First off I want to welcome all the new Nosh & Nurture readers! :) Welcome! I hope you enjoy this little place I've made.

I adore mornings. (not too early of course.) But I do. To awaken with time to enjoy a good breakfast, connecting with God through prayer or a devotional (The Good Morning Lord app is my absolute favorite!) and thinking about and planning my day when there is so much hope, another clean slate, when I long to be productive. Some days I am, others not, but you musn't beat yourself up for the days you are not. I'm working hard to learn this. Not everyday is going to be a gold star day. A day when I've done the laundry, completed a day of work at the studio, finished an article, written a blog and cooked a gorgeous meal for Mr. Charming. While that is the hope that lies in every morning, sometimes, more often than not, that's not the picture that is painted at the end of my day. 

And that's ok.

Do the best you can with the tools (and in my case, energy) you are given that day and let the rest go.

One way that I try to ensure a productive day, or at least morning, is having a protein filled breakfast. Whether it's through my anti-inflammatory protein shake, veggies, fruits, almonds, meats or eggs I try to always have a filling breakfast with no or minimal sugar. (mmmm!)

This morning I am enjoying my paleo breakfast bowl. My version of this is here. It's beyond delicious, filling and has no sugar. I paired it with a hot mug of unsweetened chocolate almond milk with a splash of coconut milk vanilla creamer (only 3g of sugar.) I try to make a habit out of getting energy from my beverages in the form of protein (almonds) instead of caffeine which my body cannot tolerate.  The beauty of this recipe is you can include any type of veggie or herb you choose! Enjoy! And may everyone have a happy, healthy and productive Wednesday!

So, since Mr. Charming and I had a day off together I decided to go big and whip up the amazing Paleo biscuits and gravy that you can find here. We got to sleep in a bit and I wanted to make us something yummy that would keep us full for more project: redecorate/renovate. (Mr. Charming is building a home theatre, while I am refinishing chairs for the kitchen) and as I was preparing them I realized we hadn't made this since our cabin trip last November! Insanity. Below are the ingredients I used in the biscuits and gravy. Have I mentioned how much I ADORE using almond meal to bake with?! I love the mealy, hearty consistency it gives my baked goods. 

While I was waiting for these glorious little biscuits to bake so I could start the gravy...

... I decided to do some work on Nosh & Nurture and have a little snack. I didn't want to spoil my appetite but we were taking a slow, relaxing Sunday morning and I woke up hungry so I treated myself to a little coconut milk yogurt and organic strawberries. MMMM.

once the biscuits were done I started the gravy. It will always be a little thinner than one desires when cooking, so take it off the heat and let it sit for ten minutes to thicken. I usually will pop my biscuits back in the oven on warm for this. It is truly a delicious, hearty Sunday brunch. Perfect for rainy weather such as this. I also like to add a little jam to one of my biscuits. Trader Joe's has a jam that has NO added sugar! Just fruit juices and fruit! Hope you all have a beautiful Sunday that refreshes you!

A reader asked...

"What types of flours do you regularly use?"
See my answer here. And feel free to send in your questions. 

There are many reasons why I adore Sundays. 

1. It's the one day Mr. Charming and I have off together and connecting to my husband is the second best thing I need to refresh & inspire me for the week.

2. The number one is our time with God. Getting to worship as husband and wife, spend time making our house a home as husband and wife, and spending quality time with friends and family sharing in community. 

3. Delicious mornings sleeping in and having time to make breakfast more of an adventure and less of a grab-what-ya-can-and-kiss-me-quick-on-the-way-out-the-door-to-work breakfast. I love cooking with Mr. Charming, making healthy, organic meals and sitting down together sharing in prayer and our plans for the day. 

This morning we made my Oat Pancakes, I added a few Enjoy Life dairy-free chocolate chips to them this morning as a treat since we've both been working so much and eating so clean lately. I served them with organic eggs. And because of the chocolate chips I didn't need to put ANYTHING on them. YUM! 

After breakfast we spent the morning at Home Depot. Mr. Charming has an affinity for home projects and he is super handy at building and home design/decor. (Fun fact: he went to ASU for architecture!) He decided to work on building our home theatre (in the very beginning stages, I'll update as we go.) So I decided to deep clean the kitchen, which we are also redecorating. Here are some of the cute touches I've added to make it more "us". I am accenting with seafoam-y blue and coral. Which I LOVE! The Paleo Comfort Food cookbook was lent to me by a friend and it was SUCH a saving grace in the beginning of my food journey before I started experimenting with my own recipes. I also LOVE chalkboard labeled jars there are a lot of them throughout our kitchen/pantry. 

Even though I stopped drinking coffee long ago, I still keep my coffee pot on hand for hosting dinners, holidays and for making tea. I also have an OBSESSION with coffee mugs. Seriously, I drive Mr. Charming kind of crazy. And yes. That is a central perk mug. I also have a slight obsession with FRIENDS. 

Deep cleaning is hard work, but I think I ate something that didn't agree with me yesterday or the day before (I gave daiya cheese a try. Nutritional yeast. I'm not sure that was a great idea.. may have been the GF oats. Sometimes my body doesn't care for grains.) So I'm not feeling three meals a day right now, the pancakes kept me plenty full. But I was feeling snacky so I made a trail mix that was refreshing, crunchy and had a touch of sweet! It was so yummy! You can find the recipe here. 

I hope you all have a blessed and beautiful Sunday! I also got some great recipe submissions from some of you and I will get those up soon. I just need to go over them and confirm they are gluten-dairy and grain free! Talk soon! Muah!

With mine & Mr. Charming's hectic schedules sometimes we realize it's been weeks since we've been able to connect with family. Those are the times I get to recharge. To get love, to give love. As much as I advocate eating well, supplementing and physical fitness... quality time with loved ones ranks very high on the health-o-meter as well in my book. 

Check out the deliciousness that was part of the festivities. 

Getting together for games not have to equal beer, wings and pizza like American TV portrays it to be. My brother-in-law fired up the grill and we made grilled organic chicken and steaks and I tossed together some spinach, avocado, sea salt and apple cider vinegar for a heart healthy tangy salad. I added a little cinnamon applesauce on the side to mix up flavors and we enjoyed a meal together that was not only good for us but that gave us energy to endure a late night session of board game play. 

For dessert I had a leftover piece of my gluten-free apple pie that I will debut on here next, with a mug of hot vanilla almond milk! It was SCRUMPTIOUS. I would LOVE to hear what your favorite board games are? I'm always up to try new ones. My birthday is next week and there is a game called "Wordie Wars" that I want so bad since I LOVE word games. (go figure) That's all I asked for, haha. Well that and gift cards to buy pretty clothes. Because what true girlie girl doesn't LOVE new clothes? 

Living in America we are told that it's normal to eat copious amounts of red meat. Fried potatoes. Drink our Venti and larger coffees. To eat on plates the size of frying pans. This is simply NOT right. It's NOT healthy and I hope that over time more people can see that in fact it's the cause of so many diseases and the obesity problem, or should I say epidemic, in our country. 

I walk into a general grocery store, or peruse the menus at local eateries and I just simply shake my head. I support local markets with organic, GOOD food. I support restaurants who take it upon themselves to be educated and watch out for our health. Sadly, there are VERY few eateries that value health over the dollar. Which is why I simply try to eat at home AS MUCH as possible. 

Now that's off my chest, I wanted to share that Mr. Charming and I sat down the other night, popped in a flick and enjoyed a delicious burger, fries and shake date night. "But Mandi, you just ranted about how bad that was!". And, now I was guilty of having this craving. I've been eating GF/DF for about a year now and I will tell you because of the way most of us grew up sometimes a girl just craves a burger. 

But without giving into something that could be harmful to my health, or waistline as I count down to Hawaii/bikini season, I made a variation at home so I could know exactly what was on my plate. 

We don't eat red meat often because I know a lot of what has been said about red meat and digestive health, however, with how much food I had to cut from my diet I do include it in my diet. I buy grass-fed, antibiotic free beef when I do. I also usually make my patties from natural turkey meat. I also have cut potatoes from my diet due to starch, as it feeds candida, but like I said, once in a while a girl needs to give in, if even just a little.

So as you will learn, in my blogs, I refer to my husband as Mr. Charming. Because this man oozes charm. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with him, and why six years later, and married now, I still crush on him like I did when we met. So..   as I’ve been sick in bed for the past couple of days, my husband has been making me delicious healthy food to help me feel/get better. 

Tonight we made an amazing fried rice. The best we’ve ever made I believe. We used his grandmothers wok and all fresh, gluten free, organic ingredients. I have posted the recipe under ENTREES. Enjoy!