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Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Sheet Pan Shrimp with Sausage, Broccoli and Cauliflower

I made this dish last night and it was fantastic! I think it would also be tasty with some red pepper flakes to give it a little kick. Love sheet pan dinners - easy and even easier clean up! Please give me feedback if you make this dish and let me know if my recipe is missing anything. Thank you, enjoy!


Sheet Pan Shrimp with Sausage, Broccoli and Cauliflower 


1 pound large shrimp. Peeled, deveined 
2 andouille sausage sliced diagonally into 1/4" slices
1.5 cups Broccoli flowerets
1.5 cups Cauliflower flowerets 
5 cloves crushed Garlic
2 T dried Basil
2 T dried Oregano
Olive oil  3-4 T (plus 1-2 T for tossing)
1 t Salt 
1 T Pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan
1/2 Lemon 
2 T Chopped Italian Parsley

Preheat oven to bake 400F

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, garlic, basil, oregano, salt & pepper.

Microwave the cauliflower in a covered bowl with 1/4 cup of water for 5 minutes to soften. Drain.

Cover a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the broccoli, cauliflower and sausage into a large bowl and toss with 1-2 T of olive oil (to moisten them up a bit). Then toss with half of the oil and spice mixture. Spread onto the sheet pan and bake for 8 mins.

While that is baking, place the shrimp into the large bowl and toss with the other half of the oil and spice mixture, and set aside.

Remove the sheet pan from the oven and stir the vegetables and sausage around and spread them out. Top with the shrimp. Sprinkle the cheese over everything and place back into the oven for 5- 6 minutes. 


Remove from the oven, squirt the lemon over everything and sprinkle on the parsley and serve. Enjoy!


Thursday, March 7, 2019

I tried a Beachbody 3 Day Refresh 


Beachbody sells a 3 Day Refresh/cleanse and I gave it a try. I’ve been wanting to try it out to see how I felt afterward. Would I drop a pound or two? Lose some inches? Gain some knowledge about how my body does without meat or dairy? How would my body react to just veggies and fruit and protein shakes? So, here it is….




I went grocery shopping to stock up on veggies and fruits, and some hummus. I did all of my prep the day before I started and that was amazingly helpful. Sliced all the veggies and bagged them up by serving portions. Made it very easy to reach into the fridge and grab a baggie of whatever I needed and helped me to stay on track and not give up, or choose something not on the plan.




Day 1

10 oz Water upon waking up. 

Breakfast was a chocolate Shakeology and 12 strawberries. That was a lot of strawberries for me! I don’t usually eat that many at one time. Surprisingly didn’t miss my coffee. Hmmm.



An hour later I drank a cup of Hibiscus Berry tea which was yummy. I didn’t have any coffee today. Wow!



An hour after that (around noon), I drank the Fiber Sweep. It wasn’t  as bad as I had imagined. I just gulped it down without stopping, so I didn’t really taste it. If that makes sense. I felt quite full of liquids at this point, as I had also been drinking my water throughout the morning. 



Lunch was around 2:30 and was the Vanilla Fresh protein shake, and 1 red bell pepper sliced up to dip into the 2 T of hummus, and 2/3 c of blueberries. This felt like a ton of food! Feeling very full and not at all hungry as I head into the afternoon.



Afternoon snack was 2 medium stalks of celery and 1.5 t of almond butter - it’s been 2 hours since I finished my lunch, and I’m not really hungry yet, but I don’t want my dinner pushed out too late. 



I drank a cup of Tazo Passion tea an hour after my snack - and within 20 minutes I started to get quite hungry for dinner, which surprised me! I hadn’t felt hungry all day, but just kept eating on schedule. 



Dinner was the veggie stir fry which I spiced up with some red Chili flakes and Chinese 5 Spice. Was yummy - but 1.5 cups is not much. Drank the Vanilla Fresh protein shake too.



I’ll finish off the day with another cup of tea - this time peppermint.




Day 2

10 oz Water upon waking up.

Breakfast was a chocolate Shakeology and half an apple. Trying to figure out if I’m missing my coffee or not. I skipped it yesterday and was fine, but this morning I do have a slight headache. I’ll see if it’s better after breakfast.



Headache did go away after eating. Yay!

Tea this morning was Hibiscus Berry. Was great to drink something warm!



An hour after my tea, I drank the Fiber Sweep.



Did 21DF day 1 - Total Body Cardio Fix. Felt great to exercise and do a trusted and true routine!



Lunch is Vanilla Fresh shake with half of my strawberries added, and cucumber with 2T hummus, and the other half of my strawberries. 



Afternoon snack was 2 medium stalks of celery and 1.5 t of almond butter.



I drank a cup of Tazo Passion tea an hour after my snack, while working on my puzzle. I again felt quite full all day and it felt like every time I turned around it was time to eat or drink something again.



Dinner was the veggie stir fry which I added some lemon zest and lemon juice to for a kick of flavor. I probably ate closer to 2 cups rather than the 1.5 allotment. I had 1 cup of vegetable broth as well.  After I finished eating, I slowly drank the Vanilla Fresh protein shake, almost like it was dessert.



A nice cup of Peppermint tea finished off my evening before bed.




Day 3

10 oz Water upon waking up. 

Breakfast was a chocolate Shakeology and half an apple. 



Tea this morning was Peppermint.  Was great to drink something warm - I’m very cold today, not sure if that’s my body working on detoxing or what? It is a gloomy rainy day, but it’s 58F outside, so not a particularly cold day. 



An hour after my tea, I drank the Fiber Sweep. Didn’t mix as well today for some reason….ugh! Was a bit chunky, which was gross. But that’s my last time having to drink it, so yeah. 



Added my blueberries to my Vanilla Fresh for lunch and it’s a lovely shade of purple! My favorite color! Serving it with 1 red bell pepper and 2T of hummus.



Cup of Hibiscus Berry tea this afternoon. Oops! Was supposed to have tea after my afternoon snack. Oh well!



Took a 40 minute nap around 5pm - I was just so sleepy today!

Ate my snack @6pm - carrots with hummus.



Dinner was a cabbage salad with zucchini & cucumber and sunflower seeds, and Vanilla Fresh shake, and vegetable broth. So full and quite bloated and gassy tonight.



Enjoying a cup of peppermint tea before bed.



I’ll be curious to see my measurements and what I weigh in the morning! Not sure I’d do this again unless I have crazy results. I don’t think it cleared me out as much as I thought it might. 

Results and thoughts:

Well, I did not have crazy awesome results, and it might be TMI, but I still haven’t had my typical morning poop since beginning this on Sunday. Ugh! I thought the Fiber Sweep and all of the fruits and veggies would cause me to need to more often if anything. And it was the exact opposite for me. Was interesting to see my mindset as I started my day and thought about my food choices. I had a busy morning, and was out the door by 10am for my hair appointment and then spending the day down in San Jose so I could join girlfriends for dinner in the evening. So I enjoyed a great early morning workout, then drank my Recover drink and had one cup of coffee with my collagen, coconut oil and a splash of heavy cream. For breakfast I ate my Beachbody chocolate cranberry almond bar, which was delicious! I grabbed a grilled chicken cobb salad from Jack in the Box and headed to hang out with my Mom for the afternoon. Granted, I knew she would enjoy some fries and onion rings, so I brought them too! Funny thing, I really wasn’t craving them and only ate 2 onion rings and maybe 4-5 fries. Hmmm. And I was totally craving a good leafy green salad, even though all I had eaten were veggies and fruit for three days. Dinner out with my girlfriends was amazing and I had a lovely piece of seabass with a lemon buerre blanc sauce and only ate 1/3 of my mashed potatoes. So, overall, it was interesting that my body was craving vegetables and really not interested in the carbs. I did enjoy a lovely glass of cabernet!



I don’t think I’ll be doing this cleanse again, it just didn’t work for me. Here are my stats (before/after).

Weight    147.8       146.3

L Thigh 22        22
R Thigh 22        22

Hips 40         40
Waist         36.5      36
Bust         39.5      39

L Bicep (not flexed) 12.5      12.5
R Bicep (not flexed)  12.5      12.5











Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Garlic Chicken with Brie



Thought I'd start to post some of my recipes I want to include in my cookbook. Might as well share them with the world now, right? If you make any of my recipes, please critique my steps and let me know how the dish turns out. And let's all take moments to sit down to a meal together, to set aside our cell phones, to truly savor the flavors and enjoy conversation with one another!


Garlic Chicken with Brie

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 slices of brie cheese
1 avocado sliced
1 T garlic powder
1 T lemon pepper
1 t salt
1 T pepper
3 T butter
2 T olive oil

Heat a frying pan over medium high heat on the stove.

Sprinkle the chicken breasts on both sides with the Garlic powder, Lemon Pepper, Salt and Pepper.

Add 2 T olive oil to the pan and add the chicken breasts in to brown for 4 minutes per side. 

Turn heat to simmer and add 3 T butter to the pan and stir in. Cover the pan and let cook for 3 minutes. 

Top each piece of chicken with a slice of brie and cover the pan and let the cheese melt - should take about 2 minutes.

Plate the chicken and top with slices of avocado and spoon the pan sauce over the top.


Enjoy!