So You Had A Bad Day...Chicken

It’s been a bit - attributed to a crazy few weeks!

I’ve made a few great recipes and look forward to sharing them. Tonight, I’ll start with a recipe I have made three times in the last week. Yes, three times. My husband thinks it’s that amazing! This is the same husband that challenged me to do pull-ups after going out to dinner one night, but I digress. (More to come on that!)

My original inspiration for this comes from Nom Nom Paleo. It’s an amazing cookbook - I recommend picking it up! After finishing up my first P90X workout - I had little desire to make a complicated meal. My arms were still shaking. 

One problem, my husband is picky when it comes to eating things, I needed to be creative and do my own thing. Since it requires smashing the chicken and I was having a bad day, we dubbed it:

Bad Day’s Revenge Chicken

1 package of boneless chicken tenders

1/2 cup of almond flour

1/2 tsp of oregano

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute (optional)

2 tbsp oil (I used avocado oil) 

Parchment paper (for chicken smashing)

You are going to need a skillet, preferably a cast iron skillet and a meat tenderizer - to smash the heck out of your chicken. 

First, combine your flour, oregano, sea salt, and 21 Seasoning Salute in a mixing bowl. 

Next, lay down a piece of parchment paper that will extend the length of your chicken (probably about a forearm’s length) Then, place you chicken down on top of the paper. Finally, lay another piece of parchment paper OVER the chicken. 

Here comes the best part, taking your bad day out on the chicken! HECK YEAH!

Once complete, you are going to individually roll the chicken in the flour mixture. Do what works best for you, I put the rolled chicken on a separate plate before cooking, I know each person has their own cooking quirks. Do what works for you. 

The final step is cooking the chicken. You will want to heat up the oil in the skillet then add in 2-3 chicken tenders. Let cook for 3 minutes then flip and cook for 3 more minutes. 

Once cooked, do you feel is best to keep the chicken warm (whether placing in a covered dish in the microwave - just as storage - wrapping in tin foil - do what floats your boat!) Continue this until all chicken is cooked. 

That’s it. All done! We added a side of broccoli with our chicken and it was an amazing meal.

No fun picture tonight - my program doesn't like me.

Putting Down the Hammer (and Chisel)

Today was one of those days I didn't feel like cooking, at all. I did spent almost an hour at Whole(paycheck) Foods. If you are looking for a new recipe, I don't have one. I cut up some rotisserie chicken and tossed it on a bed of spinach and had some beets, with newly discovered Tessemae's zesty ranch. (I was on the hunt for the BBQ sauce but couldn't find it at Whole Foods - I will be ordering it tomorrow!) My dinner was delicious, lame, and easy all at the same time. Then, I needed to work out. I kept dragging my feet, but it had to be done.

Presently, I am running an accountability challenge group for PiYo - we are on day 10. Today is Core - complete with Piyo Pikes, planks, and side planks. I was able to change into my workout gear, remember to grab my Apple TV to stream my new workout after Core. Today is the day I was committed to trying The Master's Hammer & Chisel from Autumn (21 Day Fix) and Sagi (BodyBeast) I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect. I haven't really lifted in awhile. I was doing it AFTER already doing a 30 minutes Core workout.

It was amazing. It was tough. I cannot wait for the release!

I definitely need to up my game on working out in preparation for this program. BodyBeast is next on my list to get ready for it.

The good news - if you already subscribe to BeachBody on Demand you can preview two videos. Don't already subscribe? You can sign up for a free trial!

Let the countdown begin! I cannot wait to try Sagi's workout next.

No Soup for You - To Make In Your Stove or Oven!

Folks, I have some sad news. Summer is definitely history. I had to scrape my car this morning. This made me really sad. I am a warm weather girl - which is a struggle living in the north. Today is the type of day that is just perfect for soup! In anticipation of my husband working (I should really rename my blog all the food and recipes my husband won't eat) - I bought butternut squash to make soup with.

Let me introduce you to tonight's recipe - Butternut Squash Soup - in the VitaMix - for a Meatless Monday!

This was my first adventure with making soup in my VitaMix. It's sat idle for a little bit without any love.

The start of deliciousness!

Butternut Squash Soup
Makes - more than 3 servings!

14oz of butternut squash (I bought it pre-cut)
1.5 russet potatoes
15 baby carrots
4 cups of vegetable broth
1 tsp of Sunflower seeds
2 tbsp of EVOO
Salt and Pepper for taste

Pre-heat your over to 350 degrees!

First, I skinned the potatoes, then chopped it into smaller pieces and placed in my Pyrex baking dish. I didn't have to cut the butternut squash, as I bought it pre-cut (time saver!!) I added in the baby carrots, tossed in a TBSP of EVOO, finally, some salt and pepper, added my lid - shook it up!

Once coated, I popped into the oven for 30 minutes. This gave me a chance to workout. Today started week two of my PiYo challenge group - and I had a workout to tackle! PiYo Define: Lower Body. My favorite is the downward dog series at the end.

Workout: Complete! Now back to our regularly scheduled recipe. Once PiYo was wrapped up - my oven went off a few minutes later.

I then added the 4 cups of vegetable broth to a microwave safe bowl and microwaved for 1:45 (just until warm - it'll all depend on your microwave)

Then, I added the broth into my VitaMix, followed by the vegetables, the remaining EVOO, and salt and pepper for taste.

This is key, make sure your VitaMix is on the setting of 1. I slowly turned my speed up to 10 (keeping the speed at variable) Finally, once at 10, I turned it on high and let it whirl for 4 minutes.

So much fun to watch the VitaMix work the food magic. Finally, my soup was complete! I poured it out into a soup bowl and added on the sunflower seeds.

Enjoy!! Plus - I have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Peppers, PiYo, Perfection!

I love stuffed peppers. The one problem with them, the rice! With that said, I have been on a mission to find a healthier recipe that my husband would also enjoy. Additionally, my full-time job has limited my ability to food prep and come up with cooking-intense recipes.

I introduce you to:

Cauliflower and Turkey Stuffed Peppers
Serves 3

3 Peppers (You can be colorful!)
1 package of ground turkey
1 bag of frozen cauliflower
1/2 cup Tomato Sauce
21 Seasoning Salute
2 tbsp of EVOO
Sriracha (optional)

The first thing to do is turn your oven on to 350 degrees. Start boiling a pot of water that will fit 3 peppers. Next, cut the tops off of your peppers. This should go without saying, but de-seed your peppers!

After this, put the peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes.

While the peppers are boiling, microwave the cauliflower (I make sure to use the bags that are ready to pop in the microwave to save some time) Then, add your turkey to the pan to start browning.

Once your cauliflower is done, if you have a food processor, add it into the food processor to make it into a rice consistency. Then add your "rice" into the ground turkey to get some flavor. Finally, add in most of your tomato sauce.

After your peppers have hung out in the boiling water for 5 minutes - take them out and let them dry a bit. (I put mine onto my cookie baking rack)

Once the peppers have cooled off and dried - start scooping in the turkey into the pepper. To complete the peppers, I added a splash of Sriracha onto of each of the peppers. This is completely optional depending on your spice tolerance.

I let the peppers back for 25 minutes in the oven. They came out perfect!

I had plenty of cauliflower rice and turkey leftover for lunch.

These were a great compliment to my PiYo Sweat Workout tonight. The many pushups and warrior three poses had me ready for some dinner!!!

Paleo Kegs and Eggs and A Side of Alma Mater Ohio

Yesterday was homecoming for my alma mater. Considering I was in Ohio for a wedding this summer, we had our own wedding not too long ago, and bought a house, a trip to Athens, OH was not in the cards for me this year. Homecoming is on my adult bucket list. There's something magical about the bricks surrounding campus and walking down Court Street.

Because I am in my thirties and being responsible, kegs and eggs were not a part of my Saturday (then again, alcohol isn't part of Whole30 either, so, there is that) I decided to make my own version of a Saturday morning happy hour while drinking coffee out of one of my favorite mugs.

My coffee? I've been intrigued by Bulletproof coffee, but I haven't "bit the bullet" yet and have made my own version, I had read through a handful of blogs, pins, etc about coconut oil in your coffee. At first, I was repulsed. Then I dumped my coffee into my VitaMix, added some coconut oil, and gave it a whirl (again, literally and figuratively) The results, I don't mind it - at all. Consider that yesterday's version of my keg.

As for breakfast, breakfast is always a challenge. I'm still not fully awake, yet I need to eat something. I ended up making the above, my breakfast of champions!

Breakfast of Champions - Serves 1

2 eggs
1 sweet potato
1/2 cup of spinach
1 small carrot (or a handful of baby carrots)
1/2 pepper (your choice of color)
2 tbsp of oil (I used avocado oil today)
2 tbsp of jumbo lump crab meat (or more, that is all my husband left me...)
Dash of 21 Seasoning Salute (see my prior blog post about this amazing stuff)
Dash of Red Hawaiian Sea Salt

In my food processor, I dumped in all the vegetables and let it do it's job with chopping the veggies up. Then, I peeled the sweet potato and chopped into pieces.

Next, I put the sweet potatoes in my smaller cast iron skillet with 1 tbsp of oil (after heating it up) I ended up cooking those for about 8-9 minutes, letting the edges brown. (Note, we have an induction stove top, so I am still getting used to the various settings and cooking times) I added in some 21 Seasoning Salute while cooking for flavor.

While the sweet potatoes were cooking, I added another tbsp of oil in my other pan (I used my AllClad skillet) After the oil heated up, I scraped in the veggies and from the food processor and the added the jumbo lump crab for about a minute. I then added in my two eggs and scrambled them up. While cooking, I added in a dash of the 21 Seasoning Salute onto the eggs as well!

I had my breakfast ready in about 15 minutes. I sat down and spent my morning watching College Game Day and living vicariously through all of the Facebook posts my friends and alumni connections were sharing. I was a bit jealous.

Stand up and cheer...

Throwback Thursday With My Spiralizer

As I mentioned in my prior post, all the sudden I blink and the weekend is over. The same goes for the week, how is it Thursday night? It also means I've been cooking all week and my creative juices aren't exactly flowing. Fortunately, I thought ahead and made lots of chicken last night when making my dinner. (But I will get to that shortly) 

I had mentioned before how one of my favorite Shakeology drinks is the Chocolate (Vegan) with Coffee. Today (drum roll please) - Shakeology announced a new flavor, Mocha Latte!! I can't wait to share more information as I learn more. So, stay tuned!!

Back to my dinner! I have a handful of sweet potatoes (which, my husband also doesn't eat) I used my Spiralizer to spiralize 2 sweet potatoes (wanted some leftovers for lunch tomorrow!) I then took some of the chicken I made last night as well as an apple, and tossed them in my food processor. Tossed the zoodles in my antique cast iron skillet with some avocado oil, then added in the apples and chicken, threw on some spinach to wilt, followed by a splash of apple cider vinegar. It was, incredible. 

Sweet Potato Zoodles 

1 sweet potato

Handful of lettuce

3-4 chicken tenders

1 apple

Splash of apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp of avocado oil

I included the directions above. With this recipe, I pretty much just eye-balled the measurements. I shook some Himalayan sea salt on top of it and 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's. If you do not know about 21 Seasoning Salute - I highly recommend getting familiar with it. It is by far one of my favorite seasonings. You can pretty much put it on anything. 

Now, for a #tbt - my first attempt at noodles last fall, part of my #sweatingforthewedding diet (Including the much needed wine)

Paleo Sunday Funday Spaghetti and PiYo

Sunday nights, I always find myself asking where did the weekend go? This was the first weekend of going Paleo - which meant the fridge full of meat and veggies was going to be put to use. I'm also going on five days without wine. This has been a big step in working on my health. I look forward to a glass of Shiraz on Halloween, but until then, water, tea, and coffee will suffice. Plus, I have this little guy to spice up my tea:

OcTEApus - see below on how to find!

My OcTEApus comes from Fred & Friends, I ordered him on Amazon. I've been drinking it with loose leaf chocolate mint black tea. It is amazing.

I am hosting my a challenge group starting October 12 based solely on PiYo - so I spent some time working on PiYo and trying to be the best coach that I can be when my team has questions.

In between running errands, working out, and copious amounts of college football, I made the following:

Paleo Chicken Salad

Handful of seedless grapes (I used red)
2 sliced apple
1/2 cup Paleo Mayo (Thanks to Whole30!!)
1lb of chicken (I used chicken strips from Trader Joe's)
Lemon juice
1/2 tsp of thyme

1) I boiled the chicken - so bring the water to a boil - it took about 20-30 minutes depending on the type of chicken you are using. Keep an eye on it.

2) I only cut the apple off the core, then sliced it into 8 pieces.

3) Add the grapes, apples, and mayo into food processor (this would probably work in a VitaMix too)*

4) Add chicken once cooked and then the thyme.

5) Pulse until a "chicken salad" consistency (You guys know what I am talking about)

6) I added a splash of lemon juice and pulsed for about 4-5 seconds.

If you are starving like I was, you can immediately add over a bed of lettuce (I used spinach, as it is one of my staples) - but if you aren't avoiding bread, this would be amazing on bread too. Or scooped out with a spoon. It's my lunch for tomorrow so chilling for a day should make it taste pretty amazing. I added a home made vinaigrette over the salad.

*If you don't have a food processor or VitaMix, I would chop up you grapes and apples into smaller pieces. You'll also need to shred the chicken yourself (boiling makes it much easier, at least in my experience)

As if that wasn't enough, I made an Almond Crusted Pork Tenderloin for dinner, which I will share another time. I have a few pork tenderloin ideas up my sleeve.

Tonight's dinner was probably my favorite. I'm a huge fan of spaghetti squash. I used to turn my nose up at it, it's really amazing. Although it took some time to make, it was a pretty simple meal to put together. I introduce you to:

Sunday Funday Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash
2 sticks of celery*
2 carrots*
1 can of tomatoes
1/2 tsp thyme
1 cup of chopped onion*
Pepper
Salt
1 TBSP of oil (EVOO, macadamia, avocado...)
Ground turkey**

As a preface, there isn't a lot of time that goes into making this meal. With that said, it does take time to cook the squash (1 hour) and the sauce (simmers for an hour) Just an FYI!

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.

First, I don't know how you like to cook your spaghetti squash. It's always a challenge to cut that bad boy, so I usually take the "lazy" way out and pierce it a bunch with a fork / knife and let it do it's thing in the oven. If you want to cut it, more power to you!

Your squash will need to cook for an 45 minutes to an hour. Keep an eye on it, depending on your oven. I am still learning how my oven cooks and 60 minutes was too long for it. But I needed 60 minutes in my old oven.

*Chop up your celery, carrots, and onion. Tonight, I used veggies I chopped up, but I have been a big fan of Mire poix. If you are rushed and don't have time to chop (we have those nights, days, weeks....) it's ready for you. Plus it's great to have in the fridge just to toss into salads. (I digress)

Next, get your sauce pot. Add your oil to heat it up.

Add in your chopped flavoring and then the can of tomatoes.

Add your seasoning. Stir. Cover. Repeat essentially until your squash is complete.

**If you feel like adding meat, I went with ground turkey, but you can make it your own. I added my ground turkey to a skillet with about 25 minutes left, browned it, THEN added to the sauce for extra seasoning before the squash was done.

Once everything is complete, you have a delicious and healthy dish! My husband won't touch spaghetti squash and dove into the pork for dinner. The good news for me? I have plenty left over to get a few meals out of it this week!

I hope everyone has a great week!!

Morning Commuting and Shakeology

I have completed a few rounds of 21 Day Fix and one of the items that has truly set me up for success with the programs is the combination of their really neat food containers, and of course, Shakeology!

21 Day Fix Containers

I could go on and on about the containers and probably will at some point. But tonight I want to discuss my true morning love, Shakeology and coffee. I was discussing this recipe with one of my friends tonight (and try to share it with as many people as I can!) 

I love coffee. I don't know how I made it through mornings in my younger years without it. 

The best part of Shakeology, you truly can make your drink your own!

Without further delay:

Coffee Shakeology

1 packet (or scoop) of Chocolate (Vegan) Shakeology

8-10 ounces of coffee goodness

Splash of almond milk (depending on your need for cream or not - also depending on the program you are on at the time)

If you are feeling adventurous, I've discovered PB2 powder Peanut Butter, I shake some of that in there. I've added hazelnut extract, vanilla extract, mint extract. Of course, not all at the same time. 

Goodness in a Shakeology shaker!!

It's perfect for my commute into work and you can quickly make! 

Falling into something new...

Greetings!

I'm glad you found your way over to my blog. I look forward to sharing my journey, sharing (healthy) recipes, and helping others on their journey!

Here's a little bit about myself:

-I work in finance
-I love to run (but my back does not)
-I love wine (my waistline does not)
-I've lost 50 pounds over the last six years (See prior blog from that journey)
-I am a BeachBody coach (which means I am here and ready to help you achieve YOUR goals)
-My favorite programs are 21 Day Fix, PiYo, and Cize (I promise I'll share some videos of my routines)

Let's travel back to that bit about losing weight...

2008 = I was heavy (my size 12 pants stopped fitting) I was also slated to be a bridesmaid

I started walking every day. Joined a gym. Paid a lot of money for a trainer. Started running again.

2009 = Lost 35 pounds. Moved 300 miles to Philadelphia. Looked great in bridesmaid dress. Lost some more weight.

2010 = Ran my first of a handful of half marathons (PR = 2:07:43) Ran some more.

2011 = Ran more. That's about it.

2012 = Met my husband. (Re)injured my back lifting. No more running. Discovered spin.

2013 = Spinning. Lost some more weight.

2014 = An old friend from my retail days talked to me about BeachBody. Joined my first challenge program doing 21-day fix. Lost weight. Felt healthy. (Oh yeah, I also got engaged) Purchased PiYo.

2015 = Sweating for the wedding for most of the year. Became a Mrs. Back flares up AFTER wedding. No more spinning. Decided to give my Napoleon Dynamite skills a chance and tried Cize. Decided I really like BeachBody products and signed up to be a coach.

I'm not perfect. No one is. I have had my ups and downs on my weight loss journey. The challenge groups I have been a part of have been a great help to keep my accountable.

I challenge you to ask yourself these questions:

What do I want in a fitness program?
What is keeping me from staying on track in my program?
What is my favorite thing about working out?
What can *I* do to help you meet your goals?

And full disclosure... old me versus new me: