Pops of Pineapple!

This is a quick super easy lunch I threw together today. I wasn't in the mood for really doing a lot of cooking or anything that was going to require a lot of clean up lol. So here we go! Super easy, just threw some coconut oil in the pan (would be really awesome with some bacon fat too), then put in my chopped up asparagus, as that started to brown a little I put the AppleGate chicken sausage in the pan let that get some color on it, then put in the pineapple last.
    The Pineapple you really just want to get warm to add a little pop of sweetness but if you cook pineapple to long it gets really hot and then you are waiting on the pineapple to cool down so you can eat it and in the mean time everything else is getting cold. lol This is important to me, I like to eat things all together.
     I also added a side of avocado to this, I had plans to make a quick guacamole but didn't have everything I needed so I'll save that for another post. All in all though I got a pretty complete meal that left me satisfied and not super full.

Quick brake down of this nutritionally for me was about;
227g calories
 25g carbs
 13g fat
 19g protein
 
Give it a try for a great lunch or even for dinner one night. You could switch up the protein and do shredded chicken or cubes of steak. It's almost like a stir fry so you could even add rice to it if you wanted for a post workout meal. 

Strong Like Madeline

     Ok so I realize this is not a food post, but I wanted to bring some attention to why I have this "Strong Like Madeline" go fund me account on my page.

Madeline is my cousin that lives in Washington that is battling cancer. She has moved from her home in Walla Walla to be closer to Seattle Children's Hospital where she is fighting hard against rhabdomyosarcoma and MPNST (also known as a triton tumor). The cancer has been very aggressive and her battle has been lots of chemotherapy. She is 6 years old and has been so crazy strong though everything.

     Recently Maddie and family became friends with Steven Hauschka from the Seattle SeaHawks, and he brought Maddie and family to a practice session. From this session she gave out purple bracelets to the players that say "Strong Like Madeline" on them. The next day you can see both Steven Hauschka and Russell Wilson wearing them at the big game. To make things even more awesome, at media day, you can see a short clip of Maddie saying good luck to her favorite players and the rest of the team, even getting a response back from Russell Wilson! 

Watch Maddie! This is the link where you can see Maddie wish her team good luck and Wilson comment back to her. It's at min. 2:40!

I love that there are people out there like Steven Hauschka and Russell Wilson that truly care about others and use their fame to recognize and help those in need. 

StrongLikeMadeline This is the link to Maddies gofundme account if you would like to donate and help out this amazing family.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Baby It's Cold Outside!!

It's been pretty cold here in Texas this week. But of course not the whole week, Tuesday it was almost 70 degrees and now we are sitting at 28 lol!

 Anyway, once the cold weather starting hitting I like comfort type foods. Stews and soups mostly, so I called up my sister and asked her for a stew recipe that we had while we were visiting her during the Christmas break. I ended up not having all the stuff needed for that recipe but used what I did have on hand and it was great! 

This was super easy to throw together and since it's in the crock pot it's one of those make and forget about type meals that is perfect for busy cold days. All you need is...

                        

1- 2 lb boneless beef chuck

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves minced

baby carrots

7 to 10 baby yellow potatoes 

1/3 cup coconut aminos (this is a soy sauce substitute that has no soy in it, that you can find in the international food section next to soy sauce most of the time)

2 Tbls arrow root flour (in place of corn starch)

2 cups beef broth  

salt and pepper to taste

So get a pan on the stove and start to heat that up with some coconut oil. 

While waiting for that to heat up chop up your beef into cubes and salt and pepper them.

Once the pan is hot start throwing in the chunks just to get a nice sear on the outsides

After you get all the beef seared throw it in the crock pot.

Turn down the heat on the pan and throw in your diced up onion and garlic.

Saute those together just till they turn clear.

Add the coconut aminos, beef broth and arrow root flour to the pan

As soon as that starts to thicken pour it over the beef in the crock pot

Also cut up your potatoes and add those along with the carrots to the crock pot, add more salt and pepper.

Then put the lid on it and turn it to low. Let that cook for about 6 to 8 hours. 

If you like your carrots a bit more crunchy add them about half way through, if you can't do that because you're not home don't worry about it they will just be softer but not to the point of mushy. 

That's it guys, that's all you have to do for this amazing stew! It was so nice to make it in the morning and then forget about it till dinner time. No stressing about what I was gonna make for dinner that night and no mess other than the bowls to clean up after. 

Try it out, tell me what you think! 

Make it Fast!

Hey guys!! How's everyone doing? Hope this first month of the new year is treating you well so far, and you are keeping up with whatever goals/resolutions you gave yourself!

In my last post I talked about how I like things that are fast, and that I eat a lot of the same stuff because I know it works with my numbers (macros) that I'm trying to hit each day and it's easy.

So today I thought I would share with you a trick that I do, to help speed up my cooking and my mornings.
I like to pre-cut and measure or weight my food. Yes, it takes time when you are cutting them up, but if you pick a day when you have the extra time it saves you in the long run. So in my little baggy is cut up sweet potatoes. As you can see they are also pre-weighted. This is my go to in the morning with my eggs and bacon or sausage. I also do this with my broccoli and cauliflower because it makes it that much easier and more likely that I'll eat it. When I'm in a hurry the last thing I want to do is spend lots of time prepping what I need to eat. If you pre-cut veggies like this, it really makes everything so much faster.

This morning I had sweet potatoes, awesome chicken sausage that is pictured from AppleGate that I love! You can find it at HEB.
 2 eggs and then I threw in some spinach. Easy and fast! For lunch today I'll have my turkey burger, avocado, carrots and broccoli. Everything is already cut up and ready to go all I have to do is cook it up and I'll be set.










I love that I don't have to take a lot of time to make really good nutritious food. I understand people are busy and that is probably one of the biggest things I hear is that, "I don't have time to cook every meal". Totally get that, even more so if you are at a job that means you are microwaving your food or eating it cold. But if you can speed up the process by having things pre done, not only with cutting things up but also meal prepping so you have your food in containers ready for your meals, it helps out so much with keeping you on track with your goals no matter what they are, shredding, bulking or even just maintaining.

Happy chopping!

A Little Of This A Little Of That

So how is everyone doing 2 days into the new year?!

 I started a little early getting back on track on the 29th because I'm one of those weird people that likes everything to start on a Monday. So far I have to say I'm pretty happy. I feel great and can already see some changes when I look in the mirror! Plus I hit a big PR on my squat clean today and that's a huge deal for me! So I figured I would show you a picture of what I eat for lunch almost daily because it's easy and fast. The first picture is what my lunch would look like if I just put it all on the plate. The second picture is what I normally do, and that's to mix things together that make it easier and more fun to eat. The third picture is a different day, really only changing that I added the lettuce wrap and blueberries. OK so here we go...

 I know this doesn't seem very exciting but this is what works for me. I do plan on doing a big meal prep this weekend and switching things up a bit so I will be sure to post those meals as well. Usually my breakfast and lunches are the same because I'm rushed for time and I know this works. Dinner is when I tend to mix things up a big more. Yesterday, for example I had steak with a sweet potato bake that I'm working on getting right. The day before it was crock pot shredded chicken with rice, broccoli and teriyaki sauce. I have more time in the evenings and try and take advantage of that by making different foods so I don't end up getting bored. Also with these different dinners I will sometimes try and cook extra that way my husband has lunch for the next day but also so I can sometimes use that as lunch as well because again that means I know it's something that works with my numbers (macros) and because it's leftovers it will be fast.
    I know it's Friday and that means weekend fun, but try and remember that you don't want to undo all the hard work you have just done throughout the week in a day or two. Stay strong and remember your portions, that doesn't mean you have to restrict yourself from everything, just do a little planning ahead and see what will work!

Are You Ready For The New Year?!

Hey guys!
   Long time no see! Well, as with a lot of you I'm sure you understand how busy things get after the summer break and fast! All three of my babies are in school this year and although I thought that was going to mean more free time for me I was totally mistaken! I've turned up the amount of classes I'm taking for school as well and have been working a lot harder on my training (CrossFit).
     So I hope everyone has had a really awesome Christmas and is getting ready for another amazing New Year!!! I'm really excited to see what 2015 will hold for me and my family. Like most people around this time, most people are looking to get in

Holiday eating while out and about in DC

shape and fix their eating for the new year. How long they stick with it usually ends up being the problem.
     So instead of telling you about all these diets that are out there or certain ways of eating that you should try, I'm just going to tell you what I'm doing. As any of you that have been following me for a while know I've tried a few different things. I have been strict paleo for a while and then added the zone to that. Didn't care much for the zone side of things, it just didn't fit my lifestyle and if it doesn't fit, you won't keep up with it and next thing you know you're back to your old ways. I've done pretty well with Paleo and I like the way I feel with the few adjustments for extra carbs because of my training.

     An extra thing I'm doing to really kick of this new year is I put together a 2 week sugar detox challenge for my box. It is really just a way of keeping each other accountable and a great way to fix your eating habits from the holidays. There are some really great websites out there that help with this also. Most of my info I have gotten from Balanced Bites 21 day sugar detox Diane Sanfilippo has so much great info on her site with shopping lists and different levels of the challenge, it's amazing, if you haven't done it I would highly recommend it!
 
 For the most part I'm going to stick with that way of eating because it had made me very aware of what my body likes and doesn't, and I know how I feel when I eat certain things and how I will perform and all that good stuff. I have added back in things like white rice and potatoes, and oatmeal but I've never been a big bread or pasta eater and now when I do go back to try and eat those I always end up regretting it later.
     The other thing I am actually going back to is tracking everything and really staying within my Macros. I use to do this back when I went to Gold's gym and it worked really well for me then, I'm not sure why I got away from it other then just trying lots of new things. So I've re-done all my numbers so I know how many calories, protein, fat and carbs I should be taking in each day and will stick with these numbers for at least 4 weeks. After that, I'll see how I feel, how I look and am performing and making any changes I may need to from there.

    Yes counting all your calories can be boring and frustrating but the My Fitness Pal app is amazing. And they have made it even better since adding the scanner so you can just scan bar codes from you phone. Makes it faster, and easier. The best tip I can give when doing these macros is to try and plan a couple days if not a week out ahead of time. That way you know what you are eating everyday. It will help you stay focused, it takes the guess work out of what you are going to eat that day. It helps keep you prepared so you don't end up scrambling trying to find something to eat and end up making bad choices because you are hangry (hungry and angry lol). And honestly for me it makes me feel a lot less stressed. The only issue I've had with it is that you can't always get the exact numbers that you want so even though mine are off a little I just keep in mind what they are suppose to be at and go from there. It hasn't been that big of an issue.
 
 So, I'm going to do my best to post some of the meals I'm eating and I invite you guys to try this method as well. Depending on what your goals are, either cutting or bulking this will work for you. You have to be willing to stick with it for at least 4 weeks, and even though at first it is going to be frustrating, probably overwhelming and time consuming. I promise it gets easier, you get faster at it and you feel so much better! If you would like to see an example of what I'm eating my profile name is SarahZap. Feel free to friend me on myfitnesspal and maybe that will help show you how you can eat. I'm doing a cutting phase so my numbers are pretty low right now. After a couple more weeks I'm going to see how I feel and probably do some adjusting from there.

2nd breakfast for today

    I hope this has helped give you some ideas of how to kick start your new year and shows you that you don't have to give up all the stuff you love and go on a "diet" but just learn to portion and plan better! 

Just a little different

Breakfast, Brunch and Dinner!

I get asked a lot what I eat for breakfast or what I eat after I work out. Well, here are a couple of pictures. I workout in the morning but I will still have these variations sometimes for dinner. 

It started out as my breakfast bowl that was just eggs, bacon, and sweet potato. But sometimes you run out of certain things or you just want more varieties. Each one of these as something a little different.

 The first one is ground pork with spicy seasoning egg and sweet potato and the second one is again eggs, bacon, sweet potato but then I added in some brussels sprouts.

 Some times I'll do kale or spinach. It's a great breakfast, brunch or dinner that packs everything you need into one awesome bowl! 

  Play around with it and find out what your favorite flavors together are. Some times the smallest changes make the biggest impact. The more you make it the easier and faster it is as well.