Lurong Paleo Challenge- Week 4

Ohhhhh the prep was real today. Four hours of prep, not including grocery shopping, but I think it will be worth it. 

I have a backwards schedule this week since I will be in clinic early for my OR rotation and going to the WOD after, so I made some special breakfast items that I can indulge in.

Running-out-of-the-house-breakfast: 

I doubled this recipe and made 16 of these delicious little fluffy delights. They baked up so nicely and they have a wonderful flavor and texture. I will be eating these with some blackberries and some nuts on my way out the door.

Mid-morning-breakfast-so-I-can-take-a-late-lunch: 

These are bacon egg cups that I just kinda saw on Pinterest and thought I could make myself. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I cut the bacon strips in half and lined the cups with 3 of the halves, baked it for about 5 minutes before I put an egg in each little basket. I finished baking for another 12 minutes and voila! I will be having these with some cantaloupe!

Lunch- 

Paleo tuna salad in an avocado! 

For the mayo.....

And then I just mixed some of this up with some tuna and chopped up some celery. I am going to have this with a sweet potato with ghee and cinnamon.....still can't think of another carb to have that I like as much.

Pre-WOD snack: 2 hard boiled eggs with hot sauce. Pro.....tein.

Dinner:

Stuffed peppers!!!! I found this recipe on pinterest.....

These smelled so good that my dad snagged one as soon as they came out of the oven and he loved it. I am excited to try my own dinner!!

I am pairing these with roasted cauliflower. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, put some coconut oil in a baking pan, and start cutting your cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. Spread them in the pan and toss over a bit of coconut oil and move all the pieces around so you have them covered. Throw on smoked paprika, sea salt, black pepper, and minced garlic to taste. Roast in oven for 25 minutes. 

I was eating this by the handful out of the pan it was so good!

I haven't had the time to do the calorie count, nor the protein, carb, and fat count, but I think I am pretty close to where I need to be :)

Jenn

Lurong Paleo Challenge- Week 3

Wow. So I am seriously slacking! Midway through week 3 and I am just now getting around to posting my meal plan......I'll make it quick.

Pre and Post WOD breakfast- So Gabe, my morning coach, suggested I have some fat before coming in since I was getting light headed and worn out right at the beginning of the WODs. I now have 1 tbsp of almond butter before leaving the house and I am feeling much better during my workouts :) Thanks Gabe!! After the work out, much to Roy's dismay, I am still doing my pumpkin protein shakes. They are easy and yummy and I need pumpkin spice in my life. I'm working on coming up with another option. It might have bacon in it.....

Breakfast- I did paleo egg cups again! They are quick and easy and portable. Love it. This week I did the spinach and onion and switched to red peppers and sausage! Yummmmm.  So much flavor. Pairing this still with 1.5 cups of blackberries and raw cashews.

Lunch- Paleo Orange Chicken

So this was super easy and quick to make and it smells and tastes great. I over cooked the chicken because I forgot I was going to have to reheat it over the week....so now it is a bit tough but still tastes great. I have been pairing this with my sweet  potato, ghee and cinnammon. I take the leftover orange sauce at the bottom of the container and pour it over my potato. So good! 

Taking Roy's suggestions of bumping up my fats, I have raw cashews with this too.

Dinner- Wild Caught Salmon with Veggies

Stop yourself right now and look at this. SUPER SIMPLE, delicious, and healthy. So I bought the fish, took me less than 5 mins to prep the veggies while I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, I set up my pans as you see above and I tossed some lemon herb flavored coconut oil over everything, basil, dill weed, oregano, and minced garlic and put it all in the oven for 20 mins. Easiest thing I made all day! And it has so much flavor. Guess what.... I eat some raw cashews with this too lol.

Alternate meal- I had to do something else because the orange chicken and the salmon only covered 4 out of 5 meals needed for the week so I made the Paleo Buffalo Chicken Soup that came highly reccomended from Fawn.

Sooooo good. Soooooo hot! Makes a ton of soup and I eat about 2 cups of it per serving. Guess what I have with it....nuts! 

Other things- Bacon Brussel Bites for a snack

So these are amazing. I may or may not be allergic to brussel sprouts. I may or may not have eaten an entire plant by myself over the weekend.....

 I don't know why I find it so amusing that it comes like this. Anyway! Delicious and easy to make and they really hit the spot!

 I was so over doing hard boiled eggs and tabasco so I threw some organic salsa over the top instead (double checked the lable 3x to make sure it didn't have sugar or any other crap in it). This was really refreshing to have for dinner!

Ok so that is my 3 week update. I haven't even started looking at recipes for next week. Ugh. I need to kick myself in the butt and get it in gear :P

Jenn

Lurong Paleo Challenge- Week 2

Things I learned after the first week:

- My caloric intake for weight loss was too low! So was my carb count. I am going to add in sweet potatoes and more berries to increase both of these things.

- My fat was low just by a bit so I am going to try and add either ghee or coconut oil (in moderation) once a day to boost both my fat and caloric intake.

I don't dream about food, but last week I dreamt that I was in a donut factory and when left alone I ate 3 donuts by myself and filled a box to take home.....I might be going through sugar withdrawl.

I found a company, Urban Remedy, that makes some paleo dessert-like items. I ordered a few from the website (and I was really thankful for the gift card I had recieved because it was so expensive!) and now I have a little arsenal of paleo-friendly sweet snacks that I can have to curb my craving and still eat clean.

After week one I am feeling very good! It was not as hard to stay on track as I had thought and I really was looking forward to the challenge at the Cider Fest. I made a deal with myself that as long as I ate clean, I could have the cider and I was successful. There were no temptations and the cider was worth the cheat.

Meal prep for week 2 :

Post WOD breakfast- pumpkin spice protein shake worked last week so I'm sticking with it this week!

Breakfast- Egg Cupcakes

 

 Big thanks to Fawn who provided me with this recipe for these little egg muffins! I tried one today after I made them and it was yummy. I traded in the mushrooms for zucchini and did not use but one tablespoon of coconut oil for the double batch that I made and then 1/4 tbsp to line the muffin tin. 

I will be pairing these with a cup of blackberries and/or a plum.

Lunch- Cilantro Lime Chicken and Sweet Potato

 This was a recipe that someone at clinic handed to me and asked if it was paleo....and it was! I made a copy and decided to try it myself. I haven't tasted it yet. But it smells amazing and was extremely easy to make.

I will microwave my sweet-tater and toss a bit of ghee on it with some cinnamon since that was so delicious and easy last week.

Dinner- Crockpot Cashew Chicken and Cilantro Lime Cauliflower "Rice"

I have never made anything with chicken thighs before....and for good reason! I had to trim them to death to satisfy my delicate meat sensiblities. After what felt like hours of snipping chicken bits, I had to cook them in the pan before tossing them into the pot. The result was delicious! Like chinese food but you can tell there is not a ton of salt in it. While this was good, I will be reserving it for another time when I am not doing more labor-intensive dishes.

As Audrey would say, "THIS ISN'T RICE!" but it sure looks like it! It was very simple and quick to make this when I used the Vitamix to chop it up, Years ago when I was paleo I chopped up my cauliflower by hand.....Never. Again.

I think this will be wonderful to eat with my "chinese food" Cashew Chicken and I read a few articles about how great cauliflower is supposed to be for you.

Snacks- You guessed it! Hard boiled eggs and Tabasco!

Here's to another week of eating clean!

Jenn

Lurong Paleo Challenge- Week 1

My crossfit box, Ardent Crossfit, finally talked me into participating in the Lurong Paleo Challenge. This has me tweaking my meal prepping as well as changing somethings from the last time I decided to eat paleo. This time around I am determined to make meal prepping less labor intensive and to keep everything as simple as possible.

This is what I have set for meals for Week 1:

Crossfit @ 0530 followed by a protein shake with a generous scoop of canned pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice,  and unsweetened almond milk.

Breakfast- Frittata 

Found the recipe for this at StupidEasyPaleo.com http://pinterest.com/pin/127648970663883439/ and it smells amazing! I cut it into 5 slices and packed them all in glass containers to toss in my cooler. I am pairing this with fresh black berries.

Lunch- Steak with Pico de Gallo and avocado

I made homemade paleo pico de gallo just to be sure I wasnt getting anything "extra" from buying it pre-made (recipe in photo). I found a recipe for paleo steak marinade that I used for a guide ( 5 grass fed sirloins, 2 tbsp EVOO, 2 tbsp white wine vinegar, steak seasoning, juice from one lime) and tossed my steaks on the grill. I double checked that both EVOO and white wine vinegar were acceptable on the Lurong website, and they are in moderation. After letting the pico sit in the fridge, I divided it up over 5 days and prepped half an avocado.

Dinner- Shredded Chicken with cabbage, broccoli and carrot mix

My friend Tara suggested this easy, crock pot meal. I checked at the Lurong website to make sure this brand of buffalo sauce is acceptable for the challenge before I prepared it. I tossed 3 chicken breasts in the pot on low for 6 hours, shredding and mixing occasinally.

Then I prepped 5 baggies of cole slaw and rainbow salad mix. I did half and half of each to make sure I am getting a variety of veggies.

Snack- I have steamed up some eggs to eat if I have a hunger attack and I like mine with Tobasco which is approved through Lurong.

I preemptively bought some 100% unsweetned cocoa and froze some bananas incase I have an attack of the sweet-tooth as well as 3 bottles of Malbec.....because you can have 6 oz of red wine a day. Ill try not to take advantage of that :P

Goodies Box- July 2013

July's Goodies Box came in and it was all GLUTEN FREE!  I was so excited because I have recently cut gluten out of my diet and was debating on cancelling this box (even though I looooove it).

I love how they set the box up this month as well. It looks so neatly organized!

Glaceau Fruit Water- I have not yet tried this, but the sparkling aspect intrigues me!

 Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers in Sea Salt- Bleh. These reminded me of salty cardboard. I didn't even finish a whole cracker.

 Cosmos Creations Salted Caramel Baked Corn Snack- Holy crap these were delicious!!!  They were light, sweet, crunchy, and ahhhhh-mazing :)

The Better Chip Spinach & Kale with Sea Salt Chips- These were so good! They had a texture like a tortilla chip, a yummy flavor, great crunch, and were very satisfying.

Gimbal's Cherry Lovers Candies- I am still up in the air about these. I am not much on candies or gummies and these were a cross between them (think jellybean). The flavor was really intense which I liked, but I did not like every one of the 9 flavors. For being gluten free, I would have to say they did not taste like it!










If next month's box is gluten free, I am keeping the subscription!

Jenn

PopSugar Must Have Box- July 2013

I am always so excited when the PopSugar Must Have Box shows up on my door step :)

Bentley was really interested in what was in July's box as well! He just kept his head right on the lid as I was unwrapping everything.

Ahhh! And here are all the goodies :)

The King Cube Tray is such an awesome idea! Keep your drink cold and minimize how much you water it down....genius! My mom likes using these cubes in her scotch ;)

I have not yet tried the Ginger Peach Iced Tea from Mighty Leaf but I intend to!

I think that in almost every box in July there was some sort of sunscreen or sunglasses. This tube of Supergoop! City Sunscreen Serum in SPF 30 is quite intriguing. I am wondering if the serum will keep from getting sticky outside....hmmm. I have not done anything beachy or summery at all :( So I have had no reason to crack this open.

This ncLA 5 Free Lacquer in a pale lavender color was a nice gift for a close friend! I was not digging the color so I shared the wealth. She said she really liked it though! And I will take her word that it was a nice polish since she is a bit of a polish snob :)

Let's be honest, these crunchy cookie chips did not make it 5 minutes after I opened the box. They were AMAZING! I have been looking for them in stores, but honestly I hope I don't find them because I will eat them every day lol.

This rose gold double-chain necklace from Baublebar was a nice statement piece of jewelry that goes with just about everything. It is a bit heavy, but if you just wear it for a few hours it isn't bad. It sets off a basic black t-shirt and jeans quite nicely!










July's PopSugar was awesome.....and August's is here too! Loving their back-to-school theme :)

Jenn

Glossy Box- July 2013

It has officially been one whole year since I received my first Glossybox!! I was saddened to see that they did not have a "happy one year anniversary" gift in the box :( A few other boxes had included that and it was special.

 This month's theme was "Le Grand Bleu" which was a nice twist to a summer theme.

Mmmmmm :) I love the clean, fresh, white scent of Bvlgari's Blanc line and this body wash was awesome! Great lather, left the scent on my body for hours, and my skin was not dry after using it. I may have to invest in this as an addition to my perfume collection.

This Brazilian Blow Out Acai Deep Conditioning Masque kind of threw me off because there were no directions on the little tube. I just shampooed and then slapped this in my hair generously and left it there until the end of my shower routine. After I rinsed and blow dried my hair with my normal products, my hair felt greasy. I am going to try this again and when I blow dry I will leave off the other products and see how it does on its own.

This tube makes me happy every time I look at it :) Figs & Rouge Cherry Blossom Lip Balm is in a cheery tube, it has a light fuchsia color that just enhances your lip color, has a nice shine, and keeps your lips hydrated. I carried it around with me for a week straight at work because I loved it so much!

This cobalt blue color was all the rage in the beauty boxes a few months ago and I know I received a mini Essie polish in an earlier Glossybox. This little polish from nails inc. london was nice and pigmented and had great application. I do not think I have ever used a nails inc. polish that I did not like!

These Absolute! Make-up Cleansing Tissues have come in handy since I got them! It was a travel-sized package and I tossed it in my purse and have used them almost every other day! They work great, do not leave a sticky residue on my skin, and they even take off my 2-layers of mascara with out excessive rubbing!

This was the one product that let me down this month. The dr. brandt BB matte did not rub in well and left a lot of streaks that had to be blended, the color was too light for my skin, and I felt like it claimed to be matte but was not really a matte finish because I still looked dewy 10 minutes after applying and stayed that way all day. I think I will stick with my Too Faced BB cream and just keep using a matte primer.






I wonder what Glossybox will have in store for August box..... :)

Jenn