Simplicity

One of my favorite things about living a Paleo lifestyle is the simplicity of it. Before starting Paleo I never looked at the ingredients, nutritional facts, nor did I care to....mostly because I didn't really know what I was looking at! After reading more about all the fillers, artificial ingredients, and every other dirty thing that is in our everyday food I understand why my body was in such distress eating those things!!

Getting back to the basics and using clean ingredients really has changed my body and how everything works, I know this for a fact because I had a little affair with processed foods this weekend and man did I pay for it!! After eating a chocolate, pizza, and a tiny bit of pasta my blood pressure sky rocketed back up, migraine kicked back in, and of course was unable to sleep because my whole body felt uncomfortable almost like my insides were crawling or hopping around!

So getting back on track I needed a clean and simple meal for today, thanks to my Sept/Nov (back to school issue) of the Paleo Magazine I had a great recipe for coconut "breaded" chicken tenders. For my Vegetarian friends this would be really great for fish sticks also!! Simple, Easy, Fast, and Delicious!! 

Coconut Chicken Tenders and Onions!

What You Need-

• 1 Cup Shredded Coconut
• 1/4 Cup Coconut Flour
• 1 lb Organic Chicken Tenders
• 1/4 TSP Garlic Powder
• 1 TSP Onion Powder
• Pinch of Sea Salt
• A little ground Pepper
• Olive Oil

What You Do-

• Preheat Oven to 375 degrees
• Put Shredded Coconut, coconut flour, garlic & onion powder, salt, and pepper in to bowl and mix
• Dredge Chicken tenders in olive oil
• Coat Chicken with coconut mix
• put in greased baking pan or baking sheet
• Cook for 20 minutes on 375
• Then after 20 minutes change oven to Broil for 5 and let brown
• Enjoy!!

Onions

 I used a large organic candied onion and did the exact thing as the chicken! They were delicious!!



Gobble Gobble :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Today I am thankful for my health, my friends, and my amazing cooking skills!! I can't wait to make my first Thanksgiving dinner today, hopefully my turkey doesn't turn out like all the ones in the movies that are either ashes on the inside or so hard you can't even cut through it!

Today is an exciting day because I received my Paleo Comfort Foods book...YAY!! You know what that means I now have about 200 NEW recipes to try! I don't even know where to start there are so many delicious looking goodies in it!!

I can't wait to share how my dinner turns out but for now I must tell you about my breakfast I made this morning. It was heaven in a muffin tin! I found the recipe on http://www.civilizedcavemancooking.com/ (another blog Paleo blog I might be addicted to!! )

German Apple Pancakes

What you need-

• 6 Eggs
• 1 Cup Almond Milk (Original, unsweetened)
• 3 Tbsp Coconut Oil, melted
• 2 Tsp Vanilla
• 2 Tsp Pure Maple Syrup
• 1/4 Cup Coconut Flour
• 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/8 Tsp Nutmeg
• 2 Apples, cored and diced
• 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
• 2 Tbsp Raw Organic Honey (YUM!)
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp Nutmeg
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• Handful of crushed pecans

What you do-

1. Preheat Oven to 425 Degrees
2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, almond milk, coconut oil, vanilla, and Maple Syrup
3. In a small bowl, stir coconut flour, nutmeg, and baking soda
4. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients and beat well to combine, set aside while you prepare the apples
5. In a small saute pan, heat 2 Tbsp coconut oil and raw organic honey  
6. Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, and juice of 1/2 Lemon and cook for 1 minute
7. Add in your apples and sauté until all your apples are nicely coated
8. I used a muffin tin and evenly divided the apples into each cup, then over the apples evenly cover with liquid mixture
9. Bake for 20 Minutes at 425 and then reduce heat to 375 and cook for an additional 20 Minutes
10. Sprinkle with Pecans when removed from the oven
11. NOmm NOMM!! Enjoy!

Surviving the cold weather blues

Man these past few days have been so gloomy! Cold weather and rain are not my thing at all, I don't think there is enough vitamin D in the world to get me through the winter luckily I did find some delicious comfort Paleo food to brighten my spirits!

I stayed in all day Sunday and Monday trying to hide from the weather and hooked on reading other peoples blogs, in the process I found my new girl crush...yes I did say it girl crush! This girl is awesome. Her blog is filled with amazing recipes and great humor....you must check her out at http://www.paleomg.com/. I am seriously obsessed!

She had recently posted about her Paleo Chicken Bacon Alfredo and I just simply had to try it! I thought this would be the perfect day to invite my Dad over for dinner, he wasn't to appetized by the sound of it and decided not to join me. His LOSE and more for me! :) Then for desert I found an amazing gluten free-dairy free-as close to paleo brownie recipe you are going to find! Now I must share both of these with you...hope everyone enjoys them as much as I did!

Paleo Chicken Bacon Alfredo

What you need-

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 larger delicata squash
• 1 lb chicken breast
• 4 slices bacon, diced
• 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

What to do-

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Cut spaghetti squash and delicata squash in half and spoon out seeds and loose insides
3. Get out 2 baking sheets  (put down foil if you want and easier clean up) on one put squash face down and on the other put chicken with a little olive oil, basil, and salt &pepper.
4. Bake Squash and Chicken for approximately 20-25 minutes
5. When you have a few minutes left for the squash throw chopped bacon on the stove in a saute pan and cook when done take out with slotted spoon and leave grease in pan
6. Once your squash is done cooking, pull it out of the oven, dethread the spaghetti squash into a large bowl with a fork.
7. Take your delicata squash and hollow it out. Put into your warm skillet filled with bacon grease. Then add your coconut milk. You may need to add a little bit more coconut milk depending on how runny you like your sauce. Mix thoroughly with a ladle to break up the squash
8. Add seasonings to the mix and salt and pepper as needed. Mix thoroughly and cook on low for about 5 minutes to simmer.
9. Dice up your cooked chicken.
10. Pour sauce over spaghetti squash and add your chicken to the mix.
11. Mix it up then top it off with your bacon
12. Enjoy!!!

Now for Brownies!!! YUMMM!

What you need-

• 2 cups almond butter (16oz)
• 2 eggs (cage free, organic)
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/2 C maple syrup
• 1/2 C Agave Nectar
• 1/4 C Coconut Oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp organic baking soda
• 6oz unsweetened dark chocolate or dairy free semi sweet chocolate chips
• optional add chopped up walnuts or anything else you might want

What you do-

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
2. Melt Chocolate in double boiler or if you are not good at that like me use microwave!! Then let cool for several minutes
3. Mix all ingredients together with electric mixer
4. After you have them nice and mixed up Spoon into greased mini muffin cups or into regular brownie dish
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 11-15 minutes. Bake longer for cake consistency or if not using mini muffin pan!
6. Then NOMM NOMM eat 'em up ..or share them whatever your little heart desires!

Whoopsies!!

I have to share a little story about how bad my reading comprehension can be sometimes!!

 Last week I decided to make Paleo Chipolte Meatballs with Guacamole that I found on the ever-so-great http://www.health-bent.com/ ( awesome website that I am addicted to!) So I go to Whole Foods and have the website pulled up. They have these great tabs that show you pictures of some of the ingredients in case you don't know what they are...brilliant!! So I find all the ingredients with the help of the pictures...being a hairstylist I LOVE pictures. Get home make the meatballs and ohh do they smell De-Lish!! I can hardly wait to eat them they are making my house smell soo good! So finally the time comes I take my first bite and WHOOOAAAA girl that is hot!! My nose is running, eyes watering, mouth on FIRE!!

Thinking I'm just a major sissy I strain out the meatballs from the sauce...they are covered in pepper seeds so I wipe them off. I go ahead and make a plain tomato sauce thinking this might cool them off...WRONG again...mouth still on fire...can't even stand to eat another bite.

It wasn't until I woke up in the middle of the night and thought Ohhh shit Lauren the recipe said 3 chipotle peppers in adoba sauce and when I pulled up the picture it was a can of peppers. Instead of taking out 3 peppers I put in 3 CANS of peppers, that's 21 oz of chipolte peppers!!!! No wonder I felt like I was on man vs food while trying to eat them!!

Well I had to share because I thought it was too funny not to. If you would like to try the peppers I bet they are great if made right! Here's the link to the website- http://www.health-bent.com/proteins/chipolte-meatballs-with-guacamole and remember only 3 peppers from the can NOT 3 CANS!!!!!

I'm Back and with a tasty treat!!

So I got a little off track with my blogging but not off track with my life changes!! I have been so busy reading everyone elses AMAZING blogs and trying new recipes that I haven't had time for my own. Now I am taking the time to get back at it and share some of the amazing food I have been making and some funny stories while doing it!

I am so excited for all my friends who have decided to change their lives and become Paleo and since most of them don't live close enough to come over and eat with me I want to share all the greatness for them to try!!

Chinese food was definitely one of my favorite bad habits. About a month into being Paleo I had a moment of weakness at work and ate a crab ragoon...no biggie right?! WRONG. I woke up in the middle of the night with my blood pressure back through the roof!! No more cheating with the Chinese for me!! Luckily I found a selicious Paleo Fried Rice on  http://www.health-bent.com/ . I changed it up a bit and will be tweaking it a little bit more next time I make it but it definitely was one of my tops so far!! 

Here you go..you must try!! 

Paleo Chicken Fried Rice

What you need.

1lb. Ground Chicken (organic ofcourse!!)

1 large head of cauliflower

2 cloves of Garlic

1in long piece of fresh ginger

1/2 yellow onion

can use 4 green onions sliced

2T+2T wheat free organic soy sauce

1T+1T Chili Garlic Sauce

2 Organic Cage Free Eggs

Peas (not paleo...oops. just realized it while writing this!!) so maybe leave those out!

Carrots

What to do.

In a saute pan add chicken and break it up in pieces with spatula. Let brown (should have a golden brown base when finished).

While chicken is browning pull cauliflower head into chunks and throw in food processor. Pulverize until it turns into crumbles (shouldn't take more that 2 mins). Set aside in a bowl. Then go ahead and throw in your yellow onion, ginger, and garlic and pulverize.

Once your chicken is browned add in 2T soy sauce, 1T Chili Garlic Sauce, Peas, Carrots, Onion, Ginger, and Garlic. Let simmer for about 5 mins. Then remove and set aside or in microwave (to keep warm).

In the same pan put in your cauliflower and saute for about 8 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on it and be mixing it around!! Once the cauliflower is tender add the other 2T of soy sauce and 1T of chili garlic sauce. Let simmer a couple minutes. Then remove and set in a bowl to the side (or in microwave)

Now in a small bowl whisk together the 2 eggs and throw them in the same saute pan and scramble (should take about 2 mins.)

Put your "rice" chicken and egg together and ENJOY!!! NommNomms!

You are what you Eat

Starting my life change has been great...hard, frustrating, and expensive...but great at the same time! In my last post I talked about making changes to better myself, my diet was a big thing that had to change. My weekly menu consisted of pizza, tacos, ice cream, chips & cheese, etc.

After being in the hospital I decided to make a change I had been trying to talk myself into for a year....trying Paleo. (if unfamiliar you can check out http://www.paleodiet.com/ or http://www.everydaypaleo.com/)

I have been doing this for about a month now...so I am definitely still a beginner. Paleo has been great to me so far, I still have energy and I'm definitely not going hungry. To say its a piece of cake would be a lie...it is definitely a battle to stay away from your favorite foods and to not go for convenience. Being a hairstylist makes eating healthy a challenge because of the different schedule I must plan everything in advance or else I won't be eating dinner till midnight! But once I got on track of planning I am loving it! Losing weight in the first week, not feeling bloated, I don't feel sick from eating too much are just a few of the great things I have noticed. Also my skin looks better already. Eating lots of fruits and veggies is a big change for me but all the vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants are amazing!

My favorite thing about Paleo is how much I get to cook!! Cooking is one of my favorite things to do, and I have found some really amazing recipes from the Paleo Cookbook, Everyday Paleo book, and from lots of great Paleo blogs. So far I have made No Pasta Lasagna, Bean less Chili, Mini Breakfast Quiches, and lots more things. I look forward to sharing my recipes and yummy meals with everyone!!

Now for all those people who ask, "ehh how long are you going to do that diet?" my answer to you  is until I decide I want to take blood pressure medicine, beta blockers, and cholesterol meds everyday of my life or when I decide I want to have a massive heart attack in the next year.

Learning to Embrace Change

The past few months have been an eye opening experience for me. On my 24th birthday I was in the hospital with the blood pressure of a heart attack or stroke victim. How is that someone of my age and weight could be going through something like this...it was a mystery to not only me but also to all of the doctors and nurses. Going through every test & multiple doctors visits with no answers was extremely stressful, annoying, uncomforting, mentally & physically draining.

After a couple months full of doctors visits, tests, and multiple prescriptions with no diagnosis I have decided to take things into my own hands... I have now decided to change my life and my body without the help of pill pushing doctors. With the advice of my brother and sister in law I have decided to change my diet, workout, and hope to just live healthier and happier.

CHANGE. A word I was never afraid of until the past few years, as a young adult I embraced change...loved it even! Wanted to change my hair every week, moved around every 6 months, moved away to college alone just for a CHANGE. Now I am afraid to cut my hair, get anxiety when a web page changes, or anytime there is a sudden change with anything. I have decided its time to embrace the change again and learn to love it! This picture I saw today was inspiring and made me think change is good and sometimes you have to put all the fear behind you in order to get something great.  

So I have decided to start this blog to talk about the experiences I have while making these awesome life changes...Here's to becoming a butterfly!!