The cooler fall weather is moving in and it’s time to have those favorite soup recipes ready to go!
Growing up in the land of cheese and cream, often times, the cooler weather comfort soups call for cream. But these soups can be loaded with calories which contribute to unwanted, extra winter weight. Too much dairy can also wreak havoc on digestive health leaving you feeling bloated and gassy.
It’s simple to make creamy soups without the cream and extra calories. Sharing one of my favorites today!
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, cooked and chopped
1 small head of broccoli, chopped
2 cups coconut water
1 cup water
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
**avocado – optional**
**Optional toppings – sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, scallions, nutritional yeast, herbamare, red pepper flakes, paprika, sea salt, or pepper.
Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and a pinch of sea salt. Sauté until light brown – about 5-7 minutes. Add in garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Add the chopped broccoli and coconut water. Put on lid and cook over medium heat until broccoli is softened.
Carefully, transfer hot ingredients to a blender. Add in the already cooked potatoes and the fresh cilantro. Blend well until thick soupy texture is achieved. Use the additional cup of water to thin the soup if needed.
You can add an avocado for even more creaminess and it blends in nicely with the green broccoli.
When serving, top with desired toppings such as sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, scallions, nutritional yeast, herbamare, red pepper flakes, paprika, sea salt, and pepper.
Benefits:
The onions are loaded with phytochemical and vitamin C to help boost immune. The garlic aids digestion and in fighting those nasty fall colds and coughs. Yukon Gold potatoes give this soup a beautiful creaminess and are also high in vitamin C. Then there’s the beautiful broccoli! Loaded with more vitamin C, folate, potassium and fiber. The coconut water is low calorie, helps balance electrolytes and also has much needed magnesium which plays a role in hundreds of bodily reactions. Finally, cilantro is an excellent detoxifying herb that supports immune and metabolism with both vitamins A and K.
The chaos of summer has the potential to rock even the best of the healthy kitchen routines, including my own. But I’ve learned that doesn’t have to be the case!
Once again it comes down to having a plan in place to know what’s available for breakfast on the run during our busiest summer mornings as we prep for tennis, camp, play dates, adventures and more.
Today I’m sharing a few of our family favorites that add sanity to our crazy summer life and allow us to remain in our clean eating zone.
Here are the top 5 whole foods morning meals that my kiddos enjoy during the summer:
Organic or Nondairy yougurt with toppings – our current favorite yogurts are Stoneyfield Organics, Siggi’s plain/vanilla, Kite Hill plain/unsweetened vanilla, and So Delicious plain/unsweetened vanilla. Assorted toppings include chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pepitas, almond slivers, walnut pieces, fresh berries, dried fruit, cacao nibs, and granola. Store your topping favorites in glass jars in the pantry so you can quickly lay out an “assembly line of toppings” if needed.
Sprouted toast with nut butter and low sugar jam – our current favorite sprouted breads are Angelic Bakehouse rye, 7 grain and cinnamon raisin. For nut butter I look for organic brands on sale or non-GMO brands where both have “nuts” as the only ingredient. We also enjoy the no-sugar-added sunbutter blends.
Qi’a or homemade oatmeal mixed blends with toppings such as cinnamon, cardamom, nuts, seeds, and berries. We’ve tried to invent our own version of Qi’a but have not perfected it yet so I try to buy boxes when they are on sale.
Eggs – fried, scrambled, poached, hardboiled and they easily mix with your favorite veggies. You can even prep egg burritos in advance and freeze them for future. Check out my Fox 6 Real MKE segment where I shared my egg and veggie burrito recipe!
Smoothies – get creative with your fat/fiber/protein combination and that will keep you running strong for extended periods of time.
All of these are easy to prep , put in paper bowl or on a paper plate or in a large cup to take on the road if needed.
A couple of my other personal favorites include my Energy Quinoa Bowl and Quinoa-Berry Breakfast Bowl – both those recipes will be included in my upcoming 28 Day NEW WHOLE YOU program which will launch in July.
Heather Ferber is a Certified Holistic Health Coach, AADP who helps busy moms get fresh, focused and energized. She is a detox specialist helping women to rebuild gut health, balance hormones and thrive. She enjoys empowering moms to take back their health and feed their families better with simple, everyday advice and suggestions that can be easily integrated into today’s modern family’s hectic lives. You can find her on Fox 6 Real MKE once a month, speaking and teaching classes in the community, cooking in her kitchen for family and friends, playing her piano to relax, or out running with the family dog.
This yummy summer soup uses cauliflower to make a delicious creamy soup without the cream!
Ingredients:
• 2 TBSP ghee (healthy alternative to butter)
• ½ onion, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 cans (or packages) artichoke hearts, chopped
• 1 head of cauliflower
• Juice of ½ – 1 lemon
• 1 tsp dried tarragon (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Heat ghee in large pot over medium heat.
2. Sauté chopped onion, celery and garlic until soft.
3. Add cauliflower and 1 cup of the chicken/veggie broth; cover to steam the cauliflower. Once cauliflower is tender, add remainder of the chicken/veggie broth. Add artichoke hearts and simmer 10 minutes.
4. Puree soup in pot with an immersion blender. (You can also pour the soup into a blender or a bowl and use a hand mixer to blend, then return soup to pot.)
5. Add lemon juice (and tarragon if desired) and continue heating until serving temperature.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cauliflower is a delicious secret ingredient that can be used to make so many soups creamier, without the added calories of cream (or unwanted dairy).
Artichokes!
Heather Ferber is a Certified Holistic Health Coach, AADP who helps busy moms get fresh, focused and energized. She is a detox specialist helping women to rebuild gut health, balance hormones and thrive. She enjoys empowering moms to take back their health and feed their families better with simple, everyday advice and suggestions that can be easily integrated into today’s modern family’s hectic lives. You can find her on Fox 6 Real MKE once a month, speaking and teaching classes in the community, cooking in her kitchen for family and friends, playing her piano to relax, or out running with the family dog.
Over the past five years, I’ve coached hundreds of women through detox, weight loss, hormone challenges, pre-diabetes and more. I’ve been blessed by the AMAZING women that have entered my life! Thank you for allowing me to share my passion with you. I’m looking forward to future years and more inspiring clients, fun times and creative solutions for all of you.
For well over a decade, I’ve been on my own personal journey to detoxify, reverse insulin resistance, lose the baby weight, increase my energy and balance my hormones. It has been quite the adventure – not always easy but I’ve stayed the course.
Smoothies were my very first step in taking back my health.
Simple, easy, fast, nutritious & delicious.
I’ve made thousands of smoothies and tried a TON of different smoothie protein powders, but none that I could put my reputation on the line by endorsing and sharing with my clients. (In a perfect world, we would not need protein powders, superfoods powders, veggie powders, etc. but I don’t live in a perfect world and most of my clients don’t either.)
One year ago, I met Robyn Openshaw and learned about her GSGLife product line. I was in awe of it’s pureness and her philosophy to keep things clean and simple. Robyn Openshaw is the creator of the the well-known blog Green Smoothie Girl and when she could not find products that met her high standards in the protein world, she decided to create her own. That’s one determined mamma!
Better Health by Heather is proud to partner with GSGLife. It has been a beautiful partnership for which I am most grateful and it has allowed many of my clients (and friends and family) to use a product line that does not muck up their health challenges (while still allowing for awesome tasting plant based smoothies with no grittiness). I feel like I’ve won the smoothie lottery after many, many years!
GSGLife’s products are sooooo clean – just what my clients, friends and family need.
They are 100% organic, raw, vegan, non-GMO and contain NO dairy, soy, gluten, sugar or grains.No isolates, fillers, preservatives nor chemicals.No super long list of ingredients and words that you can’t pronounce. No “too much of a good thing.” 100% plant based goodness. And we should all be working to increase the plants in our life! (If you’re not familiar with the China Study, check it out for a good read on why you want more plants in your life.)
The GSGLife unflavored protein powder contains organic pea protein, organic hemp seed protein, and citrus pectin. That’s it. Nothing else. Three ingredients and it tastes greats, blends beautifully, and leaves no gritty aftertaste or texture on the tongue. Your smoothie can be fully customized for your bio-individual needs (without a lot of added ingredients to clutter things up)!
GSGLife is happy to fully disclose their flavorings in their products too! (Can tell you I’ve called a few companies where no one will tell me what their “natural flavorings” are – BIG RED FLAG for me.) They use organic vanilla beans, organic cocoa beans, and organic berries. LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!
You get 15-17 grams of pure plant based goodness in every serving.
And you NEVER get the inulin (no it’s not good for everyone), endocrine disrupting soy, high oleic sunflower oil, erythritol, rice and rice dextrins (risk of heavy metal contamination), silica, isolates of all types, soy lecithin, barley malt, and xanthum gum – all things that I personally skip for health reasons!
I encourage you to learn to read labels while you are out shopping for protein powders, superfoods, and other boosters to add into your smoothies. You may be surprised by what’s hiding out.
It’s taken me a full year to write this blog post because I wanted to see for myself how these products were received by my clients, family and friends – and what effect they had on my personal health challenges. It’s been nothing but goodness and TONS of positive feedback!
My busy mom clients hire me for my training and expertise, guidance and suggestions. I’m most grateful for their trust, enthusiasm and willingness to try new things that lead us all to cleaner living, sharper minds and happier hearts.
At the heart of GSGLife is the motto “Wellness. Purpose. Passion.” which is right in line with what I do at Better Health by Heather every day.
If you’d like to learn more about GSGLife and the plant based product line they offer (they also have sprouted flax, superfoods, minerals and more),please check out my website.
And never hesitate to reach out if you have questions or need assistance! I’m always here to help and serve. XO
For abounding energy, beauty, mood, and weight loss, the gallbladder and liver must be working optimally. According to Chinese medicine, detoxing in the spring is the best way to honor and restore these organs.
The liver plays a critical role in your overall health. It has over 500 metabolic jobs, including the production of toxic bile, a means of natural detoxification. However, when the liver gets flooded with toxins and becomes congested, bile cannot be produced correctly. As a result, those toxins remain in your system and you may experience impaired digestion and acid reflux, among other unpleasant complications.
The liver is related to anger. Therefore, as you cleanse your liver and eat liver-loving, high-alkaline green foods such as parsley, cilantro, and kale during a spring detox, you notice a dramatic shift in your mindset. Release and end the anger.
Spring also honors the gallbladder. The primary role of the gallbladder is to store bile. If there are stones or blockages in the gallbladder from storing too much toxic bile, then you become tired, irritated, and constipated.
The following Smoothie Bowl recipe was created to support the organs of spring – the liver and the gallbladder.
ACAI SMOOTHIE BOWL
Acai Smoothie Bowl
Recipe Type: Spring Support for Liver and Gallbaldder
Author: Heather Ferber
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 smoothie bowl
Ingredients
1/2 packet Sambazon Unsweetened Acai Pack
1 handful mixed greens
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup frozen blueberries
1 Tablespoon camu camu (optional)
1/8 teaspoon ceylon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 scoop plant based protein (I prefer GSGLife)
Instructions
Mix ingredients in a high speed blender.
Pour out into bowl.
Top with 2 Tablespoons of chia seeds.
Or get creative with other fun toppings you enjoy (like coconut, goji berries, and sunflower seeds)!
3.5.3208
**You can find Sambazon Acai Packs in the fridge/freezer of some local health food grocers. You can also order them online.**
If you are interested in detoxing this spring, I am offering individual spring detoxes. (Group detox programs will return in the Fall of 2016.)
You can contact me at heather@betterhealthbyheather.com or here.
I can feel the hot, sandy, sunny beach calling my name “Come relax bustling mama.” It’s getting closer to spring break (only a few days now) and I’m still feeling a little thick in my middle. Time to do something about it!
We’ve all heard about juice cleanses over the past year, but not everyone has heard about another hot health trend for 2016 – the soup cleanse.
Soup cleanses are fantastic for long winter/cold spring months when our bodies could use a warm boost of energy. Unlike juice cleanses that contain some fruits, soup cleanses are typically lower on the glycemic scale. This soup cleanse is packed with veggies that contain fiber and nutrients to help maintain weight during stressful times. These soups are also jam-packed with immunity-boosting antioxidants.
To complete this soup cleanse, you’ll need a high-speed blender. I also recommend purchasing glass Mason jars for storage, then making all your soups in the morning so a busy day doesn’t ruin your plans.
When shopping for ingredients, choose organic whenever possible, and be sure to stock up on lots of water and herbal tea for maximum hydration. There are five recipes below for breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.
If breakfast, lunch and dinner fill you until the next meal, you do not have to make a morning and afternoon snack, but you can if needed. Note: The Bone Broth recipe will take 24 hours to make, so plan to make this recipe the day before your cleanse. For an evening snack, drink herbal tea.
BREAKFAST Creamy Coconut
Serves 2
1 large avocado
1½ cups coconut water
1 lemon, juiced
¼ cup basil leaves
2 cups peas
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Blend using a high-speed blender until smooth.
MORNING SNACK Glowing Greens Soup
Serves 2
2 cups water or coconut water
2 small sweet potatoes, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 cup spinach
1 avocado
Pinch of turmeric
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Fresh basil (garnish)
Blend using a high-speed blender until smooth. Garnish with fresh basil.
LUNCH Creamy Kale
Serves 2
1 bunch kale
1 avocado
½ cup coconut water or coconut milk
1 cup frozen or fresh peas
5 basil leaves
1 lemon, juiced
1½ teaspoon sea salt
Hemp seeds (garnish)
Dulse flakes (garnish)
Blend using a high-speed blender until smooth. Top with hemp seeds and dulse flakes.
AFTERNOON SNACK Simple Chicken Bone Broth Soup
3-5 pounds of chicken soup bones
Water (enough to cover the bones)
1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
*Note: Ask at your local butcher shop/local farmer for the chicken bones. Soup bones are usually very cheap, if not free!
MAKE YOUR STOCK. In a stock pot, add the soup bones and enough water to cover. Add apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer for 24+ hours.
STORE YOUR STOCK. After about 24 hours, strain the stock into mason jars. Set them in the fridgemto cool. Skim off the fat that rises to the top, and close tightly with a lid, or put in ice cube trays for quick use. This will keep in the fridge for a few days, or for four to six months in the freezer.
DINNER Spiced Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 4
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
4 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
4 cups organic vegetable broth
1 can organic coconut milk (BPA-free can)
1 bunch parsley, chopped (garnish)
ROAST THE VEGETABLES. Heat your oven to 350°F. Take your chopped butternut squash and carrots and massage with coconut oil, cumin, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bake on a cookie sheet for 20 to 25 minutes until tender. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
ASSEMBLE THE SOUP. Add the vegetable broth and coconut milk to a large pot. Mix together thoroughly. Add the cooled, roasted vegetables to a high-speed blender in batches with just enough broth/coconut milk mixture to cover. Blend until smooth. Add it back to the soup pot and set it on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Serve topped with chopped parsley.
