Category Archives: recipe

Hotel room crockpot recipe

Posted in chicken, Dinner, food, Grain Free, recipe, Uncategorized by

Hey pumpkins!

Over the past weekend I was away and staying at a hotel. If you follow me on Instagram you will see my random pictures of my crockpot meals. The husband suggested I bring my crockpot with me in case there wasn’t much to eat at the place I was staying.IMG_2928

Boy was he right. It was baron.. Luckily a grocery store was nearby and I threw together some awesome meals in the crockpot. It may not look pretty but I did make an awesome dinner
Crockpot chicken parm… without the spaghetti.

IMG_2945

Recipe:

  • 1lb of chicken
  • 1 bag of frozen broccoli
  • 1.5 cups of marinara sauce
  • mozzarella cheese

Directions: Put the sauce on the bottom, place frozen veggies on top of the sauce, then place chicken on top of frozen veggies. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours. In the last hour sprinkle the cheese on top.

I used frozen veggies because I was in a hotel room. I didn’t have a cutting board, kitchen sink, or legitimate utensils. Frozen veggies made the sauce a little watery. I would recommend fresh (duh) but frozen definitely works too. I like my meals simple and to be ready when I arrive home.

I also tried insanity this weekend but more on that tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a great day

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What’s your favorite crockpot meal?

Are you obsessed with your crockpot as I am?

 

Back on track

Posted in food, Grain Free, health, recipe, running, WAIW by

Thank you all so much for the support on my last post. I knew I loved the blogging community for a reason :)

I do believe that I needed to go through a phase where I just wasn’t afraid of food anymore.. It showed me:

  1. Food isn’t scary (even pizza, donuts, and candy bars)
  2. Eating unhealthy all the time stinks.
  3. I need to allow myself more cheat meals/treats during my week. 

It may be silly but I realized at this point in my life, I’m not training for a fitness competition, a marathon, or anything else. I’m just working out for my health. I do feel that a fitness competition would be awesome but I have no idea where to start. It is not something I am concerned with right now but maybe in the future! It’s easier to eat healthy with my food partner in crime ISN’T around ;) K can be such an instigator and persuasive.

Getting back on track has been fairly simple, only because once you eat  take the junk out of the house, it’s pretty easy. I’m also on day 5 of the 21 sugar day detox and surprisingly haven’t been craving or wanting anything sweet. It has also helped my nighttime snacking a ton.

Since it is Wednesday I’ll give you a little glimpse of my boring/leftover meals that seem to be on repeat after grilling in massive quantities on Sunday. Food prep Sundays are the best :) . Definitely head over to Jenn’s site and check out all the other WIAW posts.

Lots of grilled chicken salad mixes with grilled vegetables and avocado.

Grilled vegetables are the best. My favorite kebab combo: peppers, onions, and mushrooms.

I have also fallen in love with pistachios not to mention a great sensible snack ;) . They are so addictive! I find it fun to try to crack them open and get out the pistachio. It seems way more rewarding than just sticking your hand in a bag of almonds.

Speaking of grilling, I tried a new eggplant recipe that I fell in love with and so has everyone else! Not to mention it’s incredibly easy and delicious! People  have been raving over it and I can’t believe it since it’s really so simple :)

Grilled Eggplant

Ingredients:

  • 1 large eggplant
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/8 tsp oregano
  • Provolone cheese (or cheese of choice)

Directions:

  1. Most important: Sweat the eggplant! Cut the eggplant into 1″ rounds and salt both sides of the eggplant. Place the eggplant on a plate with a paper towel on the top and bottom. Then put something heavy on top of the eggplant to help sweat it out ;) . Leave for approximately 20-30 minutes
  2. Once the eggplant has been sweating for some time. Mix the balsamic, olive oil, and oregano together. Brush both sides of the eggplant with the balsamic mixture.
  3. Grill on medium heat for 5 minutes on one side, flip to the other side and place a piece of cheese on top. Once melted, serve and enjoy!

I also hear it’s national running day: In honor of national running day, I’ll be doing an interval run session to remind me how much I don’t like running. :) But for all you runners out there go run those miles for me!

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What’s your favorite snack?

Best thing you have eaten today?

Almond Butter Bites

Posted in dessert, food, Grain Free, recipe by

Workouts for the week were slacking! I was incredibly tired and a little under the weather for 2 days so I took it relatively easy.

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Complete rest with stretching
Wednesday: Jim Stoppani arm workout
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Shoulders + 20 minute incline walk.
Saturday: Back + 15 minutes stair climber
Sunday: 30 minute treadmill intervals – mostly what I like to call MIIT (medium intensity interval training ;) )

I also signed up for….

Tara had mentioned it… which could only mean one thing. It was coming to Philadelphia. I googled it and signed up without giving it a second thought.

I will probably start adding one day of running back into my rotation. It’s not ideal but with the weather getting nicer, I am tempted to run more. Besides, running 5ks with Kyle is something we enjoy doing together.

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Sugar detox was going great until I caved last night and had one of my delicious homemade almond butter bites. All night I was feeling unsatisfied and snacking on healthy things but I wasn’t necessarily hungry. Once I gave in and had what I really wanted, it went away and I was happy. I may have been a little too restrictive on myself this week. I plan on picking up where I left off today!

Almond Butter Bites

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of dark chocolate/semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 1 cup almond butter
  • 1 TBSP powdered sugar
  • *** These can be made dairy-free and nut free if using Enjoy Life chocolate chips and sunflower seed butter

Directions

  1. Line a mini muffin pan with wrappers
  2. Melt dark chocolate in a double broiler, on the stovetop, or in 30 second intervals in the microwave stirring occasionally.
  3. Once melted, pour in coconut oil and mix.
  4. Put 1 tsp of chocolate in the mini muffin tins and then place in the freezer for 15 minutes or until firm – You will not use all of the chocolate, save some for the top half!
  5. While the chocolate is in the freezer, start to prepare almond butter. Mix almond butter with powdered sugar. This made the almond butter less sticky and I didn’t feel like having a complete mess in the kitchen although the powdered sugar may be omitted.
  6. After almond butter is mixed placed in refrigerator to firm up for a few minutes
  7. Remove chocolate from freezer and take 1 tsp of almond butter and place into the muffin tins.
  8. When all muffin tins are full, cover the top of the almond butter with remaining melted chocolate.
  9. Place in the freezer to firm up and serve.
  10. Keep in refrigerator if they will not be eaten that day.

I kept mine in the refrigerator because the almond butter I used needed to be kept cold. These did not last long and I have already had requests for me.

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How was your weekend?

What is your favorite brand of nut butter?