The Incredible Eggs

The incredible egg. This small food is a breakfast favorite and rightly so!

 

 

 

Eggs are an incredibly versatile food that pack a lot of nutrition as well. Eggs can be served by themselves, top salads, bind meatballs, and bake themselves into delicious desserts. How you choose to eat them is what makes them healthy.

Eggs pack healthy protein and relatively low calories. They are filling due to their high protein content and can help satisfy hunger for longer after a meal. They are also known to raise healthy cholesterol levels in our body. Their vitamin A, B2, D, and Zinc content also boost your meals nutritional value.

Eating both the yolk and the white provides protein and healthy fat for your body. However, those who are keeping their fat intake down, one yolk with several egg whites can help keep your dishes low fat while still providing the nutritional value that the yolk offers. Making an omelet with one whole egg and several whites is a great way to make a lower fat version of your favorite breakfast.

When cooking eggs, consider learning to poach eggs (tricky but worth it!) to avoid having to use oil or butter in a pan to help them cook. Also, there are several baking recipes with eggs over potatoes that bake without the use of much oil or butter. Plus, there is always the age old hard boiled on a salad to get your eggs into your meal.

Look for upcoming recipes with eggs including:

Avocado Baked Egg Boats
Eggs in a Basket

Plus, if you like Breakfast hash, look back on our SouthWest Breakfast Hash!

Enjoy your eggs!

Processed Free Beauty

For those of you looking to switch to less processed beauty routine there are so many great choices out there and it's worth looking into it. I did it because all aspects of what you put on and into your body affect you. Even though your skin is a barrier to the outside world, it is still porous and absorbent. So while we focus on making sure we put the least amount of artificial junk into our bodies through what we consume, it's also good to take a look at the chemicals we expose our skin to everyday. For whatever reason you are doing it, don't get discouraged if you do not know where to start.

The world of beauty is a vast array of marking campaigns and beauty products to help us feel good day to day. But further than that, it is our soaps, shampoos,  deodorants and lotions. It is the acne medicine and facial masks we buy to fix skin problems. It is the whitening toothpastes and nail polishes that make us look shiny and new. Now before you think I'm condemning using beauty products, especially soap, I want to say that in no way do I think that you shouldn't use any of these things. Just as I am not here to say if you should eat meat, dairy, or wheat on a daily basis or not. The concept of this blog of course is to help you live a less processed life and in doing so just bring to light some of the things that might be affecting you.

If the focus is to take the chemicals and additives out of our bodies so we can live a healthier life by allowing our bodies to concentrate on the thing it does best, taking care of itself, then it doesn't hurt to look at more than just diet. Whole and natural foods allow our bodies to work at it's best and allows us to work on constantly healing and renewing ourselves. The same goes with things we use on our skin everyday.

Here are my top five trade outs:
Body Lotion
Shampoo/Conditioner
Body Wash
Toothpaste
Perfume

Each of these beauty products have so many natural alternatives that it is easy to find one if you want to look! Body Lotion and the use of unrefined and unprocessed coconut oil will be it's own post because of the many uses and benefits of that product. I will also post on alternatives to all the other beauty products that you can find.

Honey Lemon Tea

 

 

Everyone gets that tickle in their throat or that annoying sneeze that not only won't go away, but seems to always be followed by an annoying cold. Being sick always puts a damper on working out or ever eating right if you don't have the stomach for it. But there are a few things that can boost your immune system and help you fight off a cold. And if you do end up with a full blown cold, here is a recipe for a very soothing drink that has helped me make it through when I'm feeling sick.

First things first. When you feel like you are getting sick the first thing is to make sure what you are putting into your body isn't taking away from your immune system when it should be fighting a virus. Put down the processed foods, the only make your body work harder to get rid of all the junk that they are made of. Alcohol is the same. Even the smallest amount can make your body work harder to fight off sickness. And of course, what everyone always tells you, get some sleep! It's so important for your body to heal itself.

Then if a cold does hit, try this delicious recipe for hot tea.

Ingredients:
Tea of your choice, uncaffinated
Honey, Raw and Unfiltered
1/2 Lemon squeezed

Put 1 tbs. of honey into the bottom of a mug and pour boiling water over it. Then suqeeze half of a lemon into the mug and enjoy. This toasty drink should warm your insides and sooth you.

Progress not Perfection

For those of you who have heard this speech a hundred times. It might be good to sit through it again. I have reminded myself, and written many times about the journey to your fittest self through diet and exercise, as well as striving and doing your best with out striving for perfection.

Every journey looks different. Every end result looks different. One person's idea of perfect is different than another. So striving for the "perfect body," the "perfect diet," or the "perfect workout," can put unnecessary stress on your lifestyle that is an ongoing process. Strive to do your best. Strive for health over a certain look. And strive to get away from wanting to be perfect.

Sometimes you will mess up your diet and have too much pizza. Three days in a row. Sometimes you will skip a work out. For your entire vacation. It's always alright. No one is perfect. But we must never forget that our journey is a series of steps everyday that we take towards our goals. And if we take 10 steps forward one week and one step back, that doesn't bring us back to step one. Set backs don't mean starting over. They are just a few steps on a long path way. Remember that.

Remember to be good to yourself. To forgive yourself.  To believe in yourself. To love yourself. Even when you're not "perfect."

How to Cook Kale

When thinking about cooking for dinner, I often remember ideas I have gotten while watching the food channels. I was inspired by a sundried and bean side dish to make this meal. This meal was a bean and kale salad, pesto chicken thighs and roasted potato and artichokes. 

First in this meal is the bean and kale salad. 

Ingredients:

Fresh Kale

White Kindey Beans

Bruschetta 

Red Bell Pepper

Garlic Cloves 

Vegetable Stock (low sodium)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

First cut both the red bell pepper and the kale into strips. Be sure to cut the stalks out of the kale because they tend to be too tough to cook down in this dish. Start by warming the bruschetta and the white kidney beans in side pan. In a separate pan, on med heat, warm bell pepper strips with 1 tbs of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Let peppers cook until almost tender. 

When the peppers are almost tender pour the bruschetta and beans into the pan and top with kale. Then place a cover over the pan. Combine 1/2 cup of veggie stock and three cloves of garlic into a food processor and blend until garlic is finely chopped. Pour garlic veggie stock over top of kale in pan and then cover again. Let this cook down for about 7-10 minutes or until kale is tender but not mushy. 

Then we have the potatoes. 

Ingredients:

Marinaded Artichokes (can or jar)

Tri Colored Mini Potatoes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preheat your oven to 375. Cut all of you potatoes into fours. Be sure to leave the skin on. Then place potato chunks in a large baking dish. Drizzle 2 tbs of olive oil over entire dish. Mix around with your hand to make sure all the potatoes are covered evenly with the olive oil and then lay potatoes as flat as possible. Then top with marinated artichokes. Shake salt and pepper over this lightly. Cover potatoes with tin foil. Place in oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until you can slide a fork into potatoes easily 

And lastly we have the pesto chicken.

Ingredients:

Chicken Thighs

Fresh Pesto (jarred with work just as well)

Raw Cheddar Cheese

Place chicken thighs in a baking dish and pour 1/4 - 1/2 cup of pesto on top. Massage pesto under the skin of each thigh. Cover baking dish in foil and place into a 375 degree oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes until chicken is to temperature. Use meat thermometer to check temp and remove from oven when cooked. Then using a slotted spoon take each thigh out of the dish and place on separate plate. This will allow the oils and fats that have cooked off to drain off. Grate a few pinches of cheddar allow to melt on top of chicken. 

Even though I don't eat meat this dish is a hit with my friend that do! Enjoy!

Smoothie Prep

We tend to buy bananas in huge bunches. I guess huge might be an overstatement but I do know that guests to our home are always shocked by the amount of bananas ripening on the counter. 

When the bananas ripen to a perfect spotty brown it is time to peel and freeze them. The first thing we do is take pictures of these beauties. Then we peel them down. After making a mountain of peels we break each of these in half and store two bananas per freezer bag. It makes it easy when using bananas later on in smoothies. I usually makes smoothies with either half, one or two whole bananas. Pre-protioning them makes smoothie making very quick when I'm in a rush. 

After we put all of the bananas in the freezer it's time to break out all the new bananas. And then we just wait for them to ripen into more beautiful bananas! 

Mini Pot Pies

On the first day of the new year that we all decided to head to the pool for some sunshine, I wanted to bring some easy to eat lunch snacks. I have to say, the worse part of this is the crescent rolls that were purchased for this dish. If you have more time, you can make a easy dough with coconut flour that can be found online. But, for a quicker version use a crescent roll.

The three styles.

The Pizza:
Motz Cheese
Bruschetta
Pepperoni

The Green Monster:
Broccoli
Raw Cheddar Cheese

The Quiche:
Egg
Green Peppers

These all get placed in little dough covered muffin tins and baked in the oven at 375 - 400 for about 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. The Quiche tray needed a few minutes longer to make sure the egg cooked all the way through. Be sure to check before eating!

Then we took these babies down to the pool to catch some sun. How wonderful is sunshine, peach ale, and these delicious personal size potpies.