News Years Resolution - Whole30, Get Healthy NOW!

Since my first Whole30, almost six months ago, I have slipped back into my former eating habits. I wouldn't say that I'm eating super unhealthy, but I'm not eating fully paleo. I don't eat rice and I don't eat a ton of dairy or refined sugars, but I do eat other grains and some sugar and a fair amount of cheese. The silly thing is that I know that I feel better, sleep better, look better while eating a fully paleo diet, but I have been lazy.

So, I'm doing it again!

This time I am roping some of my wonderful friends and family members into this crazy journey to ride along with me! I know that this experience will make a huge difference in their lives and well as opening up a brand new view point of what "healthy" means. I am so excited to have some partners in crime this time around.

I am committed to these people having as great of an experience as I had the first time around. I understand that not everyone takes to this lifestyle shift the same way. It is so so hard to forget what our culture says is "healthy" and eat what is actually good for our bodies. We have been eating foods for our whole lives that are considered healthy and they are actually the total opposite. Its tough to unlearn that. But that is the beauty of the Whole30. It cleans out  all of that old stuff and creates a brand new habit of eating.

I learned so much about my body and the foods that I eat and how those foods effect my everyday life through my first Whole30 and I am so excited to start my next one.

The group that have committed to joining me this time is a pretty good mix of foodies. There are a few people who have done the Whole30 at least once, and a few who are paleo vets. There are also a few who are totally new to the idea, other that hearing my praises. I am so excited for these newbies to take this on! I just can't wait to hear about their experiences.

follow me on instagram: @CoreySuzanne

To ensure everyone's success, I have started a Facebook group where everyone can post pictures, recipes, questions, tips, links, and inspiration. We also have an Instagram hashtag #WHOLE302014FTW so we can easily post pics of our fabulous meals. I will continue pinning paleo recipes and recipes that can easily be modified to fit the Whole30 guidelines on Pinterest. I am going to create a list of my favorite recipes (a request from my aunt), and I am going to be updating on here as often as I can. Posting recipes and a weekly update just as I did last time.

I want to challenge anyone who is even a little interested in taking on a Whole30 journey that this is your time! Don't wait, just jump in! Its really not as hard as you might think it would be. Grab some friends (everyone is looking to "get healthy" this time of year!) and create a support group. Use our hashtag and follow this blog for inspiration.

I am so excited to start my Whole30 and I can't wait to make this journey with some really wonderful people.

Check out my previous Whole30 posts:
My Whole30 Journey - Week 1
My Whole30 Journey - Week 2
My Whole30 Journey - Week 3
My Whole30 Journey - Week 4
My Whole30 Journey - Reintroduction
My Whole30 Journey - Conclusion
My Whole30 Journey - Tips and Trickspin

Paleo Plate Envy - 8/28/13

Here is some Plate Envy to feast your eyes on. There are recipe links in the caption, and there are more recipes to come. I really hope this is inspiring and makes you realize how easy home cooked, delicious, healthy meals are! 

Top Left-Shredded BBQ chicken (homemade paleo BBQ sauce recipe) with avocado, red bell peppers, sugar snap peas. Top Right-Chicken parm eggplant sliders with roasted asparagus.  Bottom Left-Cool veggie-packed gazpacho (recipe) with stake and fried plantains. Bottom Right-Hamburger with arugula and tomato, avocado, cucumber, cilantro salad.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

XOXO,

Coco

My Whole 30 Journey - Week 1

I grew up in a very healthy household. My mom is a little on the hippy side of life when it comes to food. The closer to the farm you can get the better. Grow it, cook it, eat it.

I grew up on whole grains and raw milk. I am very grateful that my mom didn't give into my pleas for Wonder Bread and Fruity Pebbles. (I am also grateful that I had a dad who did!) I am glad that I learned to eat and love good food.

I consider myself to be a pretty health eater. I have a brownie or a bag of chips here and there but other than that its mostly home cooked, pretty well balanced meals. I really enjoy cooking, baking and experimenting with flavors.

When I heard about the Whole 30 for the first time it was from my granola (aka, hippy) mom who is always telling me about the newest healthy food lifestyle. I love hearing about these diets and lifestyle changes, but I rarely take them all with full force.

Then my cousin did the Whole 30 and had AMAZING results! She had all kinds of medical issues (pretty much on the verge of surgery) before and now they have almost all disappeared. She has also lost about 30 pounds in 6 months, feels great and looks like she did in high school. I'm telling you, its incredible.

Since hearing about my cousin's results and after my sister started her own Whole 30 Journey, I decided to jump on the band wagon! Why not? Its only 30 days! I can do anything for 30 days. It would be great to feed my body really good food for my on postpartum recovery as well as the heath of my little newborn. Plus, I have some baby weight to get rid of.

If you haven't heard of the Whole 30, here is a little info. Basically its a cleanse. You are cleansing your body for 30 days of all the "bad stuff" and then at the end of the 30 days you are able to slowly add back in what you have been avoiding to see what your body has aversions to. You are also cleansing your eating habits and food lifestyle. You want to stop depending on food for emotional support, boredom relief, etc...

The basic rules are cut out any and all added sweeteners, alcohol, grains, legumes, dairy, soy, while potatoes, carrageenan, MSG and sulfites for 30 days. No biggy! Check out The Whole 9 Life or get the book, It Starts With Food for more information.

Here is a little of my experience and favorite meals from the first week.

Things I've learned so far:

1. EVOO and balsamic vinegar makes the best salad dressing (okay already knew this, but thought I should share), add some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Done and done!
2. Make a menu plan, seriously. It makes a huge difference in your weeks meals.
3. Make cold brewed iced coffee and freeze some coffee into ice cubes. Unless its winter.
4. Coconut milk is awesome in coffee. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.
5. Deli meat with fresh veggies makes a quick and yummy lunch.
6. Cut up a bunch of carrots and celery sticks at the start of the week and you will be more likely to grab that instead of the box of crackers in your pantry.
7. If its not in the house, you won't eat it. Or your kids won't eat it. I have gotten my almost 2 year old to eat way more veggies and fruit and way less crackers this week because we just don't have any crackers for him to eat. 
8. Clearly outline the rules, and write them down so you can seem them all the time. That way you won't forget them.
9. Eat fresh and yummy food. Try new flavors. Go to the farmers market and just get what they have and figure out how to cook it, usually they will give you suggestions.
10. Spaghetti squash is better than regular spaghetti.

I wrote the rules on a white board in my kitchen, and added little sticky notes labeled 1-30 that I can pull off at the end of the day as a little reward for checking on more day off.

I have been snapping pictures of the great food that we have been eating this week and I will post some recipes and photos pretty soon. Stay tuned!

Have you tried the Whole30? 

What tips do you have? 

What was your favorite thing to eat?

A New Dunn Family Lifestyle - With Recipes

My husband is on a new healthy "lifestyle" quest. He has been going to the gym, we have been watching less TV (he even unplugged it and hid it!), we have been hanging out as a family outside as much as the weather has permitted, and I have been asked to reinvent our weekly meal plans.

Now, I would say that usually I am a pretty health conscious cook and that the problem is that my dear hubby doesn't want to eat the whole-wheat, low-sugar, still-tastes-great-but-weirds-him-out, "healthy" food that I make. Half the time I don't even tell him that what I'm feeding him is healthy and usually he doesn't notice and loves it, but now that he is pursuing this new lifestyle I have free reign to make all the healthy, unprocessed food I want!

This week is the first week in my healthy menu quest. I have made salmon (first time ever cooking fish), and homemade fruit snacks, cilantro lime hummus, Vitatop knockoff muffins, and tons of other awesome things for my family. I wanted to share my success and some recipes.

• Triple Chocolate Chunk Vitatop Knockoff Muffins (seriously tastes like decadent bakery chocolate muffins. So yummy!)
• EASY Salmon (or chicken) Packets (I don't like fish so I used a thin piece of chicken. Also, I can't stress how easy this recipe is! I haven't ever made fish before, like never ever, and my husband said it was really good)
• Power Breakfast Cookies (I kinda made up my own recipe, but this link is pretty close to what I made. My 15 month old son ate these like candy, seriously he ate about two good-sized cookies every morning)
• Homemade Fruit Snacks (these are really good and easy and cheap, and I don't know why you would need to buy fruit snacks from the grocery store again)
• Cilantro Lime Hummus (this is a little spicy, and we like spicy. I think next time I will cut down on the cayenne pepper just a little)

Let me know what your favorite healthy recipes are!

A Healthy College Care Package

I send KICK-BUTT care packages. 

Seriously, just ask my sister.

My little sister, Annie, is in her  Junior year of college. She is a bit of a health freak and the deep-fried southern cooking of her school's cafeteria doesn't always cut it for her. She lives on campus and doesn't have a car so she has very little opportunity to get to the grocery store. For the most part she just deals with it, but I thought that since she was in the middle of mid-terms I would send her some love and some healthy snacks.



Here is what I came up with:
Homemade Granola Bars
Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets - recipe below
Green Tea - World Market
Almond Butter Packets - Whole Foods
Instant Coffee Packets - Starbucks
Dark Chocolate Bar - World Market
Free Music Card - Starbucks
Super-food Butter Packets - Whole Foods
Necklace - World Market
Cute Pen - World Market
Mustache Lollipop - ???
Candy Corn - The Dollar Store (just a little Halloween Happy)
Empty Creamer Bottle - My Kitchen (so she can get cream/milk/juice from the caff and stick it in her mini fridge)
Measuring Spoons and Cups - The Dollar Store

Some Other Things I Have Sent Annie In Care Packages:

Instant Soup Cups (Cup-Noodles would work, but I send her the healthy and yummy stuff, check out Whole Foods)

Dried Fruit

Nuts

Homemade Crayons 

Coffee Cozy

Travel Coffee Mug

Stickers

Cookies

Pictures of Family

Art Supplies

Free Music and App Cards from Starbucks

Drawings from my Son

Beauty Supplies (nail polish, make-up, soaps, lotion, etc...)

Funky Socks

Granola

Fruit Cups

School Supplies 

Tuna Packets

Holiday Decorations for the Dorm

Recipe for Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets

Adapted from One Good Thing By Jillee

10 cups quick oats (not rolled oats, needs to be quick oats)

2 teaspoons salt

1-2 cups granulated honey (or brown sugar. More or less depending on your taste preference)

Fixin's (raisins, dried cranberries, chopped pecans or other nuts, dried apple or other fruit chunks, chocolate chips, etc...)
About 24 snack-sized plastic baggies

Blend 3 cups of oats in a blender until powdery then transfer to a big bowl. Blending the oats is what makes the oatmeal creamy. Add the rest (7 cups) of the oatmeal to the bowl along with the salt and granulated honey. Mix all of these ingredients together. Measure out 1/2 of the oats mix into the plastic baggies, add your fixin's and seal.

To make the oatmeal:
Empty 1 baggie of oatmeal into a microwave safe bowl or mug and add 3/4 cup of water. Nook on high for 1-2 minute. (Microwaves vary, so use more or less time depending.) If you don't have a microwave then just add 3/4 cup of boiling water and cover. Let that sit for a few minutes and then stir. Add cream or milk if you like and enjoy your healthy breakfast!

 Here's my little helper!

This is him smiling for the camera.

Robot 1st Birthday Party (DIY installment)

About two weeks ago i spent a ton of time putting together this post. It was beautiful. Apparently  I wasn't signed in while I was creating the post so it didn't save and when my son unplugged the computer I lost everything I had done. I got so fed up with the whole thing that I just resigned myself to not posting my links and recipes. Needless to say, I changed my mind. So, here are all the secrets behind my son's first birthday party, now you can host your own fool-proof Robot Birthday Party!

Invitations

I just made a stencil (check out my tutorial here) and stenciled on blank greeting cards I had from the craft store. I also used this stencil to make Jude a t-shirt.

Decorations

 I used the font "Fraulein" from dafont.com to make all the signs and labels. I printed out the words on card stock and cut them out and then glued them onto colorful scrap book paper. For the big signs, I then strung the letters together with ribbon. Easy and CUTE!

I cut gear shapes out of foam core and spray painted them sliver. These got hung up around the house and on the front door. 

For cupcake toppers, I used some really cute robot stamp on some card stock and glued them onto toothpicks. 

 Call straws "Wires" and utensils "Tools," put them in cleaned out tin cans to add to the theme!

The Robot Photo Shop

We set up a photo booth. Guest were encouraged to pull out their cameras and phones and take some silly shots! I sewed a small casing in a yard of fabric and slid a dowel through it, then I tied some ribbon around the dowel and hung it up as a backdrop. Then I put some fun props (a chalkboard, a frame, some Mardi Gras beads, a tangle of Christmas lights, a robot mask with chalkboard mouth, and some funky party hats) on a small table with a sign that said "Go ahead, grab a prop and take some pics!" 

Here are some of the results.

The Fueling Station

AKA - The food!

Atomic Chili - Regular Chili

Assorted Parts - Chili Fixin's (sour cream, cheese, hot sauce, cheese, onions, jalapenos, Fritos)

Back Up Cables - Carrots and Celery Sticks (and other veggies)

Machine Oil - Pumpkin Pie Dip (recipe link below)

Nuts and Bolts - Chex Mix

Fuse Boxes - Grapes

Battery Cells - Bacon Wrapped Dates (recipe link below)

Sprokets - Bell Pepper Strips

Computer Chips - Regular Tortilla Chips

Mechanical Munchies - Salsa and Bean Dip (recipe below)

Loose Screws - Greek Pasta Salad (recipe below)

Antifreeze - Blue Cream Soda

Frozen Robots - Robot Ice Cubes (tutorial/recipe below)

Memory Cells - Cupcakes (recipe links below)

Here are some other ideas for food:

Robot Fuel - Drinks

Motor Oil - Drinks

Cables or Wires - Licorice Whips

Shockwaves - Cupcakes

Robot Parts - Decorate Your Own Cupcakes or Make Your Own Sundaes

Robot Screws - Cheese Curls

Recipes

Pumpkin Pie Dip - Kitchen Simplicity (I added some powdered sugar and served with ginger snaps, but its super yummy with granny smith apples)

Bacon Wrapped Dates - YumSugar

Cupcakes

Gluten Free, Blueberry Cupcakes with Blueberry Cream Cheese Icing - Lemon Drop (These are so good. You would never be able to tell that they are gluten free!)

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing - Brown Eyed Baker

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Icing - My Baking Addiction

# 1 Sprinkle Smash Cake Topper - kojo designs

Coco Butter Cream Recipe

Adapted from my mom's 1980's Betty Crocker Cookbook - this is my Go To chocolate icing recipe

(used to top half of the Vanilla Bean Cupcakes)

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/5 teaspoon vanilla extract

About 2 tablespoons milk

Cream the butter and the cocoa until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and milk, beat until smooth. Add more milk until icing is spreading consistency.

Bean Dip Recipe

This recipe came from my dear Red Headed College Roommate

1 can re-fried beans, 32 oz. can (the big one)

1 tub sour cream , 12 oz. tub

1 packet ranch dressing mix (more or less depending on your taste)

Mix everything together in a large bowl. Chill for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla chips, Frito Scoops, or veggies.

Greek Pasta Salad Recipe

1 12 oz. box of curly bite-sized pasta (fuslli, girandole, cellentani, gemelli, etc...)

1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped (you want bigger pieces, so don't fine chop the pepper)

1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped (same note)

1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half

1 medium cucumber, cut into bite-sized chunks

3/4 cup of Kalamata olives, cut into quarters

1, 16 oz can of chick peas, draned and rinced

1 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles

About 1 cup (more or less according to your taste) oil and vinegar based Greek salad dressing (I used Newman's Own brand)

Cook the pasta to al dente according to the directions on the box. Mix everything together in a large bowl. Chill for at least an hour.

NOTES:

-Remember if you are making Loose Screws, you need curly pasta! Plus the curls provide a place for the dressing to rest and make the salad more flavorful

-This recipe would also be really good with salami chunks, pickled artichoke hearts, baby spinach leaves, red onion (My husband and I hate the taste of onion, so I almost never include it in my recipes), chunks of chicken

- I have made this recipe using just olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar as a dressing. Add some salt and pepper, garlic powder, and maybe some fresh oregano and you are good to go!

Robot Ice Cubes

Water

Food coloring

Fred & Friends Chillbots Robot Ice Cube Tray

Mix food coloring and water, pour into Chillbots tray and freeze until solid. Run upside-down under hot water before carefully popping Chillbots out of tray. Be very careful when popping these little guys out of the tray, I snapped off many a little claw hand.

Robot 1st Birthday Party (3rd installment)

I just couldn't resist putting up the Smash Cake progression. 

I used this recipe for a gluten-free blueberry cake with blueberry cream cheese icing. The cake turned out so yummy! Used the Chillbots ice cube trays to make little chocolate robots and keys to put around the sides. Used this tutorial from KoJo Designs for the #1 sprinkle cake topper.

Robot 1st Birthday Party (1st installment)

The great thing about first birthday parties is that you (the parent) get to do WHATEVER you want! There is no little person complaining about not getting the party that they want, its whatever you want. You can do a crazy robot theme with adult drinks and totally get away with it, because lets be real, this party is as much celebrating you getting through the first year as it is for your little sweetness.

Here is the results of my son's first birthday.

Handmade stencil.

Check out the tutorial here.

Handmade invitations. 

Made the stencils and printed the cards. They turned out so well!

Robot ice cubes!

Used the Fred & Friends Chillbots Ice Cube Tray.

It was a little difficult getting the robots to come out of the tray without breaking their legs and claw hands off, but after breaking a few batches I figured out that if I ran the tray upside-down under hot water for a few seconds the little robots popped out pretty easily.