Here’s the recipe for the chimichurri sauce (from the Real Food for Healthy Kids Cookbook) and a bonus recipe for veggie chimichurri quesadillas.

Chimichurri Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 1 cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley sprigs
• 1 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves (you can leave the parsley out and use 2 cups cilantro if you want it even spicier)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Chop the garlic in a food processor until it sticks to the bowl.  Add the parsley and cilantro and process until finely chopped.  In a bowl, combine the oil, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and crushed red pepper flakes.  Pour the mixture into the food processor and run until blended.  Makes about 1 cup of sauce.

Quesadilla Ingredients:

• 6-10 thin slices of red and yellow bell peppers
• 1 handful of spinach leaves, washed
• 2 tablespoons of crumbled goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon of chimichurri sauce
• whole wheat flour tortilla

Spread the chimichurri sauce on the bottom half of a whole wheat tortilla.  Layer the spinach on top and top with bell peppers.  Sprinkle the goat cheese on top and fold the top over the bottom to seal it.  Press in a quesadilla maker or seal edges with a little water and warm in a skillet until the cheese is melted and the peppers are warmed through.  I made these recently and added the leftover pork from last week’s lemon garlic pork tenderloin medallions  and they were amazing! I had them for dinner, then lunch, then dinner again.  I wish I was joking but I really ate them for three meals in two days.

Do you have a favorite sauce or spread that works great with multiple dishes?

This week’s pork special is the pork tenderloin, which is probably my favorite cut.  This recipe for Sauteed Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Lemon-Garlic Sauce was easy to make and everyone enjoyed it – including my picky six-year old.  That’s a big win around here.  I have full family approval to add this to the menu rotation, which makes me happy because it only took about 30 minutes to prepare from prep to serving.

Here’s the recipe.  Let me know what you think if you give it a try.

Ingredients: 

• 1 pork tenderloin, (1 pound), trimmed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, divided
• 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I substituted more chicken broth)
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• Grated zest and 1 tablespoon juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped

Cut the pork into 12 slices, about 1 inch thick.  Sprinkle both sides with 1/8 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.  Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil (I actually used expeller pressed coconut oil instead of olive oil) in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the pork and cook, turning once, until the pork is well browned and internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F, about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes on each side.  Transfer pork to serving platter and cover to keep warm.

Add the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil to a skillet.  Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add the wine and broth.  Increase heat to high and cook, stirring to scrape browned bits from the bottom of the skillet – about 5 minutes.

Remove skillet form the heat and stir in remaining salt, pepper, lemon zest and juice, and parsley.  Serve the pork medallions drizzled with the sauce.  For sides, we had a green salad with olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing and steamed green beans drizzled with melted butter and lemon juice and sprinkled with salt and pepper to taste.  It was absolutely delicious!

If lemon and garlic aren’t you’re thing, check out this recipe for Baked Pork Egg Rolls from Sweet T Makes Three.  I loved it, but it didn’t make the favorite list for the rest of the family.

Dr. Molly Miller, Earth and Environmental Science Professor at Vanderbilt University, accompanied by Anne Choquette, a Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, will lead a two mile walk through Percy Warner’s Mossy Ridge Trail. Participants will be shown major rock formations and learn the history they record. Hear about how Nashville’s landscape was once a Bahamas like paradise and a stagnant ocean bottom thick with dead algae eventually transformed into oil and gas. Don’t miss the chance to chat with the Mayor, learn about nature, meet people and get healthy. Dress for cold weather, bring your camera, and water. Also, wear walking shoes – portions of the trail may be muddy!

Walk will only be cancelled in the case of severe weather, snow or icy conditions.

My fabulous and gorgeous friend, Suzanne.

I’m so excited to announce that my friend (and client) Suzanne, of Suzanne Bowen Fitness, has agreed to offer her 30 Day Slim Down Challenge free for the next month to Blissdom attendees.  This is the workout program I’ve been using for the last 45 days and I have seen such amazing changes in the shape and strength of my body.  I’m totally hooked!

I love this plan because I can do it from the comfort of my house (usually in my pajamas) without any equipment (except maybe a chair for balance) in only 30 minutes.  The workout videos stream directly from Suzanne’s website and are organized by day. You just click the link and follow along.

I know I’ve seen a lot of talk about shaping up for Blissdom in the twitter stream.  I’d encourage anyone who’d like to get in shape, feel stronger and be encouraged to join us in this challenge. Simply send your name, email address and city to workouts@suzannebowenfitness.com.  She will set up your FREE account, username and password and you’ll be all set.  You can share your experience, join the conversation and get inspiration by following the #shaketochange hashtag.  You’ll understand after the first workout why Suzanne chose #shaketochange.  You’re muscles will shake and that’s when you know they’re changing.

Each week, Suzanne will randomly select one winner from the #shaketochange twitter stream to receive a copy of her Gorgeous Core workout DVD and a BarreAmped t-shirt.

If you want to share your results and be entered to win the Grand Prize, take a before and after photo and blog about your journey.  Suzanne will choose one lucky winner from all of those who blog their journey and results to receive the Grand Prize – a $100 Amazon gift card and a #shaketochange slouchy sweatshirt.  Email your blog posts to workouts@suzannebowenfitness.com.  Suzanne will also highlight your posts on her blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you’re planning to join.  I’d love to touch base with everyone participating and look forward to meeting you all at Blissdom next month!

I’m so glad I did!  (Yes, I already ate one.  I had to make sure they were as good as they looked!)

Below is my version – slightly modified to include turbinado instead of white sugar, almond milk instead of whole milk and white whole wheat flour instead of only all-purpose.

You WANT to try this recipe.  It will make your morning coffee that much better.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cups of unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 5 tablespoons of organic, unsalted butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 4.5 ounces while whole wheat flour
• 4.5 ounces unbleached all purpose flour
• 2/3 cups turbinado
• 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I might add a 1/4 cup dark chips next time to bring out the chocolate flavor even more)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400.  Combine the milk, butter, coffee vanilla and egg.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, chocolate chips, baking powder and salt.  Stir until well mixed.  Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly pour the milk mixture in.  Mix until moist.  Divide batter into paper lined muffin cups and bake at 400 for 16 minutes or until done.

That’s it.  Took me less than 30 minutes from start to finish and now I have a really good reason to hop out of bed early tomorrow morning!

The concept came from a Family Fun shark t-shirt I made for my son’s birthday party over the summer. It’s cute, easy and inexpensive to make. You can customize the paint colors and design for a boy or girl and this is easy enough that the kids can help.

Supplies:
- Any t-shirt (we used heather gray)
- contact paper
- scissors
- cardboard
- fabric spray paint (any color you like) (we used black)

Instructions:
Put a piece of cardboard inside the shirt to keep the paint from soaking through and to create a solid work surface.

Cut strips of contact paper and press them onto your shirt in the shape of desired design. We used a heart with an arrow and intentionally made the edges overlap and the design imperfect to get a casual, rugged look more suitable for boys.

Spray the front of the shirt paying special attention to the edges of the tape. Let the shirt dry then remove the tape. Wash inside out.

Here’s the final product.

To sum up a very long day as quickly as possible let’s just hit the highlights.  Got in the car to drive little man to Mother’s Day Out with a full day of errands planned once I dropped him off – but the car wouldn’t start.  Waited 90 minutes for AAA to come jump it, which was just enough time for some nasty weather to roll in.  Spent the afternoon watching the news and listening for the tornado sirens. The dishwasher officially broke and required a call to the plumber. By the time the weather cleared up, little man had fallen asleep.  So, we didn’t leave the house all day and none of the errands got done – including grocery shopping.  Normally this wouldn’t be a problem except that we literally had nothing in the house to make for dinner.  I mean nothing.  A rare occurrence, but we’ve had a lot of company and I desperately needed groceries.

I knew we had to venture out, but we were all in our jammies and I didn’t feel like getting dressed so it would have to be a drive through.  The problem is we don’t eat fast food, except occasionally Chick-fil-A. (They have some good choices.)  So that’s where we decided to go.  I read about their new healthier kids meals from Faithful Provisions so I thought we could  make some pretty good choices even though we weren’t eating at home.  It didn’t work out exactly as I had hoped – but that was fitting for our day.

I ordered a grilled chicken salad with veggies and no dressing and a cup of chicken noodle soup.  I got the boys the grilled chicken nugget meal with a cinnamon applesauce Fruit Buddy.  They both thought the Fruit Buddy was a cool idea, but neither of them ended up liking it and they refused to try the grilled chicken nuggets.  I seriously can’t understand why, but again, that went with our day.   Both boys were crying and starving, but refused to eat any of the food in front of them. So, against my better judgement – and to the entertainment of the drive through staff - I drove back through and ordered them each a regular chicken nugget meal.  (Should I have insisted that they eat the grilled chicken nuggets?  Probably.  Did I have the energy for that battle tonight?  Definitely not.)

So that was our crazy day.  Reflecting back now that the house is quiet and everyone is in bed, I’m grateful that all the car needed was a jump.  I’m grateful that all we experienced from the severe weather threat was heavy rain and strong winds.  And I’m grateful that both of my boys went to bed with full bellies tonight even it wasn’t my first meal choice.

And now, against my better judgement, I’m going to watch New Girls and drink a cup of tea instead of working out.

Tomorrow is a new day!  Hope you have a great one!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon turbinado
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• coconut oil (to grease the pan)
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• kosher salt or coarse salt

Directions: Mix the water, turbinado, salt and yeast in a bowl.  Add the flour and butter and mix by hand until you get a nice sticky dough.  Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.  Uncover, pick up one side of the dough and slowly let it stretch out without tearing and fold over onto the dough in the bowl.  Repeat this with each side.  Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.  Repeat 2 more times.  Cover and allow the dough to rise for about 50 minutes.

When the dough is ready preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and very lightly oil with the expeller pressed coconut oil.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and cut into 8-10 pieces depending on how big you want your pretzels.  Gently roll and stretch each piece out like a rope.  Make a U-shape with the rope, hold the ends up, cross them over each other and press them onto the bottom of the U.

Bring the 10 cups of water plus the baking soda to a boil.  Place one pretzel in the water.  Let it boil on one side for 15 seconds.  Flip and let it boil for 15 more seconds.  Take the pretzel out with a large slotted spoon and set on the parchment paper.  Repeat with the other pretzels.  Brush each one with the egg and water mix and salt to your taste.

Bake about 14 minutes until golden brown.  They are awesome alone, but even better with a little Annie’s Yellow Mustard.  I may or may not have had one for breakfast this morning!

Below are some of our favorite ways to stay active indoors when it’s cold, rainy and snowy.

• Freeze Dance is a top request around here.  It’s pretty simply.  We play a song on the ipod and they show us their best dance moves.  When we pause the song they have to freeze.  We asked them for requests and put together a play-list of their favorite dance songs.  I’ve shared it below.  Our boys like a beat so our list includes Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO and Taio Cruz (the clean versions).
• Another popular choice is indoor racing.  We map out a course around the downstairs and time the boys with a stopwatch.  They’ll run the course over and over trying to beat their own time and eachother’s.
• Obstacles courses are another fun option.  Sometimes we build a course around, under and over couch cushions, tables and chairs.  When I don’t want all the clean up we just design an obstacle free challenge like crab walk from the back door to the front door, duck walk around the couch and army crawl down the hallway.  Anytime we add a stopwatch or some level of competition they really get into it.
• We’ve set up a baseball field and played a game with their stuffed animals.  They love helping their Mario guys run the bases.
• When we run out of ideas we can always turn to the Wii for a little active play.  Just Dance Kids is a personal favorite.  They also love Sean White’s Snowboarding, which is a great leg workout, and boxing on Wii Fit Plus.

Staying active indoors definitely requires more help and input from us, but everyone is a lot happier when we take the time to get up and move.  The boys sleep better, which means we all sleep better and we hear a lot less complaining about being bored.

How do you get everyone moving when it’s too cold to play outside?

Freeze Dance Playlist

1. Airplanes – B.O.B (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore)
2. Brooklyn Go Hard  – Jay Z (feat. Santogold)
3. Handlebars - Flobots
4. I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
5. Just Can’t Get Enough - Black Eyed Peas
6. Party In the U.S.A. - Miley Cyrus
7. Pump It - Black Eyed Peas
8. Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO (featuring Lauren Bennett and Goonrock)
9. Dynamite – Taio Cruz
10. On The Floor – Jennifer Lopez

A Little Inspiration

 

It’s a bad habit I need to fix.  I hate waking up thirsty and I’ve noticed that I start to feel sluggish mid-afternoon when I’m not fully hydrated. My sister, Autumn, the owner of MightyMommies Fitness, filmed this video with ModernMom and Nestle Pure Life water.  It’s full of great tips for making your daily water habit a little more exciting.

Do you like your water plain or dressed up a bit?  How do you make sure you’re drinking enough water throughout the day?