cocktail sauce - whole 30 style!

So I am still going on strong with Whole 30 - but man, do I feel that sugar hangover. It's inevitable. I mean, I think I eat pretty healthy (compared to most) but I am nowhere near perfect so of course I am going to have that sugar crash.

I am also craving bread and cheese (and damn you Wegmans sample lady for lovingly pushing a whole wheat baguette covered ever so beautifully by a block of gouda). But I digress.

I am allowed seafood (wild-caught, sustainable seafood of course!) and I really wanted shrimp but who can eat plain shrimp? Not me, so I wanted cocktail sauce with it. But of course cocktail sauce (the typical kind you'd get at a restaurant or the store) is not really "whole 30 compliant"...

So I did some (a lot) of googling and lo and behold - I give you whole 30 cocktail sauce!

• tomato sauce (1 tablespoon)
• chopped celery (half a teaspoon)
• horseradish (half a tablespoon)
• sat & pepper (half a teaspoon)
• lemon juice (half a tablespoon)

Now, I could not, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, find the measurements for this so I just experimented to taste so I recommend you do the same.

I mixed all the ingredients and I was pretty happy with it. Reminded me of cocktail sauce but also had a nice tang to it.

I ate it, so obviously I recommend this.

I also tried to make Whole 30 approved mayo but that did not work out as well. Guess I'm sticking to avocado as a substitute!

6 days down... 24 to go!

egg muffins

I suppose now is a good time to announce this new food venture I have decided to take.

 Whole 30.

Now, if you do decide to click that little link... don't be fooled. This NOT a quick fix diet program. In fact, I despise the word diet. DESPISE IT.

I lost sixty pounds in 2011 and do you know how I did it? By NOT dieting.

Yes, I changed my eating habits and cut out most of the junk but I learned this handy thing called "moderation" and it changed my life!

But lately, I've just been feeling... not good. So after much consideration, lots of back and forth, and lots of research I decided to just go for it

Basically, Whole 30 is 30 days with no processed foods, no added sugars, no grains (bye bye bread!, and no dairy... among other things. I can eat eggs, meat, fruit, and veggies. I can eat almond butter and nuts and I just have to be careful and aware of how food is prepared. I don't want to write a book about this but certain oils are not allowed, I can't eat butter, and there are a bunch of other things that are off-limits.

Today is day 4. And yes, I miss my yogurt and my coffee creamer. And I want a large pizza from my favorite pizzeria and a cupcake from Wegmans. But I know this is going to make me feel like a million bucks. The point is to learn about food and nutrition. After 30 days, I will (slowly) introduce all those things back in my life but the goal is to not want to anymore. The goal is to choose the healthy and natural foods over the processed and junk foods.

Okay, I will jump off my soap box for now and get on to the real purpose behind this post.

EGG MUFFINS!

Since yesterday I ran a 5K, I knew I needed my usual pre-run fuel. Usually, it is a banana and toast with peanut butter. Well, since I am not allowed to eat peanut butter OR bread and I knew just a banana would not cut it, I decided to whip up some egg muffins.

You really just need a few things:

• eggs (well, duh)
• your favorite kind of breakfast meat (I chose sausage - organic, all natural, with pretty much no added processed crap)
• your favorite veggie (I picked broccoli)

I gather you probably want to use 1 egg per muffin. I made three muffins so I used three eggs.

 Before I go any further, can I just point out something? See these cracked shells? These are leftover from my breakfast Friday morning. I stupidly forgot to throw them out. I am definitely absent-minded when it comes to the kitchen.

Oh, and this muffin pan? Still had the PACKAGING on it. Who knows how long this baby has been chilling in my cabinet...

I mixed up my eggs, added my sausage and broccoli, and put them in my muffin pan and stuck them in my oven.

I let them bake for about 18-20 minutes. My oven is a little wonky so I kept checking them. When they seemed done, I let them sit for a bit and then into the fridge they went.

Before we left for the race on Saturday, I heated them up in the microwave, threw them in a baggie, and off we went.

They tasted yummy - like omelettes you can hold in your hands and they were great race fuel. I ran my quickest 5K since October. No, I did not get a personal best but I did well for myself and I was happy.

Egg muffins, you and some more varieties will be welcome in my mouth anytime.

happenings

So 20 days without a blog post is normal, right? Yeesh, I just have been so bad at this. BUT my reasonings are legit. I mean, how can you blog with a computer that only works 45% of the time? YOU CAN'T. You can try but trust me, you will just get frustrated.

But life has been happening and here are some photos to prove it.

First of all we can just get a collective "AW" about this little gentleman? He is the quite frankly the only baby that has given my uterus all the sparkles to want a baby.

Dan and I also participated in the Sandy Sprint 5K for ovarian cancer this weekend in honor of our friend Matt's late mother. I ran it of course and this year they had a color run option.

 

See? Color!

...

Today Dan and I did some spring cleaning. Which was must needed, I must say. I cannot believe how much dust accumulated on my ceiling fan and my GOSH, comet smells disgusting. As much as I hate cleaning, a clean and bright apartment makes me happy.

Friends, expect some posts on the reg.

Really, I promise.

Zombies!

I have a fear of zombies.


Or rather, a fear that one day the zombie apocalypse WILL happen. Why do you think I started running? (Just kidding. Sort of).

While Dan spent the entire weekend in North Jersey at Wrestlemania I faced my fears and ran from some zombies in Philadelphia.

This was not your normal 5K.

You literally run from zombies in the zombie apocalypse.

You get a belt, 3 balloons (your "organs"), and the whole point is to run as fast as you can so the zombies (well, humans dressed zombies) can't catch and pop your balloons. If all your organs (balloons) are taken, you're dead.

But you can still finish the course, which is pretty cool.

My friend Laura and I decided to take our chances and run the course as humans.

 
We did not survive. The zombies stole all our balloons.

But we still had fun! We ran and walked the course while dodging some zombies. I almost fell down a hill but that's not important.

And the best part? My other friend Marissa volunteered as a zombie.

She looked pretty awesome and her makeup was really realistic.


I think finding these themed 5Ks is one of my new favorite things to do... just to say I did it. I mean, how many people can say they did a zombie run? There is also an undie run. But I can't seem to find anyone to do that one with me...

happy april!

April means showers (you know, for those May flowers) and warmer weather right? Well I could do without the showers but please, please, PLEASE let's see some WARM weather!

Life has been busy. I officially began training for my half marathon so my life has been run, eat, sleep, repeat! We celebrated Dan's 29th birthday together (though I was sick so our idea of celebrating was take out & tv), along with other special peoples birthdays and got ready to celebrate new babies, had Easter with the in-laws, and basically just working, hanging out with Max, and making plans to visit friends who live in other states and trying to stay active.

Birthday celebrations for the lovely Miss Laura! :)

 

I really enjoy each one of these beautiful ladies!

 A beautiful baby shower for a wonderful cousin! Cannot wait to meet the little guy!

Happy first birthday to the sweetest babies around, Riley (in the picture) & Logan!

Bonding with my favorite golden...

Early morning walks on the beach...

And a day date trip to the boardwalk... much needed.

I'm looking forward to April ! And I promise... more posts each week! :)