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Filed Under: Daily, FOOD AND COOKING

Banana “Ice Cream”

sugar and dairy free banana ice cream When you are avoiding processed sugar, you still crave the sweetness – duh. We have been totally addicted to this fake ice cream, like I buy extra bananas hoping no one will eat them so I can make this almost every night.
Have you tried Banana “Ice Cream” yet? If you haven’t (you probably have) you are in for a real treat…bad joke.
I wish we stumbled upon this recipe years ago, it’s totally a “where have you been my whole life” sorta thing. I’m not even an ice cream fan, but I am a sweet sugar fan and this nails that craving, like woah. And to make it even more awesome, the kids cannot tell the difference between this and regular old ice cream and it’s good for them. Also the perfect use for bananas that are looking a little freckled.

sugar and dairy free banana ice cream Sugar and Dairy Free Banana Ice Cream

  • 2 sliced and frozen ripe bananas
  • 1/2 teaspoon raw honey
  • pinch of cinnamon or a splash of vanilla extract (or both)
  • as needed cold coconut milk (you can use any kind of milk, but I like how “whipped” coconut milk makes the “ice cream” taste)

Slice 2 bananas and lay them out on a cookie sheet, the put it in the freezer. Freeze for 2 hours. Toss the frozen slices in a blender (only the hardcore/strong blenders will do!), put a bit of honey, cinnamon and a splash of cold coconut milk in the blender. Blend. Add more coconut milk as you need/if you need. Scoop into bowls, eat or top with whatever you dig then eat. We like to drizzle a tiny bit of maple syrup and almond butter on top. mmmmm!

If you haven’t tried it yet, do it tonight now!

February 23, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     6 Comments



Filed Under: Daily, FOOD AND COOKING, What We Eat

EVERYDAY EATS / HEALTHY FAMILY DINNER FAVORITES

everyday eats | healthy family dinners In January Chris and I did a month of no sugar, no dairy, no processed grains and no booze (sooooo boring). Sounds pretty horrible from the outside looking in, but I promise it’s almost all rainbows and butterflies, well after the first two weeks or so. I personally do a detox once a year, so cutting back on all these things was pretty easy for me (I’m not trying to toot my own horn, it just was). The first time is always the worst, oooh those sugar cravings!! Since that month is over and as annoying as it sounds (it feels equally annoying as I type it) it feels better to keep those things cut out of our diets. So we still avoid sugar, dairy and processed grains, but still enjoy them when we crave them or when we are out – moderation. It’s that 80/20 rule, 80% of the time we eat clean and super healthy, 20% of the time we eat what we eat. And since I do all the cooking, the kids basically eat whatever we eat – except I still buy and make them their favorites for snacks and school lunches.
Alot of you asked if I could share some of the things we eat, that didn’t have the 4 things we were avoiding (that’s a bit of a confusing mouthful).
I like to try at least one new recipe a week (I get very tired of eating the same thing), some weeks everyday consists of a new recipe. But we always have a rotating list of go-to simple ingredient favorites, here are some off our current list for dinners and leftovers (aka lunches):

DINNER

  • Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Salmon
  • Italian Drunken Pasta (minus the white wine and noodles – and use a gluten free/sugar free sausage)
  • Meatloaf Muffins
  • Chicken in Milk – our favorite roasted chicken recipe (switch out the milk for coconut milk, not exactly the same but still oddly totally addicting and delicious)
  • DIY Chipotle Chicken Bowl: Chicken Marinade (I put it in the slow cooker), Rice Recipe (I use quinoa instead), Corn Salsa.
  • Quinoa Chicken Curry Bowls
  • Tex Mex Casserole
  • Crock Pot Tikka Masala (use unsweetened coconut milk instead of yogurt and cream)
  • Deconstructed Falafel Bowl

SALADS

  • Ruby Detox Salad
  • Crunchy Kale Salad
  • Root Vegetable Quinoa Salad
  • The Ultimate Detox Salad
  • Sweet Potato and Chick Pea Salad

You can always follow me on Pinterest, I use my recipe boards like a cookbook and delete food pins that didn’t work (if I’ve tried them) – all the above recipes are on my boards (my heavily organized boards, nerd alert) and of course I’m always adding new ones as I find them. Do you have any fantastic go-to healthy dinner recipes? Please Share!

*A photo of breakfast for a dinner post? What can I say, I don’t take a lot of food photos so it was my best stand in – but also I do eat eggs for dinner sometimes, brinner!

February 11, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     4 Comments

Filed Under: ADVICE AND INFO, Daily, FOOD AND COOKING

SMOOTHIE PUCKS

smoothie pucks / save time and money For Christmas I got a new blender, a Ninja to be more specific. I love LOVE it, use it everyday usually a few times a day. When I was working 9-5 in an office I used to make a smoothie every morning and bring it with me to work, then my blender died and I fell off the smoothie train.

Over the Christmas holidays I got totally over zealous and stocked up like crazy on smoothie ingredients, only to find we weren’t smooth-ing them fast enough and things were starting to look a bit whomp-whomp. So to save all that precious food and my money, I blended them up into pucks and froze them for the future. A pretty darn smart idea (self back pat), because it made making a smoothie super easy (as if it’s not already, I know) and I wasn’t digging into our regular everyday veggie stock to make smoothies – aka big money saver. Now anytime I notice we aren’t eating something (that is smoothie friendly) fast enough, I make them into some pucks. I’m a little excited for the summer, smoothie pucks will be a great way to save seasonal veggies for the next winter. It’s so stupid easy, really it’s stupid.

  • grab your veggies, mix in different types if you please (you could even premix all the veggies and fruit into a single puck).
  • put them in the blender with a bit of water (or coconut water).
  • blend and add more water as needed.
  • pour blended veggies (or veggie blend) into muffin pans and freeze.
  • once frozen pop them out of the muffin pans and put in freezer safe containers.

Now just pop one in the blender as you need, adding whatever else you please to finish off your smoothie (you’ll need at least one cup of liquid to turn a frozen puck into a smoothie). I like to add even more fresh veggies in, just for good measure – and fruit or whatever else floats my boat that day. And sometimes a dash of protein or super seeds, I like to use Baby Brain Organics a lot because it has hemp seeds, flax, quinoa and chia seeds – much easier than adding them all separate!

Looking for new smoothie ideas (I tend to get stuck on one), check out my Pinterest board devoted solely to smoothies and juices. Our current favorite (kids included) is: Kale, dandelions greens, spinach, mangos, coconut water and a dash of hemp seeds or BBO.

In case you are wondering what’s in the pucks up top, here’s your answer! whats-in-smoothie-pucks

What is your favorite smoothie or juice concoction?

January 27, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     4 Comments

Filed Under: Daily, FOOD AND COOKING, HEALTH AND WELLNESS, REAL LIFE

ROASTED SALT + VINEGAR CHICKPEAS

ROASTED-SALT-+-VINEGAR-CHICKPEAS22 I’m not turning to food blogging. I’m just into sharing things I’m totally obsessed with and sometimes (pretty rarely) it happens to be food (even though I am constantly obsessed with food). So let’s start by explaining just how ridiculously addicted to salt + vinegar chips I am, like can’t-stop-eating even after my tongue is hurting, addicted. I recently did another detox, a once a year occurrence in my life now. And since being with out all the unhealthy things for 12 day I really didn’t want to go back to eating them. So in an effort to find a replacement for my severe love for salt + vinegar chips, chickpeas met vinegar and then they got all roasted. They of course aren’t a perfect replacement, there is just nothing like the real deal – but they suffice and totally cut the hunger and craving game too (high protein snack will do that).

ROASTED-SALT-+-VINEGAR-CHICKPEAS4 ROASTED SALT + VINEGAR CHICKPEAS

  • 2 cups pre-soaked Chickpeas (or 1 large can)
  • Apple Cider Vinegar (appx. 3/4 cup)
  • Olive Oil
  • Sea Salt
  • Pepper

Soak, rinse and drain your chickpeas. Lay chickpeas out in a wide bowl or deep pan, try to make it so they aren’t piled on top of each other – too much. Pour your vinegar overtop, depending on the type of bowl or pan you used to spread out the chickpeas, the amount will vary. You want every chickpea to be at least half way covered in the vinegar. Let them soak for 1.5 hours, or more depending on how vinegary you want your chickpeas to be. Drain the vinegar, toss chickpeas in olive oil, sprinkle salt and some pepper over top and then roast for 40 minutes.

Eat them as a snack or throw them on a salad. Also maybe try white vinegar or balsamic, totally different “fake” salt + vinegar chip, flavor.

PS. the kids like these too!

October 2, 2014     |     written by Brandy     |     2 Comments

Filed Under: ADVICE AND INFO, Daily, FOOD AND COOKING

EASY SCHOOL LUNCH IDEAS

easy-nut-free-school-lunch-ideas I love a fancy bento box (I wish someone would make one for me), they look so great. And I’m sure every kid who is lucky enough to get a pinterest worthy lunch everyday is jumping up and down excited to eat their lunch. I really wish I was bento box savvy lunch packer, I mean the kids lunch boxes have separators like a bento box but I don’t think I pack it fancy or very creatively. We often use a thermos for warm meals, but that also often doesn’t get eaten because it takes more work to open and my kids would rather just talk instead of doing that. So I send them with things I know they will eat (or will eat, since Harlow starts tomorrow – alll the tears), healthy things. Here are 5 of our go-to sandwich (or sandwich like) lunch ideas and a list of go-to items the kids love for sides.

avocado-BLT B.L.A.T

It really just rolls off your tongue doesn’t it? “I want a BLAT, for lunch!” . But whatever, it’s good and I didn’t make it up. Bacon, Lettuce (I sub spinach in, cause it’s better), Tomato (very thinly sliced for my kids), Avocado and Vegenaise. It’s a real winner around here and take no time. Trick is, to keep a few slices of bacon from a weekend breakfast and put them aside (that’s the hard part). And make the sandwich that morning or the avocado will get all BLAT like.

sunbutter-honey-and-banana SUNBUTTER, BANANA AND HONEY

Nuts are a big no-no in our school and probably in yours too. Peanut butter and Jam sandwiches are basically a kids lunchtime dream and mom’s too, so easy. But we found a safe school friendly substitute, Sunbutter. It’s made from Sunflower seeds, no nuts at all. I always include a little note, informing the lunch room supervisor that it’s sunbutter and it’s nut free – because it looks like nut butter and they might rush my kid off to eat in the office if they think it is. Sunbutter, sliced bananas, and drizzed raw honey. *there is also something called Wowbutter, made from soy – but we try to eat as little soy as possible around here, other than tofu every once in a while.

mini-cracker-sandwiches CRACKER SANDWICHES

Some of the lunches that get five stars, especially from King are the ones that are interactive. No they don’t move, ewww gross. But ones he has to build or take apart to eat. Cracker sandwiches are a big hit, all you need to do is send a stack of crackers, cut up slices of cheese, a veggie of choice and a sliced meat – they build and eat at lunch time. Crackers, cheese slices, spinach leafs and roast turkey.

strawberry-and-cream-cheese-wraps STRAWBERRY AND CREAM CHEESE WRAPS

Sorta like a sub in for peanut butter and jam. Cream cheese acts as the protein and sliced fresh strawberries as the jam, basically it’s sorta the same just way better. My kids prefer it in a wrap, they say it’s like sushi (but it only takes 1 min to prepare). Tortilla wrap, sliced strawberries and cream cheese.

mini-pitzas MINI PITZAS

These are a huge hit. I have been letting them kids choose their ingredients, (usually whatever we have in the fridge), and then they make them for supper one night (key word, they). We a ton and either freeze the leftovers or put the in the fridge and use them for lunches that week. I fully planned to always make my own pizza dough for this, but found these mini pitas at the grocery store and we use pasta sauce, because we usually have some of that leftover in the fridge too. Mini pita, pizza or pasta sauce, chopped veggies, and maybe chopped meat and cheeeeese.

When it comes to lunches, low prep is always a good idea in my books. I often do a small batch of healthy baking each week, so the kids have cookies or muffins in their lunches (these banana oatmeal cups are a great go-to) – again trying to make a lot and freezing. These are our go-to’s for the main portion of the lunch, but I often pack leftovers from our meal the night before depending on what it was. These black bean quesadillas are usually a hit and Quinoa Fried Rice (when I’m feeling like risking the thermos).

As far as sides, I usually pick 3 or 4. Something carby, something sweet, something veggie or fruit and something with more protein (I try to shoot for balance, try):

  • hardboiled eggs
  • edamame
  • cucumbers, baby carrots, sliced peppers, broccoli, sugar snaps, spinach leaves
  • seaweed snack or kale chips
  • nut free bar (if there is a sale)
  • cheddar bunnies
  • dried mango slices
  • fruit of seasonal choice
  • cookies or muffin
  • raisins, dried cranberries, maybe a prune (my kids love them) and some seeds
  • ants on a long (sunbutter, celery and rasins)
  • babybel cheese wheels
  • healthy chips or popcorn

For more awesome lunch ideas from around the web: 100 Day of Real Food School Roundup | 10 Nut Free School Lunches | An Entire month of nut free lunches

Do you have a great go to lunch idea? Please share!

September 3, 2014     |     written by Brandy     |     Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Daily, FOOD AND COOKING

EVERYDAY EATS

everyday-eats [sriracha chicken bowl + quinoa burger]

It took me a while to get my act together, but I finally gathered up some of our favorite go-to (family) meals. After this food prep post and this detox post (this isn’t really a detox food post though, see above) many asked if I could share some of our favorite recipes. Soooo, if you like to eat delicious things like that quinoa burger above (it’s as good as it looks, just FYI) or just looking for some awesome meals (that are based on pretty simple ingredients) to add to your meal planning list, you’ll probably enjoy our list of EVERYDAY EATS. And yes, both kids eat all the things on that board – it just wouldn’t be a true everyday eat without everyone eating it.

*I created a pinterest board with our tried and true favorites (the ones that are online, that is), this is totally separate from all my other food boards – and just the easiest way to share.

July 17, 2014     |     written by Brandy     |     4 Comments

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CULTIVATING YOUR
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