Coconut Banana Mash

Okay...so I found this coconut ice cream over the weekend at Whole Foods but I still hadn't eaten it. 

I usually have some fruits in the morning in my protein shake after working out....but I had an epiphany,  I thought of something super yummy to do with the ice cream and the fruits.  This is what I did....
I got a scoop of the coconut ice cream, half a banana and 2 tablespoons of crushed almonds and mashed it all together.  I only have one word to say.....HEAVEN!!!!

My New Obsession

Can someone enlighten me and tell me if this is normal or am I going crazy...all I can think of is exercising, eating (Paleo), buying groceries and workout outfits!!! I'm in the process of getting my Masters in Mental Health Counseling, yet I should be able to control myself....but seriously this is all I think about!!!  During work, in class, at home!!!  It's funny but I find any excuse to go to Whole Foods, Milam's even WinnDixie, who cares.  The thing is to go buy something, come home and eat!! I wanna bake, I wanna cook, I wanna eat!!
Then there's the workout outfits.  I want to be dressed and ready to crossfit at all times.  Prior to 3 months, I only wore sports bras, workout clothes or tennis shoes was just to do crossfit and the occasional times I went to Bally's.  As a matter of fact, the only pair of tennis shoes that I owned was because a friend of mine gave them to me.  I hated tennis shoes. I wore platform sandals with everything. For goodness sakes, I would go to Disney World in platforms (no lie).   Now, not only do I have my own pair of Nike's but I use my daughters cheerleading one's as well and I feel as if those aren't enough (or good enough).  I want to get either INOV-8's or the New Balance crossfit ones also.  At least I can say my feet are much nicer and smoother since they're always nice and covered!!  Not only that but I've gone crazy buying sports bras, tank tops and shorts. Well the good thing is I can go to work with them as well.
Anyways, CrossFit Kitty, personally suggested that I put up more pics....so here it is.  Me this morning before going to crossfit in my NEW outfit!!!  Ooops, you can't see the shoes...maybe when I get my new ones!!

Someone please stop me.....or is this ok???

Weekend

So this past week I went 4x to crossfit and ate paleo all the way.  Friday night, I even baked these yummy coconut macadamia cookies. I know, I know...my food pictures suck, but #1 I don't have an awesome camera and #2 even if I did I suck at taking pictures anyways.  I'm trying my best here considering the time I have to blog.  It's a good thing I gave facebook a break because between farmville and cityville I didn't even have enough time to pay attention to my kids (no joking here)!    Back to my eating....everything was fine until Saturday night that my daughter went to eat at Chili's with her friends.  Low and behold, being the great daughter that she is, she comes back home not only with all her friends and her left overs (those aren't a problem) but  she brings me my all time Chili's favorite, Skillet de Queso.

 

When she told me she had brought me that because she knew how much I loved it, I had mixed feelings.  LoL.  I didn't know if to hug her or kill her!!!  So, I did the inevitable and had a few.  I can count with my fingers how many I had and I'd have fingers left over.  Can I say how saaaaaaalty it was!!!  Did they put extra salt this time or was it my taste buds aren't used to all the extra salt that is put into food!?!?  I felt good though.  I had a few chips and dip but can honestly say that I am no longer interested, in skillet de queso that is.  

Now onto Sunday.  I would like to give a shout out to my very good friend and co-wife, Crossfit Kitty, for finishing Level 1 crossfit trainer course this weekend.  I'm sure she did exceptional on the test and that we'll be celebrating this weekend the accomplisment!!!  But an early celebration started at Big Pink.  Ricky had a salad with skirt steak and mine was with salmon.  Sorry Carolina...but my can this girl eat!!! She had a humongous hamburger with cheese and who knows what else was in there and a bucket of french fries.  Then to top it off she got a brownie sundae.  After a weekend crossfit training course....really???  Did you have to?  (You can count on the huge comment she'll be leaving me)  Well, I couldn't resist the temptation and had 4 spoonfulls of this delicious creation!!! Oh and Ricky had exactly 1 spoonful.  I think I would have bathed in it if I could!!!  Should have taken a picture of it.

 

So, the coconut macadamia cookies....although a bit dry they're not bad to munch on.  The blogger I got the recipe from, Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations, added chocolate chips.  I didn't have any at home so I just did them without.  I'm sure they would have been even better with the chocolate chips.  Also, his looked much better than mine did, but hey...it's the taste that counts!!!  Here's how I did them....

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Coconut Flour
• 1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
• 1/2 Cup Raw Honey
• 4 Omega 3 eggs
• 1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract
• 1/8 Tsp sea salt
• 1/2 Cup Macadamia Nuts, food processed to your consistency liking, 
• 1/2 Cup of shredded unsweetened coconut

 Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. In a large bowl, combine coconut oil, raw honey, eggs, vanilla extract, and sea salt.
3. Add in your coconut flour.
4. Stir in the macadamia nuts, shredded coconut.
5. On foil lined baking sheets, drop heaping tablespoons of cookie batter.(Ensure you form them to look how you want for a final product as these do not rise or spread like conventional cookies, which also means you can place more on a baking sheet without worrying about them touching) 
6. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Remove from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack and then enjoy!

 

Avocado Cilantro Dressing

I made some chicken last night for dinner and I needed something to dress it up with.  I found this recipe in a fellow blogger's page (PaleoOMG) and with a little bit of tweaking this is what I came up with:

2 avocados, pitted
1 bundle cilantro, stems removed
juice of 1 lemon
6 garlic cloves
salt and pepper, to taste

All you need to do is put all those ingredients in a food processor until it becomes a nice thick paste.  Then you can add it to any meat, marinade it or dip it.  I'm even thinking of using it as salad dressing.  Try it...it's delicious.

Labor Day Weekend

I was out of bed today by 8:45am. That's a drastic change for me who usually gets up no earlier than noon and who's even been known to stay in bed all day. Not only was I up but by 9am I had set up and pressed play to a P90X Yoga cd. That's right, yoga. I wanted to make it out to my box for the class but opted to do it from home since it was the first time ever doing it. I'll be honest, I only lasted 15 mins.
Anyways, the key lime pie I made Saturday night was delicious. I was going to take it over to my aunts house since we were having lunch there but thank goodness I didn't. No one would of appreciated it since they consider anything organic or paleo just plain bad!  Considering it was my grandmother's 91st birthday luncheon, I did pretty good.  I ate pot roast (no potatoes) and avocados.  I stayed away from the Cuban bread, white rice and black beans, flan and bread pudding.  It wasn't difficult at all.  From there we went to a friends daughter 3rd birthday party.  Now, here is where the difficulty began....the buffet consisted of ceasar salad, croquettes, beef empanadas, guava and cheese pastries, fettuccini alfredo, chicken fingers, pizza and french fries.  I had no choice but to have 2 plates, not 1 of ceasar salad croutons and all.  I had 3 glasses of sangria and why lie....but 2 pieces of my all time favorite rum cake.  I mean really, did they have to have my favorite cake?
But not to worry, I fasted for the rest of the night.  And it was back on track on Monday.  

Paleo Key Lime Pie

OK, so it's a rainy Saturday night and we're not going anywhere.  So we decide to make a key lime pie recipe that I saw on a fellow bloggers page.....Paleo-Zone.  We head over to Whole Foods and what can I say.... I felt as if I was at Disney World!!  I just love that place.  I don't ever want to walk into a Winn Dixie ever again, much less one of those Latin supermarkets.
Apart from the necessary ingredients, we got Mexican Shrimp Salad, Beef Satay, Turkey Meatloaf, Ceviche, and almond veggies. Oh, and Lemon Snaps!!! Totally Paleo!!  (Again, fellow Paleo experts, please call up on any mistakes that I make)

We got home and made our key lime pie.   It's in the oven now as I write.   So, I will let you guys know tomorrow how it came out! 

Is the government controlling what we eat?

This is a great article I found on a fellow blogger's page which I follow, Why You Are Never Too Old For Crossfit...   It's about how the government "encourages" us to buy and consume certain products, not always to our benefit. The Paleo diet is mentioned as one of the healthier ways to eat although the article is not written to promote Paleo eating.          Click here to Check it Out

 
There's also this documentary that I saw one day switching channels called "Killer At Large."  It's an eye opening documentary that takes a look at many causes of obesity including the toxic food environment, the problems with school lunches and vending machines and the impact food lobbyists have on determining government policies. It also includes stories about young people who've had gastric bypass surgery or liposuction. Plus, there are interviews with dozens of people who have tried to bring attention to the obesity problem including former president Bill Clinton, Kelly Brownell of Yale University and consumer advocate Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  This one I don't have a direct link to it...just google it and you could either buy it or watch it free online somewhere.