Sand Dollar Adventure-Daughter Nature

 Sand Dollar Adventure

Earth Day - Daughter Nature

 https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LF7w930Zwoz52wpx7dbjg?si=g3qZQ3b5QWiiRYgbzZGGKw

Earth Day

MY FAVORITE HEALTHY DESSERT - By: Kayla Kosubinsky

Gluten Free, Sugar Free, & Vegan Banana Cupcakes

These healthy Banana Cupcakes are light, fluffy, sweet, and comforting. One of the easiest snacks to make, they’re frosted with the creamiest and richest Peanut Butter Frosting you could dream of. One bite and you’d never suspect it’s a nutritionally balanced treat filled with healthy fats, complex carbs, fiber, and protein!

These cupcakes are packed with banana flavor, reminiscent of Banana Bread just in a smaller package.  They provide a hint of quinoa with a rich peanut butter frosting — they are not your typical overbearingly sweet cupcakes so they are perfect for breakfast and a snack throughout the day.

Ingredients

• 120g (1 cup) Oat Flour
• 96g (½ cup) Granulated Erythritol
• 68g (½ cup) Sweet White Sorghum Flour
• 68g (½ cup) Quinoa Flour
• 4 tsp Double-Acting Baking Powder
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 1⅓ cups Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
• 320g (1¼ cups) Mashed Bananas
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Natural Butter Flavor
• 1 tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
• 28g (2 tbs) Coconut Oil (melted)
Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spray 2 standard cupcake pans with cooking spray (this recipe makes 14 cupcakes, so you’ll only need to spray 14 cavities). If you want to use cupcake liners, use parchment paper liners (these cupcakes might stick to paper liners).
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the oat flour, erythritol, sorghum flour, quinoa flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In an electric stand mixer bowl fitted with a beater attachment, add the almond milk, mashed bananas, vanilla extract, butter flavor, and stevia extract. Mix on low speed. While mixing, pour the coconut oil into the stand mixer.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer and increase the mixer speed to medium. Mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake pans. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the surface springs back when tapped. Let cool slightly in the pans, then transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Enjoy these delicious treats and remember, it's okay to take more than one!!!

3 WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS - By: Kayla Kosubinsky

3 Healthy Ways to Reduce Stress

There are many approaches to holistic medicines that can help ones health & well-being. This blog will talk about my 3 favorite ways to reduce stress and tension throughout the body. These practices may not pertain to you; however, if you find yourself interested in one, feel free to experiment with them!

#1 AROMATHERAPY

Essential oils derived from plant matter are used for their medical & healing properties to elevate, uplift, & alter one's mind, mood, & health. Aroma therapy is a simple form of self-care used in everyday life. After having a long day of school and work, I enjoy unwinding with essential oils in the bath, or rubbing lavender oil on my pillow case before bed.

Benefits

• Improves health & cognitive function
• Reduces anxiety, spree, n& depression
• Alters one's mind, mood, & health
• Enhances energy 
• Improves indigestion
• decreases muscle pain
• Therapeutic, relaxing, soothing, & calming

#2 YOGA & MEDITATION

Promotes health and wellness by implementing engaging poses and breath work as a form of exercise.  Yoga & Meditation are my favorite forms of self-care, especially because they have extraordinary benefits. They have relaxing and calming effects on both the mind and body, while also helping things such as strength, agility, and flexibility. You can preform both of these practices anytime and anyplace. 

Benefits

• Lowers blood pressure
• Builds endurance, strength, agility, & flexibility
• Encourages lifestyle change 
• Addresses anxiety & turbulence of thoughts and emotions
• Increases oxygen consumption
• Helps control muscle movement with calmness
• Deep, controlled breathing helps sort thoughts and emotions that stress the mind.

#3 HYDROTHERAPY

Any method that uses water for healing to combine the therapeutic benefits. This is among the most widely practiced and straight forward forms of self-care. This involves immersing yourself in any form of warm water, including a hot tub, bath, or even a shower. This is one easy way to take care of your body.

Benefits

• Natural
• Calming
• Healing
• Helps stress relief
• Can be used as physical therapy.

Where did your dinner come from? -Daughter Nature

Where did your dinner come from? 

Self-Care - By: Kayla Kosubinsky

There’s no better time to update your self-care routine than now. Everyone has their own unique routine that is geared toward what is most important to them. 

Popular self-care routines include a workout schedule, a sleep pattern and a nutritious diet, all of which can easily be disrupted after a while and can benefit from change from time to time.

 

Create a workout schedule 

Staying on top of workout schedules can be difficult because your body is always changing and your schedule needs to keep up with it. It’s easy to make a workout plan for the week or the month but you also need to listen to your body day-to-day. 

One of the most important aspects of a workout routine is determining when, where and why you workout. Finding a time that works best for your schedule, and a place that motivates you is crucial to sticking with your exercise routine. 

If you’re an early bird, maybe working out before heading to work is the best option for you. Or perhaps you fall on the other end of the spectrum and you’re a night owl, evening workouts may be best. Once you determine which time of day is right for you, you need to decide which place is right for you. Are you most productive at the gym alone or with a trainer, in a class with an instructor or on your own outside or at home? Find a place where you feel you can be the most productive and motivated. 

Understanding your ‘why’ for working out is going to help keep you accountable to your routine. Before you decide when and where to exercise, determine what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you trying to lose body fat, gain lean muscle, or maybe maintain your current physical condition? All of these actions require different workout styles and diets. To decide what you’re looking to get from your fitness routine, do some research and make a plan for each day. Going into your workout with a set plan of what you’re going to accomplish will be much more productive than “winging it.” After a few weeks of training, modify your workout with more weight, more reps or further distance, to keep seeing results. 

 

Sleep Patterns 

Consistent sleep patterns are critical to your overall well-being. Sleep affects your mood, energy, stress, anxiety and depression levels. Your sleep patterns can easily be disrupted by medications, caffeine, poor sleep environment and too much exposure to blue light. 

Stimulants like caffeine, alcohol, nicotine or prescription medication before bed can also disrupt your quality of sleep so try to avoid interaction with these substances at least 1-2 hours before bed. In addition to what you consume prior to sleep, where you sleep is just as important. Sleeping in a room that’s too hot, cold, loud or bright will surely keep you awake. Try to keep your bedroom cool, and limit use of the TV and lights near bedtime. 

 Blue light exposure is a huge factor to disturbed sleep patterns. As you increase the use of digital devices in your everyday life, you’re also increasing your exposure to blue light wavelengths. Blue light wavelengths are given off by the sun, which you’re naturally exposed to throughout the day; these wavelengths stimulate your eyes and mind causing you to feel more awake. They’re also given off by your device’s screens, like such smartphones, laptops and televisions. This negatively affects your natural sleep pattern because after the sun goes down, you’re still being stimulated by the blue light that is radiating off of your devices, which is confusing your brain. In order to prevent disrupted sleep patterns from digital devices, there are a few action steps you can take to prevent sleep disruption from blue light:

 

• buy a pair of blue light protection glasses
• use Night Shift mode on your devices 
• stop using devices about an hour before bed

 

Healthy Diet

A gradual transition to a nutrient dense diet is what’s best for sustaining your long-term goals. Instead of cutting out all of your favorite foods, switching to only fruits and vegetables, and falling into the latest diet-fad, try switching out less nutritious foods for ones that are packed with nutrients. Each week aim to make a healthier swap. With this gradual method, you can wean yourself off of foods that are keeping you from achieve your goals, to the ones that are. 

Remember, slow and steady wins the race. Taking small steps toward a healthier lifestyle is an effective method that helps achieve sustainable results. By determining the right workout for you, maintaining a proper sleep schedule and practicing a nutritious diet, you will see positive results in your overall health that will compound over time.

Vegan Fiesta Taco Bowl Recipe - By: Kayla Kosubinsky

Fiesta Taco Bowl Recipe

A vegan salad can’t just have leaves and veggies. It needs to be super hearty with interesting textures and flavors. This recipe is kind of like a hybrid between a bowl and a salad because it has just the right balance between fresh raw veggies and warm, spiced cooked components. The dressing isn’t your typical green goddess because it is lighter, tangier and more refreshing than the traditional dairy-based recipe. The dressing can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. To make it gluten-free, replace the seitan with tempeh and make sure the tortilla chips are gluten-free.

Serves 5

Ingredients

For the green goddess dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 jalapeсo, seeded
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:
2 heads (about 15 ounces) romaine lettuce, cut or torn into bite-size pieces

1 cup cooked quinoa

1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup (6 ounces) frozen sweet yellow corn, thawed

1 cup (5 ounces) halved cherry tomatoes

1 avocado, mashed

Crispy Tortilla Strips

Lime wedges

For the smoky seitan:
2 tablespoons olive oil

8 ounces ground seitan

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Sea salt

Fo the lime sour cream:
Makes 1 cup
1 cup silken tofu

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

1. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the seitan, chili powder, smoked paprika and cayenne and cook until heated through. Add water one tablespoon at a time if the pan seems dry. Season with salt.
3. To assemble, in a large bowl, toss together the romaine, quinoa, black beans, corn, cherry tomatoes, and enough dressing to coat. Portion into bowls and top each serving with mashed avocado, smoky seitan and crispy tortilla strips, if desired.
4. Using a blender or food processor, combine all the sour cream ingredients and blend until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.
5. Dollop the bowl with lime sour cream and serve with a lime wedge.