Flax Matters

Good Afternoon!

I hope everyone had a happy Friday! We have had a great first day of summer. The kids came with me to teach Baby Boot Camp and were VERY well behaved and even participated in a little exercise this morning. We then came home and got ready for our BIG playdate. Emmet's best friend, Travis, comes from a family of 5 kids and we invited 4 of the 5 over to play today. I offered to take Hudson as well, he is 3 years old but thankfully the mother declined. He is so cute and I meant it when I said he is welcome, but I honestly don't know how she does it! Her kids are all so well-behaved and polite and all very smart as well. Emmet and Travis have reading contests to see who can finish a book first... the kind of friend I totally approve of! Anyways, we had Austin (10), Travis (9), Savannah (7) and Avery (6) over and the kids played hard all day. I loved the fact that they all got along so well.

So during that time, I was able to plot out my eats for the rest of the day and I realized that it was a FLAX day. I started out the morning with my all-time favorite:

Almond, Banana and Flax Ezekiel English Muffin

1 Food for Life 7 Grain Sprouted English Muffins
1 tablespoon natural almond butter
1 small banana, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Pizzey's Premium Organic Golden Milled Flaxseed

I really am enjoying this new flaxseed because it is really finely milled and is super easy to sprinkle onto everything. It was a nice touch to my morning Nut Butter and Banana English Muffin.

For Lunch I wanted to try out the SmoothOmega? Milled Golden Flax that was sent to me and is good for smoothies.

Ready-to-eat Pizzey's Premium SmoothOmega? Milled Golden Flax has a super-fine, velvety-soft texture and mild flavor that mixes quickly in beverages, smoothies, sauces and yogurt-or anything else you like.

I made an awesome:

Acai Green Vibrance Flax Smoothie.

1 packet Green Vibrance
1/2 packet of Jay Robb Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1/2 cup Trop50 OJ
1 tablespoon SmoothOmega? Milled Golden Flax
1/2 packet Sabazon Acai Berry Puree
Handful of Ice Cubes

Blend it and enjoy!



I am bummed because my blender broke and some of my powerful smoothie started coming out the bottom... I hate to waste such good ingredients! I got most of it. I am going to look into those Magic Bullet Blender's, I heard they were good.

The smoothie was great and I could not taste the flax or the Green Vibrance and I mean that in a good way. It tasted great and gave me a lot of energy. Enough to make Spelt Flax Cookies - Two Ways.

I based my recipe on my favorite Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno for Whole Wheat Flax Cookies but tweaked mine just a bit.

Spelt Flax Cookies- Two Ways

1/2 cup Pizzey's Premium Golden Flax Seeds
1 1/2 cup buttermilk

In a small bowl soak whole flax seed in buttermilk for 2 hours at room temperature.

1 3/4 cups Spelt Flour
4 tablespoons Mesquite Flour
1/2 cup Pizzey's Premium Golden Milled Flaxseed
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix all dry ingredient together and set aside.

Combine
1 cup Olivina (1/2 stick butter and 1/2 cup olive oil put in food processor and whipped until smooth)
1 cup Sucanat
2 eggs
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Combine liquid ingredients with dry ingredients until all ingredients are evenly blended.

Add in:

2 cups coursely chopped, raw, unsalted almonds

Split the dough in half and add:

1/2 cup of Dark Chocolate Chips to half dough

and

1/2 cup of Golden Raisins to the other half of dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop cookies using large soup spoon or ice cream scooper and bake for 15 minutes.

These are a really hearty cookie and the kids ate some of the Chocolate Chip Spelt Flax Cookies and I ate one of the Spelt Flax Raisin Cookie. Yum. I am a texture girl and these provide all that good texture along with a bit of sweetness. I would also consider eating these as a breakfast cookie. They are loaded with all sorts of good stuff-- flax, spelt, oatmeal and almonds. Very satisfying.




Dinner was basically a repeat of last night:



Flatbread Pizza + Salad

1 Whole Foods Whole Wheat Flatbread
1 tablespoon marinara sauce
1 cup spinach
Thinly shaved shallot
1 oz fresh mozzarella cheese
.5 oz of Sundried Tomato and Basil Goat Cheese
Fresh Basil


Simple Salad

2 cups Herb Spring Mix
1/2 cup Matchstick Carrots
Handful of Snap Peas
2 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced

Dressed with balsamic vinegar,olive oil and dijon mustard.

Yum!

The kids and I are going to watch a movie and then hit the hay! Have a great evening.