Heirloom Tomato Pico de Gallo

We use a lot salsa in our home. Its a great salad dressing, garnish and marinade. Here is a Easy Pico de Gallo, no fuss,  recipe.

4 large tomatoes (I like to use heirloom tomatoes when they're in season)
1 sweet onion
2 Serrano peppers
1/4 bunch of cilantro
1 lime
Pinch of sea salt

Dice the tomatoes,  onion, cilantro, and peppers. If you don't care for spicy food make sure you remove the seeds before you dice the serrano peppers you can also reduce the amount of peppers you use. Mix all your diced ingredients and add the juice of one lime. Toss the mixture and sprinkle with a dash of sea salt if desired.

You can eat right away but the longer it sits in the fridge the more the flavors will marry together.

No Bake Cookies Sugar Free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free

When you're making a life style change instead of just a "diet" you have to have options for treats so you don't feel like you're deprived and then binge on junk food. I adapted several different recipes in order to come up with this one great alternative to your traditional, calorie and sugar packed no bake cookie.

NOTE: Make sure you measure the coconut oil while in liquid form, and if you are using a loose almond butter reduce your coconut oil measurements by 2-3 tbs.

Things you need:
1 cup Almond butter (make sure it's sugar free)
1 3/4 cup Stevia in the Raw
3 cups Old Fashioned Oatmeal (make sure it's gluten free)
1/2 cup Coconut oil
1/2 cup Unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 tsp Nutmeg (or cinnamon)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa powder (if you want a chocolate cookie use 1/3 cup)
Wax paper / cookie sheet

In a large sauce pan melt the coconut oil on low, add the stevia. Stir in the coconut milk and turn the heat up to medium and stir in the almond butter, salt, nutmeg, cocoa powder. Heat mixture and mix thoroughly, add the oat meal and stir over heat for 30 seconds- 1minute until evenly incorporated. Remove from heat and drop on to two cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Place in the freezer to set.

I like to store mine in the freezer for freshness and the extra crunch.

These awesome little cookies are packed with protein and fiber and are less than 150 calories per cookie!

Karl likes to grab these on the way out the door to work as a quick breakfast paired with either an apple or an orange.

Quinoa Pancakes with Strawberry Basil Compote

I've heard so many great things about Quinoa as a replacement for rice, bread crumbs, cornmeal and etc. that this last time while I was at the store I grabbed a bag. Unsure what I was going to do with it I left it on the counter and started pondering.... My oldest asked if we could have breakfast for dinner (she wanted a bagel and banana) and it dawned on me that we haven't had pancakes in over a month! Pancakes used to be our staple breakfast, lunch or dinner if the cupboards were bare.

I started looking around and found a recipe from Martha Stewart as my foundation, but it required several alterations to be Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Sugar Free.

Things you need:

1 cup cooked Quinoa

1/2 tsp nutmeg (or cinnamon if you're going to top with apples)

• 3/4 cup almond flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder (Rumford is confirmed gluten free)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 medium sized eggs

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted, plus more for skillet

• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

• 1 tablespoon stevia (optional)

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together quinoa, almond flour, baking powder, and salt. In another medium bowl, whisk together eggs, coconut oil, unsweetened coconut milk, and stevia until smooth. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and whisk to combine.

1. Lightly coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with coconut oil and heat over medium-high. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls into skillet. Cook until bubbles appear on top, 2 minutes. Flip cakes and cook until golden brown on underside, 2 minutes. Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more coconut oil and remaining batter (reduce heat to medium if overbrowning). Serve with fresh fruit or preserves if desired.

Strawberry Basil Compote

Things you need:
1 package of frozen strawberries or 1 lb of fresh strawberries
2 sprigs of basil
1 tablespoon of stevia
1 tablespoon of stevia

Easy prep

Rough chop the basil leaves

Toss strawberries, basil, lemon juice, and stevia in a glass bowl and microwave for 7 minutes. Let sit for 2 minutes to thicken.

or 

heat on stove in a pot until the strawberries reach the desired consistency.

Flavor is better than fat

As a self proclaimed foodie I love all food that is delicious and typically I associate that with starving myself through breakfast and lunch in order to eat something extravagant for dinner or dessert. Sound familiar? I think the concept of calorie counting alone can perpetuate this. However, a healthy caloric intake for me is 1100 calories a day and for Karl 1250, so there is definitely a balance between keeping track of what you're eating all day but making sure you divvy up those calories through out the day.

I started using the Android application "Fitness pal" to keep track of both calories and exercise.

If you get a popular omlett from IHOP you're facing  915 calories not including toast, juice,  and etc. YIKES! I don't think we will be eating out very much, you don't know what is going into your food unless you make it.

The Omlett I made at home today was only 376 calories with toast and and apple! So tasty too.

I really like Dave's killer bread for how much fiber and natural protein it has while still being free of any animal products.  You don't have to deprive yourself of bread, just make good choices of what bread you use.  

Delicious, filling and satisfying.

Omlett

Wisk 2 medium sized eggs (I prefer organic omega 3 eggs from Safeway), add some pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.

Heat 1/4 tbs of olive oil in a small skillet at a medium to high heat ( 6 of 10 on our stove top)

Add your whisked/seasoned eggs to the hot skillet, unless you want scrambled eggs DO NOT TOUCH
until the eggs have cooked all the way through and the ends start to curl up a little.

Carefully flip half over on to the other half then slide on to your plate. I don't like having cold salsa on my eggs so I place a dollop of salsa in the still hot pan and heat up before place on top and then just for looks I garnish with parsley. (What? I like my food to be pretty)

Enjoy! Lean and delicious but chalk full of protein and fiber =)