Okay so I am a bigggg mojito fan. They are quite possibly (oh ya I’m going here) my favourite drink. Why? They look beautiful, they taste delicious, and they are skinny! The skinny part only happens if you make them right though. I rarely (if ever) order a mojito in a restaurant because they always come loaded with refined sugar or syrups. So this is something that I like to make at home with friends, where I can be particular about what I put in it and how I make it.

What’s in it:

• Fresh watermelon
• Soda water (I like Pellegrino)
• Fresh mint leaves
• Limes
• White rum (<– the most important ingredient, obviously.)
• Ice

Okie dokes. Start by cutting up your watermelon into cubes. Take your mint leaves and add those first to your glass. Muddle them in the bottom of the glass. If you don’t know what muddling is, essentially just mash up the leaves until they are tender in your glass. 

Now, add your watermelon. Put about 4 cubes in each glass. Crush these up as well with a spoon. Now squeeze about two generous lime slices per glass. If I am being honest here I put about half a lime per drink but that is because I am way too into limes haha. Add your rum, 1 or 2 shots depending on how bad you’re feeling. Yeaaaaa just got for two… haha. 

Now add your ice, then fill the glass up with Pellegrino. Add a few more cubes of watermelon on top and you’re don’t! If you have more of a sweet tooth, feel free to add a bit of sugar. That being said it is better to just enjoy the sugar that is already naturally in the fruit. 

If you haven’t already, check out my Blackberry Rosemary Mojito recipe as well!

x,

You should be happy that I only posted 5 photos. I had about 50 I wanted to post, but I practiced my self-restraint and only posted 5. Which let me tell you…. WAS. NOT. EASY. I mean sweet jesus… would you look at these pancakes?! I don’t want to ring my own bell or anything but I freaking killed it. (Just saying…. **Ahem** haha) 😛 

These pancakes are such a delicious combination of flavours they will literally ruin all other pancakes for you (except for my Skinny Apple Pancakes cuz those are just as bomb.) The citrus, ricotta, and mint go perfectly with the fluffy pancakes below them. And obviously a drizzle of 100% maple syrup on top never hurt anyone.

Want to know how to make my Citrus & Ricotta Pancakes? Here’s the skinny:

Pancake ingreds (stolen from my main girl Martha):

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (for the pan)

Toppings:

• Ricotta cheese
• Blood orange, grapefruit, orange
• Fresh mint leaves
• 100% natural maple syrup

LET’S DO THIS. 

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees so that when your first few pancakes are done you can keep em nice and warm in the oven. (Uhg hungry already.)

Now, whisk together your milk, oil, and egg. Add dry ingredients to this mixture and stir until just combined. If it’s a little chunky that’s a good thing. (Chunky is such an appealing word, I am aware.)

Heat up a large frying pan over medium heat. Add that tbsp of coconut oil to the pan. Once the pan is hot spoon 2 to 3 tbsp of batter onto the skillet at a time. I was making about 3 pancakes in the same pan at once. –> We all have our special talents.

Cook le pancakies until they bubble through the top then carefully flip and cook until the underside is browned. Easy peasy. 

Now, plate your pancakes by putting 2 or 3 pancakes on each plate. Take about 2-3 biggg tablespoons of ricotta (or however much you want really) and put on top of the pancakes. Cut up your citrus fruits and add those babies on top. Then the mint leaves, then a little bit of maple syrup…. And oh my god I’m dying. So good.

What do you guys think?! Amazing?? If you can’t already tell I am kind of obsessed with this recipe haha. Hope you are too! <3

x,

Winter is almost over!!! It is getting sunnier and sunnier every day, and I am the most excited. In honour of winter being over (let’s just say it is…) I wanted to share one of my favourite comfort meals to make on a chilly evening. Because we all know we have quite a few more chilly evenings left before it gets real nice and warm out. 

Roasted root veggies! They are beautiful, colourful, and delicious. Not to mention they are packed with all sorts of good vitamins. Winning. 

I usually make this when I am trying to seem like a good cook and want to make something that is pretty much guaranteed to work out, but still tastes freaking amazing. What I am trying to say is this recipe will totally make you look like a super talented chef… So bonus points for you! 😉

What’s in it:

• Beets
• Carrots
• Onion
• Garlic cloves
• Sweet potato
• Regular potato
• Lemon
• Fresh Italian parsley
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder

Okay you guys ready? Let’s do this. 

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Wash your veggies and chop them into about 1 – 2 inch cubes. Try and cut the beets a bit smaller because they tend to take longer to cook. Take the skin off your garlic cloves, and leave those beautiful babies whole. Yes… whole. garlic. cloves. You will like it, just do it. 😛 Now, finely chop up your fresh italian parsley. If you don’t have fresh parsley on hand, dried parsley will do but honestly the fresh stuff tastes so much better it’s worth the trip to the store (promise.) Next take your lemon and slice it into pretty thick slices. Throw all this in a baking dish and cover with your extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Yes, I add more garlic on top of the already generous full garlic cloves. Why the hell not, right? 

After you have mixed everything up so all the veggies are evenly covered in oil and spices, throw it in the oven for about 60 minutes! This seems like a long time I know, but this is a prime opportunity to have your wine. (Just saying…) When you take it out of the oven, make sure you remove the lemon slices before you serve it! They are just there to flavour the dish. 

And thats it! I love simple recipes like this, that seem like they took a lot more skill than they really did haha. It will be our little secret though. 🙂

Let me know what you think of this recipe!

x,

Everyone, meet delicious skinny snack. Delicious skinny snack, meet everyone. 

Yes, this snack deserved a formal introduction. Because it is that good. I find any time you make something from simple pure ingredients, you really can’t go wrong. I love keeping things simple, in all ways. My style is usually pretty simple, and same with the food that I cook! Occasionally I like to get crazy and mix things up, but usually my motto is ‘less is more.’

So if you can’t already tell, this is simply fresh cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto and mint leaves. Sooooo simple, and oh so yummy. I like to make this as a snack in the afternoon to tie me over until dinner if I get hungry. That way I don’t end up like a ravenous animal at dinner time lol. 

Enjoy this snack! You won’t just make it once, promise 😉

x,

Last night I was watching a movie (it may or may not have been Legally Blonde, because girl power), and got in a real snacky mood. So I decided to throw together my favourite “fancy” popcorn. Yup, fancy popcorn. I love taking really simple things and putting my own twist on them. You would be surprised how much better something can get if you just add your own sparkle to it.

What’s in it:

• Parmesan cheese
• Popcorn
• Garlic powder
• Mixed Italian herbs
• Butter

Start by finely grating your parmesan cheese. This is all approximate so if you really like cheese grate lots, and if you don’t just do a little bit (but really, who doesn’t like cheese… that’s just not normal.) Now, pop your popcorn! Once the popcorn is ready to go, melt your butter. And for the love of god just use butter and not margarine, that stuff is nasty. Slowly pour the butter on top of the popcorn, shaking the bowl as you go to make sure it gets nice and even. Take your parmesan cheese and sprinkle it evenly over the popcorn. And finally, do the same with your garlic powder and mixed italian herbs. 

So so yummy! This is such an easy way to “dress up” a really simple snack. This obviously isn’t the healthiest snack ever considering it is covered in butter and cheese, but like I always say life is about balance! If you want the cheesy popcorn, eat the cheesy popcorn! Just not every day lol.

I want to hear what you top your popcorn with! Let me know in the comments below 🙂

x,

Today I was totally in the mood for a super sweet fruity juice! Normally I make my jucies mostly from vegetables, and just add enough fruit to sweeten them up. Learn more about the benefits of green juice by clicking here, and learn the basics of juicing by clicking here. Anyways, today I was feeling like a treat so this is what I made! So tasty, going to make this one again for sure.

What’s in it:

 – 2 apples

 – Handful blackerries

 – 1 large carrot

 – 1 orange (no peel)

 – 1/4 lemon (no peel)

 – Small slice of ginger

Put all those beautiful ingredients in your juicer and enjoy! Try and only drink fresh pressed juice when you can, it is so much better for you. 

I also wanted to let you know that I am starting to put together some more Skinny Belle workouts for you guys! It has been a while since I have shared my favourite workouts with you, so I really want to give you some more to do. If you check out the workouts I have already posted, I give you a pdf file that you can save to your phone. This way you can take Skinny Belle to the gym with you, and do the workout from anywhere! 

The main reason that I have not been sharing my personal workouts with you lately, is that it is ski season! During this time of year I really get most of my exercise from going skiing. That being said, the weather is getting warmer and it is almost time to be doing my Skinny Belle workouts again! Just wanted to keep ya’ll in the loop and let you know what is coming up.

Happy Wednesday friends! 

x,

Sometimes I feel like I am a bit aggressive with the titles on my food posts. I want to give you guys an idea of all the awesome things in the recipe and how good it tastes, and always end up having a title that is way longer than is socially acceptable. Whatever, you guys get me. <3

Disclaimer: I totally stole this recipe from my friend Monica. She made this for me once and it was so yummy I couldn’t not share!!

Anywho, this morning I made this delicious little breakfast plate. I love having a bunch of different food items when I eat, so that explains this plate of rather random food. For today we will just focus on those gorgeous Rosemary Sweet Potato Hashbrowns.

For some reason sweet potatoes feel like such a romantic breakfast to me. Like, a sexier version of regular hash browns. Is that weird? Haha! Either way, thats how they seem to me. “Sexy hashbrowns”… for the record I am aware of how odd that sounds

There are also so many benefits to eating sweet potatoes! To start, they are a good source of magnesium, which is the anti-stress and relaxation mineral. Sweet potatoes also contain Vitamin D! Vitamin D is the mineral that increases your energy levels and puts you in a better mood. 🙂 And though there are many more benefits, my favourite has to be that sweet potatoes’ sugar is a slow-releasing natural sugar. The benefits to having a slow-releasing natural sugar are maintaining a balanced blood sugar level and regular source of energy so you don’t have a sugar high and then low. When your blood sugar spikes quickly it often can lead to fatigue and weight gain. So yay for sweet potatoes!

Okay, now for what’s in it:

– Extra virgin olive oil

– A few small nugget potatoes

– One large sweet potato

– 2 sprigs of rosemary

– Salt/pepper to taste

Alight so this is reallll simple. Just chop up all your potatoes (quite small like I did in the photos above.) Next, finely mince your rosemary sprigs, so they are nice and tiny. Rosemary has a pretty intense flavour, so it is important you cut it up really small. Heat up your pan to medium-low heat with a nice amount of olive oil. Once the pan is hot throw in all your cut up ingredients. Cook them on medium-low heat until the potatoes are soft. Once the potatoes are soft, crank the heat up to brown them and add your salt and pepper. Mmmmm toasty brown delicious hashbrowns. Then you are done! And obviously eat them with ketchup because we are cavemen like that. 😉

What do you guys think? Will you be adding this to your next homemade brunch?!

x,

Hi everyone! How was your Valentines weekend? I spent my Valentines Day with my family this year – such a fun night, with wayyy too much food as usual! Haha 😛 I also went skiing today, and have some fun pics to share with you later this week!

Today’s recipe is perfect if you are doing some last minute meal-prep for the upcoming week. There are literally only 3 ingredients, which obviously means it is the best kind of recipe. Clean, simple, and delicious.

This soup makes you way more full than it looks like it would. It is actually really weird haha. I usually make this if I want a cozy meal that will keep me warm on these oh-so-wonderful (not) winter days. And like I said, it makes you freakishly full. I don’t question it, because it is awesome.

What’s in it:

• 1 butternut squash
• ½ large purple onion
• Extra virgin olive oil

Okay here we go team! You ready?

Start by prepping your ingredients. Cut the squash in half, remove the innards (aka the seeds and weird stringy stuff in the very middle) and cut it up into about 1” cubes. Next, dice your onion. 

Heat up a large pot on the stove to medium heat. Put a nice big “glug” of olive oil in the pot (don’t be shy, it wont hurt you 😉 ) Once the pot is on medium heat, add in your purple onion. Make sure that you are carefully watching it because you really don’t want the onion to burn. Just make it nice and soft.

Once the onion is soft and losing its colour a bit, throw all your squash on top. Right away fill the pot with enough water so that it is just above the squash. Stir everything together and cover to let it cook for about 20 – 25 minutes. The cooking time really changes depending on how large/small your squash chunks are cut, so just feel them with a fork every once and a while to see when they are soft.

When the squash is all soft and delicious, set it aside and let it cool until it is room temp. Then, get out your blender and in small portions blend the soup until it is nice and smooth. And… That’s it! I always season my soup with herbs/salt/pepper after I am done cooking it, so that whoever is eating it can make it as salty or peppery as they like. So make sure you add some salt and pepper before you chow down. 🙂

If you want to check out another squash recipe of mine (and learn more about the benefits of eating squash), try this Skinny Butternut Squash Bowl.

This should keep in the fridge for up to a week! Hope you guys enjoy this recipe, please let me know in the comments below what you think.

Let’s get ready to have a great week! Love you guys <3

x,

Would you look at this food?! Last week I attended the Bittered Sling Bistro Pop-Up Dinner, hosted at Cibo Trattoria in Vancouver. This was the first revival of the Bittered Sling Bistro in a few years, and was it ever amazing. It was hosted by the Bittered Sling co-owners, Lauren Mote and Jonathan Chovancek. Jonathan also happens to be the Executive Chef at Cafe Medina (which we all know is next to godly.) In case you missed it, check out my review of Cafe Medina here.

This event was all about perfectly pairing a beautiful three-course dinner with equally beautiful drinks. The result? MAGIC. Seriously, every single bite, sip, and attempt-to-not-inhale-my-food-at-the-speed-of-lightening was better than the last. I am a huge bitters fan as is, and really appreciated the unique drinks that were presented at the Bittered Sling Bistro. Not to mention the food… Why did it have to end?! And when can I go back?! (Already experiencing withdrawal symptoms, clearly.)

Overall, such a fun night and I totally recommend you get your hands on some tickets for the next event!

x,

Here we are, the day of the big game. You have friends coming over last minute and you need to prep some snacks!! (Because, what is the point of football if there are no snacks…. Seriously haha.) My genius idea when making this post was to finally (because I have been wanted to share this recipe forever with you guys) share my homemade guacamole recipe. I go to the store, all stoked and stuff, and reach to pick up an avocado. They are ROCK HARD. These babies wouldn’t have been ripe for years at best. Think hockey puck status.

Being the overly-busy and efficiency-obsessed person I am, I went straight for my “guacamole for cheaters” recipe. Hahah yes, I am blogging about how you can trick your friends into thinking that you are the best guacamole maker ever.

Why would you need to know this? LIFE SKILLS (duh.) For example today, you are in the same awkward position as I am with these stupid hard avocados. Or, you are just short on time and want to make a delicious and impressive appy super quick.

So, how do I make this “homemade Guacamole” for cheaters? Here’s the skinny:

• Buy store bought guacamole. (Just do it, this will be good I swear!)
• Purple onion
• Tomatoes
• Lime
• Cilantro
• Salt/pepper to taste

Start by chopping up your purple onion and tomato into small little chunks. Put them into a bowl (rocket science.) Squeeze as much lime as you like on top of your onion and tomato. I like to use pretty much a whole lime, because I am a full-on lime addict. Now, chop your cilantro up super fine and add that in the bowl too. This is the total cheater part… add in the pre-made guacamole!!! Mix together and you are doneeee.

I made this for my boyfriend and his eyes were glazed-over with wonder at how great of a cook I am. (Hopefully he isn’t reading this…. If you are I am sorry I lied, it was for science.)

Anyways that’s it! This hack is soooo essential for anyone who is super busy, needs a last minute appy to make, or has the curse of hard avocados that have no hope of ripening anytime in 2015.

Hope you guys love this! Have fun making my cheater guac, and lets hope for a great game today!! I know I will be fully enjoying my food and drinks, and maybe will occasionally glance at the game. 😛

x,