Tuesday Recipe... Fritta

Today, I have a very versatile and easy recipe! You can make this however you want, there is just the base and then you can change from there.

Ingredients:
Eggs
Cheese, if you want
Cream or milk, if you want

Method:
Beat eggs, and put in both cheese and milk/cream, if using. Pour into a baking dish and place in the oven at 350 degrees and bake until eggs are done to your liking.

That is the base. Really easy. A fritta is much like a quiche, just no crust.

Here is what I put into the one I made the other night.
Onions
Garlic
Carrots
Red, orange, yellow pepper
Kale
Brussel sprouts
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cheese

Raw milk
Sea Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Basil
Oregano

Bacon
Hot Italian Sausage

Chopp the bacon up first and then cooked it. Then add the sausage. I Cracked the eggs and beat them well. I think for the amount I had, I used 10 medium to small eggs. I just judge by how it looks for how many I put in. If there is not enough eggs to be able to stir everything have it coated, then you need more eggs.  Chop everything else up and put it all in a large bowl, mix it well and then pour into a 9x13 pan. Put it in the oven and baked it for about 30-45 minutes or until the eggs have set to your liking. If you have seen other recipes for frittas, they usually have you cook it first on the stove and then place it in the oven. I have not tried it this way, but if you would like, that would work as well. I would not do as many ingredients if you are thinking of doing the stove method. You will also need an oven safe skillet.

The great thing with a fritta, is you can tailor it to your own liking. Put what ever veggies in you like, or try some new ones. There is so much other stuff in there, that you really will not notice them, just chop them really small. This is also a great way to get in veggies and protein all in at once. This can also be eaten for any meal of the day. Makes great left overs! I make a larger pan just for this reason.

Hope you enjoy!
Blessings
Jenn

Being Grateful

In my post on Stress being a Killer, I talked about being grateful. In this post, I would like to delve a bit deeper into being grateful and how this can help us to be less stressed as well as being more positive in life.

Being grateful for everything. God has blessed us with everything. How often, or have you ever, taken the time to be grateful for what He has given you? That beautiful sunset, the art work of God, thank Him.

Be grateful for your trials. I know, that might sound strange. Think about it, if life were always perfect and you never had trials, tribulations, set backs, anything of this nature, how would you grow? We grow from our trials and hardships in life, hopefully. We can either take them as something to hate and how dare we have to go through something like that, or take it as a learning opportunity and a growing period. It is your choice how you respond to your trials. It can either be for your gain or determent. They are something to be grateful for. 

Grateful journal. I did talk about this in my post I mentioned above, however, I am going to talk about it again. That is how powerful it is! Take time everyday, if you can twice a day, and write down at least three things you are grateful for. This will get you in the mind of appreciating what you have been given instead of looking at what others have and wishing you had what they have. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others. Look at all of the great and amazing things you have accomplished in life, all the things to be grateful for, everything you have been given. When doing this every day, it will help us to begin to look for the good in everything. You will shift your focus from the negative to the positive.

Here is an exercise in gratitude. A month ago we celebrated Christmas! Did you write Thank You notes for the gifts you received? A hand written Thank You, put a stamp on it and mail it. I can not even begin to tell you how important this is or what it will mean to the people you to this for. They have to be meaningful and from the heart, that is the catch. Not only will this show the other person your gratitude for what they gave you, but you will also be improving your health. When you write your Thank Yous, notice how much better you feel, what changes it makes in your day, your shifts in attitude.  

How being grateful can heal you. When you are positive, you have good energy flowing through you, as they say. When we are grateful, we feel better about ourselves, have more energy, eat better, less stress, we are positive. All of these things help to contribute to health. We allow our bodies to heal when we are grateful.

Happiness is a choice. I know people like to tell me it is not. I am depressed, anxious, unhappy and that is just the way it is. Read this post. Or, they like to tell me I have not had depression, anxiety and therefor I do not know what it is like. I have had depression. Some pretty serious depression, a lot stemming from my very sever hypothyroidism. The difference between me and these people, is I did not let it destroy me. I did not say, this is who I am, just depressed. This is my personality. I did something about it. The biggest thing I did, was choosing to be happy. Yes, happiness is a choice. You can choose it or reject it. If you reject it, do not sit there and tell me you are just depressed and that is my personality. Try again... Happiness is a choice. I am not saying this will fix everything. It will have a dramatic impact on your life and make it easier to go through your struggles.

At the end of the day, we only have one life to live, why waste it being angry, stressed out, depressed. I choose to make it the best it can be, be happy with where I am in my life, knowing God has me where He wants me. Striving to be grateful for everything I have. And, choosing happiness. What do you do with your day?

In the happiness of Christ,
Jenn

Tuesday Recipe, Easy Snack

I hope you are all doing very well, working on those stress levels.

Today's recipe had it's beginnings from a great web page I frequent: http://everydaypaleo.com
She has great posts on all different topics, along with some delicious recipes. Need dinner ideas, check her out.

She had a recipe for Fruit and Nut Bars. Of course me being me, I had to change the recipe, that and I did not have the ingredients most of hers called for. It happens.

What I changed:
I added a variety of nuts and seeds to the recipe. I like all different nuts and they all have different nutrition profiles. So, I try to use a wide variety in my eating and cooking.
Whatever nuts you have and you like:
Almonds
Cashews
Pine
Walnuts
Macadamia
Hazelnuts
Any nuts you like will do.

What seeds you have on hand, if any:
Chia Seeds
Flax Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Sesame Seeds

I also added spices, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, all spice, whatever you like.
Some sea salt

For the fruit, I did dried cranberries and prunes, It was what I had. It turned out really good. If you do not like prunes, do not fear, you did not taste them. Even Hublet liked them. He has requested them for when he goes snowboarding or we go hiking.
This whipped together really quick and they are tasty.
Do not be afraid to just put together what you have in your pantry. Just follow the recipe with what you have. Then, enjoy!

God bless,
Jenn

Stress... The Killer

We all know stress kills us. It effects every cell in our bodies. Yet, we continue to do it. We stress we worry, we stress we worry and the cycle continues. Our health deteriorates and we can not figure out why. The doctors can not figure it out either and we get worse because now we add on our failing health. The problem is STRESS! Stress adversely effects us in every way. It causes wrinkles, heart problems, weight gain, liver problems, adrenal stress and fatigue and list could go on and on. Remember stress damages every cell in our bodies. With any sickness or illness, look to your stress levels and conquer those first. Even past problems as we have discussed.

Ways to deal with stress:
Let it go...
Avoiding things like sugar, processed foods, caffeine, alcohol, with the last two until we have things under control and then in moderation. Our food choices can greatly effect our stress levels. Watch and see. When you eat foods like I have mentioned, see how you respond and react. When you take them out of your diet and eat real whole foods, notice the difference in your mood and stress levels.
Deep breathing. Take a deep breath in, rising you stomach fully feeling your lungs. You want your stomach to rise and fall with each breath. Hold that breath for a few seconds or longer when you can. Slowly let it out making a sighing noise. Repeat through out the day, every time you think about it, take a few deep breaths. When you are stressed and worring, take 5 minutes and deep breath. Notice how your stress dissipates. Do this before bed, about 10-15 times and be amazed at how much faster you can fall asleep. In Chines Medicine, the sigh on the breath out is your liver letting go of stress and healing itself. Not sure if this is true or not, but hey, it is worth a shot. If nothing else, deep breathing brings in more oxygen into our bodies, which is needed for healing and repair, and helps us to relax.
Journaling. By writing our thoughts, worries, concerns, whatever you want to write about down, number one, it gets it out of our heads. This can help us to let go of hurts, pains, issues we are having, help us to see an answer to our problems and fix them. Journaling can be very therapeutic for many people. Give it a shot and see your if your stress and worry levels decrease.
If you can do something about your stress than do something about it. Make changes. If you can not do anything about it, then let it go.
Along with journaling, comes a gratitude list. Everyday write down at least 3 things you are grateful for, if you have more, write them as well. If you can, strive to do this first thing in the morning and then again before going to bed, while deep breathing. By being grateful for what we have and what we have been given, we shift the focus off what is negative to what is good. This will ALWAYS help us to be more positive and less stressed. This is a VERY POWERFUL tool. If you do nothing else, just having a grateful journal will change your life.
Exercise. Exercising releases good endorphin into our blood stream, feel good hormones. Do some form of exercise every day. It does not have to be anything hard and strenuous, something as simple as going for a walk by yourself or with a good friend will do the trick.
Make sure you are getting out in the sun. Remember the Sun and it's benefits, increase in Vit D, the happy vitamin? You will also need to increase your fat soluble Vit A, retonal, and your omega -3s. Code liver oil is one of the best sources of Vits A and D and the omegas.
Fake it till you make. There is a lot of truth in this saying. Sometimes we just have to MAKE ourselves be happy. It might not be what we want to do, but if we do not, we will never be happy, no matter what. If you begin to look for the good in everything and fake it till you make it, you will begin to see a positive change in your attitude and life. Look for the good.

Here is a great video from Jake Lalanne, a great trainer, about worry. Take what he says to heart. It is a wonderful message.

Figure out your best way to deal with your stress and worry and over come it. Your life depends on it.
Leaning on God, trusting and letting go....
Jenn

Tuesday Recipe...Mediterranean Quinoa

I put this recipe together one day. I was hungry and had the ingredients in my fridge and ya la, a delicious recipe was born. Even Hublet likes it!

What you need:
Cooked Quiona
Kalamata olives, I slice mine
Red bell pepper, or any pepper of your choice, diced
Sun dried tomatoes, cut into pieces
Red onion, diced
Fetta cheese
Olive oil
Sea Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Thyme
Basil

Method:
Allow the quinoa to cool to about room temp. Mix all of the ingredients together, serve and enjoy!

This is a really good, quick recipe. While the quinoa is cooking and cooling, you can cut everything up, mix it together and let it marinade. Then put in the quinoa, mix thoroughly and you are good to go!

Variations:
Grill or saute chicken and put on top. Both ways are good. When it is warm, I grill the chicken and when it is cold, I saute with some salt and pepper. Fish, like salmon or tilapia are also great to go along with this recipe.

Enjoy the good food! A small enjoyment out of life.
God bless,
Jenn

Depression and Anxiety

Did you take the time to ask yourself the hard question, is this your personality or undealt with emotions? I sure do hope so.

Today, I want to talk more about depression and anxiety. There are times in all of our lives we have depression and or anxiety. You have gone through a break up, job lose, a death of someone close, struggling with school, problems with a friend, it can be any number of things and we are going to experience depression. Remember, this is a normal human emotion. Go through the emotion. Do not think you are not good enough or have problems because you experience this emotion. You are not. You need to take the time to go through this time in your life, own it, take on all of the emotions that come along. At the end, you should come out of the experience a better person and no longer depressed.

Anxiety is the same. A new situation in life comes up, or whatever you experience anxiety over. Recognize the emotion for what it is. Work through it. Once the situation becomes familiar, is passed, what ever it takes, you should be able to go on with your life.

However, neither of these should be debilitating. They should not be consuming your life, making it so you can not function. This is not normal. This first thing to do is not run to your doctor and have him write you a script for an medication to help you cope. Before any medication should be given for either depression or anxiety there are a many that should be done first.
Depression:
Symptoms should persists daily for more than two weeks. After this, a full exam should be done to rule out hypothyroidism, which can cause depression or any other illness. A full psychological evaluation should be completed as well. Two other very important steps that should be done before any medication is given, because you are depressed, is a look at your nutrition and your emotions.
Anxiety:
For a proper diagnosis, symptoms should persists daily for six months. Just as with depression, a full psychological evaluation should be completed. Looking into your nutrition and emotions is just as important for anxiety as it is for depression.
However, for either of these conditions, if feelings of suicide, attempts, or delusion behavior. Seek help immediately!!! This posts is not for these individuals.

What to do, before turning to medications.
First, deal with your emotions. When they first come up and even years later. If you are stuffing your emotions, like I said in my last post, they are going to come up some how. They will reveal their ugly heads. Work through your emotions. You can do this by journaling, talking with a good friend, seeking professional help, exercising, whatever you need to do, do it. You do not want undealt with emotions coming back to haunt you 10 years later in the form of depression or anxiety.

Look at your nutrition. When we are not consuming the vitamins and minerals we need, we can experience depression and anxiety. Be sure you are eating fat soluble Vit. A, retonal. We are so afraid of fat these days, do not be, eat it. I know vegetarians and vegans will tell you you can get all of the retonal you need from beta carotene, NOT true. Most people can not convert beta carotene into retonal and those who can, it is only done at a rate of 3% or less. This is not enough. They also try to convince us we can over due retonal, again no. You can safely take 10,000 unites daily. Make sure you are getting enough Vit D, omega-3 fatty acids and your B vitamins. Cut sugars and processed foods as these will cause depression and anxiety. For your thyroid health, you need iodine, natural sources of iodine, like from kelp. A great way to take your Vits A and D and omega fatty acids is through cod liver oil. Take enough so you are consuming 10,000 IUs of Vit. A. Eat the foods like we have talked about in previous posts, REAL food.

Exercise. Are you exercising? If not, you need to be. When we exercise, our bodies release good endorphins and hormones. These make us feel good and look good. Exercising not only releases feel good hormones and endorphins, it can help us relax, sleep better, lose weight, help us feel better about our selves. In the end, helping us fight depression and anxiety.

Do you breath, deeply, everyday? Breathing, deep into your lungs, raising your stomach, is a great way to let go of stress, depression and anxiety. Every day, take time to breath. Feel the breath come into your lungs, hold it for a moment or two and slowly let it out, sighing. Take this time to just BE. Calm everything in your head, letting go of the hurt, pain, past, depression, emotions and just BE. Take this time to ask yourself if your depression is your emotions you have not dealt with or real true clinical depression and anxiety.

Until you learn to deal with your emotions, just BE, eat healthy, breath, exercises, depression and anxiety will control your life. Take them back and enjoy your life!

Until next time,
Just BEing in Christ,
Jenn

Is It Your Personality Or Your Emotions?

There have been multiple times I have herd from people, I have to have things crazy, constantly busy, a lot going on, I am just a depressed person, I have anxiety, I am more prone to anxiety. Insert your excuse here, and then say, this is just my personality. Really? I am here to challenge this. I will come right out and say it, these types of things are NOT your personality! These are emotions. There is a difference between your personality and emotions. We are going to explore some of this in the next several posts. I do not want you to dismiss this because you think I am crazy, how dare I challenge you, that is my job as a health coach. I want you to take these things to heart and challenge yourself to grow.

One of the most prescribe medications today is anti-depresent/anti-anxiety meds. Why? Why is it that in the last 20-30 years we all of a sudden can not coup with life? These medications are handed out like candy. Everyone is depressed, everyone has anxiety, so we live on this suppressant type of drug that dumb us from life, that rob us from life. You go to the doctor and say you are struggling, you are depressed, anxious and the first thing they do is hand you a script for medication, without getting to the root of the problem and truly seeing if you are depressed or have anxiety. I am not saying there are not times when we experience depression, it is a normal human EMOTION to experience. We should be able to go through this difficult time and then come out of the depression. The same is true for anxiety. I am also not saying there are not people out there who have true chemical imbalances, who are clinically depressed, bipolar or any of the other physiological disorders and need medication. These pots are not geared towards these people. However, this is NOT the largest majority of the population. This brings us to the question again, why are SO many people on these medications?

We do not know how to deal with our emotions. We are struggling, doctors do not know how to deal with it, do not have the time to get to the root of the problem. So the easiest thing to do, is give an anti-depresent. Most of the time, the root problem is our emotions and not dealing with them. We stuff them saying we do not have time to deal with this or we do not want to deal with something because of the nature. Or whatever it is you do to not deal with your emotions. I am here to tell you, your emotions HAVE to come out somehow. Thus, your being depressed, anxious, having to have chaos, not being able to handle things, insomnia, whatever you "thing" is you are justify as saying is your personality. It is not your personality, it is undealt with emotions, stress. I have heard of people having migraines and thriving on chaos. They learn they were sexually abused as a child, go through the process of actually dealing with it and whoa la, no more migraines or needing chaos. Undealt with emotion.

I want you to take some time, alone time for you, and ask yourself the hard question, is this REALLY my personality or are there emotions I need to deal with? Take this to prayer, meditation, journaling, whatever it is you do. I want you to be completely honest with yourself in answering this question. If you are not, you are only hurting yourself. Being able to admit this is not your personality and realizing you have undealt with emotions is the first step towards healing. If we cannot admit this or come to the realization these are emotions, we will not ever be able to heal and move forward.

I know this is difficult and not something we like to do or is comfortable. It is easier to say it is our personality than to actually have to confront the problem. But, we need too. I promise, it is healing and freeing. Take the hard step and ask yourself the hard question.

I am here with you. I am willing to walk this difficult path with you. I know you can do it!
To freedom and health!
God bless,
Jenn

Tuesday Recipe, Asian Slow Cooker

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!!! I hope and pray you were all able to have a blessed Christmas, finding peace and joy in the Baby Jesus. I also hope you were able to rest and rejuvenate yourselves.

For Today's recipe:
I threw this together one day about two three weeks ago. I had some beef I needed to use along with assorted veggies, so I through it all together. Hublet was not sure about it at first, but one bite and he was enjoying this tasty meal.

What you need:
Some type of beef, like a roast, stew meat, assorted pieces, or how long you are going to allow it to cook. For longer periods, use a thicker meat or a tougher meat. Shorter times, smaller thin peaces. The amount is more based on how many you are feeding and how you like meat, judge for yourself. Lamb would also be great in this recipe.
Broccoli
Yams or sweet potatoes
Carrots
Onions
1 Can of coconut milk/cream
Moe Ploy Curry paste, this is the brand we like the most. If you like it hot, green, medium, red and no spice, yellow, I used about 1/4 cup or a little more.
Sea Salt
Black pepper

Method:
Cut all of the veggies up, any way you like, and place on the bottom of your slow cooker pot. Then place the meat on top, either cut or whole, sprinkled with the salt and pepper. Put the lid on and turn onto high temperate. In a small pot on the stove stop, mix the coconut milk/cream and curry paste together and bring to a simmer. Once the meat and veggies begin to smell fragrant, pour the curry mixture over the top. Stir and allow to cook. If you are going to leave it on all day, turn to low, otherwise leave it on high for a few hours, this is faster. Allow to cook until you have reached desired doneness of the meat and veggies. Enjoy!!!

Until next time,
In the Love of Baby Jesus,
Jenn