Simple Solutions For Busy Days

Some days I feel very enthusiastic about trying a new recipe and some days I just don't have the time or energy. Today was one of those days where I needed to keep it simple.

A couple months ago, this would have been one of those days where I asked my husband to run through a drive thru to pick us up some takeout.  While we still like to eat out on the weekends, I try to keep our meals as clean as possible during the week.  Even "healthy" choices at restaurants sometimes contain all the sodium you need for entire day.

The great thing about all these recipes?  You can easily customize the portions!  Whether you are cooking for yourself or a family, these meals will work!

Breakfast 

This is one of my favorite breakfasts.  I cringe when I think about how many years I skipped this meal! Even when you don't have a lot of time, you can pull the whole thing together start to finish in less than 10 minutes.  Best of all, this isn't going to spike your blood sugar and leave you ready to crash like a muffin or breakfast pastry would.

Scrambled Eggs Sprinkled With Cheddar Cheese and Sautéed Baby Kale

Lunch

For lunch, I had some left over veggie stir fry I made to use up produce I had in the fridge.  I didn't take a picture, but it was broccoli, cabbage, onions and cauliflower tossed with quinoa.

Dinner

Dinner was as easy as boiling water and using the salad spinner.

Trader Joes has a delicious quinoa and brown rice pasta that is gluten free.  This pasta is so filling and doesn't leave you with that heavy, overly full feeling that traditional pasta causes.

The sauce is a store bought sauce with lower sodium.

The salad was my favorite part.  Delicate baby kale leaves, tangy grape tomatoes, red onion, feta cheese and a hemp seeds.

If you haven't tried hemp seeds, this is a great way to incorporate some additional protein in your diet.

A gorgeous salad like this shouldn't be covered up in salad dressing that's been sitting on a grocery store shelf for who knows how long.

Trust me, once you start making your own salad dressings, there is no going back.

It's. Just. Too. Good.

My new favorite salad dressing is the Greek Dressing from the cookbook Everyday Detox.  This was also a big hit with my father in law on Fathers Day weekend.

6 tbsp Olive Oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 cloves of fresh garlic

1 tsp oregano

Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender and process until smooth.

What are your favorite, easy meals to prepare on busy days?  Share your ideas below!

Banana Flax Pancakes

I have such fond childhood memories of Saturday morning pancakes.  My brother and I would begin the morning jumping into bed with our parents to wake them up from peaceful slumber.   After everyone was wide awake, we would all head downstairs to the kitchen where my dad would whip up some Bisquick pancakes covered in Log Cabin pancake syrup.  If we wanted to be really fancy, mom would microwave the syrup with a little butter.  Ahhh....good times.  

Fast forward a couple years and those same pancakes, while seemingly nostalgic, always leave me feeling uncomfortably full and ready for a nap.

Enter the revamped Saturday morning pancake that will leave you ready to face your Saturday......or any day of the week!  My inspiration came from a Pinterest 2 ingredient pancake recipe, The Detoxinista and Laura Miller from Raw Vegan Not Gross.  

The consistency is somewhere between a crepe and a traditional pancake. 

These pancakes are delicious by themselves, but please feel free to top them with pure maple syrup or even add some natural almond or peanut butter as a filling. 

Items needed:

High Speed Blender

Griddle

Ingredients:  makes about 12 pancakes

1/4 cup Flax seed

2 Bananas (the riper they are, the sweeter the pancakes will be)

4 eggs

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (please use the good stuff, no imitation!)

pinch of fine sea salt

Coconut Oil for greasing your griddle

Optional toppings and fillings: 

Pure maple syrup

Almond or Peanut Butter

Heat griddle on medium heat or about 300 degrees.

In your high speed blender (or coffee or spice grinder) grind up the flax seeds. 

After you have processed the flax seeds, add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth. 

It will look like this:

Measure 1/4 cup of batter and pour onto a greased griddle. 

It takes 4-5 minutes to cook each pancake.  You can tell when it's time to flip because the little bubbles will appear just like they do on traditional pancakes. 

Sorry about the terrible lighting on these pics!  I'm working on that! 

You can even get creative and add a few chocolate chip for the kids. 

After you flip, it takes another 2-3 minutes for the other side. 

Now it's time to enjoy!  These are pictured with natural almond butter spread between each pancake and topped with about a tablespoon of pure maple syrup.

  

What are some of your family's favorite breakfast traditions? 

Ingredients:  makes about 12 pancakes

1/4 cup Flax seed

2 Bananas (the riper they are, the sweeter the pancakes will be)

4 eggs

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (please use the good stuff, no imitation!)

pinch of fine sea salt

Coconut Oil for greasing your griddle

Optional toppings and fillings: 

Pure maple syrup

Almond or Peanut Butter

Heat griddle on medium heat or about 300 degrees.

In your high speed blender (or coffee or spice grinder) grind up the flax seeds. 

After you have processed the flax seeds, add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth. 

Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto greased griddle.  Cook 4-5 minutes or until bubbles appear.  Flip pancake and cook an additional 2-3 min.

Focus T25

They say that eating is 80% and exercise is 20% part of the fitness equation.  I knew I had the 80% part down, but the exercise part was still not happening.  Keeping up with an almost 3 year old and a 9 month old is hard work.  They never nap at the same time, so there really isn't any "me" time during the day.

I 100% identify with the "I don't have time" to exercise excuse.  

I was doing well with my weight loss by eating healthy, but I started noticing that my muscle tone just wasn't there.  For about 2 years, I've followed a fitness coach on Facebook.  I had talked to her before and never committed to a program for one reason or another.  After realizing that none of the classes at my local gym fit into my schedule, I decided to explore some at home fitness options.
The program we both felt like would work best for me was the Focus T25 challenge pack with Shakeology.

In case you haven't seen the infomercial, Focus T25 is a 25 minute, ten week, high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout program created by Shaun T.  The big seller for me on this program is that it's only 25 minutes and there's no equipment needed.  You commit to 25 min a day, 5 days a week and a 25 min stretch session on Sunday.  It's also recommended that you complete 2 workouts on Friday for maximum results.  A clean eating nutrition guide and a 30 day supply of shakeology are included.  The challenge pack also gives you access to beach body on demand so you can begin streaming your workouts ASAP, which I did!

Now that my first week is complete, I am very happy I chose this program.  After my kids are in bed, I am able to get my 25 min workout in for the day.  Each days workout has a different focus, so I have't completed the same workout twice yet.  Because it's only 25 minutes, everything moves extremely fast. There's no rests between moves and sometimes very little time to set up for the next move.  There is a prompt on the screen that lets you know what's coming next, along with a countdown clock letting you know how much longer you have in the workout.  My favorite thing about the whole series is Shaun T himself.  My goodness he is so motivating and it cracks me up when he talks in the third person.

I'm super excited that I made it through the first week!  I've been sore, but it feels great to know that I've gotten myself back into the fitness game!  After just a few days, I have already seen some changes in my energy level.  One morning, I realized that it was 9 am and I hadn't even thought about making coffee.  That is a huge deal! I am also loving Shakeology.  Hands down, this is the best shake on the market.  There's nothing else out there that is going to give you such a dense dose of nutrition. It can be used as your meal for breakfast, but I've found that I really enjoy it as my afternoon snack, especially since I work out very late in the day.

I can't wait to see and share my results over the next 10 weeks!

Do you feel like you are struggling to make time for workouts?

How do you find ways to make time to for fitness?  Share those tips below.

Want to know more about Focus T25 or Shakeology?  Send me an email or Facebook message.  I would love to help you with your health and fitness goals!

The New Sweet Potato Casserole

I'm not sure if it's the fact that Hallmark has been playing Christmas movies in July this week or what, but I've been in the mood for cold weather and festive holiday foods.  Maybe these temperatures that keep soaring into the high 90's keep me dreaming of a cold, white Christmas.

One of my favorite side dishes at the holidays, or any time, is sweet potato casserole.  Sweet potatoes are such a wonderful food on their own.  They are packed with calcium, potassium and vitamins A and C, just to name a few.  Traditionally, this amazing food is converted into a casserole side dish that probably has more fat and calories per serving than you need for an entire meal.

This recipe was an accidental discovery. During the first few weeks of my clean eating journey, I decided to begin incorporating more sweet potatoes into my diet.  The only way I was used to eating them was in casserole form, or as a loaded sweet potato piled high with butter, brown sugar, and toasted marshmallows.  Despite all my efforts, I simply did not like them plain.

One day, I felt like I was getting into a rut with my lunches.  I didn't have any leftovers from dinner the night before other than a baked sweet potato.  I stared aimlessly into the refrigerator several times, thinking a delicious healthy meal was going to magically appear.  I knew I needed to balance out this sweet potato with some protein, but nothing was appealing to me.  Suddenly, I got this crazy notion to add an egg and baked the mashed sweet potato like a casserole.  It turned out really good, but I still felt like it was missing something.  After playing around with a few combinations, I saw some fresh almond butter sitting on the counter.  Since a lot of sweet potato casseroles have a crunchy nut topping, I thought, Hmmm......

And just like that, a new favorite was born.

I have to tell you, the crunch of the almonds made me feel like I was having the traditional casserole with the almost candied topping of butter and brown sugar.

This is one of those recipes that make you say, if this tastes this good, why do I need to even bother with the unhealthy original?

The New Sweet Potato Casserole

I bake this as 1-2 servings, depending on the size of the sweet potato.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

1 medium size baked sweet potato, mashed

1 egg, beaten

1 tbsp of maple syrup or honey (or more or less to taste)

1-2 tbsp of natural, crunchy almond butter

couple dashes of cinnamon to taste

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (totally optional but it really takes it up a flavor level)

coconut oil to grease the ramekin

Mix all the ingredients until completely combined.

Pour into a greased ramekin

Bake at 375 for 20-25 min

Yes, I think I will convert you. Even my husband liked it.  That's saying a lot because have I mentioned he is my most hard to please critic?

I'm also happy to say, that after several months of clean eating, I really love a plain sweet potato.

I still really love them this way too.

I've conquered sweet potatoes....maybe next we will try for beets. Maybe

What are some foods you've waned to incorporate into your diet, but are struggling to like?

Any suggestions on how I can begin to like beets?

My Story and Journey

It's easy to make excuses for ourselves.  It's easy to say, well, this isn't that bad for me, or tomorrow I'm going to make an effort to be healthier.  It's easy to mindlessly fall into bad eating habits.  It's easy to be in denial.

It tastes good.

It's more convenient.

It's what everyone is doing at social gatherings.

Then it all catches up to you.

For me, the moment I could no longer live in denial came on a Saturday, in a dressing room.  At 5 months postpartum with my second child, I hadn't "bounced back" like I expected too.  I was looking for a dress.  I grabbed the size I assumed I was only to discover it no where close to fit.  Hmmm.....maybe the sizing is just off on this brand or style.  That wasn't the case.  The reality was, I hadn't been exercising and I hadn't been eating healthy.  I wanted to cry.  I was mad at myself.  I put all the dresses back on the racks. I wasn't going to try a size bigger because I had already made up in my mind that a big change was coming.

That Monday, I broke out my old South Beach Diet book.  I had followed this plan a few years before and had great success but I didn't stay on the wagon for one reason or another.  I planned out my meals, made the shopping list and prepared myself for the hard road ahead.

Since I was nursing a 5 month old and I knew that totally cutting out carbs would not be the best idea for my milk supply, I did allow myself to have some fruits.  I also began taking the Mothers Milk supplement to make sure I didn't have a decrease in my milk supply.

I'm not sure if it was simply my stubborn determination, but the first two weeks of my new eating habits were not as stressful as I expected.  At the end of phase 1, I had lost 10 pounds.  I was ecstatic. I was motivated.

I wasn't where I was two weeks prior in that dressing room.

I fell in love with the clean eating concept. I love making meals with fresh ingredients for my family.

I am very strict during the week, but do allow myself to live in the real world on the weekends.  You may catch me at the Mexican restaurant having some chips and salsa, but I don't go overboard.  I have realized that the term "cheat" meal is essentially a "set you back" meal.

I

I'm happy to say that 4 months later, I am down 20 pounds.  I haven't seen this weight and size in years!  Most importantly, the term "diet" doesn't describe how I live.  I've changed my eating habits. I no longer say, oh, I can't have that right now because I'm on a "diet."

I hope that some of my recipes will inspire you to make healthy changes in your own life.

Your diet is 80% of the equation and fitness/exercise is 20%.

This blog is my accountability.  For the past 8 years, I have yo-yo dieted and allowed myself to fall back into those habits. I haven't made exercise a priority. That isn't happening again.  Ever.

Do you struggle with falling back into bad habits?

What are some ways that you stay accountable to your goal?

What healthy eating habits have worked for you and keep you on track?

If you haven't taken that first step, what's holding you back from making a change?