Quinoa for the Win

You guys!

Ugh.

I am totally getting cold.

I’ve been chugging Umcka like it’s water, but I think I was too late. The deal with Umcka is you take it when start getting the tiniest inkling of sickness, which would have been Sunday. I didn’t start taking it until yesterday. Boooooooo.

Hopefully my morning coffee will give me the courage to get up off the couch and take a shower!

Last night I wanted a super cozy meal before I headed off to bed early, and succeed I did!

I revisited the Resolution Croquettes recipe and I’m so glad I did! Warm, crunchy quinoa bites with a cheesy, gooey center. YUM!

I LOVE Quinoa! I really, really, really do.

Haven’t tried quinoa yet? Get on it you guys! It’s naturally gluten free and full of fiber and protein!

Nervous about how to use it? Try the Croquettes recipe! And then write me a glowing email about how wonderful they were

What it’s ALL about

What a fantastic weekend!

While it wasn’t really filled with fantastic gluten free foods…

it was filled with best friends…

a blushing bride…

and lots of fun gifties that I can’t share with you lovely folks on the inter-webs!

and you know, sometimes it’s not ALL about the food!

Sometimes you eat a food bar and suck it up, because you would never want to miss all this fun!

My dear friend Jessica is marrying her soul mate at the end of March, and I had so much fun on Saturday celebrating her and her love at a bridal shower. Funnily enough, that bridal shower was so much fun that it morphed into a late night bachelorette party at a drag show, and let’s just say that I still haven’t gotten my voice back!

And yes, there wasn’t much food at the bridal shower I could eat. And yes, the dinner reservations were at a pizza place. But it didn’t matter. Not one bit. I ate a big lunch before, packed a food bar, ate a salad, and was perfectly content!

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Happy Monday!

I have a TON of school work to catch up on, and full day of work ahead of me! Hope you have a great day!

Fitness Fridays: Welcome to the Club

 

Best App ever!

Nike Training Club is a FREE App with TONS of free 15 and 30 minute workouts that sync up with your music and include countdowns and instructions!

And the more you use the app, the more workouts and healthy tips you earn!

You have to sign up with the club to access the free reward workouts, and I highly recommend signing up on your computer instead of your iPhone. I couldn’t get the registration to work on my phone.

But you don’t have to register if you don’t want the rewards, the other workouts offered are just as good!

Choose what you want to do:

and then choose your level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. Then you have a good 10-15 workouts to choose from. You can even look through the moves before you start the workout.

The Ab Burner is KILLER!

My favorite move from the workout is The Russian Twist:

Note in the upper right hand corner, you can watch a video of the move. And note on the bottom it tells you that you don’t have to have a weighted ball for this move.

I found out about this app because our friends Loren and Melissa did the Hope Solo workout that’s offered as a reward and were sore for days! And I mean, it makes sense, look at Hope Solo!

MOH is here and we’re heading to the gym right now. We’re going to tackle the Hope Solo….updates on GHM Facebook later today!

Jalapeno Popper Chicken

If ever there was a recipe that would get me a book deal, this would be it!

Oh, you think this is just some plain ol’ panko chicken? Oh no, my friends. Turn that baby around!

WHA-BAM!

There it is! The surprise in this dish…Jalapeno Poppers!

Crispy panko breaded chicken stuffed with a creamy, spicy popper filling. Oh man. This chicken is DY-NO-MITE!

AND ridiculously easy to make! Seriously friends, make this. Heck, come on over and I’ll make it for you! Either way, you’re gonna love it…and me!

Jalapeno Popper Chicken (gluten free)

You’ll need:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used some hefty gals so I’d have leftovers)

1/4 – 1/3 cup diced pickled jalapenos (I used 1/3, but if you like less heat, use 1/4)

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce (I use Lea & Perrin’s; make sure yours is gluten free)

1/2 block of Neufchatel cream cheese (you could use full fat, but I lightened it)

1 cup GF Panko Breadcrumbs (I used Kinnikinnick)

2 eggs, beaten

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Clean your chicken and then make a slit beneath the skin. Using your knife, create a pocket in your chicken.

In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, cheddar, Worcestershire, and jalapenos. Stuff this evenly into your chicken breast. Once stuffed, pull down the opening of the pocket as best you can. The closer it gets to being closed, the less will seep out.

In a bowl, beat your two eggs and sit aside. In a separate medium-sized bowl, spread out your breadcrumbs. Get your baking sheet hybrid ready (baking sheet with a cookie cooling rack on top). Take each stuffed chicken breast, and dip it first in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs. Softly pat the chicken in the breadcrumbs to coat. (Don’t squish it in the crumbs or your cheese will come out!)

Once coated, lay the chicken breast carefully on the cooling rack (on top of your baking sheet). Now dip and press your second breast and then place on the rack as well. Spray each top with a little bit of cooking spray. This crisps the panko breading.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Voila!

I have a feeling I’m going to make a video of this recipe just in case making a pocket seems confusing because I LOVE this recipe and I know you will too!

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Happy Thursday, or in my case TGIF!

I have a long weekend ahead of me of celebration and fun!! But no worries, I have an AWESOME Fitness Fridays post planned that I know you’re going to be excited about!

Gluten and My Face

So….we all know how I feel about gluten free hair care.

But….

what the heck is in Cetaphil?!

A few weeks ago, in a Fitness Fridays post, I had a shot of my gym bag and in said gym bag was my Cetaphil moisturizer. (also pictured above) Kind reader Sam commented on that post, and opened my eyes to a possible controversy surrounding Cetaphil.

Is it gluten free?

Nope.

Uh oh.

 

One email to Galderma, the company responsible for Cetaphil, and you will receive a blanket response that it appears the entire blog-o-sphere has received:

The Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser does not contain ingredients that may be derived from grains and therefore does not contain gluten.

The other Cetaphil products contain ingredients that may be derived from grains and therefore possibly contains gluten.

May be? Seriously Cetaphil? Possibly? Come on!

So I emailed again and asked if they were seriously telling me that they weren’t sure what was in their products (read: too lazy to care) and what ingredient in that chemical smorgasbord could be derived from gluten?

Crickets.

No response. 

Not only are they too lazy to know what’s in their products, but apparently they’re too lazy to respond to their emails.

The ingredients list is daunting:

These aren’t your found in nature ingredients. These are all straight up chemical compounds and confusing carbon what’s it names. I googled every item (because that’s what a good researcher does) and I still couldn’t find a straight tie to gluten.

But I did find tons of grey area, and a possibility that I’ve been using beef fat on my face.

So yesterday I bit the bullet and went to Whole Foods in search of something I could understand.

I ended up purchasing Mineral Fusion. This was in the middle road as far as prices go. There were gluten free facial care products that were cheaper, but I LOVE mineral makeup and thought this just might be the same.

Plus, I liked what they were telling me on the back of the bottle.

Not the supple skin part, although that’d be good, but the formula purity. Thank you for being free of gluten mineral fusion, you sure know the way to a girl’s heart.

And the ingredients list on the cleanser actually makes sense!

For the few I couldn’t figure out, like Decyl Glucoside, I simply googled once I got home.

Thank you Sam for the heads up  on the Cetaphil!

What about you? Is your face wash and lotion gluten free? Do you get a skin reaction to gluten?

Purely Fast: A GF Breakfast

For the past two weeks, I have not had time to make oatmeal in the morning. I know! It’s a real travesty.

Between cramming in school work and trying not to give up my morning gym sessions, I have been FFWD’ing through the house in the a.m. Luckily, when I was at Whole Foods a week ago blowing through my retirement money, I found a new to me cereal that makes yogurt happy!

What caught my eye with Purely Elizabeth was underneath the tagline: quinoa – amaranth – chia <<<LOVE those guys!

The ingredients list is top notch:

And with 130 calories in 1/3 cup, I don’t feel bad about having 3 tbsp. in a morning yogurt cup! Plus it has 3g of Protein and 2g of fiber.

It’s nice and crunchy with a hint of sweetness and a touch of cinnamon. And I love the texture the puffed amaranth adds!

I feel like this is something I might could even make again at home…you know, because I have all this free time! But I will have to try because this little box of cereal was definitely a splurge, but at only 3 tbsp. a serving, I’m going to make it last!

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Happy Monday!

It’s a short week for me because this weekend MOH and Amy are coming in to town to celebrate another best girl’s wedding and bachelorette!! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!

Max is pretty excited too!

He’s keeping watch for MOH by the window.

Fitness Fridays: Fast Abs in Three Moves

 

TGIF! Well, today is actually more like my Monday, since I was off yesterday and I have to work all weekend…BUT TGIF for y’all!

I made a very rough video for you guys yesterday for Fitness Fridays. You’ll see three of my favorite ways to work my abs that don’t involve typical crunches. These are easy to do at home, or at the gym.

Bonus: You’ll get to see Hazel in action!

Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope you have a great weekend!