Ground Meat Sauce

My family and I love pasta. Of course it can be very carb heavy, but I recently discovered a pasta brand by Ancient Harvest that is a quinoa and corn blend so that has been our go to pasta for the last few months. Pasta is also a great quick dinner fix during the busy week.

As for the sauce, it's so easy to grab pasta sauce and just throw it over in a matter of minutes. However, a little over a year ago I decided I wanted to start making my own sauce so that I knew exactly what went into it and could flavor it as I please. I haven’t gone back to the canned stuff since.

It can seem overwhelming to make your own sauce, but it really isn’t as hard as most people think. Give it a try and use it over your whole wheat pasta or zoodles or as a dipping sauce for your cheesy breads. The veggies I used were just what I had on hand. Go ahead and use as much or as little variety as you please.

Sautéed Vegetables

Cooked meat

Final product

We had the sauce over my new favorite corn/quinoa noodles

Weight Shaming and the No-Excuse Mom Movement

There's been a lot of talk around the internet lately regarding "fat-shaming", especially since Maria Kang came out with her no-excuse mom movement and her infamous photo.

I was reluctant to write about it all but after seeing bashing from both sides I figure why not give my take on it.

If you have been following my blog or Instagram account you know that I just recently started my health and fitness journey at the beginning of 2015. My goal was to become the healthiest me so that I could be around for my family as long as possible.

I was always skinny or "average" size growing up. Weight was never a problem for me. I never gained the freshman 15 in college, I didn't get bigger when I had significant others. However, fast food and eating out were regulars on my menu and in my college and early post college days I drank alcohol like a fish. Was I healthy? Absolutely not! Some people would say I was lucky, but should someone really feel special because they can abuse their bodies and the abuse does not show up on the outside?

I believe that during all of this fat-shaming and skinny-shaming back and forth we have lost sight of what is important. Society has led us to believe that beauty is measured by weight, which is absolutely false. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder and for me this starts from a person’s character.

The focus truly needs to move from weight and looks to overall health. Is being overweight or underweight unhealthy? I believe in most professional opinions it is but by how much? I'm not a professional so I cannot say - that's something everyone needs to figure out for themselves. On the other hand can you be at the "ideal" weight and still be unhealthy? If you smoke 1 or 2 packs of cigarettes a day or drink like I used to I'm pretty sure you're also unhealthy. Therefore, weight and looks do not always have a direct correlation to health.

I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight pretty quickly after baby boy was born, however as any mother knows your body is never the same after a baby. I tried working out here and there to "get my body back" but those attempts lasted for a couple of weeks at most. I wasn't in love with my body but I was content. I am so fortunate hubby loves me for me so he was also content with my body, or that's what he told me at least :)

Towards the end of last year something clicked for me. My weight was "ideal" however I knew I wasn't healthy.  I didn't care what I ate, I didn't do any physical activity besides chasing baby boy around. The point is, I knew I could do more. I looked at my baby boy and knew that I wanted to be around for him for as long as possible. If something happened to me where my life would end before my family and I were ready, I wanted to know at that moment that I did all that I could to prolong my health.

At the end of the day it's about HEALTH. Without it your to-do lists can go out the window. I read somewhere that most health issues don’t happen overnight – they are the sum of the your actions with your body over a long period of time.

To close, I think one of my favorite women says it best, Suze Orman, financial advisor and expert: “Stand in your truth”. This can apply to every aspect of your life including health and everyone’s truth is different. When I stood in my truth, I knew I could do more and so I did. Maybe your truth is that you’re doing too much and neglecting other parts of your life that are more important, maybe it’s that you’re not doing enough, maybe it’s that you don’t know where to start, but only you can be the judge of that.

I would love to you get your thoughts on this topic!

Almond Meal Pancakes

I love pancakes - you know the super fluffy kind full of air and butter that melts in your mouth? I loved making and eating these, but of course once I hopped on this healthy train it was time to find an alternative.

These almond meal pancakes are a great substitute. They are small but each pancake really fills you up. I made four for me and baby boy when hubby was out of town and we could only finish three together.

The almond meal I use is pretty raw so you can really taste the graininess of the almonds in these pancakes. I don't mind this but if you do you might want to try this recipe with almond flour.

Top these with fresh berries and real maple syrup and your body and taste buds will thank you.

Chia Pudding

I tried chia pudding for the first time less than a year ago. Before then I didn’t even know what chia seeds were. After my first bite I was hooked. They reminded me of tapioca. I read the ingredients on the pudding I bought – coconut milk, almond milk, chia seeds, strawberries, blueberries and almonds. With the few number of ingredients I figured it might be easy to make and I was right.

Ever since I’ve learned how to make chia pudding I can enjoy it whenever I please. I usually have it for breakfast, but it also makes a great clean and healthy dessert or snack.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Divided into four jelly jars.

Ready to go into the fridge.

I topped mine with strawberries, blackberries and slivered almonds.

Ready to be devoured :)

Healthy Shepherd's Pie

The only time I have ever heard or seen shepherd’s pie was during college in the campus cafeteria. The shepherd’s pie on campus looked decent but not very appetizing, so I never tried it.

I decided a month or so ago to make a healthy version of the dish at home. I am a fan of casseroles, so I figured I might like it since it is similar and I thought I could try and make it look more appetizing than the cafeteria version. I’m glad I did. Hubby liked it so much he even asked me to make it again. The pictures below are from the second pie.

This will definitely be made many more times in the future I'm sure. 

Before heading into the oven

Fresh out of the oven

Ready to be dug into