Pinterest Streak

Wow! I feel like I don't need cookbooks anymore. I love the idea of using a cook book and I do have a collection, but these days I am hooked on Pinterest and it's so easy to find delicious recipes. I have been saving up some pictures to show you and I will also include the links to the recipes for the dishes I have made. I tell you this, I haven't made a bad thing yet and I know I am making a few more this week. Super excited about it.

This is a Quinoa Vegetable Salad with Lemon Basil dressing. I served it over a bed of organic arugala and topped it with raw pepitas just to beef it up a little more. I also added an extra drizzle of olive oil, more basil, squeeze of lemon and some lemon zest to kick it up. This is an awesome salad. You could change it up very easily if you wanted to. I added yellow pepper to mine too because the orange pepper was small. I wanted it to be really beefed up because I need a filling lunch to tide me over. Super healthy and delicious. I will be eating it for at least three or four days. In no way is that disappointing.

This next recipe blew my mind. It was so delicious and very summery. I found organic baby tomatoes at Wal-Mart and they were delicious. They were less than a dollar more than the non-organic tomatoes. I feel like I have really random luck buying baby tomatoes as far as flavor goes so I opted for the organic with my fingers crossed that they would taste delicious and they did! Worth the extra money.

This recipe comes from a really great web site called Ezra Pound Cake. Love that title! You have got to make this dish. I am telling you; I was in HEAVEN eating this. Who ever thought that plain yogurt could replace so many things in the foods we eat and make them taste just as good as their richer counter part and make it healthier for us? 

This is called Pasta with zucchini, tomatoes and creamy lemon yogurt sauce.

Here is another Pinterest recipe I made. I told you, I am on a total Pinterest spree right now and I am ok with that because the food that I am creating is delicious. Not one bad one yet. I am on a roll.

This one is called Guacamole salad. I changed this one significantly and it turned out amazing. From my experience with cooking, I have found that I have a pretty good sense of taste for certain things and when I saw that this called for raw tomatillos I was a little concerned. I bought them anyhow. Before I added them I tried one raw and I was correct; they were not good raw. Roasted or in salsas, amazing. Raw, not good. They have a very bitter, unappealing tastes. I opted to leave them out. I added jalapenos, raw pepitas, and one granny smith apple with skin on. Yeah, it turned out amazing. The crisp, sweetness of the granny smith apple really added a lot to the salad. The pepitas give it a nice crunch for some added texture. The same night I made this I also made some random roasted veggies of poblano, mushrooms and a mexican squash called a chayote. So that next day I made a salad with greens, the guacamole salad and the roasted veggies. It was pure heaven. Love it!

I made this soup up inspired by a cookbook I have by chef Rick Bayless called Salsas That Cook. I was reading through it and the recipes all call for some kind of salsa. I thought why not. I bought the Frontera Tomatillo salsa. I saute a white onion and garlic. I steamed some butternut squash and chayote in the microwave to speed up the process. I used a quart of chicken stock, dumped in 3/4 of the jar of salsa, the butternut and chayote, about 3 T of corn masa (corn flour to thicken) and about a cup of corn. I topped it with some more salsa and a dollop of plain greek yogurt. I must say I was pretty darn impressed with myself.

My husband surprised me with a trip to Chicago overnight with my girlfriend Laura. Wow! I was floored and we had the time of our lives. We were up gabbing until after 4 in the morning. Wild! That's even without wine.

For a late lunch we dined at Rick Bayless XOCO. There wasn't much of a wait. I ordered the XOCO salad which is greens topped with the delicious slow cooked, tender pork, avocado, grilled onions, and fried tortilla strips. This was served with a lime vinaigrette. Really delicious.

These pictures are from our dinner place called BellyQ. The chef there Bill Kim is a guy me and Jason have always liked. He has two other places in the city. Both of them are low key unlike this one which is a full scale hipster dining joint. Belly Shack and Urban Belly are his other two places and both very memorable as well.

Here we had a salad of greens, avocado, tomatoes, black beans, rice puffs and a vinegar dressing. Amazing and refreshing.

My friend Laura ordered the smoked duck which is served with house made buns. It was amazing. I ordered the salmon with was served with a pickled papaya salad with strong vinegar notes. Wow! I will be ordering that next time I go. It was the perfect portion and amazing. Loved it.

On the trip I took to the city with my friend Laura I had to take her to my favorite breakfast spot called Yolk. They have three locations in downtown Chicago only. This was a dream breakfast for me. Hash of baby red potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, asparagus and two poached eggs on top. The fruit is always amazingly fresh and the bottomless coffee was insane. She said it was a special blend made by Metropolis Coffee company. She was also nice and gave us cups to go. Yummy! We stuffed ourselves.

Me and Mr. Miles made a fruit dip that I found on Pinterest. All you do to make it is use 1 8 oz package of cream cheese, 1 jar marshmallow fluff and 1 cup powdered sugar. They liked it okay.

http://www.simplyrealmoms.com/posts/creamy-fruit-dip-recipe/

                                          

Here is our dinner from tonight. Kind of a simple meal but oh so dreamy to me. I roasted some sweet potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, and potatoes. The white stuff next to my burger was my new dish I tried. I saw a recipe on Pinterest for a cauliflower mash. I changed it up. I steamed an entire head of cauliflower, added two roasted cloves of garlic to the cauliflower in the food processor. I added a single serving size of plain green yogurt, 1/4 c of shredded parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper. After pulsing it for awhile to make it creamier I added to it some of the water from my steamer. This turned out really yummy. When my five year old tried it and asked what it was I told her mashed potatoes. She didn't question me and said it was yummy. Enjoyed it a lot. 

Questions answered

I wanted to make a post for other people out there who are wondering about Advocare Spark Energy Drink. A friend of mine gave me a sample of it to try out. She knew I had been tired and run down. I was leery in the beginning because it contains artificial sweeteners which I do not use. It has high amounts of caffeine which I was sort of ok with. 120 mg which is more than a cup of coffee. I wasn't sure if it was gluten free. She had told me that it was not made in a gluten free facility. A day later I wanted to try it so I did. WOW!!! I felt more alive than I had in three years or more. It was amazing stuff. I got what all of the fuss was about. The more I loved it the more I wanted to know if it was gluten free. I searched high and low with no answers. None. I found that really odd. You can usually find something online where someone wrote about their experiences. I held off on buying any of the Spark until I could call them. Today I called and they informed me that they are in fact NOT gluten free. They are made with the same equipment as the other wheat products and wheat/gluten can make it's way into the Spark. Would not give me a straight answer if gluten was even used in the product. I found it all very fishy. I will not be using Spark. I would rather know that my gluten free journey in untainted and find my source of energy elsewhere. I hope this helps someone searching for the same answer.

Hemp Hearts and Maca

I have been exploring a web site of products I love called Nevitas Naturals. During my browsing on their web site I noticed Nevitas Naturals sells Maca, a superfood I had once read about and the more I read up on it I thought it may be something I would benefit from. I could easily add it to my smoothies.

Maca is an herbaceous plant native to the high Andean Mountains of Bolivia and Peru. It is one of the only food plants in the world able to thrive at such a high altitude. Maca, and more specifically the root of the plant, has a long history as a superfood. The maca root was prized throughout the Incan empire for its adaptogenic-like qualities that enable it to nourish and balance the body's delicate endocrine system, and to help cope with stress. It also energizes naturally, without the jitters and crashes of caffeine, and it can aid in reproductive function, helping to balance hormones and increase fertility. Navitas Naturals Maca Powder is the raw and natural form of this special root. -Nevitas Naturals

Another superfood I always wanted to incorporate into my diet was hemp hearts. I had seen several smoothie recipes that used them and they seemed like a great way to get protein and fiber into my diet.

Hemp is a well-balanced vegetarian protein source that includes all of the essential amino acids. Not only is hemp one of the best veggie sources of protein, it’s easy for the body to digest and assimilate. Hemp also features plenty of other nutrients including abundant fiber, chlorophyll, vitamins and omega-3 and -6 essential fatty acids. -Nevitas Naturals

I ordered both of these items on Amazon. The hemp hearts are interesting. They are little balls that have a nutty flavor to them. The serving size is 3 T but I just put a tablespoon into my smoothie in the morning. The maca is very interesting. It has the same similarities as a cocoa. Sort of earthy.

The first day of using the maca was not good. Yikes. I really needed a banana that day. I made a smoothie of spinach, pear, blueberry, almond milk, hemp hearts, maca, and chia seeds. Yuck!!! The blueberries were not a good match.

Today on the other hand I made the most amazing smoothie I have ever had. I have named it the peanut butter and jelly smoothie. I used:

1 banana
1 c unsweetened almond milk
1 handful of frozen strawberries
1 T natural peanut butter
1 T hemp hearts
1 t maca
1/2 T chia seeds

This thing was rockin!! I am telling you. This is my new smoothie. I would like to try it with some gluten free oats too but didn't have any today.

If you want to know what chia seeds are, I started buying these last summer when I was back home and a health food expert talked to me about them at the super market. I have been using them ever since.

Chia Seeds are an excellent source of healthy essential fatty acids - containing eight times more omega-3 fatty acids than salmon! Chia seeds are also one of the most digestible plant proteins, an excellent source of dietary fiber, and a powerhouse of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and free-radical fighting antioxidants. -Nevitas Naturals

Updates with pictures

I have been bad about posting pictures when I actually make the food that I do and I promise I am going to get better about that. Last night I had found a couple recipes for dinner and couldn't exactly decide what to make but wound up making up my own dinner.
Last weekend I had planned on doing a juice fast so when I was at Costco I ended up buying a gigantic bag of kale and a gigantic container of spinach. When my juice fast abruptly ended on monday around four o'clock I was stuck with all kinds of greens.

I wound up making three batched of kale chips yesterday afternoon. Those only took up about 1/4 of the bag. Yeah, it's real big. So for dinner I made cooked kale and spinach sauteed with bacon, onions, garlic, mushrooms and red pepper flakes. It was delicious and my husband even liked it. I served it over a bed of white rice. Jason doesn't like brown rice, but today for lunch I am eating it all over brown rice. I try and include healthy substitutions whenever possible. Brown rice is much healthier in that it hasn't been stripped of it's fiberous shell.

I would highly recommend the Mexican Coleslaw salad I posted a few days ago. It lasted me three amazing lunch days. On the third day I was craving shrimp and needed to used up my huge stash of spinach so I put the coleslaw on a bed of spinach and topped it with some cooked shrimp. It was pure bliss.

chosen

I started following a blog a long time ago called Healthful Pursuit. I absolutely love it. I follow her on facebook as well. She is a holistic nutritionist who is into yoga and living healthfully. She has inspired me in so many ways. This weekend she posted that she was going to be doing a study this year and needed some volunteers. She would choose about five people and then email them the details. I emailed her thinking, what the heck. Sure enough I was chosen and from over 100 people!!

For her study I am recording everything I eat into a template she created. I record how much water I drink. How many servings in each food group. After everything I eat I record how it made me feel. I am doing this for two weeks and then I write a short summary. We are then going to chat on the phone and she will answer any questions I may have. I am super excited about this because I really admire her and I feel like I may wind up helping someone in some small way. I will keep you posted on what I find out.

I didn't wake up today when my alarm went off which has me all flustered because I had to use some of my free time to work out. Always stinks. Did my Jackie Warner Extreme Time Saving Workout. I am beginning to find that weight training needs to come before cardio. The more muscle you have the more fat you burn. I could do cardio until I am blue in the face and my body wouldn't change much at all. That was my problem for the longest time. I couldn't lose the baby weight. Wouldn't budge. Then I started more weight training and combination moves with cardio and weight or high intensity weights and now I am more in shape than I have ever been in my life. It literally turns your body into a fat burning machine. Trust me when I tell you, weight training is key. If you only have a little bit of time, choose it.

Lately I am in deep thought about life. We try and try and try to be slim. It seems like most people are striving for that unless they already are and in that case there is something else they are wanting. I am guessing it's an American way of thinking. Thin is beautiful. For the first time in a long time I am really happy with my body. Of course there are a few things I don't like, but I am afraid I will have to live with them, unless I go under the knife of course. I am trying to be more in tune with being healthy and not thin. I am trying to eat right and exercise to be strong. If I focus on these things alone I know that my body will be healthy and I will be happy.

Let's try to shift our goals. Instead of trying to lose weight and be thin, try and be mindful of the way you are living and the choices you are making. Take time for you. Take time to fit a workout in. There is always at least 20 minutes sometime during our hectic day that we can find something physical we can do for ourselves. As busy as life can be, we owe it to ourselves to take care of this body. We are in it forever.

Fail

So the juice fast didn't go as planned. I did really well. Juiced a big batch this morning for me and Jason. One for breakfast and one for lunch. It included pineapple, orange, apple, spinach, carrot, and cucumber. It was really refreshing and good. It filled me up for the morning and then after my second juice it lasted until about 4 when I became very hungry. I probably could have gotten through it. I must not wanted it enough because I ended up grabbing the BBQ pop chips and shoving a handful in my face. I don't think now is my time.
I am having a lot of stomach pains still from the breakfast or something from the weekend. Every time I eat my stomach hurts. Like a lingering full feeling. It really sucks. I am still having all kinds of digestive issues as well. I think it all stems from the stress in my life. I am trying to get a grasp on that. Life is hard. Parenting and caring for yourself at the same time is a tricky balance. I am still working on that. Hoping to find some balance soon.
I feel like the yoga is really something I enjoy. Did my 1 hour workout this morning then abs and some stationary bike. Tomorrow is going to be a little more weight training. I need to get back on track from the weekend. Love having company but I am a real bitch when I can't work out. Yikes.
Thanks for reading and recipes to come.
I made a delicious mexican slaw for lunch tomorrow and for dinner I am doing a chop salad. Both are pinterest recipes.
Here they are. I will try and post pictures soon.

Mexican Coleslaw: 1 package Slaw Mix 1 can corn {drained} 1 can black beans {drained} 1/3 cup diced green onions 1 cup diced tomatoes 1/2 cup diced black olives 1/4 cup diced cilantro 1 avocado chopped 3/4 cup Jalapeno Ranch Dressing Garnish with cilantro.

For this salad I used a Bolthouse brand salsa ranch dressing I buy at Target. It's found in the cooler by the salad mixes. Then I just added a diced jalapeno to my salad.

Chop Salad

Juice Fast

My parents were in for the weekend which is why I haven't posted in a while. After a weekend full of eating out and making a few poor decisions I am left feeling very ill tonight. Eating gluten free does not go well with dining out. Most times people have no clue what gluten free means. You get a lot of "I don't knows" and "I'm not sures". It's really pathetic. So now, I feel like my body is full of poison. I know it's a big extreme to say but I feel toxic. It has left me wondering if I should in fact be tested for Celiac or gluten intolerance. I am not sure if I believe in the term "gluten intolerant". I believe most people are. The wheat that exists now is not the wheat that once was. This is a hybrid wheat. A wheat that is fast growing, abundant, and lacking all of it's original healthy nutrients. Now our bodies are ingesting this wheat like grain which is most often over processed and put into the food we eat with a bunch of other ingredients we can't even pronounce.
Tomorrow I am starting a juice cleanse. I aim to do it for at least three days with the hopes of doing it and ending it on friday. I plan on juicing for breakfast and lunch with a healthful dinner and no snacking after dinner. As much as I love wine I am also going to be cutting out wine for the week. I need to re set my body and feel clean and healthy again. I will post my juices and progress daily to keep you posted on how I am doing. Wish me luck!