Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!

If you read my preggers post, you may be wondering about my diet. If you feel like reading about it, I'm sharing about it.  Here goes the back story... I have always (quite literally, people) been overly aware of all things food and health related.  I have always been on the heavier side so by the time I was 14, I put myself on a 'diet' and have been on one on a regular basis ever since (I'm not advocating this, it's actually quite annoying).

I have memorized every piece of nutritional information I could get my hands on related to 'how to lose weight'.  I have always been pretty active, I've never 'drank' my calories (wellllll, except for the wine), I've always eaten only whole grains (I grew up on wheat bread; my mom was always very health conscience), skim milk and fat free dairy, lots of fruit and veggies and healthy fats (avocado's and olive oil).
 All the stuff you're supposed to do, right? But, for some reason, I have always carried around an extra 10-15 pounds.

At one brief point when I was around 25, I was at my target weight. But sadly, it didn't last because I was doing so much more than I could possibly maintain. At the time, I was single and would go to the gym after work, then meet up with a girlfriend (hi Gwen!) and run up to five miles, then go home and eat either a can of green beans or a baked potato or a single piece of tilapia for dinner. I also did the boot camp program at the Fishers YMCA.  And I trained for and ran a 1/2 marathon.  So, once a boyfriend entered the picture I slowly lost all the muscle tone I had gained because I couldn't keep up that workout schedule and then once he became my husband, I packed on the pounds again.  I was cooking a full course meal every night; meat, veggies and a starch.  Naturally, I ate it too. So I know exercise works (especially for me), and can fix the problem, but right now, I struggle to find time to finish just ONE 10 minute workout dvd per day!   I'm looking forward to working out insanity style as Bentley gets older... it's just tough with a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 month old (either of whom barely sleep through the night on the same night, ever). 

So there.  I'm tired.

Point of that?  I have much better control over my eating right now than my exercise.

So, wah wah. Sad girl can't lose the last 10 pounds. Ever. Then, last summer, I heard about this eating plan called Paleo or Primal (similar plans, but with Primal you can have some dairy, in Paleo, no dairy).  You can find all the scientific details at marksdailyapple.com (Primal) or everydaypaleo.com (Paleo).  But the general idea is to eat what our ancestors ate.  Cut out all the "food" that is made in a factory and comes in a box.  And cut out all the gut irritants, like gluten and legumes and dairy (for some people). I would like to clarify that a big part of this is based on evolution... which I do not believe in.  I believe that God created people as we are now.  So, I'm not buying the stuff on how our bodies evolved to eat certain foods. 

But I fully believe in cutting out all the gross processed food. 

I stated eating Primal in March 2011; I was six months pregnant at the time.  As you can tell from my pictures, I was able to only gain 20 pounds with B, verses 50 with Jack! AND, I was back to my pre-Bentley weight in THREE WEEKS!  Not kidding.  Three weeks.  For comparison sake, it took me about one year to get within 10 pounds of pre-Jack weight.  Seriously. I am now about eight pounds under my pre-B weight (but flabby... working on that).

(and because how boring would I be without a picture? awwww, little B)

  I eat, meat, fruit, veggies, eggs, nuts, seeds and a little dairy (some cheese, no cow's milk, just coconut milk).  I also eat 86% dark chocolate squares and I still have wine.  I'm not totally hard core, I will eat some 'processed' food like mayonnaise or salami.

I do not eat legumes, any grains (bread, pasta, rice, oatmeal), white potatoes, corn or added sugar.

Sounds easy, right?  That's because it is easy.  Easy and delicious.  We are enjoying so many new and creative foods now, and TONS of new veggies that I had never eaten before! For example, things I love now that I rarely (if ever) used to eat... brussels sprouts, turnips, fennel, parsnips and beets. The food is all so fresh and delicious, I can't imagine eating any other way.

The biggest change in how I feel is I no longer feel sluggish or over-full after I'm done eating.
 I am also very satisfied after eating and no longer need to graze all day long.
And I am in LOVE with eliminating all the processed food crap from my life.

So, after all these (many many many) years, I have *finally* discovered a way to eat that is so healthy, easy and that I can live with (except for those occasional runs to DQ. But c'mon, we all know those cave men would have traded a slab of fresh beef for a Blizzard of the Month).   I even have Jack and Chris on board (for the most part).

PS, this is NOT a "low carb" plan. If you are eating enough vegetables, you will get plenty of carbs. 
Just sayin'.

So, that's the scoop.  I've been writing this post for a month now (busy mom, anyone??) and now B is almost four months and I'm scheduled to do my first Insanity workout tomorrow. 
There's a chance you may never hear from me again. 
Wish me luck! 

Baked Crab Rangoon

Now that it's getting chilly (mmmmm, totally craving some chili)...

I wanted to share a super duper appetizer. 

This is a crowd favorite fer sure. 



Kraft Baked Crab Rangoon

1 can (6 oz.) white crabmeat, drained & flaked

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese softened

2 green onions thinly sliced

1/4 cup KRAFT Light Mayo Reduced Fat Mayonnaise

12 won ton wrappers

HEAT oven to 350°F. MIX first 4 ingredients. PLACE 1 won ton wrapper in each of 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray, extending edges of wrappers over sides of cups. Fill with crab mixture.

 Enjoy! 

They are amazing, and so much healthier than the traditional Crab Rangoon! 

Poundcake = Buttertastic

Q-  When you need a pound cake recipe, what should be your automatic first thought?

A- Paula Deen. 

 So that's where I went for a 'Happy Birthday' pound cake for my sista.   And, why yes, her pound cake is the most buttertastic and delicious I have ever had!

 And the best part is, it's easy like Sunday morning.

Mama's Pound Cake

Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, plus more for pan

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Perfect as written!

And it certainly wouldn't be pound cake in the summer if we didn't have fresh blueberries and strawberries and oh yea, homemade whipped cream.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

Cupcakes FORE my husband!

I know, I'm a nerd.  I ran across these on-line somewhere (sorry, I have NO idea where!)... and had to make them for my golf obsessed hubby's birthday.  His degree is Professional Golf Management (and business, whew!), so you can see why I made them.

Tee-hee. He liked them!

A little pointer for your future reference:  try to avoid using expired food coloring.  When I realized it was expired (too late), I went ahead and used it and it was kinda weird, it turned the buttercream icing into a few shades of green.  But thankfully the green sprinkles covered that right up!

Some Tiramisu Love

I love Tiramisu and always assumed it would be difficult to make, but this recipe is delicious and EASY!
This is from allrecipes.com... I've made it twice now and LOVE it! I made just a few changes to the original recipe:


TIRAMISU

Ingredients
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup white sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature (I use more like 1/2 C)
2 tablespoons rum (I use 4 T Bacardi rum)
2 (3 ounce) packages ladyfinger cookies
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions
In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour.

In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form. Whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.

In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum. Split ladyfingers in half lengthwise and drizzle with coffee mixture. (I do more than 'drizzle'- use a spoon and pour it on the ladyfingers, not soaking, but a little more than 'drizzle')

Arrange half of soaked ladyfingers in bottom of a 7x11 inch dish (8x8 works great for me). Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with cocoa. (I am able to do a layer of ladyfingers, marscarpone, whipped cream, then repeat that, then do a layer of ladyfingers and whipped cream before the cocoa powder.)

Cover and refrigerate overnight!

It's SOOOOO easy and tastes amazing.