Pizza Calzone

I made these pizza calzones tonight! They were delicious! I used some ideas from the Meals and Moves blog, and came up with a yummy creation. They were pretty easy to make, and didn't require rising or extensive kneading. 

Here is the recipe for the crust of the calzone:

2 3/4 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat)

1 tsp. salt

1 cup warm water (110 degrees about)

1 package dry yeast

1 T. olive oil

In mixture or food processor, mix 2 cups flour and salt together and mix together. Add yeast to warm water and let it sit for about 5 minutes until bubbly and frothy. Add olive oil to yeast mixture and mix. Pour yeast mixture slowly into flour and begin to mix. Add another 1/4-1 cup flour (1/4 cup at a time) until dough stops sticking to sides. Let it mix for about 5 minutes. Or take it out and knead it for a few minutes on a floured surface. Split into 7 balls and roll out each one to about 7 inches (on floured surface of course). Add topping inside and fold over. Crimp sides with a fork. Brush each calzone with egg white wash or olive oil to help make the top crisp. Place on cookie sheet. Cook on lowest rack in the oven for 15-17 minutes @ 400 degrees. 

For the filling I added: 

• Cooked seasoned chicken, cubed or shredded
• Pizza sauce
• Artichoke hearts and olives
• Caramelized onions, green peppers, and mushrooms
• Cheese (for mine I used half of a string cheese, for Bradon I used mozzarella and cheddar)
• Salt and pepper

DELICIOUS!!! I paired them up with steamed veggies! A side salad would have been good too.

You can also use this recipe to make 2 thin, 12 inch pizzas. 

Other filling ideas:

• Pesto, chicken, cooked spinach, caramelized onions, mozzarella, mushrooms

OR

• BBQ sauce, mozzarella, BBQ chicken, cooked red onions

FILL YOU UP breakfast

Hello! So I tried this breakfast oatmeal the other morning and I was very full after I ate it. Usually after I breakfast I never feel completely satisfied because I am always on the run, but this morning I was content! It kept me full for about 4 hrs too! Here is what was thrown together into a bowl.

(I apologize for my unprofessional pictures, I am not good at taking pictures of my food like other bloggers :). It might not look appetizing or neatly put together, but I promise the stuff I post I think is delicious!)

• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup oatmeal (quick or rolled)
• Cook oat bran and oatmeal together in about 1 cup water for about 2-21/2 min. Watch microwave because it can spill over fast if the bowl is not big enough!
• Add:
• 1/2 T. chia seeds
• 1 T. protein (I used vanilla brown rice protein)
• Stevia
• Cinnamon
• 1/2 of a banana, sliced
• 1/2-1 T. almond butter or peanut butter on top of the bananas
• Cover all of it with a splash of soy milk

I am loving this almond butter from Costco, it is so thick and creamy. Super cheap too!

This protein is a good alternative to whey protein if you don't eat dairy or you are vegan/vegetarian. It is a complete protein. 1 scoop has 60 calories and 12 g. of protein, get it here for a good deal.....$10.99 for a 1 lb. container! 

I'm on a chia seed kick, because it is full of fiber and good fatty acids! I like the little ball texture too. If you let it sit in water they about triple in size (just like in you tummy, and keeps you full)

Also, to save money, go to Sunflowers Market or other health food store and buy things like chia seed, oat bran, oatmeal, flour, etc... in bulk. So you can buy a little to try it out before buying a whole package!

Rules #8-#13

Continuing on with my Food Rules.....

Rule #8: Avoid foods that make health claims:

• The 1st reason you want to follow this rule is because usually the food is packaged which means it has been processed!
• The 2nd reason is that most of the time it is just bad science. For example, look how how the food manufacturers came out and claimed that margarine was better then butter. It turned out that margarine contained trans fat. In the end it wasn't better then butter. Do not trust food manufacturers.
• Fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, etc.. do not have to make health claims to get you to buy them. We already know they are good for you! The packaged foods have to get you to buy their product somehow, so they add appealing words on the box, making you thing they are healthy for you!

Rule # 9: Avoid "light", "low-fat", & "non-fat" food items:

• I admit, I am a sucker for these products. In reality, our society has gotten fat on these items since they have came to the market. They make you believe you can eat more of these products because they are "healthier". What food manufacturers do not tell you is that most of the time they add carbs in place of these fats to make them still taste good.  Or they may add a bunch of fillers to make them thick. 
• Since this "low-fat" campaign has come to the market, americans eat about 500 calories more each day!
• It is better to eat the real thing in moderation and feel satisfied with it, then binging on the light stuff!

Rule #10: Avoid food that are pretending to be something they are not

• This rule kind of goes with #9. For example; margarine trying to be butter, nonfat cream cheese trying to be the real thing. Soy-based mock "meats", artificial sweeteners trying to replace sugar, or fake fats like olestra. 

Rule #11: Avoid foods that you see on T.V.

• 2/3 of advertising spent of processed foods is faulty food science! They try to real you in with their colorful, yummy looking foods. 

Rule #12: Shop the peripheries of the grocery store

• Meats, cheese, produce, and dairy (excepts some yogurts or some fake meats of course) all are located on the outside of the grocery aisles. Shop there most of the time and you should be safe!

Rule #13: Eat only foods that will eventually rot

• Processed foods improve the shelf life, this equals less nutrition. The nutritious the food the easier it spoils! (excepts some foods like pure honey, it can last on the shelf for years)
• To be honest it is dang hard to do this, because it can get really expensive only eating real food. Sometimes it rots before you can eat it, and it is hard to take around with you during the day because you need your own mini fridge with you everywhere you go :) Just try to do your best. 
• I read in another book to aim for about 80-90% real food and 10-20% processed or sweets. If you can go 100% real food, kudos to you! You are amazing!

Ingredients Rules #3- #7

Today, I read about food ingredients in the Food Rules book that I posted about yesterday.

#3 Avoid food products containing ingredients that you would not keep in your pantry

• Would you ever cook with sodium benzoate, tetrazine, or other crazy ingredients?? Recipes do not call for those things so why eat them?!! Our bodies don't know what they are or how to process them.

#4 Avoid high fructose corn syrup

• It is not any worse then sugar (the media has been telling us it is) but the problem is that it is added to so many of our foods now days! If you cut this ingredient out of your diet you will cut your sugar intake by a long shot. It is added to foods that don't even need sugar. It is a cheap way for food manufacturers to add sweetness to things to get you addicted!
• Do not be fooled by ingredients like "real can sugar" or "brown rice syrup" or "organic sugar" it is all the same thing! Sugar is sugar!

#5 Avoid foods that have sugar listed in the top 3 ingredients:

• Unless of course it is your treat for the day or something :)
• There are over 40 different types of sugars out there (polydextrose, dextrin, cane juice, barley malt, etc..) Do not let these names fool you.
• If it is in the top three ingredients it is usually really high in sugar content. Look at fruit loops or other cereal, sugar is always in the top three! Watch for this.
• Also, artificial sweetners do not make things better. They do not lead to weight loss and can actually leave you wanting more sugar to satisfy the craving. It has even been discussed in research that it may lead you to consume more food later on in the day.
• Eat sugar and artificial sweetners in moderation!

#6 Avoid products that have more then 5 ingredients in the label.

• More ingredients=higher processing of the food
• Note that using a recipe made at home with more than 5 ingredients is not the same thing!

#7 Do not eat food that has ingredients in it that a 3rd grader can not pronounce.

• It sounds all fancy, but they are not good for the body.

45 minute indoor spinning workout

We have a spin bike at home, so yesterday I put together an interval & hill workout. I have to mix up what I'm doing when I do cardio else I get extremely bored! I also watched "Life As We Know It" my new favorite show! So here is what I did:

5 MINUTES WARM-UP
25 MINUTES INTERVALS: 1 minute spring in or out of the saddle, followed by 1 minute recovery. Do this 12 times.
5 MINUTES MODERATE PACE
10 MINUTES HILL CLIMB: Every 2 minutes increase your resistance and do the last 4 minutes out of the saddle. The last two-four minutes should be very difficult.
5 MINUTES COOL DOWN


I followed this with stretching and abs. Great workout! Try it out!

Food Rules #1 & #2

So to start off the day with some advice from my "Food Rules" post I will talk about the first two rules.
RULE #1, EAT FOOD:

• Real food! Not the highly processed stuff. This is harder than you think because there are over 17,000 new food items on the market every year! We can call them "edible foodlike substances". 
• Our bodies do not know how to process all the additives and chemicals, and we do not have enough research to see what effects they have. 

RULE #2, DON'T EAT ANYTHING YOUR GREAT-GRANDMA WOULDN'T RECOGNIZE AS FOOD:

• Could you imagine grocery shopping with your great-grandma and having them buy Go-gurts! haha. That would be a funny site, is it toothpaste? What is it? This is just one example of a processed food that is packaged in a colorful, attractive box. Not only are the additives added to foods harmful, but some of the plastic packaging are harmful as well. Our ancestors did not eat these foods, neither should we.

Food Rules

So I picked up this book the other day that is called Food Rules written by Michael Pollan. He also wrote Omnivore's Delimma & In Defense of Food. 

Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants

The book is composed of 64 rules that are under one of the categories above. These seven words sound easy to follow but being constantly surrounded with fake, processed, cheap food, it can get a little complicated. Nutrition science makes it hard for us to eat real food. They are telling us to follow this diet, or that diet. To eat high protein or low fat. The trends are constantly changing and we just keep getting fatter and more unhealthy! The more the food is processed the more money manufacturers make! They also can change the ingredients based on the new trends. For example, omega 3's are seen everywhere right now. So the manufacturers just throw in some of this fat and label their food item with it to get people to buy their product. They even add things to food that should not be in there. Oreos with added Omega-3's? Come on really? This gets people to continue to buy it!

Almost all obesity, type 2 diabetes, 80% of heart disease, and over 1/3 of cancers are linked to the western diet!! The western diet is not suitable for our body and it doesn't know what to do with these chemicals! You would think that we would try to target our diet to decrease these chronic diseases. But we don't because money is the driving force behind it all. The health care industry makes millions of dollars more to treat these diseases then to prevent them. Also, the more the food is processed and packaged up, the more the food industry makes. 

"We ignore the elephant in the room and focus on the good and evil nutrients of the food item" Not being apart of this Western diet can decrease your chances of getting heart disease by 80%, type 2 diabetes by 90%, and colon cancer by 70%. That is amazing. To decrease these risks Michael says you need to:

-Decrease trans fat & saturated fat intake

-Increase your good fat intake

-Increase your whole grains intake

-2 servings of fish per week

-Getting enough folic acid and vitamins

-Not smoking and limited alcohol

-BMI < 25

-30 min of exercise per day

Everyday I will be posting a few rules out of the book to help us EAT FOOD. NOT TOO MUCH. MOSTLY PLANTS. I'm so excited to share these with you!

The secret ingredient to the creamiest, yummiest smoothies

The ingredient is...................XANTHAN GUM

  

You only use a pinch to a 1/2 tsp. in any smoothie/ice cream recipe and walaa! It is thick and creamy! I actually ate it with a spoon out of a bowl! Oh....and by the way it is a 100% pure ingredient! This bottle was about $5.00 at Good Earth. It will last forever!

Chocolate Strawberry Protein Smoothie

-1/2 cup soy milk

-1/2 cup water

-1/4 cup old fashioned oats

-6 large frozen strawberries

-Scoop of chocolate protein

-4 ice cubes

-1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

-1/2 tsp. chia seeds

BEAT THE BELLY BLOAT

So...I came across this article when I was bored at work the other day.....I have a problem with bloating and I absolutely hate it. I feel like no matter what I eat it makes my tummy bloat! I eat a lot of veggies so this probably does not help, but I learned about other culprits that may be contributing to this problem. I know we all suffer from this at times, so here are a few things to experiment with and try to avoid to help you learn what makes you bloat!

• LACTOSE: found in dairy. For most people, this ingredient is very hard to digest! If milk bothers you (like ice cream, cheese, cottage cheese, etc) Try to stick with yogurt and hard cheese, or take a lactase enzyme pill to help with digestion
• FRUCTOSE: This sugar is mostly found in fruits and veggies. It is a lot higher in fruits. If fructose upsets you, try to stay away from honey, dried fruits, honeydew, apples, and pears. These are fruits that are higher in fructose. Stick with berries, citrus, and grapes.
• FRUCTANS: Found in mainly in wheat, rye, and barely. Stick with rice, corn, potatoes, or oats
• SUGAR ALCOHOLS: sorbital, xylitol, and mannitol are all found in sugar-free guml and sugar free food items. The gut has a hard time dealing with these fake sugars! Gum does it to me for sure!
• GALACTANS: Found in beans, soynuts, chickpeas, lentils, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. Try soaking beans overnight to help reduce galactans. You can take the OTC enzyme BEANO to help digest these foods when you eat them!

I hope this article helps you find what bothers you! I know I will be experimenting with them! If you have any more questions go to the article link above! Other culprits can also be sodium, caffeine, etc....

Sunday Morning German Pancakes

Every Sunday I make these "healthified" german pancakes for Bradon and I. They don't rise as high as usual because I use whole wheat flour. They are yummy!

GERMAN PANCAKES

3 eggs (can use 9 egg whites)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (if you want them to rise high use 1/4c. whole wheat & 1/4 cup white)

Dash of salt

1 T. butter (I use smart balance)-I've tried to just used Pam but they stuck pretty bad to the pan.

Start out my preheating oven to 400. Put butter in 8X8 dish and place in oven to melt while preheating. Mix eggs and milk together (the longer you mix the higher they rise) then add flour and salt. Once butter is melted pour in batter. Cook for about 15 minutes or until edges are brown. Add syrup and pb on top!!

You can also double the recipe and make a 9X13 pan of it, and save the leftovers for another day! An 8x8 pan has about 485 calories and about 25 grams of protein. 

Bradon can usually eat a whole 8X8 pan himself so double up if sharing with others!

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats

 As we all know, whole grains are vital to a healthy lifestyle. Steel-cut oats offer a nuttier alternative to the rolled oats most people know. Steel-cut oats are essential grains which are full of nutritional value, rich in B-vitamins, calcium, protein and fiber while low in sodium and unsaturated fat. In fact, just one cup of steel-cut oats contains 8g of fiber. Steel-cut oats are whole grain groats, the inner portion of the oat kernel, which have been cut into two or three pieces rather than flattened. Because of this it takes longer to digest, making us feel fuller for a longer period of time. Rolled oats are flake oats that have been steamed, rolled, re-steamed and toasted. Due to all of this additional processing they lose some of their fiber, nutritional value, natural taste, and texture.Got this info here. GREAT FIBER SOURCE THAT KEEPS YOU FULL LONGER, what is not to love about this food?

Steel cut oats take about 30 minutes to cook, and by the time I wake up I am starving and will not wait that long to eat! So decided try them in the slow cooker overnight! Then they were ready when I woke up!

SLOW COOKER STEEL CUT OATS

2 cups steel cut oats

8 cups water

Cook on low for 7-8 hrs. Can add apples, and raisins!

This recipe is for a 5-7 quart slow cooker. I have a very small slow cooker too, so I just halved the recipe! 

TOP IT OFF WITH:

Brown sugar, stevia, raisins, slivered almonds, chia seeds, and some soy milk! It was delicious.

Before Dinner Snack.....

I don't know about you guys, but around 2-3 pm I get the munchies and really am looking forward to dinner. I need something that can get me by so I don't eat everything in the cabinet before dinner! This is a great snack. Good source of protein, carbs, fats, and veggies!

I started out with one of these crackers that I got from Good Earth. I then layered on some turkey from Costco. (It is the yummiest turkey ever! It is in the packaged deli meat section, and it a low sodium, mediterranean style turkey breast!) Then I spread on some hummus and topped with tomatoes and oregano! It was delicious! I love carrots and snap peas! They are so sweet and I love the crunch!

Another yummy idea would be to get a cracker, spread some guacamole or avocado with some cottage cheese and tomatoes!

Apple Dipping!

So I found this idea from a couple of different blogs and made up my own version of it....

It is protein paste and it is awesome for dipping fruits, putting it on waffles, etc...

I tried it yesterday with an apple and it tasted like caramel apples! So yummy!

Put a scoop of protein in a little bowl (I did Elite peanut butter whey protein others used Vanilla) with a splash of water and mix until it forms a paste. You may need to add a little more water. 

I dipped apples in it! It was delicious and I ended up licking the bowl clean after the apple were gone. It is awesome because you get about 25 grams of protein with your apple. Great snack!!

Weight lifting with Heart Rate Bursts Workout

I did this workout this morning and it kicked my butt so I wanted to share it with you.

I started out doing a version of the Home Cardio Workout but switched it up a little.

#1 Heart Rate Burst Interval
50 jumping jacks
20 alternative lunges
10 jumping lunges on each leg
20 squats
60 seconds high knees
10 squat jumps
10 burpees
60 seconds running ladders
20 second mountain climbers
25 pushups ( I definitely did these girl style because I was worn out at this point)
15 V-sit ups

Rest 1 minute

Legs & Chest Interval
10 Bulgarian Squats on each leg (20 lb. dumbbells in each hand)
12 Straight Leg Dead Lifts (65 lb. barbell)
12 Incline Bench Press (45 lb. bar)
**Do this 3 times. Rest 1 minute between each interval

Back & Shoulder Interval
12 Assisted Pull-ups Wide Grip
12 Dumbbell Military Press (15 lbs)
12 Dumbbell Lateral Raises (12.5 lbs)
20 jellybellies (I don't know if this is the term for these, this is what we called them when I danced)
**Do this 3 times, with rest between each interval)

#2 Heart Rate Interval (repeat above)


Legs & Biceps Interval
20 Fire hydrants on each leg
12 Hamstring Curls Machine (75 lbs)
10 1-arm Cable Bicep Curls-facing outward (15 lbs)
12 Cable Bicep Curls with straight bar (45 lbs)
**Do this 3 times, with rest between each interval

I wanted to do the Heart Rate Interval one more time but I was exhausted! I will do it next time though!

Finished with stretching!!! Took about 1 hour!

Home Cardio Workout

Need a quick workout to do at home? I got this workout from another blog and I love how it is quick, but effective! I was exhausted after completing the set. It took me about 8 minutes.

50 jumping jacks
20 alternating lunges
10 tuck jumps (I did jumping lunges 10/leg because tuck jumps hurt my knees)
20 squats
60 seconds high knees
10 squat jumps
10 burpees
60 seconds jump rope
20 seconds mountain climbers
25 pushups
60 seconds plank hold

I rested a few minutes then did it again. I think that 3 times will be awesome! I just didn't have time.