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Upgrade Your Breakfast

1/18/2018

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​Breakfast is often referred to the most important meal of the day.  Some people get this concept some don't.  Breakfast for a lot of people actually looks lot more like dessert.  Just yesterday we were in a local restaurant and watched a guy sitting in the booth across from us enjoy waffles à la mode.  Really, ice cream for breakfast on top of a sweet bread, topped with liquid sugar and whip cream.  Why is that even an option for breakfast?  Seriously!!!
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They all look pretty delicious don't they!  

You might recognize that waffles à la mode isn't an ideal breakfast but do you know why?  
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#1 - The obvious one is this type of breakfast is packed with sugar.  I don't think I need to explain why the sugar in this amount is bad. 

#2 - We love our fat but we also love getting it from quality sources and this type of breakfast is also extremely fat dense.  This combination of high fat and high sugar/carbohydrate is the reason we have the obesity epidemic that faces us in this country.  The calorie density is through the roof when you combine sugar and fat, our brains just don't know when to say enough is enough when you combine those things.  

#3 - Breakfast is also a unique meal.  If you look at it's name "Break - Fast" this is the meal that breaks what is likely a 8-10 hour fast depending on when you last ate the previous night.  It is because we are in this fasted state that our body is primed to absorb more of the energy that we provide it. 

This happens mainly due to us being more insulin sensitive after a fast.  That means that your body will easily transport blood glucose (carbs) into cells.  Now if you worked out at 6 a.m. and you then consume a carb dense breakfast that carbohydrate/glucose will get transported to muscle tissue.  That's a good thing!  If you roll out of bed and have an Ego waffle, bowl of cereal, or a bowl of oatmeal topped with brown sugar and raisins, that carbohydrate will likely get stored in fat cells.  

#3 - Lastly, a meal like those mentioned so far is lacking almost all nutritional value.  In general, color is a sign of a food's nutritional value.  If you didn't cook a waffle, that whole plate would be white = zero nutrition. 

When you combine combine, calorie dense, blood sugar spiking, and nutrient poor all together in one food/meal you are either having one hell of a treat meal or trying to develop diabetes.


How do you upgrade your breakfast?

#1 - Eat a balanced meal or for some a lower carbohydrate meal depending on how sensitive you are to carbohydrates.  Balanced meal means getting equal amount of calories from protein, fats and carbs.  The one that is hardest for most is the protein source. Some of our favorite ways to add protein to breakfast is egg whites, protein powder via a shake or pancakes, or meat of some kind.  Studies have even shown that a protein dense breakfast will help stave off hunger throughout the entire day, meaning less snacking and more calories consumed.  
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Sweet Potato and Black Bean Hash
#2 - Add some vegetables!  Yeah we said it veggies for breakfast.  Not only does this up the nutritional value the meal it also adds some fiber.  Try to make 1/3 of your plate a veggie!  Our go to is sauteed broccoli slaw or steamed broccoli.   By adding fiber you you slow down the digestion process and therefore will avoid blood sugar spikes and as much of that energy getting sent off to fat cells. 
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Pumpkin Spice Protein Pancakes and Broccoli
#3 - Keep it simple.  The morning can be a tough time to put a fancy breakfast together.  Why do you think cereal is a breakfast staple, convenience.  So just make something else that fits the above criteria convenient for you.  For a long time this meant have a shake for breakfast that was balanced nutritional and loaded up with some greens to get veggies.  Overnight oats that contain some extra protein, greek yogurt with berries, or egg muffins.
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#4 - Find something that you like and works for you and stick with it.  Variety is important for diet but that means throughout the day, not day to day.  Breakfast for us is almost identical 5 days a week, eggs, broccoli of some form and plantains.  Find what works for you.  ​
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Our Typical Breakfast
The common thread that connects all these tips, is having a plan.  That starts with maybe building anywhere from an extra 5 minutes up to 20 minutes to prepare an upgraded breakfast.  It means having some healthier options stocked in the fridge, freezer and pantry.  It means knowing ahead of time what you are going to make or meal prepping earlier in the week.  

We would love to hear what are your go-to breakfast options?  


Want some healthy breakfast options along with an entire week oF healthy, simple recipes?  Just follow the link below and we would love to share our 5 Day Meal Guide with you.  
YES, PLEASE!!!
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Pumpkin Spice Protein Pancakes

11/1/2017

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It wouldn't be fall if we didn't throw a pumpkin recipe at you.  Since we love pancakes here you go!  We've been making a variation of these pancakes for the longest time.  However the texture on those other ones just wasn't quite where I would like it when it comes to a pancake.  So just a couple little tweaks and we have this new one which I think will be our go to pancake recipe for a quite some time.  

If you are wondering what the hell the broccoli is doing in the picture, I thought this was a pancake recipe, you aren't the first one to think that is a weird combo.  This combo is a great a solution for a number of people that we work with on a regular basis.  Two staples that people usually fall short of on a daily basis is protein and veggies.  Why not start your day with a healthy dose of both?  

Why are protein and veggies important?  Particularly for people trying to lose weight these two things will likely be your biggest help in seeing measurable progress in a short period of time.  By getting adequate protein, 20-40 grams, per meal you will fill yourself with bulk but with lower calories.  Same goes for the veggies, due the high fiber in veggies you are adding bulk without adding calories.  It's because of this that you are able to eat to the point of being full all while staying in a calorie deficit.  

If you are curious how much protein and fiber you should specifically be eating head over to our Calorie Calculator page and submit some information and I will get you a customized plan to let you how much of each you should be eating.  This will be based on your size, activity level, and your goals. 

Otherwise enjoy the heck out of these pancakes, we sure did!

Macronutrient Information

Calories: 95
Protein: 10.9 g
Fat: 4.4 g
Carbs: 3.5 g
Sugars: 0.9 g
Fiber: 1.6 g

Ingredients

  • 1/2 can of pumpkin pie filling, roughly 3/4 of a cup plus a little bit
  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup of unflavored whey isolate protein powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (omit if using a vanilla protein powder)
  • 3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/4 cup ground flax seed
  • 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • Dash of ground clove
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ​1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp of salt

Directions

  1. Add the wet ingredients, pumpkin, eggs, almond milk, vanilla to a bowl or blender and mix to combine.  We like to use our Vitamix to mix these in.  
  2. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  I've found different flax and almond meals tend to absorb liquid at different rates.  You may need to a little more water or almond milk to an appropriate consistency.  What you are looking for is something that easily pours and spreads out on a griddle.  
  3. Heat a griddle to medium heat or 300 degrees if you have an electric one like us.  Spray with a nonstick spary, we use a coconut oil variety.
  4. Pour batter onto griddle making about 4" pancakes.  With this recipe you should get about 10 pancakes out of 1 batch.  
  5. Enjoy!
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Our Routine... A Day in the Life!

9/5/2017

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We try our best to share our life with you guys....and I know social media makes it seem like it's all glamour, beaches, fun stuff all the time and no work  It's not. I promise. 

BUT there's a big difference between what our days looked like last year compared to now.

Now...we choose what our days look like. As coaches, as business partners and life changers with Beachbody...we STILL wake up with an alarm around 6 or 6:30, because we WANT TO...with goals of getting up even earlier.  ​
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  • ​We drink 20 oz of water...make COFFEE ️...then drink coffee!
  • Pull out our stack of books and devotionals to read. I journal a little and then post to our social media sharing inspiration and things we learned...so it can encourage others
  • Eli wakes up...we snuggle a little and then he plays with some toys and eats his breakfast
  • We plan our day...set our priorities....decide what needs to get done. We check in with our private support group and encourage them or share a tip
  • Dan makes us breakfast
  • One of us takes Eli to the park or the library or run some errands and the other gets some heads down, ALONE work time.
  • I do some mentoring calls with coaches or work on trainings for our team or build our business by building relationships and connecting with people!
  • We post to social media again 
  • We work out...the time changes every day but it always happens if it's in the calendar
  • We drink Shakeology
  • We ROCK our day and simply strive to SERVE those around us

Some days we work a lot...some days we don't....sometimes we work on the weekend...and we stop when we'd like!! Sometimes we work at the beach or a coffeeshop or at home in the RV...the location doesn't matter.

Total control.

Messy hair.

Yoga pants...no showers...no pants...no shoes...no problem. HA!! Every day is a new day to make a choice. To set some new goals. To grow. 

It's a NEW day to connect with people that want to join a movement...and want to spread the message of health and life to their friends and family!! If you want more CONTROL of your life...more flexibility or more control of your health and you love to serve people and help them, we'd love to chat with YOU!! ️
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Flax Pancakes with Orange, Pecan Sryup

12/4/2016

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We are currently parked in a campground in central Texas between Houston and San Antonio.  There isn't anything super fancy about this park or its location.  One upside though is that there are pecan trees everywhere and it's pecan season!  If I had the patience I could easily fill up a 5 gallon bucket in less than hour.  We've been snacking on them a bit but decided to try to use them the other morning in combination with a new pancake recipe.  

​If you follow us you know that we love our pancakes and they are a weekend tradition.  You also know we need gluten free options since I can no longer eat anything glutenous!  I wouln't consider these pancakes health food but they are close.  The flax in them provide a ton of Omega 3 fats which are super good for you.  You also get a decent dose of protein and fiber too!  
The sauce/sryup that I made is the thing that turns a fairly healthy pancake into a bit of a treat!  Enjoy it though because it's delicious and a much better way to enjoy pancakes then use a boxed premix.  

Ingredients

Pancakes
  • 3/4 cup ground flax seeds
  • 3/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups almond milk
  • Pinch of salt

Syrup
  • 1/3 cup toasted pecans
  • 2 tbsp grassfed butter
  • Juice of 1 orange
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • 1/2 cup real maple syrup

Directions

Pancakes
  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or mixer and mix! 
  2. I would recommend adding the liquid last and 1/2 cup at a time until you get a good pancake batter consistency.  It took me right around 2 1/2 cups.  
  3. Cook on a 325 degree griddle for 5 minutes then flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes until fully cooked.  
Syrup
  1. Since we had raw pecans I add them to a small saucepan and cooked over a medium heat for 5 minutes until you could start to smell the toasted nut flavor.  Make sure to stir often, if you are toasting your own.  
  2. Add the orange juice and zest next, followed by the butter and syrup.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  The skin on my orange was a little nasty so I opted for using some 1 drop of orange essential oil to up the organge flavor instead.  
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Healthy Home = Healthy Life

7/22/2016

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I want to share some stats and awesome info that I recently read in the book Eat Move Sleep. First off let me give a plug for the book...it's been a great read that goes super fast and has tons of practical tips to help you start making changes in your life.  It's not loaded down with science but provides enough to let you know that the stuff he is saying isn't some nonsense he pulled out of thin air.  

There is a chapter in the book where he refers to a study of more than 6,000 people that all tried to lose weight and what the common characteristics were of the most successful.  A common theme among the successful was being healthy at home.  Seems like common sense right??? You spend most of your time there but so many people live in a toxic home that doesn't promote health!  

Here were just a few of the interesting stats that the study showed:
  • 92% of the participants found a way to workout from home
  • 78% ate breakfast every day
  • 75% weighed themselves once a week
  • 66% watched less 10 hours of TV per week

I love that first stat and I wish I could say that I knew that before I started working out at home but that was just a complete accident.  It makes a ton of sense though!  Whether you are doing a Beachbody program, going for a run, or following some fitness app program being active is key.  The thing with home workouts that we love is that the convenience and the time we save.  Let's be honest most people are busy these days so finding 60-90 minutes to get to a gym, workout, shower, and get home is tough.  So if you can roll out of bed lace up your shoes and be done working out in 30 minutes that's a huge plus and I think that is why 92% of the people that were successful found a way to make that happen at home.  

Eating breakfast... If you've followed us for a bit you know I've dabbled with Intermittent Fasting.  There is a great science behind it and can lead some amazing results.  It's a hard thing though for a novice to jump right in to and be successful.  I think that is why the breakfast stat is an important one.  Eating breakfast is a great way to set the stage for the rest of the day.  If you start your day with a quality breakfast you will be a lot less likely to jump at the office donuts or the french fries at lunch.  Your cravings will stay in check!  

Weighing yourself once a week, this one was a little interesting to me.  I get that tracking your progress is a good way to determine if you need to make changes but for the average person they really don't know what changes to make.  Other than maybe eat less and exercise more, which we know isn't always a great solution.  Plus weight isn't the sole determiner of progress.  So we will just let this one go...and agree to disagree.

I love this last stat about TV watching.  Frankly because I used to be a 10+ hour a week TV watcher.  Let's be honest even the most riveting show gets boring at times so I turned to ice cream to help with that boredom.  Mindless TV watching often times leads to mindless eating.  On top of that TV watching also means sitting which is terrible for your health.  The amount of activity went up substantially when we ditched the cable and we would encourage you to do the same.  

Other Ways to "Healthify" Your Home

  1. Clean out your pantry and fridge!  If you have junk in the house you will eat it.  
  2. Get some quality sleep!  Sleep is one of the most underrated things people focus on when it comes to their health.  It is vital to get some quality sleep every night and let your body reset.  If you want a great book to read on the subject check out Shawn Stevenson's Sleep Smarter. 
  3. Eat as a family.  Kind of a weird one coming from a nutritional geek but our relationships are key to our health.  Slowing down enough to sit around a dinner table and have a conversation with your loved ones will not only help your relationships with your family, it will also set the stage for your kids' kids in their homes.  
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Gluten Free Blueberry Chia Pancakes

6/16/2016

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Laura almost didn't let me make these for her.  Apparently she has a thing about eating chia seeds because they get stuck in her teeth.  I get it... kind of.  I was able to twist her arm and get her to try them and I'm pretty sure she was glad she did.  We all loved these pancakes, even Eli.  Another bonus: zero chia seeds stuck in her teeth too.  Talk about having your (pan)cake and eating it too!  

Seriously if chia seeds aren't part of your diet you need to consider adding them.  Even if a few stray seeds end up in your teeth the benefits far outweigh any social anxiety from being caught with something in your teeth.  Even if you do get caught it also gives you an excuse to share this amazing seed story with someone new!  
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Let's talk about just a few of the benefits.  Gram for gram it contains more Omega 3 fats than salmon.  That means lowered LDL and VLDL cholesterol, reduced inflammation throughout the body, improved brain health, lowers cancer risk, and reduces your risk of heart disease.  Sounds pretty good, right?  It doesn't stop there.  In one serving (1 oz or 2 tbsp) you also get 11 grams of fiber.  Compare that to a whole wheat pasta(4 grams of fiber) that is often touted to be high fiber and it doesn't even compare.  How about micronutrients... these seeds are loaded with vitamins and minerals.  I love that they have 30% of your daily recommended amount of magnesium.  Magnesium is a mineral that is often referred to as the the mineral the people are deficient in the most yet is responsible for over 300 different chemical reactions in your body.  It's important in getting quality sleep, energy production and even your mood.  
When you pair up all of these awesome benefits plus the antioxidant power of blueberries, these pancakes will actually make you healthier!  How awesome is that, to get to eat pancakes and improve your health.  Just don't drown them in maple syrup made from high fructose corn syrup ;)
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Ingredients (Makes 12 medium pancakes)

  • 2 Bananas
  • 4 Eggs
  • 2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
  • 1/2 cup, Coconut Flour
  • 3/4 cup Almond Milk 
  • 1 cup Blueberries
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • Pinch of salt

Directions

  1. In a small dish or cup add a 1/2 cup of the almond milk and the chia seeds.  Let this sit for 15 minutes and stir them occasionally.  (This is the trick to not getting them stuck in your teeth)
  2. Meanwhile add the remaining ingredients, EXCEPT the blueberries, to a blender or mixer and mix to combine.  Add the chia seed mixture after the 15 minutes.
  3. Fold in the blueberries.
  4. Cook on a skillet at 300 degrees.  It will take roughly 4-5 minutes on the first side and 2-3 minutes on the second.  
  5. Eat them plain or serve with a little grassfed butter and real maple syrup and enjoy!
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Paleo Pumpkin Muffins

12/17/2015

 
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I've never considered myself a baker.  There is just too much measuring and too many dishes to clean up afterwards.  On top of that most baked goods don't exactly line up with healthy eating.  What are the cornerstones of baking; usually a combo of white sugar, flour, and poor quality fats.  Basically the worst combo when it comes to health and maintaining a healthy weight.  

Now that I've poo pooed bake goods let me tell you about the super tasty muffins I made, lol.   This recipe by no means qualifies these muffins as health food but I did remove those poor quality ingredients that cause inflammation and hormonal havoc in your body and replaced them with friendlier ingredients.   The recipe that I based my recipe off of is one that my mom passed down to me.  She would always make it as a bread loaf instead of muffins and I remember just loving it.  Probably because of the amount of sugar that was in it!  

So here were my "healthy" swaps.  Instead of white sugar I used dates that I pureed with a little almond milk.  Instead of regular wheat flour I used a combination of coconut and arrowroot.  Instead of vegetable oil I used coconut oil.  As you will see in the nutrition facts below I reduced the sugar by 18 grams per serving, which is huge and when it comes to weight loss and the insulin response that you would get from eating it.  Swapping out the flours will help with GI issues that people have from gluten, along with the high Glycemic Index that comes along with regular wheat flour.  Coconut oil versus vegetable oil is a no brainer unless you are still living in the 1980's and think saturated fat will kill you.  

This are super simple to make and fairly guilt free as long as you don't eat 6 of them.  They are a great kick snack for our 16 month old son too, which is super convenient.  Hope you enjoy them! 

Paleo Pumpkin Muffins

​Ingredients
  • 4 eggs
  • 8 dates blended with 1/2 C of almond milk, could use honey instead, maybe 1/2 C
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 c coconut oil melted
  • 2/3 c coconut flour
  • 2/3 c arrowroot or tapioca starch​
  • 1 can pumpkin

Directions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Spoon into small muffin tin or silicone muffin pan which we love.
  3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
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Mom's Pumpkin Bread

  • 4 eggs
  • 3 cups of sugar
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 c oil 
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 can pumpkin

Directions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Transfer to two large bread loaf pans or 3 medium pans
  3. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour
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Last Call for The Master's Hammer & Chisel Test Group

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Not Quite Monkey Bread

12/3/2015

 
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I've heard it called a few different things, Monkey Bread or Pull Apart Bread.  Not sure if that is a regional thing???  In Minnesota it goes my Monkey Bread, not exactly sure why but if you are interested I'm sure Dr. Google would let you know.  No matter where you are from and what you call it Monkey Bread is straight up delicious.  The warm bread!  Some of it crusty.  Some of it soft!  The cinnamon.  The caramel.  It's a perfect combo.  

I've been on a gluten free diet for a little over 6 months now, not by choice unfortunately.  I'm always looking at making substitutions to recreate some of my old favorites.  I've had a lot of successes and some failures.  Beer has been a failure, seriously disappointing.  Otherwise, I've found a bread recipe, some pancake recipes, some muffin recipes that are really good.  
With this creation I wasn't even trying to recreate Monkey Bread.  After having it though, it was as good as I remember the real thing.  If you can't tell by the picture the key difference is that it is made from plantains.  

The only tricky part about making these is having patience to allow your plantains to ripen to the point that they get semi-sweet.  The plantains pictured below are still mabye even a little under ripe for how I would prefer them.  You want to start seeing some black spots covering the peel of the plantain.  That's when you know they are ready to go.  If you buy them green in the store, it will likely take almost a week to get to that point.  
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I'm going to forego the fancy ingredients and directions because honestly this is so easy to make I can just tell you.  A serving size for me is 1 plantain.  Even our 16 month old son can take down an entire plantain himself.  However, if you are watching your carbs a bit you might want to split a plantain with someone else.  If you are cooking for more, just scale the recipe up.  

​To make these I will cut the plantains into 1/2" half moon shaped pieces.  Then in a medium-hot skillet I add a couple teaspoons of bacon grease.  If you don't save your bacon fat, start doing it, it makes for a great cooking fat.  Sautee your plantains for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they start getting a little carmelized and brown/black.  I usually season with a pinch of salt while they are cooking.  Once they are cooked, there is the option to add about 1 tbsp of butter to really kick up the flavor.  I just add that to the pan and toss the plantains until the butter is melted and coated the plantains.  Depending on how ripe your plantains are they may or may not need the butter.  When they are more ripe I will likely not add the butter but if they are still a little firmer texture they tend to soak up the fat and they need a little extra shot at the end.  Either way they will be delicious!  

I like to then put the cooked, buttered delicious plantains in a separate bowl and add roughly a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  I don't measure I just shake enough out of the spice jar until it looks like they will be adequately coated.  I like to do this in a separate bowl versus a skillet because I find you have to add about twice as much cinnamon because a lot gets absorbed by the leftover fat in the pan and it doesn't make it onto the plantains.  That's it!!!  

Hope you enjoy and let us know if you try these.  

Paleo Carrot Cake Muffins and Orange, Maple Keto Coffee

10/7/2015

 
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Carrot cake is straight up my jam!  Hands down, best cake!  I love the sweet and spice!  I would eat it all the time if it was available.  

Given my  new gluten free life, I have had to make some sacrifices and cake is one of them.  Just this past weekend at my nephews birthday party I was forced to pass on the delicious Mickey Mouse cake.  As hard as that was I was just glad I didn't have to say no to carrot cake.  That would have just been tough.  Avoidance has been my main course of action.  Recently though I just had a craving for carrot cake.  Maybe it was the fall weather but something made me think of it and that led to a google search... "Gluten free carrot cake recipe"

Low and behold I found a really good one and we had all the ingredients so I decided to do some baking.  I usually don't bake, that is more Laura's area of expertise!  Measuring is tough!  I did it though and this muffins turned out awesome!  The recipe that I found and tweaked was on a website, Primarily Inspired.  Hats off to Kelly for the inspiration for this recipe!  We just did the muffin/cupcake recipe but she has an icing that goes along with these too if you want it to be even more desserty, that's a word right???  

The following morning Laura was scrolling her IG feed and stumbled across a pic from a local coffee shop and how they do a Orange, Maple Latte.  She tried hard to convince me to drive 30 minutes to go get a coffee.  I fought hard and told her I would just make her one instead.  Since we don't really do dairy either we opted for a "keto coffee."  Although given the maple syrup in it, we probably can't call it a "keto" coffee but oh well you get the idea, it has butter in it and other delicious things.  This was super simple and super tasty.  I have no idea how it compares the the coffee shop latte but we will do this again.  It paired perfectly with the carrot muffins too.  Pure breakfast bliss!  

Paleo Carrot Cake Muffins

Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3-4 large carrots) - I used a little less than the original recipe and this was still a lot of carrot - Eat your veggies!!!
  • 8-10 pitted medjool dates finely chopped by hand or in a food processor
  • 4 eggs
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup coconut flour 
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • pinch of salt
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Grate the carrots using a food processor or box grater and set aside.  
  3. Chop the dates. If using food processor to "chop" the dates pulse 3-4 times, enough to chop but not too much that it turns into a giant date ball.  
  4. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients (coconut flour, spices, baking powder, salt) and whisk to evenly incorporate the spices.  
  5. In a mixing separate bowl, add in your chopped dates, eggs, coconut oil and vanilla. Beat mixture well.
  6. Add dry ingredients and stir until combined.
  7. Fold in the grated carrots.
  8. Fill muffin batter to the top of each muffin pan and bake for 25-28 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. 

Orange, Maple Keto Coffee

Ingredients
  • 1 large cup of coffee
  • 1 tbsp grass fed butter
  • 1 drop of orange essential oil
  • 2 tsp real maple syrup
Directions
  1. Add all of your ingredients to high powered blender.   Blend on high for 15 seconds, making sure that the seal on the blender top is not super tight and you allow the steam to release.  If you don't do this bad things happen.  You've been warned.  

Eggs....Should We Really Care Where They Come From?

9/21/2015

 
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We have always known that KNOWING where our food comes from is really important...but it was still cheaper to get 2 dozen organic eggs from Costco. Just being honest here!! Sue me. 

BUT, when a friend of ours (Sara) said she raises chickens and sells their eggs I knew we had to get on her list. We eat SO. MANY. EGGS. Seriously. It's ridiculous. We go through about 6-8 eggs per day. Yes. SO. MANY. Haha!! We love them though and so does Eli, so we have them for breakfast pretty much every morning. 

As soon as Sara's chickens started laying eggs she messaged us (this last weekend) and said she'd bring 2 dozen to church the next morning and I kinda jumped for joy. My older sister, Sara (as well....weird)....raised chickens for a short time in Colorado so we had tried pasture raised chicken eggs before and they were SO good. Here's a picture of me holding one of her chickens a few years ago:
However...do you know WHY it's important to know where your eggs came from and what those chickens ate? To quote one of our favorite podcasts, The Model Health Show
"You are what you eat ate."
 - Shawn Stevenson 
By that we mean any animal product you're putting into you body, you're also ingesting whatever THEY ATE as well. So choose your animal sources wisely! 

Sara's chickens are pastured...meaning they have full access to outdoor area that is fenced for their safety. This is much different from "free range" which simply means according to the USDA the chickens have "access" to the outdoors for at least 50% of their lives. ALSO, don't mistake "Cage free" for being all that great...if they came from a big factory farm those chickens were probably just cooped up in a barn with a thousand other chickens...not technically in a cage per se...but not roaming free and able to eat whatever they want.  "Cage free" and "Free range" aren't necessarily better...even though we all get misled by the terms sometimes. I know I did!! That's why knowing where your eggs come from (if you have that ability) is really important. Click here for a great article explaining more about this. 

Sara's chickens are fed non GMO feed with no soy and it's basically organic...just not certified organic yet because she gets it from farmers that are in the process of organic certification. Her chickens also get fresh fruit and veggies all the time and they add kefir, whey etc...when available! They also forage and eat bugs and weeds in their pasture and they sometimes reserve feed until the end of the day to force them to forage more which means they get more variety in their diet! Genius! That's why the yolks are so yellow (see picture below).

Here are a few pictures of her beautiful chickens and her toddler terrorizing a few of them...or maybe they're terrorizing her, I can't tell! 

And now the big reveal...we wanted to do a side by side comparison of the organic Costco eggs and Sara's pasture eggs...check it out. Can you tell which is which?? We won't leave you hanging...the one on the left is the pasture raised egg and the one on the right is the organic, cage free egg from Costco.
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Egg from a pastured chicken (left) versus a store bought organic egg (right).
SO...if you don't have the option to pay a little more for quality eggs...that's fine!! I just challenge you to think about the foods that you eat ALOT of on a daily basis and think about slowly starting to swap IN a higher quality version!! Your health will thank you in the long run!!
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Dan and Laura Suedbeck have embraced an entrepreneurial lifestyle.  They are constantly challenging the status quo and challenge others to do so too.  They believe that you don't always have to change your situation, sometimes you just need to change the lens you view the world through.  Their focus is helping people  find purpose and passion with their lives all while getting healthy.   Click here to find out more about them.  

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