Recipe: LivingHealthyWithChocolate’s Carrot Cake Truffles

Do I even need to explain anything that says “Living Healthy With Chocolate.”

Me: seems legit.

If you haven’t already check out the wonderful Adriana Harlan on her mouth watering site, Living Healthy With Chocolate.

You won’t regret it….. ever.

One day.. meaning yesterday.. I was scrolling through my Instagram and came across a recipe for Paleo Carrot Cake Truffles, suddenly I couldn’t stop thinking about them.  I was on a mission to make these things.

So I did.

“I want to see more of them!!”

Oh….

I…. uhh….

already ate them all (I had help, don’t worry 😉 )

The only thing I changed was adding chia seeds for a leeeetle extra protein.

Check out this freakin’ scrumptious recipe.  You won’t even really have to pretend that these are extra healthy because it’s basically a salad.  A carrot salad.  Dessert = Salad.  Everyone’s winning. 

Recipe: Carrot Cake Dark Chocolate Truffles 

Show some fellow blog love and throw Living Healthy With Chocolate a follow on Insta ❤ 

Rest Day: January 11 (PG-13 language ALERT)

Hi loves 🙂

(a leeetle sneak peak at my blog-love, rest day post #sorrynotsorry)

You know how normally on rest days I’m like go out and go for a walk, try something new, find a new joke… etc. etc…

Well Sunday was like this too and mind you, there is no day that I would tell you to NOT do any of those things.  BUT I have to tell you that there was so much yummy food happening in my life this weekend that I can’t not share these delicious things with you!!

Even though I always like to share with you my own recipes, this week I took a page from the absolutely wonderful and delicious blog PaleOMG, where Juli Bauer, author of PaleOMG.com, Juli Bauer’s Paleo Cookbook, and The Paleo Kitchen shares incredible Paleo recipes that are to die for.  #OMGisthatpaleo (seriously, every time, like, duh, Mimi…. that’s the name of her freakin’ website.)

Not only is Juli bauer great for her Paleo diet friendly recipes but she’s also a CrossFit coach on the side, in Denver, CO and she’s all about doing what makes you feel good as a human.  So check her out!

Her website is too good to be true (kinda like the awesome-sauce food I’m about to share with you… I PROMISE IT’S COMING, chill out, ok?) PaleOMG.com and while you’re at it, why not throw her a like on Facebook (I bet she likes you, too) or a quick follow on Instagram. #bloggerlove

 Without further a due: enter Mimi’s lunch stage left. 

Is your mouth watering from just looking at it?  BECAUSE JUST LOOK AT IT.

Coconut chicken, served with spinach, avocado, mango, and lime.  

You can find the recipe for the Coconut Chicken RIGHT HERE

And the rest was so easy to improvise that you could probably pair it with any other fruits and veg and it would be just as yummy.

Simply put: the chicken is on a bed of spinach, tossed in lime juice, next to avocado and mango also with lime juice over top of them.  (I sprinkled a little chili powder and salt on the avo to make it even more… well… awesome.)

While waiting, quite impatiently I might add, for my PaleOMG chicken to bake I wasn’t completely strung out.

Lucky for me, I had a copy of Thug Kitchen’s cookbook to thumb through and drool over.  For those of you who don’t know Thug Kitchen, you’re welcome, and for those of you who already do, you know how much they stir things up.

With a punch line of: Eat Like you Give a Fuck, Thug Kitchen shares vegan recipes that make ‘vegan’ sound a little bit more like ‘all the chocolate.’

A few of my favorite pages from the book had to be….

IF THAT DOESN’T GET YOU ALL FIRED UP TO EAT… I really don’t know what to say anymore.

So, while your at it, having a foodgasm over PalOMG’s awesome recipes, that I know you already have pulled up in the tab next to this one, check out Thug Kitchen, too!!

Their website is both scandalous and fabulous, it deserves a good scouring:  http://www.thugkitchen.com (just again, you’re welcome)

If it wasn’t already obvious that my obsession with healthy food is getting to be a really, real thing, here is even more proof:

After all of this healthy food blog reading, yummy chicken lunch making, and really relaxing rest-daying I still managed to whip up an even yummier thing for dinner….

Yep.  The dinner of my dreams and it doesn’t even have bacon and eggs in it. (or peanut butter) #isthisreallife?

Spinach salad tossed in lime juice and honey, with blue berries, mango, steamed sweet potatoes, and pan seared tuna steak.

#tappingout

#thefoodgodsarereal

xo-

mimi

Recipe: Spinach & Sweet Potato Hash with Runny Eggs

We are all well aware that breakfast is the greatest meal of the day and eggs are a food of the Gods…

Well.. at least, I am well aware of this.

Maybe you are not and this is why this recipe has just come into your life.  #youarewelcome

Seriously.. this combines like three of my favoritest (shhh) things all on one plate.

-BACON

-SWEET POTATOES

-EGGS

this means…

HAPPY HAPPY BELLY.

For the Everything:

1 small sweet potato (shredded)

¼ cup green onions (chopped)

1/8 cup roasted red peppers (chopped)

1 cup baby spinach

2 strips bacon

2 eggs

½ tsp. coconut oil

To Make:

Wash the sweet potato with water and peel the skin with a peeler.

Using a cheese grater, grate the entire sweet potato. Be careful not to grate your fingers as you get closer to the end of the sweet potato. 

Heat a medium sized cast iron (or non stick) pan on the stove on high heat for 90 seconds and add the bacon. Cook bacon for 2-3 minutes on the first side and flip over to finish. Remove the bacon from the pan and pat down with a paper towel.   The bacon should be cooked so that it is crispy enough to chop into bits.

Let the bacon cool for about a minute and then chop into small pieces.

Keeping the pan on medium heat, add the grated sweet potato to the pan and cover with a lid for 30 seconds. Remove lid and stir sweet potatoes. (Repeat for about 2 minutes.) After the sweet potatoes have been cooking for two minutes, add the onions, red peppers, bacon bits, and spinach. Mix together until well combined and then cover for another minute, cooking on low heat so that the spinach can wilt.

Once the hash is fully combined, heated, and cooked (about 2 minutes) remove from the pan onto serving plate and cover with the pan’s lid to keep warm.

In the same pan that the hash was just cooked in, add the coconut oil to coat the entire pan. Crack the two eggs into the pan and cook for two minutes on one side and flip to the other, finishing cooking for another minute. (These eggs are best with runny centers, so be extra careful not to crack them!)

Top the sweet potato and spinach hash with the runny eggs, season with salt and pepper, and EAT IT UP

Recipe: Maple Almond Butter

There is absolutely no way that I am the only one out there who is obsessed with peanut butter and so needless to say I have also discovered the absolute joy that is almond butter.  Sometimes I need to change it up… you know… like when I eat two jars of peanut butter in a week. (Kidding that only happened like one time…)

SO!  The other day I was working on a raw coconut cookie recipe and I decided that I needed almond butter for the recipe.  Silly me… I didn’t have any… Solution: MAKE IT.

This easiest recipe ever for almond butter is not only super quick but also WICKED yummy.  (You’ll see, there’s maple for added noms.)

Ingredients:

2 cups almonds (dry roasted are best)

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbls. dark amber maple syrup

How To:

In a food processor pulse all three ingredients together for five minutes.

Each time there is build-up, stop and scrape the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula.

It will take just about ten minutes for the oils in the almonds to release and for the chunks to smooth out, so stick with it and continue to pulse the almonds and maple until they are smooth.

After the ten minutes of blending are up (or however long it takes for the almond butter to reach your desired smoothness) scrape it out of the food processor and into an air tight container.  The butter will keep in the fridge for over a week.

**Best enjoyed with sliced apples or bananas (or in a yummy cookie recipe, coming at you later this week!)

Recipe: Lettuce Wrap Fish Tacos

As if tacos weren’t already great enough…

and as if fish tacos weren’t always a FABULOUS idea…

this nummie recipe for a rainbow dinner is also grain, dairy, and refined sugar free.

So…. yeah… these are basically super tacos and if you want your day to get even better than I know it already is, definitely try making these for dinner.

Lettuce Wrap Fish Tacos

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

½ pound white fish (tilapia, cod, etc.)

4 large washed lettuce leaves

3/4 cup diced tomatoes

1 onion- sliced

Coconut oil

Salsa

Chipotle hot sauce

Seasoned salt (to taste)

Cilantro

Diced green onions (to taste)

How To:

Preheat a cast iron pan on high heat for a minute and a half, adding in 1 tsp. of coconut oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

Lay the fish filet face down on a plate and sprinkle seasoned salt over the top, flip over and do the same with the other side.

Once the fish is seasoned and the coconut oil in the pan is glassy from heat, place the fish into the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes on the first side. Flip the fish over in the pan and cook on the next side for just under a minute, remove from the pan using a spatula and let sit for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile…

Heat a separate cast iron pan on high heat for a minute and add ½ tsp. of coconut oil to cover the entire pan. Reduce heat on the pan to medium and add the sliced onions. Using a spatula caramalize the onions for about five minutes or until they are floppy and slightly browned. (Doesn’t that sound gross?  Good thing they’re fantastic 😉 )

Lay out two lettuce leaves on your plate, scoop side up so that they look like taco shells.

Place ¼ of the cooked fish into the leaf first, top with carmalized onions, tomatoes, green onions, salsa, cilantro, hot sauce and fresh squeezed lime juice. (In any order at all because it’s all going to one place. How lucky are your tastebuds?)

Fill each lettuce leaf wrap in the same way and gobble this deliciousness up!

nom nom nom nom nom nom forever

Recipe: Raspberry Chocolate Nice Cream

Raspberry & Chocolate Nice Cream 

For the Nice Cream:

-1/2 cup frozen raspberries

-1/4 banana

-1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

-1/3 scoop chocolate protein powder

-1/2 tsp. chia seeds

For the Topping:

-3 small, fresh basil (or mint) leaves

-1 cashew (or almond)

How To:

Blend all of the ingredients from the For the Nice Cream list in a blender for about 2 minutes, or until smooth. Unlike other blended recipes this one has less liquid than solid which leads to the ice cream-like texture. Because of this the blender may get stuck on the frozen fruits; it may be necessary to stop the blender every 10-15 seconds and stir the mixture before blending again.

Spoon the nice cream into your eating bowl and top with the ingredients in the For the Topping section.

And now- remind yourself before you eat this extremely nommy dessert, it’s grain, dairy, and refined sugar free.

FEEL GOOD ABOUT EATING DESSERT.

Open Fitness Journal: October 8, 2014

After attending a PR party at CrossFit Stumptown last night I find myself with so much motivation I can barely wait until 4 to get to the gym!

I am all sorts of excited to get back into it tonight and work, work, WORK.

It’s an awesome feeling to PR lifts and to get stronger– but I also know that this means that I probably won’t be PR’ing anything anytime soon after the lifts I made last night.  This just means that it’s time for me to work even harder and push myself more than I think I can.

Have you gotten up and gotten sweaty yet today?

-if yes… YOU’RE AWESOME

-if no… (You mean NOT YET) and YOU’RE AWESOME, TOO  

Tweet me what you did to workout your gorgeous bod today!

Or maybe you snapped an awesome post-workout selfie?  Instagram it and tag me so I can cheer you on!

Warm-Up

1000 M Row (Slow)

Dynamic Stretching

5 x :35 Second Hand Stand Hold

Foam Roll (5 minutes)

5 x 30 Second

Strength

Back Squat

5 x 60# (x2)

5 x 70#

3 x 85#

—————————-

5 x 100#

3 x 115#

3 x 130#

(The weights that I am using in these lifts come from a % of my one-rep training max.  They begin at 40% and build up by 10% increments until a max effort at 90%)

Pull-Up Complex  

3 x 8-12 strict green-banded pull-ups

3 x 10 ring rows

3 x 10 strict push ups 3

Warm-Up Rope Climbs

WOD:

3 Rounds For Time:

30 Overhead Walking Lunge Steps (35#)

13 Plyo-Push-Ups on Plates (say that 10 times fast;)

3 Rope Climbs

Time: 12:20

Ca$h Out:

1000 M Row

+ IT Band Mobility Roll

Recipe: Pumpkin Peach & Spinach Smoothie Bowl

Pumpkin Peach & Spinach Smoothie Bowl

For the Smoothie:

-3/4 cup canned pumpkin

-1/2 heaping cup frozen peaches

-1 heaping handful of spinach

-1 tsp. chia seeds

-3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

-1 tsp cinnamon & nutmeg (mixed together)

– > 1 tsp. organic blue agave nectar

For the Topping:

– > 1 tsp. dried gojiberries

– 1 tblsp. raw pumpkin seeds

-1/2 tsp chia seeds

How To: 

Layer all of the ingredients from the ‘for the smoothie’ section of the recipe into your blender (I use a NutriBullet by MagicBullet for all of my blended creations). And just in case this is your first green smoothie, I should remind you that it is best to have the spinach on the bottom so it gets blended the most.  No chunky smoothies allowed! (Isn’t that kind of an oxymoron, anyways?)

Blend the ingredients together for about 1 1/2 minutes, or until smooth.

Pour into a bowl and top with desired toppings.  (It’s fun to arrange them into a pattern on top of your smoothie bowl- but sometimes I think a jumble of things is just as pretty.)

In this smoothie I used the canned pumpkin in place of the banana that I typically use- this was simply because I didn’t have anymore bananas and pumpkin works just as well to give your yummy food a full body texture and add creaminess.

Add Protein Powder! For an awesome post-workout refuel or even just to add a boost to your breakfast in the morning– pour a scoop of vanilla protein powder into the blender with all of the other ingredients, blend together, and top the same way.  (Linked are my two favorite pre and post workout protein powders, just in case you’re new to the gainz game;)

**For a more pudding-like texture let the smoothie sit in the bowl for 5-30 minutes in the fridge to let the chia seeds set. As your smoothie sits the ground chia seeds expand and create a less-liquidy texture.