cool on wire rack, and enjoy!

Do you follow me on Facebook yet? I post all kinds of recipes over there too! 

Fresh out of the oven Muffins!!

This recipe was adapted from a recipe at All Recipes: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-crumb-muffins/