crEATe: Matcha Mornings | Recipes & Thoughts

Recipes around here are not just about eating good food. It’s about the experience; the process of creating and all the little details surrounding the moments. Nourishment not only comes from the food, but from the art of living! Therefore, we crEATe. Most recipes are not very elaborate, because we do not have a lot of time and did not always have the resources. For us it has always been about joy, mindfulness, and simplicity. These are what help us create an efficient and sustainable flow. When we do have time and energy is when we dedicate a little more time to coming up with new ideas and recipes. Otherwise, we focus on what we have already established (our “go to”) recipes. “It takes time for things to take root”. To establish our wellness routines it took years to do the root work to create the right flow for us. Now, “gardening” is a much easier process, because we know what works for us and what does not. We are able to provide and nurture it all vs always have to start from scratch or do the repair work / damage control after months of not listening to our needs or proper understanding/regulation of such. We personally do not believe in “diets” in regards to short-term results and fixes. We believe in creating a path of wellness. It may pull concepts from different diet types, but it is about finding the concepts, recipes, ingredients, methods, and beliefs that work for your flow of life. Like we talk about in all of our content: “experiences over expectations”. Many diets can cause fixation and attachment to results. This can cause great anxiety and pressure over sustaining it or not meeting certain numbers. This type of energy can cause negative reactions in the nervous system of experiencing life. This nervous “energy” and reaction in the mind and body have great influence over digestion and gut health. Wellness is about the flow. There will be days when things naturally flow well. Other days will be more of a struggle, but if you have strong roots established, these days will not destroy your methods of creating, coping, or healing your path of wellness. So let’s crEATe!!!

This blog post was created for Matcha Donuts, but also shares some thoughts and activities for the experience of it.

I LOVE MATCHA! I love drinking it as a warm or iced drink. I love it in smoothies. I love cooking with it. I even love bathing in it! Matcha is a great caffeine option for someone who is trying to do less caffeine. Even though it is less, the energy can actually be longer-lasting due to how the body absorbs it at a slower rate. It can also help further support the body systems by its antioxidant properties. Antioxidants help clean the body of free radicals/toxins. This can help enhance mood, concentration, and energy. It also contains amino acid L-theanine. This can help with reducing stress. Please note, even though our content is professionally based, it is still not guaranteed medical advice, our thoughts are wellness suggestions.

The day I created the matcha donuts was a lot of fun, but also some difficult moments. My little buh was having some hard moments. He was going through the 4 month sleep regression, which thanks to the conscious community out there, I now like to call it a PROgression. This is a time when they are shifting from infant patterns to the next stages of early development. They are processing so much about life, learning new skills, and trying to find the flow in it all. I personally believe in attached, responsive parenting. I nurture his confidence and independence by reassuring and supporting his needs. Let’s talk more about this on my saplings’ blog, because we are here for the donuts!!! However, I chose to show these moments, because the donuts may be an okay looking picture and the recipe is fairly easy, but creating it was about the experiences vs the expectations. The expectation would have been to make these donuts, get the pictures done, get the posts out, and all that jazz, but the experience was creating it in doses in between making sure my sweet boy was my priority, eventually getting a picture, saving it somewhere in my endless amount of files, and getting a post out months later. Perfectionism is all about perspective. Some may look at as “oh you didn’t get x,y,z done”. No, no I didn’t, but I did create the moments I found to be “perfect”. I did my best to tend to my main priority and co-create the day with him. Mothering is not “perfect” either. Rarely, do I meet my expectations, because I have learned to be present in the moments. Some times that allows me to rise beyond the expectations. Other times, I feel like I am swirling in circles, hanging on, trying to figure out what the heck I am doing. That is life and as long as you keep trying to Root, Love, Grow™ it will be okay!

The Matcha Donut Recipe

with vegan options

My foundation for any donut is my pancake recipe: (note: This is different than what is pictured above, because they are for different sizes. This is for about 5 large pancakes to approx. 12 donuts.)

-2 cups of whole wheat flour

-1/2 cup of sugar of choice

-pinch of salt & tsp of baking soda

(note: to pancakes I add a 1/2 cup of ground flax, I do not in donuts)

-2 eggs or egg alternative (applesauce, egg replacement powder, dairy free yogurt)

-1/2 -1 cup of milk of choice

-splash of vanilla

For this flavor:

-3 - 4 tbsp of matcha powder & 2 tbsp of spirulina powder (to enrich with more nutrients + enhance green color)

To make them extra fluffy, I mix in the mixer. Add to a sprayed donut pan and bake.

The icing is melted vegan white chocolate, which I order from Thrive.

This can be made into a Baby Led Weaning friendly recipe. I use a separate bowl for his mix to eliminate salt, sugar, and matcha. He can have the whole grain, flax, spirulina, egg/egg alternative, milk (for cooking - he does not get milk by itself since nursing is still a main priority). They were not served as pictured. I make in bulk for freezing. I cut them to the appropriate size for his eating development. Before trying the BLW method, be sure to research to understand how to introduce allergens, portions, etc. Solid Starts is a great resource!

Mantras can be an important part of everything we do! While attempting to make the donuts and the day flowing a little harder, I took a moment to light this awesome candle (a friend’s company and may I say so well made)!! I took a moment to make my matcha drink. I sipped. I breathed in these fragrant good vibes and I went forward with the day.