My first "Eat By Design" recipe experiment!!
As always cooking vegetables for my family is a questionable adventure, but surprisingly this was a huge success. Avery loved the squash. She ate it for dinner yesterday and today! My hubby sampled it and said "I could eat this."
The beautiful thing about spaghetti squash is it doesn't have a lot of flavor on its own, so it really takes well to sauces. The texture is nice too! Crunchy, but not hard or grainy. I LOVED it!!
Here is what I made for dinner ( I combined a variety of recipes/stuff)
The Squash
Cut the spaghetti squash in 1/2 and spoon out all the yucky stuff
Give the belly a good rub in some olive oil
Sprinkle with seasoning (i used my garlic seasoning since we were doing "italian", but next time I think we will go Cajun)
Bake face down for 40 min at 400F
Turn over and grill/broil for 5 or so min to crispy (optional)
When cooked take a fork and scrape out the squash ... it comes out looking like spaghetti!!
The Sauce
2 cans of tomato paste (you could make your own paste, but I am lazy)
Lots of diced tomatoes (i used about 6 romas - but i had some leftover canned tomatoes in olive oil so i used them up too)
Fresh Basil
Turkey meatballs (homemade)
Garlic sausage
Shrimp
Mushrooms ( sauteed the musrooms, sausage, shrimp, and some basil with garlic before adding to the sauce)
Heat tomato paste and tomatoes to cook the tomatoes down a little.
Add all the other good stuff and simmer
Turkey Meatballs
Ground Turkey
Garlic Seasoning
Mix it all up and form into meatballs
heat up some olive oil and cook them in a skillet
I thought all of this was absolutely easy and delicious!!!!!
I hope you give it a try and enjoy it too!
Happy Cooking!!
JoJo!!
Today Deanne and I attended a seminar "Eat By Design" After attending this seminar we have both signed up to participate in the Eat By Design 30 Day Challenge!
What the heck does this mean??
Eat by design is a part of the Live by Design life style. It combines eating well (by design), Move by Design (exercising), think by design (having a positive outlook). This concept, way of life, was created by a chiropractor, so ongoing chiropractic care to ensure your nervous system is in tact is also recommended.
Apparently this lifestyle combination is very popular with Crossfitters. Which is how I found out about it. So they have me sold on the exercise by design, and I am working on testing out the eating by design.
"Eat By Design is not a diet. it is an approach to fulling one of the basic essentials to health. Quality nutritional building blocks."
I think the premise behind the diet is that our body cannot breakdown and utilize grains. This includes wheat, barley, rice, and legumes. In our bodies efforts to breakdown these components it stresses itself, begins to breakdown, and toxins are thus released into our bloodstream. These toxins effect people in different ways. Some individuals are plagued with things as serious as autoimmune disease, to celiac disease. Others just experience gluten intolerance or leaky gut syndrome. Some people just feel tired, lethargic, or depressed.
I dont remember all the scientific mumbo-jumbo, but with any diet trying to convince you their way is best, they had a lot of strong evidence to support themselves. It made sense, so I figure I should at least give it a try and see how I feel. It's only 30 days so I know it wont kill me ;)
So what can I eat?
- PROTEIN - beef, pork, turkey, fish, eggs, and chicken
- VEGETABLES - limit starchy veggies like potatoes, they are best 30 min after a workout. Like most diets the more color and variety the better.
- FRUIT - if you want to lose weight, then limit your fruit intake, it does contain sugar, otherwise enjoy a piece or two a day
- NUTS - great source of protein and healthy fats (peanuts are not nuts)
- FAT - coconut oil, olive oil are great sources
- DAIRY - limit your intake, and stick to full fat dairy and hard cheeses
- EXTRAS - herbs/spices, salt, hot sauce, salsa, red wine/balsamic vinegar, pesto and red wine (my favorite part)
There is a lot of variety that you can eat with meat and vegetables. You can eat BACON, BACON, BACON!! Curry is still a great easy option, coconut milk is ok. The combinations are endless, it is just time to get creative!
I am not saying this is going to be easy, it is going to be anything but!!!! On that note, I will give it my best shot and share yet another journey with you... so stay tuned. It officially starys October 4, but I am getting myself "in the zone" and weening out some of those undesirable foods!
Happy Eating!!
JoJo!!
Well I finished my intro Crossfit class... and today I took my first "big kid" class! I have to admit I was terrified to go. I was also exhausted and debated not going... BUT.....
I could not have said it better myself!! Class today was great... I went tired, I left full of beans. We did some great strength training with 5x10 front squats, and the WOD was 21-15-9 pull-ups, sit-ups, HR push-ups. Craziness!! It looks so easy on paper, and only took 8 minutes to complete, but WOW. I struggled through it, and I sure can feel it. I LOVE IT!!
I can't do a single pull-up without help. I use the thickest support band, and I am using it on my feet. My abs struggle through every single sit up. I can barely do 20 regular sit-ups. I have to do ladies push-ups, and towards the end I could barely do those! None of this matters, it still hurts, and I still LOVE IT!
Yesterday I weighed in at -6lbs, and I lost a few more inches throughout the body. I still can't see any of it.... but it will come!!
Happy Sweating!
JoJo!
