More recipes and plans for the week

Lately I've been making all kinds of fun concoctions!  A 100% compliant cake and frosting for my little guys birthday, chicken curry soup, chili, and shrimp fajita salad!  I've had some challenges mostly surrounding dining out, but I've worked through them the best I knew how and I survived.  And I'm very proud of my efforts despite the lack of actual weight loss.

Lately I've had SOOOOOO many excuses for not making it to the gym.  Most of them surrounding wanting to let the kids sleep later in the mornings, because we were up late the night before, because they didn't sleep well that night, or because they were sick.  There were multiple school closings for which I had to either keep the kids home or battle to find someone to watch them and then deliver them and then there were days that it was JUST. TOO. DAMN. COLD to haul my sorry ass to the gym.  But really all of these are just excuses for not moving.  There is plenty I could do at home, but then I have excuses there too....*I* didn't sleep well the night before, my back is hurting, there isn't much room in the newly rearranged living room, the kids made a mess and didn't clean it up.  Again, all excuses.  I'm pretty sure I'm the queen of excuses and procrastination and of course, that is one of the goals I'm working on this year and I believe recognizing it is the first step.  Now I just need to act on changing it, so this weekend while we had my big 5 year olds birthday on Saturday, we decided to have a quiet Sunday so we could all get a nap in and be assured everyone has plenty of rest so we can get up and get to the gym tomorrow morning.  I've been wanting to integrate stretching in to our bedtime routine as well, but again, the excuses have gotten in the way, so tonight my plan is to get that routine started.  That's what this Whole Life Challenge is all about anyway.  Small changes to our daily routine that stick after the challenge is over.  A lot of the dietary restrictions will likely stick.  Mostly because once you get used to it, it's not THAT hard and I know eliminating a lot of the artificial ingredients and grains, etc IS really good for me and because I feel pretty dang amazing!  So, I really plan for a lot of it to stick.  This weeks lifestyle challenge was sleep and I have no problem getting the 7 hours required to earn THAT point, so that's been just as big of a piece of cake as the water challenge.  Overall I'm doing well.  Lost 8 lbs the first week, then gained 2, and then lost .6  Which is VERY interesting, because I've had ZERO sugar, ZERO grains, ZERO artificial ANYTHING, ZERO gluten.  As long as I'm FEELING better, the lbs can come later.  I can not judge my success by the numbers on a scale.  This is about progress, not perfection.

So with that said, here are the recipes we've been loving lately.  Most of these are ones I have modified to fit our tastes/needs.

Chili:
1 lb ground turkey, browned
1 can of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
1 can of beans (I've used kidney beans and black beans and a combination of the two), drained
2 Tbsp Chili powder
2 tsp Garlic
1/4 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Paprika
2 tsp Corriander
1/2 tsp Cayenne
2 tsp Cinnamon (yes! Cinnamon!)

(All of the measurements here are NOT what I used, but are what was in the original recipe.  I eyeballed mine and adjusted them to taste)

Chicken Curry Soup:
1 lb Boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1/4 box of Chicken stock
1 can Coconut milk
Bell peppers, chopped
Celery, chopped
Mushrooms, sliced
Onions, minced
Curry powder
Ginger
Garlic

Cook chicken in olive oil.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until veggies are tender.
Next time I'll be adding black beans, diced carrots, more onion, possibly some kale and DEFINITELY more of all of the veggies!

Shrimp Fajita Salad:

1 Bag uncooked shrimp

Olive Oil

Cumin

Chili Powder

Paprika

Coriander

Garlic

Spinach
Salsa
Peppers
Onions
Garlic
Salt

Marinate Shrimp in olive oil, cumin, chili powder, paprika, corriander, and garlic all day (or as long as you have, but not more than one day)
Sautee onions and peppers in olive oil, garlic and a pinch of sea salt.
Remove fajita vegetable mixture from pan and add shrimp/marinade combination and sautee until shrimp is opaque.
Add fajita veggies and shrimp to a bed of spinach and salsa.

And finally......

Birthday Banana Cake with Pina Colada Butter Cream Frosting!!! (recipes for natural food coloring also!)  I will preface this one by saying this was a helluva lot of trial and error.  I made a couple practice cakes that were too dry and frostings that were too strong coconut flavor, but needed more moisture.  The pineapple and substitution of regular butter helped tame down the coconut flavor and add to the moisture.

Cake

1 cup Coconut Flour

1 can Coconut Milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

4 bananas, mashed

1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)

1/4 cup Stevia

Beat all ingredients with mixer until well blended and not too lumpy (there could be some lumps of banana). Bake at 350 for approx 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Frosting

1/2 cup Unsalted butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup Coconut manna

1/2 of a fresh pineapple, pureed

1/4 cup Stevia

approximately 1/2 can coconut milk

Beat all ingredients except coconut milk with a mixer, add the coconut milk to create the desired consistency. Spread on cooled cake.

Natural Food Coloring

Orange - Steamed and then pureed carrots

Yellow - Pureed mango

Green - Pureed spinach

Purple - Pureed black berries (blueberries would probably work too)

Pink - Pureed Strawberries

Brown - cocoa powder - I used a bit too much.  Start out with just a tiny bit until you get the desired color, but this is also going to add a mild bitter chocolate taste the more you add, which ended up a little odd with the pineapple flavor in my frosting.

I didn't use all of these colors on my cake, and I couldn't figure out how in the world to do blue, but we made it work and it was YUMMY.  The key to the colorings if you are using vegetables is to choose something without a strong taste that would interfere with the flavor of your frosting (hence the carrots and spinach).

Well there ya have it....this week's menu contains mushroom cap pizza, steak with roasted broccoli and baked sweet potatoes, zucchini and tomato soup that I didn't get around to making this week, roasted cauliflower and marinated grilled chicken breast.  Who knows what else we'll come up with, but I'll keep adding recipes as I try them!  If you try any of these, let me know what you think!  I love hearing from my followers!

<3 <3 <3 Happy February <3 <3 <3