Put in some "ME" time!

Happy Monday!

I caught up on sleep and enjoyed St. Patty's day this weekend! Saturday, the boy, pup, and I headed out to the National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC for some live music, grilling, and amazing weather. They had a color trail run earlier in the day then they dyed the entire river green. LIKE BRIGHT GREEN. It was pretty awesome hanging out with friends and puppies and watching people white water rafting and kayaking right in front of us. Here's a picture of the awesome river below.

How was your weekend? Did you take time for YOU!? That is my favorite part of the weekend. My "me time" might mean: I take a walk, read a book, or even catch up on tv shows that I'm too busy to watch during the week. I enjoy running without my iPod to just reflect and think and clear my mind. It really is amazing how much BETTER you feel after consciously taking a mental health break for yourself. Put your to-do list on hold for a minute and just do something for YOU.

I used to be a Health Suite Coordinator at a senior center, and I sometimes work for them when they need help. I supervised a rental last night for an Italian Club where they offered me one of these happy deviled eggs, that I couldn't resist taking a picture of. How cute and happy is he with his little caper eyes? :) It's the little things in life that can make your mood improve, if you let it.

I made cauliflower pizza crust Friday night and made a BBQ pineapple/chicken pizza with it! NOM! The crust recipe can be found HERE. It was @megameows blog with tons of great recipes. You can also follow her on instagram! She rocks! It was so yummy, you definitely need to give it a try! *Note Use the exact recipe ingredients as listed. Regular flour will not work the same as coconut flour. This dough saves on a ton of carbs compared to regular pizza crust.

I gave you the link to her blog with many more recipes, but here is the exact recipe:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of coconut flour

1 tablespoon of almond meal/flour

1/2 tsp of black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, italian seasoning mix

1/4 tsp of garlic powder

2 1/2-3 cups of cauliflower, put into a food processor and “riced” (pulsed until the texture of rice)

1 whole large egg and 2 large egg whites

1 tbsp water

2 cloves of garlic minced

Directions:

First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix very well. Need to make sure there are no huge lumps of coconut flour inside of the mixture. Form the mix into a ball the best you can. Using a sheet of parchment paper on a baking pan, place the ball onto the baking sheet. Flatten out the “dough” to be about an inch in thickness. You can make it more thin, but then you may not be able to eat it with your hands. Go around the edge and press in making a bit of a dip so it looks more like a real crust. Place the crust into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and put on all your ingredients and return to the oven for 10 minutes or so. She used 1/4 cup of organic tomato sauce, 2 cloves fresh garlic chopped up finely, extra lean ground turkey that she had already made, scallions (green onions), crushed red pepper flakes, and reduced fat mozzarella cheese. But you can top with anything you choose!
I made mine by combining BBQ sauce/Light Ranch for the sauce, reduced fat mozzarella cheese, grilled chicken, pineapple slices, chopped portobella mushrooms, and onions! ENJOY!

I also had my powerbowl from meal prep this week for dinner on Sunday. Baked tilapia, roasted sweet potato, asparagus, and brussels. (Recipe found on previous posts).

^^ I found this picture courtesy of @igfitness on instagram. I loveee everything about this. This is what I mean when I say "eat clean". The more natural you can eat the better. I don't stick to it 100% but I would say about 85-90% of the time I am eating clean, now. Which is great for my GI issues and have noticed a difference in my body as well, SCORE! It's really hard to cook for my boyfriend and I at dinner time because we could not be more opposites with food. He's a southern Mississippi bred boy that likes his meat and potatoes and the only veggies he eats are from a CAN. I know, this is a constant battle and headache for me. I made Chocolate Zucchini muffins and didn't tell him there was zucchini in them so he would try one.... He almost threw up after the first bite... That's my southern boy for you. How does one not eat mushrooms, onions, broccoli, or peppers?! OH, OR EGGS?! Yah, a BATTLE is the best word to describe that situation, lol. Luckily, he enjoys lean proteins like fish, grilled chicken, and will eat ground turkey over ground beef and will also drink juice I make him from the juicer. It's just those darn pesky vegetables that I would rather him eat canned peas then no PEAS ever! Relationships are full of compromises, I guess this will be one of them.

Mac also graduated from dog training this weekend. We are working on distance training, i.e. making him listen to our commands from far away. He actually held a sit while we walked like 200 yards away. Pretty awesome from the boy that follows us everywhere we go.  (Notice picture below, he'd rather be right on top of me than more comfortable anywhere else.)

That's all I have for today, just a dose of peppiness to make it through your Monday.

Remember to make time for you, because YOU are the most important factor for your own happiness.

Xo,

April