Once upon a time, there was a woman named Eve, who, unable to resist the luring temptation of a fragrant orchard, took a bite of forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. Perhaps Eve was bored. Perhaps she was ovulating and had a desperate craving for something sweet. Perhaps life in the little garden was becoming stressful or claustrophobic. Perhaps she felt out of control or lacked passion in her life and in order to numb her emotions or soothe herself from Adam's lack of attention or his ambivalence in starting a family, she chose to indulge. Perhaps Eve was an emotional eater. But as Eve soon discovered, neither the bite, nor the whole fruit fulfilled her as she had hoped. Not only did she realize she was naked but that she had contempt for the way she looked. Perhaps Eve suffered with body dismorphia. Eve tried to stop eating the forbidden fruit and eventually avoided eating altogether but that didn't work and she ended up eating until she could no longer breathe. The point of this is that Eve lost her intuitive ability to nourish herself. She no longer had balance in her life and was willing to do any and everything to get that back. Recipe Revamp
What keeps me motivated to eat clean and stick to my meal plan?
I get this question a lot so I decided to do this Recipe Revamp contest.
I’m not going to lie, there are those nights when I cannot help but want to order Indian takeout and veg out but I’ll share the dirty little secret that has kept my lifestyle of eating clean and staying lean so manageable:
I take all of the dirty recipes I love…pizza, nachos, french fries, chocolate, cheesecake…all of it and I transform it using clean ingredients.
I know, I know, you say, Zaina this is really daunting I mean some people have never even baked before so how are they going to bake with all these foreign ingredients like liquid stevia and Greek yogurt?!
Everyone has to start somewhere. I began by transforming breakfasts into treats, ie. my pancake recipes. I now have hundreds to choose from with some of my favourites being, Zain’s Vegan PB & Banana Creme Pancakes, Zain’s Bounty Bar Oatmeal and my newest love, Zain’s Carrot Cake Pancakes!
From there, I dived head first into desserts and sweets to mac n’ cheese and even pizza: Zain’s Wild Mushroom Goat’s Cheese and Pesto Pizza, made with flourless crust!
The image on the right shows the dirty, dirty pizza (loaded with salt, sugar, white flour and unhealthy fats) and the image on the left, shows my cleaned up version that will keep you lean and feeling fantastic!
My Recipe Revamp contest was created to get you all thinking about what foods you end up cheating on your diet with and learning how to recreate it so that your diet and you special little friend (aka the cheat food) can both enjoy your company.
Made you smile right? In this case, I’m going to give you the green light to be a two timing…you know.
So all you have to do is send me your favourite cheat food via Facebook or Twitter and if your cheat gets selected, I will revamp it for you and send you the recipe so that you can enjoy it forever and ever and still wake up fitting into your skinnies the next day.
Sound good? Looking forward to hearing from you…and make them dirty!
Zain’s Bounty Bar Oatmeal
Just made the most amazing breakfast by fluke and had to share. If you love the combination of chocolate and coconut, this oatmeal recipe is definitely for you.
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Slow Cook Organic Oats
3/4 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Light Coconut Milk
1/2 Tbsp Coconut Butter
11/2 Tbsp Cacao Powder
1 Tbsp Sunwarrior Protein Powder OR Protein Powder Of Your Choice (optional)
1/2 Tbsp Cacao Nibs (optional)
1 Tsp Unsweetened Raw Chocolate Chips (optional)
7-10 Drops Vanilla Creme Liquid Stevia
1 Tbsp Coconut To Top (optional)
Directions:
1. Bring oats and water to a boil on med-high heat
2. Once partially boiled, add in coconut milk and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated
3. Once cooked, stir in cacao, cacao nibs, coconut butter, chocolate chips, stevia and protein powder. Top with coconut flakes and serve hot.
