Tuna Salad

Wow it has been awhile since I have posted. I have been compiling my blog post, but haven’t blocked out the time to post them. With the school year in full force, it has been crazier then what I expected. Dropping kiddos off at two different schools and then taking my youngest back four days a week in the afternoon for speech/language class has me on my toes. Plus Rob and I both training for triathlons coming up makes it hectic right now, but I am loving every minute of it. So I am trying to dedicate more time to my blogging!

With things keeping me busy I need something I can easily grab quickly and eat on the go if needed. There are times I am working out right up until I have to go pick up the youngest  two in the morning. I don’t like to wait until I get back home before I get something into my body to eat after working out. So lately it has been tuna salad. I eat it with plantain chips, apples, celery, or cucumbers. It is refreshing and hits the spot every time!

I make my own mayo that you can find here. Feel free to substitute with a healthy store bought one too.

TUNA SALAD

Ingredients:

• 3 cans of tuna ( I like Wild Albacore Tuna that I get from Costco)
• Chop fresh onion or a handful of shakes of dried chopped onion
• 1 tsp of ground fennel ( I use whole seed and ground in a pepper shaker)
• Himalayan salt and ground pepper to taste
• 1 cup of mayo

Directions:

1. Empty tuna into bowl and break up with a fork
2. Add seasonings and mix in
3. Add the mayo and mix until combined

Serve with apples, plantain chips, celery sticks, or put make a cucumber sandwich.

Enjoy!

 

Wholly Granola – On the Run

Wow where has the time gone. This summer has been keeping me busy, so my blog post have been a little more spaced out for now. With summer off and running and vacations on the agenda I like to share one of my favorite granola recipes. We use this in place of buying store bought cereal. When we travel I tend to pack the majority of my food. This is cost effective for my family and provides us with good clean eating food always on hand. Traveling back home is almost a 24 hour road trip. Therefore, I need to have meal ready to go and easy to prepare on the road. Breakfast then is yogurt topped with this homemade granola, mixed fresher fruit, and banana muffins. This makes it easy to eat in the car and something the whole family enjoys. My kiddos can tolerate organic whole milk yogurt or even greek yogurt. I could tolerate dairy in small quantities, but due to recently finding out I have MTHFR (Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) I have decided to go completely dairy-free except for the occasional goat milk items.  I will be sharing more of my story at a later date. For now lets get down to some granola making business!

Grab your mixture of nuts and start chopping away.

Now add in the rest of the dry ingredients: ground flax seed, shredded coconut, raisins, dried blueberries, cinnamon, and himalayan salt. Then stir!

Combined wet ingredients and then warm in saucepan just until melted. I picked this pineapple juice at Trader Joes.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry nut mixture and stir until evenly coated. Make sure the “granola” nut mixture is really coated.

Line pan with parchment paper and heat oven to 300 degrees. Cook for about 45-60 minutes staring every 10 minutes or so. Oh and your house will smell amazingly!

Just before going into the oven.

Granola is done when most of the moisture is gone and nuts start to brown. Let cool and ENJOY!

Out of the oven

 

Granola- Paleo Style

Dry Mixture

• 1 1/4 cup of raw pecans
• 1 1/2 cup raw walnuts
• 1 1/4 cup raw almonds
• 10 oz bag macadamia nuts
• 1/3 c ground flax seed
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup cup dried blueberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• sprinkle of himalayan salt
• 1 heaping tsp of cinnamon

Liquid Mixture

• 1/3 cup pineapple juice
• 3 Tbsp unrefined coconut oil
• 3 Tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp vanilla

(Can use any variation of nuts you prefer. I also like to add in brazil nuts into the mix too)

(Can also add or substitute different dried fruit)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. The nuts that need to be chopped up use a hand chopper to chop. I have tried using a food processor, but don’t like it because it chops them too fine for me. Chop nuts until you have a granola like consistency. I buy some of my nuts in pieces so I don’t have to chop them ahead of time.
3. Add in the dry fruit and shredded coconut to the mix nuts
4. Add in himalayan salt and cinnamon to nut mixture and stir.
5. In a small pot melt and mix together the coconut oil, honey, pineapple juice, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt and cinnamon.
6. Add the liquid mixture to the fruit/nut mixture and coat the “granola” really well.
7. Place granola on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 45 – 60 minutes. Check and stir every 10 minutes until done. * Key here to cook on low heat and slowly as to not burn the nuts and coconut.
8. Let cool and store in airtight container.

It is great to serve with almond milk as a “cereal” or served with yogurt as a topping. This is the yogurt I enjoyed with my granola for breakfast!  As I am thinking of it, I bet this would taste amazing in my Acai Bowl. 

Life Choices and Healthy Eating

It is summer break and with that comes easier meals for me and NO more school lunches to pack! We get to enjoy the outdoors, lots of time at the pool, and of course books in hand.   I am really am liking The Rhythm of Life -Living Every Day with Passion & Purpose by Matthew Kelly. It is a great easy read. If you haven’t read this book, I strongly urge you do!

When I look at the life I have, I realize I have been given life. The Lord has given me the ability to make choices in my life with the hopes of course that I will choose to follow him. I have lived in the past of negative thinking – why did this happen, why am I not where I want to be, if I only had this I would be happy, the list can go on and on. Over the last year or so I have been doing a lot of reflections on life. How I live each day, really is MY CHOICE. I can choose to be happy, or choose to be sad. I can choose to exercise, or choose not to. I can choose to eat healthy, or eat junk. I can choose to manage my money or let my money manage me. I can choose to love myself, or tear myself apart. I can choose to pray and go to church, or choose to stay home (or go to an event) etc.

Lets take eating healthy for an example. When talking with other people in my life, one thing I hear about is I want to make better food choices. Then next comes the long list of excuses as to why it is so hard or why they can’t do it. Really when it comes down to it, it is YOUR CHOICE to CHANGE! Only you can decide to take the steps in the choices you make. So okay you know you want to eat healthier. Now how are you going to get there? What goals and steps are you going to take to get to making better food choices? What resources are available to help you get to where you want to be?

I personally am a dive on in kind of gal, but not everyone is like that. Also every situation I may not be able to just dive all in and need to take steps. So create small goals to accomplish your one big goal of eating healthier. Maybe first is clean out your fridge and pantry of the unhealthy foods. Next you commit to only buying healthy foods when going grocery shopping. Start with buying more fruits and veggies and less processed food.  Maybe you start researching healthier meals to make and make a list of meals you would like to try. Another option is take meals you like already and substitute in healthier alternatives. For instance, instead of pasta noodles, you make zucchini noodles. Then  maybe you start to meal plan. You can start with just a couple of meals a week and then build up to a weeks worth of meals. Some people discuss the cost factor of eating healthier. This could then turn into a goal of setting a budget for weekly meals. Maybe limit the amount of times you go out to eat and instead bring your meals with you. I can always make adjustments in my budget, but when it comes down to it the cost really isn’t that huge. This is just a thought process to get you started. This same concept applies for all aspects in your life. I can tell you that you will hit barriers (ups and downs) along the way. Again, it is your choice to continue through, pick yourself back up and continue forward on this journey called life!  Keep in mind though, you never have to do it alone!

My goal here is to share pieces of my life in hope to inspire others or give them the encouragement they need to keep going on whatever journey they are on. So with that, comes in summertime meal planning. I still continue to meal plan, but it isn’t necessarily as strict as it is during the school year. I have a master snack list that I list on my board my kiddos can choose from twice a day instead of me planning them out each day. The snacks that need to be prepared I will meal prep so they are ready to go when they choose to have them during the week.

Week to week the snack list really does not change. Maybe one or two things I may switch out. This is my master snack plan for this week:

• Banana Muffins
• Rice Rolls with Sunbutter
• Fresh Fruit
• Fresh Raw Veggies
• Apples with sunbutter and toppings (mini Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips, Shredded coconut, chopped nuts)
• Ants on a log
• Lemon Coconut Protein Balls -Link out to the recipe here.
• Plantain Chips and Guac
• Sunbutter Balls
• Banana chips
• Larabars
• Trail Mix (raw nuts with dried fruit)

 

Breakfast for the week still stays the same as it does during the school year.

• Fluffy Paleo Pancakes – find recipe here. Seriously the best pancakes hands down!
• Daily morning breakfast -Sausage/Eggs/Potatoes. I blogged about it here.

 

Lunches during the week are leftovers from our dinner the night before. Making it easy peasy!

Dinners: I plan 5-6 main dinners and then will have at least 1 leftover night to clean out the fridge before the next round of meals. This ensure we are eating up what we brought and reduces the amount of food waste. You will always know when it is grocery time in my house because my fridge is almost bare. Each dinner will have salad available. Here is my meals I planned for the coming week:

• Tuna cakes and Sweet Potatoes
• Ginger Lime Meatballs and cauliflower rice. I use turkey instead of pork for the meatballs. You can find the recipe here.
• Chicken Salad Lettuce Boats with raw veggies. Recipe coming this week so check back!
• Grilled chicken and grilled veggies (zucchini, mushrooms, and carrots)
• Taco Night
• Asian Zoodle Bowls

Now to update my grocery list in Wunderlist, and off to the store I go.

Enjoy!

My go to snack right now-LARABAR

When I think of a snack for myself, I think of something quick and satisfying. As I have discussed before I enjoy snacking on LARABAR. An enjoyable fruit and nut bar. I am a busy and active momma. I usually have them in my purse or hiking bag. Having food in my purse is a must. If I am out running errands and it took longer then expected (which is common) I know I have something healthy to snack on to hold me over until I get home. It beats picking up junk food while out and about. I have pretty much tried every LARABAR! Our go to LARABARs are: blueberry muffin, key lime pie, lemon bar, apple pie, carrot cake, cashew cookie, and mint chip brownie (target only). Phew! I don’t think you could go wrong with any of them really!

I like to get creative with my LARABARs. I crumble them up on top of yogurt, crumble them up on top of my Acai Bowls. If you haven’t tried Acai Bowls you must. Check out my recipe I made here. Now my new obsession is topping them with nut butter. Specifically, Barney Butter Smoothed Almond Butter, or Barney Butter Cocoa & Coconut. It has put a new twist on my favorite snack.  One of my favorites is Cashew Cookie Larabar with Smooth Barney Butter Almond Butter. I totally did the happy dance at Costco this past weekend because they had a box of cashew cookie and apple pie 18ct combo box for $14.99 plus another $4 off! I usually get them at my local Sprouts because they are between $0.88-$1.00 a piece.

Yes you can say I am a LARABAR-aholic. I now need to go and try the Larabar Organic with Superfoods. I have been eyeing the Tumeric, Ginger, and Beet combo since I love me some ginger.

Now get to snacking and don’t forget to be healthy and creative!

Weekly Menu for May 21-27

It is that time again to plan for weekly meals and grocery shop. Right now my meal plans are running Saturday thru Friday with the following Saturday being my grocery shopping day and meal prep. It worked out perfect for me this week!

I have been dedicating myself to a new goal of waking up early (5am) and getting my workout in and daily prayer. So far it has been a great goal for me. I am enjoying my workouts with the hubby as well as some time to spend in prayer before the day gets busy. I love the feeling of accomplishment and the ability to dive into my day. It has helped with my sleep quality too. The weekends are no different. I was up and ready to go. I did my menu planning the day before so I just had to plug in my groceries into my Wunderlist App and away I went. If you haven’t check out this app yet you really should!

I took one of my older daughters with me this morning. She was a great helper. I really enjoy getting my kiddos involved in planning, shopping, preparing of our food. We rocked it; 3 stores in 2 1/2 hours! Really shorter than that since Trader Joes is at about 30 minutes in just driving one way. Van full of great clean, wholesome food! Oh and plus couldn’t forget the Traeger pellets so we can smoke the brisket we picked up.  

We unloaded the van when we got home, grabbed a quick snack and got to work. Here is our menu for the week.

My older girls were in charge of preparing and making all snacks. This menu that included Mini Banana Muffins, Jello (Against All Grain), Sunbutter Balls, and Chocolate Avocado Pudding (Delighted Momma). I included the links for the recipes I use.

There you have it, happy menu planning or feel free to use mine! I am ready to get this week start. Remember keep it simple…Keep it clean.

Mini Banana Muffins

I enjoy making muffins for my family. Usually it is only during the winter months because that is when pumpkin is in season. I typically only make ones in which they can also take to school as part lunch or snack. This is my favorite pumpkin muffin recipe. When I make muffins I make them into mini muffins since there is no reason to have an entire large muffin in one sitting. Plus the mini muffins are easy to pack and take along if I need to (less messy too).  So I was in search of making an easy nut free muffin recipe when I had the idea to turn one of our families favorite donuts into muffins. Donuts are a special treat in my house. I hardly ever make them because they are time consuming and I don’t enjoy the clean up from them.  My recipe is below, but was based off this recipe.

Mini Banana Muffins (paleo/gluten-free/nut-free/refine sugar free)

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 4 tbsp coconut oil,  melted
• 4 tbsp coconut milk
• 4 tbsp Grade B pure maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 3 ripe bananas, diced
• 1/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Mini muffin tin and mini muffin baking cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. Made 51 mini muffins.

Grab all your ingredients except for the bananas and chocolate chips. (not picture is my nutmeg and salt I forgot to add them to the picture. I have also made them without both of these and they turned out just fine)

Crack 6 eggs and beat until frothy. Add in coconut oil and beat again. Add in the maple syrup, coconut milk, and vanilla and beat until just combined. Add in the remaining ingredients except for the bananas and chocolate chips.

Next grab the chocolate chips and bananas.

Dice up the bananas and add to the mixture. 

Add in the chocolate chips and fold in until combined.

Grab your mini muffin tin and liners. There are my favorite muffin tin liners. Fill the liners almost to the top. I used a mini scoop.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Made 51 mini muffins. Keep leftovers in the fridge. Mine have lasted up to a week in the fridge no problem.  

Keep it simple…Keep it clean.  Baking with purpose…living life to its fullest…on this beautiful journey!

Cauliflower ‘Pop’

When making some health changes several years ago, I needed to find a replacement for popcorn for myself. My kiddos still enjoy some organic popcorn that we make in the cast-iron from time to time, but I needed to find something to replace it. I loved adding hot sauce to my popcorn (if you eat popcorn, you seriously need to try it). My alternative was cauliflower pop. Even my kiddos enjoy this as a side dish for meals. Easy to throw together, but takes about an hour to bake.

Cauliflower ‘pop’

Ingredients

1. 1 head of cauliflower
2. 1/4 cup of coconut oil-melted
3. 3+ TBSP of Franks Red Hot or Tessemae’s Buffalo Sauce (add more to liking)

Chop cauliflower into small pieces and set aside. I am using a big bowl (there is approx. 8 cups of chopped cauliflower in here).

Mix the coconut oil and hot sauce together in a small bowl. Today I used Tessemae’s Buffalo Sauce. 

Pour the hot sauce mix onto the cauliflower and toss until mixed.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and heat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 60 minutes. I start checking at about 45 minutes as bake times may differ depending on your oven. It will start to brown when finished. This may not be the best picture, but it is delicious! 

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Mastering Hard Boiled Eggs

I enjoy a great hard boiled egg. They are great on salads, in lunches, stuffed with tuna, topped with hot sauce, or even with just himalayan salt. I have tried over the years to make an ideal hard boiled egg. I think I have tried it all, including baking them. I remember when I was in my younger years, if the hard boiled egg wasn’t completely cooked (almost green yolk) I wouldn’t touch it. Wow has my food adventures grown!

Here is my favorite way to cook my Hard Boiled Eggs:

Add a single layer of eggs to a sauce pan. Fill the pan with water until it is about an inch over the eggs.

Bring water to a boil and boil for only 1 minute.

Remove from heat and cover with lid. Set a timer for 9 minutes. Get a bowl and fill with some ice and cold water and set aside.

When the 9 minutes is up transfer the eggs immediately to the cold water ice bath.

Let them cool down. Peel and serve, or store in refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Saturday Hike and Menu Planning

One thing I absolutely enjoy about where I live is hiking. Seriously could hike for hours.  Saturday mornings, when time permits, I enjoy going on an early morning hike. It is even better when my friend(s) can join me. Love the fresh air, beautiful views, and great conversations! So this morning I was able to enjoy almost 5 miles of hiking with a great friend. So beautiful watching the sunrise over the mountains.

 

Today also calls for some menu planning and food prep for the week. As you can see my fridge is pretty much bare. I finished up the eggs and veggies and made omelets this morning for breakfast. So typically this is what my fridge looks like before I menu prep. One great thing about menu planning is you go through all the food you bought. My freezer is usually empty because most of my groceries I buy are fresh. I do keep frozen organic green beans for emergency veggies. I also buy my almond flour in bulk and freeze them until I need them. The rest is just ice packs. I am looking forward to the day when I can go buy myself a nice large double door refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom because this refrigerator isn’t large enough and gets crammed full after I meal prep for the week.

 

So my menu is prepared in my excel document and listed up on my menu board in the kitchen. The list is put into Wunderlist for me (or should I say Rob) to go grocery shopping!  Now to clean up the kitchen from lunch and get to preparing meals for the week. My older girls will be in charge of preparing what is needed for snacks this week along with giving instructions to their brother on where he can help them out. Love getting them all involved, plus it helps me speed along the process. So my music will be jamming and we will be dancing as we make our way around the kitchen!

Keep it simple…Keep it clean. Enjoy the food you eat!

Healthy Snack Ideas

Snacks…Snacks…Snacks…

My kiddos always seem to be snacking! Snacks for me depend on if it is a school snack or at home snack. As those will change since I don’t send nuts into school with my kiddos, but they will have them at home. If you have a hard time coming up with healthy snacks, I suggest you make a list to keep on hand. I keep an excel sheet with a list of snacks that I like to do. I continue to add to the list from time to time. It is something for me to reference to when I want to change things up. I have shared a small list below with you.  Certainly there is more then what is listed here, the list truly could go on and on! Remember you are in charge of your own health and the food you put into your body. Change starts with YOU. You need to be willing to do it for you and/or your kiddos.

HEALTHY SNACK IDEAS

• Grass-fed Beef Nick Sticks or Turkey Sticks from Wallace Farms– You can find where to buy them here
• Any raw veggies
• Fresh fruit with our without nut butter/sunbutter
• Dried fruit without added sugar
• Wholly Guacamole cups with plantain chips
• Plantain chips and salsa
• Chicharrones
• Enjoy Life Bars
• Organic Fruit Strips
• Homemade jello- Can find the recipe here.
• Organic Cheese Sticks
• Organic Fruit Snacks
• Fresh fruit cups
• Sunbutter Balls – My recipe here.
• Raw Pepitas
• Crunchy Rice Rolls with or without nut butter/sunbutter
• Organic or Greek Yogurt (plain greek yogurt with nut butter and mini enjoy life chocolate chips)
• Larabars
• Trail mix (mixture of nuts with or without dried fruit)
• Paleo pumpkin muffins – find recipe here.
• Chocolate Avocado Pudding- find the recipe here.
• Organic Popcorn- I pop it myself in a cast iron pan
• Dates or Dates stuffed with goat cheese
• Paleo granola – My recipe coming soon to this blog!
• Deviled eggs or hardboiled eggs
• Almond Date Truffles- find the recipe here.
• Smoothies
• Paleo pancake sandwiches – find pancake recipe here.
• Paleo banana bread
• Paleo zucchini muffins- find the recipe here.

I have put together a sample slide show of 39 snack variations I have done for the kiddos. Some of these are school snacks and some are at home snacks.  I use a BPA free tupperware for their snack bucket at school.  I can also attach an ice pack to the lid for when I send a snack that needs to be cold. I hope this list will provide you with some snack ideas you can enjoy.

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