Any Meal Egg Frittata

Hello There Awesome Reader of all Foods Good!

It is now the Christmas season. Time for being with friends and family curled up in front of the fireplace and listening to soft Christmas music in the background. Cooking and eating together is always a big part of the season too. I have created a recipe that I know you will love and it can be made ahead of time so that you can enjoy those special moments with your loved ones. You know my love affair with eggs, right? Well, this recipe has a dozen of them so you can imagine how excited it makes me. Mmmmmm mmmmm and it makes the kitchen smell so very nice. The best part about this recipe is that it can be enjoyed at any meal. It makes an awesome make ahead breakfast for Christmas morning but it's equally satisfying as dinner served on top of a salad or steamed greens. It is high in protein from the eggs and sausage and contains super healthy carbs from the home grown sweet potatoes (thanks to my awesome sister's garden..... Thank you Melissa!). 

I hope you enjoy my latest creation and thank you, Janae, for the kind compliments prompting me to share some of my new recipes. It is inspirational for me that you enjoy my recipes and my blog!

Any Meal Egg Frittata 

12 eggs

2 cups grated sweet potato 

1 cup chopped sweet onion

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini (grate then squeeze out all moisture using a clean kitchen towel. Measure after squeezing)

1 1/2 cups sausage, diced(I used Trader Joes)

Salt and pepper to taste

Coconut oil (2 T and 1 T for greasing your pan)

Preheat Oven to 350. Grease a 13x 9 pan with 1 T coconut oil and set prepared pan aside. Heat coconut oil in a skillet on medium heat and add grated sweet potatoes and onions. Cook until onions are translucent and sweets are slightly browned. Add diced sausage and cook another 3 min or so. Add squeezed zucchini & cook while stirring 3-4 min. Add salt and pepper if desired.... I actually don't think they are needed with this spicy sausage. Now pour sweet potato mixture into the prepared 13x9 pan. Make sure it is evenly distributed. In a separate mixing bowl whisk eggs. Then pour the whisked eggs on top of the veggies mixture. Bake about 15 min or until set in the center. Cut into 12 squares and enjoy!!!!! Yummy!!!!

The squares are served on top of a halved and roasted eggplant.....adds another dimension to this healthy meal. 

Forgiving

It's something we as humans are not born with. It must be learned. It must be taught. Forgiving. Forgiving yourself. Forgiving others. Forgiving situations. Forgiving and realizing you are lucky to be able to start again. This, as we know, can encompass many aspects of our lives. Family, relationships, and as this is a blog/website about nutrition and wellness we all know forgiving must also be done in areas of self healing and weight management. If you are on the right path and then an obstacle comes in your way and creates a road block FORGIVE yourself. Mama always says, "You are your own worst critic". Others do not see your flaws. They see your beauty, your love, your passion. Sometimes forgiving yourself is the hardest thing of all but it can be the most freeing. 

So how was your weekend? Did you make healthy decisions? You can control how you think, how you move and what you eat. Weekends can be a tough time to do our best but tomorrow is Monday. A perfect time to start anew. And guess what I just read...... Never skip a Monday workout. Never. Ever. So I will be working out tomorrow. Join me. Start anew. Realize that forgiving is a lifelong action. But start with yourself. Be the best YOU you can be. 

I had frosted shredded wheat for a bedtime snack with my kids and it was so good. So so good and it reminded me of being 19 and going to school all day and working all night and coming home to a nice bowl of cereal for dinner. Good times for sure but probably not the best 8pm snack for me to have but tomorrow is Monday. The world starts over. A new beginning. So smile when you wake up. Let your alarm go off, stop the sound and then smile. Your life is worth smiling about and you are loved and its a new day. I will give you some awesome recipes this week! Smile at a stranger tomorrow too..... It's crazy how contagious it is.

View from atop the Ravenel Bridge in Mount Pleasant, SC. Awesome way to exercise and see Charleston and enjoy the view. 

Stress and Love

I have had a busy few weeks! By busy I mean BUSY but life is what you make of it. Some people say life can be stressful but that too is in the eyes of the beholder. Most seemingly stressful situations can also be looked at as exciting (I do admit there are down right stressful times though folks..... I am a glass half full gal but I'm not totally in the clouds.). It's how events are presented and perceived that will cause you to be either stressed or excited. Lets just take moving cross country for example.... Solo and with children and a dog for example......just to make things a bit more spicy. Look at life as exciting and an adventure and others, including children, will view it that way too. Be aware that your children are tiny, little sponges that soak up all of the information around them. That could mean as little as how you treat the woman serving you your coffee at the coffee shop or as big as how you treat them and how you teach them to love each other and the world around them. But guess what? It's all related. If you are impatient, heartless and demanding to every server who brings you food you are teaching your kids by modeling your behavior. Every moment, every second is a teaching experience waiting to happen so grab onto it. Have a long car trip planned with the kids? Play the license plate game (see who can tell what state's plate is in front of you first), or play ABC game (find each letter of the alphabet on signs, billboards and cars. First one to say the letter and read the word wins that letter, keep score and winner at the end can get a prize. I think it was a penny when I was a kid...basically just the glory of winning). 

Yes, this is typically a food blog but this is a busy time of year for traveling, family and outdoor fun. Make it special and educational for your children. And of course I am going to give you some food advice!  

Car snacks! Yummy and fun! Eating in the car is a great way to pass the time while on the way to Grandma's house. But be sure to eat only if you are hungry. Some great, crunchy, light foods to eat in the car are celery and carrot sticks, cheese sticks and some BBL bars! Also, almond milk protein shakes are great too. They are easy to drink and have tons of protein to help keep you fuller longer. Just be sure to sip slowly and take your time. After all, on long car rides time is on your side. So laugh, love and enjoy each other! Happy July friends! I hope the summer has been treating you well! 

Summer's Beauty!

Hello my beautiful, strong friend!

Welcome to summer's long, HOT days, hammocks, flip flops, sundresses, tank tops and hopefully family vacations. Just remember that eating healthy can be just as convenient, quick and easy if you are prepared. 

Spend just a few moments each night planning the next day and preparing your cut up fresh veggies (join a CSA!), writing down your meal ideas and you will be rewarded with the extra time and energy needed to play tag with your kids or throw a football along the water's edge. 

Remember to add power foods every day! You know my love for chia seeds and here are 2 different ways to incorporate them into your day:

Frozen banana chia slices

Just slice a frozen banana, add a dollop of natural almond butter (Only ingredient should be Almonds), and sprinkle with chia seeds (1 Tablespoon total). My kids love eating this frozen treat with toothpicks. 

Ch-offee protein smoothie!

Just blend the above ingredients for a power packed, energy pumping, quick breakfast! 

1 serving of chocolate protein powder (About Time is my favorite but I only had this kind for my example)

1/3 C coffee concentrate (or 1/2 cup strongly brewed and cooled coffee)

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 Tablespoon chia seeds

1 Tablespoon natural almond butter

Blend all ingredients. Add ice if you prefer a thicker shake. Enjoy every smooth, powerful sip as you slowly drink!!!!!

Take a few moments every day to close your eyes and listen to the life all around you. Birds, bugs, increased airplane travel, children laughing, splashing, lawn mowers humming....all tell tale signs that summer is here. Enjoy each moment. Now that is a recipe we can ALL follow!

Maureen LOVES my duck eggs!!!!

My awesome, amazing, gorgeous, beautiful friend Maureen LOVES my dinner! Score for BBL! Yee Haw!!!!!

Use Your Noodle!

What did the paperclip say to the magnet?

Not going to tell you until the end of this post, silly goose!

But that joke is making you use your brain and sometimes your brain is referred to as your noodle and now I want to talk about noodles! Get the connection now? Yay!

I made the best homemade spaghetti and meatballs for my family yesterday. All 3 of my kids wanted seconds....score for Mama! I definitely wanted seconds too but opted to have a side salad instead of a second helping of spaghetti. 

The noodles were not noodles at all though. There. I said it. To be perfectly clear what I mean is that the noodles were not pasta. They were actually zucchini squash cut by my spiral slicer!

What an amazing invention! The spiral slicer! It helps me make noodles out of any vegetable and chips and fries out of nature's very own candy vegetable...... the versatile sweet potato!

Haha! You just had to see Bobby. He finds a way to get into almost every picture I take. Good, sweet boy, Bobby. And here are just 3 zucchinis noodles cut up by my spiral slicer. Enough noodles for all 4 of us!

Spiral slicing vegetables is a fabulous way to get your kids involved in making dinner. All you do is stick the veggie onto the handle part, hold the machine firmly and start turning the handle. The handle turning is what my kids like the most. But if I'm perfectly honest with myself I find it quite entertaining and soothing too. Ahhh, the simple pleasures in life that float my boat. 

So, back to the awesome meal. The kiddos and I just spiral sliced the noodles (smallest choice of spiral). Then we made a quick sauce, added turkey meatballs which were a breeze to create (just lean ground turkey, basil, italian seasoning, nutritional yeast, ground flaxseeds, sea salt, pepper all rolled into little balls and pan cooked with coconut oil for a few minutes on all sides.....or just buy Trader Joe's frozen turkey meatballs. They rock!). And our meal was done.

For the sauce just sauté onions (probably about 2 cups) in coconut oil until the onions are translucent, add 5 cloves of minced garlic, Trader Joe's strained tomatoes (2 cans), a can of TJ's tomato paste, basil, Italian seasoning, sea salt and cracked pepper. 

This is truly an easy, super healthy meal made in 25 minutes or so. You do have time to make healthy meals. YOU get to decide what to do with extra time in your day. Do you waste time sitting in drive through lines? If you have time to do that then you have time to prepare healthy meals for yourself and your family. 

If you don't have a spiral slicer buy one! It's a fun, easy way to make awesome vegetables even more awesome! Here is a  link to my exact slicer:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0007Y9WHQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1400822095&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40

See! Almost 3,000 people love it on Amazon. I'm not loco en la cabeza after all! 

Enjoy the awesome spaghetti and meatballs! Oh and I bet you want the answer to the joke?

Answer: "I'm attracted to you!" 

HA! What a knee slapper! Love that joke! My kids only understood the paperclip being attracted to the magnet due to magnetic force. They didn't get the cute attracted to you part. In a few years sweet children you will and I'm definitely not counting down those days. 

Thank you to my thoughtful sister, T, for my awesome spiral slicer! You know me so well!

3 day Cleanse Julie style

The nice, warm, sunshine filled weather is finally here. My house and yard have been Spring cleaned and now I want my body to feel clean too. The heavy carb-laden foods that I so craved this winter (sweet potatoes, pumpkin, oatmeal, soups, etc) have been replaced with local, fresh greens, farm fresh eggs and backyard berries.

And I bought Jus by Julie! It's a NYC based company who makes and ships their awesome JUS combinations. 

This is what my "food" looked like for 3 days. 

I started the first day with Morning Glory. It was tasty. No very sweet, more like a hearty flavor; I guess mainly because romaine lettuce is its #1 ingredient. But I LOVE the little tasty bits in it...that must be the celery. Yummy! I could start my day every day like this!

Then a few hours later I had spicy lemonade. Oh. MY. GOSH! It was AWESOME! It has cayenne pepper! Amazing! Julie is a genius! For sure!

Then for lunch I had a Sweet Spin. I like this one. Tastes earthy, healthy with just enough sweetness from the pineapple, banana and my FAVORITE, mango. YUM!

Chia Berry was next around 3pm. Holy cow I have found another passion! These JUSes! As you know I absolutely LOVE chia and this drink has JUST the right amount of the tiny little power seeds! Thank goodness this is portioned out for me or I would have kept going!

Dinner was awesome! I think I've used that word way too much in this post. But what else can I say? My favorites JUSed into an awesome drink and delivered to ME?! YAY! Island Coconut was hearty, just sweet enough and so filling and fulfilling!

My after dinner treat was another Sweet Spin and I thought it was a fabulous way to end my first cleansing day! Please do not count the amount of exclamation marks in this post. I know I have gone over board but you know how passionate I am and I have found a new passion. <<<<<<I totally resisted the urge to put another exclamation mark there!

___________________________________________________________________________

So all of the above I wrote on my first day which was Saturday. Now its Monday and SIGH my cleanse is coming to an end. Forgive me while I get some tissues. I loved yesterday. Felt so clean, energized and happy! Today is the same. My JUS has been awesome, filling and fabulous. I just went on the website to see how I can get all of my friends into this. Believe me friends and family and those of you who I love and have not met, this JUS ROCKS! I want to do it monthly at least! I want to live on this stuff and I would if I could!

So here is my very special JUS by Julie LINK to buy under my name!

Buy it! Love it! Feel it and then you will thank me and give me hugs. I like warm hugs! Really tight, warm hugs!

Let me know what you think!!!!!!!!! <<<<<<< lots of them for you. Enjoy your day and eat clean!

Such a Tough Winter!

Hi. It's me. I'm your bikini baking lady. I have been on hiatus for a few months. No, I have not been in Tahiti or Florida. I have been enjoying my children each day. However, this has been the sickest, darkest, coldest, snowiest winter I have ever experienced. But, now it's Spring, maybe. We woke to snow today, April 16! It was 31* when we woke! 

Ok. Enough gloom for one post! I will get over this. I WILL GO BACK TO BEING YOUR BIKINI BAKING LADY! Remember, I call myself that not because I bake/cook in my bikini but instead because when I eat I try to picture myself in my bikini. Over the years that has helped me with my intense desire to over eat. (BTW, I over eat healthy foods.... But you do need to know..... Even excess fruits and vegetables WILL cause weight gain!) 

I am into Dr. Joes Fuhrman's brand new book "The End of Dieting". I highly recommend it! In it he gives an awesome Chia pudding recipe which I have been making ahead of time and enjoying in the morning each morning this week. It truly keeps me full until noon! 

Here is his recipe:

Dr. Fuhrman's Chia Pudding

(This is for 1 serving! It's so good that I need to only make 1 serving of it at a time!)

1/2 Cup almond milk (coconut milk if you are allergic)

1/8 cup chia seeds

1/8 cup oats

1 tablespoon raisins (I used 2 chopped cherry essence prunes!)

1/2 a vanilla bean cut horizontally. Scrape out the innards and mix into chia mixture. Then add the 1/2 vanilla bean pod to the mixture.

Stir all ingredients well and let sit at least 10 min in fridge or until firm. Then add 1/4 cup cut up super ripe banana and 1/8 cup wild blueberries. I make the night before so it's an immediate, super fast go to breakfast! Enjoy! It is really SO good!