Egg Muffin

Since starting my Whole30 I heavily rely on cooking ahead and in bulk. I don't know if its the pregnancy or having 2 two year olds (David turns 3 in 10 days!) or the combination of the two. Whatever it is the thought of making breakfast every morning sounds AWEFUL! 

Cue

10-12 eggs

2 zucchini diced finely

2 cups spinach, chopped

7 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

4 green onions, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced
Sea salt and ground pepper (to your liking)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Simply combine all ingredients in a med bowl

Grease muffin tin with coconut or olive oil. 

Using a 1/3c measuring cup fill each well, should be a little more than 1/2 full

Bake for 20-25 min till set and brown around the edges

Yields about 18 muffins

I have 2-3 for breakfast with some fruit, or sliced avocado

Enjoy!

Visit Whole30 to learn more about the challenge I'm on!

Grocery Shopping Paleo Style

What do you eat in a week? 

Do you purposely plan your meals? 

Do do you buy precooked food for the week and stop through the drive thru multiple times a week? 

Don't get me wrong, sometime it is a time saver to have a few frozen meals ready in a pinch. 

Who isn't tempted{and given into temptation} to drive thru your nearest fast food restaurant?

It all happens but after reading the following article it solidified the choice to eat paleo

Are you like the average american family?

This and the following photos is from an article Infowars

I have to say I was THOROUGHLY grossed out! 

Now if this is how your family eats I mean no offence but this is why the American

people are obese, diabetic, racked with disease and the like.

Now before you think that just Americans are poor eaters...

think again!

Great Britans weekly food consumption

Mexico...did you count the 2 liters of Coke? 12, TWELVE!!!!

Chad, this reminds me to NEVER complain about my grocery budget!

Now to show me mine now that I am eating a simple, natural, unprocessed diet

We eat pretty simply, my boys cereal/protein bars are probably the most processed food we consume. 

Now even though there isn't a lot of food don't equate this with a small amount of money spent. I made some yummy meals with this trip like sweet potato fries and breaded chicken, quiche, and garden meatballs.

I am very pro organically grown food, humanly treated animal meals and products, which all cost. 

But I would rather spend it natural foods than on medicine and Dr. visits. 

What does your weekly grocery shopping look like?

 

Fabulous Blueberry Muffins

These muffins are wonderful and grain free, sugar-free, and dairy free. When I decided I was going to start eating a Paleo diet, I was knew I would have to find some bread/muffin/pancake alternatives for me and the family. So I was super excited when I came upon Clean Eats in the Zoo. She feeds herself and 5 kids a 85-90% Paleo diet while her husband is on a strict 100% Paleo diet because of Celiac Disease.

So rather than copy word for word what her recipe is just hop over there
Blueberry Muffins to Die For

Enjoy!

My Paleo Arsenal of Defense: Going against the Grain

I have had several friends ask me about my experience with Whole30 and Paleo in general. Now I am not expert but I have read the experts books and I can makes some pretty educated deduction. Here are some great books and sites.

Books:

Everyday Paleo

The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet

The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy (Primal Blueprint Series)

Websites/Blogs:

Clean Eats in Zoo

Primal Women in the Kitchen

Everyday Paleo

Whole30

Whole9 Life

Links to Amazon are affiliate links through which I may receive a small percentage should you decide to purchase the book.

Paleo Lemon Bars

I have a sweet tooth, and I have to say I was worried that going paleo I would never get to enjoy sweets. But I was wrong. Now let's get something straight, I'm not a die hard paleo gal, my goal is to stay in the 80% range, for instance I love cheesecake. I will be having real, full fat, full sugar, full grain 

New York Style CHEESECAKE for my birthday in July!!

But in the meanwhile I will adhere to Paleo sweets. 

I made these Lemon Bars from the Primal Women in the Kitchen

Primal Women in the Kitchen Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

Filling:

6 whole eggs

1/2 c. honey

3/4 c. lemon juice (about 7 lemons)

1/2 c. coconut oil

Crust:

1 c. of raw almonds

1 c. of raw walnuts (they say pecans, I didn't have any!)

1/4 c. honey

1/2 c. of melted coconut oil

2 eggs

Directions:

Filling:

1. Whisk eggs, honey, and lemon juice together in a small sauce pan. 

2. Heat on medium and add coconut oil. Stir until the coconut oil has melted.

3. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens and bubbles.

4. Remove from heat and place in a bowl in the refrigerator to cool and thicken further.

Crust:

1.Place nuts in a food processor/blender until finely chopped, don't puree.

They should be in tiny pieces but not as fine as almond flour.

2. Mix the nuts with the remaining ingredients until they are well combined.

3. Spread over the bottom of a greased 8 x 12 pan.

4. Heat oven to 400F and bake for 15-20 minutes. The crust will be done when you can insert a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean.

5. Cool crust completely before layering the filling over the top. Return to the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Be sure and check out their blog-post and the comments for tips and tricks for helping this turn out even better!

Links to Amazon are affiliate links through which I may receive a small percentage should you decide to purchase the book.

Garden Meatballs

I adapted this recipe from Sarah Fragoso cookbook Everyday Paleo

 which is amazing resource for those interested in Paleo. 

1. 1lb of ground beef

I am a firm believer in grass-fed beef/bison. Yes it is more expensive, but the taste is obvious to and the quality is unbeatable. I'd rather go low meat and all grass fed then more meat all conventional. 

2. 1 squash grated and 1 large carrot grated

3. 1 clove of garlic minced

4. 1 egg beaten

5. 1/2 cup almond meal/flour

6. 1 tsp salt and pepper ( you can add more or less)

7. Mix all ingredients together and form into balls a bit bigger than a golf ball.

Place in a oiled baking dish and cover securely with foil

8. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes 

These are very yummy and can be added to so many dishes. 

A few ways I have and will eat them;

in marinara sauce

over sauteed vegetables

crumbled over a salad

by themselves!

Enjoy!

A journey in healthy eating

Are you on a food and health journey? After watching this video (it's long)...

I started thinking about what I am doing to protect my family from what the government has allowed into our food supply.

I was on my friend Beth’s blog and it reminded me of the many changes my family has already made toward being more natural, holistic and chemical-free

Changes we have made:

• Started using natural cleaning products
• Using natural toothpaste and mouthwash
• Buying natural, hormone-free, cage-free, antibiotic-free dairy/meat; organic when possible,
• Cut out most refined sugar
• Eating the dirty dozen produce organic
• Drinking Kefir
• Consuming organic oat (regularly grown oats are heavily sprayed) 

Changes I want to make:

• Cloth diapering at home with the next child(ren)
• Switch to all natural/chemical free shampoos, conditioners, lotions, cleaning and laundry product
• Using Coconut oil for things
• Juicing vegetables
• Buy my grass-fed beef and free-range chicken/eggs from a local farmer
• Read and educate myself on holistic and natural living.

My MIL has been seeing a Maximized Living chiropractor in the Dallas area with a 'eating food the way God intended' approach. It is very much in keeping with holistic and natural living. He teaches you the why about what is wrong with food today, and how to make the changes. A couple of recourses that he recommend are: 

healthychild.org

The cosmetic database~ it rates product based on the level of toxicity 

On of my favorite people on the topic of real food is Tosca Reno. Tosca popularized Clean Eating which my family has adapted for the most part. Eating clean has so many benefits, that the though of tweaking it even more make me a little giddy. 

So I am recommitting myself and my family in the journey to healthy eating. What are you doing?

Tasty Tuesday

I am really obsessed with baking right now. Since my midwife has me on a

 modified bed rest schedule and so many friends are bringing us meals I have time to bake! 

So I have been enjoying that. Yesterday I made these. 

Zucchini Pineapple Muffins

1 c. oil (to cut the fat you could do half and half unsweetened applesauce)

3 eggs

3/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c honey

2 tsp vanilla 

2 c. shredded Zucchini

1c. well drained, crushed pineapple

3 c Whole Wheat Pastry flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp  baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1 c. chopped walnuts

1c. raisins

Preheat oven to 350

Beat eggs, add oil, honey and sugar,

 Add pineapple, zucchini and dry ingredients

Mix until dry ingredients are moist

Stir in walnuts and raisins

Spoon 1/4 c batter in to greased muffin tin 

Bake 12-15 minutes

or if you want a loaf this will make 2

pour into greased  loaf pans 

Bake 40-50 minutes 

Until toothpick inserted come out dry. 

In addition: 

I added a 1/4 c each ground flax, and wheat germ for added fiber

I also used just all spice 3tsp because I didn't have all the other spices!

They are super yummy and you could add all kinds of things to them.

Meeting Tosca

So Tuesday afternoon I met The Eat Clean Diet, author/spokesperson/living proof Tosca Reno. She was awesome to hear. She looks better in person than in her books or magazine. She told her story of being an over 200lb housewife addicted to food and sugar, turned 70lbs lighter addicted to eating clean and exercising. I have to say that the proof was in the pudding,  her hair and skin did look amazing (you know how the shampoo commercials/ads have that 'shinny' hair, well her's was real!

She talked about her new book, 
Your Best Body Now, Look and Feel Fabulous at Any Age the Eat-Clean Way


She also just talked about the basics of the Eat-Clean lifestyle
here are some tidbits I gleaned from the talk:
Eat more to loose weight
Eat a complete breakfast of complex carbs and protein
An egg white is a complete protein
Stop eating at 7pm
Good food=Good health
Eating Clean takes commitment
The gym isn't a punishment!
It takes 3 weeks to see definition if your portions are correct and you weight train more than cardio
Instead of soaking in a bubble bath, soak in Epsom salt, great for your skin


These are just a few of the great things she had to say. It was so awesome to meet her. I hope she come to Dallas again, it would make a great before and after photo!
Happy Clean Eating!

Stir Fry

So with my desire to eat clean I am experimenting with different  recipes and making them clean. Here is one I made for dinner a few nights ago. 

Jessica's Clean Stir-Fry

2 cups boiled chicken 

cubbed

3 medium squash sliced

3 Italian zucchini sliced

6 med button mushrooms diced

1 red bell pepper sliced

extra light olive oil

gluten-free, soy-free soy sauce

sesame seed oil 
to taste

Saute veggies and chicken in olive oil, 

season as desired with soy sauce and sesame seed oil
For paleo nix the rice, for those who are still on grain

 serve with brown rice, however the hubby likes his with white long grain rice.

Tasty Tuesday

A yummy all time favorite but much healthier! This salad has 3 ingrediants, my kind of meal and is super tasty.

Chicken Salad

1 lb of chicken, 

boiled and chopped

1 cup of grapes

halved

1 6 ounce container of

Plain nonfat 

yogurt

(optional)

McCormick

Salad Supreme 

seasoning to taste

Toss together and 

ENJOY!!

I made this yesterday for lunch and loved it.

It's a clean meal I found from the 

December 2009 issue of 

Oxygen

Tasty Tuesday

Today's Tasty Tuesday come from Cleaneatingonline.com. Before I got pregnant with child #2 I was very focused on eating clean. I helped in so many ways, but energy was the  biggest pay off. So I'm thinking with 2 boys under 1 come Jan 6 I am going to need all the energy I can muster! So I am slowly getting myself back into eating clean. 

Which is why I'm sharing this with you. What do you cook that is Clean?

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

1 c. dry old fashioned oatmeal flakes

1 c. unsweetened applesauce

1/2 c. skim milk

2 egg whites, beaten

2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed

2 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. canola oil

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. dried cranberries

1/4 c. raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin tin by lining with paper baking cups or cooking spray.

Combine oatmeal, applesauce, milk, eggs, flaxseed and oil in medium bowl. In another bowl combine all dry ingredients including fruit. Make a well in center of the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into it. Stir until all ingredients are just combined. 

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 15 - 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Nutritional information per muffin: Calories: 120; Protein: 3 g., Sugar: 3 g., Fat: 3 g., Carbs: 20 g.

For more information on clean eating visit

Become a fan on Facebook.com 

Toscareno.com

eatcleandiet.com

Or read any of Tosca's books

Motivation

So as I have stated, I want to have a new body. My ultimate goal is to be lean, tone, and healthy. However, being a new mom and trying to make healthy changes isn't a walk in the park. Two word Sleep Deprivation. OK well maybe not total sleep deprivation, but not getting your normal night of continual sleep makes it hard to stick to things. For instance, eating clean and exercising require time. However when your baby is fussing and you are tired it is SOOO easy to do what is easy. Like for breakfast cereal, or nothing at all for that matter (yes I know as a breastfeeding mom I need to eat my breakfast!) is easier than making steal cut oatmeal (which take 30 mins!) or eggs. This is just one way that it is easy for me to do what is easy. But I know that I will never have the lean, tone healthy body and life I want if I don't make the time. So I make a point to go to my closet and look a particular brick red button front knee length dress, and say " If I want to fit in you and look fabulous I must make the time!" I have made this dress my motivation, that and reading the amazing success stories from the Oxygen magazine. So what is your motivation for being healthy?

New Body

So I am ready to get back to pre-baby, pre-marriage, pre-college weight! If you type in "weight loss" in Google, OMG what you will find. Promises of 15 lbs in 15 hrs and other crazy things like that. As much as I would LOVE to loose weight that fast I know it is at all healthy. I have been looking into a lifestyle change not a quick fix. So I was super excited about the Eating Clean Diet. Writer and figure competitor Tosca Reno has some really good books on eating clean. I love what I have read. I know that it will make me healthier and fit. Which is the most important thing. So here it to my new body.

I promise to be kind to the current one, no negative thinking, or criticism. I promise to feed my body healthy wholesome fresh food. I promise to move my body in exercise. And I promise to have a positive and happy outlook no matter how fast or slow the weight come off! OK!