Eat Brownies

If you are eating Zone or Paleo-Zone this does not fit in well…if you do 20 servings out of this there are 20 grams of fat per serving, yeah, that’s not good. So go easy.

I know, I know. You’d never thought I’d post a brownie recipe. The thing is I don’t even like brownies, usually they are a dry and lame excuse for cake, which I’d much rather have. However these brownies rock and they are gluten free. And they make a ton because you can’t eat more than a small square at a time before your head explodes from the chocolate. 

I made a batch quite a while ago (the one pictured) and I’m still eating on them. Usually I don’t eat one everyday but about everyday or if its a particularly bad day I eat two and then regret it. So be warned!

Triple Chocolate No-Bake Brownies

Serves:20

Prep time:15 mins

Total time:15 mins

 

Ingredients

• for the brownies:
• 4 cups whole walnuts
• 1½ cup raw cacao (or 1.5 cup cocoa powder)
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 12 oz fresh medjool dates, pitted
• 8 drops liquid stevia (I did not do this, you definitely do not need it)
• for the chocolate ganache:
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of sea salt

 

Instructions

1. Process walnuts in your food processor, until finely ground. This forms the “flour.” 
2. Add raw cacao (or cocoa powder), and sea salt. Process until incorporated.
3. Add the stevia (or not, I really advise against it), and then the dates one at a time (seriously, one at a time) through the top feed, while the food processor is running. Once all of the dates are used, the mixture should look crumbly, but stick and hold together. Press mixture into a 9×9 baking dish that is lined with wax paper, cover and place in the fridge while you make the ganache.
4. Add the cocoa powder, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, sea salt and vanilla extract to the food processor (no need to clean in-between), and process until emulsified. Spread ganache evenly over the top of the brownies. Place in the fridge or freezer to set for 1 hour before cutting.

If it looks like an expensive recipe to make…it is. I long for the days when I paid two dollars for a whole pack of dates but apparently a date tree won’t grow in Oklahoma. Good luck on your brownie making!

Comments? Questions? Please leave them for me.

Eat Lemon Chicken

Okay I realize I post a lot of chicken recipes and I apologize. But this one is especially good and easy.

You know those rotisserie chickens at Wal-Mart and Sprouts you can buy for like $7? I have replaced that expensive habit with this chicken recipe that is almost as quick and you can make sure no one puts anything in it you don’t want.

Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken

 

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  4 hours

Total time:  4 hours 10 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 lemons
• 2-3 heads of garlic
• 1 whole chicken 4 to 5 pounds
• Fresh rosemary, or any fresh herbs
• All-purpose steak seasoning or salt and pepper

  Instructions

1. Cut garlic heads and lemons in half and lay in bottom of slow cooker.
2. Cut the bottoms off the lemons so they lay flat.
3. Add a sprig of rosemary, or any herbs.
4. Remove insides from chicken, rinse chicken and pat dry.
5. Season chicken well, inside and out, with all-purpose steak seasoning or salt and pepper.
6. Lay chicken on top of garlic and lemon slices and stuff the chicken with a garlic head cut in half, and a lemon cut in quarters.
7. Cover top of chicken with additional lemon slices and rosemary.
8. Turn slow cooker to high, and cook for about 4 hours, or until chicken reaches 165 degrees.
9. Slow cooker cooking times vary.
10. Important: Use a meat thermometer to check for doneness.
11. When chicken has reached 165, turn off slow cooker and let chicken rest for about 15 minutes.
12. Remove from slow cooker, carve and serve.
13. Liquid from slow cooker can be strained and served over chicken.

And it makes the whole house smell amazing.

I always welcome questions and comments!

 

Eat Yellow Curry Chicken

Okay, how did you guys do with eating greens? Was it hard? Did you even try? Did you discover a “new” vegetable?

This week I’m giving you guys my new favorite curry recipe and if you hate curry I apologize, but not really because its delicious.

You can eat this over rice, vegetables (my favorite) or by itself, although I do recommend some sort of carb.

Yellow Curry Chicken

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:
1-1.5lbs Chicken Leg Quarters
1/2 Green Pepper Chopped
1/2 White (Sweet Onion) Chopped
1 Cup Water
1 Tbsp Butter, Ghee or Coconut Oil
1 Tsp Cumin
1/2 Tsp Tumeric
1/2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 Tsp Coriander (I left this out)

Directions:
1. In a bowl, combine the chopped bell peppers, onions, cumin, tumeric,  red pepper flakes, and coriander.
2. In a second bowl combine the chicken pieces with the ingredients from step 1.
3. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours (minimum. Leave over night if more time).
4. Take out of refrigerator and let sit for about 10 minutes.
5. In the meantime, grab a frying/saute pan and add your butter, ghee or oil.
6. Set to medium high heat.
7. Place the chicken with the sauce in the heated pan.
8. Stir consistently for 2-3 minutes (chicken should start to get a brown color).
9. Add water and bring to a simmer.
10. Once the water is simmering, reduce heat to medium.
11. Let simmer for about 45 minutes (stirring occasionally).
12. Water will reduce to a thick sauce when ready.
13. Serve warm.

I made a double batch of this a few days ago and am still working on it, slowly but surely.

Let me know what you think!

Eat Green Vegetables: Nutrition Challenge

So I’ve posed a nutrition challenge to my morning fitness class: eat five cups of green vegetables per day for a week.

I’ve noticed with many people I talk to that vegetables are not at the top of their list of favorite things to eat. The most common excuse is that people don’t like them.

However, there’s more than one way to skin a cat (not that I condone skinning cats even I if I do eat paleo), so if you don’t like one green vegetable there are many, many more to try, God’s pretty creative like that.

Reasons you should eat vegetables:

• They provide the nutrients that you need, that people try to get from multi-vitamins. But guess what? Vegetables are much more effective about getting those vitamins into your body.
• Leafy greens provide all the calcium you need, if you think you have to drink milk to get your calcium then you are mistaken.
• Vegetables taste good. Our bodies are designed to eat vegetables. If you don’t like ANY of these vegetables that I have listed below then you should get checked out by your doctor, because you might not be human.

I would rather people eat leafy green vegetables, here’s a pretty good list of those along with how I normally eat them:

• Kale (in scrambled eggs or smoothies)
• Collards (fixed “southern style”)
• Turnip greens
• Spinach (in scrambled eggs or with turkey or beef burgers)
• Swiss chard (in smoothies, still experimenting with this one)
• Mustard greens
• Broccoli (hate)
• Cabbage
• Brussel sprouts (roast in the oven at 425 and top with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. My version of popcorn)

 

Other green vegetables:

 

• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Green beans
• Sprouts
• Celery
• Okra (NOT FRIED)
• Green bell peppers
• Peas
• Leaks
• Asparagus

 

So for those of you who want to join in on this challenge I think there are plenty of green vegetables for you to chow down on, surely you can find a few that you like.

 

If you have any questions please leave a comment!

Eat Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

This recipe is delicious. And it makes your house smell amazing. The recipe calls for rutabaga, but I didn’t use it. I did use the parsnips and they were pretty good. If you are unsure about the parsnips know that they don’t really have much taste to them and I didn’t even notice them while I was eating the vegetables.

Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables
3 to 4 lb whole chicken
1 large yellow onion
1 large sweet potato
2 parsnips
1 rutabaga
poultry seasoning
sea salt
black pepper
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

 

Preheat oven to 375.
Remove giblets from thawed chicken. Rinse entire chicken inside and out. 
Use a cake pan or roasting pan. Chop onion and place half of it under the chicken, place chicken in pan, then put the rest of the onion around it. 

Chop root vegetables and place around the chicken in the pan.
Drizzle the chicken and the vegetables with olive oil. Season with sea salt and pepper. Season the chicken only with the poultry seasoning blend. 

Roast about an hour and a half (depending on size); until your meat thermometer reads 180 degrees. ALWAYS use a meat thermometer to check chicken. 

This recipe is super easy. Promise! It does take a while to cook, but very little prep time.

Questions? Comments? I’d love to hear them!

 

Eat Some Energy

So I really hesitate to post this recipe because it’s so freaking delicious that its easy to overdo it. If you love peanut butter or almond butter then this is probably a snack you are going to love these…they work well as a replacement for Reese’s peanut butter cups.

No-Bake Energy Bites a.k.a. Protein Poppers

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry oatmeal (any kind, but not steel cut)
• 1/3 cup coconut flakes (I don’t always add this, not necessary)
• 1/2 cup nut butter (I used 1/4 cup almond and 1/4 cup peanut butter)
• 1/2 cup ground flax seed (not completely necessary but does help)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/4 cup raw honey 
• 1 tsp vanilla 

Directions:

1.   Mix together all the ingredients. It takes a little time and some elbow grease, but you want to make sure everything is mixed together really well. This helps with forming the balls later.

2.   Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour. I’ve found that the longer you chill it, the better the balls bind together. 

3.   Roll, roll, roll the mixture into balls about 1-inch in diameter and enjoy!

These are a really good snack, I used to carry them around with me everywhere. However, they are incredibly sweet and addictive.

Eat Cilantro Chicken

I fix a ton of chicken every week, chicken doesn’t taste bad cold, so it’s awesome for on the road snacks or if you just don’t have a microwave handy. 

Cilantro Thai Grilled Chicken (serves 4)

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro 
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce or 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Place all the ingredients above in a food processor and process until smooth.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use chicken tenders)

Pour marinade over chicken breast and let flavors sink in for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
Prepare your grill or broiler. Cook until temperature registers 165F on the meat thermometer. Let the chicken breasts rest for 5 minutes before serving, this prevents the meat from drying up. (Broiled tastes great! And it only takes about 12 minutes to cook the chicken tenders)

These chicken tenders are so full of flavor! Seriously though. The marinade makes chicken tastes like it never has before. Usually I make a couple pounds of this and put half in my fridge and half in my freezer.

I welcome all questions and comments!

Eat Taco Chili

Hey guys, so life is busy right? It is for me. That’s why I plan almost an entire week of food in one day and cook it all at once. At least one dish a week I cook is done in the crock pot. 

I know summer is here and you may think it’s too hot for soup but I think it’s always nice to have a hot meal at the end of the day. This taco chili is incredibly easy to make because it’s almost entirely from cans and it lasts awhile. I made some two weeks ago and I still have some left.

Here’s the ingredients:

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili
Servings: 10

1 onion, chopped 
1 16-oz can black beans (make sure your canned ingredients don’t have extra sugar or preservatives)
1 16-oz can kidney beans 
1 8-oz can tomato sauce 
10 oz package frozen corn kernels (I don’t add the corn)
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes w/chilies 
1 packet taco seasoning 
1 tbsp cumin 
1 tbsp chili powder 
24 0z. (3) boneless skinless chicken breasts 
chili peppers, chopped (optional)
chopped fresh cilantro 
  
Combine beans, onion, chili peppers, corn, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder and taco seasoning in a slow cooker. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. You can add the cilantro on top and you can also add sour cream and cheese but this adds fat and calories that I don’t include in my diet so I just eat it without.

You can double this recipe and freeze a bunch, which is what I like to do! Make sure you have a big enough crock pot though.

Eat Carbs

What are carbs? Carbohydrates are anything that isn’t a protein or a fat. Bread is a carb. Rice is a carb. Bananas are carbs. Spinach, carrots, and asparagus are also carbs.

We need carbs for fuel throughout the whole day; they give our brains the energy they need to function.  It isn’t smart to cut out carbs completely because our bodies need the energy.

There is a big difference between cutting carbs and cutting bread, rice, and pasta. Cut out all the bread, rice, and pasta and replace them with vegetables and fruits (but mostly vegetables).

Why am I calling a cease and desist order on the bread, pasta, and rice? There are few nutrients found in these grains and it’s hard for our bodies to process them.  Plus if you eat a handful of pasta guess what? You can replace that with two handfuls of vegetables, which are much richer in nutrients…so you get to eat more!

Yes, I know that bread, pasta, and rice tastes good, I love it too. Grains, even whole grains, contain more than three times the sugar and sodium than vegetables. Most of the whole grains we purchase in the grocery store also contain added sugar. Don’t believe me? Check the ingredient list on your loaf of bread.

Bread, rice, and pasta are not as dense in nutrients as vegetables so our bodies have trouble knowing when we’ve had enough.  Refined grains (white bread and pasta) have most of the nutrients removed during the refining process so they provide almost no nutritional value other than making us feel really full and then jonesing for sugar a few hours later. 

I’m not saying you can’t eat bread, pasta, and rice but I also know that most of you reach for those starchy carbs before heading to the vegetables because your body thinks they taste better. Limit your intake of starchy carbs like grains and instead reach for the green stuff.

My favorite green stuff to eat? Spinach, kale, and organic mixed greens. My favorite way to eat them? Cooked and scrambled with my eggs. 

Questions? Comments? I’d love to hear them!

Eat Breakfast

Eat Breakfast

Everyone needs to eat breakfast. Many of you are reading this and saying “but breakfast makes me feel sick,” or “I don’t have time.” If breakfast makes you feel sick then that means your body is messed up and the way to fix it is: eat breakfast. If you have no time for breakfast then you are making excuses.

Breakfast is literally what it sounds like “break fast.” Your body has been fasting all night, sometimes up to 12 hours and it needs food to function. Eating food is like putting gas in your car, if you actually put gas in your car then it will usually run smoothly. If you don’t put gas in your car it won’t go anywhere. So if you feel super sluggish and don’t eat breakfast, this is a quick fix for that. EAT FOOD!

Okay for those of you saying you don’t have time I have another easy fix for you. It’s called overnight oats.

It’s oatmeal that you don’t have to cook. And if you’re thinking you still have to sit down to eat this you’re wrong. I scarf it down in my car all the time, at stoplights, in traffic, wherever. It’s good hot or cold.

The base of the recipe is this:

1:1

.5 cup dry oatmeal

.5 cup milk (I use almond milk but you can use any type)

Mix these two ingredients together and leave it in the fridge overnight and it’s “cooked.” I usually put mine in a jar or in tuperware.There’s no stove or microwave involved. I usually eat it cold but you can stick it in the microwave.

I always add spices to mine, usually cinnamon and nutmeg. I never use sugar in mine but you can add honey if you absolutely can’t stand it.

It’s better to add fruit instead, which will automatically sweeten it up. I love to add banana.

My favorite thing to add to this oatmeal is pumpkin, just plain old canned pumpkin that I get in the pie filling section at the grocery store. And I just add a bit of pumpkin pie spice for flavor. 

You can make all your oatmeal for one week in one night and leave it in the fridge, it takes all of 15 minutes to prepare breakfast FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK. No excuses.

For more ideas check out this link.

http://www.theyummylife.com/Refrigerator_Oatmeal