Monday, April 16, 2012

Almond Banana Bread


This recipe is a riff off of Paleo Breakfast Bread on Elana's Pantry http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-breakfast-bread/#more-35722

1/2 c almond butter

2 eggs
1 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg

2 mashed bananas
1/4 tsp baking powder

- Warm oven to 325d F.
- Grease 8 inch round cake pan with thin film of butter.

-  In large bowl whip almond butter with hand held mixer.

- Mix in eggs, agave & vanilla
- Beat with hand held mixer.
- Add baking soda and banana.
- Beat with handheld mixer.

- Transfer into prepared baking pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven.
- Let cool in pan on baking rack for 30 minutes.
- Invert pan onto pie plate.
- Serve.


Thursday, April 12, 2012

Cauliflower Pie


3 c cauliflower
1 c skim mozz
1 clove garlic
1/4 c fresh parsley
dried oregano
1 lg egg

1/2 c bell pepper
1/2 c spinach, chopped
1/2 c skim mozz
1 tbsp pasta sauce

Preheat oven to 400 d F

- Lightly oil pie pan
-Grate cauliflower
-Microwave cauliflower for 5 minutes with wet paper towel over the top
-Mix in herbs and cheese into cauliflower
-Mix egg into cauliflower
-Spread mixture into pie plate
-Spread sauce on top of cauliflower
-Layer veg on top of sauce
-Layer cheese on top of veg
-Bake until cauliflower "crust" is golden
-Remove from oven
-Let cool
-Serve

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Calorie Intake Reduction Aid

I obtained a juicer last week.  It has been marvelous.

One juice that I have been making is kale, grapefruit, lime & ginger. The combination tastes great together. It has the bonus of making me not want to ingest anything but water for a few hours after. Totally eradicates binge eating in that time. The reason? It makes everything else taste horrid.

You can make a salad if you aren't into juicing. I would think that chopping the kale, peeling the grapefruit into pith free segments then tossing combined juiced lime with crushed ginger would work nicely.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Food Musings & an Update

Transition of my fitness & eating lifestyle is going well. We have been eating at home a lot. Grabbing a bite out is a rare thing these days. I have only had a real soda a few times in that handful times we dined out. In the place of soda there tends to be seltzer water around the house. Yoga has been off and on but I miss it the days that I don't practice. Practice is also making it much less of a thought process and more of a comfortable place physically & psychologically.

I cancelled my gym membership. Husband still goes. I was able to make it out one day a week, three weeks out of every four. Simply put the cost wasn't worth it. Especially when the thirty minute prep and thirty minute recovery that surrounded me getting into my car. Much simpler to roll out of bed, put my hair in a ponytail and turn on a DVD before I have fully woken up. Going forward I am hoping to work up to yoga everyday for seventy-five minutes. It would be nice to fit in either a middle eastern dance class or DVD practice 3 times a week too.

This Friday will see me stepping up things in regards to my eating. It's spring. I crave differently as we barrel toward gods awful hot here on the tip of the south. Less dark meats and rich foods. More lacto-ovo style diet. When we hit summer I can see possibly juicing during most of the day with a light egg for protein meal in the evening becoming my norm through the middle of fall. I doubt I will give up that decadent drizzle of half and half in my tea for more than a week or two. A person has to hold onto some vice.

Speaking of vice. I am almost completely coffee free. I haven't brewed a pot of coffee at home in some time. I have had the occasional Starbucks creation when out and about. Life has been mostly tea powered. It's not likely that will change as the weather heats up. I'll go from pots of hot tea to pitchers of cold. Plain tea, not *shudder* sweetened.

I have been toying with the idea of doing a detox May-ish. June or July I might even go as far as a juice cleanse for a few days. I was raised pretty darn granola so neither concept is new to me. Mentally it feels more akin to comfort food . Kind of like apple pie and hot chocolate to others. If I do go ahead with the detox and the cleanse I will be following the advise of My New Roots (   http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/  ) .