Author Archives for Sandra Shields, Healthy Food and Wellness Blogger, Health Coach, Balanced Living, Clean Beauty Consultant

About Sandra Shields, Healthy Food and Wellness Blogger, Health Coach, Balanced Living, Clean Beauty Consultant

Hello! I am Sam. I am a foodie, baker and a Health Coach who likes being in the kitchen making food. My recipes are all gluten free and there are recipes for different food intolerances as well. If you are looking to incorporate healthier eating habits and live a more balanced life, I hope to inspire you. I have had an obsession with baking since I was ten! I started this blog to share recipes I was making for myself after finding out I had gluten sensitivity and other food intolerances which I have mostly healed, but will always be sensitive to gluten. I went to school for Health Coaching as a second career at Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Nutrient dense food gives the body the best fuel and building blocks to be vibrant, healthy, prevent disease, and maintain great energy as well as heal. I am excited to share delicious food recipes, tips, baking and treats too!

Toasted Hazelnut-Vanilla Nut Milk & Lattes

Toasted Hazelnut Vanilla Nut Milk.jpg

Are you a hazelnut lover? I have this new recipe for Toasted Hazelnut-Vanilla Nut Milk that I adore with my cold brew iced coffee and matcha green tea. Nut milks are nutritious and easily made at home without the fillers and gums that can be difficult for your digestive system.

The nuts are plentiful in mono-unsaturated fatty acids and also essential fatty acid. Also, nutritionally, they contain Folate, B-Complex Vitamins, Copper, Magnesium, and Iron. They make delicious milk!

You can make the milk with raw hazelnuts, but toasting them boosts the flavor profile and makes the milk even more delicious. There is just three ingredients to make the milk. You do need a high speed blender and a nut milk bag. The nut milk bag is very inexpensive and handy to have around.

Homemade Nut Milk Tools. High Speed Blender & Nut Milk Bag

Ingredients:

4 Ounces Hazelnuts (Toasted & Skins Removed)

2 Tablespoons Pure Vanilla Extract (SCD Legal)

6 Cups of Filtered Water

1 Pinch Himalayan Pink Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

On a parchment lined cookie sheet toast hazelnuts in one layer in middle of oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly colored and skins are blistered. Using a lint free kitchen towel, wrap the nuts hot from the oven and let them steam 1 minute. Briskly rub nuts in the towel to remove loose skins (don’t worry about skins that don’t come off) and cool completely.

Place the nuts, vanilla, water and salt in your high speed blender and blend for three minutes. Pour into the nut milk bag and drain the liquid squeezing gently at the end to extract all the liquid. Pour into a pitcher or storage container and refrigerate. It stays fresh for about a week, if it lasts that long.

Makes 6 cups

Here are some of the ways I love to use it. You can also use it as you would any milk in your recipes and baking where you want a hazelnut flavor.

Make a Matcha Green Tea Latte!

Directions: Whisk 1 teaspoons of Matcha Green Tea into 1/4 Cup of hot water. Stir in 1 cup of Toasted Hazelnut-Vanilla Nut Milk and pour over ice. It is so refreshing!

Iced Hazelnut Matcha Green Tea Latte

Use it in Coffee for a delicious Hazelnut Flavor without the Syrups. Iced or hot! Here I made iced coffee with a cold brew coffee, ice and toasted vanilla hazelnut milk. You can choose to add honey if you like your beverages sweet.

Toasted Hazelnut Milk Iced Coffee

Eat Your Nutrients!

Asian Pork Ribs

Oh my gosh, who doesn’t love succulent ribs! I made these last night for my family, and they were tender, juicy and flavorful! You can get them marinating the day before you make them. They are cooked in the oven low and slow, so are perfect for a weekend dinner. I served them with golden beets and Chinese eggplant.

Asian Pork Ribs

Ingredients:

3 to 3 1/2 pound rack of pork ribs

Marinade:

1/3 cup chopped fresh ginger

1/4 cup garlic infused olive oil (the brand I use)

3 Tablespoons Clear Honey

2 Teaspoons Pink Himalayan Salt

1 Tablespoon Black Pepper

3 Kaffir Lime Leaves (optional, provides a mild citrus flavor)

3 Tablespoons Coconut Aminos

1 Tablespoon Jarred Anchovy Fillets

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

Asian Pork Ribs with Golden Beets, Chinese Eggplant and Salad

Directions: Blend together in a high speed blender all the ingredients for the marinade. Place the ribs on a foil lined, rimmed cookie sheet, and coat thoroughly with the marinade on both sides. Cover with wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight. When ready to cook, remove from refrigerator and heat your broiler on high. Broil both sides of the ribs until browned and starting to caramelize. About 5 minutes a side. Remove from the oven, and set your oven on 250°. Cover the top of the ribs with foil and tightly seal. Bake in oven 4 to 4 1/2 hours until ribs are very tender.

Asian Pork Ribs

Eat Your Nutrients!

Ming is Almost Pure Angel!

She really is! I have always loved dogs. All that unconditional love they are so good at lavishing on humans. Ming was a Christmas gift two years ago. She was a tiny, fluffy, little butterball that fit in the palm of my hand. She is the first dog that was mine, and I am her person. I have never been a dog’s person before. We have had dogs in our family, but Ming, Ming adores Me. She follows me around the house, and in the evening when people are lounging around, it is my lap she seeks. I love her snortle breathing, her cute wrinkly face, her antics, and her love of food. Since finding this cute little collar tag this summer, whenever Ming, Ming is less than angelic, my family comments, “I guess her one percent is coming out!” I feel so lucky to be Ming’s person and that she is a part of my life. She really is an angel, even when she isn’t!

Angel Pug – Almost 100%

Lavender Sugar Cookies

There are so many ways to use lavender in cooking. Here I have used it in a “sugar” cookie. It is sweetened with SCD Legal honey and uses almond flour. I have rolled and cut them out. You could also make the recipe by scooping the cookies if you are short on time. They will be softer that way instead of crunchy as a rolled cut out cookie.

Lavender Sugar Cookie

Preheat Oven 350°. Place parchment paper on two cookie sheets.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups Superfine Almond Flour

1/4 Cup Organic Palm Shortening, Melted

2 Tablespoons Honey

1 Teaspoon Dried Culinary Grade Lavender Buds, minced or placed in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle

1 Teaspoon Lemon Zest

1 1/2 Teaspoons SCD Legal Vanilla Extract

Pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix together the wet ingredients and add to the bowl of dry ingredients stirring with a fork until a ball forms. Place the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll to about 1/4″ thickness. Refrigerate on a cookie sheet for fifteen minutes, then cut out using a cookie cutter and place on your parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes until starting to brown around the edges.

Makes approximately 12 cookies depending on the size of your cutter.

Lavender Sugar Cookies

Eat Your Nutrients!

Grilled Zesty Shrimp & Vegetables

Grilled Zesty Shrimp and Vegetables

Ingredients:

1 Cup Orange Vinaigrette (found here)

Zest of One Lemon

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil and Coconut Oil (melted)

2 Teaspoons Himalayan Pink Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

2 Medium Zucchini, Sliced

1 Green Bell Pepper, Sliced

1 Red Bell Pepper, Sliced

1 Serrano Chili Pepper, Sliced

1 Pound Shrimp

Grilled Vegetable & Shrimp Toss

Toss the vegetables together in a large bowl with the dressing and remaining ingredients, except Shrimp. Let marinate 30 minutes to an hour. Place the vegetables in a grill pan, and grill on medium heat 20 minutes or until desired doneness, tossing occasionally. Add the shrimp the last five minutes until pink and cooked through.

Eat Your Nutrients!

Spiced Golden Turmeric Milk – drinking to your health

Here is an amazing Spiced Golden Turmeric Milk recipe from Food To Glow. The benefits of Turmeric are many. What I love about it is it reduces inflammation!

food to glow

This is my science-updated take on an old Ayurvedic treatment beloved of Indian grandmothers. Treatment for what, you may wonder. Just about everything. Although clinical evidence supporting its cure-all reputation is scanty (not many big studies have been funded), what is around looks very promising. Very promising indeed. And with 14 centuries of culinary and medicinal use, perhaps grandmother really does know best.

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Fresh Basil Pesto

The local basil is gorgeous right now, and making pesto with it is like sunshine in a jar! I put it on everything….meat, veggies, paleo crackers. If you are eating Low FodMap, you can make amazing pesto with garlic infused olive oil. Basil has antibacterial properties, flavonoids, is high in Vitamin K and Magnesium.

Low FodMap Dairy Free Basil Pesto

Here’s how you do it:

Ingredients:

1 Cup Fresh Basil, packed tight to measure

2 Tablespoons Raw Walnuts

2 Tablespoons Pine Nuts

6 Tablespoons Garlic Infused Olive Oil

1/2 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1 Teaspoon Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

1 Tablespoon Fresh Oregano (optional)

Low FodMap Dairy Free Basil Pesto

Place all the ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until desired consistency. Spoon liberally onto everything! It is amazing, savory, deliciousness and so good for you!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Brazilian Black Cherry Ice Cream

The local fruit is gorgeous this summer, and black cherries just started ripening this week! Roadside stands are popping up everywhere with local washed cherries. The temperatures are on the cooler side, so they were a few weeks behind, but it was worth the wait! In this Black Cherry Ice Cream recipe, I included toasted brazil nuts. Their flavor is enhanced with toasting, and they add a nice crunch, plus the added benefit of selenium. Cherries are one of the few known food sources of melatonin, which can help you get a good nights sleep and are anti-inflammatory. If you are just beginning a Low FodMap diet, cherries are at the higher end of the FodMap spectrum, but still allowed, so stick to one serving of ice cream. This recipe comes together fast with only six ingredients.

Brazilian Black Cherry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 Cups Black Cherries, pitted and chopped

1 Can Full Fat Coconut Milk (no additives if SCD Diet – Aroy-D is superior to Natural Value in flavor and consistency)

1/2 Cup Clear Honey

1/2 Cup Raw Brazil Nuts

2 Tablespoon Coconut Oil, Melted

1 Tablespoon SCD Legal Pure Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven 350°. Coarsely chop the brazil nuts and toast in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes until starting to brown. Set aside to cool.

With a blender, puree the Coconut Milk, Honey, Melted Coconut Oil, Vanilla Extract and 1 Cup of the Black Cherries. Stir in the remaining Black Cherries and refrigerate for 4 hours. Churn in ice cream maker and stir in the Brazil Nuts during the last five minutes.

Makes 8 Servings.

Cherry Stand

Local Cherry Sign

Brazilian Black Cherry Ice Cream

Eat Your Nutrients!

Lavender Ice Cream with Candied Pecans

The Lavender is at it’s peak in Northern Michigan, and I took a trip to Lavender Hill Farms to stroll through the lavender fields and purchase some culinary lavender called Violet Intrigue. Culinary lavender is different than others. Lavender identified as “angustifolia’ is used in cooking and will not taste bitter. You can purchase it at some health food stores or directly from a grower.

Lavender Ice Cream with Honeyed Pecans

In this ice cream I infused full fat coconut milk with lavender buds for a delicate flavor paired with toasted, honeyed pecans.

Look at the beautiful lavender fields! There was a delicate scent of lavender in the air and the bees were working the flowers. The little gift shop sells lavender honey from their hives as well as homemade soaps and beauty products made from their other varieties of lavender.

Lavender Buds

Lavender Fields

Lavender Ice Cream with Candied Pecans

Preheat your oven 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

2 Cans (28 oz.) Full Fat Coconut Milk (Aroy-D is the best!)

1/4 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon of Clear Honey

1/2 Cup Raw Pecans

2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

1 Tablespoon Dried Lavender Buds

1 Tablespoon SCD Legal Pure Vanilla Extract

1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon

Pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt

Toast the pecans in a 350 degree oven for five minutes, then remove, place in a small bowl with 1 Tablespoon of Honey and 1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon and toss to coat. Place back on a parchment lined cookie sheet and continue to toast tossing every five minutes until dried and candied. Set aside to cool. Then coarsely chop them.

Meanwhile, place 1/2 cup coconut milk in a small sauce pan with 1 Tablespoon Lavender Buds and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat just before it boils and let the buds infuse for 30 minutes, then strain and discard the buds. Stir in the remaining Coconut Milk, Vanilla, 1/4 Cup Honey, 2 Tablespoons melted Coconut Oil and a pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt. Chill for 4 to 6 hours in the refrigerator. Churn in an ice cream maker, stirring in the chopped, candied pecans the last five minutes. Serve this delicate, fancy, refreshing treat!

Lavender Ice Cream with Honeyed Pecans

Eat Your Nutrients!

Crock Pot Cream of Tomato Basil Soup

Cream of Tomato Basil Soup

Fall isn’t the only time to make good use of your crock pot! It allows you to get outside in the Summer and come home after a day of fun to a great meal. When we have a full house of company and are all heading out for a day of boating or beach fun, I can’t tell you how much stress it takes off the cook to have a few great recipes that can be done in advance “up your sleeve” – Where did that saying come from?

Here is a tomato soup recipe where I used fresh basil from the garden. You can add a salad and some almond crackers, or throw burgers on the grill to go with it for a quickly prepped meal after a day outside.

Ingredients:

2 – 28 oz. Jars Crushed Tomatoes (I Like Eden Organics They are SCD Legal)

1 Cup Full Fat Coconut Milk

2 Tablespoons Garlic Olive Oil

1/2 Cup Fresh Minced Basil, plus more for garnish

1 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Place all the ingredients in the crock pot on low for 6 to 8 hours. Puree the soup with an immersion blender or high speed blender. Serve with a garnish of fresh basil.

See how easy it is?

Eat Your Nutrients!