Cashew Milk (say whaaa?) + Welcome Winter with some Paleo Friendly HOT MOCHAA!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Silk. All opinions are 100% mine.
**I was compensated for writing my honest opinion and sharing information about Silk® Original Cashewmilk. This is my 100% honest opinion, and I would never write about something I haven't tried.



Being lactose intolerant I'm always looking for good (affordable) dairy substitutes. And now that we're on this paleo kick, dairy is completely out of the question. Enter Silk Cashewmilk. I tried the Silk® Unsweetened Cashewmilk and I’m obsessed- I actually chugged 2 full glasses which is fine because there are only 25 calories per serving It's creamy like fatty milk and also mixes well with hot drinks (see below). But first- what's the deal with cashew milk / why cashew milk?
Silk® Original Cashewmilk is creamier than skim milk with 25% fewer calories* and no saturated fat! This makes it ideal for calorie counters with just 25 calories per serving and 2 grams of fat per cup.
Some of the benefits of New Silk® Original Cashewmilk versus regular milk include:
·       No saturated fat
·       50% more calcium than dairy milk*
·       Lactose-free (helloooo yes!)
·       Dairy-free
·       Cholesterol-free
·       No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives
·       No high-fructose corn syrup
·       Plant-based
I’ve been a big fan of Silk® since I figured out dairy is what makes me so sick- to learn more about this great company and its products you can go to http://silk.com/our-story. I’m super pumped about the texture this will add to my overnight oats.
Annnnd since it is suddenly winter here in DC, I tried out a little Cashew Milk Mocha Drink:



Paleo Friendly Hot Mocha:

• 1 cup black coffee
• 1/4 cup Silk Cashew Milk
• 2 Tablespoon Hershey's Cocoa (100% Cacao)
• 2 Tablespoons Pure Agave Nectar (or Honey or Maple Syrup)
• 2 drops vanilla extract

*Calorie comparison claim/calcium claim combo required footnote, linked by asterisk:
Silk Original Cashewmilk: 45% DV calcium and 60 cal/serv; skim dairy milk: 30% DV calcium and 80 cal/serv. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 26. Data consistent with typical skim dairy milk.

Silk Unsweetened Cashewmilk: 45% DV calcium and 25 cal/serv; skim dairy milk: 30% DV calcium and 80 cal/serv.USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 26. Data consistent with typical skim dairy milk.

Annnd can we just talk about these dancing cashews:

Easy 5 Ingredient Crispy Paleo Fried Chicken

Oh hey! I went MIA for awhile... did a little soul searching, a little WTF am I doing with my life and when did I become someone with a blog who spends time blogging?? and a lot of eating non-blog-worthy food and doing a lot of non-blogworthy things (like work) and a lot of sleeping. But I'm back, and back on track (maybe?) and glad to be using this outlet again. SO thanks for the emails, comments and messages and let's get back to it:

Anyone who graduated from a big football school usually finds themselves extremely nostalgic at this time of year. I find myself reminiscing about the tailgates, the marathon weekends with friends, crying that time the bulldogs came running out in black jerseys during our blackout game my senior year of college against Auburn (laugh all you want but anyone at that game who claims to have had dry eyes and/or dry pants is a LIAR), and my inhuman ability to binge drink from the time class ended Friday (if I made it to class) until Sunday night.

The next biggest thing I get all hot and bothered and sad about missing is the food. We had some great soul food in Athens, Georgia. My personal favorite was Weaver D's (Fun fact: REM - also from Athens - named an album Automatic for the People after Weaver D's slogan). This restaurant was literally an extension of an old couple's home, you were basically sitting in their actual kitchen when you ate the best fried chicken you've ever had in your entire life. Just look at this beauty:

Anyway, every since I started on this clean eating thing I've experimented with fried chicken and generally end up with chicken coated in soft or slimy skin. Until I found the perfect combo, and it was easier than I could have thought. 

Servings: 3

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons of the fat of your choice - I think this recipe is best with bacon grease but olive oil or coconut oil or whatevs along those lines works too.
• 1.5 lbs chicken tenders or chicken breast sliced into 1-2" strips (I get organic/free range for $5)
• 2 eggs, beaten ($.50)
• 3/4 Cup ground Flax Seed (I get mine for $8/box at Trader Joe's)
• Seasonings of your choice (I use sea salt, pepper, a little chili powder, and some Italian seasoning- weird) + sea salt and pepper

Mix up the ground flaxseed and seasonings in a bowl. Set up an assembly line on your counter in this order: plate of chicken, beaten eggs, ground flax seed mixed with seasonings, empty plate. 

Sprinkle salt and pepper onto each side of the chicken strip. Dip a strip of chicken into the eggs (get that egg all over the chicken strip!), then roll it around in the flax/seasoning mixture until it's completed coated, place on an empty plate. Repeat with all the chicken strips.

In a medium frying pan, heat the fat. Once it's all heated, throw your chicken into it the frying pan and cook about 5-8 mins on each side, or until it is completely cooked all the way through. I may or may not have burned the sh*t out of a chicken strip or two and you know what? All the crunchier. And extra Cajun, right?

Anyway, it's that easy. Sometimes I throw them on salad with some whole30 ranch, or put them on 3 ingredient paleo waffles (yes drool), or just dip them in some stone ground mustard. 

Do you have a favorite "fried" chicken recipe? What is it? Please share!

Paleo Chicken Fajita Salad + Paleo Meal Plan & Grocery List

...Annnd just like that it's fall. We spent Labor Day weekend in Charleston for a wedding and had a blast. I LOVE Charleston and it did not disappoint. This time my friend took us on the Sunset Cocktail Cruise and I seriously recommend it - it's basically a BYOB tour of Charleston by boat and we saw JUMPING DOLPHINS!

Anyway, Mexican food is my fav but unfortunately my favorite Mexican dishes include tortillas, cheese, sour cream, and did I mention cheese? This little spin on fajitas keeps it all healthy, eliminates the no-no foods, and honestly I didn't really miss the cheese and sour cream!

Servings: 2

Cook Time: 20 mins

Prep Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs chicken breast (I get the cage free organic for about $4/lb)
• 2 bell peppers, sliced ($2.50)
• 1 red onion, sliced ($1.25)
• 1 jalapeno seeded and sliced ($1)
• 1 avocado, sliced ($1)
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced ($1)
• 10 ounces tomatoes, sliced ($3)
• 1 bag of lettuce, chopped (I mix a bag of spinach and a bag of kale - each is $2 from Trader Joe's)
• Juice of one lime
• 1 tablespoon of bacon grease or cooking fat of your choice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro
• Optional: Salsa to top the

Slice up the chicken breast into strips and toss with the sea salt, chili powder, garlic powder and cumin. Grease a large frying pan with your cooking fat and cook the chicken strips over medium heat for about 15 minutes. When the chicken is almost done, add in the onion, peppers, jalapeno, mushrooms and lime juice and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked through.

Top the lettuce with the frying pan concoction, cilantro and avocado slices and enjoy!

What is your favorite Mexican dish?

This week's meal plan:

Lunch for the week: BLT Turkey Wraps 4 Ways

Did anyone else live on Jimmy John's in college? My dorm was right across the street, I could SMELL that fresh ass bread from my dorm room - and oooh that bread!! The 40 cent day-old bread!!! It was all so wonderful. I also gained a smooth 15 lbs that year which was not so wonderful.

Anyway, recently some friends (ironically from that dorm) recently turned me on to Jimmy John's un-wiches. Now, I don't really like to do food in a way it's not supposed to be done i.e. lettuce wraps instead of sandwiches- those definitely belong on Whole30's Sex With Your Pants On list and I am not cool with it. HOWEVER, something about Jimmy Johns' unwich is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Is it the lettuce? Is it the way it's perfectly wrapped? Is it the meat? I don't know but they inspired me to try my own lettuce wraps as lunch for the week: 

Servings: 5

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 1 and a half pack deli turkey (Whole Foods has some paleo friendly deli turkey) ($8)
• 5 slices uncured bacon, cooked and crumbled ($5)
• 2 tomatoes, sliced thin ($2)
• 10 slices red onion, chopped ($.10)
• 1 head iceberg lettuce ($2) (sidenote: iceberg lettuce always reminds me of when I worked in a middle school in Rhode Island and the cafeteria ladies used to say "Get your vegetables! Gotta get your veggies!" and load the kids' (and my) plates with crispy iceberg lettuce. Kind of makes me nostalgic but also glad my life is in a place where my main food groups no longer consist of Goldfish, iceberg lettuce, and Naragannsett beer.)

Optional spins to put on the wraps (I'm trying them all this week):

• Garlic hummus (oopsies not paleo but I gotta live a little)
• Avocado, cilantro, lime juice and jalapeno
• Dipped in my favorite vinaigrette

Place a square of aluminum foil on the counter. Place 2 big leaves of lettuce on the foil (more lettuce than you think - lesson learned from Jimmy John's. And the greener the better). Layer 2 pieces of turkey onto the lettuce, top with tomatoes, bacon, and optional toppings. Now roll it Chipotle style. For those of you who don't frequent my favorite fancy burrito establishment, here's a picture example: 

Roll it tightly in the foil. Repeat 5 times. Keep in the fridge, grab and go every morning!

Do you do lettuce wraps? What is your favorite?

20 minute prep Paleo Meal Plan + Plantain Breakfast

I'm writing this blog post from the Atlanta Airport as I wait for my 10:10 pm flight home from my friend's bachelorette party. Needless to say, there will be no meal prep this week (livin on the edge!) so simplicity is the name of the paleo game- nothing on this meal plan should take more than 20 minutes in the kitchen.




Every time I see plantains at the grocery store I get over-excited and buy more than even a family of 12 could go through before they go bad. A few weeks ago, the risk of plantains going bad caused me to go rogue with the meal plan and try out a new breakfast and it. was. everything.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Servings: 1

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe plantains, chopped ($1)
• 1 Tablespoons cashew milk or milk of choice 
• 2 eggs ($.50)
• 2 slices uncured bacon (for the side)
• Seasonings of choice (I tried garlic powder and sea salt, as well as cinnamon and honey. Both were amazing)

First, cook the bacon and put to the side - keep the grease in the pan.

Combine the chopped plantains, milk, and seasonings of choice in a medium sized bowl and blend together (I use my $25 Cuisinart Smart Stick 2-Speed Immersion Hand Blender from Amazon, but if you have a good blender or food processor you can use that too).

Heat the bacon grease on the stove and scoop a 1/2 the plantain mix into the heated pan (it should be kind of like a pancake but a little bit thicker). If you don't have enough bacon grease to coat your pan and "fry" the plantains add the oil of your choice. Flip the concoction after a minute or 2 (once the bottom is tough enough to be flipped). Cook the other side. Repeat with the rest of the plantain mix.

Next, cook your eggs to your preference (I like over-easy) and put on top of the plantains. I added hot sauce and it was AMAZING.

Weekly Paleo Meal Plan + Creamy Avocado Chicken Salad

What a BEAUTIFUL weekend!! We're building a deck right now (LOL - getting a deck BUILT, the idea of me building a deck is hilarious). Since the dogs/no one could use the backyard, we spent a lot of time outside and I took some fun pix which are at the bottom of the post because I'm obsessed with my dogs. For now, meal plan:

Breakfast for the week: Smoothies. I asked for suggestions last week and Jess had a great suggestion which I will be trying:

Lunch for the week: I made this taco soup recipe a few weeks ago and had SO much leftover at the end of the week that I froze it and am eating it for lunch this week! Yay for saving time!

Monday Dinner:

Easy Sausage & Squash

Tuesday Dinner:

Gaspacho!!! (Please excuse the !!!!s, I'm just REALLY PUMPED that it's finally gaspacho weather)

Wednesday Dinner:

Grilling burgers (recipe coming!)

Thursdsay Dinner: 

Bacon Basil Tomato Pasta (subbing squash noodles for pasta)

Friday Dinner: Oh! I'll be lounging on the beach in Florida for my friend's bachelorette party! No cooking for me!

Desserts: 

• Dark Chocolate Pudding
• Cadbury Mini Eggs (ok not Paleo at all but I gotta live a little and I bought ~10 bags since each bag cost $.25)

Snacks: 

• Fruit, fruit, more fruit.
• Plantain Chips from Trader Joe's

Here's a recipe I tried last week and really enjoyed. I call it chicken salad, Harrison calls it chicken guacamole, potatoes potahhtoes:

Creamy Avocado Chicken Salad

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 0 mins (hey hey! I know you like that!)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 2 ripe (aka brownish blackish) avocados, peeled and diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• Juice of one lime
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 teaspoons ground sea salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin

Mix it all together. Eat it. Love it. Harrison dipped chips in it because he feels this is simply guacamole, I ate it plain.

And now for some Andi and Ziggy enjoying spring, which we all thought was going to skip over DC this year. AREN'T THEY PERFECT?!?! PS I constantly post pix of my dogs on Insta if you're into that kind of thing. 

I'm baaack! Paleo Meals for the week + A few wedding pix

I'm back from the best week ever! Recap of our wedding and Cancun honeymoon and photodumps coming soon, as well as zillions of posts on all the things I've learned along the way. Thankfully we seem to have brought the warmth back with us from Cancun, and today, I'm trying to get it togetha meal wise (no room service here! What a drag!).

I thought we would do paleo pre-wedding and probably give up afterwards, but Harrison and I both feel SO much better eating this way so we're sticking to it! Here's the food for the tiny bit of the week I have:

Breakfast for the week

• Green Smoothies
• New Breakfast Casserole (recipe coming soon, after taste test haha)

Lunch for the week

Crockpot Chicken & Okra from Healthy Seasonal Recipes


Dinners:

• Meatballs with squoodles  - I used this recipe minus the oat flour and it turned out great (I got a spiralizer as a wedding gift - life changing suggestion from Nadine)
• "Fried Chicken" with sweet potato fries (chicken recipe coming - pending taste test)
• Sausage and Peppers

Snacks:

• Almonds
• Roasted beets
• Sugar snap peas

Dessert

Almond Flour Brownies (GAME CHANGERS. MAKE THESE NOW)

And for now I leave you with a few pix from the wedding and beyond:

(yes, we made cardboard cutouts of our dogs and Kim K ugly crying face)

Best bridesmaid snapchat:

Sneak Peak from the photographer (yes. epic snow. everywhere. in March):

Ultimate Selfie:

Annnd I have zero pictures from the honeymoon because I did not turn my phone on once (confession: I checked my email every morning to make sure the dogs were ok. #CrazyDogLady), but I have plenty of GoPro footage coming soon!

PS I got a juicer off our registry! Any suggestions?? Besides fresh juice for mimosas of course..

Paleo Meal Plan for the Week + Paleo Italian Stuffed Peppers

I'm writing this post snuggled on the couch between the 2 dogs as the snow dumps down outside, wearing my PJs inside out (everyone knows inside out jammies bring snow days right?).

This weekend got a little wacky (see: spent 8 hours brunching & mimosaing Saturday, managed time poorly Sunday due to mimosa exhaustion) so I didn't do as much food prep as I wanted to, but this was the plan:

SO. On last week's leftover night we combined a few leftovers to make these delicious stuffed peppers:

Servings: 3 

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

• 3 organic bell peppers ($4.00)
• 1/2 pound lean ground turkey ($2.00)
• 1/2 onion, diced ($.50)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 pack sliced mushrooms ($1.00)
• 2 Cups spinach ($2.00)
• Leftover pizza sauce 
• 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
• 1 Tablespoon dried Basil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brown the turkey on the stovetop in a medium sized frying pan with the Italian seasoning. Once the turkey is brown add the onion and garlic and mix in. Allow it to all cook together for about 5 minutes then add the spinach, mushrooms and pizza sauce. Mix together and cook for about 10 minutes.

Cut the tops off the bell peppers and cut out the ribs (I diced up the tops and mixed them in with the turkey stuffing). Spoon the turkey mixture into the hollowed out peppers, place on a baking sheet and heat in the oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Wednesday Workout: It Pisses Me Off that boys lose weight faster than girls

via

Let me preface this by saying 2 things: 1) There is some cussing in this post and I apologize in advance but I believe it is necessary to understand the extent of this situation; 2) I understand there is science behind males losing weight quicker than females, and I also understand that when someone has more weight to lose they usually lose weight faster, and I ALSO understand that when one person has led a healthy lifestyle full of clean eating and regular exercise for years and the other person has lived off of bacon and McDonald's and no exercise and then suddenly switches to paleo and starts exercising (*cough twice*) they will lose weight faster than the person who has been healthy all along; 3) I don't care. I'm competitive. If I work harder I want to win.

If you couldn't tell from that intro, Harrison's weight has been practically melting off of him while I've stayed about 3 stomach flus from my goal weight. These are some of my favorite Harrison quotes re: health and exercise, to illustrate what I'm living with here:

On why he doesn't exercise regularly:
"I have big ankles that make it impossible to tie shoes which makes it a lot harder for me to exercise" -Wow I can't believe they let you play Division I football with those ankles! What hero! sidenote:  I tried and failed to secretly snap a picture of said "big ankles" to prove to the world that this statement is 100% ludacris. 

More on why regular exercise is not ideal:
"Exercise gives me gas" -Let's take a little journey back to Cause & Effect 101...

After his first time lifting since college:
"Aw man my t*tties hurt so bad, I get why people want to come home after a hard day and take their bra off" -Oh do you? 

As I'm putting ground flax seed into my breakfast smoothie:
"Sick you're literally sprinkling dirt into your breakfast. Where'd you get that, the backyard?" -Yeah it's from the back yard. I dug it up when you weren't looking. Right where the dogs poop.

"Is this a f*cking joke? He calls that a warm up? Everyone else calls that a FULL WORKOUT" -Harrison to Millionaire Hoy when Mil said "alright now that we're warmed up let's get on to..."

As I'm pouring coffee and Harrison walks in from the his first ever morning gym visit (sidenote: nothing doesn't piss me off before coffee):
"I'm so swole right now from lifting. Touch me. No for real just touch my biceps they're crazy right now." -smiles, nods, sips coffee, smiles, nods again, walks the f away.

One of the two times we attempted exercising together (we don't because of things like below):
Me: "We're almost done there are only 2 exercises left in this HIIT! We got it!"
Harrison (yelling): "Seriously shut up this is the dumbest sh*t you've ever talked me into doing and I don't even know why we're here because this is so so dumb and even football players don't workout this hard I really hate this . . ." -He apologized during our stretch. Besides giving him gas, exercise also seems to give him sudden unfounded rage attacks.


So just FYI, in the first 3 weeks of hard core paleo, the man whose shoes can't tie and who only exercised twice because it gives him gas lost 12 lbs and I lost 6. Is THAT a joke??

PS I understand the science behind this but it still makes me mad.

PSS I love Harrison and had his permission to publish these.

Paleo Snack + Weekend Recap (late is better than never right?)

Soo it's been QUITE a week - Thursday Harrison and I flew to Memphis for my brother's SURPRISE wedding (which I've known about since October and have never kept such a big secret for so long and it was TORTURE) which was great and will get a photo dump further down.

For now though, let's talk paleo snacking. When I switched over to eating clean about a year ago, the snacks were the hardest part. Not being able to just grab a bag of chips or fruit snacks suuucked (that's right I'm 27 and still crave Welch's Fruit snacks- DA BOMB). I've kind of figured it out since (you can read about my snacking adventures here), and now I've found a new favorite refreshing snack. I prep a bunch of these little turkey rolls on Sundays and grab them on my way out the door.

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers, sliced thin longways (I always use my $17 NoPro Mandolin for this)
• 1 tomato, sliced thin
• 1/2 lb deli turkey meat
• salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Place the tomatoes, turkey, seasoning, and a dab of mustard on top of the cucumber slice and roll it up. That's it. Make a lot for the week and store in a tupperware so you can grab and go all week!

And now for the surprise wedding! My brother and his fiance are not into doing things the traditional way, so they invited everyone to their new house for an "engagement party". When everyone showed up one of the friends gathered everyone for what appeared to be a toast- talked about how they are spontaneous and break the mold and said "A good example is today. While you all think you're here for an engagement party, it's actually their wedding!" Everyone cheered. I cried. It was beautiful. Here's my photo dump: 

I found an amazing deal on a PENTHOUSE downtown on AirBnB - this view!! And it was big enough for us to host everyone for an after party and a brunch the next morning:

Thursday night we went out to see some live blues on Beale Street (if you ever make it to Memphis, Beale Street is a lot of fun!)

Ate some famous Memphis dry rub at Rendezvous:

Then went to the "Engagement Party" where they found a good use for the bathtub they ripped out of the old house:

This is when we all thought we were gathered for a toast- my brother's 2 best friends found out they were groomsmen about 5 minutes before this picture:

The happy married couple:

My MARRIED brother and me!

Have you ever been to a surprise wedding? Do you HATE KEEPING SECRETS like me? What is your favorite healthy snack??

Clean Eating Inspiration

I have run out of creativity with clean eating. I can't come up with any new ideas, and the thought of more turkey/quinoa/chicken/beans is just not appealing right now. Thankfully it's 2014 and the interwebs are full of inspiration and recipes to keep me going, here are a few of my favs:

Bloggers:

Whole Foods New Body. Ashley is a busy mom and her recipes involve simple, clean ingredients that you can find at any grocery store. My favorite feature of her's is What I Ate Wednesdays where she posts everything she eats with either a description or a link to the simple recipes.

Fit Men Cook: Harrison actually introduced me to this guy because he posts clean recipes all over Instagram, he's buff, and he makes it seem  like clean eating is a cool thing that buff men do, not just a girly fad diet (which is why Harrison was so anti-clean eating at first). Again, simple ingredients and quick recipes.

The Iron You: This guy has a lot of creative and funky recipes. Not always the simplest ingredients but I get creative and substitute ingredients when I don't feel like running to Whole Foods.

Popular Paleo: This girl has tonssss of awesome recipes and they're all nicely categorized on her site. Most paleo recipes are clean so I just cook whatever she says is good haha!

Instagram Accounts: Instagram is also a great way to get recipes. These people post pix with their recipes and they're usually pretty simple recipes (simple enough to fit into an Instagram caption at least).

Fit Men Cook
SammiBFit
HealthyFitnessMeals

I also search the hastags #CleanEating, #CleanRecipes, #CleanEats, and #FitFam regularly for some inspiration.

So tell me: What are your favorite recipe resources? Where do you find your meals?

Meatless Monday Ginger Soy Veggie Stir Fry

As I mentioned earlier, I am dabbling in the world of pasta for the first time in my life - and yes, I have gone almost 30 years without ever cooking or enjoying pasta (every time I mention this people act like I'm saying I murdered someone) so there's a bit of a learning curve here. Not posted: pasta fails from last week  /:

This one was too easy, we both liked it, and we had leftovers for days. I never considered cooking with fresh ginger until I tried out Blue Apron (for a week) and now I want to add it to everything! I love the flavor the ginger adds! What else can I cook with ginger? Suggestions please!

Servings: 4
Cook Time: 20 mins
Prep Time: 5 mins

Ingredients

• 6 oz organic pasta, rice noodles, or squoodles (whatever you prefer, I used the organic pasta from Wal-Mart) $2
• 1 container Trader Joe's Asian Stir Fry Veggies ($4)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1 handful cashews, chopped ($.50)
• 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (Paleo DIY)
• Lime juice of 1/2 lime 
• 2 teaspoon olive oil/coconut oil/cooking fat of choice
• Salt & pepper

Cook the pasta. While pasta is cooking, coat a large frying pan with olive oil or cooking fat of your choice and heat. Add in the vegetables and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Add in the ginger and cashews and cook another 3-5 minutes.

Once the pasta is ready add it to the pan. Add the soy sauce and lime juice and continue to cook over medium heat, covered for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Annnd that's it!

Clean Sausage & Slaw Oktoberfest Style

I meant to share this one a few months ago but, alas life happens and you find posts from October saved in drafts whoopsies! This is one of my favorite meals - not quite paleo thanks to the buns but meh it's healthy. I mean look at all this goodness!!



Servings: 4 sausages (Interpret this how you want - this is approximately 2 servings in my household - 3 sausages for Harrison and one for me)
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients for sausage & peppers (pronounced swausage and peppahs):

• 1 pack of chicken sausages (I get mine from Trader Joe's for $6/pack. They also have a good selection at Wal-Mart and I'm sure anywhere else. Just check the ingredients- I make sure I recognize all the ingredients)
• 3 medium bell peppers, sliced ($2)
• 1 large red onion, sliced ($1)
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil of choice
• (optional) Buns: 100% Whole Wheat buns from Trader Joe's $3.99

Ingredients for the slaw

• 1 head of red cabbage, sliced ($2) or a bag of sliced cabbage/slaw
• 2 carrots, chopped tiny ($1)
• 3 sticks celery, chopped tiny ($1)
• 1/4 Cup Honey
• 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/4 Cup Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil 
• Salt & pepper to taste

Cook the sausages according to the package directions. While sausages are cooking, season the onions and peppers with salt and pepper and saute in the olive oil over medium heat for about 8-10 mins or until the onions are translucent.

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots and celery. In a medium bowl, mix together the honey, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper and whisk until it's all mixed up.

Toss the vegetables with the dressing mixture and salt and pepper. Add salt and pepper as needed. Enjoy! 

Oh Hey! It's Me! It's 2016?! + Meal Plan for the week

Oh! Hey! It's me! I still go here! Things got a little crazy over the last few months - taking classes on the weekends, changes at work, blah blah same old stuff everyone deals with and somehow manages to maintain a blog. I've also been caught up in all the stuff everyone else has been caught up in:

Throwing plates at the TV and screaming out loud at Making a Murderer



Crying my eyes out to Adele on repeat



Sporting tacky sweaters all holiday season (shoutout to my husband for giving me a gift that combines 3 of my favorite things: tackiness, Christmas, and Drake). I know- how photogenic are we.



Defending my opinion that Jenna Dewan-Tatum's performance was better than Channing's on Lip Sync Battle (Beyonce wins all obvi but I'm saying if it's just between Channing and Jenna)

Purchased Power Ball tickets - FYI when I hit the jackpot I do not intend on telling anyone. We've all seen the E! True Hollywood Story about the lotto curse.

And I also went on a tiny trip to CAPE TOWN with my friends (this trip deserves its own post, more later but for now enjoy pictures on Insta).

Did a little healthy eating and a lot of holiday splurging (whoopsies #notsorry).

Annnnd I signed up for a marathon. Yes, I have officially lost my mind or hit a quarter life crisis or something along those lines. Thankfully I obsessively combed Courtney's blog for everything I could possibly need to know about training - and btw I actually MET Courtney on the street a few weeks ago, I was starstruck! #Blogcrush

This whole marathon thing has changed up my eating plans a little bit with the need for carb loading etc, so after a year (yes a YEAR!) of eating paleo we are adding pasta and rice into the ole meal plan. Random side note: I have never never been a pasta or rice eater. Everyone acts like this is just the craziest thing they've ever heard but it's true. So please do pass along any resources for good/healthy/carby recipes. Because this training has me hungry. as. a. hippo.

Here's my meal plan for the week with a big emphasis on foods that yield lots of leftovers because this is my first week back from vacation and that sucks and no one wants to cook. At all. Also includes my reminders to add CARBS the night before and after my long runs - shoutout to my friend Petar for teaching me Carbs 101.

Note: For the Chicken Broc Pasta Bake with Cauli Sauce I am replacing the cheese with this sauce. It's supes easy. Because *hi* lactose intolerance! Not doing cheese before a long run. Couldn't pay me. You can also find my fav breakfast casserole (oops forgot to link in the plan) here and my green smoothies here.