Favorite Summer Snack/Side: Cucumber, Tomato & Feta Salad 7.06.2017

I'm so excited to have another healthy recipe for you guys today! This is one of my favorite salads ever because it's quick, simple, healthy and delicious!  What's really nice is that you only need a few ingredients, and that you can throw this together in 5ish minutes. You can completely eyeball everything and make as much or as little as you want. If I have half of a cucumber left I can whip this up for part of my lunch, or I can chop up 2 cucumbers if I want to make a full-sized salad for a family dinner. It also keeps nicely in the fridge for a couple of days, so I'll usually make a batch and have it as part of my lunch/dinner or as a snack for a couple of days. 

I eat a lot of cucumber on a weekly basis because they contain multiple B vitamins, and are rich in water and fiber! Weirdly enough, Trey is pretty allergic to them, so I get to keep this salad to myself in our house 😉

Cucumber, Tomato + Feta Summer Salad

can be easily doubled or halved - you can't mess it up!

1 cucumber - quartered

3/4 to 1 carton of cherry tomatoes (just eyeball ratio to cucumber) - halved longways

crumbled feta cheese to preference (my weakness!)

garlic vinaigrette

I typically use a clean garlic vinaigrette that I buy at Aldi, but it's easy to whip up your own if you want something even simpler or are out of dressing! I whisk the following to taste when making my own vinaigrette for this salad (sorry for not having measurements!):

extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar (key!)
fresh minced garlic (I love using a garlic press!)
sea salt (I use pink himalayan salt)
cracked black pepper

Extras you can add:
avocado
chopped kale
fresh basil or other herbs  

Please let me know what you think if you try out this recipe! Do you enjoy seeing recipes and health content on here? It's something I'm hoping to post more of as healthy cooking and nutrition are now huge interests of mine, but I always love to hear your thoughts/feedback!

Thanks so much for reading! xx

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Let's Brunch 5.19.2017

First things first, HAPPY FRIDAY!

 A couple of weekends ago, Brianna and I decided to combine our loves of breakfast foods and healthy cooking to put together this photogenic and delicious little brunch at my place! It was basically the cutest little friend date everrrrr 😋 Over the past few years I've gone from barely being able to make basic tacos to enjoying cooking and experimenting with my own healthy recipes, so I'm planning to start mixing in some recipes into my blog post lineup! Read on to see what we made...

We made 3 different recipes that were the perfect mix of savory and sweet. The first was my signature cinnamon french toast!

Healthier French Toast
 (makes 4 servings)
4 slices sprouted or whole wheat bread (I use a sprouted bread from Aldi)
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (although I usually add more!)

Beat the egg in a shallow bowl, then add almond milk, vanilla and cinnamon and mix well. Dip each slice of bread in the mixture and evenly coat both sides. Cook on a skillet over medium heat and make sure to use a non-stick spray (I like to use coconut oil spray for this recipe).

Then simply top with all the fruit your heart desires as well as real maple syrup! It's delicious, clean, fairly low calorie...and such a pretty little dish!     

I also made my go-to berry + protein smoothie bowl that is my favorite thing to eat after my Saturday morning barre class! It's refreshing, filling, and super nutritious.

Berry + Protein Smoothie Bowl

Handful of spinach
3/4-1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk (start small & add as-needed)
Handful of frozen berries (I use a mix)
1 frozen banana (I freeze a batch of sliced of bananas every few weeks) 
1/2 scoop vegan chocolate protein powder
  1 tbsp PB2 (can sub peanut or almond butter)
1 tbsp collagen powder (so good for your skin + has protein)


Briefly blend almond milk and spinach first to ensure you don't end up with any chunks of spinach in the end ;) Then add the rest of your ingredients and blend away! You may have to pause your blender a couple of times to push everything down and add more almond milk until you reach your desired consistency. Remember that with a smoothie bowl you'll want a thicker consistency than with a smoothie you'd drink!

There are so many yummy things you can top your smoothie bowl with! Here are some ideas:
sliced bananas
fresh berries
raw cacao 
chia seeds
flax seeds
shredded coconut
chopped almonds
granola
drizzle of honey or agave

Be sure to head over to Brianna's brunch post to get the recipe for her avocado + egg toast! It was so so delicious and I've already made it a few times since!

Oh...and I can't leave out the other essentials - coffee and mimosas! We made our mimosas with mango orange juice and Chandon rosé (shout to Chandon for some of the best blogger mail ever!), and sweetened our coffees with vanilla almond milk, honey and cinnamon - yum!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe post as much as we enjoyed putting it together (and eating it)! Hopefully you're excited to see recipes and more lifestyle content on here! I already have some healthy summery recipes planned and can't wait to share them with you all!

Also, here are some links to my servingware:
Plates  |  Bowl  |  Mugs  |  Woven Placemats  |  Wooden Board

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