Crockpot Apple Porkchops and Other Ramblings

So this past weekend was pretty amazing. It started out Friday evening when Kyle took me on a date. A WHAT!? Yes, a date. Our first one since buying our house back in May. And I know why--  Shit's expensive now-a-days! Two movie tickets was 20 bucks! Although I am ever so grateful that we actually got out of the house and did something, saving money and renting a Redbox is seriously the way to go!

Saturday Kyle woke up at the buttcrack of dawn to go hunting. He was like a little kid at Christmas with a huge grin on his face, all decked out in his camo and brand new bow ready to go at 5am. Now, why anyone would want to leave a warm comfy bed and go sit in a tree in the freezing cold for HOURS is beyond me. To each his own i guess. He must really like it because my hunny came home with a big ol' doe! After I dried my tears and got over the fact that he killed Bambi's mom, I couldnt be more excited about all the meat in the freezer... The Deer jerky is marinating now... working on perfecting a recipe! :]

Saturday was also the last day of the Bridging the Wellness Gap program. I'm so sad that it's over! I could go on and on about the wonderful things  that it has done for me and changed in my life but I will save that for a later blog post. What I will do though is talk about how proud I am of myself and everyone that finished. We met at the gym for our final testing, and everyone had amazing results and improvements after 12 weeks. I ended up not losing any weight, but I lost a total of 4.5 inches off of my biceps, waist, hips, thighs & chest combined. My 1 mile run improved from 7:47 to 7:22, my max effort pushups improved from 31 to 50, my reach improved 2 inches, my blood pressure lowered, and my situps improved from 44 in 1 minute to 56 in 1 minute. I was so surprised! I am definitely one to look at the scale a little too often, and believe a little too much what it's telling me. So when the scale wasn't moving, I was feeling EXTREMELY discouraged and no self-confindence. After the testing on Saturday I can honestly tell you that losing INCHES is a much better feeling than losing WEIGHT!

As if Saturday morning wasn't amazing enough, in the afternoon my mom and I headed down to Mallow Run Winery for Wine at the Line. What a beautiful day for this race! I was originally signed up to run the 5 mile, but I was pretty fatigued from my testing that morning and I wanted to have more of a "fun" run rather than a killer one, so I opted to switch to the 5k. I just went at my own comfortable pace, expecting to finish somewhere around 30 minutes which seems to be close to my average. To my surprise, I rounded the corner and crossed the finish line at 26:54!!!! I COULDNT BELIEVE IT! That was my fastest time Ive ever had! I was so proud of myself for all that I accomplished that day and all the hard work that I put into it. How did I celebrate you ask? WINE OF COURSE! :] Here are some pics from the run:

 

My beautiful mom and I, she did the walk and I did the run! So proud of her!

 

Some of my PR Fitness crew, we all Rocked it! - Photo courtesy of Sherri!

 

Stacy and I celebrating at the finish line and tasting each other's wine, hey ya gotta do what ya gotta do! - Photo courtesy of Stacy!

 

 

Ok enough rambling and back to why you're really looking at my blog. THE FOOD. Not JUST food, but pork chops. Probably my favorite meat. Big ol' thick boneless ones from Meijer. Those are the best. We always grill them so I set out to find a recipe that was a little different and this one caught my eye: http://denimanddots.com/2011/09/09/easy-slow-cooker-apple-and-onion-pork-chops/  .. mainly because I had all the ingredients. I jazzed it up a little bit though and it was AMAZING--Perfect for a fall evening! I also made it in the crockpot so that's bonus points because it took about 3 minutes to throw together.

Ingredients:

• 2 thick cut boneless porkchops (or however many mouths you're feeding)
• 2 medium apples (i used gala), cut into 1 inch chunks (I left the skin on)
• 1 medium onion -- diced
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp rosemary
• salt & pepper

1. Spread apple chunks and diced onion in bottom of crockpot.
2. Dash with salt, pepper & some rosemary
3. Lay pork chops on top of apples & onions
4. Mix together broth & cider vinegar and then pour into crock pot
5. Add minced garlic on top of pork chops
6. Finish with more salt, pepper & rosemary on top
7. Close the lid and watch the magic happen. Well, not really, unless you have nothing to do for 8 hours except watch pork chops cook and if that's the case I think you need to get yourself a hobby. Just a thought.

I actually cooked mine on high for 4 hours but you could probably cook them on low for 7-8. These pork chops were SO TASTY. Very juicy and full of flavor! I topped the cooked chops with the apples from the bottom of the crock pot. The apples were so yummy just to eat by themselves! This is definitely a keeper recipe and very easy to make. Happy Cooking!

Maple Roasted Butternut Squash with Bacon

Today was my first Monday off work. I made a promise to myself that I would spend these days off extremely productive and would NOT be lazy. BUUUUUTTTTTT today was my first one and it was cold and rainy and all I wanted to do was snuggle with my pups. So thats what I did, AFTER going to PR Fitness this morning of course! So, given the weather conditions and my mood, I wanted to make squash with dinner because it makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

So there was a butternut squash, acorn squash & 2 spaghetti squashes sitting on my counter staring at me. I literally played eenie meenie miney mo to decide which lucky little squash was going to be on my plate for dinner, and butternut won!

I don't make butternut squash alot so I was throwing ideas around in my head on how I should prepare it-- I really only know of three ways: soup, roasted & mashed. Roasting it seemed the quickest to prepare.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium to large butternut squash
• 6 strips of bacon
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• sea salt
• olive oil
• maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 400
2. Cut in half & peel your butternut squash and remove the seeds. Then slice into 1 inch chunks.
3. Throw into a roasting dish and toss with olive oil
4. Sprinkle with salt, cinnamon & nutmeg
5. cut your bacon strips into 1-2 inch pieces and lay on top of squash
6. LIGHTLY drizzle maple syrup over the top of bacon
7. Put in oven and roast for approximately 45-50 minutes, until bacon is cooked and squash is soft.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out so I had no intentions of putting this recipe on here. To my surprise, though, this was very tasty and I paired it with 2 eggs over easy (I like to eat really random food together and eggs take about 2 seconds to cook so it's always my go-to meal!)

Easy clean up and now Kyle and I are about to hash it out for the tv, Monday Night Football vs. The Voice... I WILL WIN! :]

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus Stuffed Chicken

Here's the truth about me: I AM A FOODIE. I've never thought about it that way until last week at family dinner when I wouldn't shut up about recipes and playing around in the kitchen. My uncle looked at me and said "DAMN you're a f-o-o-d-i-e aren't you!?" .....Sigh. 'Tis true. My love for food and cooking has overtaken my life! But.....ask me if I mind!? :] Possible inspiration for a new blog name....
Anyway, here is the recipe for what I made for dinner tonight, and it was OMG good. Remember when I said that my almond crusted tilapia was one of the best things I've ever made? I lied. Tonights dinner topped it for sure! A few weeks ago my sister in law made a bacon wrapped chicken with rosemary, so I decided to take it a step further and add in my favorite veggie.

The real name for this meal should be: The Delicious, Mouth-Watering, Savory Bacon Wrapped Asparagus and Garlic Stuffed Chicken Topped with Rosemary and Balsamic Vinegar Oven Roasted to Perfection. Yes, I think like that better.

Ingredients

• 2 boneless chicken breasts (or however many for the hungry mouths you're feeding)
• bacon (2 pieces per chicken breast)
• 1/2 bag frozen asparagus, or handful if you're using fresh. I'm sure you could use any veggie you want, really. I bet spinach would be yummy too!
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped into larger chunks
• Rosemary
• Olive oil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Salt & Pepper

1. First, preheat your oven to 350.
2. Start by tenderizing your chicken. ANYONE who says that meat tenderizing isn't fun is a gosh damn liar. Pound the crap out of those little gems until theyre nice and flat.

3. Put in a pan and cover in a mixture of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Sprinkle some rosemary on top and let marinate for 15-20 minutes.

 

 

4. While the chicken is marinating, Heat up a skillet to medium and toss in your asparagus. I used frozen so I threw those in with the chunks of garlic and let that cook through.

 

5. Once the asparagus & garlic are cooked, transfer it to the chicken. I piled it all at one end and just rolled it up.

 

6. Carefully wrap each piece of chicken with 2 pieces of bacon and secure with a few tooth picks.

 

 

7. I drizzled some more basamic vinegar on top and sprinkled them with rosemary. I also added some salt and pepper. 



8. Put in the oven uncovered for about 40 minutes. It may take longer depending on the thickness of your bacon, how many chicken breasts you have, etc. You'll just have to keep checking on them.

I know, I know. The picture quality on my iphone camera is just out of this world amazing.

 

 

Pair this little masterpiece with some grilled veggies and you gotchurself a nice healthy, paleo, whole30 approved, WLC approved meal-i-o. Enjoy!

Almond Crusted Tilapia

This just might be the best meal that has ever popped into my brain. ALMOND CRUSTED TILAPIA! One of the things that I miss since I went paleo is fried fish. Fried anything, actually..... (shhh I didn't really say that!).

I refuse to buy almond flour, just because its too damn expensive and well lets face it, im broke. So I usually avoid any type of recipe that calls for it, such as pancakes or muffins or brownies... I'm going to stop now before I start drooling on my keyboard. Luckily for me though, I had some leftover almonds from my trip this past weekend so I decided to make my own. Thank goodness for ninja blenders!

WARNING: THE RECIPE I AM ABOUT TO SHARE MIGHT CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Seriously, its so good! Kyle walked in the door from work and said "Are you frying fish?! YOU ARENT ALLOWED TO HAVE THAT!" lol! Thank goodness I have a boyfriend who holds me accountable on my diet! BUT little did he know that this was the healthy version! MUHAHAHAH (insert evil laugh here)

Ingredients:
2 tilapia filets (or however many you want to make)
3/4 cup almonds (or almond flour if you're really fancy)
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tbs whole30 approved mustard
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

1. If you're using regular almonds, throw them into the blender with garlic salt and blend until it makes close to a powder but still has some chunky pieces in it.
2. Heat the skillet to medium heat, add olive oil to cover bottom of pan
3. Smother tilapia filet in mustard and cover with almond flour until evenly coated.
4. Toss that sucker into the pan and fry it! After a couple minutes flip over and fry the other side. Flake with for to check done-ness, mine took about 8-9 minutes per filet.

 

 

 

 

Voila (sp?)! I didn't take a final picture because I originally had my heat set to med-high and I kind of burnt it, so It wasn't a pretty picture but it still tasted delicious. That's why I recommend a lower heat and longer cook time. I hope you take my word for it and try this out for yourself! It's definitely a keeper!

Cedar Point

So this past weekend Kyle and I took off to Sandusky, Ohio to visit one of the most AMAZING theme parks ever, Cedar Point. My main concern out of the whole trip was: what the heck am I going to eat??? After gathering tips and ideas from fellow PR'ers, I loaded up on packs of tuna and an assortment of fruit and nuts. I found an awesome recipe for roasted nuts at http://www.windycitycrossfit.com/wccf_recipes/2011/10/102011.html ... seriously, CHECK IT OUT! Kyle and I munched on it all weekend, I added raisins to mine and made it with almonds, walnuts and pecans. sooo delicious! But anyway, Thank goodness I packed this, a couple larabars and a few apples to get me through the day because the second I got into the park, it was like poison food city. Every single sign that I saw: Fried chicken, chilli cheese fries, funnel cakes, elephant ears, chips, jumbo pretzels, dippin dots, chocolate chip cookies, cinnabon, "stuffed smore's" (which is basically a glorified poptart), pepsi, the list goes on. I kept my eye on different food items to just see if anything jumped out that I would be able to eat and the closest thing I got to healthy was a chocolate covered banana or an apple pie filled bosco stick. Another little thing I kept an eye out for was how many people at this park looked like they were physically fit. I got a grand total of 4. FOUR PEOPLE out of all of cedar point looked as if they were in good shape and actually took care of themselves. This kills me! I would just watch extremely unhealthy people shovel all of this poisonous "food" into their mouths all day and not think twice about it. It's like watching someone physically hurt themself and not being able to do anything about it.

The deeper I dive into my healthy new lifestyle, the more I crave to help people make the switch as well. I guess I'll just keep praying and striving to live as an example until I figure out how to change the world.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

I was in the mood for italian food today. I don't crave it a lot but whenever i get the slightest whiff of lasagna or spaghetti, it lights the spark in my brain! Luckily for me, I had a beautiful spaghetti squash at home just staring at me and begging to be cooked.

I usually make my spaghetti squash with just veggies and without sauce, but I wanted to try something new tonight so that's why I made a casserole instead. It turned out yummy and was just perfect for my italian dinner.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

1 medium sized spaghetti squash
1 medium zucchini
1 broccoli crown
1 bell pepper
1 package smoked sausage
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
handful spinach
crushed garlic, i buy the jar of minced so about 1 tsp of that
italian spice blend
salt
pepper

1. cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Brush with olive oil and some salt, pepper & garlic salt. Wrap one half in saran wrap and put in microwave for about 7 minutes (you'll have to check on it, if it is a larger squash it may take longer) Once finished, repeat with other half of squash.

 

2. While squash is in the microwave, cut up your veggies and throw them in a pot with some olive oil over medium heat. Let these all warm through and add the sausage. Once that cooks for a couple more minutes, add the can of tomato sauce and can of diced tomatoes. Next throw in your spices. I have an italian blend mix of spices that I used and also added some salt and pepper.

 

 

3. After squash is done, shred it with a fork into a casserole dish. Once that is shredded, add all your veggies and stir together. I added some parmesan cheese to Kyle's side of the dish but left mine without.

 

4. Heat the oven to 425 degrees and cook covered for about 20-25 minutes. 

 

This dish was so good and I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Also got a 2 thumbs up by Kyle so that means you know its good! I might try it with chicken next time just to mix things up :]

 

 

 

 

Candied Pecans

SWEET TOOTH.. WE MEET AGAIN! damn you for coming around when I'm trying to push you out of my life! But here I am, giving in. **HUGE SIGH**

I officially have 1 week left until the Whole Life Challenge, and the funny thing about it is that out of the whole program I'm more concerned about the fact that I'm not going to be able to have my honey or maple syrup than I am anything else, haha! Can we all say p-r-o-b-l-e-m? I OBVIOUSLY have a sugar addiction so this 8 week hiatus will be a blessing in disguise.

ANYWAYS, SINCE I cannot have either of these two little treasures after this week, I had to make one of my favorites to satisfy my sweet tooth. Since it's late at night, I try to stay away from fruit and try to gravitate more towards nuts and healthy fats. I reached for my fav: PECANS :]. this little dish is perfect for a mini craving and completely satisfies!

CANDIED PECANS

3/4 cup raw pecans
honey
maple syrup
sea salt

Heat the pan to medium and toss in the pecans. Drizzle with honey and maple syrup and sprinklewith sea salt (because I am a huge fan of sweet & salty combo). Stir consistently until lightly browned. Remove from heat and enjoy :]