Day 18 I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share my Lemon-Coconut Chia Pudding recipe with you

I suddenly thought of making chia pudding for our dessert earlier tonight. I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share the recipe with you!  I especially love eating banana chia pod that I usually buy at central market in Austin.  Our H-E-B in Bastrop doesn't sell those. So I made up the recipe that would be like I'm eating chia pod right at home.  It's a bargain when it doesn't look like a bargain!

Here's my, again, so simple and so easy recipe to make chia pudding!

Lemon-Coconut Chia Pudding:

2 cups of any dairy free milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk), 1/2 cup of black or white chia seed, 1/4 cup of shredded coconut (unsweetened), 20-25 drops of vanilla creme stevia liquid or any flavor of your choice, and 1 tsp of pure lemon extract.  

Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir well.  Taste if it needs more stevia or lemon extract. More or less. 

Grab a jar or an air tight container, pour the chia pudding mixture into the jar. 

Shake the jar a couple of times. Let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.  Overnight will taste better.   

2.5 hours later, my chia pudding's ready!

Add few wild berries in a small bowl. (I used Le Creuset mini bowl which is a portion-wise)

I topped Lemon-Coconut Chia Pudding over wild berries then added little bit of coconut chips (unsweetened) and garnished with a couple of fresh mint. 

Great for a snack or dessert.  Or even have it for breakfast.  You can top it with anything. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Chocolate powder. Fresh fruits like bananas or strawberries or berries.  You can get creative with your chia pudding. I once made banana chia pudding and pumpkin pie chia pudding. It was soooo good!!  

Enjoy!

G'Night y'all

Meli Emmons

Day 17/18 Don't miss out my simple and yummy chicken wings and squash spaghetti recipes!

Hello y'all again.  Sorry if you were waiting on my upcoming blogs.  I have been busy.  Now, I can finally sit down and make Day 17 & 18 in one blog.  I almost thought I was on Day 19!  I better keep up with my blogs on time!  I'll try my best. 

There will be several pictures but who doesn't like to look at pictures, right?!

Day 17 was great.  I had bursting energy throughout the day.  Week 3 has really turned around for me just like I predicted.  I actually feel slimmer than 3 weeks ago. Not out of the woods yet.  I think I will extend my 30 day Challenge to another 30 days.  Summer is coming quickly, of course, I wanna get back into my bikinis that I wore last year.  You can make the impossible possible!

Now, this picture right below is a reminder of what we can eat in the paleo diet and what we should not eat in the paleo diet.  See below.

Actually, there are more than that.  I guess it is all they can fit in this picture but you get an idea.  But I am surprised that bananas and pineapples are not in this paleo diet?  Ive had read paleo articles or cookbooks, they included pineapples and bananas too.  So, do your research.  I would say bananas and pineapples are okay if eat in moderate.

Now, remember, I told you that I drink almost more than a gallon of water a day... this is how I feel!  See below.

Hell yea!

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and leftover pork ribs.  Latte, of course, what else?! 

Eric did crossfit at noon and I didn't. I decided to do 4:30 pm.  Anyway, while he was at crossfit, I prepped lunch.  New Mexico Chili Pepper Chicken Wings!  And sautéed kale, asparagus, and sweet potatoes.  Perfect recovery food for Eric's post workout.

Recipe:

New Mexico Chili Pepper powder, found in the bulk area at your local food store.   If you cannot find these, you can use regular chili powder from bulk area.  Not in the bottle, please!  They contain MSG and GMO, usually.  Bad bad bad!

Now, you will need to place chicken wings in a large mixing bowl.  Add about 3 TBS of New Mexico Chili Pepper or regular Chili powder, 2 TBS of Sea Salt, and 1 TBS of black pepper.  Coat chicken wings well with these seasoning.

Line foil paper in the baking sheet pan, and put cookie rack over it.  Place seasoned chicken wings on the cookie rack evenly with fat skin up.  Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.  You will need to turn chickens over with 30 minutes left of baking. At end of 1 hour, turn on broil high and turn chickens over again with fat skin up.  Broil for 5-7 minutes until crispy.

Meanwhile,

While the wings were baking in the oven, I went ahead and started sautéing veggies for side dish.  Kale, asparagus, and leftover baked sweet potato, diced. About 1/4 of a medium baked sweet potatoes.  1 tsp of coconut oil or EVOO in skillet, after it's heated, add in veggies and sautee for about 5-8 minutes, I like them firm not soggy.  Remove the skillet from the heat and sprinkle some crushed red pepper.  Have some guts!

Viola!!!!  See how beautiful my New Mexico Chili Pepper Chicken Wings turned out!?

According to my husband, this is the BEST chicken wings he has ever ate.  Again, there's something about chicken and me.  He cannot fathom how delicious my chickens taste every time.  I bet you the next chicken dish I make, he will say that again.  Hahaha.  Just you wait and see.

I didn't eat anything else since lunch.  I wasn't hungry for a snack or anything.  Also, I knew I'd feel nauseated if I did eat something between lunch and 4:30 PM crossfit.  So, I kept on drinking water and some green tea.

Crossfit kicked my ass yesterday at 4:30 PM.    It was brutally cold yesterday!!  At least that's how we, Texans felt.  I had to dress warm according to the weather.  No kidding!  I had to wear long sleeves running shirt and thick yoga pants and long socks.  Plus a blue jacket over the top and my half ass red gloves.  My chest felt tight when I was breathing hard during WOD.  Thus, I slept very very well last night from the hard workout!  It was good to see other members there!  I haven't seen them for nearly 3 months!

What our WOD looked like yesterday:

We did the mobility first to warm up.

DU's as many as you can in 7 minutes.  If you stop or drop the rope, penalty was 5 burpees, I think?  

But for my post surgery feet case, I did #12 MB wallballs instead for 7 minutes without penalty since I can't really do burpees quite yet.  But the Wallballs have always been brutally challenging for most people.   But I, of course, was excited because squats will give you a nice booty!!  Hamstrings and guads too!  

I did 130 wallballs in 7 minutes!  Not bad.

5 rounds of:

10 KB swings

10 pushups

10 box jumps (I did step ups instead)

12 minutes Cap.

I finished it in 7:18

Then afterwards, we had to do another Double Unders as many as you can in 7 minutes and same penalty as above, if you stop or drop the rope, 5 burpees.  In my case, I had to do 100 sit-ups in 7 minutes.  My ABS was cramping!  Hurt so good, right?

Then I went home and had my L-glutamine and BCAA drink in water.  And I started dinner.  I made squash spaghetti!  See recipe below.  It's so simple and easy!  Cost effective too!

See, this is great stuff!  I always buy this nothing else.  Unless I make my own sauce but I didn't.  So, I bought 2 jars of that.

Read the ingredients!  See, the fewer ingredients, the better!  Right???  They are amazingly so good!  Just the right amount!  Plus, it doesn't have any garlic in it!  A PLUS!!  We don't like garlic.  

Grass-fed ground beef at H-E-B 

Ohh, I forgot to add this earlier, before crossfit, I roasted squash spaghetti in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Then I took it out and let it rest right before I left for crossfit. 

Roasted squash spaghetti

 When I got home from Crossfit, I started prepping for dinner, starting with squash spaghetti and cooked the grass fed beef in the skillet at the same time.

Cut the squash into half and scoop out the seeds with the fork.  Now don't forget to check on your beef!  After browned, add 2 jars of spaghetti sauce and 2 TBS of fresh chopped Italian flat parsley into your skilled.  Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

After that's seeded, you use your fork to scrap the rest of the squash spaghetti out into a serving bowl.

Now the sauce is ready!  It perfumed the entire house!  

That was my dinner.  I ate nothing else afterwards.  

Day 18:

Rest Day.  Not much cooking.  Mostly leftovers.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and left over chicken wings, of course.  And Latte.

Lunch: leftover pot roast with collards and homemade bone marrow broth that I defrosted.  I made batches of bone marrow broth in the freezer.

I threw everything in the pot (see ingredients above).  Cover and cooked for maybe 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, I painted my toenails until lunch was ready!

Now, we haven't had any desserts since Sunday so we deserved some today an hour after lunch.

Homemade coconut butter and soft almond butter with half of a large green apple, I couldn't eat a whole apple!  And half a banana, sprinkled with cinnamon.   Drank some green tea and latte the following.

Now, it is time for me to go and pick up the kids from school.

I think we'll have leftover squash spaghetti for dinner again tonight or breakinner (breakfast for dinner).

Have a great evening, y'all.  Stay warm too.

I dread the cold weather, go away, please!!

Meli Emmons

Day 16. Leftovers always taste better.

It got cold again today and it'll even be colder tomorrow!!  Yesterday was pleasantly warm!  It was in the high 60's.  What the heck?!  Seriously, Texas weather needs to seek intensive therapies for bipolar disorder.  Anyway, today, we mostly had leftover baby back ribs, which is a great thing when you make a large batch of meat so you don't have to cook every day.  Just grab the leftovers out of the refrigerator and heat them up in the warm oven and you are good to go especially if you have appointments like I did earlier today right after Crossfit.

Breakfast: Leftover chicken rotisserie from H-E-B and scrambled eggs.  Just chop up pieces of chicken rotisserie and warm them up in the skillet, add coconut oil and scrambled eggs.  Of course we had some Lattes.  

 3 hours later, we were down at Crossfit Box.  Got warmed up by mobility and then we did strength training before the hard WOD but it was fun!  Fun because I was able to do squats!!  Finally!  My left ankle didn't hurt so much but of course I kept my weights light, gotta be careful.  I have to increase the weights gradually week by week.  Still wearing my surgical boot.   Here is what our today's workout looked like

For strict press, I started out at #55, #65, #75, and #85.  Then for the WOD, I did #65 "Cluster" EMOM 12 minutes.  (Every Minute On Minute)  Here's what "Cluster" looks like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2TnOpwG9Ac  I loved that!

When we got home, I immediately drank L-Glutamine and BCAA with unsweetened vanilla milk instead of Whey Isolate because lately, I felt bloated from it.  So, I am going to try this way again like I used to in the past.  

Lunch, like I said leftovers are great!  I was tired and also in a hurry to get ready for my beauty treatment appointments.  We had leftover ribs (oh wait, I had leftover orange peel chicken and my husband had ribs) with pan fried asparagus in coconut oil and a very small baked sweet potatoes with coconut oil and cinnamon.  I would say about 1/4 of a medium sweet potato. And a green tea, great antioxidant and recovery too.  Amazingly I felt satisfied all day long from this meal.  I didn't even have a snack in midday.  

Post workout lunch

After my beauty treatment appointments earlier today, I felt like a beauty queen.  Well, I would like to think so!  LOL

I had my shellac nails done and other treatments too.  I'm all good to go except I cannot wait to see my dear old friend up in Dallas this weekend for my hair appointment!   And psyched for my Dad's Retirement Party this weekend too!!!!  I cannot believe he has worked for the same company for 45 years!  I am so proud of my Dad!  

I was ready to go home and get dinner warmed up, thank God for leftovers! 

Like my nails!?  Shellac using Cuccio brand.  Scarf on, so cold today!  I'm not a scarf person but I didn't want to wear coat or jacket.  A vest and scarf sufficed.  

 My husband managed to warm up meat and sweet potatoes for us!  I only had to make Kale salad!

Kale, avocado, coconut vinegar, and extra light virgin oil.  You can use other kind of vinegar of your choice.  Just be sure it doesn't have added sugar.  Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Again, leftovers for dinner except the kale salad!  Italian Pesto Poblano Boat, Baby Back Ribs, and Baked Sweet Potatoes. Very simple and very quick too!  Leftovers taste better when warmed up in the oven not in the microwave otherwise you get soggy food unless you like them this way.

My husband asked me to stop by the mail to see if our Nespresso capsules orders have arrived so I did.  YAYAYAYAYAY!!!  Thank God they arrived because we were out of these this morning.    What would we do without Latte or Cappuccino tomorrow??  Monster Mode!  

Also another good thing is my children's schools may close tomorrow due to possible freezing temps.  Of course, we need our coffee!!!  

Love how they put their capsules in sleek black boxes with colors at the end.  

All in all, I had a good day!  I didn't realize until later that I have got my energy back.  It's the beginning of 3rd week so far.  Let's see how much my body transforms at the end of this challenge.  I try not to dwell about it because it will stress me out.  Well, at least, I am trying.  It's hard, I admit, but it will get easier with time.

I am done with today's blog.  I look forward to getting some good night's sleep.  I hope you sleep well tonight too!

Sweet Dreams,

Meli Emmons

Day 15! Banana Bread French Toast & Baby Back Ribs recipes.

What a beautiful Sunday!  However, I woke up with a very sore body!  Crossfit kicked my ass yesterday.  Hurts so good, though.  I finally got to sleep in late, I so needed that.  I slept until 9 AM!  Very rare.  I went to bed early last night around 10:30 PM.  Almost 11 hours of sleep.  Wow.  

Suddenly I realized that it's my 15th day of 30 Day Paleo Challenge!  That means 2 weeks down and 2 more weeks to go!  I was tempted to post my 15 days photos of my current body.  It has transformed some, slimmer.  I finally could see my upper ribcage and my tummy didn't bulge out so much as it did 2 weeks ago.  Now I am anticipating to see how much my body will transform in 2 more weeks or another 15 more days.  Once I complete my 30 Day Paleo Challenge, don't mistake me for planning on giving up Paleo and returning to SAD (Standard American Diet).  I will continue my clean lifestyle eating habit (Paleo/Primal) way.  I know for sure that I have to cut out dairy (cream, milk, cheese, and butter except whey protein isolate) since they give me acne.

Anyway, I decided to make Banana Bread French Toast for a very late breakfast or lunch.  Because my son, Noah, mentioned a few days ago that he has been wanting some french toast.  He hasn't had some for a long time.  So, I decided to surprise the kids to make some for lunch,  apparently it was so late cause it takes more than an hour to bake a banana bread or loaf.  Scroll down pictures to see how to make them.   

Here's the link for the recipe that I used to make these but I modified the recipes a little bit.  The modifications will be captioned in pictures.

http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/breakfast/paleo-french-toast/

Eggs, bananas, almond butter, coconut oil, cinnamon, salt, coconut flour, why protein isolate, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder.  The ingredients and recipe are shown in the link above.  You will need to follow their recipe.  I added less than 1/4 cup of coconut flour since I wanted to use vanilla protein isolate (2 scoops) which was part of my modification.

4 eggs, great protein source.  Always add eggs in a mixer first before you add other ingredients.

Banana and other wet ingredients.  Ready to add in dry ingredients.

Ignore my latte, not part of the recipe. hehe.  Dry ingredients into the wet mixture.  Follow the recipe shown in the link.

Seriously, Le Creuset rocks!  I swear they work wondrous in baking or cooking.  They taste incredibly perfect and delicious.  Anyway, raw banana bread mixture into oil sprayed pan.  Put it in the oven set at 350 degrees hot and let it bake for 1 hour if using glass or stoneware pans but if using metal pans, less time, follow the recipe per se the link)

As you can see the timer on my oven, at 25 minutes, put the foil over the pan so the top/crust doesn't burn.  That was my modification.  From my experiences, they did burn and the recipes didn't say anything about adding foil over to keep it from burning.  I would recommend that.  Trust me on that one.

Ta-Da!!!  What did I tell you about Le Creuset!  They have won my heart.  We were hesitant on spending money on Le Creuset but so far my baking or cooking have not been screwed up.  They looked and tasted the best ever.  So impressed with their quality.  I have used Pyrex or metal pans or dishes before, they did not let food slide out neatly like this one in the picture!  I swear!  I have made banana breads or other baked goods several times before, they fell apart and or the sides of loaf got stuck onto the sides of the pan.  So easy to clean up, seriously.  Same goes for dutch ovens, they are so easy to clean.  No food stuck to the pans or pots.  Anyway, turn your bread pan over let the banana bread slide out onto the rack. Let it cool off on the cookie rack for about 20 minutes before you slice.  Again, follow the recipe per se the link.  Just print the recipe.  I did.

After the bread was cooled, I used serrated knife and sliced these into an inch thick.  See, they stayed intact!  They were super delicious and moist!   Now, it's time to make french toast!

To make the french toast batter, eggs, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and cinnamon.  My modification was 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk instead of 1/4 cup.  Again, from my  experiences, the more liquid was better because you wouldn't get "scrambled eggs" on your french toasts.   Trust me.  I don't know why the recipe said 1/4 cup.  I just don't understand it. Maybe it meant 2 eggs and 1/4 cup of milk?  Who knows.

Ready to dip banana bread slices into the french toast batter!

See these little scrambled eggs around the bread?  That's why I didn't think 1/4 cup was a good idea.  I didn't cook it for 3 minutes on each side like the recipe said.   I knew they'd burn quickly.  They are not the traditional french toasts like ASD (American Standard Diet) so they cook differently.  I would cook about 1 minute each side.  Maybe a little bit longer than 1 minute, but not 3 minutes.  I set my stove on at number 5 which is a medium heat. Anyway, the fragrant was awesome!!!!!

Ohhhhh!!!!  Soooooo gooooood!  Maple syrup for my kids and melted coconut oil with cinnamon and vanilla creme stevia syrup (In the mini bowl) for Eric and I.  To make coconut oil syrup: 3 or 4 TBS of coconut oil, melted.  Add half teaspoon of cinnamon and 10 drops of vanilla creme stevia liquid in the bowl.  Whisk until well incorporated.  Drizzle that over Banana Bread French
Toast.  I had 2 slices of that.    Tip: for kids you can sprinkle some of white powder sugar over the french toast and drizzle some maple syrup to it.  Enjoy!

Now, we planned on having Eric's famous Baby Back Pork Ribs for dinner tonight!  Takes all day to cook these in a slow cooker.  The ingredients are very very very simple.  You will be shocked!  Not as traditional as at BBQ places you have been to.  Let me tell you something about ingredients... the fewer ingredients the better they taste. Odd but true.  You do not want to overpower your meat or meals with too many ingredients. Keep it simple and not only that, it's also budget wise.  They will still taste so delicious.  Many times my husband has made these and our guests were in awe when they ate some of our ribs.  Especially my dad and mom.  They make BBQ's so many times, surprisingly enough, they do limit their ingredients too.  I never knew that until I asked my dad what he has been putting on their meat when he smokes or BBQ them.  They do not like to add too many ingredients on their meats either.  Ah, that was why I loved eating my dad's BBQ meat all my life.  

Eric preps Baby Back Pork Ribs.  Now here comes the ingredients next, you'll be shocked.

Yes... that's all!  Just 3 simple ingredient-smoked paprika (at Costco) and sea salt/black pepper.  You can get creative with your own rub spices, IE., garlic salt and onion powder, etc... my husband and I do not like garlic at all.  

In the slow cooker they go!  Cook at low and slow for about 7-8 hours.  The meat will fall off the bone!   Stay tuned for my next blog to see what they look like after cooked!

They are finger licking delicious!!  They are Abby's favorite ribs.  She often asks for these when she's in the mood for some.

Eric has decided to buy himself a giant toy today!  He's ecstatic!  

The salesman helped load Eric's toy onto the trailer.  Eric's gonna get so busy smoking and BBQ'ing all week long with his new toy!!  LOL. I'm excited!!!

I hope you enjoy reading my blogs.  The purpose of my blogs are to let you know that eating right or clean do not have to be time-consuming or cost arms and legs to get or stay healthy.  I promise you they will get easier once you become familiar with recipes and cooking and the cost-wise when grocery shopping.

It is not too late to change your lifestyle right now!

See you soon in my tonight's blog with our ribs!

Have a great Sunday.

Meli Emmons

New blog of ribs after cooked. 

Don't those baby back ribs look so good?!  Nom nom!

Day 14 Italian Pesto Meatball Poblano Boat

Hey y'all, I'm back here again.  The dinner was scrumptious!!!!  So favorable and so delicious!  Again, I made the recipe up on my own at the last minute.  Easy. Of course, my husband and I stopped by H-E-B to shop for ingredients and some other stuff.    To make my blog short and sweet with my OMG so good recipes according to me and my family.  My daughter helped me out with this dinner prepping.  She has started to help me out more and more now.  I'm excited!  That means she will pick up on healthy tips, ideas, and benefits along down the path with me.  

Italian Pesto Poblano Boat Recipe:

For Pesto cream or sauce, you will need all of these shown in the picture.   A  bunch of fresh basil leaves and handful of fresh flat parsley.  Juice of 2 lemons, sea salt, pepper, and EVOO.  Walnuts too. (not in the picture until the next one)  Dump all of these into your food processor except EVOO.  EVOO is the last thing!

After it's been processed, add 2 handfuls of walnuts and process again until smooth.  Then slowly drizzle EVOO into the mouth of food processor neck on the top until it looks creamy.

Viola, you have the pesto!  Now, set it aside.

Poblanos, these are what they look like.   (Notice that my jar of water is in every picture?  I always have it around me to drink while prepping meals). Anyway, I got about 6 poblanos.  Washed and ready.

Cut poblanos into half, scoop out membranes and seeds.  Tops off, of course.  Now, they look like boats, don't they?!

Abby, my daughter, helped me make Italian Pesto Meatballs.  Buy some grounded Italian sausages, 2 packages, about 1 lb. each.  Add 3/4 of the pesto cream to the Italian sausage.  Mix well with your clean hands, of course.   Save the remaining of pesto cream into an air tight container for future use.  I will definitely use some of pesto in one of my meals and share recipe with you.

Aren't they cute??  Italian Pesto Poblano Boat!  Roll meatball mixture into balls.  Large to small meatballs according to the boat size.  Place them into oven-proof casserole dish.  After the dish is filled with those boats, drizzle some EVOO lightly over boats.  My son does not like poblanos, so I made 6 extra meatballs into another small casserole dish.  

Both in the oven.  350 degrees hot, and cook for about 45 to 50 minutes.  15 minutes before it was done, I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese over my son's meatballs because he's a cheese boy!!  

Abby stole one of Noah's 6 meatballs!  Tsk tsk!  Our dinner were ready to be served!  We couldn't wait to dive in!  The aroma was so delicious!  You can serve meatballs over gluten free pasta or rice.  Use the remaining of juice in the pan to drizzle over pasta or rice.  (Eric, Abby,  I didn't have rice or pasta but Noah did have gluten free pasta)

That's my Italian Pesto Meatball Boat dinner tonight.  Definitely will make these again!  Poblanos are veggies, so that's protein/carbs/fats.  Perfect!

Again? Shh, yes, again!  Like I told you in the last blog, they were irresistibly delicious!   I had to make these AGAIN!!  In a mini bowl, so we wouldn't over consume.  Not fair, but, gotta watch our portion.  I will give you the recipe again in this blog since I know you will not swipe back to my last blog to find the recipe.  Lazy!  Just Kidding.  

My Paleo Not Really La Madeline Strawberries Romanof.  Recipe...

Coconut milk can, do not shake it at all.  Place it in the refrigerator overnight.  Take the can out and open the top off.  Scoop the solidified fat or cream from the top.  Do not use the liquid.  Reserve the liquid for smoothie or sautés or broth for future use.

In a bowl, whisk the solidified coconut milk fat or cream with your hand mixer.  Mix for for about 30 seconds to break it up.  Add vanilla creme stevia drops to it, about 12-15 drops.  Start with small doses (8-10 drops first and taste.  Add more to your liking.) 

Slice strawberries into your mini bowl.  Top it with whipped coconut milk cream.  Sprinkle some cinnamon over the top.  Garnish it with fresh mint.  It was a perfect marriage in your mouth if you added some fresh mint to it, I promise!  Mint is good for your guts and others though.  Here's the benefits of mint link below.

http://letsgohealthy.blogspot.com/2012/12/health-benefits-and-nutrient-content-of.html 

Now, this is a wrap!

Uh-oh, I'm starting to feel sore muscle developing in my legs, glutes, and arms/chest.  L-glutamine drink time! 

Good Night, y'all!  

Have a great weekend!

Meli Emmons