Keeping It In Check On The Road

Gary & I leave for our road trip this Saturday!  While I want to enjoy myself tremendously {especially when it comes to food - Oregon has soooo many cheese shops & wineries} I do NOT want to undo all the hard work I've put toward my health the past 7 weeks!

To accomplish this, I've come up with some guidelines for me to follow while on vacation.

• Stay active.  Sightseeing can burn lots of calories when you are doing a majority of it on foot!  On the days we will be doing more driving than exploring I will either hit up the hotel gym or do some cardio in our hotel room {I am bringing my workout clothes and some easy workout equipment}.  Even 20-30 minutes is better than nothing!
• Eat a hearty breakfast.  Personally, I do better throughout the day once I've eaten a good breakfast.  All the hotels we're staying at offer a free breakfast, hopefully offering more than just waffles & pastries.  Which leads to.....
• Bring our own food. All our hotels offer mini fridges & microwaves, so we are loading up a cooler full of healthy snacks to bring with us.  If all else fails and the breakfast sucks, we can enjoy a waffle with our own boiled eggs and kale chips.
• Limit Indulgences.  Yes, I want to try VooDoo Doughnut.  But I don't need to load the cooler full of them, so I can enjoy one for breakfast, lunch AND dinner!
• At times, just IGNORE my guidelines. I think this is the one I will struggle with the most because I tend to have a "do or die" attitude.  I need to remember that we are on vacation for 2 weeks.  I don't need to have a salad or a side of steamed broccoli for every meal {even though these are 2 things I truly love}.  I can stick to my food rules 100% of the time when I get back from vacation.  

***How do you handle eating when on vacation?  Do you stick to normal eating or have the belief "I'm on vacation; I deserve to eat what I want?"***

Egg Muffins & Almond Pancakes

Today has been a lazy Saturday at its finest!  I rolled out of bed around 10, made the delicious breakfast you will read about below, and went to my parents house so Gary could work on their computer.  After he was done we took a nice long walk around their neighborhood before heading home.

A few weeks ago, I found the Holy Grail of quick, easy and healthy breakfasts.  I cannot keep it to myself any longer, so you are in luck!

Let's start with these egg muffins:

Do you have 20 minutes?  That's how long it took me from start to finish to make 12 of these national treasures.

Ingredients:

8 eggs
1/4 Red Bell Pepper
1/4 Green Bell Pepper
1/2 Yellow Onion
4 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms
S&P as per your taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

You can either chop the vegetables by hand or do what I did and throw them all in the food processor, pulse a few times and throw it in a mixing bowl.  (As you can probably see below, I forgot to add the mushrooms to the processor, so I did those by hand).

Crack the 8 eggs into the bowl, add the bacon, S&P and mix.  Pour mixture into well greased muffin tins (whether using either oil or PAM, etc., make sure they are VERY well greased) until 3/4 full.

 Cook for about 15 minutes, then let cool on your counter.

This muffin tin alone gave me 3 days of breakfasts and a morning snack (2 for each meal).  Just heat two on a plate for 30 seconds and you have a healthy, delicious meal WITHOUT having to think about what to make.  Next week I am going to start making 2 tins at a time because Gary  is FINALLY dumping his cereal habit (CHEERS, APPLAUSE)!!  Having to make this twice a week will be a breeze because I can cook them while I am cooking dinner.

Moving on to the pancakes...

I bought some almond meal at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago, because it is MUCH cheaper than almond flour.  I am not an expert, but I think the only difference between almond meal and flour is that the flour ground finer than the meal.  For the difference in price, I do NOT mind have chunky meal over the flour!

Since trying to eat Paleo (we are definitely on the right track, but still struggle) I have been craving pancakes!  So this is what I created this morning, alongside my trusty egg muffins:

Sorry for the photo quality, used my iPhone.

We have tried coconut flour pancakes before and they were okay, but I felt that I needed something heartier.

Here's what I came up with.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Almond Meal
3 Eggs
2 TB Coconut milk (or milk of your choice)
1/4 tsp. Almond extract
Cinnamon and nutmeg to your liking (I just add a few shakes of each.  Nutmeg is my go to spice for a hearty flavor)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix by hand.
Drop 1/8 cup batter into a pan or skillet that has been oiled.
After adding the batter to the pan, I dropped a few blueberries into each pancake.
Cook each side for about 2-3 minutes.

Plate & ENJOY!!

We plan on watching a movie tonight while eating homemade pizza where I get to use some more almond meal that was inspired by Tina.  I read her blog daily and she has such great recipes and is such a positive person and an inspiration.

Hopefully most of you get a 3-day weekend.  Either way, enjoy it to the max!

Sweet Potato Hash Browns

Hash Browns have always been a staple in my house.  Sunday mornings are not complete without a few cups of coffee, scrambled eggs, bacon and crispy hash browns. 

In an effort to make more food from scratch, we have stopped buying frozen hash browns at the store and I decided to try my hand at homemade sweet potato hash browns, since we are not fans of regular potatoes.

First thing you need to do is wash and peel you potatoes. 

Now, you can either shred them with a hand grater OR (what I do to save time) use a food processor.  It seriously took me maybe 2 minutes to shred them this way.

Clean up is a breeze because you can wash all this stuff in the dishwasher.  

You now want to lay out a folded non-linty towel (I use lots of my own lingo).  Lay the shredded sweet potatoes on it, and, using another non-linty towel, apply pressure to remove as much moisture as possible from the potatoes.

Start warming up your pan on the stove top with the oil of your choice (I prefer coconut oil).  

Add the potatoes and seasoning of your choice.  We only use salt & pepper.

Arrange potatoes as uniform as you can on the bottom of the pan and let cook for 10-15 minutes on medium-high heat.  Flip and cook another 10-15 minutes.

Depending on how crispy you want them, you can add a few more minutes on each side (I do).

When finished, serve with bacon & eggs.

Please don't be jealous of our Sunday "fine china."  Only the best!!