Cleansing my Body

Good Saturday morning to you! Saturdays never feel so good as at the end of the year when all the kids and teachers are going a bit crazy for a long break. When this time of year rolls around we are all ready for weekends, holidays and the slowest to come of all the end of the year.  As the time at work is getting harder I am trying to do MORE things to keep my health up and focus on something other than the imminent end of the school year. So the first thing that I did was the Shakeology Cleanse that I have been hearing about from friends and fellow Beachbody teammates.


So after reading and hearing about the cleanse I started on Wednesday, wanting to cleanse my body being 2 months out of the Daniel Fast I have have slowly begun to let pastas and some of the other foods that bloat me sneak into my everyday diet. I was also starting to get depressed about my plateau and seeking answers from every angle, but the one that was right under my finger tips. Another reason I wanted to try it is because people had said they  had lost anywhere between 5-10 lbs. and felt their stomachs had reduced in size.  The cleanse is quite simple and much easier than some other cleanse's that I have attempted in the past so I stopped stalling and through my hat into the Shakeology cleanse ring hoping for some of the outcomes I had heard about.
I started Wednesday Morning, though I forgot I wasn't suppose to drink coffee I kept going adhering to the other rules.  3 shakes a day, 2 green or detox teas, and a dinner of salad and 4oz chicken or fish.
A shake for breakfast was typical, I generally have a shake every morning.  I had strawberries for my morning fruit snack then a Greenberry shake for lunch. The lunch meal was probably the hardest thing for me to be consistent on. The last day of the cleanse I forgot my Shakeology at home so I ate my snack and hoped that I would make it until I got home. I did and I ate dinner at an early hour and broke the cleanse with 2 hardboiled eggs because I needed more protein.
I may not have been perfect on my cleanse, but I am not perfect on diets. I am forgetful, thats why I have multiple to do lists in varying forms of writing. I like to eat sweets, sometimes I crave salt and I indulge myself so that I don't get obsessive and think about these foods all the time. But this doesn't mean I didn't see any results.  I lost 5lbs and lost 3.9 inches from all over my body. (Don't be deceived by the word lost I am not going to seek it back out and reclaim it, but until I find the word I do like I will go with the Popular word for losing weight.)
One of my favorite things about this cleanse was that I was still able to go out and eat, Fisherman's Market and Grill is one of our favorite restaurants and since I have not been motivated to cook fish this was a perfect option. I was able to stay with in the rules of the cleanse since they made grilled chicken and would substitute chips for salad and even have  a low calorie menu called the Lifeboat menu.
Now everyones results are not the same. Like with any eating habits you choose you will have different results. I would encourage you to try this if you have hit a plateau or you are looking for a change in your life.  I am an Independent Team BeachBody coach and would love to talk to you about your goals and share more info about Shakeology with you. You can go to here, to get more information and contact information for me.
Have a wonderful Sunday and I will see you tomorrow with a delightful Meatless Monday.

Fabulous Food Fridays! Pizza Re-Run

This is a post that I posted on an old blog, but it is a pizza that I loved and would recommend trying.  I am currently on a Shakeology Cleanse to help get me back on track and will be eating Salmon and steamed veggies tonight so I thought that I would share some of the typical Friday treats. I hope you have had a pleasant week and are ready to get your weekend started with a bang. I know I am and  will be finding immense fun as I get my car smogged and licensed tomorrow, oh well it may not be fun but I want to be square with the state for another year.  Have a fabulous evening and I will be back soon.

Another Meatless Monday.

I made Pizza! Some days I have a craving for pizza so strong I can hardly stand it and often contemplated calling up Domino's and getting their tasty veggie pizza. Though that thought generally is fleeting because I don't want to experience the pain of eating a gluten filled crust.  Tonight was one of those nights, partially in hopes that a pizza would magically appear. This didn't happen though so I set about making a new gluten free crust. I used the directions that were on the back of my Pamela's Bread flour mix, it turned out wonderfully, imagine that.

This was a simple crust, flour, yeast, water, oil and I put in some Parmesan cheese to add something to the crust.

While the crust was rising and cooking I sauteed up some mushroom and onions. I always think I need to venture out side my comfort zone of pizza toppings, but don't because Pizza making is done on a whim and these toppings are what I have on hand.

I could have eaten this crust just as it was dipped in ranch and tomato sauce, but alas I put all the toppings on so I would have a completed pizza.

Trader Giotto's Pizza sauce.

This is my favorite cheese. I use it for everything it has so much flavor I could eat it straight out of the bag.

Mmmmm...

I found some asparagus in the freezer and threw it on top, it added a good flavor and reminded me of a risotto I made almost every week last winter.

To ensure that I got some more greens I had a salad with Galeo's crack in a bottle. This is the only dressing I want to use anymore. If  I didn't love oatmeal so much I would have salad for breakfast, just so I can have this wonderful dressing.

And this was dinner last night, Chocolate Peppermint tea, salad, and pizza plus a seconds.

What was your Monday night meal?

What did you do this weekend?

Hike and Laundry:) The hiking was fun I don't know about the laundry but at least my co-workers won't complain about my stank.

Have a fabulous evening. See you Tomorrow!

Easter Sunday Meal!

He has Risen!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Mine was about the norm, but I had some wonderful things revealed about my time management that provided a little less stress and helped me to prioritizes somethings differently.

 So anywho lets get on to this wonderful Meatless Monday Post. I had not really thought about what I was going to make for my Easter Meal and was even contimplating just serving Socca Pizza again even though that is totally a Friday meal and that would have been the same dinner twice in one weekend. But then I remembered a recipe that I had been wanting to try for several months actually now that I look at the post it has been almost a year. (How has time gone by so fast that it feels like I had just seen that recipe in my reader in September). The recipe was Rough Puff Pastry from The Gluten Free Girl and Chef. I highly recommend this site as it was the initial reason I started my own blog.
 Anyways I started the puff pastry and was shocked at using 3 sticks of butter, but knew from past experience this girl knew what she was doing and followed the recipe.

 The butter had to be cut into smaller pieces and re-frozen 

 The rice flours, xantham gum, guar gum, salts were mixed together and Aerated. 

 Into the stand mixer went the flours and butter and proceeded to make a noise like gravel and sand in my stand mixer. When the edges of the butter were soft 3/4cup of ice water was added until everything was wet. I turned it out onto my silicone mat which I quickly found must be nothing like a Silpat because my stuff dough stuck to it and had to be scarped off. 

 This is the first of 7 roll outs. All those chunks of butter I didn't figure that it would turn out at all. 

 I folded it like a brochure and rolled it out some more so everything was worked together 

 This dough was rolled so many times had it been human it would be relaxed beyond recognition. 

 MORE rolling after 2 hour break it was rolled out two more times, then rested 2 more hours and was finally ready to meet its new home in the Pyrex dish. 

 This produce shelve was the going to make its home in the new Rough Puff Pastry dish. The veggies were Sauteed then boiled until tender. With Broth added it cooked for about 15 minutes because I was impatient and wanted to get everything in the oven so I could enjoy this:

 Vegetable Pot Pie. We didn't have ham or chicken, but our light buttery crust filled with veggies was a delightful Vegetarian Easter dinner that I will be making again. 

This is my portion, I add honey to the top of mine because I love the sweet with the salty veggies. 

The Veggie Pot Pie recipe was found on allrecipes.com here. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 8 ounces mushrooms
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced 1/4 inch wide
• 2 cups cauliflower florets
• 1 cup fresh green beans, trimmed and snapped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 recipe pastry for double-crust pie

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Heat oil in a large skillet or saucepan. Cook onions, mushrooms, and garlic in oil for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in carrots, potatoes, and celery. Stir in cauliflower, green beans, and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to a simmer. Cook until vegetables are barely tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch, soy sauce, and 1/4 cup water until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Stir into vegetables, and cook until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.
4. Roll out 1/2 of the dough to line an 11x7 inch baking dish. Pour the filling into the pastry lined dish. Roll out remaining dough, arrange over the filling, and seal and flute the edges.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the crust is brown.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and was able to with loved ones. 

Meatless Meatballs

Good Monday! First day of the week and Hundreds of tasks to complete, but that is life. Normal with craziness and 100's of things to do, see, and find. When I get ridiculously busy and have tons of things to do or when I have had a really crappy day I turn to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Not the Movie, but the show

I am a huge nut when it comes to Buffy, I have all the seasons on DVD and I am embarrassed to say how many times I have watched the series through. Just know it is enough to repeat the lines verbatim. But when I am down there is only one episode that cheers me right up, Once More with Feeling, the musical episode.(Season 6 Episode 7)


Sometimes life is just better with a little musical in your life and I think Mondays are one of those days. That is probably one of the reason's I like Glee so much. I can belt these songs out on Tuesdays and feel 100% better at the end of the 45 minute episode.
The other thing that I find helps with a stressful day is discovering a recipe that replaces something that use to be frequently eaten in our house before we became gluten , dairy, meat free family.  Once such thing was the Meatless meatballs that had been added to our spaghetti, but these have wheat in them and the visit to our local Natural Foods store I couldn't find a replacement.  So when I got home I began hunting, online hunting and like fate the first I found Enlightened Cooking blog that had a gluten free option and strangely enough I had TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) hanging out in the cupboard waiting for a recipe.  One of the reasons that this was in my cupboard is I didn't know what to do with it and I was a little scared that It would be difficult to cook with, but really it was as easy as making nut butter.

 Hello TVP, Please be kind to me I never imagined us working together and here we are. 

 One onion chopped and then Sauteed. 

 These are the spices that are used to flavor the Meatballs. Next time I will used more Cumin, Soy Sauce and add some Chipotle Pepper (I like spicy foods:))

 All the spices were added to the sauteed onions and garlic and cooked for about 30 seconds to bring out the flavor. 

 Add the boiled water to the TVP and mix so all the TVP is wet. 

 Put the TVP, Onions mixture, and Two eggs in the food processor and process until the mixture sticks together and is easy to scoop out. Use a cookie or small ice cream scoop to form balls.

I forgot to take a picture of them cooked, but they were quite good and looked a lot like the ones that we had purchased from the supermarket, but they were healthier since I didn't fry them. With the scoop that I used I made 24 plus a patty. Next time I make them I will experiment with different spices since they weren't as flavorful as I would like.  If you don't do meat or are looking for an alternative to meatballs I think you should try them because they do add more protein to an other wise carb filled meal. We had ours on top of pasta with Marinara, and steamed vegetables.

Homemade Meatless Meatballs

Preheat oven to 375F
Makes 3 dozen meatballs (Per meatball: 30 calories, 3.3 g protein, .28 g fat)

2-1/3 cup texturized vegetable protein (TVP)
1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbsp olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced fresh garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-1/4 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 eggs or 2 flax eggs (see below for flax egg)

1. In a large bowl, combine the TVP and boiling water. Let stand 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook and stir 5 to 6 minutes until onion is translucent. Add the soy sauce, cumin, oregano, salt, and black pepper and cook and stir 30 seconds longer.
3. Place the TVP mixture, onion mixture, basil, and eggs or flax eggs in bowl of food processor. Process until mixture just begins to hold together.
4. Mold into 1 inch size meatballs ( a small cookie scoop works perfectly).
5. Arrange balls on a large rimmed baking sheet. Optional, give balls a quick spritz with olive oil cooking spray (it promotes browning). Bake 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned.

Use as a replacement for meat meatballs in the favorite recipe of your choice, or just eat plain as a snack--yum!

Flax Egg: To make the equivalent of two eggs, process 1/2 cup water with 3 tbsp ground flaxseeds (flaxseed meal) in a blender for 1 minute or until thickened and frothy.

Storage: Cool meatballs completely then place in heavy duty zipper top bags. Store in refrigerator for 3 to 4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.


Have a fabulous Monday and I will see you later with another post.