Scrambled Cheesecake

What the heck is that you ask? Well, it's my way of having dessert for breakfast and not feeling guilty about it. As you know, I've been experimenting with ways to eat eggs and not get bored with it so here is a sweeter side of eggs.

Pretty soon I won't be able to have cream cheese so I might as well enjoy it while I can, right?! It isn't extremely conducive to fat loss and I have two more weeks of bulking before I start cutting back and losing fat.

What does that mean for you? It means that the recipes will start getting much healthier and less complicated... Maybe a little more boring but in my experience, the boring ones will get the fat off of you faster.

I am getting excited about meeting with the figure coach and I'm hoping she tells me I can compete in the figure class but I will still be willing to do the bikini class if I didn't gain enough muscle the past few months. I will just need to strive for a little softer look than I was invisioning. There is always a next time :)

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Stevia to taste (I used about half a dropper full of the liquid Now brand)
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil for frying

Directions:

1. Melt coconut oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the cinnamon and stevia then pour into the heated pan.
3. Cut the cream cheese into small pieces and stir in with the cooking eggs and stir until scrambled and the eggs are cooked through.
4. Serve!

Nutrition Information:
Calories- 265
Fat- 19.41 g
Net carbs- 1.66 g
Protein- 19.87 g

Eggs Italiano

Growing up I always felt sick after eating eggs but I never made the connection that I was allergic to them until a couple of years ago. I would feel very spacey and not myself for several hours to the point I just didn't want to eat them. I discovered that egg whites didn't make me feel that way which to me was weird. After I started eating Paleo, I discovered that chickens are often fed meal that contains soy. After a little experimentation, I found that eating local soy free eggs don't make me feel bad so eggs are now a large part of my diet.

With that being said, I have been eating eggs a lot lately and frankly I'm getting a little sick of them. I only like them when they are runny and for some reason I have been over cooking them. Not wanting them to go to waste I still gobble them down but I'm not terribly happy about it.

Eggs with spinach have been my easy healthy go-to breakfast for the past week but today I decided I wanted something different. Add some spaghetti sauce and badda bing, you have Italian eggs. I know it sounds way too simple but it's nice to change it up sometimes.

Ingredients:

• Eggs (as many as you need to eat, I ate 3)
• 2/3 cup Spaghetti sauce (I used Trader Joe's because it is soy free)
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil for frying

Directions:

1. Heat frying pan over medium and melt coconut oil.
2. Pour spaghetti sauce in the pan along with the spices and mix together until slightly bubbly.
3. Crack your eggs into the sauce keeping them intact.
4. Cover and cook until the whites are done and the yolks are still a little runny.

Super Woman Pancakes

Ahhh pancakes, usually your stomach and thighs worst enemy. But alas I have found a way to make them healthy and taste good too! I know I don't usually post recipes with dairy but I have found that cream cheese doesn't make me feel bad, so I'm going to go with it.

This is a very hearty recipe and fills you up fast, especially when you eat it with bacon, mmmm bacon. This is the closest I have come to mocking the taste and texture of wheat pancakes.

Makes 2 servings (Or you can be a piggy and eat the whole thing like I did, don't judge!)

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 scoop Pro Whey protein powder, vanilla (32g)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon coconut flour
• dash of salt
• Coconut oil for cooking

Directions:

1. Melt about a teaspoon coconut oil in a pan over medium heat.
2. Combine all ingredients (except coconut oil) in a blender and blend until smooth. (I know most people say to combine wet then dry then put them together, but I haven't noticed it makes a difference in a blender and I like to make things easy)
3. Pour half of the mixture into pan, cover with lid, and cook until little bubbles appear in the batter, then flip and cook another minute. 
4. Repeat step 3 for the remainder.
5. Top with some grass-fed butter and eat up!

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. 

Hiatus

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and was able to enjoy all that goes along with it, including all the seasonal treats (in moderation of course).

I have taken a short break from blogging because I shamefully took a break from Paleo while trying to gain weight (bulk) for a figure competition. I figured that the standard American diet would help... It didn't. What it did do for me was make my skin break out, made me feel sluggish, and I got sick twice. I had to stay out of work two days. So needless to say the S.A.D. hurt my bottom line as well as made me feel crappy. Now I'm sticking to rice, steel cut oats, and potatoes for my starches. I already feel a little better and my skin is clearing up. I'm glad I went through the experience because now I know for sure that Paleo is the only way for me! I wasn't able to hit my goal weight but I'm still going to go ahead as planned and hope that the muscle that I gained was enough :)

While eating the S.A.D., I also lost my cooking bug for a while and had no desire to cook or be creative. Probably because of the sluggishness and being tired all the time. I'm not back 100% because of my work schedule but I promise that I will do better. Some of my recipes won't be original for a while but I will make sure to give proper acknowledgement to the recipe creators.

I was recently asked for a recipe that would be easy to make and eat on for the week. Something healthy, tasty, and reheats well. The first thing that came to mind was egg cupcakes. This is something that you can create to your own taste because you can put anything you want in them... Almost...

This recipe is from Paleo in a Pinch, I changed some of the measurements but this is not an original recipe of mine. I have made this recipe before and can attest that it is delicious!

Savory Sausage Egg Cakes

(Photo from Paleo in a Pinch)

Ingredients:

• 12 Eggs
• 1lb. Sausage
• 1 each Green & Red Pepper
• 1 cup Mushrooms
• 1 Onion
• 3-4 Green Onions
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Coconut Milk (Optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a fry pan, brown your Sausage on Med/High heat. Break up into small crumbles.
2. While Sausage is browning, chop all of your veggies.
3. Once Sausage is cooked, spoon out and add to the veggie bowl.
4. Add eggs and whisk together. If you are using Coconut Milk, add now
5. Line your cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Fill nearly to the top of the liner. Place in preheated oven and bake for 25-30 min.
6. Remove Egg Cakes from oven and let cool for 10-15min, before transferring to a cooling rack.
7. Serve or let cool to room temp and store in the fridge or freezer. Egg Cakes can be served warmed or chilled.

 

Cinnamon Espresso Steak with Caramelized Onions and Spinach

Disclaimer, the following story involves bugs:

I know everyone likes a story so I will tell one. It's almost as bad as the fish story. I've been debating telling it but what the heck! So, I have been super busy lately and sometimes I rely a little heavily on nuts for survival. I had a container of hazelnuts in my pantry so I grabbed them and off to work I went. Throughout the morning I would take a handful of nuts and eat them. I made it to work and had the container sitting on my desk while I was eating them. I just so happened to look down and saw a little bug crawling on my desk. I am not terribly squeamish when it comes to bugs so I just squished it and went on with my business... Do you see where this is going yet? I nonchalantely went in for another handful and saw a bug crawling on the rim of the container... My stomach drops as I look in... There are little bugs swarming all over the hazelnuts! OMG!!! Then I had to convince myself not to get sick. Now I have to question if bugs are Paleo... Should I consider that extra protein? Not that I will ever knowingly eat them.

If I didn't gross everyone out I have a delicious recipe for you!

This isn't so much a recipe as it is just the way I like to eat my steak. I've been asking around to see if there was a "right way" to cook a steak because until the past couple years I didn't eat red meat. Most people said they always grill theirs but that isn't exactly feasible for me since I live in an apartment... on the top floor... and a George Foreman just doesn't have the same effect to me. That and I don't own one...

I know this sounds weird but I would rather eat this than a dessert, and that says something because I'm a sweetaholic.

Sorry for the awful picture. Maybe one day I will graduate from taking them with the camera on my phone.

Ingredients:

• 1 sirloin steak, as small or large as you want
• pinch of cinnamon
• pinch of instant espresso
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 sweet onion, sliced into rings
• large handful of baby spinach
• coconut oil for cooking

Directions:

1. Heat about a tablespoon of oil a medium skillet over medium high heat until melted. Cook onions in the oil until they are translucent and getting brown on the edges. Throw the spinach in with the onions and cook until just wilted. Set aside.
2. Honestly, I don't measure out the spices, I just sprinkle a little of each on top of the steak separately. So do that :)
3. Melt some more oil in the same skillet and cook the steak over medium high heat 2-3 minutes per side until it reaches your desired doneness. I like mine medium rare!
4. Plate the steak and top with the caramalized onions and spinach.
5. Devour!!!

The Hulk Buster Smoothie

I feel like I've been away forever! Please don't hate me! The Fitness Ninja is recovering from ACL surgery so I've been filling in at the gym morning and evening on top of my day job. No complaints here though because I love what I do! Although it doesn't leave much time for creating new recipes.

Update on my quest to gain weight: I lost a few pounds last month because I wasn't able to take in enough calories with my busy schedule but recently added in a ton of starches into my diet in hopes of getting my weight up. I've been given until the end of this month to gain 15 lbs or else I will be caned... I'm up to 160 and need to be at 175. Please pray for me!!

So... this is the holiday season and that means lots of yummy foods that aren't exactly diet friendly. These foods often leave me feeling very bloated and swollen and sluggish. In light of that, I have the perfect smoothie that helps get rid of the extra water retention that comes with eating less than optimal food. Now I'm not condoning eating all those holiday foods, but lets be realistic, we are all human. So if you do splurge and feel a little crappy, drink this green smoothie and you will feel loads better!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups ice
• 3-4 handfuls of baby spinach
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 cucumber
• 1 granny smith apple, quartered
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 tablespoon MCT oil (olive oil or melted coconut oil would also work)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup water (as needed to help blend)

Directions:

1. Wash and roughly chop the your and veggies.
2. Place everything into your blender or food processor and blend on high until smooth. I used a Vitamix so it took about 45 seconds and was very smooth. If you don't have a high powered blender it may take a little longer.
3. This makes approximately 2 servings so if you are not going to use it all place the remainder in a glass container in the refrigerator. Drink it within 24 hours.