A Tribute To The Butttttah.....

Coconut Butter, that is.

Everyone should know by now that Artisana's Coconut Butter is just one of the awesome things up for grabs in my 100th post giveaway. Before discovering coconut butter I didn't even like coconut! I loved the smell and could handle the flavor but the actual coconut itself made me want to gag, blahhh! If I took a bite of something that contained coconut it straight from my mouth into the garbage (or my hand if no trash was near). Now, I am in the love with the stuff! Especially coconut butter. I honestly wish I could give everyone a jar just to try it out.

For me, I have enjoyed this sacred buttaahh best in my oats. Check out the combos...
Above is my Dark Chocolate Cocoa Oats topped with a melty icing of coconut butter. Is it breakfast or dessert you ask? Mmmmm, I say both!!
Above is my Carrot Cake Oats. It has shredded carrots cooked in as well as some on top and then slathered in the buttah. Add raisins, nuts, or whatever pleases your palate.
The above ended up being my dinner last night. It is Key Lime Oats again topped with the buttah. The bowl of oats was inspired by my brave friend Heather. It just simply contains fresh squeezed lime juice before the cooking process and then some after.
Coconut butter also marries well with any other butter that you can imagine. The above pic contains the buttah along with some almond butter. You should be salivating by now!
I have also enjoyed it in everyones favorite bowl!!

Does it end there? Nope. I have also enjoyed it in my Lactose Free Cottage Cheese....
It hardens when it hits something cold. It was like eating little coconut chips. *making slurping sound*

You can also use it in place of any other nut butter. Above is a coconut butter and TJs low sugar strawberry jelly sandwich. To sum it up in one word...AMAZING!!!

I am sure if you use your imagination you can find endless ways to use this sacred buttah. If you just cant wait any longer and need some buttah in your life now check out the Artisana website for links to sites where you can place an order. My advice is to search around because prices vary.

Don't forget the contest ends Friday at midnight. I have family coming into town for the holiday weekend so I might not be able to announce the winner until Sunday so just keep checking back. Thanks everyone who has entered so far. I am loving reading all of your confessions and favorite breakfasts!!

If I don't make it back tomorrow, have a wonderful, safe and responsible 4th of July weekend!!!

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: Have you ever had someone want to be exactly like you? Well I have!! The little one. God bless her. She wants to, eat like me, dress like me, talk like me, walk like me, and follow on my heals 24/7. She wont even go to bed unless we are wearing extremely similar pajamas! I love it and its so sweet at times but at other times I am just like, gesh!! Lay off a little!! Sometimes mama needs some space!

A Rhyming Recipe

I have been busy getting my home ready for my besties baby shower and also putting together a lot of last minute plans (this ain't your typical baby bash). In the mean time I have had some yummy concoctions and taken a few pics along way but there is not really any order to them. I had this lovely yummy mess as a snack a few days ago....

1. Lactose free cottage cheese
2. blueberries
3. raspberries
4. peanut butter
5. cinnamon
6. YUM!!!

Everyone also seems to ask "where were you when so and so died? , or when blah blah happened" so I decided to take a pic. Here's me the afternoon that MJ and Farrah passed away...

(It didn't feel right to smile)

Yes, sitting at the computer. Where else would I be? I had to know the latest.

Although the day had been sad, shocking but sad, I cheered us up with a new, easy, yummy dinner....

Black Bean Fajita Meatball Pitas
Serves 6

• 2 cups canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1lb extra lean ground beef
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 egg white (I used egg substitute)
• 2 tsp lime juice, divided
• olive oil cooking spray
• 2 medium green bell peppers, sliced
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 6 ww pitas
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and coarsely chopped
• 1 tomato diced

1. Preheat oven to 425. Mash beans until smooth but chunky. In a large bowl, mix mashed beans, spices, garlic, egg white, lime juice with clean hands until blended well. Roll mixture into 24 meatballs, about 1 1/2 in. diameter. Place on a foil lined cookie sheet listed with cooking spray. Bake in oven for 15 min. Before cooking...

2. While the meatballs are cooking, spray a medium saucepan with cooking spray and set over medium high heat until hot. Add peppers and onion and saute for 5 to 10 min., until crisp, tossing frequently.

If you wanna make the Yogurt Lime Cilantro Dipping Sauce you need...

• 1 cup plain low fat yogurt
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1. In a small bowl combine all ingredients and set aside.

To assemble pitas, place 2 meatballs in a pocket, top with 1/4 cup peppers/onions, 1 1/4 tbsp yogurt sauce, 1 tbsp avocado and 1 tbsp tomato

Nutrition Stats the above assembled pita: 340 calories, 10 grams of fat, 40 carbs, 11 grams fiber, 27 grams protein.

Here's the mans before adding the toppings...
Mine....
All mashed up over my bed of spinach and salsa...
Yum!! Super great dinner and very versatile. The little one loves plain avocado...
(I'm proud)

Yesterday morning the man left for outta town extremely early so there was no gym for this lady :(. Breakfast filled the empty gap...
Cocoa oat bran with bananas and Macadamia Nut Butter.

Lunch was left overs...
and lots of veg with some ketchup (I was having some strange cravings). Lunch dessert was an absurd amount of organic chocolate chips with about 4 different nut butters gracing my spoon. Opps!!

Skip to this morning. I woke up to everyones favorite bowl...
Peanut butter on the bottom and coconut butter on the top. The goodness never ends in this bowl!!! I also had a glass of lemon lime carbonated water with some berries...
Now its off for some last minute shopping and food prep for tomorrow. I also think there may be a slumber party in my future (my parents are also outta town, so its just me and my girls).

Hope all you lovely people are having a great weekend!! Don't forget my next post will be the 100th!! I will reveal the prizes up for grabs and also the rules for entry.

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: Its almost impossible for me to get a good nights rest without the man lying next to me. Its even hard for me to go to bed. I always hit the hay early with him here but without him I never want to lye down.

Coconut Butter And Last Minute Lists

Rewind to Sunday. I made a huge salad for lunch and then headed out on the lake. My niece and I....
Excuse my look, I hadn't showered and I don't think she had either.

When I got home I was worn out so I decided I would make pancakes for the little one and the man for dinner. I used this wonderful Artisana Raw Coconut Oil in the batter...
I swear it made the batter so creamy and the pancakes extra fluffy...
The little one had 7!!! They loved them and they said they couldn't really taste the coconut which is good because I don't like coconut oil to be to overpowering in a recipe.

Monday morning I did my typical and went to the gym. I was starving when I got home so I just quickly grabbed a plate of Boarshead and made a bowl of cocoa oats...
Not sure what my snack was but for lunch I tried to clean out the fridge cause the little one and I are headed out of town with my parents tomorrow and the man will not eat the produce. Here's my fridge cleaning salad...
Here's what I used up

• all the leftover spaghetti meat from last tues. (may have been old but it tasted good) hehe
• all the leftover sugar snap peas
• rest of a can or black beans
• all the tomatoes
• all the spinach
• all the sweet baby greens
• last piece of grilled corn

YUM!! This salad was so good it didn't need dressing. I think I did pretty good on my mission to start cleaning out the fridge :).

Thank goodness I didn't forget karate today. The little one had a blast. Action shot...
For dinner I made Mini Turkey Meatloaves. This time I left out the tomatoes and I left the egg whites out of mine. They still turned out great. Here's my plate...
The little one felt left out..
For an after dinner snack I was again excited to try a new Artisana product. This time I used the Raw Coconut Butter...
I scooped some from the jar onto my cottage cheese. I forgot it gets hard in temps below 80 degrees. It immediately hardened..
I stirred it up and it was like eating super yum coconut chips. I really loved this stuff and crunch it gave my LFCC.

This morning I did my usual 5am class at the Y. I really wasn't feeling it this morning and I didn't push myself as hard as I normally do. I was farkin starvin the whole time I was there. All could think about the whole time was eating some more of that Artisana Coconut Butter melted on top of a big bowl of oats!!!

And that I did! Along with some Artisana Almond Butter and some bananas...
OMG!!!! I was like eating frosting. The melted Coconut Butter was amazing and I am officially obsessed. Did I mention that I don't even really like coconut? Well, I am in love with this stuff. I am going to order a jar ASAP. I could go on and on about how good this stuff is. No joke!!

The Almond Butter on the other hand.....I am not to sure about. It had a sweet taste to it that I have never tasted before in an almond butter. It was fine mixed in the oats but I went back for a better taste straight from the jar and it still had a funny sweet taste that couldn't put my finger on. It also had a weird bitter after taste. Maybe I got a bad jar? Who knows? Ill finish the jar but I will stick to my Trader Joes or Heathers homemade almond butter.

Oh yeah I also had some cottage cheese..
Well I have a busy day ahead of me. Lots of packing and preparing for tomorrow trip!!!

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: I think having children really makes you a different person. I used to be so messy and unorganized. Now that I have had my little one I am totally turning into a list person. I cannot go to the grocery store without a list!! Also, when getting ready for trips and things I like to make lists to make sure I dont forget anything. Heres the list I made yesterday...
Please excuse my spelling. hehe So far only 1 thing down and it all has to be done by tonight!

P.S. I am hoping to still post on my trip. :)

New Recipe, New Product

Ok lets see where my pics start????....
OK that's yesterdays breakfast. There was no gym yesterday so I just slept in a little and got up and made this scrumptious green bowl of oat bran. I used 1/2 cup oat bran, small chunk of banana, chia seeds, and water. Then I nuked that sucker, added more water, spinach, and cinnamon. Then I blended the hell out of it, added more banana and an unmeasured spoonful of Heathers homemade almond butter. NOM NOM!!

Snack was a fab smoothie...

• few leftover blueberries and blackberries
• strawberries, frozen
• mango, fresh
• 1 cup UVAM
• stevia
• cinnamon
• fresh ginger

I also had a bowl of LFCC with a few slices of Boarshead turkey with pepper...
Lunch was amazing....
Another one of my leftover Black Bean Turkey Burgers slathered in rrp hummus, steamed green beans, and what I now declare my favorite fry of all time, kobocha squash fries. Here's a close up of those babies...
They were a biaach to cut but totally worth it!! :) They had almost the same taste and texture of real homemade thick cut fries. I could eat this version of burger and fries for every meal, no joke!!

Later I had a snack plate and a few nibbles of un pictured fruit....
That's rrp hummus and crunchy almond butter for dipping.

Later in the evening after doing some shopping with my mom. I came home to find a package on my doorstep. I quickly ripped into that sucker open to find this...
I had spoken to them a while ago but totally wasn't expecting this!! THANK YOU SO MUCH ARTISANA!! I was outta my mind excited and proceed to unscrew some tops and lick the lids. YUM!!! I had to contain myself though so I put on my walkin shoes and headed outside for a stroll.

I walked about 2.2 miles and then came in to fix dinner. For dinner I had some turkey breast fillets that needed to be used so I combined some old recipes to come up with Baked Turkey Tenders. This is what I used for the crust...

• 2 slices of ww bread toasted and crumbled
• 1/4 cup dry oatmeal
• some crumbled sliced almonds
• salt

I threw it all in a bowl and then cut my turkey into strips. I then sprayed the turkey pieces with Pam and rubbed each piece down with some split fresh garlic before dipping it in my breading. Then I baked @ 375 for about 15 to 17 min. Here's the mans plate...
He dips everything in ranch.

My plate...
That's a few pieces of roasted garlic on my plate.

Right now I am waiting for my awesome breakfast to digest before I hit gym. I was super excited to try a new Artisana nut butter with my breakfast. I made a typical bowl of oats with some added chia seeds and then drizzled with a heaping spoonful of Raw Organic Cashew Butter...
Check out the info here. Man that stuff was delish. When I opened the jar my first thought was that it looked like silk!! So soft, creamy and smooth. The taste was even better than it looked, if that's possible!! Yum!! I cant wait to eat more.

I see baking in my future.....

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: I can't stand long toenails! It really freaks me out. I keep mine cut super short. The mans get so long they have been known to slice me open and draw blood while in the bed! GAG!!! (insert puking sounds here)

Kiddie Crack

For lunch yesterday I had a kobocha squash bowl filled with left over spaghetti sauce/meat.....
SUPER GOOD!! I also had a little snack plate on the side with veggies and hummus...
After I ate my lunch I asked the little one if shed like to try something new...



Since I cant participate in the "crack wrap" fun (no dairy :(), I thought Id see if the little one would go for it. Is it bad I asked my 4 year old if she wanted "crack"?
She hates being left out of pics...The verdict...


Although she acted like she liked it she didn't finish it which tells me something different. I think it was my fault though because 2 triangles of Laughing Cow Swiss may have been a little much. Oops. Sarah, you now have preschoolers on your "crack".

Later I was really craving something sweet, so I quickly smashed that with a bowl of oat bran...
+bananas, chocolate chips and peanut butter. It did the trick!! Happy belly :)

When the man got home I went on a little 3 mile walk/jog. I made dinner as soon as I got home. I made my Black Bean Turkey Burgers, except this time I used really lean ground chicken breast in place of the turkey. *If you make these make sure you use this method in step 3 for cooking or otherwise they may fall apart*. I completely forgot pics because the man had a friend over.

I hit my weight class this morning, did some extra weights+cardio after and then came home for some brekkie. The decision was hard . I ended up with a bowl of oat bran and a side of slutty cottage cheese with berries...
Anyone who reads my blog knows what a slut cottage cheese is. She often just jumps in bed with anyone/thing and she absolutely does not discriminate! If you look back at some of her "journeys" you'll see she likes all things meaty (here, here, and here), especially sausage. She's been known to jump in on some tossed salads (sorry no available pics of that). She also likes cherries/berries (see above). Sometimes she likes to get down and dirty with some chocolate or peanut butter (here, here, here, and here). She also has been know to be submissive and let someone else dive into her (here). I am really shocked my husband doesn't like cottage cheese! Wow, this healthy food, fitness and family blog suddenly took a turn to kiddie "crack" and soft core porn. Sorry!! :) Oh and sorry for the cross outs on the links. Having a few technical difficulties.

Back to my day. I had the pleasure of meeting up for a play date today with a fellow blog reader in my area. I also take a class with her at the Y. I know our little ones had an awesome time and Kim couldn't be any sweeter!! Kim, I am looking forward to our play date/lunch next week with Heather!!

When we got back from the park I had a leftover Black Bean "Chicken" Burger for lunch, over a bed of greens, spread with rrp hummus and a side of sweet potato rounds....
Hit the spot!!

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: It really bugs me when people don't say "Bless you" after a sneeze.