Recipes

Today I have a guest post from my friend Kacie who blogs at A Collection of Passions. Kacie is an incredibly talented lady who has started a cooking video series with her daughter that makes my heart explode on account of the cute, and makes me want to dive into the kitchen on account of the tastiness! I’m so excited to be guest blogging for Kyla today and sharing my latest cooking video with you! I love Kyla’s blog and her constant pursuit of creativity. This is a cooking video I made with my daughter, Gwyneth. She loves being in the kitchen as much as I do. I hope you enjoy our little video. Thanks for having me! Aren’t they gorgeous & great? I can’t handle the matching aprons, and I love Kacie’s kitchen. And also GiGi’s faces when she mixes the ingredients together :) You can find Kacie at A Collection of Passions and if you want to skip straight to more videos you can do that here. ps – No you have baby fever.

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I’ve been curious about different cleanses for a couple of years, but I haven’t known where to start- until the internet delivered a little Christmas present into my lap that I get to share (in a real way) with you! This January I was contacted by the ladies behind The Conscious Cleanse, and asked if I wanted to participate in exchange for a review & a discount for any interested readers. It seemed like a perfect way to start the new year, and something you all might be curious about too! I’ve heard about cleansing to get rid of toxins in your body, but one of the things that I didn’t realize is that while it’s great to give your body a break by eating gentler foods, that process helps boost your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from the great food you’re putting so much of your pay cheque toward every week. I know, it’s really practical, but the idea that I was spending so much time & effort on making good choices and I might not be getting the full benefit of them was a huge motivator for me. The other big benefit of a cleanse is that it  [...]

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It’s officially fall and as the leaves have started to turn and fall I’ve started to crave comfort foods. Especially now that I can use an oven without turning my kitchen into a sauna. While fall food cravings aren’t new to me, I’m prioritizing making being active and losing weight this fall so a big part of my search for hearty fall meals has meant being on the look out for dishes that are relatively healthy and portion controlled. Bonus points if they’re easy to freeze so I can make them during the week. These pot pies come through on all counts! They’re packed with veggies, freeze well and are only ~500 calories per pie. In my books that makes it a perfect fall recipe. The trick is they only have pastry on the top, so you have a great flaky crust without all the calories and they use an ingenius bean, rosemary, and vegetable stock puree instead of a gravy. Bonus points for a recipe that makes you feel incredibly clever in your kitchen! This could win over the pickiest eaters. Healthy & Hearty Vegetarian Pot Pies adapted from Green Lemonade Grab… 1 can (15 ounce) white beans, rinsed [...]

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When I was growing up my mom started taking trips to explore India. Whenever she would come home her bags would be packed to the brim with rugs, hats, colourful notebooks with tissue thin paper, and everything was steeped in the smell of incredible spices. We adopted lots of traditions when she came home, and aside from the food (oh the food!) my favourite was definitely homemade chai. It’s suddenly started to get cool in my city, making it comfortable to wear jeans again or to wear a sweater at night but until now it has been hot! This recipe can be made hot or cold, but since it’s probably hotter where you are I’m showing you how to make a batch of the cool stuff. We’re all a little pampered with our chai tea bags and chai lattes, but with a few basic spices and some black tea you can have dirt cheap, delicious chai until it’s cool enough to skip the steps where you cool it off!   Chilly Chai from Scratch Best made in the evening so you can enjoy it all the next day :) Grab: 6 Cups of water 3 Tbsp. black loose leaf tea (any tea [...]

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One of my favourite shows (that I can only watch now and then before the urge to go to a greasy spoon overpowers me!) is Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. I recently caught an episode with a delicious and decadent pancake parfait, and part way through watching it I couldn’t help myself from trying to make a slightly healthier version of it for myself. When I realized I had all the ingredients I needed to make this I literally ran to the kitchen, scattering my tiny dogs as I went and sending them into a fit of loud, chirpy barking that I usually only hear when they spot a murderous toddler or mailman in the neighbourhood. Watching food TV around me when I’m hungry is a dangerous game, friends. If you have a favourite pancake recipe, then you can sub it in but I’ve included one that’s vegan & oil free because it’s such a relatively low fat base for the toppings. Also because the recipe just makes gorgeous, fluffy pancakes! I love that this is a simple recipe combined with a sense of playfulness in how you put it together, that makes it an over the top treat that’s also [...]

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As a vegetarian, it’s easy to get suckered into eating carbs. When I crave savoury food, images of pizza or macaroni and cheese usually flash in front of my eyes before I black out and come to in the parking lot of a Little Caesars. Because I’m incredibly poised & have excellent self control. To avoid these kind of impulses I’ve been trying to add more healthy, savoury food into my meals and I’m surprised at the big impact that it’s having in stopping me from craving the foods that are usually hardest for me to avoid. One of the things I’ve been enjoying in sandwiches is something I’ve made since I was a teenager- shake and bake tofu.

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When I first heard about black bean brownies I thought that maybe the gluten free people had gone too far. While I understand the reasons it works, a brownie that swaps flour for beans sounded like it would end in tears. However, I’m happy to say that these are delicious, moist, rich and chocolatey brownies that are downright dangerous. Dangerous to the point that they prompted these tweets: Fair warning: after making this I recommend you immediately take them into work or offer them to a crowd of friends as a means of self defence. Another thing to note is that they’re really fun to make, because all you need is a blender & a brownie pan!

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I’m a recent convert to quinoa, and now that it’s available in bulk at my favourite grocery store I’m beyond hooked. I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination and have only prepared it a few ways so far, but I had so much success with this recipe that I needed to share it. I made this last time Jesse was traveling for work, in preparation for juggling my design clients & being single puppy mama which may not sound like that much, but it usually keeps me on my toes from dusk till dawn. When my husband’s away the only thing that keeps me from eating pizza every night is having healthy, seriously yummy food around that’s either already prepared or easy to get finished.

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When I was growing up, one of my favourite treats was going to our favourite bakery and getting chocolate zucchini cake. As a teeny little vegetarian I was blown away- it was basically chocolate bread, but healthy! (Vegetables in baking = at least a little healthy, right?). I was reminded of them last week and couldn’t get it out of my head- I needed them again, and I hadn’t baked in months. That sounds like a mission to me :) They were so tasty (and topped with melty chocolate chips!!) that they were clearly too dangerous to keep in the house- they went straight into the studio for sharing. Thank goodness for friends! Chocolate Zucchini Muffins Adapted from FoodNetwork (very true to their recipe) Grab… 1 cup flour 3/4 cup sugar 1/3 cup cocoa powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup Silk almond milk 2 teaspoons vinegar 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 egg, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla 3/4 cup grated zucchini 1/2 cup boiling water 1/2 cup chocolate chips Okay! reheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl whisk together Silk, vinegar, vegetable oil, beaten egg, and vanilla until combined. Pour Silk mixture over dry cocoa mixture and stir by hand [...]

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