Season's Eatings Holiday e-Book

Do you ever ask yourself this question?  The holidays are here, now what?  This was my inspiration for creating Season's Eatings, my holiday e-book modeled around the Maximized Living Nutrition Plans.  Within its pages you'll find 62 Core Plan recipes, 46 Advanced Plan recipes (view the recipe list), advice on managing stress (Essential #1) thru the holidays, how to cook with natural sweeteners, a shopping guide, and bright tantalizing pictures to guide you thru!

Season's Eatings is so much more than a recipe book.  I designed it to be a menu planner and resource guide you can come back to year after year.  And what is the most loved food tradition of Thanksgiving and Christmas?  The cookies and desserts of course!  Well, I've loaded this e-book up with all of my favorite cookie and pie creations.  You will not be disappointed!

This e-book is also a fabulous resource for the array of holiday parties coming up.  Whether you have volunteered to bring one dish to share or are hosting a dinner party of your own, Season's Eatings will supply you with health-inducing, whole-food options that taste SO GOOD your guests will never know they're healthy!

It's about living a Maximized Living lifestyle every day of the year.  And just because holidays come with a tradition of processed, high sugar, trans fat, and gluten laden dishes DOES NOT mean you have to eat that way.  Holiday eating should be guilt-free!  Start a new tradition within your family of Maximized food that tastes good and is good for you!

HEAR WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

It is a blessing to hear and read how my recipes have been helping Maximized Living families all over the world.  I wanted to share what a couple families have to say:

This book is one of the best books we have ever cooked from.  There is no book out there that we have found that has perfect ratios for the recipes, great tasting food and wonderful ideas.  Eating healthy CAN be fun and extraordinarily tasty with Elise's "Seasons Eatings" e-book!  This year we are having my family over for Christmas and were worried how to make healthy desserts, side dishes, and entrees for them, but now we have a great book that we are comfortable cooking from.  Our favorite side dish from the book is the coconut bread.  It can go with so many things, stuffing, scones, etc.!  Our favorite dessert is the "Double Dark Chocolate Mousse Pie."  She even tells you how to make the crust.  We have literally gone through a ton of healthy cookbooks and recipe guides when it comes to healthy eating, but they all had horrible ratios of ingredients or never worked out like the picture showed.  With Elise's "Seasons Eatings" book all we have to do is follow the recipe and it turns out amazing!  If you were worried about how to make a healthy holiday meal and have the WHOLE family like it, this is it.  Completely worth the price!
               -  David and Abby Janis
                  San Leandro, CA

This next review is from a fellow blogger.  She goes by Tall Girl and is currently living in Wiesbaden, Germany.  Check out her post, Season's Eatings is toward the bottom.

You can read more about Season's Eatings holiday e-book here and purchase and download it here.  And don't forget to visit my YouTube channel to watch me make Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake from Season's Eatings!

With Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas now just weeks away, the holiday rush will be starting.  I want to wish each one of you many blessings with your families thru the holidays!  I am thankful for you, your support, and the impact we are creating to help others live healthier lives every day.  Happy, Healthy Eating!

Our Baby is Here: Austin Wayne Schwartz

Announcing the arrival of our first bundle of joy, Austin Wayne.  Born Sunday, September 18 at 5:32am, 7lbs 4oz, 21 inches.  We call him our smiley baby:

Austin had his newborn photo shoot this past Tuesday, and our photographer, Lora, was able to capture some of his most precious moments, including this photo of Austin smiling sweetly.  Warms my heart every time I look at it!

Austin is such a sweet, sweet baby.  He's almost always in a good mood, and we just can't get over how cute and cuddly he is!  He's always making us smile.  Dave and I could just sit and stare at him all day!  Here is more of Austin smiling:

Adjusting to the life of parenthood has been going well.  I am enjoying our Babymoon, spending all hours with Austin, most of the time in bed getting to know each other and bonding.  I love this little man so much!!  He is entering his first growth spurt already (already!), eating every hour and sleeping allll day.  My baby is getting chubbier every day and his newborn onesies are getting tight.  Everyone told me how fast babies grow up, but experiencing it first hand is surreal.

Back to recipe posting soon!  Have been out of the kitchen since Austin's arrival and Dave has been head chef of the house.  I also have a few GREAT product reviews and giveaways coming up soon!  So stay tuned, you'll want to enter the giveaways for sure!

Thank you to all of you who had us in your thoughts and prayers while we patiently waited for Austin and brought him into this world.  We so appreciate the support and love all around!  ((hugs))

Almond Joy Ice Cream

Okay, you can't pass this recipe up.  This ice cream reminds me of an Almond Joy bar...all the flavors are there, but hey, it's Advanced Plan!  :)

Almond Joy Ice Cream
Makes 6 Servings

2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 cup full-fat coconut milk
3 free-range egg yolks
1 Tbsp arrowroot powder
1/2 tsp pure liquid stevia
2 tsp pure vanilla
Pinch of sea salt
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup raw chopped almonds

In a blender, mix almond milk, coconut milk, egg yolks, arrowroot, liquid stevia, vanilla, sea salt and cocoa powder until smooth.  Add in coconut flakes and almonds and pulse a few times to fold in.  Pour into your ice cream machine (be sure bowl is prepped if needed) and follow your makers instructions.

Raz-Apple Smoothie

A tasty tart and tangy smoothie!

Raz-Apple Smoothie
Makes 1 Serving

1/3 cup organic unsweetened coconut water or almond milk
1 Granny Smith apple, cored, chopped, frozen
1/3 cup organic raspberries, frozen
1/4 cup full-fat organic Greek yogurt or coconut milk
8 drops pure liquid stevia
1 scoop plain or vanilla protein powder
Ice (optional)

Blend together the frozen apple and raspberries with coconut water until smooth.  Add in remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.  Serve immediately.

Coconut Dream Cake

This cake is for the coconut lover (aka my hubby)!  I've titled it as Coconut Dream Cake as it's got a dreamy like texture to it, almost a custard-like cake if you will.  Yummmo!  Crushed macadamia nuts only add to the dreamy flavor.  For our second serving, we dolloped on a spoonful of my Coconut Whipped Cream (recipe found in Season's Eatings e-book) as a topping and it was truly divine!  A great coffee or tea cake.

Idea just came to me -- would also be great topped with fresh crushed pineapple, ooooo, trying that next!

Coconut Dream Cake
Makes 12 Servings

8 free-range eggs
3 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 cup full-fat organic coconut milk
1 cup coconut flour, sifted twice
1/2 cup xylitol
3 tsp Stevita Spoonable stevia
1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil
2 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 tsp nutmeg (plus more for top)
1 tsp cinnamon (plus more for top)
Handful or two of chopped macadamia nuts (optional)

1.)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9"x13" glass baking pan with coconut oil and line with unbleached parchment paper.

2.)  In a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat eggs, almond milk, coconut milk, coconut flour, xylitol, butter/coconut oil, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon until smooth.  Fold in coconut flakes and chopped nuts.

3.)  Pour batter into pan and sprinkle additional cinnamon and nutmeg over top.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes, or until top is golden brown and a knife inserted in middle comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool to room temperature before cutting and serving.

Vegetable Frittata

We've been eating a lot of frittatas lately.  For some reason I'm finding it easier to whip one of these up than our usual sunny side up eggs or an omelet.  Not to mention a frittata holds much more room for flavor combinations!  I love them!  We've been doing at least one a week, and sometimes one every day.  :)

You can use any combination of veggies, about 4 cups total for this large frittata.  My favorite right now is in the recipe below, onion, zucchini, green pepper, spinach, chicken if we have some leftover from dinner, and salsa.  Another great combo is leek, tomato and fresh rosemary. 

Vegetable Frittata
Makes 4 Servings

2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, diced
2 organic zucchinis, diced
1 organic green pepper, diced
1-2 handfuls free-range chicken, cooked and chopped
2 large handfuls organic spinach
2 Tbsp organic unsalted butter
6 free-range eggs, beaten
Herbs to your liking (basil and oregano are my staples)
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Organic unsweetened salsa, optional

1.)  Preheat your broiler with oven rack at highest level.  In a large stainless steel skillet on your stove top, add coconut oil over Medium-High heat and saute the onion, zucchini, and green pepper about 5 minutes, until softened.   Add in the chicken and heat thru for 2 minutes.  Reduce heat to Low and add the spinach on top and wilt down, about 30-45 seconds.

2.)  Add the butter to the pan, melting it down and incorporating all thru the mixture, making sure the bottom of the skillet is well coated.  Pour beaten eggs over top, tilting pan as needed to get egg mixture to coat all the veggies.

3.)  Sprinkle optional herbs over top.  Season with sea salt and pepper.  Turn off heat on stove top.  Place skillet under broiler for about 3-5 minutes, until fritata is puffy and light brown.  Remove from oven, cut into wedges and serve.  Top with fresh salsa (optional).

How To: Homemade Dishwasher Soap & Rinse Agent

Here it is, y'all!  The long awaited Homemade Dishwasher Soap recipe.  We are usually a wash-by-hand family, using dish soap (recipe to come for that as well) as little as possible, only when something is pretty scuzzy or oily.  We like to conserve water and soap (and electricity) as much as possible.  But, we broke down and started using our dishwasher starting in July, as we got moved into our own place again and I started cooking A TON more.  Dishes were piling up...literally on every counter top.  And by the time I was done cooking the dish, I was dead tired and baby and I would have to go sit down to catch our breath or take a nap to recoup.  Dave commits most of his time to work right now, so it's pretty out of the question to ask him to do a sink full of dishes when he gets home late after a long day.  So I cracked, and began researching natural dishwasher detergent options.

Shocked at what I could (or couldn't?) find.  Looking at the various manufacturing websites and calling about their ingredients list, I was shocked that these companies called themselves eco-friendly and organic.  But it's just like with body care products of our world I suppose.  There are no laws about labeling, and they can say these things as long as they have one "natural" ingredient in the product, even if that means they have 20 or 100 other bad ingredients.

So using a liquid or powder detergent from the store was out of the question for our family.  Did you know that dishwasher detergent is one of THE most toxic substances in your household?  And that when you run the dishwasher, the chemicals are literally vaporized and expelled into the air of your home?  It was very important to us to not use any chemicals if we were really going to begin this dishwasher endeavor.  So I got to work!  I pulled out my Easy Green Living book and utilized my best friend Google to find various homemade dishwasher soap recipes.  There are so many different ones out there, I kind of adapted a few different ones to make the recipe that turned out the best for us.  We have super hard water here in North Carolina, so had to increase the citric acid to get it just right.  But this recipe works WONDERS on our dishes!

And the key is the rinse aide.  Your dishes will come out spotty if you do not add the vinegar to each and every load to the "Jet Dry" compartment.  Trust me, I've done many different trials and they come out perfectly every time when directions are followed exactly as below.  The ingredients can be found from your local grocery store, in larger sizes at Walmart/Costco, or in bulk online (I'll link to where we bought ours).  And I forgot to mention the cost savings in making your own dishwasher soap.  I mean, talk about frugal AND green for the family!  This homemade detergent costs only about $.05 cents per load versus a conventional soap, around $.14 cents average per load!!  The savings will certainly add up over time, and you're offering a much cleaner option for your family.

Here's the recipe.  I doubled it in the picture below since I had enough of the ingredients, but you don't need a container quite as large as mine:

Homemade Dishwasher Soap
Makes 2 1/2 cups

Container with tight lid that fits at least 2 1/2 cups (a mason jar 32oz or larger would be great)
1 cup Borax
1/2 cup Salt
1 cup Citric Acid (use 1/2 cup for normal to soft water)
1 cup Baking Soda
1/4 cup Distilled White Vinegar
A scooper of some sort (I use and old scoop from a protein jug, works perfectly)

1.)  To your container, add the borax, salt, citric acid, and baking soda.  Pop on the lid and shake or use a wooden spoon to stir until well combined.  Add your scooper to the jar and seal the lid.  It's ready to go!  In the dishwasher fill both soap containers full of this powder, it'll be about 3 Tbsp total per load.  Very important to fill both containers so it does a pre-wash to begin breaking down the grime.  Remember, you're avoiding the use of chemical surfactants here, so we need to allow the natural ingredients a little extra time to do their magic!

2.)  With each dishwasher load, add 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar to the rinse agent compartment.  This is a MUST step to avoid spotty dishes.

And that's it!  I run the load on Normal Wash and turn off the "heated dry" to save energy.  Also run it only when jammed full of dishes to maximize its use, and run it at night so A) we aren't directly breathing in any vapors from the dishwasher (plastics and such) and B) the A/C doesn't have to work as hard as it would during daytime hours.  Dishes come out sparkling and literally squeaky clean every time!

A little clumping of the finished product due to the citric acid is normal, as you don't have the chemicals in there to prevent clumping.  Just break up any clumps as you go along with your scoop, no sweat!

A disclaimer about using powders -- you may want to wear a mask around your nose and mouth while preparing this detergent.  If you breathe in the powder dust as you pour/mix, the dust particles can go into your lungs and they then stay there.  This can be dangerous to your health, so I recommend wearing a mask at mixing time.

Enjoy natural cleaning!  I have many other great homemade cleaning recipes to share, so keep an eye out!