Spicy Chicken Rice Bowl

The other night I didn’t have much for dinner, so I started throwing together some things I did have and came up with this yummy dish. I was pleasantly surprised how good it turned out.

What you need:
Boneless Skinless chicken breasts
Brown rice
carrots
broccoli
Franks Redhot
brown sugar

Instructions:
1. Cut chicken into cubes, toss in a skillet with salt and pepper. Fully cook then remove from skillet and set aside. While chicken is cooking, start your brown rice as it can take up to 25 minutes depending on the rice you purchased. There are microwavable kinds that only take a few minutes.

2.Place chopped veggies in skillet, I just did broccoli and carrots since its all I had on hand but you could do anything. Cook veggies until tender, don’t over cook.

3. While veggies are cooking get a small sauce pan out to start the spicy sauce. Turn on medium high heat. Put 6 tablespoons of Franks Redhot sauce (you can put a few more if you like it really spicy), 4 tablespoons of water. Once you the sauce he heated not boiling but close add 1 cup brown sugar. Whisk until brown sugar is dissolved. Once sauce it smooth remove from heat.

4. Once veggies are cooked place chicken back in skillet heat through.

5. Now take a serving bowl add your finished brown rice, just a few scoops. The add the chicken and veggie mixture on top of rice, and lastly add the spicy sauce over the top and serve.

My husband and I loved it, so I would love to hear your comments on what you think or how you made it your own.

Linking with

Clean Eating Pumpkin Spice Creamer

Since making the move to eating clean, I am much more conscious of what I put in my body and I read the food labels to see what is actually in the food I am buying. Have you ever read what is in your coffee creamer? Yikes, things like corn syrup, chemicals, and sugars. I have been using things like Coconut milk and Almond milk as a healthy alternative. However I do miss the yummy holiday flavors, but I found this great recipe for fall.

Here is a healthy alternative Pumpkin Spice Creamer, and its good! I found the recipe at Kimscravings.com

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups any combo of dairy-free milk you prefer (I used 1 cup full fat canned coconut milk and ½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I like using some full fat milk for extra creaminess.)
• ¼ cup pumpkin puree
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (if you don’t have pumpkin spice, use cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

It literally takes no time at all to make this, you put all the ingredients together in a blender and blend till smooth. Then boom, you have an amazing fall festival in your mouth!

This should make enough to last you a week, I just keep mine in a mason jar in the fridge. I would love to hear any other healthy creamer recipes you have tried and let me know if you give this one a try.

Happy Fall,

Linking up with

Clean Eating Recipes, you don’t have to give up the things you love!

The other day you may have read my post on Let’s stop using the word Diet, what are your thoughts? This had spawned some questions asking what my husband and I are doing, we have also had friends and family asking as well. Like I said in my post from the other day so many have said well I can’t do that, I do not want to give up my favorites and I do not want to give my sweets or bread or things like that. I used to have that same perspective with Clean Eating as well, however now learning more and realizing you don’t have to give up all that. We were quite strict the first two months of this new lifestyle change but it was due to trying to cleanse our bodies of years of bad eating habits.

Now that we are learning more about clean eating and our bodies are getting used to this new lifestyle we are adding things back into our life. I have learned that I can still have fun baking but using healthier alternatives like substituting maple syrup for sugar or almond flour instead of regular flour. Granted just because you are choosing a clean eating lifestyle does not mean you can go crazy eating more, its still about moderation and daily calorie intake.

So I decided to share some fun recipes we have tried and I have through in some entrees, sides, and even desserts so you can see it’s really not that hard to move to a clean eating lifestyle. I promise if I can do it you can too!

You will notice a lot of these tend to be Paleo friendly, I like that lifestyle of eating although I am not crazy strict about following it to the tee. So I know that may appall some people who are core in that way of living but we are trying to find the best balance for our family and that’s all you need to do as well.

My favorite Recipes:

This one is great for you pasta lovers, it shows you how to use zucchini noodles as an alternative from Just a Taste.

Skinny Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Noodles

Here is a taste side dish from Morsels and Musings- Brussel Sprouts w/Garlic & Bacon

I just made this last night and loved it! This is a great salmon recipe from A Spicy Perspective: Garlic Lime Oven Baked Salmon

Want a healthier dairy free creamer but don’t want to give up that pumpkin spice try this from Kim’s Cravings:

Dairy Free Pumpkin Spice Creamer

Want tacos here is a great recipe from Wicked Spatula: Paleo Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos

Still can’t live without Pancakes, try these I was surprised how good they were. From Simple Green Moms

Paleo Almond Flour Pancakes

Need a sweet treat try this, but make sure you buy the organic canned coconut milk believe me there is a difference. This is from Ancestral Nutrition.

Five ingredient five minute chocolate mousse

These are a great way to plan out lunches for the week, my husband and I both really enjoyed them. These are from Picky Palate- Grilled Chicken Veggie Bowls

Here’s another treat when you just can’t stand not having something a little yummy from @leelalicious.

3 Coconut Flour Mug Cake Recipes-gluten free-low carb

I hope you enjoy these, I would love to hear if you try them or if you have any good recipes to share.

Happy Eating,

Let’s stop using the word Diet, what are your thoughts?

Now your probably thinking what does she mean by this? Well it started with this weight loss competition my husband and I decided to do with a group of friends. For my husband and I it has become more than a way to loss weight, it was that breaking point for both of us when we decided we are sick of feeling tired all the time and not having any energy. So together we decided we wanted to make a lifestyle change for ourselves as well as teaching our kids to be healthier.

We have been going strong for about 2 1/2 months now and not only have we lost the weight we have been trying to for years with failed fad diets, we feel so much better. With that people have started to take notice of our new habits and I get asked what diet are you doing. I tell people we are not dieting, we have made an overall lifestyle change. We have chosen not to eat processed foods, cut out sugars (we have some natural sugars in our food), only eat complex carbs and limiting our carb intake, and most important portion control. When people hear this, they automatically say we are dieting and that they cannot live like that or give up all those things. We get mixed reactions from people but I am surprised by the negative ones when they hear how we have chosen to eat.

This has surprised me at what a negative word “Diet” has become to people. I guess its due to all the fad diets out there and we have all done them and become frustrated when they do not work or our results do not last because we gain the weight back once we go back to the ways we are custom to eating. I even wanted to see what the definition of diet was, and this is what I found in the Oxford Dictionary:

Diet:

A special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons

Even this definition makes the word sound negative don’t you think?

They tell you when you want to lose weight 70% of it is your diet, but with such negativity attached it’s no wonder we all run from eating a healthier lifestyle when we see the word RESTRICTION attached to it.

I also realized using it around the house was causing a negative effect on my youngest. My husband and I are having great success so we have been pretty pumped. It wasn’t until one day I was getting my son ready for swim lessons that I realized why I would no longer use the word diet. I forgot to wash his swim shirt and I told him it was ok he doesn’t need it anyway. My son got so upset stating he could not go without it because everyone would see his fat tummy and he needed to go on a diet. My jaw dropped to the floor to realize that my son had been listening to what we have been saying about ourselves (my son is in no way fat at all) losing weight. I had no idea at 5 years old that my son would even feel that way or that talking about dieting would negatively affect him.

So at that moment we decided not to talk about ourselves in a negative light, which if you have been reading my blog that is something I am working hard on that as a woman I need to love myself for myself and not how the magazines tell me to look. We also decided dieting was not a healthy word to use either, so when people ask what we’ve been doing I now tell them we have chosen to a lifestyle change. If they want details I go into my workout regiment, and what a typical day of meals looks like for our family.

This whole thing like I said has become more than about losing weight for us, it’s become a way of living so we can teach our kids better habits than we have been raised with and so that we can help prevent other health problems down the road as well.

So I am interested what your take is on the word “Diet”, do you feel it’s become a negative? What do you use in your life to describe your lifestyle? I would love to hear others perspective on this.

Your Lifestyle Changing,