my nourished vibes

hi, my name is eleni, and i'm addicted to bento box. there's just something about these oh-so-perfect compartments, that i fall more in love with every day! my inner ocd dances as piece by piece the sections are filled to create a symphony of nourishment. lord help us all, my #ocdlife and #momlife have fully collided and there's no turning back! to watch this happen on the daily, follow me on instagram @mynourishedvibes. homemade veggie spring rolls/blueberries/homemade elderberry gummies/terra veggie chips/ghiradelli dark chocolate chips/dye free pickles with fermented garlic you know i love my labels! feeding others is my love language, so as fall approached i got more and more excited to pack these lunches for my sweet dimitri. but i also got overwhelmed easily, questioning how i would have enough time, energy and creativity to offer him nutrient dense lunches every day. full gear into our routine, i offer you these tips i've discovered a

dear mayonnaise, i'm sorry your good name has been misrepresented, tarnished and dragged through the mud for decades. people have made you out to be a jerk, but i will do my best to lead others back to your awesomeness.  with love, eleni yes, i was shocked when i found out too. but it's true, mayonnaise is a nourishing food! and once upon a time everyone knew that. because once upon a time people valued real food . ::sigh:: real food so if mayo is nourishing, how does it have such bad PR surrounding it?   well, let's start off with the concoctions we're used to seeing on the grocery store shelves. "light mayo," "real mayonnaise," "made with olive oil," "eggless mayo, " "low fat,"….. it doesn't matter what the label claims, they're all garbage . these imposters are made with factory engineered vegetable oils, loads of sugar, chemical thickeners, chemical colorings, and scary preser

kids love crackers. #ScientificFact sadly the ingredients in store bought crackers are not only hard to digest, they're pretty damaging to our bodies too. even the gluten free ones!! i'm so sorry friend. consider this: * the grains are so highly processed they are stripped of all nutrients. to make the product "healthy," synthetic vitamins are added and our bodies do not recognize how to break them down. * * sugar in all of its evil forms (any word ending in "ose"…fructose, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, ect. and even sneaky terms like "fruit juice concentrate") is added in large amounts. even savory crackers! * * chemicals. 'nough said right? a host of man made chemicals from "flavor factories" are responsible for giving the crackers their texture, shelf stability (what a creepy term) and even flavor. yes even though that cracker says that its flavored with something simple like tomato and basil, these fla

september is upon us. you know the drill…. i love pumpkin spice everything just as much as the girl wearing ugg boots in line at starbucks….but i hate the way it leaves my stomach feeling! considering there's actually zero amount of real pumpkin in a pumpkin spice (insert-every-product-ever-created-hiding-under-the-label-"pumpkin-spice"), its no wonder it leaves me feeling *robbed of nutrients* after indulging.  so when i come down from the excitement of "sweater weather", and have ordered the obligatory pumpkin spice latte, followed by the classic pumpkin spice stomach ache, complete with sugary jitters… i return back  race back to my roots. and these grain free pumpkin spice muffins greet me with open arms. i created this recipe, not only to get my pumpkin spice fix, but also to use up some roasted sweet potato i had in the fridge. using a real roasted vegetable like pumpkin, sweet potato, or even winter squash, will add nutrien

there are a lot of things i am to those around me; encourager, home decorator, mvp when playing taboo…. but a morning person i am not! and despite hours of praying to become one, i know this is just not written in the stars for me. because of this, it has taken me years to craft together the perfect morning routine! years! from hitting snooze a million times in high school, to being a full on adult with a  fave coffee mug, my morning routine has had quite a few makeovers. i used to be awesome and start everyday with a fresh green juice. in another chapter of my life, my mornings began with superfood smoothies. winters usually lead me back to bone broth. pregnancy always has me craving soaked oats with lots of grass fed butter. and one summer it was even just water and sitting on the grass "earthing!" despite the fact that my routine changes with the seasons, for reasons i don't even know, one thing will always remain: i can't remember how to human for at leas

#truthbomb that's right. your body is made to thrive! to live a holistic lifestyle, means embracing that your wellness, or vitality comes from the *inside* out. your body has its own healing mechanism and will always strive for perfection. we just have to get out of the way! in the wise words of cady from the movie mean girls, "you need to suck out all the poison." eliminate all refined/processed/packaged foods, or what my family calls "fake food," from your diet. refined flour, sugar and dairy (not to mention all the man made chemicals used to process them) are so damaging they actually rob you of your given right to vitality! trade them in for nutrient dense whole foods and the trek to wellness is already half way completed! since health comes from within, we can't add to it from an outside source. but what we can do is consume foods and quality supplements that nourish our immune system to work at full capacity. after you suck ou

if you're following me on instagram ( @mynourishedvibes ), you are quite familiar with our dependency on fermented garlic. it has made it's way into dimitri's bentobox school lunch every day! roasted carrots/frozen blueberries/elderberry gummies/veggie wraps/homemade mayo/dye free pickles and fermented garlic it certainly sounds like it belongs in a witch's brew, but i promise you the name is much scarier than it's flavor. allowing the beneficial bacteria to grow on the cloves of garlic, means a little army of probiotics have gone to work "pre-digesting" it. because of this, it's flavor is actually dulled down a little bit, and when eaten raw, it just tastes like a pickle with a kick.  i can't think of a better way to keep dimitri's immune system running on all cylinders during the school day. garlic is antibacterial, antiviral, and antimicrobial , basically killing all germs it comes in contact with. it's a major

I'M BACK!!!!! It has been three looooong, years of silence....and I don't even have a good excuse for you. Ok maybe I can find three sweet/wild/chubby/loud/hungry   *precious reasons*  why I haven't invited you to hang out in my kitchen for a while….. #thedeerpack As Dimitri started kindergarten last week, I waved goodbye through tear soaked eyes to the little boy who made me a mama. My heart felt every emotion humanly possible, as I realized a chapter of our lives was closing. But through the tears of "where has the time gone," I felt the fresh breath of new beginnings .  I could see joy on the horizon, but I knew I needed to release these emotions to move forward. So I strolled down memory lane with a grateful heart. Grateful that though I wasn't ready to be a mom at age 20, Dimitri chose me in my brokenness and revived my soul. Grateful that God showed me how to choose indigenous truths, (like nursing on demand, co-sleeping, and baby wearing)