Ok, so maybe not Gin... But I am down with the Juice right now! I do love gin, but I'm currently on a healing mission!
So, when I saw this amazing masticating juicer on sale, I couldn't resist!
Isn't she beautiful? Ok, so it was important that I got a Masticating Juicer, according to my girlfriend Kate, owner and magical awesomness behind Raw Replenish, a cold pressed juice company in Pennsylvania! (If you are interested in reading more about masticating vs centrifugal juicers, go HERE). Basically, I love my friend Kate, and she knows Raw Juice, I mean, it's her business! SO I bought this!
AS SOON as I opened it, I unpacked it and made celery Juice!
ACTUAL photo of me, sans makeup at about 6:30 am Christmas Morning with my fresh pressed celery juice!
Why might you ask? Well, I recently got this book:
In this book, it talks about SO many issues hormonal and otherwise, and how to heal them! Well, one of the things is celery! In the book, he suggests 16oz of fresh celery juice every morning on an empty stomach. Why? Well, celery helps with digestion. It strengthens the hydrochloric acid in your gut, and helps your liver produce more bile to break down food. Celery even has mineral salts, these stabilize and support the adrenal glands. I mean, why isn't this on the list of superfoods, right? In addition, it also helps cleanse the thyroid, and bolsters the production of the thyroid hormone T3! WHAT?!!? Yes, it's basically totally badass! Want more info? Read this book! It's so amazing!
I didn't actually think my fresh celery juice would be very good. Though, I'm the girl that loves wheatgrass. Yes, it's true. Now that I have a juicer, I am thinking I will start growing some wheatgrass! ANyway, back to celery.... It was light, and sort of sweet. I do use organic celery, so maybe that had something to do with the fresh sweeter taste than I expected. Either way, I'm on board. I'm committed to juicing celery daily, and seeing how it helps!
Celery is not all, you should see some of the other crazy concoctions I've been coming up with! They are so amazing. Even my 9 year old boy is turning into a juicing pro! This thing is the bomb diggity! I should have bought a juicer sooner! Seriously, Why did I wait so long?
More juicing yumminess to come soon, as I learn more and explore more amazing veggie & fruit combinations!
Did you know I workout? Yep, its true! LOL About 6 years ago, a little program I did at home changed my life. I went from a size 14 down to an 8 in 90 days. SAY WHAT? Yes, it's true. Watch my story HERE
My most recent program, is Shift Shop! Our newest launched program! I lost 8.8lbs, and almost 3% body fat! I feel stronger, more fierce. Oh, and let's not forget that my clothes fit better! Round one started with a week of 25 min workouts, then week 2 was 35 minute workouts, and week 3 was 45 minute workouts! Each week alternated between speed (cardio) and strength (weights), with abs added in!
This workout kicked my booty! In a good way! I did modify many moves, because of my torn rotator cuff. But, I still got insane results. So don't think that modifying doesn't get you results! Try it regular first, if you can't do it with good from, then modify!
The best part, is I didn't do anything you can't do! I followed the meal plan that was fully laid out for me! It included every meal, and exactly what to eat! That is what I did! EASY Peasy!
Do you want in on my next group? We are starting Aug 27th, and I would love for you to get some amazing results with this program! I will even pay your entry, because I believe in you!
I hope this inspires you to try the new Shift Shop workout! Don't miss out on the Challenge pack - CLICK HERE with shakeology, and containers at a discount! Enjoy! 🙂 Remember - only 16% of people who do Beachbody programs without a coach and support actually FINISH them. SO make sure you email me to get involved in my free coaching/wellness/lifestyle Group! I want you to finish!
Sure, I get it. Stupid isn't a nice word. But, it gets the point across right? I use this acronym a lot. There are SO many things in life that I think we as humans really try to over-complicate.
We over analyze. We over research. We think the crap out of everything.
It makes things more difficult I think. Back when things were simple, and there wasn't as many choices .... life just seemed easier am I right? Well, today I bring you the issue of "What to make for lunch after church on Sunday" - Yes, it's an issue.
If I don't have things ready, my kids can't fend for themselves. I must have staples like bread, and peanut butter. These kids expect so much from me! (joking). This works well, if we remembered to make sandwich bread! #realmomlife This brings us to this past Sunday....after church. NOTHING to eat. No bread was made. The kids had NO idea what to make themselves! What is a tired, and busy mom to do? I mean we already lost an hour of sleep, momma just wanted a nap! (Thanks daylight savings)
Enter my "mom's busy and didn't plan a lunch meal" - Salad! But not just any salad, this is the super amazing, full of flavor, tasty salad that my kids love, and it requires no bread! Crab salad!! YES! That is the answer! I highly suggest you keep staples to make a version of this in your own house at all times! :) I'm sharing my recipe with you so you too can keep this in your back pocket, for just those moments. You may even LOOK like you have it together! ;)
First, you start with some chopped up celery. I prefer to have mine diced.
Throw them in the bowl.
Up Next, The Crab. You could used canned if that is what you have on hand. However, I prefer the Big huge chunks of the imitation crab meat from Aldi. You can see in my picture how huge these chunks are. Next, add about 1/2 C Avocado Oil Mayo.
Up Next is really the secret Sauce! The seasonings! I add by sight, and don't really measure, so these can totally be adjusted to your own taste & liking! I do about 1/2 Tsp of Each Old Bay Seasoning and Dill. If you have fresh dill, use that! The flavor will really pop. If not, Dried is great!
Mix it all up really well. From here you can stick in fridge to chill, or you can eat it! We've been known to throw it on Crackers, Breads, Chilled cooked pasta..... Really, the possibilities are endless! :)
I hope you enjoy this easy simple recipe! Let me know if you try it in the comments!
Seriously, this is the best thing to happen in the fitness industry since like FOREVER!!!
This is not just an crazy good deal..... but it's a SOLUTION for the year, not just a new years Resolution!! I'm serious about getting you results in 2017! Let's throw the resolutions out the window and create a health & fitness revolution - TOGETHER!
When I got started on my journey, I paid $215 and only got ONE WORKOUT program! I got amazing results, and it launched my amazing fulfilling coaching business, but I got ONE!!! It was Turbofire! We are now offering a LIMITED EDITION 💥 ALL ACCESS Beachbody on Demand Challenge pack.
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This is like the BIGGEST THING EVER TO HAPPEN with home workouts!
You could do one program.... take a break.... do another one. Or if you have workout ADD like me, just randomly pick one to do every day for a week to figure out what you love! Try a dance program, then a weightlifting one, then a martial arts style one! Seriously, You'll never get bored! This means that you'll be able to keep on exercising through the year and actually reach your goals!
If you don't know about this movie, find the trailer. The movie is a little raunchy at points, but it is so stellar on hitting the points that most of us mom's feel on a regular basis. That feeling of not measuring up to the seemingly perfect moms. Let me tell you friends..... it's all about perspective.
I've recently come across many posts on facebook discussing this topic. The mom posting is usually saying something along the lines of ".... those perfect moms, volunteering, perfect house, perfect kids, kids in every sport/music/activity, homeschooling, church volunteering, cookie baking..... etc, etc, etc... .and I just don't measure up/I'm not doing good enough/I suck"
We put so much pressure on ourselves as mom's. But seriously...... WHY?!?!?! What is important in motherhood? In our house it's raising good kids, that love Jesus, that are kind, self sufficient, driven, with a love of learning. Who cares if the dishes always needed done right?
Just in case you are feeling like you don't measure up, Let me tell you a little about my #momlife Maybe you can relate.....
A homeschool day, me in PJ's.....
I love Jesus, but I cuss a little. My family is always fed, but sometimes it's PB & J for dinner. I put liquor in my coffee some mornings. Due to all of the meals I must feed the minions, my kitchen is always a revolving mess of dishes and crazy chaos. My dirty laundry pile is never ending. While I make my kids put their clothes away, personally my clean clothes usually stay in a basket in my room, until they become dirty and I move them to the dirty one. I have to remember how long it's been since I showered some days, if I have to think and can't remember, it must mean I need to shower. 🙈 Dry shampoo is my best friend. Some days, I wear pajamas all day. If I do get dressed, it's normally yoga pants or leggings. I have a note on my bathroom mirror "Brush your teeth" ... It's for me. I am a work from home mom. I homeschool my two kids, 5th grade & 2nd grade. We are a part of a CC Community (that is Classical Conversations). We meet one day a week, community day. I am almost always just almost late, running in late like a tornado. Some days we totally slay our school day at home, other days we do not. Some days my kids eat fruit, sliced veggies, granola bars, and a buffalo beef stick.... I call it "lunch". I let my kids do crazy things like use the couch like a jungle gym. I miss things, because I simply don't remember them if they aren't on my iCal with about 5 reminders set. I hit my snooze button every morning at least 2 times, normally it's more like 5. I've given my kids cake for dinner, and ice cream for breakfast on more than one occasion.
Should I continue?
As you can see, I'm just a Mom/Wife trying to do my best. We don't all have our shiz together, some of us are barely hanging on. We are just crazy hot chaotic messes, doing our best. Sometimes from the outside, it looks good..... Most of the time though, it looks crazy. Thank goodness for God's grace, right? What's important is that my kids know they are loved, unconditionally. They love Jesus. They are kind, giving, compassionate kids. They are really good kids. They love to help others. They love to learn. I must be doing an OK job. So what if we are struggling. I guarantee those moms that look like they have it all together have their own issues going on behind closed doors. Everyone does.
My encouragement to you is to stay the course, do your best, pray lots...... and when all else fails, say "forget it" grab some wine/chocolate/both, leave it all a mess, and go snuggle your babies. Time is fleeting. You only get 940 Saturday's in by the time your child is 18. 260 of those have passed already when they turn 5. (This is a great little read on that topic) I only have 356 more Saturday's with my 11 year old, and 521 with my 8 year old. That is not many! Why waste your precious time with them, worrying about measuring up to supermom down the road? I promise, to your kid.... you ARE supermom. <----- THAT MATTERS.
Our family, in real life. Making memories, we slept in that barn behind us on our move across the country.
When I think about tamales, I think about huge full kitchen, full of assembly line women working together to make hundreds of tamales.
It takes HOURS and hours! Sure you get to take home some amazing tamales, but it takes so long!
Well..... Not anymore!!!
I had seen somewhere like the day after I got my Instant pot..... that you could make tamales! Say what?!?! I didn't need 200, I only have a family of 4 and didn't want to store any. I just wanted a few for dinner! So, I had to try this out! The recipes I found were all so difficult, and I'm a simple girl! SO... this is what I did.
I got my organic masa out (I always buy my corn products organic, they are one of the heaviest pesticide/herbicide sprayed crops! yuck!) and sort of followed the instructions on the back of the bag to make my dough. Yes, I said "sort of" - I don't like following rules. So it called for vegetable broth, I used organic beef broth ..... I did a heavier hand on the spices, and I think I used sunflower oil. Don't judge, it's what I had.
Next, I took my favorite homemade dry enchilada mix, and took some leftover turkey and a can of my home canned tomatoes and simmered it all up together on the stove. This was going to be perfect! My son hates all poultry, so I opened a can of pinto beans for him. Then I got to rolling my tamales. Now... keep in mind, this is for my family (no guest), and I'm not trying to sell them. They didn't have to be pretty! So, I cut out parchment paper rectangles to wrap them in..... I have yet to find organic husks, so I'm limited here. I laid out my dough, topped with the meat mixture, chopped olives and onions, then rolled them up! The son's did not have onions or olives, just plain beans (he's so boring in his food choices).
I seriously just rolled the long sides, then the bottom up. Left the top open, and put them on the rack, with 1 cup of water in the bottom. See how I stacked them here ... .
See... not super pretty.... but functional! ☺ I cooked the on manual + high pressure for 25 minutes. Once done, I did quick release pressure! They were AMAZINGLY tasty! We topped them with some salsa verde, the husband put some cheese on top of his (the rest of us are dairy free, so that is why it wasn't IN them). SERIOUSLY, this is going in our recipe rotation. These were simple! We actually made them a couple nights after this first adventure using some leftover shredded beef. It is a great way to use up any leftover meats you may have, and make it into another meal!
I broke them a little unwrapping them, I'm not the most patient person
Let me know if you try this method out, what you used, and what you think! I found these SOOO easy to make, and SO yummy to eat! SO much room to make these so many ways!
I only got it like 3 days ago, and I've seriously cooked SO MUCH in it already! Today's magical concoction was a super hit!
You know how we've all heard how much better for you steel cut oats are.... yadda yadda... But those things take SOOO long to cook! Even with the quick cooking ones I have it takes over 10 minutes of "simmering"! Also, say goodbye to those amazing little things called "Overnight Oats" if you switch from old fashioned rolled oats to steel cut! Those things are amazing you all, seriously everyone picks their own and they are DONE overnight! Since we chose to forgo buying a microwave in our new house, those too have gone out the window because of the whole heating up part, but that isn't the point..... back to the pot. This thing makes the magic of "make your own oats" possible again, with the healthy steel cut version, and its fast and so good you all!
I came across this amazing blog post on Tidbits that lays out how to do this! My mind was blown! I just had to try it! I may very well blow my whole house up putting jars in the cooker, but I like to live dangerously.... I had to do it! (I also didn't do the "water test" you are supposed to do when you first get it, I have no idea where everyone even saw this info!)
I did make a few changes to the original recipe (find recipe here)
We all wanted to try the Carrot Cake oats! So we put in the oats, chia, and spices (we upped these a tad, as we love spices). I used chopped carrots instead of shredded (I love my food chopper, way faster then shredding), and we used coconut sugar (1 Tblsp per jar? I don't measure much) in place of the sweetener the recipe calls for! We actually did everything the night before, minus adding the water. Added all dry ingredients to the jars, and put the lids on til morning. We stored the chopped carrots ready to add covered in the fridge. My Instant Pot does not have a "delay" feature that I know of (maybe I should read my book), so I just finished them and put them in to cook in the morning with the carrots and water!
Since I used my Bob's Red Mill Organic quick cooking steel cut oats, I did decrease my cook time to only 14 minutes vs the 20 called for in the original recipe. Once done, I quick released pressure then opened it up! I used my canning jar tongs to carefully lift them out and put them on a cooling rack. Let them sit there for a short bit to cool.
We opened the lids, stirred, and enjoyed! You guys, seriously these are OUT of this world good! SUPER easy for everyone to pick their own add ins, and then cook them all up! I actually think I like the texture better cooking this way too! This is a SUPER win recipe for our family! I hope you enjoy this great recipe as much as we did!
I created a neat little community on facebook to share clean eating Instant Pot recipes! Want to join us?
