tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71538150839758281632024-03-12T16:25:22.228-07:00Outside the BoxFood and Fitness Redefined
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-26372092163696516562014-08-24T15:09:00.001-07:002014-08-24T15:09:59.079-07:00Plantain MuffinsPlantains....holy moly if you have never used these for baking, you are missing out. They are amazing! I first learned about there amazing potential from my awesome sister who made my nana pancakes with them instead of bananas! I was sold. The reason they are so great for baking is because of their natural starchiness, which opens up a huge potential for replacing flour in recipes such as cookies, muffins, breads, tortillas and pancakes. It may be tricky to find these in your supermarket, so you may have to ask for some help, when you do find them try to find some that are brownish as this means they are riper and will be easier to peel and work with and will be sweeter. I have made the pancakes with these a few times and my family loves them, so I decided to venture further and developed this muffin recipe. I will probably work on variations now that I am happy with the<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdg5cBk5Hfjje8whJ7E0WQudwbvXwilez-QTpjGOXWKyU6dIwRIdu9zPTZWRfU9zEPkJhlV3UokR-1yB5hqhxboegfv_LS6gwhAdR1sWWmDtOHVQxU_HEHbomy6D4EE249nGTsL4MpAXBl/s1600/IMG_4614.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdg5cBk5Hfjje8whJ7E0WQudwbvXwilez-QTpjGOXWKyU6dIwRIdu9zPTZWRfU9zEPkJhlV3UokR-1yB5hqhxboegfv_LS6gwhAdR1sWWmDtOHVQxU_HEHbomy6D4EE249nGTsL4MpAXBl/s1600/IMG_4614.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a> basic recipe. From the mouth of my 3 year old, who prefers this muffin smothered in butter, "If kids eat this, they will love it!" So there you have it go make them...<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>2 Plantains</li>
<li>2 Eggs</li>
<li>1/2 cup honey</li>
<li>1/4 cup coconut flour</li>
<li>1.5 tsp baking powder</li>
<li>1 tsp cinnamon</li>
<li>1/4 tsp salt</li>
<li>1/4 melted butter and more for greasing muffin tins</li>
</ul>
Method:<br />
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the muffin tins with butter or coconut oil. In a blender, blend the plantains and eggs, add in the remainder of the ingredients and blend together. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Wow I just realized how ridiculously easy this recipe is :) Enjoy!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-21150334260388979802014-08-24T14:34:00.003-07:002014-08-24T14:34:53.680-07:00Protein Egg Muffins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtVXdPyH-QXwAagL8pcgpcTfx8zaxw8sNVu70cES2Uxra9fMEsEPnJp5d8OB_CXCiuzE6MhsTXr5L4UmhPSJPnzn2bkAU0zn2Sg2sA0DhQgUSadubOMYl_mWmGt6678bOo31OBt159ONh/s1600/IMG_4613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtVXdPyH-QXwAagL8pcgpcTfx8zaxw8sNVu70cES2Uxra9fMEsEPnJp5d8OB_CXCiuzE6MhsTXr5L4UmhPSJPnzn2bkAU0zn2Sg2sA0DhQgUSadubOMYl_mWmGt6678bOo31OBt159ONh/s1600/IMG_4613.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>Are you in a hurry in the mornings on the weekdays? Off to work early or getting the kids up and ready out the door and to school early? One of the best ways to get proper nutrition in the morning is to eat a protein loaded breakfast. These little protein bombs are amazing. They are simple to prep on the weekends and easy to grab, microwave and eat in the morning on the go. The reason you want to focus on higher protein in the morning is primarily to avoid insulin spikes that come from typical carbohydrate dense breakfast foods (ie: cereal, oatmeal, bars, etc...)<br />
<a name='more'></a> Protein and fat stabilize insulin responses, and keep you full much longer, so come 10:00 you aren't starving for a snack before lunch rolls around. Just make sure you are eating enough still, lack of calories is not good either, make sure you grab a couple of these protein muffins and maybe even a bit of avocado to top it off to keep you full. </div>
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If there is one thing you prep on the weekends for the craziness that lies ahead in the week to come, these little puppies are a different must. Not only can you grab them and go on your way out the door, but they work great as a portable snack between meals if you are starving or great road trip food as well. So prep these bad boys up on the weekend, then grab a couple Monday morning and enjoy a great start to your week! <br />
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Bacon-Egg Muffins </div>
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Makes 1 dozen</div>
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Ingredients:</div>
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Butter or coconut oil to grease the muffin tin</div>
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1 dozen eggs</div>
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12 slices of bacon</div>
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salt </div>
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chili powder(optional)</div>
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Method:</div>
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Grease the muffin tin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Line each
cup with one slice of bacon, using the fatter end first on the bottom then
circling around with the remainder of the bacon around the tin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crack one egg into each cup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sprinkle with a tad bit of sea salt and chili
powder (optional), then cook in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, or more
depending on how much you like your egg cooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let them cool then place in a container in fridge to pop out a couple in
the mornings during the week, or even as a quick snack if you are hungry
between meals.</div>
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Turkey-Egg Muffins </div>
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Makes 1 dozen</div>
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Ingredients:</div>
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Butter or coconut oil for greasing the muffin tin</div>
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1 dozen eggs</div>
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12 small slices of Turkey or ham lunchmeat, smaller slices
work best for lining the tin (choose nitrate free, lower sodium variety)</div>
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1 small zucchini (diced)</div>
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½ sweet potato (peeled and grated)</div>
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Salt</div>
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Chili powder (optional)</div>
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Grease the muffin tins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Line each
tin with the turkey or ham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mix the
eggs, zucchini, sweet potato, salt and other desired spices in a mixing bowl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spoon egg mixture into each cup, then cook
for about 20-23 minutes until the eggs are puffed up and no longer runny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cool and place in a container to eat in the
mornings throughout the week or as a snack between meals if hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Line the bacon into the tin</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy96gvNPohtvqWv68Mdj6fhvhRjOJZDwZpfmQrGkZ18Z7IHKYH-eTg-4KwLbi4LEwFAQtsmfptswMYS77rzfiIRbApFIQLKhO2LWqgPINE-Xska-MzKLELLNWVxQotJTfNpdtQvSb2pdW8/s1600/IMG_4607.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy96gvNPohtvqWv68Mdj6fhvhRjOJZDwZpfmQrGkZ18Z7IHKYH-eTg-4KwLbi4LEwFAQtsmfptswMYS77rzfiIRbApFIQLKhO2LWqgPINE-Xska-MzKLELLNWVxQotJTfNpdtQvSb2pdW8/s1600/IMG_4607.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crack an egg into each cup</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Line tin with ham or turkey</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdVmi7tdLZdlnXP2fNuDbnfsrwx2QIh9HPMWTE-esOt7cA-o-6if_jN4L0wEqnR6faY-VJRTOI32_IEWsABtVvZUsJhaW5HXKw6D6XAKlH9wS3SXPBFWCfLDI7fUOn9RcSEOrunu-aQ6Y/s1600/IMG_4609.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdVmi7tdLZdlnXP2fNuDbnfsrwx2QIh9HPMWTE-esOt7cA-o-6if_jN4L0wEqnR6faY-VJRTOI32_IEWsABtVvZUsJhaW5HXKw6D6XAKlH9wS3SXPBFWCfLDI7fUOn9RcSEOrunu-aQ6Y/s1600/IMG_4609.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add the Egg, veggie mixture</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtVXdPyH-QXwAagL8pcgpcTfx8zaxw8sNVu70cES2Uxra9fMEsEPnJp5d8OB_CXCiuzE6MhsTXr5L4UmhPSJPnzn2bkAU0zn2Sg2sA0DhQgUSadubOMYl_mWmGt6678bOo31OBt159ONh/s1600/IMG_4613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtVXdPyH-QXwAagL8pcgpcTfx8zaxw8sNVu70cES2Uxra9fMEsEPnJp5d8OB_CXCiuzE6MhsTXr5L4UmhPSJPnzn2bkAU0zn2Sg2sA0DhQgUSadubOMYl_mWmGt6678bOo31OBt159ONh/s1600/IMG_4613.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aren't they cute? </td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-2231718069176179972014-08-20T11:25:00.001-07:002014-08-20T11:43:26.572-07:00Sleep...why I have made it more of a priority My ideas about sleep have transformed from: "You can sleep when you are dead," To: "You can sleep when you are dead, which will be a lot sooner then you want, if you don't start sleeping"<br />
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<img alt="" height="152" id="yui_3_5_1_3_1408560111678_4833" src="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4a/a1/ab/4aa1aba54a6a1ad85f513865febdd368.jpg" style="height: 560px; width: 736px;" width="200" /><br />
A good-night's sleep is a pretty foreign concept to most unfortunately, myself included. I have made a personal challenge to myself to get my sleep cycle down so I can stop feeling this constant fog throughout the day. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to sleep. I no longer have any newborn babies to
blame, but rather my inner baby screaming "me time" at 9 pm. I am sure many parents and even non-parents alike can relate to feeling like when 9:00 rolls around you just want to have some "me" time, whether that be to watch your favorite grown up show or spend time on Facebook, internet shopping, blogging or heck all of that at once (guilty). I often feel like I have earned my "me" time and this is my time to sit and do nothing but veg in front of the computer and TV for the next two hours. Unfortunately I have now come to the realization that these habits I have formed have made it harder to fall asleep when I do finally call it quits and hit the pillow. My brain is on overload and I can't stop thinking....My husband asks me often what are you thinking about so much that makes it hard to go to sleep, it's funny because it is never one definitive thing, but rather a bunch of very random thoughts that I don't want to forget to do for the next day. For instance I could be thinking of how I need to make the kids sports physical appointments, that I really need to re-organize my laundry room, what goal to set for my bench press, where we should go camping, and what I should blog about. The worst is when I come up with some awesome blog post ideas and then the next day I sit in front of my computer to write it out and wouldn't you know I lost the idea....not cool! Had I gotten a great night sleep I maybe would have remembered my awesome post idea.<br />
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So what am I doing wrong? Well the first is my afternoon cup of coffee, so I cut that out. Second my obsessive cardio/metabolic conditioning workouts and tendency to over-workout, I stopped doing those...see my previous post . I know I need to work on my time in front of the TV and computer and pick up a book and read instead this will help calm my brain down. I have decided to be better at prioritizing my time for ultimate efficiency. As a type A personality goes, this excited me, you mean I get to schedule my time out for the day down to what time of the day I blog, what time I watch MadMen and what time I use the bathroom (haha just joking on the last one). I recently read a book about figuring out your strengths and wouldn't you know when I took the test I found out that one of my top strengths was being disciplined as well as achiever and activator, well I guess that explains my obsessive need to have schedules for pretty much everything from what days I clean each room of the house, to what days I wash linens, what days I do my food shopping, to what days I back squat or bench press. I know you all probably think I am nuts by now, if you have watched "Friends" you can see how I find myself able to relate very much to Monica...the fact that she is a chef and former fat girl on the show is just a super weird coincidence. So I was already largely using schedules for my days of the week, my real problem was the actual day itself, what would happen was I would eat my breakfast kind of late because I was always trying to psyche myself out to get my nutty workouts in and always hoped to do it first thing in the morning, but I dreaded it so much that I would hold off and eventually the day would just get behind. I would eventually workout, but an hour and a half of my life was then stripped away. Halfway through the day I would crash on the couch and not want to move for a while I was so hungry and exhausted, a metabolically broken mess. Even though I have been eating more and working out less (say what? that's totally not mainstream advice) I still feel the effects of what I did to my body even now. I still feel a little tired (especially if my husband had to get up to fly at 4 am) throughout the day and need to take a mid-day break...but I have been fighting the caffeine urge at 3 in the afternoon and switched to drinking tea. <br />
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I have made a decision that if I do decide to watch MadMen I limit it to one episode that way by 9:45 I can begin unwinding by either taking a hot bath or reading a good book. I make sure to get into bed at 10:15 at the latest....this has been very hard to do. I have made it a personal rule to leave my cell phone in the kitchen as well as my computer, this helps so that I don't hop on Facebook and get sucked into the blackhole of "social media" right before I try to go to sleep. I think I will keep a notepad by my bed though just in case I come up with genius ideas that pop into my brain right before falling asleep.<br />
<br />
I truly believe that sleep is the single most important thing when it come to health and fat loss goals. Getting your sleep figured out first will be the most crucial step to achieving long-term goals. Even if you have figured out the best methods to get a good nights sleep, from time to time you may just have a bad night...for example your child has a nightmare in the middle of the night, or you are still breastfeeding at all hours of the night...Most of the time these things are temporary setbacks, so just remember that you should try hard to recover the rest of the day, don't push yourself to run 6 miles or anything nuts like that. If this is a season of your life unlikely to change in the next couple months, don't take on a ton of additional stress, or set unrealistic goals like running a marathon. Learn to listen to your body and respect it because if you don't, guess what you are the only one in charge of you. I say all of this because I have been there and it is not fun...so please stop being so hard on yourself! If someone came up to me and asked me for advice because they are simply not reaching their fat loss goals and this person was running tons of miles a week, eating a low calorie, low fat diet, and just all around looking run down and ragged I would suggest for that person, to go and figure out their diet, stop working out like a maniac...just go for walks and SLEEP well, and repeat, day after day for about a month until they have "healed" themselves enough to take the next step. Sometimes that is all we need to do to reset back to a healthy state.<br />
<br />
So if you are feeling exhausted and can't figure out what is wrong....go work on your sleep patterns, 9 times out of 10 this will solve that problem.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-73964348133133207342014-07-29T21:47:00.003-07:002014-07-29T21:48:23.385-07:00Get off the Treadmill and go Play!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGwkPbGP6aeaWVhmgNHmF-LJhXuBVgTaZ3Hos-GrE_W5eU4qxxGS9AlZLvOyEimmdMJYra5-_ehogrmj-U2nOrdm7Zy-MTSIALUXbzypdmrG9emNS2WbddMDv6ifwFckZZkgGNJVTk4NVM/s1600/IMG_2136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGwkPbGP6aeaWVhmgNHmF-LJhXuBVgTaZ3Hos-GrE_W5eU4qxxGS9AlZLvOyEimmdMJYra5-_ehogrmj-U2nOrdm7Zy-MTSIALUXbzypdmrG9emNS2WbddMDv6ifwFckZZkgGNJVTk4NVM/s1600/IMG_2136.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can anyone spot the over-sized kid? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Have you ever watched kids play? Healthy kids will play very very hard and rest when necessary, they don't need to go out on 5 mile runs or spend hours at the gym because their entire day is built around moving around, they climb, they jump, they run, they play and it is all effortless. At the end of the day, their heads hit the pillows and they sleep hard. They are doing what humans were designed to do. Being active comes second nature to kids, and somewhere along the lines of becoming grown ups, most of us lose the natural tendency to be active often throughout the day. We have traded natural activity for desk jobs and forced treadmill runs to try and make up for it. No fun!<br />
<br />
For awhile I have been annoyed at how hard I have to work to maintain my level of fitness, while my husband works out hard for 2, maybe 3 days a week and not that long... while also being incredibly in shape and lean. So annoying! So I think I have figured it out, he works out with a 100% intensity for only a couple days a week, plays with the kids endlessly and eats to satiety, while never depriving himself of real food. So for the last month I have been on a mission to re-think exercise. Let me just say up front<br />
<a name='more'></a>, this has not been easy. I have been in the mindset that workouts meant hours on end at the gym every day. I would run over 20 miles a week and do other various workouts such as insanity or other variations of HIIT (High intensity interval training) more than a few times a week. burning over 500 calories a day while also following a strict low calorie/low fat diet. If you read one of my previous posts about adrenal fatigue you can see how I got myself to that point. After having lost so much weight with the old school philosophy of counting calories and working out like a maniac, I felt a constant pressure to maintain this for fear of gaining the weight back. Even after having changed to a Paleo diet almost a year ago, I still maintained an intense workout schedule. The more I have learned and immersed myself in the concepts of living a more minimalistic lifestyle, the more I realized that I was simply overdoing it with the workouts. There were days I would have worked out for over an hour and a half, running over 4 miles and then lifting, and would do this almost 6 days a week at times. I wouldn't even have the energy to play with my kids later that day. I can't imagine why, but at the time I was perplexed, I mean wasn't that supposed to make me super fit and healthy and have tons of energy to play with my kids? Well no...in fact the endless miles I was logging on the treadmill and the frequent HIIT workouts coupled with the low calorie/low fat diet was draining me entirely. <br />
<br />
The last couple of months I have been trying something new by cutting out the long hours at the gym and trading in my 4 mile runs for 4 mile walks, and instead of doing tons of different weight lifting workouts throughout the week, I minimized the weights to 4 or 5 heavy lifts and I get in and out the weight room in about 30 minutes. Instead of focusing on long runs I have decided to focus on speed training by incorporating sprinting 1x a week and HIIT workouts (crossfit style) 1x a week. I got these ideas from reading a great book called <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-workout-plan-basics/#axzz38ukmJaR9" target="_blank">"The Primal Blueprint" by Mark Sisson</a>. So my schedule now looks something like this:<br />
<br />
Monday:<br />
<ul>
<li> Walk to my gym </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Heavy Lifting : Bench Press, Squats, Bent-over barbell rows and Body weight dips (can also add weight)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YEkqeNhfa5RYq6DR8mdqWzS8UQWuHO39KU_L4k5jdJ18ReAzkjqyc6TrYZ3Cs0_VXeZECoW3v2Z6TYENxKUwmENEMMOJPfjPZnXXGEMTn2bloBwqhpne5moQ0AehAH42aYt6fZmHZTdK/s1600/IMG_3682.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YEkqeNhfa5RYq6DR8mdqWzS8UQWuHO39KU_L4k5jdJ18ReAzkjqyc6TrYZ3Cs0_VXeZECoW3v2Z6TYENxKUwmENEMMOJPfjPZnXXGEMTn2bloBwqhpne5moQ0AehAH42aYt6fZmHZTdK/s1600/IMG_3682.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
</li>
<li>Run 1.5 mile back home and walk the remainder </li>
</ul>
Tuesday:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Walk, Clean my house and play with my kids</li>
</ul>
Wednesday:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>HIIT (lasting less than 30 minutes)</li>
<li>Walk</li>
</ul>
Thursday:<br />
<ul>
<li> Walk to my gym</li>
<li>Heavy Lifting: Deadlift, Overhead press, assisted pull-ups, and thrusters</li>
<li>Run 1.5 miles back home and walk remainder</li>
</ul>
Friday:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Walk</li>
<li>Play with kids and clean my house (I am an incessant neat freak so cleaning keeps me very active)</li>
</ul>
Saturday:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8P6qPZA-yHYbFjFpyqzOgcTW0EyTM5iTigMCLyHfD2IkkOCguYKj0oYPFFjjOm2vwcfQgf4lqS2lQhMtqOZau2EJqyZCImAByzQCW6VuMRuuKYtQvD4NsZngewNwi0v78hE3zwiPrhfCQ/s1600/IMG_3976.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8P6qPZA-yHYbFjFpyqzOgcTW0EyTM5iTigMCLyHfD2IkkOCguYKj0oYPFFjjOm2vwcfQgf4lqS2lQhMtqOZau2EJqyZCImAByzQCW6VuMRuuKYtQvD4NsZngewNwi0v78hE3zwiPrhfCQ/s1600/IMG_3976.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Family bike ride to the track </li>
<li>Sprint workout</li>
<li>Active day with family</li>
</ul>
Sunday:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Active family day</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GTJPpWTVXBE4-VLcSIwE63D9S54hsR4eO45_WWaIi0_EKMS3kYSN6LJzQ4fkm2wBBTnUmFmMj7JC5xp38T36z-fQ9ZQO2mlWYmejVh2PR4RskRPPM5ElGtAEIpZPqCi01XED_8mXkuLB/s1600/IMG_3963.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GTJPpWTVXBE4-VLcSIwE63D9S54hsR4eO45_WWaIi0_EKMS3kYSN6LJzQ4fkm2wBBTnUmFmMj7JC5xp38T36z-fQ9ZQO2mlWYmejVh2PR4RskRPPM5ElGtAEIpZPqCi01XED_8mXkuLB/s1600/IMG_3963.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a> How has this new schedule changed my life?<br />
<br />
I no longer feel exhausted in the middle of the day, like I used to. I can lift heavier, I can run faster, in fact I ran my mile the other day in 8:22 sec, a 30 sec difference then my all time fastest. My new goal is to get it under 8 min in the next 6 months.<br />
<br />
Walking helps clear my head of the mental exhaustion that comes along with having 3 kids while simultaneously giving me exposure to copious amounts of Vitamin D in the form of sunshine.<br />
<br />
I wake up so much more rested and excited for the day. Whereas before I somewhat dreaded the day ahead because I knew I would have to muster up a ton of energy to get through a ridiculous run or other workout....only to come back home craving tons of bad carbs, I had a hard time falling asleep and had a terrible insulin response system going on. I will also note that by eating tons of healthy fats and protein and minimal (less than 100 grams of Carbohydrate) a day I feel so much more energetic and stronger then I ever have before. I have learned that less is more and that it is important to rest my body. Life should be so much more enjoyable and after allowing myself to take it easy, I have discovered a whole new level of happiness that I never thought was possible. With that said, everyday still remains somewhat of an internal struggle with my inner exercise obsessed demons, taunting me that I am not doing enough...Everyday is a new day to silence the demons (insert evil laugh).<br />
<br />
I challenge you to stop logging endless miles running on the treadmill or the elliptical and instead go for a walk, pick up some heavy weights and occasionally sprint around a track, play with your kids, explore the great outdoors and start living!<br />
<br />
If you need a little guidance on how to get started on minimizing your workout regime check out these awesome resources:<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1771638006"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-workout-plan-basics/#axzz38ukmJaR9">http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-workout-plan-basics/#axzz38ukmJaR9</a><br />
<br />
or if you want something more detailed with videos to help with form and nutrition details check out:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nerdfitness.com/">http://www.nerdfitness.com/</a><br />
<br />
Another awesome resource that is inexpensive is: <a href="http://eplifefit.com/">http://eplifefit.com/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-68211620368803483862014-06-24T15:36:00.000-07:002014-06-24T15:36:03.379-07:00Kale and Pear Salad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiozyOSgzk9OalnC36BCq_nKdrsPzCSIx729IEZnfE-tn4_vHqiL_sPup2wI9HRhInT5VgnAx_peoTFHQHW-aDFdaUwwSBi5Gh_8htgOKDt_bhOfuGgUePp_YahBfK9OVXDEWQwcFG2Z_y-/s1600/DSC_1557.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiozyOSgzk9OalnC36BCq_nKdrsPzCSIx729IEZnfE-tn4_vHqiL_sPup2wI9HRhInT5VgnAx_peoTFHQHW-aDFdaUwwSBi5Gh_8htgOKDt_bhOfuGgUePp_YahBfK9OVXDEWQwcFG2Z_y-/s1600/DSC_1557.JPG" height="464" width="640" /></a></div>
Are you in a salad rut? I get that way, but this one will cure that problem....in fact it is so simple and refreshing you just my want to make it everyday...which is what I have been doing anyways. <br />
<a name='more'></a>I have a large bag of smaller leafy kale from Costco, so I wanted to find a great way to utilize it beyond just simply sauteing it. I also needed to make a salad for a party we were going to and this seemed like a good idea. The problem is that I rarely make something I have already made before when I go to these parties, for some ridiculous reason I get a wild hair to make something "new" and wow can that be risky. I guess procrastination and craziness just makes me become more creative....I don't know how accurate that really is, but we are going with that theory. <br />
<br />
Its also nice to have a light recipe like this in the summer when you would rather not be cooking hot foods. So here you have it and enjoy this superfood dish as a side or load it with some chicken for a full meal.<br />
<br />
<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<br />
4 cups of kale (any variety, if you get the larger leaves make sure to remove the tough stems)<br />
3 tbsp olive oil<br />
1 large pear (diced into small pieces)<br />
1/3 cup of dried cranberries or even dried cherries<br />
1/3 cup chopped almonds or you could use any type of nut you prefer<br />
1/4 tsp sea salt<br />
1 small clementine, orange, or lemon (I used clementine, because I wanted a sweeter taste to balance the bitterness of kale)<br />
<br />
<b>Method:</b><br />
<br />
Put the kale in a large salad bowl and drizzle the oil on top, using your hands, massage the oil into the leaves until they wilt a bit. (This step helps to lessen the bitterness of the kale), Let it sit out for a few minutes then toss in the pear, cranberries, nuts and the salt. Once it is all tossed together squeeze the clementine or lemon over top of it all, mix it up then let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving, to let the leaves wilt down and the flavors meld together. Enjoy!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-12845184480040861822014-06-19T22:12:00.002-07:002014-06-19T22:12:22.167-07:00Bison and Parsnip ChiliI had to make a pretty quick dinner tonight because we were out all day in town so luckily the day before I stocked up on a ton of wonderful food options at Costco, and I am incredibly thankful to be able to shop there as they really have some great choices. I will come up with another post to list some great items to stock up on if you shop there, this can really help you to navigate away from the less than desirable foods they sell in bulk, I mean unless you enjoy a box of 100+ Twix candy bars calling out your name from the pantry all day long. Costco can be an awesome place to shop for whole food options...you just have to know what to look for and "think outside the box" ;) Tonight I just wanted to whip up a meal in one pot so we had less dishes to do and I could spend more time blogging and working on some upgrading of the blog! I am super excited for the current project I am working on and will share in time when I get things up and running, for now just know that I plan to be a ton more active on here, pushing out new content far more frequently. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW56_2t8M0CSFjokqTs8g9NVTEEPhH_w5uvPK3D8d5MvIY3xt5O0LgbMbv4pz3M_X8fWZGEin-Q1eqv2-hFDImiylPJDp_NbuphngiFY10jvskL_Uf05eK9h1ASIlvbj_GRWhUSTCJz93J/s1600/IMG_3950.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW56_2t8M0CSFjokqTs8g9NVTEEPhH_w5uvPK3D8d5MvIY3xt5O0LgbMbv4pz3M_X8fWZGEin-Q1eqv2-hFDImiylPJDp_NbuphngiFY10jvskL_Uf05eK9h1ASIlvbj_GRWhUSTCJz93J/s1600/IMG_3950.jpg" height="640" width="548" /></a></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
This chili recipe is a spin off of my <a href="http://foodandfitnessredefined.blogspot.com/2014/02/bison-and-sweet-potato-chili.html" target="_blank">Bison and Sweet Potato Chili</a>, I just worked with what I had on hand and tweaked a few things to give a different flavor. I will have to toot my own horn because wow, this chili was amazing!!! My little men and the big man loved it, this is awesome, my goal is to have everyone in the house eating whole foods and little to no processed stuff, and my little people have been the hardest!! Right now my oldest is visiting her grandparents and I have made it a mission to get rid of 99% of the crap food in my pantry at the moment. So the fact that this chili won them over is a victory for this mommy! I will be adding this into the regular rotation for sure and I hope you all try it and enjoy it just the same. Please don't be scared of the parsnips...I am not a fan of parsnips and worried that my kids would completely hate this because of them, but my craftiness in dicing everything very small was genius...they didn't even know what it was, they thought they were potatoes....I did later tell them that it was parsnips and explained what they are and what they look like (big white carrots essentially), so in the end I felt pretty good about myself and the fact that they not only ate it, but were introduced to a new food in a pleasant way...and we have enough leftovers for all of us to have lunch tomorrow. So toot...toot goes the awesome horn ! Enjoy<br />
<br />
Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>1-2 tbsp olive oil</li>
<li>1 lb. ground bison meat or ground beef (bison just has a richer taste to it)</li>
<li>1/2 yellow onion (diced)</li>
<li>1 large parsnip (peeled, and diced into small pieces)</li>
<li>2-3 carrots (peeled and diced into small pieces)</li>
<li>1 yellow bell pepper, diced</li>
<li>1-28 oz can of diced tomatoes</li>
<li>2 cups of vegetable stock</li>
<li>1 tbsp chili powder</li>
<li>1 tbsp cinnamon</li>
<li>1 tbsp cocoa powder </li>
<li>2 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you desire spicier)</li>
<li>1.5 tsp sea salt</li>
<li>1/2 tsp black pepper</li>
<li>2 cups of kale chopped into small pieces</li>
</ul>
Method<br />
<br />
Have all of the veggies peeled and diced prior to heating up the pot with oil. Heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot, when it is good and hot add the diced onion. Saute the onion until translucent, then add in the ground bison. Brown the bison, while it is browning you can throw in the parsnips and carrots and let them soften up during the browning process. After the meet is browned add in the yellow bell pepper and can of tomatoes. Stir everything together, then add the vegetable stock and all of the spices. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 10-15 min until the flavors have enough time to merge together nicely. At the very end of this pretty much right before serving, toss in the chopped kale and give it a good stir, then ladle out the chili into bowls and if desired top with a bit of "Wholly Guacamole," another awesome Costco find! Enjoy and please leave me feedback if you liked it!! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-71563149624751215222014-06-16T14:35:00.002-07:002014-06-16T14:35:46.453-07:00Adrenal FatigueI keep coming across this phrase Adrenal Fatigue in various articles, pod-casts and such and I feel like I have been beaten over the head with it lately. So I decided to explore this further and found out a ton of information that has changed my life. Not to sound dramatic, but seriously I can't possibly ignore the facts.<br />
<br />
So what on earth is Adrenal Fatigue? In a nut shell I will attempt to explain a somewhat technical system. The Adrenal Glands which are two triangle-shaped glands that sit on top of the kidneys, their function is to secrete various hormones that regulate stress, sex hormones, sleep, etc. Pretty much a big deal those little glands. Cortisol is one of the main hormones that when the body is put under systemic stress, it is released. The main functions of Cortisol are to increase blood-sugar levels through gluconeogenesis, suppress the immune system and aid in digestion of macro-nutrients.<br />
<br />
The system of communication called the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis is essentially a messenger system.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here is a little diagram that helps to show in more detail what goes on: Basically when there is stress (physical, mental, emotional, etc) the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis responds by sending chemical messengers that transmit signals from the neurons to the target cells across synapses. Its confusing to wrap your head around, but this diagram really helps to see the connection. Eventually the cycle continues and unfortunately in most people stress is far more abundant than it should be, therefore homeostasis (the ability or tendency of an organism or cell to maintain internal equilibrium by adjusting its physiological processes...aka balance) is very difficult to reach. <br />
<img alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-5475" src="http://robbwolf.com/wp//wp-content/uploads/2011/08/HPA_axis.jpg" height="334" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" width="339" /><br />
<a name='more'></a>Here is a link that helps to show the importance of different essential neurotransmitters, if your mind isn't boggled at this point then wow you are a super star. So overtime you can see that if these little glands are continually put under chronic stress then they are over worked and things start to go haywire and the body is unable to achieve homeostasis. I know I said "In a nut shell" but briefly describing a complicated system is near to impossible. <br />
<br />
<br />
So what are the symptoms of adrenal fatigue? Well first obvious one is exhaustion for no explained or obvious reason. Here are some other less obvious but sure fire signs you may have adrenal fatigue.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>difficulty sleeping, getting a good night's rest</li>
<li>depression</li>
<li>constantly feeling stressed</li>
<li>poor diet</li>
<li>difficulty gaining or losing weight</li>
<li>trouble having clarity</li>
<li>memory loss</li>
<li>low libido</li>
<li>quick temper </li>
<li>irregular menstruation</li>
<li>general unhappiness </li>
</ul>
Adrenal Fatigue is not something commonly diagnosed or even fully understood by doctors so really kind of pointless to go to a Dr. give him these symptoms and hope for a reasonable explanation or resolution. So needless to say I used my own intuition and did my own research to find out that I am pretty sure I have been struggling with a little bit of adrenal fatigue myself. I have the tendency to overdo things such as working out too hard, overextending my commitments, stressing out about the cleanliness of my house etc etc etc....<br />
<br />
Things to do to overcome adrenal fatigue and repair the body: (things I am working on)<br />
<ul>
<li>Sleep!!! (first and most importantly) </li>
<li>Stop dieting super strict (no low calorie/low fat diets)</li>
<li>Stop chronic exercise (no more 5 mile runs 7x a week)</li>
<li>Lift weights</li>
<li>Eat plenty of calories/fat until satiation</li>
<li>Cut out any unnecessary stress from your life don't volunteer in the PTA if it is not the right time in your life</li>
<li>no your limits and don't feel bad taking a break every now and again</li>
</ul>
Things I am working on are all of the above...I cut out my long runs, going to bed earlier, eating until I am full (good paleo foods of course!). I have noticed dramatic improvements in my mood mostly, energy levels and so much more! <br />
<br />
I hope this post isn't too much information to digest, but I sincerely think that many people I know could benefit from hearing this so please message me if you have any specific questions. I am not a Dr., but anything food related I can help you try to figure out what to do to help combat some adrenal fatigue. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-25093498402361745652014-05-16T15:42:00.002-07:002014-05-16T15:54:25.670-07:00Pre-race jitters <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I can not believe that the half marathon is tomorrow. Have I mentioned how much I hate running? Ironic I know, I am fairly certain that once this bucket list bullet is checked off I will not be doing any distance running for a very long time...and let me just clarify anything over 5 miles is "distance" running in my opinion, so while I won't be running those I don't mind short spurts like 5ks every now and again, in fact I am thinking that I am built more for those to begin with. After all of this training, and lets be real I didn't even fully do the "training" every week. I skipped an 8 miler a few weeks ago due to horrible winds and my reluctance to run on the treadmill that far, I am ready to get my body out of "fight or flight" mode. I definitely feel a lot more exhausted after putting my body through the ringer, I prefer weight training and HIIT workouts far more than this! The injury associated with these runs has been ridiculous, I have fallen and skinned my knees 3 time (yes my knees look like the knees of a careless 5 year old boy), and I strained my left foot on the last mile of the 10 miler last Sunday, so that means I had to "take it easy" all week, and I do not "take it easy" very easily I hate sitting still! Sorry about the rant, and if you are a distance runner well I am impressed with your stamina, but it is not for me. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj8oNmDaG7pGcxHTEcYiXsvudc6XTCa3DYVXFmFe4PKQzv1gYNsRsvuoDpvUjIF5xDwpYILUjFQOZFn-QGgiPuJu3hKe1rwct5CP5y9eRv0nIHY0OI09B5fzBV8OujoQBmahYKogj5WiYB/s1600/IMG_3642.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj8oNmDaG7pGcxHTEcYiXsvudc6XTCa3DYVXFmFe4PKQzv1gYNsRsvuoDpvUjIF5xDwpYILUjFQOZFn-QGgiPuJu3hKe1rwct5CP5y9eRv0nIHY0OI09B5fzBV8OujoQBmahYKogj5WiYB/s1600/IMG_3642.PNG" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
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At any rate and as much as I have been trying to not overthink this whole race thing, I am starting to get a bit nervous. It's just for fun, It's just for fun right? Fun, who goes out and runs 13.1 miles for FUN? Seriously who does that? I have been talking about the race every now and again with my 12 year old and she said, mom its only 3 miles longer than your last run... HA only 3 more miles ok sounds easy enough after ten, but I can tell you this after those 10 I was exhausted mentally and physically my foot hurt, my skinned knee hurt, I was thirsty and just all around feeling decrepit. If you have ever hiked the Grand Canyon you will know that while it is roughly a 19 mile hike down and out, the hardest part of that hike is the last 2 miles. You are tired from the first 17 miles, you didn't sleep well because you were scared of the snakes and scorpions that were sure to climb into your sleeping bag at night, so you slept on a picnic table instead, you endured "Devils cork screw," a heavy backpack even though you didn't bring a tent, super hot temps in the canyon, dirt, watching people get IV fluids on the way up and so much more pleasant stuff, so yeah that last 2 miles feels like hell! Have I mentioned I want to do it again? This is my greatest fear for this race, that I am going to love crossing the finish line and the excitement races always evoke and this is just going to make me want to do it again....NO!!! <br />
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All this complaining right? Seriously though it should be awesome, I just pray that the wind is non-existent and the heat stays at bay for awhile. I am nervous for a multitude of reasons, primarily my foot injury, but I think it will be just fine, I will just have to pace myself really well and not overdo it too soon. If you have ever ran a race like this please let me know any suggestions that you have. Thanks! I will do a post race re-cap to remind you all I am never doing this again! Haha famous last words.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-37977336560700147142014-05-08T22:55:00.001-07:002014-05-08T22:55:53.000-07:00Outside the Box: SnickerDoodle Cookies...In appreciation for all th...<a href="http://foodandfitnessredefined.blogspot.com/2014/05/snickerdoodle-cookiesin-appreciation.html?spref=bl">Outside the Box: SnickerDoodle Cookies...In appreciation for all th...</a>: So this week is teacher appreciation week and I had yet to show my appreciation for all the hard work my kids' teachers do day in and ...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-60663168746469868012014-05-08T22:53:00.002-07:002014-05-08T22:53:36.128-07:00SnickerDoodle Cookies...In appreciation for all the wonderful teachers out there!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVfx_rb89w4fCf6w2iguHgN7xdRSMqJKPtLNIGC9gb4YVrxmnyDmrlqjk0q_-4WQczf4cJTWoQmZWCsJvWD0rJo2PFGu8BdADxoGWhNmCIn4UHa8bmWz-wMwWGy2gk_jys0vCE4jHqKJb/s1600/DSC_1354.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVfx_rb89w4fCf6w2iguHgN7xdRSMqJKPtLNIGC9gb4YVrxmnyDmrlqjk0q_-4WQczf4cJTWoQmZWCsJvWD0rJo2PFGu8BdADxoGWhNmCIn4UHa8bmWz-wMwWGy2gk_jys0vCE4jHqKJb/s1600/DSC_1354.JPG" height="400" width="640" /></a></div>
So this week is teacher appreciation week and I had yet to show my appreciation for all the hard work my kids' teachers do day in and day out. A thankless job really, but an ever so important one. I have been blessed to have both of my older children in the classrooms of some pretty amazing teachers. At any rate I needed to find a way to show appreciation, and well the way I show love and appreciation is through cooking and baking so I might as well do something with that right? So at 9:30 tonight as I was scrolling down my Facebook feed I was reminded of the fact that tomorrow is in fact Friday and I had yet to do any sort of appreciation, I did what I always do when I procrastinate, I decided what a perfect night to try and create my own recipe?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Why not, what could possibly go wrong I am only dead tired and all I wanted to really do is snuggle in bed and watch Downton Abbey. So before you start thinking that something must have gone wrong, I mean who creates a new recipe to give as a teacher gift the night before? Crazy people thats who, nothing went wrong, in fact something went completely right...I created my first gluten-free cookie recipe without a bunch of other crazy ingredients such as Xanthan gum and what not added. I happened to have all the ingredients I thought were necessary and voila I give you the Snickerdoodle cookie re-invented. Best part is it only took me 20 minutes from start to finish...So theoretically I could have watched Downton Abbey afterwards, but hey I had to get this recipe out to you all before I forgot what I did! So here it goes.<br /><br />Ingredients:<br /><br />1 3/4 cup almond meal/flour<br />1/4 cup coconut flour<br />1 tbsp tapioca flour<br />1/4 tsp baking soda<br />1/8 tsp sea salt<br /><br />1/3 cup honey<br />2 tsp vanilla extract<br />1/3 cup melted coconut oil<br /><br />For coating:<br /><br />4 tbsp cinnamon<br />4 tbsp coconut sugar (optional)<br />tiny bit of granulated sugar if desired to sprinkle on top after baking<br /><br />Method:<br /><br />Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all of the dry ingredients. Add in the wet ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Roll cookies into 1" balls, then roll around in the cinnamon and coconut sugar. Place on a large cookie sheet either lined with parchment paper or a Silpat liner, or just use an un-greased baking sheet. Use the heel of your hand to press the cookies more flat. Bake for approximately 7-8 minutes. They may appear a tiny bit undone, but the cooling process will help to get them a bit more firm. Let cool for a bit and Enjoy!<br /><br />* The next time I make these I may experiment with egg as I felt they were a little on the crumbly side due to the almond meal, however an egg would probably help to bind them a tad more. These were still amazing though I promise. I hope the teachers and you all enjoy them!<br /><br /><br />If you are unsure where you can acquire coconut flour, tapioca flour or almond meal, check out Amazon<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Organic-16-Ounce/dp/B000KENKZ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1399614225&sr=8-2&keywords=coconut+flour,">http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Organic-16-Ounce/dp/B000KENKZ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1399614225&sr=8-2&keywords=coconut+flour,</a> I ordered these boxes of flour(s) and they will last me months! If you have prime its even better.<br /><br />Other places to look are health food stores, some higher class supermarkets like Whole Foods, and sometimes even Walmart (not qualifying the latter as high class, by any means:)).<br /><br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-8763386010943231402014-05-07T21:52:00.000-07:002014-05-07T21:52:05.039-07:004 ingredient fudge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOKTZ9W1bCq4rfauJm7DW9MwK_-0XxgnPSBINT5btA_mU_zhDAEkYlv2h7zVKxv6iVdqcZ-dh-BcUJXdoMjks06HGNsZ8DfpIz78_3AkFx3jpJA4YqSTdo-CAAtWWtE2OLrLRZiArllnE1/s1600/DSC_1360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOKTZ9W1bCq4rfauJm7DW9MwK_-0XxgnPSBINT5btA_mU_zhDAEkYlv2h7zVKxv6iVdqcZ-dh-BcUJXdoMjks06HGNsZ8DfpIz78_3AkFx3jpJA4YqSTdo-CAAtWWtE2OLrLRZiArllnE1/s1600/DSC_1360.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
Velvety yummy fudge the best end to a long day. Today I finally got done with all the laundry that was behind for the past week, I also managed to hire a sitter and get my butt to the big girl gym for an awesome workout filled with bench pressing, tricep dipping as well as a lap around the sand trail...oh yeah and the stair-master, which let me tell you is so not cool after hitting legs hard the day before. I also managed to get back to working on the blog, took kids to karate, cook up some chicken thighs and other various tasks along the way. Oh and I am watching How I Met your Mother Season 2 woo hoo can we say successful day? At any rate I will keep this post short and sweet because I need to go get my beauty sleep, but I simply had to share this and I cant take credit for it as I found it on one of my other favorite blogs: The Paleo Mom:<br />
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<a href="http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/04/recipe-chocolate-walnut-freezer-fudge.html">http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/04/recipe-chocolate-walnut-freezer-fudge.html</a><br />
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Check out the recipe here and Enjoy!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-15859722050662502212014-05-07T16:52:00.001-07:002014-05-07T16:52:15.716-07:00Excuses are like armpits....everybody has them and they all stinkSo every now and again I get asked how I lost all the weight, and though I know it is a natural question, its always hard for me to sum it all up. I think many times people want to know what "magic pill" it was or a specific fad diet. The truth of it is that it took me many many years to get healthy, it took me trials of different fad diets, nothing too extreme, but nothing I could keep up for the rest of my life. Ultimately I did lose weight because going from eating in excess of anything and everything coupled with little to no activity meant that I could just go for walks every day and lose weight, or decrease my calories a tad and lose weight, when I was so overweight the minor changes I made at the beginning made a huge change, for instance I cut out soda and switched to diet (I don't advocate diet soda, but I drank it for a number of years to avoid regular soda...lesser of the evils I guess?), not drinking regular soda I dropped over 10 pounds alone. <br />
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Eventually though I hit a plateau and guess what I had to step up my A game and work harder. I guess what I am getting at is that what I did to lose the weight and get healthy was to make a decision, the decision that for the rest of my life I don't want to wonder what it feels like to be healthy and love my body, I want to live in that healthy body everyday. Sounds cliche I know but really that's what it boils down to. Everyday we are faced with decisions, some little, some big and some that if left unchanged become part of a bigger problem down the road. <br />
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What I really want to tell people is that losing weight and getting healthy is hard work. There really is nothing more to it. I mean nose to the grindstone, type of hard-work. It's not easy to stop eating frosted flakes for breakfast instead of eggs, its not easy to carve in time to workout or walk into a weight room and be the only girl there, its not easy to make a meal plan, shop then prep the food, it is not easy to budget your money so you can buy more nutrient dense food...it's not easy, at first anyways. Eventually with HARD work and consistency, and persistence this way of living becomes second nature and you look back and wonder how the heck did I live any other way? Because once you know what it feels like to be healthy its sad to think of the time you lost, you know like the time you didn't go on that kayaking trip because you thought you would not be able to physically fit in the boat let alone actually row for miles, or the time you couldn't go flying in a small airplane because of the weight limit, or running even 5 ft freaked you out? I don't take those things I can do for granted now because I know at one time they were not possible.<br />
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I made a decision one day to be alive for my kids for as long as I possibly can, and to try give them the best of me every day. Once I made that decision I immersed myself and obsessed over anything to do with becoming healthier eventually things fell into place. I made meal plans, I got a gym membership, I made better decisions every day, month, year that went by and eventually have gotten to a place where these things I do to be healthy are normalcy in my life. Now I adjust our budget so we can afford higher quality more nutrient dense food, it might mean forgoing fancy handbags or bigger tvs, but my body is worth more to me than those things. I just want to emphasize how making changes did not come easy at any point, it was and continues to be hard work, but let me just say and hopefully this too does not come out as a cliche, the reward of choosing to be healthy and fit is so unbelievable and fulfilling that you just start seeing life for what it is...."a gift."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-82871259400011159702014-04-24T19:50:00.003-07:002014-04-24T19:50:36.528-07:00Running, lifting and eating oh my.....tips appreciated!So a few weeks ago I decided to train for a 1/2 marathon that was 6 weeks out from then, I know I know it goes against all the things I have said...chronic cardio bad, running miles on end bad...however this half marathon seemed like a good idea to check off the bucket list as it takes place at Edwards AFB and we will be running on the dry lake bed which is pretty awesome, and if you know anything about this place you know that there is a lot of history out here so why not do a run that has some sort of awesome attached to it? While I don't advocate running marathons consistently because I think as humans we are not really designed to be running such mileage often, however this is a lifelong goal of mine and I am doing it... I can tell you right now I don't plan on doing this often or running a full marathon ever. I prefer to be strong and as I have learned you simply can not serve two masters when it comes right down to it...I can not call my self a runner and a lifter simultaneously, however I do still squeeze in my strength training, just not as intense as before. <br />
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So as far as my diet goes, I simply can not be low carb and support the training I am doing right now, that is unfeasible, running requires quick access to glycogen stores, therefore I must eat a higher amount of carbohydrates in order to fuel my body more properly. So eating a lot of sweet potatoes, apples, squash etc have been essential to power me through. This is great though I am not restricting myself, so when I crave carbs I am not worried about gaining weight, because I know that my 9 mile runs will erase any damage I could have possibly done. This is my favorite part of running. I know ridiculous, but thinking about a big piece of zucchini bread or a loaded sweet potato is enough to get me through a tough run. Obsessed with food....yup. I am not ashamed of this. This training has left me on the pursuit of yummy recipes that I can hopefully share on here soon! <br />
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My fellow half-marathon veterans please please divulge any information, tips etc...that can help my husband and I, mostly myself....my husband is the type of guy that can just jump into an event like this and not train whatsoever...not me I have to train mentally and physically. However we have been doing the weekly long runs together and I am insanely thankful he is willing to slow down for me as we have been averaging 10-10:30 min/mil for our 8 miles...if I can hold this pace for the last 5 in the race I will be ecstatic. Honestly my only goal for this race is to run the entire thing and not walk at any point.... No time goals at this point. Just finish! At any rate any tips are appreciated! <br />
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So in the meantime I will eat my extra carbs, drink my wine, take my epsom salt baths and enjoy the path to pursuing a goal. Yummy recipes filled with carbs soon to come!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-31628388170519677762014-04-15T22:32:00.002-07:002014-04-15T22:32:26.557-07:00Not-completely Paleo Banana BreadI have had 4 overly ripe bananas taking up residence on my counter for almost a week now, begging to be molded into an amazing dessert. My go to....banana bread...this particular banana bread is not completely Paleo with my addition of Nutella...just wanted to throw out that disclaimer in case the Paleo police come a knockin. My 8 year old LOVES Nutella so I wanted to surprise him with some in the bread. And as for most things I post I had to have the confirmation of yuminess from at least 3 parties...and that I did folks. I loved it so much that it was my post-run treat/lunch. And I ate it while watching "How I met your Mother," which is my new favorite show by the way, its pretty much awesome. Double awesome afternoon for me. I am still in season 1 so please don't blow it for me, but I am getting seriously annoyed with Ted and Robin...I mean come on would they just get together already? At any rate I hope you all try and enjoy this recipe as much as we all did! <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwB2My3o5tHvahs2IFHiaYXGLZN-X-OCZCiDW8iXWIcIsOXOeuoRa6NHh8o-UWLuCMSK7XbGPzi5L_qd1WnX-nNGCFwDjo8t5tXB0E7HeoOIofQr_CqKUMhRadM99U0vV70Ad5mNLGegbh/s1600/DSC_1365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwB2My3o5tHvahs2IFHiaYXGLZN-X-OCZCiDW8iXWIcIsOXOeuoRa6NHh8o-UWLuCMSK7XbGPzi5L_qd1WnX-nNGCFwDjo8t5tXB0E7HeoOIofQr_CqKUMhRadM99U0vV70Ad5mNLGegbh/s1600/DSC_1365.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a>I apologize for the blurry picture...I don't know what went wrong...maybe I was just way too excited to eat this that I didn't balance the meter properly, oh well let the recipe speak for itself and Enjoy!<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
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<li>4 ripe bananas (mashed)</li>
<li>4 eggs</li>
<li>1/3 cup of coconut oil melted</li>
<li>1 tsp vanilla extract</li>
<li>1 1/2 tsp cinnamon</li>
<li>3/4 cup coconut flour</li>
<li>1 tsp baking soda</li>
<li>1/4 tsp salt</li>
<li>2 tbsp honey</li>
<li>1/3 cup Enjoy life chocolate chips</li>
<li>1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)</li>
<li>1 heaping tbsp nutella</li>
</ul>
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything up into a medium sized bowl. Grease a bread pan with coconut oil then place the batter into the pan. Bake for approximately 45-60 minutes, or until center is set and the top and edges are golden. Enjoy! <b> </b> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-882711625713189932014-04-15T22:12:00.003-07:002014-04-15T22:12:32.174-07:00Whole Chicken in a Skillet<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-vOa-DtV23zBCTSet1gCTi1AQT_ZhPKZnaj1TG08ZIYtwQED_I-UKBo7x_5fbd0ZENraXgbZYAimhWpqDJ3vAUCChlvEcFPFptLPl5qUBdyRoMtSazBgyXvCz6gqALHoWRzLDHK10nhU/s1600/DSC_1361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-vOa-DtV23zBCTSet1gCTi1AQT_ZhPKZnaj1TG08ZIYtwQED_I-UKBo7x_5fbd0ZENraXgbZYAimhWpqDJ3vAUCChlvEcFPFptLPl5qUBdyRoMtSazBgyXvCz6gqALHoWRzLDHK10nhU/s1600/DSC_1361.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
Ok so it was a Monday, typically I throw a whole chicken in the crockpot and call it a day...but this particular Monday I was so behind on EVERYTHING...we had our internet provider switched so I had to deal with all that and guess what I didn't get my Monday cleaning done...and you know what that does to me? Makes me a neurotic mess...I had to clean on Tuesday...not cool! The upside is that my internet is blazing fast...I can actually stream amazon on my ipad during my run, while simultaneously streaming kid shows for my little guy from the phone to the Tv...say what ? We are now in 2014 kids I am stoked! No more buffering for me...I made it through a 5 mi run and a couple "how I met your mother" episodes with NO interruptions, <br />
<a name='more'></a>besides the three year old wanting to join me in the run and almost causing a tremendous accident. At any rate this isn't an advertisement for Time Warner Cable internet service or anything, back to my chicken debacle. So I had a whole chicken and even though I didn't crockpot it, I have been wanting to make a crispier chicken, since slow cooking doesn't really leave you with a crispier skin, this idea came to mind. And without further ado...the chicken in the skillet:<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
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<li>Whole chicken 4-6 pounds</li>
<li>2 tbsp coconut oil</li>
<li>1 tbsp butter ( I used Kerrygold, herb butter)</li>
<li>salt and pepper<b> </b></li>
</ul>
<b>Method:</b><br />
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tbsp of coconut oil in cast-iron skillet, while melting sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Sear the chicken in the oil for a few minutes on each side. When the chicken is good and crispy on all sides, place the skillet in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes or until the temperature reads 165 degrees, then take out and let rest for a few min before carving. Enjoy! <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-73550898426952155422014-04-08T22:34:00.001-07:002014-04-08T22:34:25.627-07:00Snickerdoodle ice cream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEeZGo4K0nh0fDF146wCkewPWCIGx_F1EPUu7qbcMxFzr3FD4m1sK1oxPhy20owVvalGFgRPxbLD2EYit-o9Upw8Q8WeW_IqilEgDxqxA1_WEV-4pvyYcObT0dbEIDlg3KSL5pvsa05EAV/s1600/DSC_1332.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEeZGo4K0nh0fDF146wCkewPWCIGx_F1EPUu7qbcMxFzr3FD4m1sK1oxPhy20owVvalGFgRPxbLD2EYit-o9Upw8Q8WeW_IqilEgDxqxA1_WEV-4pvyYcObT0dbEIDlg3KSL5pvsa05EAV/s1600/DSC_1332.JPG" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
Eating healthy whole foods does not mean to give up all that is good...there is always room in my diet for a hunk of dark chocolate, a glass of wine or a bowl of ice cream...sometimes even all three in one night....I know I am crazy like that, that could be painful the next day though, this is something I know all too well. It is amazing how once you cut out all the crap from your diet, you are accutely aware of how certain foods affect your body more so than others. Even foods that are made with natural sugars such as honey, if eaten in high amounts will still affect your digestion...So remember in moderation sweets are ok from time to time....I don't want this post to get out of hand and give people the idea that it is okie dokie to go sweets crazy just because something is tagged as being "paleo." Cave people would have never had access to an ice cream maker or copious amounts of honey (unless they were brave enough to reach inside a hive), but I have an ice cream maker thanks to modern day technology and by golly I will make some darn ice cream from time to time because I like it! So sue me...if making this makes me a bad-girl in the Paleo realm I don't want to be good ;).<br />
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<a name='more'></a> Ok lets get down to business already! If you like coconut flavors and cinnamon then this ice cream recipe if for you! This is a perfectly sweet, dairy-less concoction that I think anyone would love, paleo and non-paleo alike. So give it a whirl, you just might like it! Disclaimer mine turned out super awesome because I had access to Trader Joes canned Coconut Cream<br />
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...don't dispair if this is unavailable in your location...either try Amazon or just use full-fat coconut milk in a can (Thai kitchen is my usual go to brand) Also I used a Cuisineart ice cream maker that I have the container always pre-chilled in the freezer ready to go in emergency ice cream needing situations. (make sure you follow your ice cream maker manufacturer instructions as far as that goes. <br />
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Word of warning: This is very cinnamoney (not sure if thats a word) if you don't love cinnamon dial the amount down or omit all-together.<br />
<br />
So now that we have all the legal mumbo jumbo down lets get crackalackin' (sorry too much Madagascar watching in my past)<br />
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<b>Ingredients: </b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>1 can of Trader Joes Coconut Cream or full-fat coconut milk (13.5 oz or so)</li>
<li>3/4 cup of coconut milk (in carton,trader joes has one without careenegen) <b> </b> or unsweetened almond milk </li>
<li>1/4-1/2 cup of honey</li>
<li>1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon</li>
<li>1/2 tsp of vanilla extract</li>
<li>1/8 tsp of salt</li>
<li>toasted coconut or coconut chips optional for topping (but highly recommend :)) </li>
</ul>
<b>Method:</b><br />
<br />
Make sure the ice cream maker's bowl has been pre-chilled as per manufacturers instructions. Blend all of the ingredients in a blender for approximately 45 seconds or until all blended (just not too long, it will get to hot)<b> </b>Place in the ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturers directions... mine took between 20-30 minutes. Top with this yummy coconut strip topping<br />
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I found at Trader Joes...is essentially crack so tread carefully with that stuff! Enjoy and tell me how it turned out!<b> </b> <br />
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Look at my cute little helper....he was fascinated by this machine and loved the ice cream!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-77946773551027380442014-04-08T21:57:00.002-07:002014-04-08T21:57:20.487-07:00Maple-Dijon Chicken Thighs<br />
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Let me just say OMG these suckers were unbelievable finger-licking good! I mean seriously I could eat them a few times a day....might even have them for breakfast! I whipped these up after my run this morning so I could eat them for lunch and make enough for leftovers, just because that is how I roll...I love leftovers! I almost didn't add the onions in, oh what a shame that<br />
<a name='more'></a> would have been, but needless to say I threw those bad boys in knowing they would be a caramelized goodness in the end. If you haven't already purchased a cast-iron skillet then do it....immediately! <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L10SK3-Pre-Seasoned-Skillet-12-Inch/dp/B00006JSUB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397018134&sr=8-1&keywords=cast+iron+skillet" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L10SK3-Pre-Seasoned-Skillet-12-Inch/dp/B00006JSUB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397018134&sr=8-1&keywords=cast+iron+skillet</a> This is the exact one I have. I am telling you I use mine daily I just adore it, especially for recipes that I start on the stove and finish off in the oven such as this particular one. Sure you could use any oven-proof skillet or even a dutch-oven, but something about cast-iron just gives it such a down-home good taste. Anyways I guess I will just get straight down to business, because chances are you are like me and just wanting the darn recipe, not to read an entire novel...Confession: I am terrible about just scrolling down a blog post as quickly as possible to get to the actual recipe...I think that is just my impatient Activator side...if you know strength finders you know what I am talking about! So without further ado here is the best chicken thighs recipe you are ever going to find....yes I am that confident about it!<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>2 tbsp coconut oil</li>
<li>2-3 pounds of chicken thighs (mine were skinless/boneless, doesn't matter)</li>
<li>1/2 cup of high quality dijon </li>
<li>1-2 tbsp pure maple syrup</li>
<li>dash of salt and pepper</li>
<li>dash of cayenne pepper</li>
<li>1 large onion, sliced into large slices</li>
</ul>
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<b>Method:</b><br />
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees. While oven is preheating, heat the coconut oil over medium heat. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper, then when the oil is good and hot place the chicken into the pan....ah don't you love that sizzle sound? I know I do, one of my favorite parts of cooking! Sear the thighs for a few min on each side to get a nice golden outer layer around them. While they are searing whip up the glaze. In a small bowl whisk together the dijon and maple syrup, then add in a touch of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste (yes taste it, dip your little pinky finger in and see if it is seasoned to your liking)<b> </b>When the chicken is seared, go ahead and drizzle the chicken with the glaze and then throw in the sliced onions, using tongs to move everything around a bit until they are nice and settled in for the oven (try to move the onions a little under the chicken with the tongs). Place the skillet in the preheated oven and finish off the cooking for approximately 25-35 minutes or until the chicken reaches 165 degrees. Enjoy this yummy chicken on top of some riced cauliflower or with a nicely loaded salad on the side! <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-47477678751067618922014-04-01T08:48:00.002-07:002014-04-01T08:48:38.624-07:00Oven Roasted VeggiesI needed a new way to cook up some vegetables. I get into a rut at times with cooking up certain foods. A routine if you will, for example I typically only steam broccoli, or oven roast asparagus or well you get it. I do what is "safe" what I know and stick to it....which is all good until it gets booooring. So this time around I wanted to do something "different" with broccoli primarily. I was a bit skeptical, I mean I have seen pictures of broccoli oven roasted and well it just looks burned or charred, how good can that even be? Well you never know until you try, or as I tell my kids at least try it once, if you hate it you never have to do it (or in their case most of the time, eat it) again. Let me just tell you I couldn't have loved this method of cooking the veggies more...I mean I was literally eating them like candy after they got out of the oven. I even risked third degree burns in my mouth because they were THAT good. Its something with roasting at a high temperature that just caramelizes the goodness out of them, especially the carrots. They tasted so incredibly sweet I thought I was eating some sort of treat. I seriously will be doing this all.the.time! Until of course this method becomes mundane, its so good I can't imagine it ever would. I hope you give it a try and love it as well!<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
What I used:<br />
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<ul>
<li>3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks </li>
<li>3 potatoes (peels on cut into quarters or smaller if you have large potatoes)</li>
<li>1 head of broccoli cut into bite-sized florets (don't cut too small you don't want them crispy while the carrots and potatoes take longer to cook)</li>
<li>2 parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks like the carrots</li>
<li>1/4 cup of coconut oil (melted)</li>
<li>salt and pepper to taste </li>
</ul>
Method:<br />
<br />
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Wash, and prep all of your vegetables while the oven is preheating. Melt the coconut oil either on the stove-top or in the microwave. Line a large baking sheet in parchment paper (make sure it can withstand up to 425 degrees), or I like to use a Silpat, these are amazing and if you don't own some you should consider buying...nothing will ever stick to your pan again! Toss the veggies onto the baking sheet and drizzle the oil on top of them, you can use a spoon or whatever to kind of "mix" the veggies around to help get even distribution of the oil. Don't stress about it too much. Next sprinkle on the salt and pepper, however much you desire. Pop into the oven and roast for approximately 15-25 minutes. This time will vary depending on how hot your oven cooks, how done you like your veggies and how big the chunks are that you chopped. Anyways just check in on them from time to time until they are to your liking. The broccoli might have a blackish look to the florets, but not to fear they are awesome this way. These vegetables taste great as a side to my <a href="http://foodandfitnessredefined.blogspot.com/2014/02/whole-chicken-in-crock-pot.html" target="_blank">Whole Chicken in a Crock-Pot</a>. Enjoy!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-80969643527079579142014-03-27T15:49:00.002-07:002014-03-27T15:49:49.201-07:00Sweet potato/squash Fritters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I apologize for my lack of posting this past week, we have been super duper busy with the kids starting new sports and finishing up basketball all in one week, it was a blur. Also we recently bought a mini-van which was time consuming. Buying a new car is kind of a pain. There is so much more paperwork involved then I remember. We have had the same awesome car for over 8 years, but sadly it was really no longer fitting our families needs. I have never been so excited about cargo space and sliding doors in my life, I am officially a grown up....sigh.<br />
<a name='more'></a> Anyways after a taxing week of car buying and shuttling kids to various sports, these little sweet potato fritters were truly the highlight of my week. These pictures do not do these puppies justice. I mean holy sweet and savory cow these were amazing. Maybe I was just starving but seriously I could have single-handedly eaten all of these, but sadly I had to share with the husband. Plus I wanted to have some leftover to enjoy the next day. This was tough my friends, I wanted to eat them ALL. They barely made it out of the frying pan, I mean I didn't even get a picture of them fully done because well we ate them up and after my food coma simply forgot to take a picture. So I had a bunch of sweet potatoes and butternut squash leftover from my prep day last week, for whatever reason I cooked up too many and I need a good way to utilize what was left so they didn't go to waste. You could really do these a number of ways but I chose to utilize what I had on hand and came up with these. Serve these alongside of some yummy steak or fry up some eggs and put on top of them the following morning for breakfast (thats what I did anyways and I can vouch for its awesomeness). These didn't particularly hold up like I thought they would, they were still awesome but next time I might experiment by putting some almond meal in them to possibly make them less flimsy, until next time though try them out this way and enjoy them even in all of their flimsy glory.<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>2-4 tbsp of coconut oil ( just keep it around if you have to do them in batches)</li>
<li>1 shallot finely diced</li>
<li>1 red bell pepper finely diced</li>
<li>3-4 large sweet potatoes (cooked first until very soft, then cooled to handle them)</li>
<li>I did 1 large sweet potato and about 1/2 of a cooked butternut squash as this is what I had on hand, next time I will probably do the 3-4 sweet potatoes instead though as I prefer sweet potatoes</li>
<li>1 egg</li>
<li>salt and pepper enough to taste </li>
</ul>
<b>Method:</b><br />
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Cook the sweet potatoes either in the microwave (just faster for people like me who don't always think ahead) or bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour until soft. Make sure to cool them enough to peel them and put their mushy innards into a bowl. Add the shallot, bell pepper, egg and salt and pepper. Mash it all up either by hand or a lovely potato masher. Now melt about 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a large non-stick skillet. Here is where you get your hands dirty, roll a small handful of the potato mixture into a ball and flatten in between your hands (think crab-cakes or hamburger patties, flat)<b> </b> fry them in the warmed coconut oil for about 3-5 minutes per side, basically until they are easy to flip. You will probably have to do these in a couple batches unless you have a massive skillet. You may have to adjust the cooking temp of the burner during the process as they may get too hot, don't despair if there is a little char on them though, they are super yummy this way, like caramelized yummy. Cook them until they are not too mushy. Hard to explain when they are done, you will just know. Eat them when they cool off a bit unless you are impatient like me and willing to burn your tongue to get a taste. Disclaimer I am not responsible if you do this and get burned... :) Enjoy!!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-7558968372453460752014-03-19T22:20:00.002-07:002014-03-19T22:20:15.826-07:00Homemade Chicken Broth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Why have I never done this before? I mean I pay upwards of 2-3 dollars on about 32 oz of organic chicken stock. The cost savings alone seems to be reason enough to do this, not to mention just how easy this recipe actually is. Before the reliance on factories to pump out canned foods, people used every last bit of their resources. An animal such as chicken was needed for eggs, meat and broth. Cows of course have a multitude of uses as well. We had a much greater connection to the animals and all of the wonderful resources they provide us. Now we can run to the supermarket and get everything we need, so we have become extremely disconnected from the source of our food. Anyways sorry for the hippie rant, but it is refreshing to finally get in touch with where real food comes from, I just can't help but share it. Additionally canned stock can have loads of sodium, even the less sodium stuff and some even have MSG...so beware something as basic as stock can have us putting less desirable things into our bodies. This recipe is seriously EASY....After you make up my recipe for <a href="http://foodandfitnessredefined.blogspot.com/2014/02/whole-chicken-in-crock-pot.html" target="_blank">Whole Chicken in a Crockpot </a>save the carcass and any additional chicken remainings, even if you don't plan to use it right away place it all in a ziploc bag and save either in the fridge (if planning to use in the next day or so) or freeze until you are ready to make it. <br />
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Place the chicken bones and contents of the ziploc bag into a large stock pot and cover completely with cold water ( I used between 8-10 cups worth of water for mine). Add in about 1/2-1 whole yellow onion diced, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of black pepper. Bring all of this to a boil then cover and simmer on low for about 4 hours. After 4 hours, using a fine mesh sieve drain the broth off and store in tightly-sealed containers (preferably glass canning jars) I however use my broth frequently and this recipe yields about 64 oz or about 8 cups of broth. I didn't have any glass jars, so I used my two blender bottles. Since I don't do protein shakes any longer well at least these will get some use...<br />
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I hope that you give this a try, this is honestly my first go of it and I am seriously kicking myself for having not done it sooner, I mean really this is so easy!! Enjoy! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-26440598763682669242014-03-19T11:09:00.001-07:002014-03-19T11:15:14.656-07:00The Art of Meal Prep<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of my chemistry teachers always said: "Fail to plan, prepare to fail." This is accurate in all areas of life, especially when it comes to what you will be eating. And truthfully what you eat has a domino effect into so many other areas of your life, that I truly believe if you get this down pat, then other trouble areas in your life will fall into line as well. <br />
<a name='more'></a>For example. If you set a monthly budget like we do you have a certain amount of money you plan to spend in a month on groceries, by creating a meal plan that is fairly thorough with a bit of wiggle room, you will have a lot easier of a time to meet that budget every month. However if you go to the grocery store aimlessly you will only leave, frazzled, with a bunch of odds and ends that may or may not end up making up complete meals for the next seven days... Then what happens? you find yourself too annoyed with the lack of meal components that you hit up Burger King or Pizza Hut instead...I am picking on those two particularly because they are the only two options we really have on base. The dominoes don't just stop there either. Eating well and nourishing your body has so many positive outcomes that are far more worth the time of planning than not. Doing well at work/in your career field will only be amplified by taking better care of your body. Your down time with family will be better spent as you won't be exhausted at the end of the day. And the best one...the aging process will be slower and you won't be spending so much of your retirement savings on health problems,instead you can be traveling your little heart out, hiking in Alaska, dancing to a Polka song in a German bar, river dancing in Scotland or Ireland wherever the hell they do that? (Ok maybe these are my little dreams, but you get it...)<br />
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Today I have decided to work on something that I have only talked about before and that is meal prep. Most athletes/super fit folk I know of usually plan an entire weeks worth of meals, then package them so that way they can just grab and go and spend less time in the kitchen throughout the week. Though I do stay at home right now with my little guy and don't have to rush off to "the office" in the morning, I do have a pretty packed schedule a lot of times and I am sincerely frazzled around dinner time trying to get dinner on the table at a decent hour. Meal planning and prep takes a lot of the chaos out of the normal week-time drama. I mean between karate, basketball, track, homework, my training schedule, this little blog and the regular household chores I could certainly use a little simplicity, and I am sure you could too. Even if you don't even have kids, your life is full with work, school, training etc... we are all busy in our own ways, so get on board with meal planning then let me know how it changes your life.<br />
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Rules of Meal Prep:<br />
<ol>
<li>Plan out your menu for 7 days of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don't get bogged down in too much variety this can be very stressful and expensive. Keep It Simple Stupid (ok you aren't really stupid, but just remember KISS). I usually pick out 2-3 breakfasts I love and rotate them, so maybe say fried eggs, bacon, greens and fruit one morning, egg cuplets another...get it? Also for those who are working on cleaning up their diet or are new to Paleo this simplicity will be much easier to follow and will have you full on healthy foods that you won't even think about the bread people said they could NEVER give up. </li>
<li>Make a list from your meal plans (this can take 30 min to an hour to really get a good plan/list)</li>
<li>Hit up the grocery store when you have a good hour you can devote to shopping for the items on your list...never go hungry...those Twinkies (are those even still alive?) that you would otherwise never give a second look will be seducing the hell out of you I promise.</li>
<li>Now once you get home you have a choice...do your meal prep that day, but if you are like me when you get home from the store on Sunday after having gone to church there really is no time, and you need a good two hours to get your cook on. What did I do? I did it on Tuesday why? who knows I am weird like that. However if you work during the week you HAVE to do it on the weekend, the payoff is well worth the work I promise!</li>
<li>Meal prep day: Go in on a full tummy or plan to eat some of your work, like I did. Get out all of your meat and long cooking veggies like squash, and sweet potatoes and start there first. Get slow cookers going, I used two with this meal prep, you may need more (borrow one from a super awesome neighbor/friend...)</li>
<li>Nose to the grind stone for a good two hours....just do it! A few good podcasts or awesome music (Ellie Goulding anyone?) are definitely nice to have going in the background. </li>
</ol>
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So here we go, I am not going to get into exact amounts, but this is what I cooked up for my first meal prep round up.<br />
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Get the protein going first. <br />
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Protein:<br />
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A large bag of frozen tilapia baked off in the oven, I did a simple seasoning of :<br />
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melted coconut oil brushed over the fish<br />
sprinkle with sea salt and pepper<br />
drizzle with fresh lemon juice<br />
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bake at 400 degrees for 15 min<br />
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A <a href="http://foodandfitnessredefined.blogspot.com/2014/02/whole-chicken-in-crock-pot.html" target="_blank">whole chicken in the crockpot</a> Cook in crockpot on med-low for approximately 6 hours (we had this for dinner on prep night since I didn't feel like cooking again after this roundup, use whatever is leftover for additional protein source, or husbands leftovers) Save the carcass to make chicken broth the next day...recipe to come.<br />
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Another crockpot of about 1-2 pounds of chicken breasts covered with 4-6 cups of chicken stock (make sure the chicken is covered) and a bit of salt and pepper to season simply this way you are not stuck with only spicy chicken meals for the next week ya know? * note this should actually be started in the morning because it takes about 6-8 hours on med-low to cook properly. Once cook place the breasts in a bowl and using 2 forks going opposite directions, shred it up. <br />
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This will make shredded chicken that you can use in a multitude of ways:<br />
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Chicken salad<br />
Chicken taco wraps<br />
chicken stir fry...etc<br />
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Ground Beef:<br />
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Depending on how many meals you plan out it can be beneficial to cook up a couple pounds of ground beef as well with some garlic and onion salt and pepper. This can be used in:<br />
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Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce<br />
taco wraps<br />
just as a snack etc...<br />
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I also boiled 8 eggs for easy snacks throughout the day or a great pre or post workout snack<br />
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Carbs:<br />
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The fuel for the furnace...a crucial part of your success relies on good quality carbs<br />
I cut up 3 large sweet potatoes into roughly 2 oz segments, drizzled them with melted coconut oil and sea salt then baked them off at 375 for about 20-25 min until tender. I kept the peels in tact because sometimes I prefer them on, but they come off easily as well in the event that you simply don't want them on.<br />
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I also peeled, seeded and cut up a large butternut squash into larger segments and drizzled with coconut oil, and sea salt, baked at 375 for about 35 min until tender.<br />
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I placed all of the baked squash/potatoes into a large container to store in the fridge.<br />
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You could also bake up an acorn squash and even some spaghetti squash for some variety. <br />
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Vegetables:<br />
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While the squash and protein sources are cooking up, this is the time to break out all of the great veggies that you bought and get to work. Make sure your knives are sharp and at the ready.... this is what I did:<br />
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<ul>
<li> I diced 1.5 large yellow onions</li>
<li>sliced 1.5 large yellow onions</li>
<li>diced 1 large red onion</li>
<li>sliced 1 large green bell pepper</li>
<li>sliced 1 large red bell pepper</li>
<li>peeled and sliced 4 large carrots</li>
<li>chopped 4 large zucchini with peels intact</li>
<li>peeled 1 large bundle of garlic</li>
<li>chopped up 3 stalks of green onions</li>
<li>sliced 4 large radishes</li>
<li>chopped 1 pound of thin asparagus into 1 inch pieces </li>
<li>bought green beans that are already ready for cooking</li>
<li>a couple bundles of lettuce, I wash these and spin them in a salad spinner (I also store them in the fridge in the spinner, it keeps them crisp)</li>
<li>I also have ziploc's of washed greens in my crisper drawer (mustard greens, spinach and kale) </li>
</ul>
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So obviously you can do whatever vegetables that you choose these are just our favorites, but you will see that having this all done will keep your weekday nights less crazy and much more relaxing.<br />
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Some of the staples I have on hand for seasoning are<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoADgW5sLcRqLWSdHuoCpcW2MlA4LTWmenPW30Ap0kesQt13PqCjubK5WJCTsa3mDriyWQ6P-TsELYfFOz27feVoaUFBL4o0HeQ0N8SZbx6ppaQWKaKZUxMuV4wxnCudOgCp7TBbpP_dz/s1600/DSC_1312.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoADgW5sLcRqLWSdHuoCpcW2MlA4LTWmenPW30Ap0kesQt13PqCjubK5WJCTsa3mDriyWQ6P-TsELYfFOz27feVoaUFBL4o0HeQ0N8SZbx6ppaQWKaKZUxMuV4wxnCudOgCp7TBbpP_dz/s1600/DSC_1312.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>my basic balsamic vinaigrette</li>
<li>a good quality dijon </li>
<li>grass-fed butter</li>
<li>coconut oil</li>
<li>olive oil</li>
<li>cinnamon</li>
<li>salt and pepper</li>
<li>apple cider vinegar</li>
<li>canned organic diced tomatoes</li>
<li>coconut aminos, soy sauce replacement ( I buy them on Amazon)</li>
<li>lots of avocados</li>
<li>lots of fresh fruit </li>
</ul>
You could also make a few batches of my <a href="http://foodandfitnessredefined.blogspot.com/2014/03/cilantro-lime-marinade.html" target="_blank">cilantro-lime marinade</a> and my <a href="http://foodandfitnessredefined.blogspot.com/2014/03/honey-ginger-marinade.html" target="_blank">honey-ginger marinade</a>, if you are feeling ambitious...this would open up a lot of different meal options throughout the week.<br />
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For snacking if you are hungry between meals I suggest these combos:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>handful of nuts (almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts) and a hard-boiled egg</li>
<li>handful of nuts and an apple or banana</li>
<li>sliced veggies and salsa</li>
<li>sliced veggies and nuts</li>
<li>nitrate free beef jerky and some veggies or fruit</li>
</ul>
As you can see now you have some good quality protein sources, carb sources and lots of ready-to-go veggies on hand just throw in some diced avocado, or coconut oil in whatever you make and you are set for a great well-rounded meal. I will try to post up some pictures of what I have made throughout the week to give you an idea of how some seemingly simple staple items can be made into yummy dishes. Many of the fitness buffs I follow have jobs outside of the home, so usually they end up putting together a container that may look something like this:<br />
<br />
6 oz of protein, 2 oz of carbs, 1-2 oz of fat.<br />
<br />
For myself however since I am at home and value variety far too much I keep the options seperate then decide that day what I am going to combine...for example after doing all of this roundup I made myself this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhc5oD-5L8zrbuGhyphenhyphenHFmb31lNHQtB4amXfF40-eYZemEhsoqgqFxoFluYyliygueI21MiDFA2NP0SPS5pIaKRcTA08sF7rO0rhGyG7a0uIMbEyPQN479R-pNjl5MMX3FIRDAiUhhRqZRx/s1600/IMG_3232.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhc5oD-5L8zrbuGhyphenhyphenHFmb31lNHQtB4amXfF40-eYZemEhsoqgqFxoFluYyliygueI21MiDFA2NP0SPS5pIaKRcTA08sF7rO0rhGyG7a0uIMbEyPQN479R-pNjl5MMX3FIRDAiUhhRqZRx/s1600/IMG_3232.JPG" height="300" width="400" /> </a></div>
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(sorry about the lame pic, I was starving and almost ate this up before documenting)</div>
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A Mediterranean stir fry I call it:</div>
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Zucchini, red bell peppers, sauteed in coconut oil, throw in the already baked sweet potato segment, a few black olives and an artichoke heart chopped up and voila yummy lunch that is satisfyingly simple to make since you already did all of the grunt work. </div>
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And later I made this for my post leg-day meal:</div>
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Shredded chicken with a fried egg and some avocado diced up served with half of an apple on the side...so much better than a protein shake! </div>
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See how just having those simple things done can make it easier to move about with your day and not have to stress about lunch dinner and snacks along the way? <br />
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I hope this takes some of the guesswork out of WHATS for dinner and also helps those that are new to clean/paleo eating, or helps out us veterans who just need to be reminded that sometimes simple is better.<br />
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I also failed to post a pic of a batch of banana-walnut muffins that I made for a grab-and go breakfast for the kids things that I might change about the recipe are the ratio of almond-meal : coconut flour as my kids do not prefer the grittiness of the almond meal so much. Here is the link to the recipe though<a href="http://perfectcouplet.com/2013/01/06/paleo-banana-bread-muffins/"> http://perfectcouplet.com/2013/01/06/paleo-banana-bread-muffins/ </a><br />
these are not Whole30 approved though<br />
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Remember for breakfast KISS...eggs and bacon with fruit or sweet potatoes and greens etc.... <br />
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Is this not the hugest post ever? Epic proportions but hey it needs to be out there, I don't want you all running around like chickens with your heads cut off during the week so carve out some time to plan and prep.... Just Do It...then tell me your tricks and tips I love love love learning new things!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-70387313950728117122014-03-18T21:49:00.000-07:002014-03-18T21:58:57.159-07:00Cilantro-lime marinade<!-- Please call pinit.js only once per page -->
<script type="text/javascript" async data-pin-shape="round" data-pin-height="32" data-pin-hover="true" src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>Cilantro and lime pair very well to marinade some thin steak for tacos. This marinade was awesome and was a great use of a lot of cilantro I had acquired from the harvest basket. I will keep this post short and sweet and to the point.<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>handfuls of cilantro, don't worry too much about stems, but do try to pick the bunches towards the top.</li>
<li>1 garlic clove</li>
<li>juice of one lime</li>
<li>2 tbsp honey </li>
<li>1 tsp of chili powder </li>
<li>salt and pepper to taste</li>
<li>1/3 cup olive oil </li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj789mwE4V9nFebjmO_pH47xuBcRzNxmETqCznbbsWnHXJ2q6CokDboJimRPbI7t6szIKDHRPzwWmvaWOxO7LJ8V1hFi0i4i7zebFIOS0d9FZ4ZIoYUNLy9cWMPT_wdFFyFkKX2Sd2MhxQZ/s1600/DSC_1300.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj789mwE4V9nFebjmO_pH47xuBcRzNxmETqCznbbsWnHXJ2q6CokDboJimRPbI7t6szIKDHRPzwWmvaWOxO7LJ8V1hFi0i4i7zebFIOS0d9FZ4ZIoYUNLy9cWMPT_wdFFyFkKX2Sd2MhxQZ/s1600/DSC_1300.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul>
</ul>
<b>Method:</b><br />
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<b> </b>Blend the cilantro and garlic in a blender or food processor. Add in the lime juice, honey, chili powder and salt and pepper, blend for a bit longer, then add in the olive oil and pulse a bit to combine. Pour the marinade over the meat and marinate for no less than an hour, optimally 3-4 hours. Enjoy!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-91188194416674309402014-03-17T22:20:00.002-07:002014-03-17T22:24:45.687-07:00Honey-Ginger marinade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgvrDMMoiNHCWURbUupTBsOpTJKIkYx9HGSiUGhri1znutjNfrtNmANp9XxgRTOWyUQZhI1Ie3112Zgr94XO8zXzjzdPpZj7pwSoRMrzi8t_j0T9svNgQErxnOV6KhiyHqgWyQMzxM-9U/s1600/DSC_1296.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgvrDMMoiNHCWURbUupTBsOpTJKIkYx9HGSiUGhri1znutjNfrtNmANp9XxgRTOWyUQZhI1Ie3112Zgr94XO8zXzjzdPpZj7pwSoRMrzi8t_j0T9svNgQErxnOV6KhiyHqgWyQMzxM-9U/s1600/DSC_1296.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
Make your chicken even more tasty and delicious with this Asian inspired marinade. My best friend Tiffany, gave me the inspiration for this one. I had a whole bunch of chicken to cook up, but didn't want some lame chicken...so she said I should do something with ginger and honey and voila...Honey-ginger marinade. I should call it Tiffany marinade, but that might be a bit weird...<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>1/3 cup honey</li>
<li>2 cloves garlic (diced)</li>
<li>1 tbsp grated ginger</li>
<li>3 tbsp coconut aminos</li>
<li>salt and pepper to taste</li>
</ul>
<b>Method: </b><br />
<br />
<b> </b> Simmer the honey in a small saucepan over low heat for a few min then remove from heat and whisk in the garlic, ginger, coconut aminos and salt and pepper (taste occasionally and see if more salt and pepper is needed). Let cool for a bit so it is not piping hot. When about room temperature place in a ziploc bag with the meat. This would be good with beef, chicken, pork or fish. Enjoy! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-667731916337435962014-03-16T22:25:00.001-07:002014-03-16T22:27:08.118-07:00Stuffed Tomatoes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every year for my husbands birthday I make him these yummy stuffed tomatoes.
They are a special recipe that his aunt and mother have made him for years, so on his special day of course I need to make him these meat filled tomatoes...<br />
<a name='more'></a>These are versatile in that you can use whatever ground meat you prefer, I always use a zesty type of ground pork sausage, but you could use ground beef, lamb, chicken etc... Also in the tomatoes this year I mixed in some riced cauliflower as well which was a nice way to squeeze in some extra nutrients and an almost rice like texture. You could also do these in bell peppers and acorn squash which I have a separate recipe on the blog for. These are a very awesome "gourmet" type of dinner to serve up to dinner guests that may not be "Paleo," guests, and they would not even know that the bread is missing from the dinner table...yes they are that good! These taste great served up with some sauteed zucchini and a mixed green salad. Enjoy!<br />
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Serves 4<br />
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<b>Ingredients: </b><br />
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<ul>
<li><b> </b>8 Large tomatoes (that you will be able to stuff, the larger and semi firm the better, then they will not fall apart as easily)</li>
<li>1 pound of ground pork sausage (I used one that was a spicy flavor)</li>
<li>2 cloves garlic (minced)</li>
<li>1 large onion (diced)</li>
<li>1 cup of riced cauliflower</li>
<li>1/4 cup of freshly chopped parsley</li>
<li>salt and pepper to taste</li>
<li>additional parsley for garnish</li>
</ul>
<b>Method:</b><br />
<br />
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Begin browning the sausage, throw in the onion along with it. After the meat is partially browned toss in the garlic and cauliflower, continue browning. Season the meat with the parsley, salt and pepper (taste occasionally and adjust seasoning). With a sharp paring knife, cut a round opening at the top of each tomato large enough to scoop out the insides. Taking a spoon, carefully scoop out the insides of each tomato, taking care not to rip through the tomato at any point and don't make it too thin, you need a good sturdy "bowl" for the meat that won't fall apart when baked. Place the tomatoes in a casserole dish. <b></b>Scoop enough meat to fill each tomato generously then bake covered with aluminum foil for about 20-25 min, long enough to meld the flavors together and to get the tomatoes soft enough, but not too long where they fall apart. Garnish with parsley and serve.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153815083975828163.post-79879805760814786722014-03-11T22:34:00.003-07:002014-03-11T22:34:37.388-07:00Post Workout NutritionSo I used to drink protein shakes post workout like nobody's business and thought I was supposed to because that is what I always "heard." However after switching to Paleo I have taken a harder look at what is actually in this protein powder and lets just say there is nothing whole foodish about this stuff! So that's when I discovered that real food would need to be my post-workout nutrition. I guess this means my GNC gold card won't be getting as much action anymore, but hey now I have a whole extra shelf in my pantry because those giant buckets of "protein" won't be taking up residence Yay!! Anyways it might take a few more minutes to prep some post workout food, but really in no time you will realize it is actually easier and you don't have to wash the blender...Bonus!!<br />
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Today was leg day, and not only was it leg day, but it was leg day in the evening...After chowing down some beef fajita lettuce wraps, I really had to summon up some extra motivation to get to the gym, I really just wanted to sit on the couch and catch up on "Nashville" ( I am super behind on this seasons episodes btw) As usual though once I was there and the tunes were blasting in my ear, I was dropping squats and dead-lifting like nobodies business... Ah leg day I love to hate you, but you always deliver the goods... At any rate I found my self of course a bit hungry once I got home, so I threw a couple eggs on the skillet and ate it along with a clementine to replenish myself. Simple as that and no blasted blender to clean at 9:00 at night woo hoo!<br />
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Why do we need protein after lifting? I am sure many of you already have an idea about this, but I'll just try and break it down simple. When you lift weights you are essentially breaking down the muscle fibers, you actually don't build muscle until you rest in the days following, however the protein is important to consume between 30 min-1 hour post workout because it floods the body with amino acids that speed the recovery of the muscle fibers and aid muscle growth. The amount of protein and the time window has been debatable but I like to eat when I return home which is usually closer to 45 min post workout. Although protein is the most essential macro after lifting (ideally 20 grams worth), make sure to add in a bit of carbohydrates and fat as well for example half of a sweet potato is an excellent choice, or second to that a piece of fruit like an apple, 1 tsp of coconut oil, or some avocado etc.<br />
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If you just finished up a 4 mile run then you actually want to replenish with a higher carbohydrate post-workout meal, think a few ounces of sweet potato, or a large apple, along with a couple ounces of meat or an egg fried in coconut oil. Endurance training requires a higher usage of glycogen stores so you will want to be sure to replenish them. I don't do a whole lot of endurance training but maybe a couple times a week I do a 3 or 4 mile run, I am however doing a lower carb protocol for higher fat loss so I have to consider this in my days worth of carb intake and plan accordingly.<br />
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Some examples of post-workout human food are as follows:<br />
<br />
Protein:<br />
<br />
2 fried eggs<br />
4-6 oz of leftover meat (chicken, steak, salmon)<br />
Hardboiled eggs<br />
Canned tuna<br />
<br />
Carbs:<br />
<br />
Baked sweet potato or squash<br />
Sauteed veggies (Broccoli, cauliflower, root veggies, kale, spinach etc)<br />
bananas<br />
Apples<br />
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<br />
Fats:<br />
Coconut oil<br />
Avocado<br />
handful of almonds or other nuts<br />
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You get the idea, I will try to be creative from time to time and maybe post up a "fun" PW meal, but for now keep it simple :)For some additional ideas check out this blog I found it helpful!<br />
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<a href="http://coconutsandkettlebells.com/20-post-workout-real-foods/" target="_blank">http://coconutsandkettlebells.com/20-post-workout-real-foods/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285327583353856525noreply@blogger.com0