Orange-Infused Homemade Chocolate

As many of you know from my last newsletter, I've been on a serious kick of making my own chocolate. Every batch is a new chance to try a new flavor. It's been totally delicious, even when the recipes didn't come out as great as I had hoped! A friend got me a yummy orange emulsion and just had to share my latest chocolate recipe with it with you.

Orange-Infused Homemade Chocolate

Ingredients:

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

1/2 cup cocoa powder (or cacao)

2 tablespoons smooth almond, cashew or coconut butter (I actually use sunflower seed butter and it's great for this recipe)

2 - 3 tablespoons grade B maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon orange emulsion

2 - 3 dashes of cinnamon

crushed pecans

2 dates, pitted and sliced very thin

orange zest (and/or grated ginger)

chunky sea salt

Directions: 

Mix the top ingredients well by hand and pour into the bottom of a baking sheet or bread tin. Sprinkle with crushed pecans, sliced dates, orange zest (and/or ginger) and just a bit of chunky sea salt. Place in freezer until hard. Take a knife and carefully jab into chocolate and let it break into random chunks. ENJOY!

Lead with Your Heart, Not Your Ego

#postitnotewisdom

Eat the Yolks

I always laugh when I see egg white omelets on the "healthy side" of a restaurant menu...it's exactly the opposite. Eggs are a PERFECT whole food. When we separate the yolk from the egg, we're depriving our bodies of the nutrition it deserves. They are loaded with healthy fat and cholesterol that our bodies crave and need. Eat the yolks, don't fear them!  

Check out Liz Wolfe's new book for much more information. 

Simple & Hearty Egg Muffins

Lammer runs out the door each morning & only grabs his yogurt for his commute up to work, then grabs something (certainly nothing that I'd ever approve of) when he gets his coffee at a gas station on the way. I explained to him how much money he's wasting each week, & on poor quality food! Breakfast should be your BEST meal so that it fuels you for the rest of your day. I made him some loaded egg muffins to grab along with his yogurt in the morning. They're portable & delicious cold!

Here is what I did, but the point is to use what you have in the house:

Preheat oven to 350. 

Saute onions and garlic in coconut oil ghee, then add shiitake mushrooms, organic Bilinski sausage and spinach. 

In another bowl, whisk about 4-5 eggs together with water, nutritional yeast, sea salt, pepper and other spices. 

Wipe the inside of an over-sized muffin tin with some of the coconut oil ghee then poured the egg mixture into each. 

Throw the veggie/sausage mix into each. 

Bake in the oven until cooked through (not wet looking). 

Let them cool after you take them out (you should be able to easily twist them right out because of the coconut oil ghee!), and wrap separately for convenience! 

I'm having mine today at the office so i'm going to top it with guacamole. YUM!

Stay Positive & Smile

Last week I had a meeting, and it did NOT go as I had planned. After it I felt aggravated, negative and just plain uncomfortable. I was angry and snippy with my coworkers. Yuck...

The week after we had a follow-up meeting and I was determined for it to be much more successful than the last. I grabbed a sticky note and wrote stay POSITIVE and smile. I had pages of notes but I stuck it dead center on the top page to keep me focused and centered throughout it. 

I took a few breaths, smiled, then called in for our meeting. About 45 minutes later I hung up the phone AMAZED by how incredibly well the meeting went. After creating that intention I was able to carry out that meeting even better than I had hoped. What a valuable lesson learned! Great for work, spouses, friends, anything really. Give it a try!

Earthing

How often do you get your earthing on?

Earthing is exactly what you probably think it is. It's your body making direct contact with the earth. Either your hands in the dirt, your feet on the grass/sand, your body lying on the earth, etc. The earth nourishes us in ways we'll never be able to understand - but we're so disconnected to it from the floors beneath our feet, concrete, cars, to the shoes that we wear. 

I encourage you to get outside and make that direct contact with our beautiful earth, in any way that you can, for as long or as little as you can. It will make a difference in your life. Google earthing for more information, or check out the documentary Grounded. 

This is an earthing bracelet. I use it while I work, or sometimes while I sleep. It's so neat! 

You are what you eat, so don't...

Damn straight!