Honey Dijon Mustard

Things are finally starting to settle down in my life again and the one thing that I have been missing the most is creating new and fun recipes. The same ole fish and kale was getting pretty boring. I have to say that I'm still not opposed to eating fish or kale, just not at every meal!  There are a few things that I would love to eat at every meal though, one of those being chocolate!!!

One thing that I hate is people that don't mind their own business. I live in an apartment and have two cats and a dog. No I didn't pay the pet deposit because it is an outrageous amount of money that you don't get back. I'm not saying that having animals in an apartment without telling is completely right, but when a maintenance man reports all the animals without ever coming in the apartment (to my knowledge) or knowing if I "registered" them is so annoying. Now I have to part ways with my animals for a while. I'm going to miss my cat Buffy. She is my snuggle buddy.

As for the recipe, I made this marinade/dressing/dipping sauce that you can basically put on anything from chicken to salads to dipping veggies in it. It tastes very similar to the honey mustard at Chick-Fil-A... Not that I should know that :-/

Ingredients

• 1 cup Coconut Cream (I used Trader Joe's)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Directions

• Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
• Refrigerate until used; up to a week.

I tossed some chicken breasts with the dijon mustard for an instant main course.

Curried Cod

I know the posts about my upcoming figure competition are kind of taking over but I'm SOOO excited!! In 8 1/2 weeks I will be standing on a stage being judged on not only my figure but also my charisma and dedication to this sport. That's right I said it, sport... I will be a figure athlete!

I have been very strict with what I'm eating and sticking mostly to grilled chicken, fish, and eggs for my protein and kale or spinach as a veggie. I will throw in a protein shake with berries after I workout for some carbs but that is about the extent of it. With all the diet changes I have lost 7 pounds in two weeks (at least that's what it was the last time I weighed myself). I started at approximately 21% body fat and I'm now down to about 17%. Every week I get even more strict and it has been paying off! My coach said that I'm really tightening up which is exactly what I want so I'm on track for my May 5th date!

I was really wanting to make Red Curry from Everyday Paleo but unfortunately I didn't have the ingredients on hand so I improvised and wow, I don't know why I haven't thought of this before! It's awesome! The fish really soaks in the flavors of the curry and they make a great combination. Plus I've stayed true to form and created it with as few ingredients as possible. I made this for myself so it serves one but that is easily changed, just multiply by the number of people you have :)

Ingredients:

• 6-8 oz Wild Cod fillet
• 2 tablespoons coconut cream (from the top of the can)
• 1/2 teaspoon Massaman Thai Curry paste
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 cup chopped veggies (I used frozen fire roasted onions and peppers)

Directions:

1. If you are using fresh veggies, chop them then saute in a separate pan and set aside.
2. Heat your frying pan to high heat then put your coconut cream in and heat until it is bubbly, stirring frequently.
3. Mix in the curry and stir until bubbly and fragrant. Add the fish sauce and give a good stir.
4. Place the fish fillet in the sauce along with the veggies, cover and cook for about 5 minutes until the fish is done. 
5. Voila!

Choco-nana Ice Cream

Some interesting things have been happening lately and one of them is I contacted a competition coach close to my house and I'm meeting with her in a little over a week. I'm so excited that I am starting to get everything in order. It is all starting to feel very real to me now. I will be more and more exciting the closer the date comes. Right now I'm 15 weeks out so I still have a few more weeks to work hard and gain as much as possible in a short amount of time. I'm going to go back to Paleo eating and get my carbs from sweet potatoes. This is what I should have done to begin with but you live and you learn. Next time I'm going to be a sweet potato eating machine! I'm seeing spaghetti with sweet potato noodles!!!

Anyways, I do have a recipe for you today. I had some bananas that were starting to get overly ripe so I stuck them in the freezer to make ice cream with them. Delicious! It comes out just like soft serve! There is no added sugar so the riper your bananas are, the sweeter your ice cream will be.

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 frozen bananas
• 1 tablespoon coconut cream (the top portion of the canned coconut milk)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Peel and roughly chop your bananas and place in the freezer for a few hours until frozen or overnight. I had mine in the freezer almost 10 hours while I was at work and they were perfect.
2. Place all of the ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth. The times for this will vary depending on your blender but mine took about 30 seconds. 
3. Any uneaten ice cream can be stored in the freezer but it will become hard so let it thaw in the refrigerator an hour or so before eating. 

Sweet Potato Souffle

First off, I want to apologize for the hiatus. I have been super slammed lately and being creative was put on a back burner. I basically only cooked to stay alive and it was the same old thing over and over because... well that's easy!

I don't want anyone to think I forgot about them so I thought of my favorite Thanksgiving side dish. The best part is testing it out and eating it before Thanksgiving!! Another awesome thing is that since I'm still trying to gain weight, it doesn't matter that this is normally what you would consider a huge treat :)

So, what is a Thanksgiving feast without sweet potato souffle? A crappy one in my opinion. This is the best part, aside from the pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. I could make my meal off of that! My suggestion is to not do that though.

This souffle is so sweet and delicious. I personally prefer mine with the crust of candied pecans on top. I know some people put marshmallows on theirs but to me that's just wrong! Luckily for me, this is one of the easiest recipes to "paleofy" because you just have to exchange a few ingredients.

Ingredients

Souffle:

• 4 cups cubed sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup palm sugar (found at Whole Foods)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons Ghee (Whole Foods)
• 1/2 cup coconut cream (Trader Joe's canned or any cream from full fat coconut milk)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:

• 3/4 cup palm sugar
• 4 heaping tablespoons coconut flour (Whole Foods)
• 4 tablespoons Ghee
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Peel and cube your sweet potatoes and place in a steamer basket over boiling water and cook until tender, 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and mash them up! 
3. Then add in the palm sugar, eggs, salt, ghee, coconut cream and vanilla extract. Mix them all together until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish rubbed with oil. 
4. To make the topping, mix together the palm sugar and coconut flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is slightly coarse but almost pasty. Stir in the chopped pecans. Sprinkle the topping over the sweet potato mixture as best you can, it's a little sticky.
5. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown and it smells like Thanksgiving throughout your house!

I adapted this recipe from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/yummy-sweet-potato-casserole/