Category Archives: Breakfast

Stomach Issues and Other Fun Stuff

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So, last week I told you guys that I was participating in a nationwide, 60 day Paleo challenge called the Lurong challenge.  Well, today is already day ten!  16.67% of the way there, woot woot!  I finally feel like my body is back to its old self, which I’m really excited about.  Emily and I decided to keep a belly book of everything we eat so we can see how our bodies react to certain foods (and keep us from eating dark chocolate at every meal).  From this, I’ve learned that my stomach is not really a fan of salads.  It seems like every time I eat a salad, I’m bloated for the rest of the day.  Does that happen to anyone else?!  Maybe it’s just a hint that my salads are gigantic and I should chill out a bit.  But, who knows.  I’ve also learned that apples don’t agree with me.  Which is the strangest thing because it’s a freaking apple.  What food is simpler than an apple?  Come on body, get your shizz together.  For a good laugh, check out our belly book below.  Its borderline embarrassing how much we eat.  Whatever.

SO, back to the Lurong Challenge.  Everyday you log onto their website and record your meals (if it was clean or if it was a cheat).  You start off the week with 35 points and for every cheat you lose 5 points.  Pretty simple, right?  So, this morning I logged on to record what I ate yesterday and decided to bop around the site for a bit.  I I went to my diet history and noticed that I had TWO cheat meals recorded.  Since I knew I didn’t cheat, I automatically assumed it was a huge mistake, and by golly, I was going to get to the bottom of it!  After further review, I unfortunately noticed that I forgot to record my meals for Monday.  Which, I am pretty sure I did, because naturally its the first thing I do when I get to work (priorities, right?).  Anyways,  APPARENTLY, if you forget, you get hit with a TWO meal cheat penalty!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I was LIVID.  Which I am sure you can tell by the use of my CAPITAL LETTERS and EXCLAMATION POINTS.  Needless to say, I am STILL not a happy camper.   It made me want send a picture of me eating a whole bag of m&ms to Lurong with some nasty note.  Although  appealing, I continued to sit there, eating my salad that I knew was going to make me feel bloated for the rest of the day.  Take that, LURONG!  Did I just make a huge deal out of nothing? You betcha!  Anyways, happy Thursday everyone!

-Erica

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Friday Morning Ramble

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Does anyone else think this has been the longest week ever?    I think it has something to do with the fact that its 90 degrees out and the last place I want to be is at work.  Luckily, I’ve been trapped in a windowless conference room all week, so I just pretend is cold and crappy out.

When I ‘m at work on a nice day, I often tell myself I am actually here. 

Anyways, I’m finally back home from traveling – WOOT WOOT!  One of the best things about being home is having the ability to cook your meals fresh instead of heating up three day old meatloaf (it’s the little things in life).  Usually I like to start my day with a huge breakfast that can carry me over until lunch.  Seriously, the size of my breakfasts are boarder line ridiculous (but yet so delicious).  So, today I treated myself to one of my favorite breakfasts, veggie and sausage stirfry with avocado.  All you need are veggies, sausage, coconut oil and salsa (I use Trader Joe’s Mango).  Heat up a skillet, add some coconut oil, throw in the veggies, sausage and salsa and let cook for five or so minutes.  Once the veggies are cooked through, top it off with some avocado! It’s that easy!  My mouth is watering just thinking of it. I will probably make it all weekend.

Delicious right?!

The second best thing about not traveling is being able to see my cat!  Judge me all you want.  She is seriously the cutest little peanut in the whole world.  And since she is so little and cute, I’ve totally become one of those over protective/helicopter parents.  If she is acting weird or has some sort of gook in her eye, I automatically think something is seriously wrong and go into panic mode.  I can’t even imagine what its like to have kids.  My life would be one big panic attack.  Look how cute she is here!  How can you not love her more than life itself.

Also, this week concluded the 45 day Paleo contest at my gym!  Although I couldn’t work out for the last three weeks of the challenge (I hurt my back) I still managed to lose four pounds!   Not too shabby!  I have a body composition test next week, so I’m really looking forward to that.  I’m going to try to eat very clean until after the test.  However, once that’s done, I will most likely treat myself to some sort of delicious ice cream treat (like the one in the picture below).  Hey, after 45 days, I deserve it, don’t you think?

This is one of the ice creams my family got last week while I sadly ate an apple with almond butter. 

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Thanks for listening to my ramble!

-Erica

Pumpkin Banana Coconut Shake

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Yes you read that correctly. How amazing does it sound?! I was all gung ho to make my normal breakfast smoothie this morning, only to find that my brother had eaten all the strawberries. Great. Actually, pretty sure I ate the majority of them, but that’s besides the point!

Craving a smoothie, I assessed my situation, and my ingredients. I had coconut milk, and bananas, and some pumpkin puree. Most normal people/semi-skilled chefs would be able to just throw something together, but I’m not quite at that point in my culinary career, and rely on Google to tell me if those ingredients went well together. Honestly, I’m the type of person that would see a fridge full of the most random things, be like “Oh I like all of these things!!! These will taste GREAT together!” and then end up with a spinach, steak and almond butter smoothie.

Anyways, Google didn’t let me down. I found this gem from Free Coconut Recipes and made a pretty fantastic smoothie, if I do say so myself.

Even got out my big girl camera this morning to take this pic-
that’s how excited I was about this smoothie.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 banana, fresh or frozen
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • A dash of cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
  • 3-4 ice cubes (optional)

Directions:

  1. Combine pumpkin puree, banana, coconut milk, cinnamon, and honey in a blender. Blend on high until well mixed and smooth. While blender is running, slowly pour in coconut oil.
  2. Pour in a glass and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Enjoy! (I only put the sprinkle of cinnamon on top for your viewing pleasure. Seriously, what is the point of sprinkling it on top? I just inhaled a ton of cinnamon and started sneezing/half choking while trying to drink. The things I do for you guys…You’re welcome).


-ES

Dear Paleo Bread, I Love You…

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Before going Paleo, one of my favorite breakfast meals was crusty whole grain bread with peanut butter and a banana.  Whenever I felt lazy in college, I would make it again for dinner.  I never got sick of it.  So, this weekend when I was craving bread hardcore, I was determined to find a yummy bread recipe.  I settled on honey almond bread that I found on Fast Paleo’s site (www.fastpaleo.com/paleo-bread/). 

 I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting much from it.  I actually thought it was going to be sort of bland and dry.  I don’t know what I based this on since I never made regular bread before, but whatever.  I really couldn’t have been more wrong! This bread is so moist and so delicious.  It is a lot denser than normal bread, so a little definitely goes a long way.  I’ve had it with both almond butter and regular butter and both are equally delicious.  I’m sort of sad that half the loaf is already gone.  Anyways, enjoy!

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cups almond flour
  • 2 tbsp. coconut flour
  • ¼ cup flaxseed meal
  • ¼ tsp. sea salt
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
  • 5 eggs
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp. honey
  • 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions:

  1. Place almond flour, coconut flour and flax, sea salt and baking soda in food processor
  2. Pulse ingredients together
  3. Pulse in eggs, oil, honey and vinegar
  4. Pour batter into greased 7.5” x 3.5” loaf pan
  5.   Bake at 350 degrees  for 30 minutes 
  6.   Cool and serve

Mexican Hash Egg Bake

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As you may know, my parents have been Paleo for a little over a month. Every weekend, my mom and dad spend hours cooking and baking up a paleo storm in the kitchen. It’s seriously the cutest thing ever. Although my dad thinks of himself as a paleo expert now, I will still get text messages with questions like “Are oranges Paleo”? Uh, really Dad?

Anyways, last week I introduced my mom to PaleOMG.com and she has been obsessed ever since (who can blame her??). Last Sunday they made a variation of the Mexican Hash Egg Bake that was posted a couple weeks back. It was seriously one of the most delicious dishes I have ever tasted.  Although I personally didn’t make it, my mom said it was super easy.  We didn’t have chorizo at home (which is what the original recipe called for) so my mom substituted in some all natural sausage. This recipe makes a ton, so you can definitely enjoy it throughout the week over and over again.

Ingredients:

1 lb. all natural sausage
1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes
2 sweet potato diced
1 onion diced
6-8 eggs
2 garlic cloves minced
1 Tbs. fat of choice
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. garlic power
½ tsp. chilli powder
½ tsp. oregano

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Heat up a large skillet or cast iron skillet under medium heat.
  3. Add your fat and minced garlic.
  4. When the garlic becomes fragrant, toss in your onions, sweet potatoes and sausage to begin to cook down.
  5. Mix ingredients together
  6. Let cook for about 6-8 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.
  7. Add your tomatoes and spices and mix together.
  8. If you are not using a cast iron skillet, pour your hash into a baking dish.
  9. Use a spoon to press into the hash where you want your eggs to go.
  10. Crack your eggs directly on top of hash.
  11. Bake for 5-8 minutes depending how runny you want your eggs.
  12. Enjoy!

-EB

Paleo Breakfast Smoothie

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We’ve been meaning to post about these ridiculously amazing smoothies for awhile now, but usually in the morning I am rushing out the door/spilling smoothie all over myself that I forget to take a picture. I can barely put my pants on and find matching socks and you expect me to remember to take a picture? Let’s be realistic. However, this morning I took the time to compose a BEAUTIFUL shot on my iPhone and was late to work. Just for you SEGR readers, just for you. You’re welcome.

Anyways, these smoothies are bomb. Really filling and full of goodness. And relatively quick to make, unless your blender explodes and gets all of the walls, ceiling, floor and cabinets in your kitchen….

Yes, that happened to me. No, I don’t want to talk about it.

Ingredients:
-8 oz. coconut milk (low fat or full fat)
-3-4 ice cubes
-1 banana
- Handful of berries of choice (strawberries and blueberries rule)
-1 tablespoon almond butter
-1/2 scoop of protein (optional)

Directions:
Throw that good ish in a blender and get down on it! Blend until desired texture is reached. I prefer mine really thick, but if you like yours smoother, add a splash of water.

-ES

Paleo Pancakes

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This weekend I was totally craving something sweet for breakfast.  I think breakfast has been the hardest transition for me becoming paleo as I was so used to eating Kashi or Eggo waffles with peanut butter for breakfast. Anyways, I found this ammmmazing blueberry paleo pancake recipe and thought I’d give it a shot. Not only are these pancakes delicious, I think they are better tasting than traditional pancakes with the use of the almond flour. These would also make a great dessert since the maple syrup adds a bit of sweetness to them.

I must admit, the picture below is not mine.  I found this picture on the Paleo Project blog (http://www.paleo-project.com/long-weekend-blueberry-pancakes/). I was in such a rush to dig in that I completely forgot to take one. Although mine weren’t nearly as pretty and well shaped, I promise yours will look similar!

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cups almond flour
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp (or so) cinnamon
  • ½ blueberries
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 100% maple syrup

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in a pan on medium heat
  2. Mix together almond flour, eggs, baking powder, water and cinnamon
  3. Scoop desired amount of the batter onto pan to form pancakes
  4. Add blueberries on top of pancakes once placed in the pan
  5. Treat as you would a normal pancake in terms of flipping, etc.

-EB

Sweet Potatoes for Breakfast? Yes, please

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I was listening to a Robb Wolf podcast the other day and he said that sweet potatoes are one of the best recovery foods to eat after working out. However, I find it very tricky to force feed myself a sweet potato at 7am. So, I thought making it more “breakfasty” would make it more bearable. I’ve been making this every day this week and it keeps getting better and better! I don’t have any precise measurements as its more of a taste as you go thing. So, enjoy!

Sorry the picture kinda sucks, I had to make it in a Styrofoam cup at work. Sweet life.

Ingredients:

  • Sweet potato
  • Coconut milk
  • Cinnamon
  • Raisins

Directions:

  • Cook the sweet potato as you normally would in either the oven or microwave.  I was using the microwave since that’s all I have at work
  • Once the potato is cooked through, cut it into small pieces so its easier to mash
  • Place the cut up pieces in a microwave safe bowl and add coconut milk until potato pieces are covered
  • Add cinnamon and raisins (I added a ton of cinnamon because its so delicious)
  • Microwave for 1-2 minutes until the milk is absorbed by the potato
  • Take out of the microwave and mash the potato
  • Enjoy!

-EB