This one is a little shoutout to the incredible “Oh She Glows” for inspiring me to enjoy some much healthier vegan and gluten free options. It’s also a huge shout out to my best friend and health extraordinaire Nikki Bahan who inspires me every day to try new recipes and cook with passion.

I’m not gluten-free or vegan by any means, so some of these might not be what you’re looking for, but there are many substitutes that can be used in these recipes.

My power breakfast this week consists of three beautiful things: granola, tea, and a smoothie.

The granola is made using my slow cooker (for 2 hours) with gluten-free rolled oats, chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, and flax seeds. This is smothered in a ‘sauce’ that is made by heating butter, vanilla extract, canola oil (next time, I’ll use coconut oil), and peanut butter (you can also use almond butter). After cooking all of this for 2 hours (stirring every 30 minutes), you spread the granola over parchment paper and let dry for a couple hours. You can then add chocolate chips, or another chocolatey item (M&M’s or Smarties). I decided to put this over raspberry yogurt with sliced banana and not only did it fill me up until lunch time, it felt like I was having dessert for breakfast again.

The earl grey latte like I said can be made with substitutes (almond milk or soy milk), but I used 1% milk for this. This latte is like waking up on a cloud with a warm blanket smothering you while you dream of doing yoga in a meadow. Sorry if that’s a bit much, but that’s literally how I feel about this latte. First, boil the kettle and poor half a mug of boiled water over the early grey tea bag. Then, steam your milk. To steam the milk properly, you either need an espresso machine, or a milk steamer. Then, pour the milk into the tea, leaving the foam for the final topping, add desired amount of sugar (if you like it sweet like I do) and finally, enjoy the dream in a cup. PS: this is my drink of choice most mornings at Starbucks, and since I figured out that I could make these at home, I haven’t been back since. Not that I’m boycotting Starbucks, but it saves me $5.50 every time I don’t go.

The Tropical Flax Smoothie had me thinking of relaxing on a beach somewhere in my mind, but got my energy up to hit the gym. I blended a banana, pineapple, mango, and strawberry chunks with strawberry greek yogurt and unsweetened vanilla almond milk and added ground flax seeds as a topper.

Rise and Grind sweet people!