 A chilly night in California had me craving delicious comfort food without doing too much. I reached into my pantry and found some simple ingredients to make myself a savory meal while I showered and got ready for dinner. I grabbed some left over rice from the night before, tossed it in a pan with some onions and served it alongside what we are calling Instant Veggie Pot.  This pot will make itself while you ready for dinner.
Serve with salad, rice or eat as is. Enjoy!
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Shake it off with this new and super simple coconut custard recipe. A tasteful coconut pudding-like in every bite. Not trying to rhyme here, but since we do cover poetry and this happened organically, allow us to direct you to our poetry playlist as you indulge in the simple makings of this Tembleque, a recipe you'll be running back to again and again. Did we mention it's vegan?  Mmm... " Without further ado, here's the Tembleque (vegan) recipe.Ingredients:
Process:
Being from the Caribbean, rice and beans can be an unapologetic go-to dish again and again. We love it! We put together a recipe for you for a taste of the Caribbean. Here is our Rich Beans recipe in both Spanish and English. English
¡Buen provecho!
 It’s here! Our simply irresistible Simple Vegan Cookies recipe is here for you. Whether your goal is to satisfy your sweet tooth or ease your hormones, these vegan cookies fit any reason to indulge in a sweet and chocolatey bite. Without further ado, here is the Simple Vegan Cookies recipe.  Ingredients:
Procedure:
#1 Whisk coconut oil, brown sugar, and applesauce #2 Add coconut milk and vanilla extract Separate bowl, combine dry ingredients: #3 Whisk flour, salt, baking soda – mix for a good 2 minutes #4 Combine both dry and wet ingredients, mixing with a spatula or wooden spoon #5 Mix in the vegan chocolate chips, and any other topping of choice #6 Add mini scoops of dough onto baking tray, making sure to give sufficient separation between each doughball Bake for 10 minutes. Let them cool for about 5 minutes. And then devour.
Unhealthy Habits to Conquer If you are currently working at home as a result of the pandemic, see if you are guilty of the following unhealthy habits:
These are the habits you need to break in order to achieve or maintain holistic health while staying and working at home. Counter these bad habits with habits that promote good health instead. Habits That Promote Good HealthHere are examples of the healthy habits people working from home should develop: 1. Sit straight. It often takes years for good posture to become second nature to a person. But you can start with one simple rule: sit straight. Whether your chair has a backrest or none, make it a habit to sit comfortably straight with your weight equally distributed on your buttocks. Feel how the muscles on your back support your spine. Push your shoulders back and slightly down, and lift your chin so it's almost parellel to the floor. If your computer screen is below your eyeline, just lower your gaze instead of slouching down to its level. Simply correcting how you sit can already do a lot for your posture and health. It helps keep your spine in proper alignment with your hips, knees and limbs. 2. Don't stress over what you cannot control. There's already so much that's out of your hands during the pandemic. It's no use dwelling over them. Turn your attention instead to what you can control. Clean your home and give it a makeover so that it becomes a space you'll want to hang out in instead of thinking of when you can freely go outside again. Donate to credible charity causes instead of yelling at politicians on the TV. Hire a professional to open an account and do your Shopify website design so that you can sell your goods online instead of just waiting for the government to lift restrictions on "non-essential" businesses. 3. Hydrate and eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Nutrition is paramount during a pandemic. A healthy body is just as vulnerable to the coronavirus as any, but the chances of beating the illness are higher among people without preexisting medical conditions. Conversely, the elderly and people with serious health problems have a higher risk of infection. Reduce your risk by eating nutritious food. Do what you can to boost your immune system and avoid diseases that will make you more vulnerable to the virus. 4. Get enough sleep. Quality and sufficient sleep are crucial to a person's physical and mental health. Poor sleep has been linked to many medical conditions, including diabetes, heart diseases, obesity, weak immune system, depression and anxiety. One of the downsides of being at home 24/7 is there's hardly any delineation between work and home life. As a result, people end up working well into the evening or dawn. A few more hours of productivity can be good for your career, but compromising your health in the process shouldn't be a price to pay. Remote working is necessary at this time and there's no telling how long you will be working from home. Don't make it a reason for your health to deteriorate. Turn the four tips above into habits, and you'll notice a vast improvement in your health and mental well-being. by IC Contributor
plantain that was beginning to ripen up, so I cut it open and made myself a quick and savory plant-based appetizer. We are calling this one, Plátanos (Plantains) a la Caribbean. Find the simple recipe below.
Ready to eat! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
 Our Plant-Based Monday involves a delicious miniature almond cake. If you’re looking to satisfy that sweet tooth, Mini Monds are the perfect choice, not to mention they’re vegan, so you can rest your mind knowing no animals were hurt in the process. These Mini Monds are moist, sweet, and decadent.
So, without further ado, here’s our Mini Monds recipe.  Ingredients
Vegan cakes, here we go... Process
Now, the frosting.
We all have goals and aspirations and if you are going to achieve the things that you set out to achieve, it’s important that you have the right mindset. There are a lot of qualities that you always find in people that reach their goals and if you want to be successful in life, it’s important that you emulate other people that have found success. These are some of the qualities that will help you achieve your life goals. Self Confidence You miss one hundred percent of the shots that you don’t take. That may be a bit of a cliche, but it’s true and what it really means is that you will never achieve your goals unless you are willing to take some risks and chase after the things that you want. There are so many people that do not achieve the things that they want to because they don’t believe in themselves. Many women are reluctant to go after careers in male dominated industries, for example, because they don’t think that they will ever have a chance of succeeding. People that want to pursue creative careers often have the same problem because they convince themselves that it’s unrealistic and they’re not talented enough. But the thing is, there are plenty of people that are musicians or artists, so why can’t you be as well? It all comes down to self confidence, and it’s important that you find ways to boost your confidence if this is a problem for you. Sometimes, you have to be willing to risk failure to find success. A Willingness To Learn We all know that education is important when you’re young, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop learning as you get older. The most successful people are the ones that are willing to keep learning and improving their skills. The world is always changing, which is why education is the key to success in life. If you are constantly improving your skills and making yourself more valuable, you will find it a lot easier to meet your goals. Positivity If you have big aspirations, it may take you a long time to get where you want to be and you will suffer some setbacks along the way. When you reach a hurdle, you have two choices; you can decide that it’s too hard and you’ll never make it, or you can remain positive and keep working at it. It’s important that you maintain a positive mindset and you don’t let adversity get you down, otherwise you will struggle to meet your goals. Patience Positivity is important, but so is patience. Everybody wishes that they could go to bed and wake up the next morning with everything that they’ve always wanted, but that’s never going to happen. Achieving your goals takes a lot of time and a lot of hard work. If you are not a patient person and you want everything to fall into your lap, you’re going to have a hard time. Learning patience is tough, but it’s an important quality in anybody that wants to achieve their goals in life. Adaptability Adaptability is an underrated quality, but it’s so important. Ambitious people that have very clear life goals tend to have a detailed plan that they will follow to reach those goals. In some cases, you will be able to follow that plan to the letter and achieve your goals, but life rarely works that way. You can never predict what is going to happen and sometimes, life throws curveballs at you. Maybe you start a family or find yourself in financial difficulties. You might start a relationship with somebody that lives halfway around the world and decide to relocate. These unexpected life events can put a spanner in the works and derail your carefully drafted plan, and it’s important that you are able to deal with that. In some cases, you may even need to consider a career change if your chosen path isn’t going the way that you thought it would. Many people make the mistake of sticking on a path that isn’t right for them because it is part of their plan. But this will just slow you down and it will take you longer to reach your goals. It’s much better to be adaptable and change your plan when life throws something unexpected your way. Anybody that has all of these qualities is far more likely to achieve their goals in life. If you think that you lack some of these qualities, now is the time to start working on yourself.
 Image Source: Pixabay New therapy approaches are combining natural therapy with innovations in technology. From forest bathing to pet therapy, there’s still an important focus on getting in touch with nature. The difference is, with advances in technology therapy is now available to all. There’s been a trend in remote wellness and treatment. Here are five new alternative therapies and wellness trends.Fertility Focus Reproductive health has been a more inclusive and important trend recently. There are increasing options for fertility treatments and pregnancy. As technology is becoming more advanced, more people are being offered the chance to start a family. There are more fitness and wellness activities catered to pregnancy. Pet Therapy Pet cafes have been popping up all over the world, so it’s proven that spending time with animals is an effective therapy. If you don’t have time or the finances to spare to get a pet yourself there are still ways you can benefit from making a few animal friends. You can volunteer to walk your neighbors’ dogs and to look after their cats. You could even consider fostering instead of taking on a full-time pet. If you’re thinking about adopting a new furry friend and can’t come up with any name ideas, click here. J-Wellness Japanese-style wellness has been trending recently. It brilliantly marries referred traditions with innovative technology. Typically the Japanese have a fast-paced and stressful lifestyle and sometimes they find new ways to get away from it all, which are taking on all over the world. Forest bathing is a feature of J-wellness, for example, why not give it a go? It’s said to be a sensory and mindful experience. Iki-iki plazas are also spreading nationwide in Japan. These are neighborhood facilities that encourage mingling, recreation, and learning. They focus on positivity, self-acceptance, and life satisfaction. Virtual Therapy The main goal of virtual therapy is to be accessible to all. Online therapy is growing in popularity due to its many advantages, the main one being flexibility. Plenty of online platforms have open chat options, plus tools such as video call and voice messages, making certified therapists available from wherever you take your smartphone. There has also been a rise in mental health technology, such as meditation headsets, which measure physiological symptoms of anxiety. Wellness Sabbaticals With the work from home transition this year, it’s become a commonplace for people to spend more time out of the office. This hasn’t necessarily meant a break from the pressure and many people feel more stressed than ever before. A wellness sabbatical allows you to take time off to work on a project focussed on your well-being. This could take the form of a wellness getaway to resorts such as Kamalaya in Thailand, or a sponsored month working in a beautiful place. There are several startups coming up with new ideas for wellness sabbaticals as they are becoming a growing trend. Why not take the time for yourself this year and investigate in a wellness retreat.
Everyone should be doing more to look after their oral health, and if you’ve been letting this slide recently then it’s time to sort things out. There are lots of basic things that we don’t do because we’ve developed bad habits. But it’s never too late to turn things around and start looking after your oral health better. We’re going to talk about some of the things you can do to start looking after your oral health a little better. Anyone’s capable of getting it right; you just need to understand how to approach dental hygiene and health better. Here’s how you can do that.Don’t Go to Bed Without Brushing This sounds like an obvious one but it’s also one so many of us don’t do. Whether it’s forgetfulness or pure laziness, there’s no good excuse for not brushing your teeth before you go to bed. If you want to make sure that your oral health is looked after properly, the right brushing technique used twice a day is what you need to use. This is the fundamental aspect of looking after your teeth and mouth, so be sure to get it right and you can then build from there. Use Fluoride Toothpaste Using the right kind of toothpaste will also be important when you’re looking to improve your approach to oral hygiene. Fluoride is an important ingredient in toothpaste because it helps to avoid and prevent tooth cavities in both adults and children. It can also help to clean better, improving the general appearance of your teeth. So, when it comes to choosing a toothpaste that’s going to serve you well and offer everything you need it to, it has to contain fluoride. Start Using Mouthwash It’s a good idea to start using mouthwash if you haven’t done so already. When you make use of mouthwash, you’ll be able to remove all the stubborn pieces of food and other unwanted things at the back of your mouth and between your teeth. You’ll be surprised at how much of a difference it can make and it certainly helps to make your mouth feel much cleaner than it otherwise would, which is nice. Just about any kind of brand will do the job perfectly well.  Don’t Forget About Your Tongue When you’re brushing your teeth and washing out your mouth, you shouldn’t forget to clean your tongue as well. You can find scrapers that allow you to do this, but simply using your brush is adequate if you don’t have that option. Clean tongue is vital for general good oral hygiene, and it’s one of the things that so often gets overlooked. If you’re someone who’s never paid much attention to the cleanliness of your tongue before, now is the time to change that. Find Care Professionals You Can Trust It’s vital to be using professional care services that you can really rely on. If you need more details, there are plenty of resources out there to help you make an informed decision. Always choose a dental professional that you can feel safe and comfortable with because that’s one of the things that matters most of all. You’ll be putting your trust in their hands so you don’t want to make the wrong choice. Once you’ve found someone you trust, stick with them. See Them Regularly Once you have a dentist you can trust, you need to make sure that you see them regularly. In most cases that means getting checkups twice a year. These checkups will allow you to stay on top of your general oral health. Any problems that are present will be found early if you go for checkups at least twice a year. That’s important because things like oral cancer need to be found early and treated rapidly if they’re present and you don’t want to take any chances with that kind of thing.  Stick to Drinking Water If you want to improve your general oral health, you should think again about what you drink. Having drinks full of chemicals and all kinds of other damaging things washing over your teeth and mouth each day is not going to be great for you. The best drink for anyone wanting to look after their oral health is and always will be water. Sure, it’s not existing but it offers what you need it to and it’s good for your teeth, gums and mouth. So turn to tap water next time you want to rehydrate. Reduce Sugary and Acidic Foods Another thing you should consider is the food you eat on a regular basis. Getting active and having a balanced diet are important for your general health. And what\s best for your oral health is reducing the amount of sugary and acidic foods that you consume on a regular basis. These will erode your teeth and that’s why you should be aiming to consume as few of them as possible. Try to reduce your intake of these foods if you know that they’re already high. Eat Vegetables with Healthy Fibers Eating healthy vegetables with plenty of fibres will help your oral health and your health in general. In particular, you should focus on crunchy vegetables that are high in fibres. These include broccoli and carrots. Other foods that offer this kind of nutrients include beans, berries, whole grains, apples and avocados. As you can see, there are lots of different options to choose from there and they all offer the healthy fibres that your body and your mouth need in order to stay healthy. Taking more and better steps to protect your oral health and hygiene is something that’ll really pay off for you in the long-term. Follow all the advice outlined above and make sure that your whole family is doing the same. Before long, you’ll notice a difference and your mouth will feel healthier and cleaner.
So what are these habits and how can you adjust to meet them?Make Your Bed Each Day It’s such a small detail that many of us neglect to do it - but making your bed each day can have a significant impact. It’s associated with higher productivity levels during the day, better mental wellbeing and even good financial control - not bad for fluffing some pillows! Making the bed when you first get out of it also encourages you to get up and get moving - especially important if you’re working from home at the moment. Psychology Today also cites a correlation between making the bed and home ownership, regular exercise and feeling well rested, so it’s definitely a very simple change to make that can have a huge effect. Sort Out Your Sleep Hygiene Good sleeping habits are transformational, and can change every aspect of your life, from giving you more energy and a better mental focus, through to improving your interpersonal relationships due to being more empathetic when we’re well rested. And yet there is an epidemic of sleeplessness among us. You can take steps to get a better night’s sleep though, by investing in blackout blinds or lined curtains to keep it dark, ensuring a consistent, slightly cool temperature and banning blue-light emitting electronics from the room you sleep in, as these disturb the body’s natural production of melatonin. You could also try using an aromatherapy diffuser to help you drop off at night. Better sleep means better overall health. Connect With Others Meaningfully Humans are sociable animals by nature, and we need meaningful connection with other people in order to feel truly fulfilled. Prioritizing things like family dinners, movie nights with the kids and coffee catch-ups with friends are the key to maintaining a support network that is much needed for mental wellbeing. When it comes to your mind, you need to think holistically in your approach to wellness. Getting tips and resources from sites such as www.kristenblakewellness.com can really help you to put the mental resources in place to have a flourishing inner life and relationships. Take Regular Exercise Another hugely important factor is making exercise a regular part of your life. Doing things like an at-home yoga routine, a YouTube HIIT workout or just fitting in a run each day will make you feel so much better. Exercise is well known for getting endorphins flowing, reducing stress and providing mental clarity - to say nothing of the benefits to your physical health. The trick is to find something that you genuinely enjoy doing and build it into your routine.
 Too often, many of us can end up feeling as though we don't really have the level of agency in our lives that we really want to. It's easy to feel like you're just being carried along on a conveyor belt through your life, never really making any genuine choices and just letting your life happen to you instead of taking charge of it. This can lead many of us to wake up one day feeling frustrated and unhappy. This is an incredibly common symptom of letting other people dictate the way that your life is lived. If you want to finally break out of that kind of cycle, here are just a few ways to stop letting other people dictate your life.Reject toxicity One of the hardest things to come to terms with when you're trying to take control of your life is that there are plenty of people in it who may well not be treating you half as well as you deserve. Whether it's a partner who doesn't appreciate you or friends who end up making you feel awful about yourself more often than not, being able to walk away from that kind of toxicity is one of the best first steps that you can take. Sure, it's never easy and there's always value in trying to repair relationships. However, if that's not really an option, you have to do what's right for you and just walk away. Don't tolerate injustice Of course, being treated unfairly by the people in your personal life is one thing, it's entirely another when you're being treated poorly by those in the other aspects of your life. Things like suffering from a break-in or a car accident with someone driving dangerously are disruptions to your life that weren't at all your fault. This is especially true if you end up in a situation where you're unable to function because some kind of short-term disability. Getting in contact with one of the top short-term disability insurance companies is an essential way to make sure that you're not letting a situation get the best of you. Letting injustices against yourself slide is one of the best ways to make yourself feel like you don't really have all that much value. Take control of your actions A lot of the time the reality is that your life feels out of your hands because you've allowed it to be that way. Far too often many of us treat our lives like something that just happens to us. Then, when things don't work out the way we wanted, we act like life isn't fair. The truth is that if you want your life to be a certain way then the only thing that you can do is to get out and make it that way yourself! Of course, this isn't to say that you're supposed to just throw away any support from other people. No one is an island and we all need those around us to take care of us and support us when we need it. It's just a matter of being able to understand the difference between allowing people into our lives and allowing people to take total control over our lives.
It can be enough to make you question whether you are experiencing cognitive decline but, more usually, the explanation is a lot simpler - and sharpening up your mind can be a fairly straightforward endeavor.Sleep is essential for your mental acuity Those of us who have worked to deadlines - in our jobs and on school or college courses - will be familiar with the frenzied burst of activity that comes as the red letter day approaches. The concept of pulling an all-nighter has become so pervasive that it’s a trope in films and TV shows. The truth is that “cramming” is ineffective. If you’re not sleeping or getting the rest that your mind needs, you’ll forget more than you ever crammed in. Sleep is, perhaps, the single most important contributor to your mental sharpness. If you use stimulants, use them sparingly We’ve all been in a situation where we need to be at our best, but an untimely burst of insomnia has left us sluggish and nervous for the task ahead. For many of us, the straightforward solution is to down cup after cup of coffee, but this isn’t an efficient solution. For one thing, excess caffeine - or any stimulant - will send your anxiety skyrocketing. Additionally, caffeine doesn’t add alertness; it borrows it from the future. While you may gain temporarily from a coffee buzz, you will end up paying it back. With interest. A calm mind is a sharp mind You will make better decisions, and be more equipped to solve problems, when you are at your calmest. Distractions will fall away and you can be more switched-on. Whether you hit up a CBD online store or take a power nap to achieve it (or, ideally, both), this absence of mental clutter is invaluable to keeping your brain working smoothly. Meditation is another beneficial approach that can make a big difference, so work on introducing some calm into your mind, and you’ll see the benefits in terms of results. It’s all too easy for our minds to become swamped with the noise of everyday life and stress, and when this happens we start to make poor decisions. Taking the time to let our minds breathe, and finding ways to keep them sharp, is essential for mental and emotional health.
 Looking after your body can be a pretty complicated thing to do. A lot of people might say that it's not, that it's incredibly simple and that you're just not putting in the right amount of effort. But when those people talk about your body, they're often only thinking about one particular element of it. When it comes to looking after yourself, there are actually three different things you should focus on: the outside, the inside, and the mind. These three things, on a very broad level, are what make up your entire body. There's no way you'll ever be able to function at full capacity if you're only looking after one, or even two, of these parts. So, here is a guide to make sure you're taking care of every part of your body.The Outside Simply put, this is everything that takes place on the surface. When people think about caring for this part of their body, they often get trapped in only ever thinking about appearances. But taking care of your skin, teeth and hair is about more than just making sure that they all look nice. Issues with your skin can be unpleasant and cause a lot of discomfort. Things like warts or skin tags are more than just cosmetic problems. Dealing with these kinds of things can be pricey but you should if you check out this blog post asking: does wart remover work on skin tags? You can find that there are ways to make dealing with those kinds of problems a whole lot more interesting. You should also make sure that you always have a fully stocked first aid kit in your home, with bandages, aeroburn gel, and band-aids to help you deal with the most common household injuries. Of course, if any injury is particularly severe, don't hesitate to go straight to the hospital. The Inside This is the part of your body that people most commonly mean when they talk about taking care of yourself. The inside of your body is what you can look after through your diet and lifestyle. Most of the time, outside of serious illness, if your body is feeling run down or low, it's because of those things. Make sure that you aren't overloading your diet with junk foods and, most importantly, make sure to stay hydrated. Dehydration is a major problem among many people. Simply by staying hydrated, you can improve your mood, your energy levels, your skin and even your figure. The Mind This is the one that tends to get neglected. There's still a great deal of stigma around any problems someone might have with anxiety or depression. But the thing to remember is that your brain is an organ too. And just like any other part of the body, you need to take care of it. It's important to treat any issues your mind has with just as much care and attention as you would for physical problems. Take time to rest, don't over work yourself. Self-care is one of the most important things you can do in order to be a fully functioning, happy, and healthy individual. Of course, taking care of each of these parts of yourself will have positive effects on all of the others as well. The key is to treat them as parts of a greater whole. What is good for one is good for the others and, in the end, is good for you.
 Changing your lifestyle doesn’t require a major overhaul or massive changes. In fact, making small but sustainable modifications to your lifestyle is the best way to transform your health. When you take a moderate approach, you’re far likely to continue with new habits in the future. To transform your health for good, take a look at these small but significant lifestyle changes you can make today…Drink More Water In general, adults should drink around 64- ounces of water every day. If you aren’t consuming 8-10 cups of water every 24 hours, there’s a good chance you aren’t staying hydrated enough. As well as boosting your metabolism, water plays an essential role in maintaining your health. For an instant boost, increase the amount of water you drink on a daily basis and carry a water bottle with you wherever you go. Eat Fat We’re constantly told that fat is bad for our health but that isn’t necessarily the case. Not all fats are bad for us. Monounsaturated – or good fats – can lower bad cholesterol, keep you feeling full for longer and play a crucial role in developing cells within the body. Incorporate almonds, avocados, cheese, extra virgin olive oil, or fatty fish into your diet if you want to increase the amount of good fat you’re consuming - you’ll be surprised how much better, not to mention satisfied, you’ll feel.  Be More Social Humans are social creatures, so we need to nourish this aspect of our lifestyles to achieve optimum health. With a busy schedule, it can be tricky to keep up with regular social events. However, even stopping for a chat with your neighbor or video calling your friends can help to increase your sociability. By nurturing these relationships, you’ll reap the rewards sociability offers and maintain connections too. Avoid Processed Food Everyone knows you should avoid junk food if you’re trying to stay healthy, but do you really know how much of your diet consists of processed foods? For many people, the vast majority of what they eat is processed, which typically means empty carbs, an unsatiated appetite, and faux flavor. If you’re unsure how to switch to a more natural diet, expert help from HCG diet info can give you the guidance you need. Once you begin to feel the difference a natural diet offers, you’ll be quite happy to turn your back on anything processed.  Wear Sunscreen Spending too long in the sun is a major health risk, so it’s always best avoided. When you are out during the day, be sure to wear sunscreen and cover your skin when it’s necessary. As well as protecting your health, sunscreen can help to prevent aging caused by sun exposure, so it’s the perfect way to maintain a youthful appearance too. Transforming Your Lifestyle Changing your day-to-day life can seem overwhelming at first but it doesn’t need to be difficult. Choose one new habit to incorporate into your day and you’ll soon see just how easy – and beneficial – a small change can be.
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