Oh vacation food, how I love thee...





My favorite meal. Crab Cakes Benedict at Native Cafe!

So last week Chris and I took our first "offical" family vacation to Pensacola. We visited my family there and we were lucky enough to hang out at the resort where my aunt lives and basically drink and eat all day long. Sorry, people, but that's a great vacation to me. I was excited about a lots of things. One, I'd get to hang out with my fam who is hilariously fun. Two, I wanted to eat lots and lots of food...totally accomplished that. Three, I wanted to cook with my cousins and eat some fresh seafood from Patti's Fish Market in Pensacola. Somehow almost all of my goals revolved around food. Big surprise. Needless to say, we came back a tad bit heavier than we were when we had left but no worries, I knew how to get it off. I was going to eat my breakfast. If there's ever a time where I knew I'm to completely pig out and not worry about my diet, I get back on the "protien horse". I try not to think that I'm a big "dieter" because I've used Weight Watcher's for so long after having three babies, that I've really changed my mindset about food. Loving food, I want to eat anything that I want, try new things and not have to worry about if those baked oysters with paremsean and garlic are going to create more "fingerprints of God" on my thighs. So I like to think that I can have anything I want, just not all at once. So, back to breakfast.. This week I started eating more protien and less carbs/refined sugars throughout the day and sticking to a basic protien filled breakfast that keeps me full for most of the morning to mid afternoon. I also included more protien enriched snacks during the day so I'm not snacking on random crap in the afternoons. So I'm back to where I was when I left and I have to say all of those margaritas, bushwackers, fried shrimp, and eggs benedicts were WAY worth the trip in gold. Here's my recipe for one of my favorite morning scrambles!

2 eggs beaten

1 link of chicken sausage quartered and diced



Joe Patti's Fish Market....stinky and awesome



1/4 of a red or yellow bell pepper

a handful of fresh spinach chopped

1 green onion diced

6 plum tomatoes quartered

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Add olive oil to the pan as well as the diced sausage and veggies. Cook for 5 min until the bell peppers a cooked through. Add eggs and let set then stir to scramble them. Easy, yummy, and healthy!





Oh Costco...You Get Me Every Time

I can't remember a day that I haven't eaten spinach in some way or another. It's filled with tons of nutrients and you can basically put it in anything morning, noon or night. I always buy a huge box of organic baby spinach at Costco every week so I have it on hand but right next to that huge, cold, freezer part of Costco something amazing was happening and it involved my beloved vegetable. It was being put into a blender. Now, listen ya'll, normally I steer clear of ALL samples. They're a sure fire way to screw up your calorie intake for the day and you'll get sucked into their marketing vortex within seconds, BUT this was different...it was a Vitamix promo. You see, there's a special part of my heart for all kitchen appliances big and small. This tiny blender, packed with power, could turn my little spinach leaves into a fruit filled delicious smoothie and I was hooked. Damn that blender... Chris just bought me a professional grade mixer so there was no way that I could ask him to shell out over $400 for a blender at that moment BUT I could ask him to get me the $50 Magic Bullet set that was just on the row over. He thought about it over night, gave me one good, "you better use this friggin' thing" sigh, and picked it up the next day. My kids screamed "DADDY GOT YOU A MAGIC BLENDER!!!!!!" Yes, yes he did... I have used that thing everyday at least 4 times making smoothies with my fruit and spinach and it's been worthwhile. You may think you'd taste the spinach but you can't taste it at all and it allows you to get all your servings of fruits and veggies in. Here's my "green smoothie" recipe but you can switch out any fruits of your liking. My favorite thing to do is to buy a big baggie of organic frozen fruit (I like the strawberry, mango pineapple) at Costco and make single serving baggies to store in the freezer. I have all my goodness in one little baggie and just pop it in the Bullet :)

Green Smoothie

ice
orange juice (I do 1/2 water and 1/2 OJ to lower my calorie intake)
a handful of spinach
1/2 c. of frozen fruit
1/2 banana

Really hope you at least try this! It's a great way to get all of your veggies and fruits in and even my husband and boys love it...and that's saying a lot. Here's a great link about the nutrients of Spinach! VIVA LA SPINACH!!