La Belle Vie Holistic Living

We're in double digits people! Double digits!! I know it likely won't last long but it's oh so lovely while it does. And just knowing summer is a hop, skip, jump away is enough to make everyone smile. What are your plans for the summer? I can't wait to go paddling again! The boyface owns a canoe/kayak/stand up paddleboard store called Mudpuppy Marine (you can visit him here ), which means that I get free access to sweet boats, like my precious Scala. Didn't know Toronto was such an awesome location to paddle? Neither did I until I met him! Turns out there are tons of amazing harbours and even a gorgeous lagoon smack in the middle of the islands! In celebration of warmer weather, here's a recipe for a delicious banana chocolate almond breakfast milkshake. 1 banana, frozen (make sure the banana is super ripe before freezing or your milkshake won't be sweet enough; PC brand organic bananas are pretty affordable, and you can normally get the really ripe o...

My guest-blog post for The Daily Dietribe's Gluten-Free Fall Specials is now up! When I think fall, I think warm, oven-fresh baked goods. In celebration, I whipped up some gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free, oil-free, incredibly flavour-full blueberry explosion muffins. Wanting to make a muffin that was light and fluffy with a natural sweetness and lots of flavour, I swapped out the oil for applesauce and the sugar for bananas and added in one of my fave tastes of fall: cinnamon. The Daily Dietribe is a great gluten-free, sometimes vegan blog. Iris, the gluten-free genius behind the blog, shares her journey through gluten-freedom along with the tasty recipes she creates and encounters along the way. Basically that's a long way of saying "yum". She also has tons of fun blogging events, like the Adopt-a-Blogger event I somewhat recently participated in. Here are some poser artsy muffin glamour shots for a little sneak preview (taste?) of the deliciousness this reci...

IMPORTANT NOTE: I now have an email address, which you guys can write me at. If you have any questions, if you'd like to see a post on anything in particular, if you want to send me photos of your versions of my recipes, or if you just want to say hi, email me: SeleneAtVeganlicious @ gmail.com I'm pretty excited these days because it's finally MANGO SEASON! Yes, I don't think about the year in terms of winter, spring, etc.; I think about it in terms of what fruits and veggies are seasonal. Winter would be unbearable if it wasn't for clementimes and pomegranates. Spring brings mangoes (another reason it's my fave time of year), summer is about the berries, fall is for the apples...TNT, an asian supermarket, was having a special on them and we got a huge case for $7.99! So I've been having mangoes everyday for my morning and afternoon  snacks. I'm also excited these days because I have just discovered the most amazing breakfast ever: ice cream! One...

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks!   Hearty bowl of raw chili Ok, it's been a great great weekend for many reasons: went to an amazing clothing swap put on by V. A. S. T. , went to my adorable niece's birthday party, attended a wonderful raw potluck (yum!!), and went to my uncle and dad's joint bday lunch at my uncle's place. And to make everything even better, there were amazing people and conversations throughout it all! So that part has been great. Of course, all the family get togethers mean that I haven't been eating as raw as I normally do. And I'm really noticing how much better my body does when I'm eating mostly raw. I feel much more grossly full and sluggish on cooked foods. And my throat is burning as it's giving me some serious acid reflux issues. I've also been on this stupid cleanse (I bought it a long time ago and figured I had be...

I've moved! Visit my new home  Make Life Beautiful for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! We all know how important a good and healthy breakfast is; we hear it all the time - and not just from our moms. Without it, we have trouble concentrating, get headaches and are more likely to gain weight. But, that doesn't mean we always have the time to have one. Well, here's an easy breakfast recipe that you can make the night before, or even a couple of days before. And, even better, it harnesses the many nutritional benefits and the subtle nutty flavour of flax seeds to give you an even greater start to the day. Flax seeds are a rich source of dietary fibre, including lignans, alpha linolenic acid - a heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acid, and folate. Omega 3 fats are well known for their ability to help protect against heart disease and cancer. They also help in the prevention and control of diabetes and high blood pressure...

I'm a girl who likes, as my husband calls it, a "serious" breakfast. If I have cereal or a piece of toast with nut butter and honey, within an hour I'm starving. Normally I have scrambled tofu with tomato, red onion, garlic and olives. Sometimes I have it with toast as well. But sometimes a girl needs a bit of variety. Of course, when a serious breakfast is required, finding different things to fit that bill can be seriously difficult. Enter steel cut oats. I heard about them, and bought some. Then I put off making them for about a year, under a misguided impression of how difficult they'd be.  But, when I finally did get around to making them, I couldn't believe how easy and delicious this healthy breakfast is.   Topped with chopped apples, blueberries, dried cranberries, walnut halves and cinnamon. Steel-cut oats are whole oat groats, which have been cut into two or three pieces rather than rolled into flakes. Incredibly high in fibre, whole oats are th...

If you're ever in Kensington, make sure you go to Essence of Life Natural Foods. They're an amazing store with a wide range of healthy, vegan and gluten-free items and excellent prices. While there, if you get nothing else, get the hemp granola that's in the bulk tubs. Not the one made with oats, but the one that has delicious chunks of sweet granola-y goodness. This granola alone started my granola obsession. And this granola is one of the things I miss most about eating gluten-free. Unfortunately few other foods can feel the void of granola and soygurt or granola with nut milk. And a good gluten-free granola is very hard to find. I've only found one gluten-free granola at all, and, though I do sometimes eat it when having a granola craving, it's not the tastiest granola around. This recipe is super easy to make and is unbelievably delicious. The granola is wonderfully spiced and sweet, the buckwheat is crispy, the almonds add a pleasant crunch, and the bluebe...

I've moved! Visit my new home  Make Life Beautiful for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! I made my banana bread bites recipe, though accidentally put in almost 3x as many cacao nibs as I meant to...a very tasty mistake indeed...chocolate-y... Spread into thin layers with a spatula. Yum!!! Perfect for nutbutter and banana sandwiches!

I discovered the possibility of making hash/stove top fries from a comment about them that a friend made nonchalantly. She mentioned them in passing on a Friday and I thought to myself, "my god, what a spectacular idea!" The next morning, I made a potato this way, gobbled it up marveling at its deliciousness, and promptly made another. This version uses sweet potatoes instead and adds a little extra flavour with the rosemary. Now I only used a 3" sprig and it most definitely was not enough. But my herb garden is young, and teh rosemary is having a particularly difficult time with the friendly grey neighbourhood bandits digging it up almost every other night; so I didn't want to stress it out by taking too much. I felt that 6" would be sufficient to flavour this dish nicely. to make 1 sweet potato, sliced and chopped 2 cloves garlic, diced 1/3 red onion (diametre ~4") 1 6" sprig rosemary 1/4 tsp salt 1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne (to taste) saute the o...

Ingredients: Innards 4-6 peaches, peeled and sliced Topping 1/4c flour (I use gluten free but knock yourself out with whatever you want) 1/4c oats 1-2tbsp brown sugar (the 2 tbsp was a little too sweet for me... cause you know peaches are sweet...and stuff...) 2 tbsp ground flax seeds mix together topping stuffs and toss with the peaches bake 425F for 15 min, occasionally stirring try adding other fruits like blueberries! Though blueberries make it a bit watery and can tart it up a bit. oooo mango would be good mmm... try serving it over oatmeal for yummyummyness as it stands (with 4 peaches) the recipe is 133cal/serving, makes 4 servings LOVE YA!