Salmon Almond Crunch

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons Mustard

3 tablespoons melted Coconut oil

5 teaspoons Raw Honey

1 slice Ezekiel bread crumbs

1/2 cup Almond slices

2 teaspoons dried (or fresh) Rosemary

2-4 Salmon fillets

Instructions:

Step 1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease baking pan.

Step 2) In a bowl, combine the mustard, melted coconut oil, and honey

Step 3) Place fillets on baking pan.  Spoon on the mustard mixture to each fillet, then top with bread crumbs, sliced almonds, and rosemary.

Step 4) Bake for 20 minutes (or 10 minutes for each inch of thickness, measuring thickest part of the fillet). Salmon should flake when done.

Notes:

Salmon is a perfect  healthy dinner for you and the family. I always try to season my meats in a healthy way, and that’s why I chose Coconut oil (rather than another oil such as vegetable oil), Ezekiel bread crumbs, almond slices, and rosemary.

This is one of my husband’s favorite dishes…I hope you enjoy it as much as he does!

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Tags: almond, almond slices, coconut oil, dinner, Ezekiel Bread, mustard, Pepper, Raw Honey, Rosemary, salmon, Salmon Fillet, salmon recipe, salt

3 Easy Tips on how to be Healthier today

You can be skinny in a number of different ways. To narrow it down, you can become Skinny by doing unhealthy things to your body (diet pills, drugs, anorexic, etc), or you can become Skinny by being Healthy (excercise, eating healthy, etc).  I try to focus my efforts on being healthy, which in the end is what is going to help my body resist deseases, illness, fatigue, depression- and be “Skinny”.

From my own observations, here are a couple of things you can get in the habit of, to help you become more healthy.

1) Replace your Soda with Water

The average 12 oz can of regular Soda has about 150 calories in it. Multiply that by how many cans of soda you drink aday, and it adds up. Even if you are drinking “diet” soda with 0 calories, that doesn’t make it healthy for you. Swap the Soda and other sugary drinks like juice for water. Your body will thank you.

2) Park your car far away from the store

Get some more walking in your day! Europeans are known for walking a lot, and Americans need to get in this habit as well. Walking is easy on the knees and body, so if you are physically able to, try to make excuses to walk more. Make sure with your added walking, you are wearing comfortable shoes that support your feet. This will not only be better for your body and it’s posture, it will help prevent aches and pains with your added walking and will help encourage more walking.  Every extra step counts!

3) Eat out less or not at all

Practically all fast food and restraunts are breeding ground to loads of saturated fats, oils, excessive sugars, and unhealthy sized portions. When you prepare food at home, you get to have more control on what you are putting into your body. Try to use Coconut oil rather than Vegetable Oil, use Honey or Agave to sweeten your foods rather than using  Sugar or Aspartame, and try to eat plenty of vegetables and smaller portions of meat on your plate.

You can start small. Start with these 3 simple steps that can help you in a big way.

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Tags: agave, coconut oil, drink water, Healthy, honey, Lose Weight, Skinny, soda, vegetables, veggies, walking, Weight Loss

Virgin Coconut Oil

I recently had a poll on my site asking others what they thought was the healthiest oil for them. To my shock, Coconut Oil was quite underrated for it’s many health benefits. Apparently The marketers of Olive Oil are doing a better job, but still, I must set the record straight.

Let’s first begin with going over the different types of coconut oil. I want to be sure when you are using Coconut Oil, you are getting only the good stuff, and using only the best.

Refined Coconut Oil

This is the most common way to mass-produce Coconut Oil. Refined Coconut Oil is RBD, which means it is Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized. When you deodorize the oil, very high heat is used to do so. Sometimes the RBD oil is hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated.  Sodium hydroxide is usually used to get rid of the free fatty acids, which helps prolong it’s shelf life. Due to the refinement process, the taste and smell is bland, and does not keep to the taste and smell of an actual coconut. You may think you want a bland taste rather than a coconut flavored oil…but trust me, you don’t want the refined oil. Please read on..

Virgin Coconut Oil

The only way to extract Virgin Coconut Oil is by using fresh coconut meat. No chemicals or high heating is used in further refining since it’s natural pure coconut oil is naturally able to have a long shelf life (why the processing is done in the first place, I will never know). Virgin Coconut Oil retains the taste and smell of coconuts.

Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Unlike the Olive Oil Industry, there is actually no difference between “Virgin” and “Extra Virgin” Coconut Oil. When it comes to Coconut Oil, “Virgin” is just as good as “Extra Virgin”.

Coconut Oil Heated

One of the wonderful benefits of Coconut Oil, is that it isn’t damaged by heat. Because Coconut Oil can be cooked without worrying the nutritional benefits will be cooked out, Coconut Oil is great for cooking and baking. Not only is it still good for you, but it taste great too.

Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil is the richest form of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT), which the body burns for energy (unlike other oils which have Long Chained Triglycerides which actually store as fat – Not good!). Coconut Oil contains Lauric Acid (form of MCT), which is a predominant fatty acid that has anti-microbial and anti-viral properties. The medium chain fats in Coconut Oil is similar to the fats found in breast milk, and even have some of the same health effects, and have a great healing power.

Coconut Oil shows evidence of killing yeast infections (think Candida), increased energy, better immune system, helps with memory, protects the liver, reduced risk of heart disease, normalizes blood sugar levels (also reduces cravings of foods that would raise blood sugar levels), aids digestion, helps with the absorption of nutrients into the body, lowers cholesterol levels, and even helps with Weight Loss.

There are many health benefits of Coconut Oil – even more than what I have already mentioned! Nice.

How Coconut Oil effects Weight Loss

Just as I already mentioned, Coconut Oil has MCT, which helps your body burn fat, thus helping you lose weight. Coconut Oil also helps your body have the ability to control hungry and cravings, which again, helps you lose weight. Does everyone who consumes Coconut Oil lose weight? No, not always. There have been reports of people not losing weight, but they noticed their pants fit better. Apparently Coconut Oil also helps with muscle mass while trimming fat.

Research shows that an under active Thyroid may be to blame for weight problems. That is a pretty intense claim considering that 65% of the US population is overweight, and 27% is clinically obese. Wow. Good news, Coconut Oil is also known to help with an under active Thyroid. Diet seems to play a major role in Thyroid health (for good or bad), and considering their is a choice in the matter, I would do what I can to naturally have great thyroid health.

Cooking with Coconut Oil

Personally, I have thrown out all of my oils (Shortening, Vegetable Oil or any other “cooking oils”), and I have replaced them all with Virgin Coconut Oil (USDA Organic). I have to admit, I was a little worried how the Coconut Oil would effect the taste of my food. Come to find out, it has only made the flavor of whatever I was cooking- even better! You can use Coconut Oil as a replacement for all other oils whether it be for baking desserts, adding to smoothies, or to cook with your meats- you won’t be disappointed.

Coconut Oil has a melting point of 76 degrees, so if it is colder than 76 degrees, the Coconut Oil is going to be more of a solid texture. For measuring purposes, you might want to warm up the Coconut Oil by either running warm or hot water on the jar, or just taking a couple of spoonfuls and baking them for a couple of a minute or two. At this point, it will be a liquid, and easy to measure for recipes.

I love this wonderful oil, and believe you will too!

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Tags: better immune system, burn fat, coconut, coconut oil, fatty acids, health benefits, Healthy, helps burn fat, helps with absorption of nutrients, helps with memory, helps with weight loss, ids digestion, increased energy, kills candida, kills yeast infections, Lauric Acid, lowers cholesterol levels, MCT, Medium Chain Triglycerides, normalizes blood sugar levels, oil, organic virgin coconut oil, protects the liver, reduced risk of heart disease, thyroid solution, Weight Loss

Healthier and Tastier Popcorn

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Popcorn Kernels

2-3 tablespoons Coconut Oil

Sea Salt (to taste)

Serves: 4-6 cups of cooked popcorn

Instructions:

Step 1) Put a large pot (with lid) on the stove, and turn to  medium heat.

Side Notes: If you are wondering why I am not asking you to use a microwave, please read about the Harmful effects of the Microwave.

Step 2) Add the coconut oil to the pan, and coat the bottom of the pan.

Step 3) Add popcorn kernels to the the pot, and put the lid back on the pot.  Soon, you will notice the kernels starting to pop, and allow them to do just that!

Step 4) Once the popping starts to slow down, remove the pot from heat. There still may be some popcorn kernels popping, and that’s OK. It is better to have some kernels not pop, then all the kernels pop and you get burnt popcorn.

Step 5) Once you have removed the popcorn from the heat of the stove, add the salt to taste, and stir the popcorn as you add on the salt.

Side Notes

I use Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil rather than butter! But….why? Coconut oil is one of the few (perhaps only) oils that are still good for you when heated. If you are worried about the taste, do not worry! I discovered this way of making popcorn when I looking for a better solution to butter. When you cook your popcorn with Coconut Oil, the popcorn actually taste as if I cooked it with butter- without the effects of butter!

I use Real Salt, by Redmond. This is the only Salt I use, and I love it for not only it’s taste, but wonderful Health benefits.

Health Benefits of Popcorn

Popcorn is high in Fiber, which helps with your digestion. Popcorn also is considered a “Whole Grain”. As long as you don’t drench it in butter, preservatives, and other harmful ingredients (think Movie Popcorn), then you should feel good about your snacking choice. Another great benefit to popcorn, is that it is a low calorie snack.

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Tags: coconut oil, corn, corn kernel, easy recipe, healthy recipe, healthy snack, high fiber, high in fiber, low calorie, organic extra virgin coconut oil, Popcorn, popcorn kernel, quick recipe, snack

Gluten-Free Chicken Strips

This is one of those easy recipes for dinner that the entire family will enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour

1 teaspoon Chicken Seasoning

1 1/4 cups crushed Corn Flakes 

1/2 cup Coconut Oil, melted

8-10 frozen Chicken Tenderloins (strips)

Instructions:

Step 1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2) Combine flour, seasoning, and crushed corn flakes in a shallow dish.

Step 3) Place melted coconut oil in a separate bowl.

Step 4) One at a time, dip pieces of chicken in coconut oil, then coat both sides of the chicken with flour and corn flake mixture.

Step 5) Place on Cookie Sheet.

Step 6) Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, or until Chicken is fully cooked.

Side Notes:

I use Coconut Oil rather than Butter because of the wonderful health benefits of Coconut Oil. I use the Simply Organic® Chicken Seasoning, but you can use whichever one you have on-hand.  Also, when I buy the Corn Flakes, I get them from Nature’s Path and I buy the one that is “Fruit Juice Sweetened”, since no sugar is added.

As the name of the recipe implies, this dish is Gluten-Free and Wheat-Free and 100% delicious! Enjoy!

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Tags: brown rice flour, chicken, Chicken Seasoning, coconut oil, dinner, easy recipe, Food, gluten free, Healthy, lunch, Organic, Recipe, USDA Organic, wheat free