Ingredients:

4 small salmon fillets, cleaned and deboned

For the sauce:

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

1/4 red onion

1 cup water

mango chunks (set aside)

5 leaves of fresh basil

Bragg’s Sprinkles (spices you can buy at any health food store)

a dash of Cayenne pepper

Black pepper to taste

Juice of 1 lime.

Preparation:

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Boil the bell peppers in the cup of water, once the water boils place the bell peppers under cold water to remove the skin. Make sure to de-seed them too. Add the spices, fresh basil,  black pepper, sprinkles, cayenne pepper, add chopped onion and mango. Add lime juice, black pepper and salt to taste.

Place the salmon on a pyrex, add some additional spices on both sides of the salmon. Then bake it for about 20 minutes. Serve with a side of greens and the mango salsa on top.

Kettle & Fire is one of my favorite products. Don’t get me wrong, I love making bone broth but there are times when I haven’t made any and I need it for cooking purposes. I often use bone broth in my recipes so having this readily available in my kitchen is helpful, especially after a long day at work and having to come home and cook.

I was so grateful when I received the two boxes of this awesome product in the mail. My birthday was coming up and I had decided I wanted to make some meals during the weekend that would taste delicious but wouldn’t take me hours to prepare.

Bone broth is NOT  a cure-all. That being said, I have found bone broth to be very soothing for the gut. It’s high in beneficial collagen which helps with joint pain. Your skin will also benefit by helping reduce the appearance of wrinkles. And the best part for me of course, is that it adds some delicious flavor to my dishes when cooking and makes my job a lot easier. Note: I used the Instant Pot for these recipes but you can also use your slow cooker if you don’t have one.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes that I used:

Portobello Mushroom Chicken:
Ingredients:
1 cup Kettle & Fire chicken bone broth
1 cup of a good quality red wine (I used a Pinot Noir for this recipe)
1 whole organic, pastured chicken (thawed)
2  tsps. Bragg Organic Sprinkle Seasoning
1 sliced portobello mushroom
1 tsp avocado oil

Preparation:
Sprinkle each side of the chicken with the seasoning. Add the avocado oil to the Instant Pot and program to “sauté”. When the oil is hot, place the chicken in, breast side first. Brown for about 3 – 5 minutes then flip the chicken and brown the other side for another 3 – 5 minutes.

Add broth, wine and mushrooms. Turn sauté program off, close the instant pot and program to “poultry” cooking on high for 30 minutes. Allow a natural release on the Instant Pot. Carve the chicken and serve.

Drunken Steak and Olives

Okay I had a REALLY hard time naming this dish! It has 8 SIMPLE ingredients and is SO freaking easy to make but tastes like you’ve been cooking for hours. You will need a slow-cooker for this dish.

Ingredients:
4 Grass-fed Sirloin steaks chopped into long pieces
4 oz pastured bacon chopped in pieces (don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water after handling the bacon)
16 black olives
1 cup Fire & Kettle beef broth
1 1/2 cup good-quality white wine
1 organic yellow onion chopped in big chunks
1 tsp Bragg Sprinkle
1 tsp nutmeg

Preparation:
In a pot, cook the chopped bacon thoroughly and set aside, leaving the bacon fat in the pot. Cook the onion slightly and quickly in the bacon fat for about 1 minute (so it won’t get translucent). This is just to add a bit of flavor to the dish and not overcook the onion. Set the onion aside.

Add the steak pieces and cook in the same pot for about 5 minutes on each side, allowing it to brown. Place the steak in the slow cooker. Add broth, wine, nutmeg, Bragg Sprinkle, olives, bacon and onion. Cover and cook on high for about 3 hours. This will allow all the flavors to set in

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Roasted Red Potatoes (In the Instant Pot)
Ingredients:
2 lb. red potatoes
1 tbsp coconut oil (you can use ghee if you prefer)
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (I have it in my garden)
1/2 cup beef (or chicken) Kettle & Fire bone broth
A dash of salt to taste

Preparation:
Wash, dry and then stab tab each potato with a fork. Set your instant pot on the sauté setting and add the oil (or ghee). Add the potatoes and stir to make sure that the oil coats each one of the potatoes well. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the bone broth, rosemary and salt. Close the lid on the instant pot. Shut off the “sauté” setting and turn on the manual setting on “high” for 8 minutes. Once the instant pot is done cooking, allow it to release naturally.

Ice cream is my weakness… I don’t care much for any other type of treats, candy or dessert. So this recipe for Clean Strawberry-Banana Soft Serve is perfect for me… the best part is that it’s made with Shakeology, and all natural ingredients, making it super healthy and nutritious.

Total Time: 4 hr., 10 min.
Prep Time: 10 min.
Cooking Time: None
Yield: 2 servings, 1/3 cup each

Ingredients:
1 large banana, chopped
½ cup frozen strawberries
6 Tbsp. unsweetened almond milk
1 scoop Tropical Strawberry or Chocolate Vegan Shakeology

Preparation:
1. Place banana in plastic bag and freeze for 4 hours or until completely frozen.
2. Place frozen banana, frozen strawberries, almond milk and Shakeology in food processor or blender; cover. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information (per serving):

P90X/P90X2 Portions (per serving)

Body Beast Portions (per serving)

Lucky for me, I brought a nice Granny Smith apple and I keep some powdered cinnamon by my desk just in case my sweet tooth attacks me again. Just close your eyes and imagine a huge sweet tooth shoving food down my throat… yeah that’s what it feels like sometimes.  

By lunch time, I decided I would have a Shakeology; the problem is that I had to walk by those pesky pieces of chocolate goodness… darn it! So I looked down and walked REALLY fast. Whew! I made it to the kitchen in one piece even though that darn tooth tried to grab me by the leg but I was able to get away.

My Shakeology drink this time was the greenberry with vanilla almond milk and cinnamon. I have to say it was pretty satisfying. I went back to my desk to continue to work.  You’d think that would be the end of it right? Nope, my coworker was eating a hamburger at her desk and offered French fries (which I politely turned down) YES! I am entitled to a Snoopy dance for that one WOOHOO! That’s two strikes in my favor!!

Now seriously, it was difficult for me to turn down those fries I had been sniffing them for about an hour. But at the same time, Shaun T. kicked my happy butt into shape this morning with Fast and Furious (more on that later) and my core is sore (wow that totally rhymes!)

So where am I with my program? Well, as I promised I’d be completely straight with you: I am one week behind. I worked out only 3 out of the 6 days last week. These holidays were dedicated to catching up on my sleep, household chores, going through the last items from storage, choosing more items to donate, my family and of course updating (and upgrading) my blog. It was much easier to stay away from temptation at home since I don’t keep any sweets and, my daughter and I made some yummy chocolate Shakeology cookies which are much healthier.

At work however, it’s difficult to keep the consistency I need with all this sugar around. My secret to resisting temptation is to have one bite-size piece of whatever it is. If you still feel the urge of eating some more, have some unsweetened green tea. Green tea is full of antioxidants and has slimming properties. Another hint is: Take some fruit with you to work or some veggies. If you feel you must have something sweet or else you’ll bite someone’s head off… well before you turn gory on us, let me give you my favorite pretend apple crisp recipe:  dice a Granny Smith apple – skin on, sprinkle cinnamon on it and put it in the microwave for 1 minute, when ready, I mix in 1 teaspoon of almond butter.  Don’t use sugar, oil, butter or any other stuff that you should stay away from. This totally hits the spot and makes me happy by getting rid of the Tasmanian devil with boots and lipstick (I’d normally say with high heels but I’ve been wearing boots lately because of the rain.)

Yep, what can I say…? I may never get to a point where I will turn chocolate down. But hopefully I will have the will to just have a bite-size piece every time and not the whole chocolate. Today I did well but it’s not easy, as you can see, I’m not perfect, I’m not trying to be perfect either. It’s been easier at other times of the year but right now it’s been extremely difficult to stay away from cookies, bread, chocolate, etc. Maybe it’s a comfort thing, I don’t know quite honestly but whatever the reason, it has been challenging.

So no, I am not there yet… I haven’t figured it all out. I haven’t figured out for example, how to ignore chocolate or French fries. I have figured out however, that I feel bloated after I eat junk food. Eating a slice of pizza every now and then won’t kill you, it’s the excess that does it. I prefer to live a full life than to eat 4 or 5 slices of pizza everyday… don’t you?