Smoothie breakfast

About 10 years ago, I worked at Starbucks. On one hand- making hundreds of frozen crappuccinos and being covered with that smell of the fake mix powder, has forever turned me away from Starbucks blended treats. On the other hand - I still love love love blended drinks. Personally I do not like the super sweet varieties of Jamba Juice. To make this thick like icecream, we pre-freeze our fruit so that we don't need ice which makes it soupy and lessens the flavor.

Since we cannot have milk/cheese/meats/oil, here is what we came up with for a quick breakfast that can alternate for what we have in stock. This was the first time adding greens to our breakfast, but it worked out great.

Serves: 2

Prep/Clean Up: 10 min

In a ninja (or whatever you have) we added a handful of spinach leaves and a handful of kale. Don't press it in to the bottom. Now add about 1 cup of coconut milk. On short pulses chop the leaves until its thoroughly tini-tiny.

• 1 (lady sized) handful of spinach leaves
• 1 handful of kale
• 1 cup of coconut milk

Next add your other items :

• 5 strawberries*
• 1/2 to 1 cup of berries*
• 1 peach*
• 1 banana
• 1/2 avocado
• your choice of whey protein
• Stevia (to taste)
• more coconut milk if needed

* We like to get organic fruit from the farmer's market and freeze them.

At first I was trying not to gag on the fact that it had kale and spinach. But after two seconds, I completely forgot. It is really tasty.

Going mostly primal + Fast friendly

First off- I completely skipped lunch. Not good. But I did get in a lot of exercise- about four straight hours of walking (for work).

To preface this- yes we used canned cioppino sauce and some seasonings. Substitute what you wish to to accommodate this to your own diet. Since we are just starting primal, we will be steadily eliminating both of those things (hopefully).

In a medium sized pot I tossed in the following:

• approx 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (Trader Joe's)
• 2 large sliced Zucchinis (we like ours to be around 1 cm thick)

Let cook for a few minutes to soften the veggies

• 1 cup of Cioppino canned sauce (or make it yourself for true primal)
• a dash of cajun spices
• garlic (we use a zester and go to town on about 8 pieces- we love garlic!)
• 1 diced red pepper
• 1/2 bag of shrimp (frozen but not farmed)

Let it cook for just a bit more or leave on low until you are ready to eat.

We added a bit of garlic salt to it- but that is up to you.

BTW- this is yum-oh!

post fast changes

Today I already had some Greek Yogurt since I didn't remember it was fast. Oops. Then I had my go-to snack and I am on my way out to grab some goodies that should hopefully fall in line with the Primal plan.

I found this site which talk about the Eastern Orthodox Christian Fast and Primal. Great links to another like-minded real food eater who went on to talk about raw food.

The main thing that is perhaps different than primal is that she consumes much more fruit than meat. But again, this falls in line with the fast with very minimal changes needed.

The other point I see so far on the primal site and forum is to consider fats and protein.

So what are good sources of fat? Well that depends on who you ask. Over at primal you see things that make it onto the bad list on other sites. Truth be told, I think that the fashionable sites are off. They want you to consume "low fat/ non fat/ no sugar, etc..." items but fail to show you that they are stuffed with chemicals as well as sugar and salt.

Here is my crossed off list.

Fast and Primal

Today my husband forwarded an email from our church. Fast started yesterday! I have no idea how I could have forgotten about it. Its every year at the same stinking time. Don't get me wrong- I love the Eastern Orthodox Church and I humbly partake of the traditional fast and prayer.

However, this season is exactly what stopped my last attempt at going Primal last year. In two months I went from 185 to 165 with only changing my diet. Then the fast started (and I saw some pumpkin loaf in a weak moment) and POOF- diet be gone!

The fast includes no meat, no dairy, no fish and no oil. Tue/Thu wine and oil okay. Sat/Sun fish, wine and oil okay.

Add that to no sugar and no carbs from the Primal diet and you are left with nuts and seeds, spices, and some produce and some seafood items such as shrimp, octopus, shellfish and squid.

What is a girl to do? At the moment, my biggest concern is budget and keeping energy levels up without resorting to buckets of coffee everyday.

Fashion and Fitness...

A few years back my grandmother took me to downtown Indi and she was especially proud of showing me two things. One- the beautiful war memorial. The other was the canals which she walked everyday during lunch. As we walked around that day I noticed a LOT of women on their lunch breaks fully dressed in power suits, nylons and oh yah- running shoes. Not an attractive look by any means.

I am no Cher from Clueless, but I couldn't help but want to do an extreme makeover.

Source: Uploaded by user via Allie on Pinterest

But here I am years later with the same dilema. I don't have the time during my breaks to change outfits entirely. The least I can do is change my shoes so I can power walk in the sun with a little bit of style.

So, I just bought these...

Who knew? Online is not always the better deal- $80. Marshalls $35. (Sweet!) And they are husband approved! He said Saucony is a great brand for running shoes.

So heres to power-walking in nylons and running shoes! (Oh the tragedy.)

Killer Chicken- Its whats for dinner.

Tonight my mind was telling me YOU ARE HUNGRY!! EAT ICECREAM! And then I asked myself- would I eat veggies ? No, you are not hungry. You are bored.

For dinner, my husband and I were running late from work so we ate some left over chicken from KFC. I should have had some veggies (and some properly aka primal cooked chicken) , but after a two small pieces of chicken I was totally full.

Unfortunately I didn't work out again today. I did manage to step outside my office for a small break and walk around in the sun.

Source: stumbleupon.com via Katie on Pinterest

Information on my go-to Snack

Not to make excuses... but I am new at this. So here is the nitty gritty on my snack. The good and the bad.

+ Almonds

+ Walnuts

+ Raw Pumpkin Seeds, also here

I bought mine commercially made (meaning high sugar and chemicals) I will make dried fruit soon, but for now all I can say is... I'm trying!!!

+ Dried Pineapple (not a lot in the mix- due to high sugar content)

+ Dried Blueberries

+ Dried Raisins (too many in the mix... as learned.)

+ Dried Cranberries (fresh not dried link information)

+ Dark Chocolate