CLEAN Dessert Pops!!

So, the other day my kids begged me to make Popsicles. But of course, I forgot to buy any healthy juice to make them out of ... Waaawaaaa. So I started digging on the Internet, and thinking of what was in my fridge, etc, and came up with these. HUGE success. (Except with my oldest, who refuses to believe that ground up fruit is not going to suck, but I will share his version at the end)

Clean eating fruit pops

1 cup Greek yogurt

1 cup frozen cherries (or whatever fruit you like)

1 TBSP honey

Stevia (to taste)

Blend first 3 ingredients in the blender, add stevia to your liking, and pour into molds. I put a few mini chocolate chips in the bottom of a few for the kids. You can also use ice cube trays. I did find them hard to get out of the molds, but a little warm water and they popped right out. :)

Now, for my oldest, I used vanilla yogurt with chocolate chips. He thought they were good, but would rather have juice pops ;)

Now my molds are tiny...maybe 3 or 4 inches, so when I plugged the ingredients into myfitnesspal, the calorie count came to 45. The only sugars are naturally occurring, so I think they are guilt-free. :)

Chicken with Capers (Low Carb)

This is a recipe I have wanted to make for a long time, but most recipes for Chicken Piccata have SO many steps. Ugh, I don't want to WORK at dinner in the kitchen. ;)  Plus, most recipes for Piccata call for the chicken to be dredged in flour, and that just won't work for me. So I found this one, and it looked so easy, that I just had to try! It was as easy as she promised, and DOUBLE yum. This is not "healthy" because of the cream, but is low carb. So don't yell at me for not posting a healthy recipe today. Clean recipe next time, I promise. :) Just use this one as a cheat meal. 

Chicken with Caper Cream Sauce

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 tsp lemon pepper (check your brand for sugar in the ingredients or make your own.)
1 tsp salt (you might want to leave this salt out if you are sensitive)
1 tsp dried dill weed
1 tsp garlic powder
3 TBSP butter (I used a bit less than this. Just enough to cover the bottom of pan)
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 TBSP capers, drained and rinsed (you don't have to rinse, I didn't. I like the flavor)

Melt the butter in the skillet. Mix together all the spices, and sprinkle both sides of the chicken and place in the pan. Sear on both sides on medium high heat, and then lower the temperature to medium and cook until breasts are cooked through. Remove chicken from the skillet and add cream to deglaze the pan. Whisk and cook over medium low heat until reduced.  Add capers and remove from heat. Pour sauce over the chicken and serve. 

Honestly, this tastes even better reheated the next day. Pair with a vegetable and you are set. :)

And what about those goals?

That's what they always ask.  Always. I went to a gym a couple years back, and got the "3 free training sessions". Riiiigggghhhhtttt...Free? The first session is just them "assessing" your fitness level. And as always, she asks "So what are your goals?"  I want to be skinny! What do you think my goals are? Is there another goal people come in here with? "Uh.. I would like to work out endlessly with no positive results".  Well, it has taken a few years, and ALOT of soul searching, but I think I finally understand why it's important to have more specific goals. Just wanting to be skinny is not enough. So I have been coming up with my own list of reasons I want to get healthy, lose weight, and ultimately be in better shape.

1. I want to enjoy clothes shopping again.  I hate trying on clothes...all clothes. HATE IT! I remember, once upon a time, when I didn't even have to try clothes on. Just went in, picked out what I wanted, straight to cashier and paid. Now, I get to drag a small child (or two) into the dressing room with me (as if that isn't humiliating enough) and try until multiple sizes of the same item (all the while fielding a million questions), only to come out of the dressing room with little to nothing that fit. This is my number one goal. To enjoy shopping for clothes.

2. I want to like the clothes already in my closet. I stand in there for I don't know how long, staring at each item. Round and round in circles looking at my clothes and hating each and every item in there because I know how it looks on.  (Don't even get me started on all the clothes I have in a box for "someday"). I would like to just pop into my closet and pick anything, and not change my clothes 3-4 times every time.

3. I want to be healthier. I realize this one should be first, but if I am being honest, this is, at best, third.  I consider myself pretty healthy in most aspects of my life. I eat good-for-me food. I don't drink alcohol very often anymore (and definitely not as often as I would like). I walk on that damn treadmill a few to several days a week. But I don't feel healthy. I have a few weaknesses. Like popcorn, chips and the occasional inability to pass up a dessert, especially if it is cheesecake. So, if I could get myself into a healthier place, it wouldn't matter if I had an occasional glass of wine (or 5). ;)


This is as honest as I want to be for now. But I knew that if I didn't write them down, I would never face what is really bothering me. I will save that for a future entry. ;)

And the truth of the matter is...

So I am going to write this out, mostly because I want to remember it. I am hoping that writing it all down will remind me not to get myself to this point again. Here is the truth of it...

Tuesday I decided to try a workout DVD. I am the kind of person that can't just exercise. I need someone to tell me what to do. Like literally. I would use a trainer except that would A) cost extra money that I do not want to spend right now, and B) Would play into some of my worst fears (most of which I will not spell out for you here -gotta keep some of my crazy to myself). So, anyway, I went to the store and picked out a DVD with Gunnar Peterson. It is from Shape magazine, and is broken up into nice (short) individual workouts. I decided to the the 20 minute strength/toning portion. No biggie. I won't say it was easy, but I could do most of the exercises without altering them in any way. I did pretty good, if I do say so myself. I even thought "Hmm..wonder if I should do another portion", but went on about my day without a care in the world. Aside from some residual jelly-ish feelings, I was feeling pretty good about myself. :)

Now when night came on Tuesday, I noticed some stiffness in my legs. Didn't think too much of it, figured it came with the territory. WELL...boy howdy does it. I woke up on Wednesday morning and was sure I would not be able to walk. I was right. Spent ALL of Wednesday in extreme pain. The stairs were torture, and wouldn't you know that it seemed like EVERYTHING hit the floor and required me to pick it up. Now to admit how extreme the pain is is embarrassing. I can no longer hide from the truth of how out of shape I am. The number of the scale is one thing - seeing, errr..feeling, it is another. It always proves to me, once and for all, that walking on the treadmill is not going to be enough. I will need to bust my a$$, and not for a short amount of time, in order to get myself to the shape I want to be. But, I believe that admitting it is the first step. 

I sincerely hope that I can look back on this week (soon) and laugh. :)

And a letter than I wish I could send...

To my 20 year old self

Dear Me,

I know, I know...you are in your 20s and you can eat whatever you want, or not eat and just "drink" whatever you wanted and still be a stick? Eating right isn't something you have to think about...you eat okay. No major red flags in the diet, and skinny is a given - no work required. 

Unfortunately, this will not always be the case. Eventually you will find that you slow down. You will get married to the love of your life, you will start cooking more - have a few kids. Just life... And you will allow life to get in the way of taking care of yourself. Perhaps eating out too much, drinking too much. Could be that you move from city to city and stop leaving the house. Where are you going to go with three kids anyway? The mall? CFA? Chuck E Cheese? You name it, you will find a reason to become out of shape, overweight, and unhappy. It's what you decide to do next that will make all the difference in the world. 

Get off your butt. Get moving. Eat better - or in this case, just remember how you ate when you ate right. Don't let it go too long, because I am here to tell you...it just gets harder as you get older. Ideally, you will never allow yourself to get heavier, but since this is my letter to my 20 year old self, I know that you did... 3 kids and 3 states later, you did. 

Now get up. And get moving...never slow down because when you do...well, just take my word for it. :) 

Stay tuned for my workout fiascoes and all the funniness that comes with that.

Turkey Stuffed Peppers (Healthy)

I remember when I was little, and my Mom would make stuffed green peppers. I loved the flavor, but didn't like the actual pepper. So when I saw this recipe on the Skinny Ms website, I thought "I can do this. Sort of". :) To be clear, I have NO idea what a Patty Pan squash is...none. But I did have an acorn squash I wanted to try in an actual recipe, and 1 lb of ground turkey I wanted to use, so I made a few adjustments and then off I went! 

Stuffed Peppers

1 cup of beef broth

1/2 cup of quinoa

6 Bell Peppers (any color you like)

2 TBSP avocado oil (or olive oil)

1 acorn squash - diced

1 small sweet onion-chopped

3 cloves of garlic-minced

1lb Ground Turkey (Or lean ground beef if you don't like turkey)

1 cup Parmesan cheese (leave out if Paleo or pure Clean)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Bring 1 cup of beef broth to a boil. Add quinoa and cook for 10-15 minutes until all liquid is absorbed and then set aside while preparing the rest of the recipe. 

Heat 2 TBSP of oil in a pan. Add onions, acorn squash and garlic and cook until tender...about 5 minutes. Add turkey and cook until completely browned.  Turn the pan off and add quinoa, parm cheese and salt/pepper and stir until combined. Spoon into peppers (approx 3/4 cup per pepper). Place into a greased baking dish and cover with foil. Cook for 20 minutes or until bell peppers are as soft as you like. Eat up! 

You could also make this a meat-free dish if you just use more squash in place of the meat.  We have only prepared acorn squash on the grill with a little olive oil and garlic salt, but it was great in this dish. Added some bulk and veggie content without actually changing the flavor. I read somewhere that the smaller the acorn squash (smoother ridges), the milder the taste. I plan to use acorn squash in place of potatoes in another recipe soon, and of course I will share :)

Salmon for the Hubby (Clean)

So my husband likes salmon. Me, not so much. But he had bought one at the grocery store the other day and asked me to make it. Since I have NO clue about cooking fish that isn't cod or tilapia, I took to the Internet. This recipe came up several times, so I figured it had to be good :) It called for Trout, but I think it worked fine for the Salmon.  He gave it two thumbs up, so I am sharing ;)

Broiled Steelhead Trout With Rosemary, Lemon and Garlic

Now, I do not have fresh rosemary, like ever, so I used dried. I added it to the olive oil/lemon juice mixture and let it sit for a few minutes. Worked out fine (same goes for fresh lemon if you don't have it.)

I put all the ingredients into a small bowl, and let it sit together for about 10 minutes. I used dried rosemary, so I wanted the flavors to mix together well before I brushed it onto the salmon. 

I lined a baking pan with foil, sprayed it with Olive Oil, and placed the salmon in the oven. Broil it on one of the highest rack settings for the first 5 minutes and then move the rack down to the middle setting and bake the rest of the way. 

Baked Steelhead Salmon

1lb Steelhead fillet (Salmon or Trout)

2 cloves garlic (minced/grated)

1/2 TBS dried Rosemary or 1 1/2 Fresh

Juice of half a lemon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 TBS Avocado Oil

Spray a foil lined baking sheet with olive oil and place salmon skin side down. Mix remainder of ingredients together and let sit for a few minutes. Move your top oven rack up to the second highest setting. Cover top of the salmon with the olive oil mixture and broil in the oven for 5 minutes. Then move the rack down to the middle setting and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until fish is cooked through. 

I served it with creamed cauliflower and broccoli. (I had normal fish ;)