MDA's Reminder

Today's Marks Daily Apple Challenge was save your pumpkin seeds. If you are carving pumpkins today or just have pumpkins out for decoration save the seeds!Bake the seeds at 450 for 20 minutes,sprinkle with sea salt and toss and there you have a great snack filled with protein, copper and zinc!

Super quick and tasty breakfast

This is one of my go to breakfast's when I am in a hurry in the A.M. I bought these glass ramekins at Target they were $6.99 for 4 of them and they come with lids so you can take them on the go easily or make extras and heat them up in the microwave for later on in the week. This is a great choice for breakfast, it has protein and healthy carbs to get you through the morning!

1 eggs ( I usually make 2 when this is all I'm eating)

1/2 C Marinara sauce

Salt and pepper

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Pour the marinara sauce in the ramekin add the egg top with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes. I like mine with runny yokes, just cook yours until your desired doneness. If you don't like a runny yoke I would break the yoke before you put it in the oven this will help it bake quicker. So simple and tasty!

Veggie of the day... or week... or month...

So I have decided that there are SO many veggies out there that we never utilize, or never try because we don't know how to cook them or we get caught it the same groove of tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, mushrooms... You get the point! There is so much more available to us then that, I think we could all get a little more creative if we had the proper instruction and information. That's were I come in.

I will alphabetically be posting a veggie, it may be bi-weekly or monthly depending on how creative I am feeling! I will also include nutrition information and benefits of said veggie. Before we know it we will be cooking with all the colors of the rainbow! If there is something in particular you have always wanted to try but are unsure of how to go about cooking it or are just scared to try something new, leave me a comment and I will do my best to accommodate your request!

I'm going to start out on (your guessed it) A. And the veggie of the month is:

Asparagus

Asparagus is a member of the Lily family which includes onions, leeks and garlic. Its peak growing season is from April-June and in this season when the conditions are just right it can grow 10 inches is a 24 hour period (sounds like my great dane). Asparagus is a nutrient dense food and contains high amounts of Folate, Vitamin B-6, A, C and Potassium. At just 4 calories a spear you get 3G of fiber per 5 oz serving. To purchase the best asparagus look for firm, fresh spears that are uniform in size and have closed tips, the larger in diameter the more tender it will be. There is over 5o varieties of asparagus one of with is albino and is white in color due to sun deprivation. Now to the cooking! I went simple for the first one, don't worry I will come up with some pretty grubbin' stuff!

Oven grilled asparagus:

1 lb Asparagus

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 Cloves garlic-chopped

Salt and pepper

Place your asparagus on a cookie sheet and toss with oil, garlic and seasoning. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 35-45 minutes depending on how big the spears are.

And here is the finished product. In perfect time for Halloween, you wont have to worry about any vampires when you eat this!

Stop Saying Yuck!!!

We all have food we cant stomach. Here are some sure fire tips for a one-way ticket out of Gagsville.

Reason: About one in four people actually tastes vegetable like brussel sprouts and broccoli as extremely bitter ( its a survival instinct to protect you from eating poisonous plants).

Solution: Taste buds detect sweet, salty, bitter and savory. Try to mask bitterness by playing up some of the other tastes. Don't over cook veggies- that enhances their sharpness. And instead of steaming or boiling try lightly sauteing them or grilling and always use a variety of seasoning.

Reason: Childhood associations influenced you. Maybe your parents disliked the food, or you had a bad experience ( you ate corn on the cob with a loose tooth and it hurt).

Solution: Wait until you're really hungry before trying food after a long hiatus. When you re that famished, your body will start to associate those flavors with a positive benefit: relieving your hunger. Smells change as we age too so maybe the food you've always hated won't seem as offensive as it did when you were a kid. Try to ease into it by plugging your nose for the first few bites.

Reason: Its a texture thing. There's nothing scientific that says why, but something about a slice of tomato or cooked cabbage makes you shiver.

Solution: Play with your food. If the texture is your biggest problem, try cooking the food to change its consistency. You may hate woody mushrooms or fleshy tomatoes, but spicy tomato salsa or mushrooms mixed in stir fry might appeal to you. When food aren't a surprise (like finding a chunk of unexpected tomato in your salad) You might not react as strongly as you might think.

No matter the reason... This trick works: Try the same food 8-10 times. incorporate it into several dishes throughout the week, in as many forms as possible- blended into soup, chopped in a salad or just with a clean homemade dressing.

Attack of the Sugar Monster!

When you have an attack from the sugar monster and you need a little sweet pick me up reach for a " Better than Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. " If you came to the gym dock party a few months ago these are one of the cookies I made and brought to share. They are really good and have just the right amount of sweetness and as a bonus they are pretty darn easy to make.

2 C. Almond flour

1/2 C. Coconut

1/2 C. Raisins

1/4 C Applesauce

1 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

2 Eggs

3/4 C. Chopped walnuts

1/4 C. Honey (optional)

Mix all the dry ingredients and spices, add the eggs, applesauce and honey if you are using it. mix well and add remaining ingredients. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

Flame Grilled Fish and Slaw "Tacos"

Fish Tacos are one on my favorite things on earth! Im from California so I know good Mexican food and this recipe although simple is absolutely delish and very affordable in the following picture is all of the ingredients I used:

This will make enough for a family of four and you will have a few things left over. I shopped at Fred Meyer and my bill looked like this. Lime $.25, Tilapia Fillets 12 oz $4.5o, Carrot $.15, Savoy cabbage $2.30 and Salsa Verde $1.29. That's a grand total of $8.49. WOW feeding a family of four for just over $2.00 a person!

Step 1: Peel and cut the red onion into 1/4 inch thick sliced and slap em on the grill for 5 minutes for the first side flip and grill an additional 3 minutes.

They should look like this when coming off the grill

Step 2: Season the Tilapia fillets with salt and pepper and grill for 6 minutes. No need to flip they will be done if you cook them with the lid on and no peeking!

Step 3: Saving 4 of the outer leaves of the savoy cabbage for your shell, thinly slice 3 cups of cabbage into a bowl, using a vegetable peeler shred the carrot and put in with the cabbage. Roughly chop the red onion and add to the cabbage mixture. Squeeze the lime over the slaw and mix. Flake the grilled fish into the slaw and toss. Place 1/4 of the mixture into a cabbage leaf and top with a little salsa verde and serve.

Bacon Sweet Potato Mash

Oh man this was G-O-O-D good!!! One of my me and my husband's favorite clean recipes to date! Keep this one in mind for Thanksgiving-Paleo style. Scary that its not too far away right?!?!? I got the base for this recipe from a blog that I really like and changed it up a little can you say MORE bacon...

4 Sweet Potatoes peeled, diced and boiled or steamed until soft

1 LB Bacon

1 Red Onion, sliced thinly

1 tsp Cinnamon

Sea salt and pepper to your taste

Dice your bacon and cook on high heat until it is about 1/2 way cooked, drain off most of the grease and add your onions. Cook until the onions are limp and caramelized and the bacon is nice and crispy about 5-8 minutes should make it look like this:

Put your sweet potatoes in a big bowl or a kitchen aid if you have one and mash them until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and season to your liking. I served them with pork chops smothered in onions and applesauce with cinnamon and a few plumped raisins. It was a meal fit for a king and a good re-feed for a bad @$$ Crossfitter.

Favorite Fall Flavors

Fall has officially arrived in North Idaho this week and I personally am LOVING IT! I love grilling, salads and fresh fruit in the summer, but by the time fall comes soup and warm comfort foods come my way! I love any food that seems like a treat, but is actually good for you like sweet potatoes and butternut squash. This is the perfect time for squash most stores will be having sales on it and you can get fresh organic butternut squash at the Farmers market for .37 cents a LB! And look at some of these handy uses I found for butternut squash:

As cool as the skull is, I personally like mine roasted in the oven for about 1 hour at 400 degrees and sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg before digging into it in right out of the skin!

Mediterranean Fish and Veggies

I know for at least me that cooking fish can be very intimidating and I always feel like it comes out dry and flavorless well fear no more here are some sure fire tips to help you in your fish cooking journeys. There are a few common rules for cooking fish the first being: 10 minutes cooking time per 1 inch of thickness. I have come to find 8 minutes seems to be more of an accurate cooking dime due to carry over cooking ( food cooking a little more as it cools). the second is cook fish until it flakes. I think that if it begins to flake before you take it out of the oven that it will be dry and over cooked. Its better to take a thin knife to the center of the fillet after 8 minutes and check for an opaque color through out the fish. It will be easier to tell with a fattier fish like salmon or tuna - they also require less cooking time and can be eaten slightly undercooked.

2 Zucchini
2 Red onions
3 Tomatoes
1/2 C Pitted Kalamata olives
4 TBSP Olive oil
4 6oz White fish fillets (cod was my choice)
1 Clove minced Garlic
1 TBSP Lemon juice
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
1/2 C Fresh chopped parsley

Cut your veggies into wedges and toss in 1 TBSP oil add the olives and season with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Put in a shallow baking dish. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes at 450 until the veggies are soft. Brush the fillets with 1 TBSP oil and season with salt and pepper place over the veggies and put back into the oven for about 8 minutes more. Use the suggested methods from above to determine when your fish is done. Whisk together the remaining ingredients to make a dressing and pour over the fish before you serve it sprinkle with fresh parsley and enjoy!