Caven Nutrition Group

Ottawa’s Experts in Weight Loss Nutrition, specializing in healthy and sustainable weight loss, digestive issues, hormonal health, and stress

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Move over macaroons, we have a Chocolate Coconut Oil Square Recipe to share!

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If you are pressed for time these quick and easy chocolate squares are great for a quick treat! These chocolates are silky, melt in your mouth goodness and are good for you.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup of coconut oil
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup maple syrup (honey may be used)
½ tsp vanilla
Pinch of Himalayan salt

And make them like so:

1. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan.
2. Once melted, add the remaining ingredients.
3. Mix thoroughly.
4. Pour into a parchment lined pan or cookie sheet.
5. Allow to cool in fridge for 4-6 hrs or until set.
6. Break into pieces and store in the fridge.
7. ENJOY!
You can get creative and add nuts, dried cranberries or mint oil!

Incorporate Detox Smoothies into your life Every single day on CTV Morning Live!

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Detox Smoothies!

Detoxing is about supporting what your body already does naturally. A detox smoothie is a great way to start the day because it reduces the amount of digestive effort required in order to absorb your vitamins and minerals while assisting your body during the detoxification process.

Main aspects of building a detox smoothie are:

Hydrators: Vitamin C and B complex, electrolytes and loads of water. This will help promote healthy skin, hair and connective tissue while helping to reverse the damaging effects of stress on the body. Some common fruits and vegetables used are cucumber, coconut water and lemon.

Detoxifiers: The goal of any cleanse or detoxification process is to provide our bodies with a helping hand at removing toxins (chemicals, heavy metals, etc.) in an efficient manner, that does not encourage additional stress. Foods such as cilantro, dark leafy greens, chlorophyll do a great job.

Builders and Purifiers: These help to keep our energy levels up, so including some vegetables and fruits such as beets, carrots, apples, grapefruit and ginger. Pectin found in some of these fruits binds to heavy metals and cholesterol helping to remove them from our bodies.

pH Balancing: Living the lives we do our bodies tend to run on the acidic side which means our body will naturally leech minerals like calcium from our bones to help find that balance. To combat this we add mineral rich foods like dark leafy greens, sea vegetables, celery and broccoli.

Transporters: People often forget that healthy fats are very important to any detox. Yes, they are more challenging to digest but fat is what our bodies use to trap and transport toxins. Without it we are just releasing a bunch of garbage back into our bodies to reek havoc.

3 Detox Smoothies
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Pink Lady

Ingredients
1 medium roasted beet and chilled
1 fresh squeezed orange
½ fresh squeezed lemon
Enough water to top all liquid to 1 to 1 ½ cups (so probably about a ½ cup)
½ thumb-sized knob fresh ginger

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, wash beet, remove steam and slice off ends. Rub the beet with a few drops of olive oil, wrap in foil and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, remove from foil and place in fridge to cool. You can do this for several beets so you don’t have to roast them every time you want to make this smoothie.

Add all ingredients to high powered blender until well combined and smooth. Serve as is or pour over ice and enjoy.

Mojito Smoothie

Ingredients
1 Pear
1 cups coconut water or water
3-5 sprigs of fresh mint (so about 15 leaves more if you like it very minty)
1 handful spinach
¼ avocado, diced
Juice from ½ lime, freshly squeezed
1 inch chunk of ginger, chopped

Directions
Blend together until smooth.

Popeye

Ingredients
2 cups coconut water (sugar free)
2 medium handfuls of spinach, washed
Juice from ½ lemon and ½ lime
1 organic apple, washed and diced (leave the peel on)
1 tsp flax seeds

Directions
Blend together until smooth. Enjoy!]

Catch the segment here: http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=793291&binId=1.1164511&playlistPageNum=1

Cookies For the Holidays Reinvented

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Holiday Recipe Reinvention

Pie Crust Grain free!

Ingredients
1 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup dry walnuts (not soaked)
1/2 cup dates
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (do not omit!)
Directions
Place all raw pie crust ingredients in a food processor or food chopper and blend until well processed but still a bit chunky.
Press down into your pie plate!
Fill with your desired filling and refrigerate for at least two hours to allow crust to firm up.
After refrigerating, garnish your crust with berries, other cut up fruit or some dark chocolate and nuts.

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients
3 cups almond meal
1 tbs. ground ginger ( You can use freshly grated if you like)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. baking powder (gluten free)
1/4 cup coconut oil melted
2 tbs. raw honey
1 tsp. 100% pure vanilla extract
1 egg
(spices can be adjusted to suit taste)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
In a large bowl mix the almond meal, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder. Leave this in the bowl for now.
In a food processor or a super great blender, and mix the coconut oil, raw honey, vanilla extract and egg until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the food processor and process to form a dough (the mixture will be quite wet)
Take out the mixture knead to form a ball.
Place the mixture between 2 pieces of baking paper and roll out to 3 mm thickness.
Place this into the refrigerator for 30 minutes or freezer for 15 if you are pressed for time
Once refrigerated, cookie-cut into desired shapes gingerbread men, snowmen, or stars!
Place into the preheated oven + bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Sweet Shortbread

Ingredients
1/4 cup coconut oil ( you may need more if the coconut flour dries up the batter)
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 Tbs. arrowroot flour
1/4 cup superfine coconut sugar created by putting in the blender first! It will not get to the consistency of powdered sugar.
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

Instructions
First, make the superfine coconut sugar by blending the coconut sugar in a high-powered blender.This ensures that the coconut sugar is not crunchy.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
To properly measure the coconut flour for this recipe, don’t pack the flour into the measuring cup. Stir the flour with a fork, dip the measuring cup into the flour, then level the top. Coconut flour is very dry!
Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining ingredients.
Use a tablespoon measure to drop the cookie dough onto the baking sheet, making slightly flattened balls (the cookie dough will be malleable)
Bake for 6-8 minutes, until just golden. The key is watching the cookies carefully as they brown very quickly. Remove the tray from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the baking sheet, or they will crumble.
The cookies will be very delicate at room temperature. For a crunchier and sturdier cookie, place in the freezer for at least 5 hours and enjoy from the freezer. Store the cookies in the freezer.

Pumpkin EVERYTHING… Pumpkin Fudge!

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Vegan Pumpkin Fudge

This fudge is the ultimate taste of fall, and a perfect treat to bring to thanksgiving dinner this week end. It is quick and easy, high in fibre and low in sugar.

Ingredients:

1 cup of coconut flour (sifted)
¼ cup of coconut palm sugar
1 can of pumpkin puree 15 oz (not the pumpkin pie filling)
Cinnamon to taste.

How to make it:

In a large bowl mix the flour, cinnamon and sugar.
Add the full can of pumpkin and mix together.
Transfer the mix to a lined dish. You can sprinkle a light dusting of cinnamon on top if you wish.
Place in the fridge to firm up, slice and enjoy.

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Zucchini Lasagna it such a delight!

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Zucchini Lasagna

Ok, so lasagna at my house has always been noodles and cheese, lots of cheese. But this year we are working on healthier choices and trying new things. We also had a zucchini plant gone wild….so many zucchini! So we’ve put it in everything, muffins, brownies, smoothies, cookies, roasted veggies, sauces and now, LASGANA. And let me tell you it was AMAZING! Everyone loved it. My husband even preferred it to the pasta version. And the best part was no stuffed, full feeling after eating a piece, or two!!

This is how you do it:

Needed

-1 large zucchini, or 2 medium ones

Meat Sauce: (Here is the meat sauce I use)
1 pound of ground beef, browned.
½ onion sauté with ground beef
½ cup celery
1 carrot grated
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can organic tomato sauce.
1 clove of fresh garlic
1 tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. oregano, and basil.
Simmer all ingredients in a pot until celery is soft.

Spices
Nutritional yeast * can be found at bulk barn or a health food store)
Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper
Mozzarella Cheese (yes, we still used some cheese on the top layer. Baby Steps)

Grease a 9×13 Lasagna Pan. Using a mandolin or a sharp knife cut your zucchini lengthwise into approx. ¼” thickness.
Start with a layer of meat sauce then layer zucchini on top. Sprinkle zucchini with nutritional yeast, garlic salt and salt and pepper. Repeat this process until you run out of zucchini. Cover with mozzarella cheese and bake in oven for 35-40 mins at 350. (Or until fork goes through easily). Enjoy!

Lasagna

PB and J Chocolate Cups you can make at HOME!

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There are times in our lives when we just need some sweets. Yup that is right, even us holistic nutritionists crave the sweeter stuff in life, but this doesn’t mean you need to go running for a bag of gummy worms or sour patch kids. Trust me there are way more fulfilling and delicious ways to satisfy that sweet craving.
My go to when this feeling of “I need something sweet stat!” hits is a piece of fruit. I know a lot of you might be rolling your eyes and thinking “how boring” but next time you are craving sweets make yourself a nice bowl of crunch crisp grapes and tell me that wasn’t satisfying.
If I am in a crunch and hankering for some chocolate a chocolate protein beverage is my lazy lady’s go to. You get loads of protein, low or no actual sugar and it helps to make you feel full. Just be cautious when selecting a protein powder brand…heck if you aren’t sure what to pick that’s what I am here for!
Now if you have a bit of time on your hands a jar of organic natural peanut butter, some frozen berries, coconut oil and dark chocolate I have a serious treat for you!

PB & J Cups
Makes approximately 10 minis or 5 large

1/3 cup organic coconut oil
1/2 cup organic cacao powder
Organic peanut or nut butter, but a sunflower seed butter would work great too.
1 cup of organic raspberries (or any berry of your choosing)
1 tbsp chia seeds
Optional 1 tsp of raw honey (if additional sweetness is required)
Method:
If you don’t own a silicon muffin tray I STRONGLY recommend using muffin liners. I have tried my hand at making these by just greasing up the sides with some coconut oil and I have never struggled so hard to remove food from its container before in my life. Now that that is out of the way how do you make these delicious treats?

  1. Start by making the “jam” add fresh berries and honey if using. Blend until the berries are completely smooth and all large chunks are gone. Remove from blender or food processor and stir in chia seeds by hand. Set the jam aside to start to gel up, if you have time you might want to do this the night before but it is no big deal either way.
  2. To make the chocolate melt the coconut oil and stir in the cacao. Do this slowly, you don’t need it to boil.
  3. If you aren’t working with a silicon muffin tin line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.
  4. Take 1-2 tsp of the chocolate mix (depends on if you are doing little or big ones) and pour them into the muffin tin. You just need enough to coat the bottom. Once you have filled all the muffin tins place the tray into the freezer for 15minutes.
  5. Once the “chocolate” is frozen remove and add 1-2tsp of peanut butter and about 1 tsp of jam, then cover with the remaining chocolate sauce. It should be about the same amount of chocolate you used before but depending you might have some extra, use it all up!
  6. Place the finished cups into the freezer again for at least 2 hours so they freeze all the way through.
  7. Remove from the freezer and enjoy!

Note: the jam used in this recipe is all raw and natural so it won’t freeze like commercial jelly or jam. Because of the lack of refined sugar it with freeze like a popsicle, personally I love this, however some of you might not (sensitive teeth and all) so just take it out of the freezer 15-20 minutes before chowing down and you will be a happy camper.

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Learn more about Brittany Gordon, RHN here

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