Simple Chicken Roll-Ups and a GIVEAWAY WINNER

With the whirlwind of the holidays among us, I am doing my best to remember these stress reliever techniques so that I am able to enjoy this busy beautiful time. I really truly am trying to relish every second of the holidays because to me this really is the most wonderful time of the year and it comes and goes so quickly, but I’m only human, and I’m pretty darn exhausted. My two cups of coffee in the mornings have been very helpful though. 🙂

Monday

I had the majority of my Christmas shopping done but still needed a few things so I set out to finish it up.

For lunch I refueled with a deli chicken wrapped pickle and havarti cheese as well as carrots and hummus. There was no time to waste, it had to be quick!

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I made myself a batch of homemade trail mix for the road and headed out again.

trail mix

Want to know one of the great benefits of having a birthday in November? I still have birthday gift cards, which means when I go Christmas shopping for others, I also get to go shopping for myself and I don’t have to feel guilty one bit because I am not spending a penny on myself!

I found this workout tank at Macy’s on sale, plus I had a coupon…so the grand total was $9. I thrive off finding good deals like these!

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workout tank

For dinner I had a very tasty salad made of mixed greens, broccoli, black beans, olives, sunflower seeds, avocado, and ranch dressing.

salad

Mom, dad, and Abbie stopped over after dinner to hang out for a bit.

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Tuesday

Tuesday was a doozy of a day. I ran 3 miles on the treadmill before work, went to work, ran some errands, then came home to a leaking fridge which was flooding the basement. It was a stressful day to say the least. Again, I need to remember the stress reliever techniques!

My evening meal was extraordinarily simple yet very delicious. Lettuce cups with hummus, deli chicken slices and avocado. I rolled them up and really enjoyed the cute little concoction.

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Wednesday

I took the day off from any type of workout on Wednesday. My body was needing a day to just chill.

On Tuesday evening I got a batch of butternut squash soup ready in the crock pot. The recipe is very similar to this carrot pumpkin soup recipe, except I used butternut squash puree instead of pumpkin or carrot. At noon on Wednesday, we covered the crock pot and set it to low for 6 hours.

butternut squash soup

The result:

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A dish you can feel real good about eating. Healthy, delicious and ready for me when I get home from work. Perfecto!

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PARKERS FARM PEANUT BUTTER WINNER
It’s that time to announce the big winner of the case of Parkers Farm peanut butter. The winner has been randomly selected using a random number generator and the winner is…
Becky @ Olives n Wine!!
Congrats Becky! Please email me at beautifullynutty@gmail.com with your address so we can get those goodies sent out to you asap!
Thank you to all of you who entered! I am so incredibly thankful for all of you.
Continue Reading Simple Chicken Roll-Ups and a GIVEAWAY WINNER

It’s Peanut Butter Giveaway Time! {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

Hi friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was very low-key and pretty darn fabulous. I have an amazing giveaway to announce, but I would still like to catch you up from the weekend so…..

The last time I left you was Friday morning, so I’ll take off from there.

Friday

I had a few appointments, one being a hair appointment. It was time to brighten up the golden locks. The last time I had my hair highlighted was in February, and it was starting to look dull, so I figured it was about time. It’s amazing what a simple change to your hair can do for your spirit. 🙂

Before and after:

Melanie hair

melanie hair

                                                                          You know what else helps lift my spirits? A box of pita chips from Wild Harvest delivered right to my door. They have recently come out with natural pita chips and sent me a few samples to try! They sent sea salt, parmesan garlic, and cinnamon sugar flavors. The sea salt ones were opened this weekend and I am VERY happy with them. They have a slight buttery taste to them and just the perfect amount of saltiness. I’m excited to try the other flavors.

Wild Harvest Pita Chips

I only had a few minutes for lunch but managed to whip up a tasty plate of shredded chicken with avocado, feta cheese, and pepper.

chicken avocado feta cheese

Dinner was protein-packed and simple: a Morningstar Garden Veggie patty with a runny egg on top.
morningstar with an egg

After dinner, Dana and I hopped into our warm car and made our way around town looking at Christmas lights. It’s a tradition we started last year which includes a trip to Dairy Queen and gawking at lights like little kids. I LOVE IT!

Christmas lights

Saturday

It was raining and 35° on Saturday morning, so our plans to run outside were deviated. We headed to the gym and ran out 5.5 miles on the treadmill. It was miserable to be perfectly honest. The boredom factor was at an all-time high, BUT we made it through.

My pre-run breakfast of banana with Parkers Farm peanut butter, cinnamon and honey…

parkers farm pb and banana

The afternoon was spent deep cleaning our house. Dusting, mopping, windexing, shining up the stainless steel appliances we’d gotten from Unclutterer, catching up with the laundry, washing the drapes….I mean deep clean. Such a gratifying way to spend a rainy Saturday!

What adds to the gratification? Knowing that a pot roast would be ready in the crock pot at dinner time after a day full of crazy cleaning.

pot roast

The pot roast came out a little tougher than usual and I’m blaming that on the fact that I tossed it into the crock pot completely frozen, but it was still good! I used this roast recipe from the last time I made it, except minus the beef broth (because we didn’t have any) and I substituted with water instead.

Later in the evening I dominated a game of Skip Bo while Moose snuggled by my side. Kidding, he literally sat by me for 5 minutes before moving elsewhere, but I still thought it was sweet.

moose/skipbo

Sunday

The usual Sunday morning ritual of reading the paper, cutting coupons, and going grocery shopping, then home around noon for a sweet lunch…

Mixed greens, strawberries, avocado, black beans, mandarin oranges, and poppy seed dressing.
sweet salad

I made my way downstairs to the treadmill for a 40 minute walk, managed to wrap some presents, and clean the kitchen, but besides that, it was a pretty quiet and very relaxing day. I really needed a weekend like this. I am well-rested and have a very clean house. I hope you had a great weekend too!

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Now onto the realllllyyy good stuff…

IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME! {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

Parkers Farm, a Minnesota-based company, makes the most phenomenal peanut butter, one that you see throughout many of my posts (including this one actually). They also make other products like salsa and cheese spreads. Because I am such a huge peanut butter lover, I am stoked about this giveaway.

They are offering a case, which is 12 jars (16 ounces each) of their peanut butter to ONE lucky reader. The winner can choose between 1 of 3 varieties: creamy, crunchy, or honey creamy!

The peanut butter is perishable so this giveaway is only open to continental U.S. residents only (sorry to all of my other readers!) and no P.O. Box addresses please. The PB can be frozen for up to a year so no need to worry about not being able to use it all right away although in my house it wouldn’t be an issue. 🙂

To enter the giveaway: Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite way to eat peanut butter. Earn an extra entry by tweeting or posting on facebook “I just entered to win @ParkersFarmInc peanut butter from @NuttyMelanie http://wp.me/p2J5VV-1lF.” Just be sure to leave a second comment on this post with your tweet or facebook post. I will randomly pick a winner on Thursday. Good luck!

Continue Reading It’s Peanut Butter Giveaway Time! {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

Comfy Belly Soup

After yesterday’s morning run to test drive my new shoes, the verdict is in. The Brooks are keepers! After 3 trips to Marathon Sports and a lot of patience from the staff, I finally found a shoe that is comfortable, supportive, and lightweight.
I had made the decision to run inside on the treadmill versus outside so that I could test out the shoes and keep them in good shape just in case I didn’t like them and needed to return them.
From here on out, the majority of my runs will be outside so that I can prepare my lungs and my body for the coldness that will be at the 10K I’m running on January 1st.
No more shorts until next year. Sayonara!
Speaking of cold, even though it’s been pretty darn chilly around here, I am still making myself a smoothie now and again for breakfast. Yesterdays was particularly amazing and it was suggested to me by my friend and fellow blogger Shannon.
In this smoothie:
Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
1 ripe banana
1 large scoop of Parkers Farm PB
1/2 packet of Jay Robb’s chocolate egg white protein powder
Shannon usually includes spinach in hers too but I didn’t have any on hand so I omitted it this time.
The result…a smoothie that tastes like a peanut butter cup. It doesn’t get much better than that. I ate it with a spoon to make it last longer. 🙂 I LOVE the chocolate flavored egg white protein powder.
This bad boy held me over for a very long time. It’s the perfect combination of carbs, fat, and protein.
Moving on to dinner.
On Monday I started preparing for what would be leftover turkey and veggie soup. I saved the remains of the turkey (aka the carcass but I don’t love that word) so that I could try my hand at boiling it to make broth. This was my first attempt at making soup from leftover turkey btw. We didn’t have a pot quite big enough to house our 20 lb’er but I was still able to plunk some of it into a hot water bath.
As it bathed for a while, it softened a bit and I was able to push it down into the water a little more. I let it simmer on low for about 2 hours, then removed the turkey from the broth and placed it onto a cutting board. I placed the turkey broth (covered) in the fridge after it cooled down and it sat there to cool overnight.
On the cutting board, I began working on my turkey; salvaging any non-fatty pieces of meat on the bone. Being that I’m not a huge meat person, this job was a little on the gross side for me, but I made it through. Once I gathered my turkey meat, I gave it a chop, and refrigerated it for the night.
Don’t forget to save the wish bone!
Next, I chopped 1 cup of carrots, onions, and celery, and 2 cloves of garlic, and sautĂŠed them lightly for about 5 minutes. I added 1 teaspoon of sage and some cracked black pepper during the last minute of saute time. I then let these cool and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.
Come Tuesday morning I removed the broth from the fridge. The fat had gathered on the top of the broth and hardened so that it is easier to scoop out. I scooped out the majority of it using a slotted spoon, added in the prepared turkey and veggies, popped in a bay leaf, covered it and let it simmer for an hour. I then added 1 cup of frozen green peas, a dash of garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper to taste. I let the soup simmer for 5 more minutes.
Soup is on! Not the most attractive photo ever; I miss my natural light in the evening!
Such a healthy bowl of soup to comfort any belly. It really adds a lot of flavor to make your own turkey broth. We had a ton of leftovers so I froze the soup in individual serving size bags for another day or for when we’re feeling under the weather. If you wish you could add in whole wheat pasta or brown rice to add a little more “staying power” to this soup. I enjoyed it just as is but did end up needing a snack later in the evening.
I am happy it’s Wednesday. I didn’t sleep too well last night but have a lovely cup of jo by my side as I write who is really helping me perk up. It’s not that I need coffee in the morning, I just really enjoy it and am comforted by it. I look forward to it every morning.
Have a great day my friends! Catch up with you soon.
Continue Reading Comfy Belly Soup

Some Leftover Goodies

Hi there! Happy Wednesday! So as I was scrolling through some photos from the past week I realized I have some odds and ends, and leftover photos to share still so guess what? That’s what I’m going to do! I can’t leave out these goodies.

Oh goodness it’s a random one today. I hope you’re prepared.

To start, last week I received a package from a company called Jay Robb who specializes in protein powder. I was particularly interested in their egg white protein powder because I am searching for a protein powder that I can add into my smoothies that doesn’t give me tummy issues like whey protein tends to do, and I wanted to try flavored ones.

They graciously sent me a handful of samples including vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry egg white protein powder packs along with a tote and a mixer bottle.

I use half of one package for each smoothie and I really like how it makes my smoothie more—-I can’t think of the right descriptive words, but more frothy and full. So far I have only used the vanilla protein in a strawberry, pineapple and banana smoothie. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it because I could taste a hint of the powder, but then it grew on me. Also, maybe vanilla wasn’t the most perfect flavor to have added to that particular concoction. I should have tried the strawberry flavor! The more I use the protein, the more I enjoy it.

I am excited to try the chocolate, maybe with a banana and almond milk smoothie?

As far as my tummy handling it…I had no troubles whatsoever which is awesome. I will more than likely be buying this product to have in the house. It’s perfect for men and women, it’s a great option for people who can not tolerate whey protein (even if you can it’s a great option!), and it tastes great.

(Disclaimer: Jay Robb sent me these samples free of charge. All opinions expressed in this post are solely mine)

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Next random bits

My birthday celebration began when I was out in Colombia. The last day I was there Jeff and Ana gave me early birthday presents. That was November 6th I believe. Since then my friends and family have been showering me with cards and gifts, I celebrated my actual birthday in Georgia which was fabulous, I got presents from Dana, and I will be celebrating it with my family tomorrow. Talk about a birthday month! I feel so lucky and so loved.

Dana loaded me up on more workout gear (it’s crazy how quickly I wear through this stuff). I really like this top!

And he got me some more of my T-shirts, you can find my review here. Honestly I live in these things. I have ten of them in different colors. They are so comfortable and pretty darn cute if you ask me.

It has been an amazing 27th birthday and it’s STILL not over yet. Geez louise. Who’s the princess here?

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Tuesday Dinner

For dinner last night I made myself a southwest salad with mixed greens tomato, black beans, corn, avocado, and shredded cheese. I topped it off with a drizzle of light ranch dressing. It hit the spot!

I baked up the corn bread for my Thanksgiving day stuffing last night. I made it completely gluten-free and will be sharing the recipe with you post-Thanksgiving only if it turns out nummy. I tested a corner of the bread to make sure it tasted okay and was super pleased with the result.

Off to work for a bit then coming home to get my 20 lb turkey in some brine. I bought a huge turkey with the intention of lots of leftovers, not because I thought 8 of us would polish off a 20 pounder. But hey, you never know! 😉

I’ll also be preparing the cranberries today so that they are ready to go tomorrow and will most likely prep more for the stuffing too. Whatever I can do today to make tomorrow a breeze! I delegated family members to additional sides so everyone is bringing something tomorrow. It makes hosting a lot less intimidating and they were all more than willing to help.

Tomorrow morning I will be running a 5K which I am stoked about. The last race I ran in was back at the end of August at the State Fair. It’s been far too long. I haven’t been running much recently due to some back pain, but I think it will feel real good to get out there tomorrow. After the race I will boogy back home to get the bird in the oven! My first ever experience cooking a turkey. Cross your fingers for me.

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving tomorrow and can celebrate with the ones you love.

I am thankful for all of you!

 

Continue Reading Some Leftover Goodies

Hearty Lentils with Spinach

Hello there! Happy Sunday my friends. What’s everyone have on the agenda? Resting and relaxing or running errands and prepping for the week ahead? Whatever it may be I hope it’s a good one so far!

I still have yet to recap the second part of our Colombia vacation but I was really itching to write a “normal” post plus I have a recipe I want to share with you all, so the second recap will have to wait a little while longer. Here’s the Miami recap, and Colombia Part I recap if you’re interested.

I have a little bit of catching up to do from Friday first so we’re going to be starting off there right at lunch time. To celebrate my birthday (a week early) my co-workers and I went out to Houlihan’s for lunch. I received a free $15 coupon for my birthday to the restaurant so that’s why we decided to go there.

I ordered the french onion soup and a caesar salad with grilled chicken and polenta croutons. I was very happy with both of my selections.

Tasty!

Moving on to dinner…

This is your forewarning that the meal you are about to see is one of the most unappetizing dishes ever to appear on BN. However, I promise you that although unappealing to the eyes, it is very appealing to the palate.

Hearty Lentils with Spinach.

After I plated the lentils over the spinach, I stirred the warm lentils into the spinach and decided that I liked it that way better.

Oh yes I am falling in love with lentils. First the Curry Stew and now this.

Hearty Lentils with Spinach
Print
Ingredients
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 cup carrots, chopped
  • 1½ cups lentils
  • ¾ tsp. garlic powder
  • ½ tsp. ginger powder
  • ¾ tsp. cumin
  • ½ tsp. curry
  • ¼ tsp. paprika
  • 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 3 cups reduced sodium chicken broth*
  • 3 cups spinach
  • *Use vegetable broth if cooking vegetarian
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, saute onions and carrots on stovetop for 3 minutes.
  2. Add in spices and stir.
  3. Add in chicken broth, stir, reduce heat to simmer, cover and let simmer for 2 hours; stirring occasionally.
  4. Before serving, add spinach and stir in until it wilts into lentils.
  5. Serve hot.

It’s such a hearty and healthy dish that I truly enjoyed (and Dana did too).

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Saturday

I enjoyed two cups of Dunkin Donut’s Pumpkin Spice coffee with hazelnut creamer to kickstart my morning.

Have you tried this stuff?! If you haven’t please go buy some. You won’t regret it. NUM.

Next was breakfast. I topped one banana half with Parkers Farm creamy peanut butter and the other half with Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. Yes it is a dream how good that stuff is. A dangerous dream. Thanks to Peanut Butter & Co. for sending me some coupons for their heavenly product.

I gave breakfast time to settle while watching two episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, Dominican Republic and Maine. Both episodes were great. His humor cracks me up.

Then it was time to lace up and head out the door and face the dreary morning with a run. Moose surely didn’t care that it was drizzly and dreary, he was so ready to go. We trekked through the neighborhood and covered about 4 miles.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up the house, “helping” Dana dig out the window well to prepare for egress windows so that we can finish our basement at some point, putting the patio furniture away for the season, hanging out with Moose, and baking up a treat for the worker crew.

Recipe to come soon!

I hope you’re having an excellent weekend. Catch up with you all later!

 

Continue Reading Hearty Lentils with Spinach

Veggie On and Sweat Pink

Hi friends!

I have just one little bit to catch you up on from the weekend then I think I will officially be caught up. On Sunday evening, I attempted a cauliflower pizza crust for the second time. I steamed the cauliflower, sent it through the grater on the food processor to give it the “riced” texture, drained it of liquid, mixed it with an egg, some cheese and seasonings, and baked it in a hot oven for goodness knows how long. The guidance/recipe I found had said 12-13 minutes but there was no way the crust was done so ours was going for at least 20 some minutes.

The crust still came out very flimsy and not very crusty. HOWEVER, it was extremely delicious. I mean super tasty.

I just don’t have a recipe for you yet because I have yet to get the cooking times and temps right. Maybe someday.

Monday

We have officially caught up from the weekend! Now, on to Monday. Breakfast was a banana with natural peanut butter. This is a reused photo from a short while back. Yesterday’s pb banana didn’t have quite the hefty amount of pb. Oh, and no honey yesterday either.

Lunch: mixed greens with peas, tomatoes, avocado, green olives, sunflower seeds and Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard dressing.

Dessert: homemade dried apples and chocolate chips.

In the afternoon I made my way to the gym and rattled off a sweaty elliptical session. When I got home look what was waiting for me in the mailbox! How fitting, right?! I just got my sweat on…

Now SWEAT PINK! It’s official. My Fit Approach Sweat Pink Ambassador gear has arrived. I continue to live a healthy lifestyle and hope to encourage others to do so as well, one step at a time, one bite at a time. To learn more about what it means to be a Sweat Pink Ambassador, click here.

Later in the afternoon Dana and I headed to pick out our perfect pumpkins. Surprisingly I ended up buying the first one I laid eyes on. It’s short and plump and has a nice round front. Oh the simple joys.

For dinner, kitchen sink hash was on the menu. I always use whatever veggies we have on hand at the moment and through them all into one large saute pan. Last night it was a combo of black beans, kale, green pepper, broccoli, brussels sprouts, onion, and tomato lightly sautĂŠed in coconut oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, a dash of cumin, and a dash of garlic powder. Finish it off with a sprinkle of cheese and an over-easy egg.

Perfecto. The flavor and texture combo is right on. It was a veggie kind of day for me once again.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing with the boys, and stealing precious moments with the dog.

He actually laid like this for a solid 3 minutes and just kept looking into my eyes. This is a good 2 1/2 minutes longer than he usually puts up with it so I was pretty impressed. It was pretty sweet. I was trying not to laugh the entire time because I didn’t want to ruin the moment.

Have a tasteful Tuesday and we’ll catch you on the flip side!

Continue Reading Veggie On and Sweat Pink

A Nutty Makeover

Hi there my friends!

Notice any changes to the blog? I have been working with the wonderful Maren at Maren’s Blog Designs on developing a brand new header for Beautifully Nutty. I can’t say enough great things about Maren. I am one of the  most indecisive people on this planet, but she worked with me to help dig and find what I truly wanted and what was appealing to my eye. She was incredibly patient. I HIGHLY recommend her work.

Besides the new banner, I have also switched from a blog hosted by WordPress.com to a self-hosted site through WordPress.org. I had been pre-warned that this process can be quite grueling, and the warning was found to be true. This has been quite the process. I am just beginning to learn all of the ins-and-outs of being self-hosted, but I promise you all, it will be worth it.

When making this switch, I lost all of my followers. This includes all of my friends that had signed up to receive emails when a new post is up. Could you all do me a favor? Could you re-subscribe to my emails? I don’t want to lose you! Just go into the right side bar and re-enter your email and it should set up just like that. I’m so sorry about that.

Like I said, I am learning a whole lot about this self-hosting bit. If there are details about my blog that you miss from the old site or that are driving you nuts about the new site, please let me know. There will be a lot of changes being made still. Thank you for your patience!

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Monday Breakfast

I have a treat to share with you all. While at the Healthy Living Summit, I received some wonderful coupons for Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze product. I have bought their products in the past and love them, and was super stoked to be able to go try out some new stuff using their coupons.

I was at the store and stumbled upon this gem of an almond milk: Almond Milk and Coconut Blend. I HAD to try it! I poured the unsweetened milk over fresh raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and chopped almonds. I then drizzled a bit of honey over this masterpiece.

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Oh my goodness, my belly was so happy. It doesn’t taste super coconutty which is good for me, but it does have a subtle coconut flavor. If you see this at your local grocery store, I suggest you give it a try.

After breakfast I took Moose out for a 3 mile walk through the neighborhood. Then I got to hang out with my beautiful cousin Betsy for a few hours.

Lunch

Lunch was light. I ate a banana with peanut butter and an apple. Then I headed to the gym to crank out 20 minutes on the elliptical followed by push-ups and core work.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent working on the ol’ blog. There were some errands sprinkled in the mix as well as some relaxation with the hubby.

Dinner

Dinner was so simple but it tasted extra good to me for some reason. We grilled up corn on the cob, garden green beans with teriyaki sauce, and a Morningstar Garden Veggie Burger.

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Quick, easy, and super tasty!

Alright, I am off for the day. Enjoy your Tuesday friends. Muah!

Continue Reading A Nutty Makeover

Berry Me, Today & Everyday

Helllllllo friends! I have had a medium Caribou Coffee and am fully charged and I have lots to cover today, so bear with me…

Celebrating Allison and Adam

Last night we celebrated the marriage of one of my friends from high school, Adam, to his new beautiful wife Allison. The ceremony and reception were both held at the Nicollet Island Pavilion which is such a gorgeous venue.

Their ceremony was outside under a tent, overlooking the river. There was a cool breeze off of the water that felt great, and the ceremony itself was beautiful.

After the ceremony, there was the social hour followed by a delicious dinner, speeches, dancing, the whole kit and caboodle.

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Me with my happy husband…

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Me with the happy groom…

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 The lovely table decorations. I can really appreciate all of the decorations at weddings now that I have planned my own. Oh, by the way, today is Dana and my 11 month anniversary! Holy cow, does time fly. 

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Me with the hot ladies: Kristin and Annie.

photo

I seriously struggled with the lighting in the venue last night and capturing quality food photos just wasn’t happening for me, but I still want to share them with you because the food was excellent!

Side note: while attempting to photograph my food at dinner, I kept hearing Gretchen [who gave a presentation on improving photos at HLS] in my head saying “say no to flash.” I had to use the flash a little because it was so dark and my hand doesn’t stay still enough. I did my best.

Light and sweet balsamic salad: with flash

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Honey Dijon chicken (amazing): no flash.

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Lemon-raspberry cake I think? Whatever it was it was delicious. Flash or no flash, I’m not sure. I could have sworn Dana snapped this one with no flash but it looks like there is a flash on the plate. Doesn’t matter. It was nummy.

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We had such a great time celebrating with the newlyweds last night. You know I was on the dance floor last night awkwardly jumping/dancing like no one was watching. Congrats to Allison and Adam!

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Driscoll’s Berry Me, Today and Every Day

Total change of subject, but you may have noticed that I have been eating berries like CRAZY lately. Besides the fact that they’re still fairly in season and are so easy to find in the stores right now, the generous folks of Driscoll’s Berries gave me a couple of coupons for their berries so that I could go delight my taste buds with nature’s candy, free of cost. Yes, really, it’s amazing.

I’ve been adding Driscoll’s berries to “cereal”….

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To salads…

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Eating them plain Jane, and making new recipes, like this one…

I began by making a SCD friendly, gluten-free tortilla. You can use any tortilla you like though.

Gluten-free Cinnamon Tortilla

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp water

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 300°. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a round pie pan.
  2. In a small bowl, mix together flour and cinnamon; set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl beat together egg and water.
  4. Add flour to egg mixture; mix well.
  5. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 10-13 minutes.

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Next, it was to time start assembling. I rinsed my Driscoll’s strawberries…

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And then onto the tortilla went a big smear of natural Parker’s peanut butter, sliced bananas, sliced strawberries, chia seeds, and a drizzle of honey.

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Now wrap it up! It was the perfect breakfast wrap but could also be eaten for lunch, dinner, or even a snack.

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Can I even call this a recipe? It’s just so easy.

Strawberry Nutty ‘Naner Wrap

Ingredients

  • Tortilla (whole grain, gluten-free, SCD, whatever you like)
  • 1-2 Tablespoons natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 banana, sliced
  • 4-5 Driscoll’s strawberries, sliced (depends on the size of the berry!)
  • drizzle of honey
  • sprinkle of chia seeds for good luck

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients on to tortilla. Wrap it up, eat. Love.

I have always been a berry lover. When I was a babe, my family and I traveled up to Gooseberry Falls, MN and did some blueberry picking. I was eating them faster than any body else and I was only 4 years old. I haven’t changed since. This opportunity to experiment with their berries was right up my alley!

Besides strawberries and raspberries, Driscoll’s also farms blackberries and blueberries. For more information about their products, you can check them out here! Delicious.

I am off to try and make something of myself today. I’m feeling a little tired from the festivities last night, but hope to get my butt moving. There will hopefully be a workout involved, and some weed pulling in the back yard! Talk about a crazy Saturday, right?

Alright, you go have yourselves a marvelous day. Peace, love, and berries until next time.

Continue Reading Berry Me, Today & Everyday

Kiss Me, I’m Nuts

Oo la la looky what I have! Fresh green beans from our garden! They are so crisp and wonderful. The tomatoes are popping up like crazy too but not quite ready to be picked. I love having fresh veggies right in the backyard.

In the back I pulled fresh beans, in the front I snagged a box full of almond flour from nuts.com. By snagged, I mean I bought a box of almond flour; 25 lbs to be exact. Check out the awesome box it came in. This should be a theme box for my blog; so cute and nutty. 😉 I especially love “Kiss me, I’m nuts.”

I priced it out and found that it was a better deal to order the almond flour in bulk, versus buying smaller individual packages from the local stores (which wasn’t surprising). Also, I really wanted almond flour, not almond meal, and buying individually packed almond flour in the store is ridiculously expensive, so this was definitely the way to go.

That is quite the load of flour!

With the help of my trusty assistant Dana, we bagged the flour into gallon freezer bags and placed all of the bags into the freezer except for one. Thank goodness we have a large freezer in the garage.

As for that bag of flour I left out, I had baking plans. I wanted to see how the SCD bread would bake up with the almond flour compared to the almond meal that I have been using. I made two loaves so that I could freeze one for another time.

And the verdict? I like the bread better with this almond flour. It is less crumbly which makes it easier to eat. The taste is pretty much the same though.

That was a quick recap from a couple of days ago…now on to yesterday.

For breakfast, I sliced myself up a big ol’ piece of that fresh loaf of bread, topped it with homemade almond butter and a drizzle of honey. Almond on almond…mmm love it.

 

Lunch at work was nothing to write home about. I made myself a bowl of SCD yogurt with a banana, and cooked carrots. After work I headed to the gym and snacked on watermelon on the way. At the gym, I hopped on an elliptical and sweated it out for 35 minutes or so.

Not long after I got home from the gym, I was pretty darn hungry. I grabbed a couple of handfuls of cherries to tide me over. I used our cherry pitter to help me enjoy the delicious reds even more. Eating a cherry without the pit in there is fantastic! With the pit is fine too you just can’t enjoy it as much because you are weeding out the pit. The cherry pitter was a wedding gift and it was a great one at that.

 

Dana and I were both hungry at about 5:00 so we decided instead of more snacking, we would just go ahead and make dinner. We fired up the grill and cooked up two very lean round steaks (I think that’s what they were). We also cooked some mushrooms to top our steaks. I served myself another helping of cooked carrots, which btw are really starting to grow on me, and Dana had a side of broccoli.

What’s that red stuff on my plate you ask? It’s ketchup of course. I like ketchup with steak sometimes.  Is that weird? My homemade ketchup actually kind of tastes like Heinz 57, so it wasn’t weird to me at all.

 

It was a simple, nutritious, and tasty meal. Simple is definitely the way to go on a Friday night. Success.

The rest of the night was spent hangin’ with the boys, painting my toe nails, and getting ready for a wedding we are going to today. Right now it’s raining out, and I’m hoping for the bride’s sake that it stops by the afternoon. No matter what though, it will be a beautiful celebration! I am excited to help celebrate with them today.

I hope you all have a great Saturday! Catch up with you soon dudes.

 

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A Quiet Date Night

Happy weekend!

Recap from yesterday…

My day started off with a follow up appointment with the gastroenterologist regarding my current colitis flare. To give you a quick update, I’m still not feeling very well. The doc is going to amp up the dosage of my medication and has recommended I stick to a low-fiber diet as best as I can, reminding me that some small salads here and there will probably be fine, just don’t go crazy. I told her I had tried to stick to a very low-fiber, low-residue diet, but couldn’t stick with it very long because my body was craving greens so bad, and I wasn’t feeling well because of it. I am going to continue to experiment with my diet, but have decided to only allow myself to experiment at night or dinner time, so that if I do have a negative reaction, I won’t be stuck at work with it.

Anyway, I am continuing my research on different allowable foods and plan to get creative. I got busy in the kitchen later and whipped up (literally) a batch of roasted butternut squash soup for my lunches or dinners next week. People with U.C. can often tolerate cooked veggies; squash, carrots, sweet potato, but are continued to be advised to stay away from cruciferous types of vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, because they often cause GI distress. I will be posting this recipe soon! It turned out fantastic.

We made a stop at Trader Joe’s to pick up a few things since we were in the area. I L.O.V.E. LOVE Trader Joe’s. We especially love their Three Buck Chuck.

For lunch…I had some snacks and then made myself one of my most favorite lunches of all time. Spelt bread in this case, with peanut butter, honey and bananas. In my younger years, whenever I got sick with flare-ups, my mom would buy me spelt bread and I seemed to tolerate it well. I thought I would give it a go again.

So beautiful. I actually used PB2 on this one today because I am needing to watch my fat intake right now. Since PB2 only has 1.5 grams of fat per serving, it was a good decision today. I could probably eat this lunch every day and never ever get sick of it. Num.

I made my way to the gym but really wasn’t feeling the best so just hit the elliptical for an easy pace and easy resistance for a half hour.

Dinner and quiet date night….

For dinner I pureed a can of rinsed and drained pinto beans with garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and a touch of chicken broth. This was an experimental dinner btw to see if I can handle brown beans in the pureed form. We cooked up some white rice, and chopped up tomato, cilantro, and avocado, and piled it on a plate. We melted cheddar cheese on the deal and called it one quick and easy dinner.

Whoops, forgot the cheese.

There it is. How could I forget the cheese?!

I was hoping that we had mild salsa on hand to top off the dish but we didn’t, so I ended up seasoning my dish with a little dash of salt and a splash of lemon juice. I didn’t miss the salsa at all. I actually think I prefer the lemon taste (would have used lime if we had it and that would have been great too!).

Dana and I had a quiet date night planned for last night. We waited to finalize any date plans until I knew how I was feeling and since I wasn’t feeling great, we decided to make ourselves a healthy dinner, rent a movie, and stay home.

A while back I read ‘The Help’ and have wanted to see the movie ever since. Well, it just so happened redbox had it for us.

We spent the evening cuddled on the couch in our cozies watching ‘The Help.’ That is my idea of a perfect date night.

Now I am off running here and there today. Have a great Saturday everyone!

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