Salmon Cakes

    Well I don't have a whole lot to say about this particular dinner other than it's simple and healthy. I've made salmon cakes many many times, but since we started cutting certain foods out of our diet I had to modify the recipe a bit.

Ingredients:
*2 Cans of Salmon
*Half an avocado
*1 tsp.Garlic Powder
*1 tsp.Season Salt
*1 tbs. Basil
*Olive oil for frying

Directions:

    The canned salmon I used had bones in it, so you have to dig through it to get all of them out. Once you have separated the meat from the bones put the meat in a medium sized bowl and combined it with the avocado, garlic powder, season salt, and basil. You may have to use your hands to mix everything together in order for the avocado to mix in. Now cover the bottom of your frying pan with olive oil-while your waiting for this to heat up make your mixture into patties or cakes, whatever you prefer to call them. When the oil is hot just drop your  cakes into the pan. Cook until they are brown on both sides then your finished! I like to drizzle honey mustard on top of mine. Simply mix some mustard and honey together until it turns into a brownish color and drizzle it on top.


    Along with the salmon cakes we had a salad made with field greens, mushrooms, cherry tomato's, sweet peppers, and then covered with the same honey mustard we used for the salmon cakes.

Happy Mother's Day

        When I was younger I always wanted a little sister. I have no idea what put that desire in my head. I would have had to share clothes and a room and a mother daughter relationship. Yeah, that definitely sounds selfish, but lets just say God knew what he was doing.
    A favorite past time for my mom and I was to sit and drink tea together while talking for hours and hours. She has passed on many words of wisdom to me through the years, has been there to listen to all of my joys and sorrows, has been a shoulder to cry on, and a great friend. There were many time where we would start laughing together about something and end up turning red and shedding tears, then my dad or brothers would walk in and we would get the "OK, it's now confirmed you are both crazy" face.
    I love my mom so very much and am so appreciative of all the work that she has put into me. The people around you shape who you are and I am simply a reflection of my mother. I know I've said it many times, but I do indeed hope that I can do as good a job with my children someday.

                                          Thanks Mom!

Yummy Stuffed Peppers

    Today was my last day of work at Panera for the summer! Did I mention I'm headed back to Pennsylvania for the summer to work with Child Evangelism Fellowship? I'm so excited! I feel like i'm back in high school and this is my last day of school for the summer-yeah, it's a great feeling.
    Anyway, since today was my last day and Steven and I are both done with work and school, I decided to make a favorite of ours. Sometime last year I started experimenting with peppers and different stuffing's. They always turned out really good, so I guess anything that includes peppers is going to be a winner.
    Today my choice ingredients included:
-Mini Sweet Peppers
-Avocado
-Guacamole
-Mushrooms
-Onion
-Garlic and Herb Goat's Cheese

Directions
    First I chopped up a whole yellow onion and a handful of mushrooms. Then I poured some olive oil in a frying pan and let it heat up. Once it was heated I added the mushrooms and onions. I added a few spices to it like garlic powder, Italian season, and seasoning salt. While that was cooking I took a bunch of the peppers and started chopping off the tops and washing out the insides. Once all this was done I took a small spoon and scooped some of the goat cheese into the pepper. If your peppers are small like mine were you may have to use your finger to push it down to the bottom (so make sure your hands are clean!). Then I mixed my mushrooms and onions with some guacamole and avocado and a tiny bit of the goats cheese. Mix this all together and shove it into the pepper as well. Once they are finished you just lay them out on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven until they pepper starts to soften. Yummy and simple!

Yummy Salmon

    Dinner this evening was a bit different then the bread and vegetables we have been having the past week or so. We decided to mix things up a bit and have some fish! For the past few months Panera has been selling a salad and a sandwich that had salmon on it-so it has been a bit of recent food obsession. Squeeze a little bit of lemon on it along with some salt and pepper-yum!
    Dinner this evening:
- Salmon with lemon and lime squeezed over it along with salt and pepper.

-Salad with mixed greens, yellow onion, pepperonicini peppers, cherry tomato's, cucumber, and for a dressing I topped it with guacamole, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Very delicious!

Baked Sweet Potato's

     
    I love sweet potato's! I'm not talking about just plain baked sweet potato's (which I didn't know people actually ate until a few years ago). I grew up eating sweet potato's smothered in butter and brown sugar, then topped off with a mountain of marshmallows. Those are the kind of sweet potato's that send my taste buds soaring.
    However, in my pursuit of a healthier lifestyle this sugary treat just doesn't fit. So, my quest was to find a way to get the same great taste with ingredients that my body will love as well. I became inspired while looking at nut butter the other day. I thought they would make a great topping for sweet potato's. Our Whole Foods carries little packets of different nut butters for $.99 so I got a few. I was still trying to figure out how to get the same great brown sugary taste when I came across some Agave Nectar which is a healthier sugar alternative. I purchased the Amber Agave Nectar which in taste resembles brown sugar. Problems solved!
    All I did was cover my sweet potato's in foil and put them in the oven until they were nice and soft. When they were ready we opened them up and covered them in nut butter and agave nectar for a really enjoyable dinner!

Yumm!

A Day of Liquids

    Here we are at day five of the detox! As I mentioned before Steven and I are spending the weekend consuming only liquids in order to cleanse our intestines. Upon waking up this morning we gulped down a couple glasses of delicious green juice.

Green Juice

*Cucumber

* Broccoli

*Pear

*Lemon

*Banana

*Strawberry

*Ice

*Honey

After juicing all the fruits and veggies I threw it in the blender with some ice and honey.

    We spent most of the afternoon donating plasma which at times can be quite draining, so after getting home it was time for some more liquids. Steven and I were craving different things so we made our own drinks.

Steven's drink: Strawberry, kiwi, banana, almond milk, cucumber, and mango. He threw all of this stuff through the blender and ended up with a nice icy treat.

My drink: Banana, strawberry, 82% chocolate, Stevia, almond milk, and ice. I also tossed all of my ingredients through the blender. Yum!

    For dinner we had some homemade creamy tomato soup.

Creamy Tomato Soup

*1 Onion

*1 Pepper

*4 Roma Tomatos

*Almond Milk

*3 cloves of garlic

*Italian seasoning

*Basil

*Salt

*Pepper flakes

*Olive Oil

Directions:

    First I covered the bottom of a pot with olive oil and heated it up. I chopped up the onion and pepper and put them in until with turned soft and slightly brown. After a few minutes I chopped up the tomatoes and put those in as well. I let these ingredients sit for a few minutes stirring them around every once in a while. After a little while it looked like the picture to the right.

    After my vegetables were nice and soft I added the almond milk (enough that makes it look like soup). Now I added my spices in generous amounts and covered it to let it simmer.

    After everything was nice and cooked I put it through the blender to make it "creamy" tomato soup. To top it off I drizzled some olive oil and pepper flakes on the top. It was a very yummy and filling soup!

   

Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate!

For desert I made some dark chocolate hot chocolate. I put the almond milk in a saucepan with an 82% cocoa chocolate bar, honey, and cinnamon. 

Detox: Day 2,3 &4

    Whoops, I guess I haven't been home at all these past few days except to sleep. Today is day four and I feel great! Here is a quick recap of the past few days:

Day 2: Wednesday
Morning- Every morning we have started off with a glass of juice. This day it consisted of cucumber, orange, celery, kiwi, green pepper, and lemon. To make it a little bit sweeter I added just a little bit of Stevia. Fresh juice is such a great way to start the day!


Lunch- When lunch time came around I met Steven down town and we headed to Whole Foods for a bit of lunch. My salad consisted of spinach, field greens, fresh kale, shredded zucchini, peas, cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, mushrooms, olive oil, vinegar, and finally organic salsa. Steven on the other hand likes his salads on the plain side and just had the spinach, field greens and salsa. It was a great refreshing midday meal.


Afternoon Snack- Soon after lunch we walked to Trader Joe's  for some
non-dairy-coconut based "ice cream". I am now incredibly addicted to this product.
I didn't have time to eat dinner this day because of my work schedule.

Day 3: Thursday

Morning- Once again we had juice for breakfast. This day it consisted of carrot, celery, lemon, creamed coconut, and a little bit of Stevia. After juicing these things I threw them in the blender with ice.

Lunch-I met Steven downtown after his class and we headed to Subway for some veggie delight subs! We got them on 9-Grain Wheat with no cheese, all of the vegetables, salt&pepper, oregano, olive oil, and mustard.

Chocolate bar made from Stevia

Afternoon Snack- More chocolate! The book suggest eating 72% and above chocolate. I was looking at chocolate in Whole Foods and there was a man talking to some people about a particular chocolate bar, then he turned to me and started talking about it. To make a long story short, he was trying to promote this new chocolate bar that is made from Stevia. It's 160 calories for half a bar and it's great for diabetics. He gave me a coupon for a free bar! Who doesn't love free chocolate (especially since the regular price was 4.39). I just realized I've probably eaten more chocolate this past week then I do in months at a time. It's been great! I also got an 82% chocolate bar from Trader Joe's.

Dinner-For dinner we had some Mediterranean Veggie sandwiches from Panera Bread. We modified them a little bit to suit our detox diet: we got them on the whole grain bread with no cilantro hummus and no feta cheese.

Day 4: Today! (Friday)
Morning- This morning we had some carrot and celery juice blended with 82% chocolate bars, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. They were very delicious and refreshing!
Lunch- For lunch we had some whole grain bread from Panera Bread with some avocado, tomato, and salt&pepper on top.
Dinner-For dinner we had some Mediterranean Veggie sandwiches modified the same way as before except this time on whole grain bagels. Along with this we had some creamy tomato soup. Yum!

Starting tomorrow we are going into an all juice stage. Saturday and Sunday we will be drinking juice all day long in place of solid foods in order to give our intestines a chance to do some spring cleaning!

Detox: Day 1

    When I still lived with my parents, every once in a while my mom would have us all go on a detox diet for a day or too to get rid of all the impurities in our bodies. I've been married for almost two years now and haven't done any detoxing since. Needless to say, I think my body is in need of a good cleansing.
    I started reading a book I found online called The Raw Detox Diet. The book isn't only about cleansing your body for a couple days, but making a lifestyle out of clean food choices. The book evaluates what level of healthy eating you are at and shows you where to go from there.

    Yesterday was day 1 and Steven and I started the morning off with some juice made with carrots, grapefruit, kiwi, celery and cucumber, made right home with our juicer. Along with that we scarfed down a banana. According to the book it takes 30 min. for fruit to be digested (except for banana's which take 45. min.) These items are not to be combined with any other food group described in the book, so we had to make sure we waited at least 45. min till our next meal.
    For lunch we had some avocado (which can be combined with anything) spread over some whole grain bread. Believe it or not, I had actually never tried this before. It was absolutely delicious! This meal takes 4 hours to digest.

    For dinner we had some whole wheat organic pasta with organic marinara sauce. According to the book, the goal is to eventually reach a lifestyle of only raw foods, so pasta would eventually be eliminated.






Oh also, chocolate is one of those foods that can be combined with anything. So, with our lunch and dinner we devoured some 72% cocoa Dark chocolate. Soooooooooooo good!



During the day we drank water which I let sit over night in the fridge with lemons, limes, and mint leaves. This helps to flush toxins out of the body.
 
    Not only was I concentrating on what I was putting into my body, but I also dry brushed my skin. According to the book we lose 2-5 pounds of toxins through our skin everyday, but if it's blocked with dead skin cells and debris, it can't get out. After this I took a ginger bath which also helps to eliminate toxins in the body.

Today is detox: Day 2! We shall see what happens.

27 (cheap) Dresses

   Ok, so maybe I didn't buy quite that many dresses, but it's a good movie and therefore makes a good title. I never realized how much I was spoiled growing up until I got out on my own and was no longer in close proximity to the money tree that I thought grew in the back yard. Every season, of every year, my parents would take me clothes shopping. It wasn't even cheap clothes shopping since I refused to buy clothes at thrift stores because they all smelled like other people.
    I guess the pressures of life finally smacked a smidgen of sense into me-the Salvation Army is now my best friend! However, I haven't quite been able to give up the whole shopping for clothes every season......every year thing. So this past weekend Steven and I went to the Salvation Army to select pieces for my summer wardrobe.  I found a lot of cute stuff and left the store a very happy girl.
    Steven, my oh so wonderful husband decided to document my shopping finds in the form of a movie (he's so fun and creative).