Mushroom-Turkey Egg Bake

Good evening.

I started to experiment this evening with my leftover RAW "cheesy" sauce and decided to make an egg dish.  I'm one to never eat leftovers but I didn't want to put this to waste.  So what I've come up with is something quick and easy- well I don't know quick because it requires a little chopping- egg bake that is PACKED with protein and a "clean eat" breakfast.

Mushroom-Turkey Egg Bake

(with added raw cheesy sauce)

Ingredients:

A handful of pre-sliced mushrooms (baby portabella) - Coarsely chopped

A handful of baby kale - Julienne-cut

4-5 slices of Turkey meat - Julienne-cut

2-3 heaping spoonfuls (the BIG spoon) of Raw cheese sauce 

        - This is optional.  If you haven't made it then you can always throw in any regular cheese

3 large brown, organic eggs

1 egg white

Black pepper

Dash of Sea salt

Red pepper flakes (optional)  

First, preheat your oven to 375 to 400 degrees, depending on your oven.  Slice/ chop/ julienne your mushrooms, baby kale, and turkey meat.

Then throw in all the chopped ingredients in one bowl and slowly mix in the raw cheesy sauce until it's even distributed.  Again, if you didn't make the sauce, just incorporate your choice of cheese or any other component to the dry mix.

In a separate bowl beat eggs together with fork then add the seasonings of black pepper, a dash of sea salt, and red pepper flakes (optional).

Spray a small baking dish (preferably a small, wide-mouth ceramic) with cooking spray.

Transfer the dry/ raw cheese ingredient in the baking dish and spread out evenly.  Then pour in the egg mixture on top.  Sprinkle more with black pepper and pepper flakes, if you like.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Just keep an eye on it... then voila!!

 

RAW- "Cheese" Sauce

Yes, you heard right, a cheese sauce that's raw.  Again, inspiration had hit me to make this sauce, well more like a thick, cheese-like cream.  Ok I'm probably straying you away aren't I? But trust me, it's quite delicious and on top of that, it's vegan, paleo, and husband-approved haha.  I stumbled upon this recipe because my husband was hungry for dinner but he wanted something other than the usual healthy dish.  And who said, beggers can't be choosers. :P JK  Even though I wanted to reach for that back-up Velveeta mac-n-cheese, I instead started googling.  I came upon a couple of raw recipes for mac and cheese and the one I took to liking was the Rawtarian's mac and cheese.  I added a few ingredients to make it my own and also to please my husband's palate.

Oh btw, I keep putting quotation marks on cheese because it's not really cheese.  It base is cashews.  My favorite nut, by the way. :P

Broccoli and RAW "Cheese" Sauce

 

Ingredients: (For the cheese sauce)

2 cups of raw, organic cashews

3/4 cup Water - added 1/4 cup of water during processing

1 tablespoon Lemon

1 teaspoon Sea Salt

1/3 cup Nutritional Yeast

Dash Cayenne pepper (optional)

Couple dashes of Garlic powder

LOTS of Black pepper 

Ok if you have a Vitamix, well you're in luck, this will be easy for you.  But for myself, I don't have one nor do I feel like I need to spend that kind of money for it because I probably won't use it as much.  So instead, I blended everything in my food processor. 

PREP: Before I started making this sauce, I had soaked the cashews overnight which helps in blending but also beneficial in SOO many ways for the digestion. (Just google benefits of soaking nuts)

 

I submersed the cashews in purified water- room temperatured- and covered with a (clean) dish cloth overnight.  You don't have to soak the nuts overnight, you can soak them 2-3 hours in advance.  Once you're done doing that, rinse thoroughly and throw them in the food processor. 

Pour in the 3/4 cup of water (hold off on the added water until processing) and pulse a couple times until you're comfortable enough to fully process it.  I stopped occasionally to clean the sides of the container and to allow air into the bowl with a spatula.  As you continue to process, this is the time to drizzle in the additional water - I put an additional 1/4 cup of water, but you can put as much as you want as long it stays in that thick-like consistency.

(it should look like this as the final product - see how thick it is)

 Once fully processed, I then added the remaining ingredients- nutritional yeast, salt, lemon, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and black pepper.  Then you're done!  Keep tasting and adding to your liking.

Since I still wanted to keep this a healthy dish, I made my husband eat it with steamed broccoli and cauliflower hehe He was kinda sad and hesitant but once he tried it, he was AMAZED!  He even threw away the Velveeta mac-n-cheese in the trash!! Yah. Crazy! haha

Ok i'm done here.  I gotta shower now because I just got done working out and tanning.  Can we say GTB- Gym, Tan, Blogging! HA!

- Abigail

Inspiration, again.

Why hello there... I know, I know I've been MIA, yet again.  But the school year is winding down and I made a promise to myself to keep up with my postings, at least, until Spring semester.  Also, I like to take a side note to thank, Caroline, for inspiring me to get back into blogging.  I stumbled upon her page, After Dinner Dance, after I had a hankering for some cake batter frozen yogurt.  I know, weird huh?  But anyways... her recipe, along with others, looked quite healthy and yummy.  I then navigated to her 'About me' section and found some similarities between us.  First, we're both from Houston (well, I'm from Sugar Land) and second, we both have a passion for living a healthy lifestyle BUT in a practical, "real world" matter.

 I say "real world" because even though we like to think we can automatically throw ourselves into this total-health- no carb, low cal, paleo, raw foodist- diet, we all know that's totally impossible.  We're human for goodness sake!  I'm all for eating healthy but don't restrict yourself to where you're compromising taste, your health but most importantly, your sanity!  I'm a big believer in having indulgences.  I "eat clean" 80 to 90% of the time but the other percent, I'm savoring those pieces of dark chocolate or diving into Laloo's goat's milk ice cream.  MMm..

Ok where was I? Haha Sorry I was rambling again.  But yes, thank you Caroline and to Instagram.  Instagram, by the way, has completely changed my outlook on health and fitness.  I've never been so inspired in my life than this past year because of it.  I'm lifting more and finding new ways to eating healthy.  So again, it's because of my followers and those I follow on Instagram that has gotten me more excited about health and fitness.  And if it weren't for you guys (and Caroline), I'd probably be sitting on my couch munching on a bag full of Fritos. jk :P

Also, stay tuned because I have an AWESOME recipe for a "raw" cheesy sauce. 

- Abigail

Prepping for the Week (4/1/12)

Good evening you guys!  Well I'm winding down my day by posting yet another blog.  I swear I'm trying my best to keep up.

It's Monday (sigh) and my typical routine as follows- breakfast, work, study, workout, dinner then bed.  Exciting stuff huh?  I'm currently sitting up-right in bed, watching 'Bethenny Ever After.'  I love her.  Anyways.. this post is dedicated to Sunday prep-day which usually involves cutting, sipping on wine, cutting, sipping on more wine, and packaging my food for the next two to three days.  There's two days I usually dedicate this day to and that's Sunday and Tuesday and the occasional Friday.

The menu for this week includes a salad of some-sort and a new recipe, Jamie Eason's 'Turkey Meatloaf Muffins.'  Yea..weird huh?  Muffins?!  I took on this recipe because I wanted to see what the hoopla was about.  And when I say "hoopla," I'm referring to the trending pictures on Instagram.  When I googled it, the result took me to bodybuilding.com and my first reaction was, woah!  This means low carbs, high protein, portion-sized eats and guess what, I was right. :)

Jamie Eason's Turkey Meatloaf Muffins

(Before putting in the oven)

(right out of the oven)

You can Google the recipe online or just follow this link: Jamie Eason's Turkey Meatloaf Muffins 

Or you can get it here!! :)

Recipe:

• 2 lbs ground turkey (or chicken)
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp dry yellow mustard - Note: I couldn't find this so I just used wet yellow mustard (2 tsp)
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp chipotle pepper spice (I found this in a McCormick brand)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp garlic powder (2 cloves minced)
• 1 small onion (finely chopped)
• 2 celery stalks (finely chopped)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


2. Spray muffin pan with canola or olive oil.


3. Mix all your ingredients together in one large bowl.


4. Roll the mixture into balls and place in muffin pan. Muffins should be about the size of a racquetball.


5. Bake for 40 minutes.
   
Makes 12 muffins.

I copied and paste this by the way.  Haha I'm so lazy but whatever!  The result- it was filling and delicious!  It's kinda spicy but I like spicy!  But the thing is.. I don't eat meat too often so I'm left with a lot of balls haha.  So this week, I'm passing out turkey meatball muffins to my coworkers, friends, neighbors.  Jk on neighbors.  But I HIGHLY recommend making these because they're so convenient especially when you're on the go and they're only 80 calories per 'muffin!!'  Yes.  Amazing!!

Btw ever since I copied and paste the recipe and directions, I'm not able to go back to the alignment of my paragraphs.  Dang!  Oh well, I'm done anyways.  Have a lovely night everyone!

- Abigail

 

{iLoveSundays}

Good morning to everyone!..and Happy April Fools' Day!!

I didn't realize it was April until I looked at my phone.  My goodness this year is passing by so quick!  And I don't want to because I have my TEAS test to take on May 30. EK!!

Anyways, I do apologize for the lack of postings this past week.  I have been kinda "Debby-downer" for the past couple of days but this morning, I felt kinda refreshed and a some-what, improving mood.  My beautiful Sunday (because that's what I'm going to call it) started with a bowl of watermelon that was prepared by the grocer and I had some REALLY ripe mangoes to go with it.

Looks delish huh?! ;)  When I woke up this morning I was contemplating in going to spin class at 9:45am (and I can still go too because it's only 8:30am) but then decided not to.  So instead I opted for a low to moderate- impact workout today since I took a beating from yesterday's early 75-FRIKIN-MINUTE Total conditioning class.  Yea, it was intense but mannn my body felt and looked good too. HA!  And tomorrow I have Total conditioning again.  So today.. I will be doing a 30-min. HIIT cardio-drill, provided by my handy Nike Training Center app- which by the way, I HIGHLY recommend downloading and you'll see why- followed by hot vinyasa.

[ Hot vinyasa- is a yoga class provided by my gym, Lifetime Fitness, which is basically doing yoga in a hot room but in a vinyasa form.  Vinyasa or Ashtanga Vinyasa is a constant flow that's fast paced and more fitness-like which allows the body to generate more heat (as in burn morn calories) by going through a series of sun salutations and such. ]

I do yoga at least once-a-week because it gives my body a sense of calmness especially after having a week or a couple of days of heart-pounding, kick-my-A workouts. haha And I've noticed that I get a certain kind of muscle tone after I do yoga- one that is lean, and toned other than the usual feeling or result I get from strength conditioning. So altogether now.. yoga does a body REAL good! and more flexible too. ;)

------------------------------------------------------------------
 Raw Meal blend- (either w/ AB or banana)
 
Oh I also need to add this to my post especially from yesterday.  I posted my post-workout meal on Facebook and Instagram and had a couple of questions to what it was.  It's a "Raw Meal" meal replacement blend from Garden of Life.

I bought it on Amazon because it's RIDICULOUSLY expensive at Whole Foods.  But I bought it because it's (a) raw, of course and (b) it's fast and convenient especially when you're on-the-go (like I was yesterday).  And I usually blend it was banana but that day I blended it was a tablespoon of almond butter because I had an intense workout.  But it's really delicious and filling.

Try it!  But buy it on Amazon.










Okay, my lovely people, I hope you have a wonderful Sunday because we all know we have to go back to work tomorrow.  Ugh! I least for me but it is a four-day week because I have off on Good Friday.

Love,
Abigail

It's Monday already?!

 

Yes!! Where did the weekend go??

Anyways, it's Monday and like most of America, I bet you overindulged over the weekend.  So...here's some motivation for you!!

Did it work? ;)  It did for me because I just got done with an intense Total Conditioning class at Lifetime Fitness.  Total conditioning is basically High-Intensity Interval Training aka HIIT.  If you want more information about HIIT or the benefits of it, you can visit this website: askmen.com
Most of my workouts, taking a class or not, involves this type of training.  My essentials for completing a good HIIT workout is a step-bench, one light and one heavy set of weights, resistant bands, yoga mat, and a jump rope.  My home is also supplied with these equipment just because it's good to have an 'at-home' gym.  After I got done with 60 minutes of 'Total Conditioning,' I finished it with lower-ab movements on a decline ab bench: one leg, toe-touches, straight-leg reverse crunches, scissor kicks, and in-between sets, I did some side-plank pushups.  Again, this is all done on a decline on the ab bench.  Try it!! It works! :)

Daily eats:
 
Ok so anyways.. my day started off with green lemonade then prepared this as my first solid meal.  It's a good RAW version of a peanut butter & banana sandwich.  And it's packed with a lot of deliciousness and protein!!

Overnight-oats w/ mashed banana, chia seeds & almond butter

The morning kinda went by quick especially Mondays at a doctor's office- those damn kids! haha jk jk gotta love 'em. ;)  After breakfast, I ate my FAVORITE salad of all time.. it's raw, SUPER green, filling, and oh soooo yummy.

Massaged-kale with Tomatoes, Onions, and Avocado

 

I got the recipe from...surprise, surprise from www.simplyrawrecipes.com

Recipes as follows, if you are too lazy to click on the link:

Recipe for Massaged-Kale Salad:

1 Head of Kale

1 organic tomato (chopped)

Handful of sliced red onions

Juice of half-a-lemon

2 Tbsp. of Cold First-pressed olive oil

A splash of Agave nectar

Dash of coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper

Handful of sunflower seeds

Sprinkle of sea salt

Rinse and pull leaves from stem.  Sprinkle a dash of sea salt to kale and massage until tender and wilted.  Pour olive oil and lemon juice on top and massage more for tenderness.  Squeeze a splash of agave nectar.  Sprinkle seasonings: coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper.  Finally, throw in chopped tomatoes, sliced red onions, and a handful of sunflower seeds.  Mix well and enjoy!  

For a more filling lunch or dinner, I slice and cube 1/2 an avocado on top.

Ok well it's getting late and I need to get to bed because Tuesday (along with Thursdays) are my long days.  Happy blogging!

- Abigail

Happy Friday - Happy "Hunger Games!"

Good morning and Happy "Hunger Games!!"

Well, if you haven't joined the movement yet then you need to!  Hunger Games is a young-adult, trilogy series that's kinda similar to Twilight but not so sappy. Anyways, Aaron and I have been waiting for this movie to come out and we couldn't be more excited.  I even requested a half-day at work today just so I can get my workout in early and then get ready to stand in line for hours. :P I know..nerd-alert!! --I'm 25 btw but today I'll be a 13 year-old screaming fan, ok not screaming haha

moving foward...

03/22/12: Yesterday was a typical day for me except that I started my day with a big bowl of watermelon rather then my usual drink of 'Green Lemonade' (which I will post at a later time).  Following the fruit was this...

 Overnight-oats w/ Almond butter, raw honey & chia seeds

Preparing overnight oats:  

One part organic rolled oats to equal parts nut milk (preferably almond or hemp milk) 

Then soak overnight and fill with any toppings you like.

It was quite delicious and also protein filled!  Thank god I had this too because our boss brought in Chick-fil-a for breakfast and I ALMOST grabbed it too.  WILL POWER!! haha  But to prepare overnight oats is quite simple and easy.  And the reason I soak it overnight instead of nuking it in the microwave or stove is because (a) I'm eating raw until dinner and (b) it doesn't give me that bloated, fullness feeling I get from eating regular cooked oats.  This actual held me over until lunch or until my 5.11 mile run outside.

Workout:

Right before I went to class, I ran 5.11 miles with my usual route of around the neighborhood, around Brooks lake, and back.  Man..I haven't ran outside since the Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 marathon relay which was in the beginning of March.  But to my surprise, I did pretty well.  The only complaint was that it was kind windy at some parts of the trail and it was warm{slash}hot outside.  Usually after my runs, I like to put in a good core workout (which I will post at a later time) but the heat got to me.  So with that said, I think I'll be running either really early in the morning or at least when the sun is about to set.

Here is a picture of me from my run... and my sweaty-self.  Look!! I even got a tan too! haha

After my run, I had marinated broccoli and mushrooms for lunch that I prepared the night before along with a 'Raw meal' shake.  The marinated broccoli recipe was adapted from my favorite 'go-to' website for simple, raw recipes: simplyrawrecipes
This recipe is so good that Aaron even gave it his stamp of approval.  He's my raw taste-tester by the way AND I have convinced him eating raw can be delicious and nutritious too!  The marinate to the broccoli and mushrooms (I added myself) is as follows:

Marinated Broccoli and Mushrooms

One head of broccoli

A handful of presliced mushrooms

Marinate: 1/4 cup of First cold-pressed olive oil

1 tsp. of Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce)

1 tsp. of Apple cider vinegar

A dash of sea salt 

Dash of red pepper flakes (optional)

First, mix the marinate separately from the vegetables then combine altogether.  Let it marinate in the fridge for 4 hours or more (for me, I like to marinate it over night).  And I sprinkled hemp seeds on top to add some protein.

Ok crap!  I gotta go!! I have to get ready to go watch the Hunger Games and Aaron should be home shortly and my hair is still wet. EK.  Well enjoy the recipes and Happy Friday everyone!

-Abigail