Healthy Dinner and Dessert with Naturally Hayleigh

We are so excited to team up with Naturally Hayleigh to bring you a delicious, healthy, organic meal and dessert that you can prepare at home for you and your friends and family. We here at twowildtides are bringing you a delicious ‘one-pan’ dish that is perfect for an evening with company, or to meal-prep for yourself to enjoy throughout the week. Hayleigh has created a decadent brownie recipe for all you chocolate lovers out there!

Hayleigh has an amazing blog, called NaturallyHayleigh.com, where she writes on just about everything, but her focus is on “green, clean, and eco-friendly” beauty products. Plus, she is based in Newfoundland! Go check her out!

We came up with this recipe by accident one day when we basically had veggies going bad in the fridge that needed to be used up. We started throwing spices together, unsure of what the end product would be like, and it turned out to be so tasty! This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free. You could easily prepare it as a vegetarian dish by replacing the chicken with tofu.

Maple Balsamic Chicken and Veggies
Serves 4

4 free-range chicken breasts
2 heads of broccoli
1 head of cauliflower
1/2 a head of cabbage
4 carrots
2 bell peppers
1/2 of a jicama (or a turnip)
1 tomato
10-12 brussels sprouts
1/2 tbsp thyme
1 clove garlic (or 1/2 tbsp garlic powder)
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup pure balsamic vinegar
1/2 tbsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Wash, peel, and chop all of the veggies and set aside.
Place chicken breasts in a glass baking dish and layer the veggies evenly over the top.
Sprinkle the spices and pour the maple syrup and balsamic vinegar over the whole dish.
Stir around the veggies, making sure everything is equally coated.
Place in oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked. About halfway through, remove the dish and stir around the vegetables and flip the chicken breasts.
Cook some quinoa or rice and top with the chicken and veggies.
Enjoy!

Hope you love it! Now we’ll hand you over to Hayleigh for dessert:

After a good meal, who doesn’t want a sweet treat? I recently received a package of Vital Protein products and decided to use the Vital Proteins Cocoa Coconut Collagen Whey to create brownies.

Cocoa & Coconut Protein Brownies

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 c. coconut palm sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 c. coconut oil
10 oz. cacao chips
3 tbsp. cacao powder
2 scoops Vital Proteins Cocoa Coconut Collagen Whey

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Coat an 8×8 baking pan with coconut oil

Add the eggs, coconut palm sugar, vanilla extract, and sea salt to the bowl & mix on medium-high until the eggs turn light and fluffy and a majority of the coconut palm sugar is dissolved, about 2-3 minutes.

Melt coconut oil in a separate bowl.

While the mixer is on low, pour the melted oil and cacao chips in slowly. Once poured in, increase the speed to high to whip the batter about 15 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the cacao powder and Cocoa Coconut Collagen Whey powder. Mix on medium speed until combined.

Pour the batter out into the baking pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the top has fully set. The brownies turn out best if the center is still slightly doughy. It will set up fully while it cools. Cool for a minimum 20 minutes in the pan before serving.

Oh. My. God. Do these not look incredible? Yum!! We want to thank Hayleigh from Naturally Hayleigh so much for joining us in this collaboration. We hope to work with her again in the future. We would appreciate it so much if you checked out Hayleigh’s blog (NaturallyHayleigh.com), and checked her out on Instagram (@naturallyhayleigh).