Frittata Frittata Frittata

Isn't that fun to say? Try it.

I was right, wasn't I?

Now let's get coking! Everyone loves breakfast for dinner and this was super easy to make! l I had some leftover beef from last night that I threw in with spinach and onions (sautéed in coconut oil), threw in 9 (yes, NINE) eggs along with salt, pepper, and my new favorite seasoning paprika! Cook all of this on the skillet about 2 minutes, stick it in the oven and voila! Dinner (er breakfast?) is served!

Meat & Veggie Frittata

9 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp paprika

2-3 cups chopped veggies (I used spinach and onions)

About 1 cup protein (I used beef)

1-2 tbsp coconut oil (or other fat)

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together eggs and seasonings. In skillet sauté veggies and meat in your oil. Add eggs and cook for about 2 minutes, let sit for 30 seconds to solidify bottom (your mixture should still be runny). Place in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until brown on top. Take out and let cool and serve! 

Such a great protein packed meal and now I have leftovers for tomorrow! 

Recipe adapted from "It Starts With Food"

Whole 30 Day 2

Still have my headache. Hoping this side effect goes away soon! But other than that I feel great! Actually not too hungry, no cravings, and I had enough energy to get back to CrossFit!

I did learn a valuable lesson (well one I already knew but I chose to forgot).

"FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL"

I had yet to make it to the grocery store so as I was packing my lunch there wasn't too much selection. I grabbed some cashews, fruit and meat and figured I would be fine. I would have been except once I got to work I was assigned to drop off some items around town which ended up being a tour of the entire southern Californian region. 4 hours and multiple turn-arounds later I was STARVING. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and the only snack I had grabbed for the road was cashews which just weren't cutting it.. Then like a paleo angel was watching over me I sighted...

TRADER JOES!! I literally swerved on the road (oops) to pull over and head in there. This place is like my playground. I stayed away from all the delicious samples and headed straight for produce. I got some adorable baby zucchini (anything mini-sized is automatically adorable), beef jerky, a banana and a big 'ol jar of Almond Butter since I had realized this morning that the AB I had at home had sugar in it! Sneaky sneaky MaraNatha!

Despite my headache I knew I needed to get back into my box and todays WOD was a doozy!

I present "Running Annie"

50-40-30-20-10
DU's
Sit-ups
Run 400m after each set

Finished in 23 minutes! I did have to modify though. Double-Unders are my nemesis. I get them. Then I lose them. Over and over. Today I did not have them so I opted for singles to keep my heart rate up so my sequence was 150-120-90-60-30 singles in place of DU's.

Rest of my night included a grocery store trip, making a yummy dinner and enjoying the Olympics!
Go USA!


DAY 2

Meal 1:
Baked Eggvocados (see previous post here)

Meal 2:
Beef jerky, raw baby zucchini, banana with raw almond butter

Meal 3:
Ground beef with sautéed onions and garlic, sweet potato fries

Snacks:
Cashews, apple, salami, grapes

An Egg and Avocado Love Child

My world has been changed. Although I have known the magnificence of eggs and avocado for quite some time, it has now been taken to another level.

I present the Baked Eggvocado.

Is it as delicious as it looks? Without a doubt. Bonus is that this is super easy to make! Grab an avocado, a couple eggs, throw it in the oven and BAM breakfast (or lunch, or dinner..perhaps a snack..) is served!

Baked Eggvocado

2 eggs

1 medium avocado

salt & pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Halve your avocado, throw away the seed, and scoop out a small portion of each center so that the hole is a pretty good size (of course you must eat any avocado that is scooped out, no use wasting such a valuable resource). Take a small pan covered in foil and place each half on it, face up. Crack your eggs, one each into your avocado. Don't worry about the egg whites falling out a bit (the foil will help), if you would like more of your egg to make it in then buy a bigger avocado!

Season with salt, pepper, and any other seasonings (thinking garlic next...) Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes depending on how baked you would like your eggs. I kept mine in for 28 minutes and my eggs were thoroughly baked, I will probably cut that time to 20 minutes hoping for a runnier egg (my fav).

Take out of the oven, grab a spoon and dig in!!

I ate them just like that but the possibilites are endless! Top with pico de gallo? Guacamole? Bacon bits?

Consider your world changed.

Recipe taken from The Kitchen Is My Playground

blog title credit goes to @lattmavan :)

Recipe Roundup

A few I am looking forward to trying..

Sweet Potato Fries

"Pancakes"

Sweet Potato Cauliflower Soup

Carrot Chips

Baked Eggvocado

Cauliflower Stuffed Acorn Squash

Zucchini & Sweet Potato Frittata 

They all sound so good! I am excited to try some new combinations!

Any favorite recipes that you love to make?

Whole 30 Day 1

1 day down. 29 to go. So another 29 days exactly like this? I can do this.

I made sure to start my day off with a big breakfast, even though I wasn't too hungry I need to get my body adjusted again to a large morning meal. Snacking isn't encouraged on the Whole30 but by about 10am I was hungry and got out my dried mango and carrots. The rest of the day wasn't too exciting so I won't bore you with details. I did have a dull headache all day but I can't tell you if it was from the lack of carbs or the technological problems that plagued me at work all day.

I will post my meals every day as a check-in for myself as well as any others who are interested in what the heck I am doing! I promise to get a little more exciting once I go grocery shopping tomorrow :)

Meal 1:
Egg Scramble
3 whole eggs
Sliced onion
1/2 avocado
Ground pepper
Garlic powder
*mix all together and cook in small amount of coconut oil in stove top skillet.

Meal 2:
Deli turkey meat, Trader Joes guacamole, carrots

Meal 3:
3 eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, 1/2 avocado

Snacks:
Carrots, raisins, cashews, dried mango, peach

starting from the inside out

I am someone who LOVES structure. I love to challenge myself, I love to plan (hence my job), I love to make lists of what I can accomplish and cross things off when I do accomplish them and of course I love success. You can imagine with this type of mentality I have spent as long as I can remember trying each and every fad diet imaginable. South Beach, Slimfast, Weight Watchers, fruit cleanse, juice cleanse, eat everything, eat nothing, energy pills, energy drinks, you name it, I've probably tried it. Now you would think after I failed again and again I would come to my senses and realize those glorified diets DO NOT WORK. There is no magic pill, there is no perfect plan. Every body is different and every one must take an individual approach. After college graduation, moving across the country, and being at my highest weight I was more than ready to begin another challenge.

I had heard many things about this "CrossFit" and after seeing both my family and friends fall in love with it I decided to start back in November. I immediately noticed a difference in my body, my appetite and my attitude. After a couple months I had heard enough about the paleo lifestyle to give that a try as well. For once I wasn't counting calories, measuring every portion, worrying about what I was or wasn't eating, I was just DOING IT and it felt great. From starting CF in November through March I dropped 15 pounds without actually "trying" or watching the scale.

Fast forward a few months. Work, personal life, and old habits ensued and I unfortunately let distractions and laziness put 10 pounds back on. Even though I continued my CrossFit 3-5 times a week my eating habits fell completely to the wayside and I paid for it. The saying "old habits die hard" is SO true for me. Even though I knew how great it was to eat clean, I have just not been able to completely get back on the "paleo wagon"

Enter my next challenge. The Whole30.

I know what you are going to say. Another challenge? Another time frame where you follow specific rules? But those don't work! Well hear me out. Yes this is a challenge, yes there are rules but this isn't about losing the last 5 pounds, attaining a super model body in 10 days, or "getting the perfect 6 pack abs." This is about forming habits (it takes 21 days to form a habit fyi) and starting a foundation for the rest of your life. At the Whole9 they don't make giant promises, in fact they highly encourage you to not look at the scale at all! As one of my trainers has said before "we work from the inside out, looking good is just a side effect."

So what is this challenge? Well actually it's pretty simple. Eat food. Clean, unprocessed, natural, food. Don't measure, don't count calories, don't over think it, just eat what make you feel good. Meat, veggies, fruits, proteins. YES. Sugars, grains, alcohol, legumes. NO. That's it.

Ok there might be a little more to it seeing as I have a 292 page book in front of me. But I'll get to that later. For now I am going to concentrate on the basics.

Now before this turns in to a short novel I am going to quickly recap my pre-Whole30 thoughts..

It is going to be hard. There will be temptations. I might feel like giving up. BUT IT IS WORTH IT. I have nothing to lose except bad habits. I have everything to gain (except unwanted pounds).

Let's go!

Resources:
"It Starts With Food" by Dallas & Melissa Hartwig
www.whole9life.com

winner winner chicken dinner

Now I am a HUGE fan of chicken. In salads, in sandwiches, by itself, with veggies.. need I go on? Chicken though can be very bland if not prepared correctly and nothing is worse than overcooked chicken all rubbery and way too chewy. yuck.

Here is a recipe that will keep the spice in ya life. Or at least in your chicken.

HONEY BBQ CHICKEN NUGGETS
adapted from HungryGirl

Ingredients:
1/4 cup almond flour
1/8 tsp. each salt and black pepper
8 oz. raw boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 16 nuggets
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
1 tbsp. honey
Dash of chipotle pepper (or cayenne, to taste)
1/8 tsp. garlic powder, or more to taste

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix flour, salt and pepper in bowl. Dip chicken pieces in egg then coat in flour mixture. Lay on non-stick cooking sheet and place in oven. Cook 6-8 minute, flip chicken, cook another 6-8 minutes until crispy.

In separate bowl mix BBQ sauce, honey, pepper and garlic powder. Heat in microwave for 15-20 seconds.

You can either coat the chicken in this sauce or use it as a dipping sauce. DELICIOUS!

You know you want to see pictures....

Chicken waiting to be coated with yumminess

Onto the cookie sheet and into the oven!

Mixing up the sauce 

Crispy and done!

Dinner for one! (plus leftovers. my FAV)