Roasted Balsamic Chicken Dinner

Invite The Neighbors Over - This One's A Winner 

You know those recipes that are the ones that you pull out when your having company over or you want to make someone think wow this chick can cook? Yeah yeah I get it. I have a few of "those" recipes up my sleeve. My lasagna with homemade sauce, bruschetta chicken, my chili. The list goes on but this recipe is getting added to the collection. I was amazed with how tender the chicken was and what a great flavor it had. I wish I could give you "specifics" for this recipe but I can't because I made it up as I went along. Thats one reason why I am blogging about it now because I don't want to forget how I did it. 

Here is what you will need:

Ingredients

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts 

Pink Hymilayan Sea Salt 

Black pepper

3 cloves of fresh garlic

Mrs. Dash - Italian Seasoning 

1 pint of cherry tomatoes or whatever tomatoes you have on hand 

5 tablespoons of organic butter cut into "butter pads" for each tablespoon 

1/2 cup of fresh basil chopped 

1 cup of extra virgin olive oil 

1 cup of balsamic vinegar 

Whole wheat bread crumbs 

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Rinse tomatoes pour into the bottom of a 13x9 inch glass pan

3. Cut chicken into bite size pieces 

4. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash. Use as much or as little as you prefer

5. Using a garlic press - mince garlic then distribute onto chicken pieces 

5. Mix together balsamic & olive oil then stir and pour over the dish 

6. Add in chopped basil 

7. Place butter pads over the top 

8. Sprinkle with whole wheat bread crumbs on the top 

9. Bake for 35 minutes covered then another 20 uncovered to brown

* I served this over whole wheat cous cous. It tasted even better on the second day so be sure to enjoy the leftovers! 

Apple Banana Gluten Free Muffins

Back To School Breakfast Idea

As I gear up for the school year I am getting back into the habit of packing lunches again. I not only have to pack lunches for my son and I but also breakfast since we are running out the door so quickly in the mornings. He eats his packed breakfast at school and I drink a Shakeology on the way. A few hours later I usually have my "breakfast" for the day. This week we are going to be enjoying these apple banana muffins. They were too healthy and yummy not to share! This recipe is actually out of the Fixate Cookbook! There are lots of other great recipes in there to check out! This cookbook is totally worth getting! Check out my site to get your own copy of this!

Ingredients
2 large organic brown eggs
2 ripe bananas mashed
1 tablespoon of organic butter
1 dash of pink Himalayan sea salt
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of almond flour
1 medium organic apple chopped into small bites
3/4 tsp of baking soda

Directions 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Line muffin tins - Mine made 10 muffins
Combine eggs, banana, vanilla and butter in a bowl and set aside
Comine almond flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in another bowl - set aside
Begin to combine the two mixtures together
Once combined add in apple pieces
I used a cookie scoop to portion the mixture out.
Cook for 18 minutes. Allow muffins to cook before enjoying

Gearing Up For A New Opportunity - Time To Take A Leap Of Faith

"Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It." 

My favorite time of the month is about to occur - my 5 day sneak peak into coaching week. I offer it once a month as I get ready to gear up and run a business boot camp for those looking to get started with the Beachbody business opportunity like I did. It's one of my favorite parts about this business because that is where my passion lies in teaching others how to run a successful business. This is essentially my dream job - This opportunity combines my love for business and my passion for leading. Truly I have never been happier in my career than I am now. It is what sparks me to the core. I am so glad that I stopped watching others become successful at this business and decided to say "why not me?" My college friend and now business mentor started coaching about a year and a half before I did. I watched her carefully and questioned the legitimacy of this business for many months. But then after awhile I started to see her becoming successful enough that she retired at 29 from her full time ER nurse job and she was also getting great results from a fitness perspective. I finally decided that she was no different than I was. So I started my own journey with the 21 day fix. I was hooked and became such a believer in the program. I immediately began to feel different - happier, more energized and supported. I knew I wanted to share with others what it had done for me so I began my own journey towards becoming a successful coach. 

I was scared at first because I worried what others would think of all of my posts on social media. I was nervous about inviting people to the opportunity and I was afraid I would not be successful but I decided to do it anyways.  I worked my business each evening in my pajamas after my son went to bed all while taking graduate classes and teaching full time and little by little a little became a lot and now here I stand today actually making the same income I do as a teacher just by doing this part time on the side. Never in a million years would I have guessed I really could make this work but I did it and it just keeps getting better and better. I won't sit here and tell you it's easy because it is not, I work really hard but I love what I do so it never feels like work. 

This diploma got me started and got my foot in the door for my first teaching job. Never in a million years did I think it would have been so helpful for this opportunity as well. 

I want to show you how to create a successful business and create some freedom for yourself and your family. Maybe your interested in adding a few hundred dollars a month to your bottom line for groceries, maybe your thinking about how your going to save some money for Christmas shopping, or maybe your in desperate need to turn your families financial situation around. I really can help you. While I can't want this for you more than you have to, I can give you all the tools and training to be successful. You will be in business for yourself but never by yourself. I will have your back every step of the way. I encourage you to fill out the application below and join me next week for the sneak peak. See if this is right for you and then we can go from there. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

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Roasted Lemon Garlic Organic Chicken Dinner

Simple, Easy and Delicious - Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken 

Well the other day I decided I that wanted to make a chicken for a nice Sunday dinner. I picked up a 4lb one at Wegmans and once I got to home I realized, I had never in all of my days of cooking made a chicken. I had done turkeys but never a chicken. I was hoping it was the same thing and it was so I was all good but at first I was worried I didn't know how to make it. Hence my confused look in the top left picture. I used a glass roasting pan and covered it with foil for the first 60 minutes and uncovered it for the last 20 so it could get brown. 

Ingredients

1 whole chicken - I prefer organic - we did 4 lbs and that was fine for our family of 3

2 lemons 

4 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

Fresh rosemary 

Organic chicken broth - again this could be non organic if you prefer

Pink Himalayan sea salt. 

Black pepper

Directions 

Preheat to over to the temp that the packaging suggests

Rinse chicken to remove the fluid it had from the packaging. 

Pat dry with paper towels

Using a basting brush apply olive oil all over the bird on both sides.

Season with salt & pepper

In the cavity of the bird pour a bit of chicken broth in it as well as pour some into the pan - just enough to cover the bottom

Also inside the cavity of the bird add in two peeled cloves of garlic as well as 3 small slices of lemon 

On the outside of the bird squeeze 3 - 4 more slices of lemon over the bird as well as crush 2 cloves of garlic and spread over the back of the bird 

I put some sprigs of fresh rosemary from my garden on the outside of the bird as well as inside

Mine needed to cook for 90 minutes in the oven. 

It fell off the bone and was very moist. I believe you could also do this in the crock pot if you wanted to start it in the morning it would be tender by dinner time. We enjoyed green beans and cous cous with ours. 

Perfect for the upcoming fall! Enjoy! 

Black and White Shakeology No Bake Cookies

Black and White Shakeology Cookies 

I was away this past weekend for a retreat with some of the coaches on my team and one of my friends brought these along as a snack for us. Talk about AMAZING!!! We literally ate these for breakfast. I couldn't stop eating them and to be honest when I got home yesterday I made a batch for our family. These are totally worth making! 

Ingredients 

1 scoop of Chocolate Shakeology 

1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology 

1/2 cup of honey 

1 cup of natural peanut butter 

1 cup quick cooking oats

Directions

In a sauce pan melt the peanut butter and honey together until creamy

In a medium size bowl combine shakeology and oats together then add in the peanut butter mixture 

Mix together ingredients then using a cookie scoop make mixture into little balls. 

Once you have your cookie balls flatten them out a bit with your fork. These taste best when you store them in the refrigerator. 

Enjoy!

Transformation Tuesday- Skinny Girl Style

We All Just Wanted To Feel "Better"

This week's transformation Tuesday won't WOW you with a crazy amount of weight loss like most will that I typically post. In fact many would look at the three of our transformations and think these women didn't have any weight to lose in the first place. Why would they need a coach, let alone a Beachbody program. Well I am here to tell you your wrong. There is no magic number of weight you need to lose in order to find success and support in a challenge group to help yourself. The three of us have one thing in common. We shared the desire to want to feel better and look better. I shared conversations with these two ladies about how I "got it" because I felt the same way too at one point. We shared a small amount of guilt for feeling like we wanted to lose weight. On the outside we already looked fit or as many would consider us thin but we were not really all that healthy and even though genetics may have blessed us with a smaller frame, we were not feeling so hot because we were not taking care of ourselves like we should have. We were lacking sleep, eating junk and not making ourselves a priority as much as we should have. We all had our own separate "reasons why" that drove us and helped us get on track to where we are today. The women pictured below have all found the success they were looking for because they decided to give a challenge group a try. We are healthier, happier and feel a lot better. You can feel the same way too. Don't ever feel guilty for wanting to feel better now matter what size you are. 

Kellin jumped into her journey just a few months after giving birth to her second little love. This was a time when most new moms are too busy adapting to the new challenges that a little one brings, especially a second baby. Instead of making excuses she used her maternity leave to get back on track so she could give better care to her family and herself. She has done 21 day fix, fix extreme and insanity max 30 with me. This picture is actually from early this summer, she's even more fit now (crazy right???).  She works full time but still has managed to make her health a priority while balancing a career and family and now supports others as a coach herself on my team. 

BreAnn joined me just this past June first as a challenger and now as a coach on my team. She was in my Stripped Challenge trying to drop the last 10 lbs. She was one of my best challengers, very active and very determined to kick her sweet tooth that she had. She had been struggling to lean out and drop the last bit of weight she wanted to get rid of. Exercise was her thing, she was a hard core runner but the nutrition was where she was struggling and the reason why she was stuck at a plateau. This picture is after her first round of the 21 day fix extreme. She lost 4.8 lbs and 6.4 inches total. She finally feels like she kicked her habit she so desperately wanted to get rid of. I love the definition she got in her arms from that first round!!! 

This is me and my belly - 9 months in and 3 years out.  The belly that carried a beautiful healthy baby boy who weighted 7 lbs 2 oz.  I ate M&M blizzards almost weekly with him and craved junk food like it was my job. I gained 57 lbs with him and really could have cared less in the moment. In my mind I just thought that was supposed to happen. When I got pregnant I weighed 105 lbs. I did not diet, I ate whatever I wanted and the only thing I had going for me was good genetics. I had simply been thin all my life. Well after he arrived that belly didn't quite go away like I wanted it to. So I waited almost 2 years to finally decide I needed a kick in the butt. I was sick of carrying around baby weight when my baby was no longer a baby rather a toddler. As you know the rest is history. I started with the 21 day fix, I have also done P90x3, Body Pump, Brazil Butt Lift, Piyo, Insanity Max 30, 21 Day Fix Extreme and now I am starting to do CIZE. I weight 120 lbs sometimes 115 but always in that range. I will never see 105 lbs again. My body is lean and muscular and I fuel it with clean, organic healthy foods. I didn't have much to lose but I needed the change more than I realized and I am now better because of Beachbody. 

If you are interested in being in my upcoming support group regardless of how much or how little you have to lose, please fill out the application below. I will be in touch shortly. 

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August - Sending Summer Out With A Bang

Sending Summer Out With A Bang 

Every month I sit down and I decide my "game plan" of what type of monthly challenge group I want to run to help my new potential challengers accomplish new healthy living habits. Typically I run one group once a month but I have decided that since it is my last month off before school starts I am going to run three - YEP I said it - I am running three groups, Why? Because I want to end the summer with a bang and I want to start my upcoming school year knowing that I made a difference in a lot of lives this last month. So here is what I will be offering this month, I so hope you will consider joining me.

August 10th - August 14th I will offer a FREE clean eating group. This is for anyone who is not currently working with a beachbody coach for anyone who has already been a challenger of mine before and wants to get refocused on clean eating. In that group I will share many tips that I have picked up along my own journey towards living a life of clean eating. In addition to tips and ideas I will also be offering plenty of healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes. I will also be sharing with you  a few of my weekly meal plans. Shakeology will not be required however participants are welcome to sign up for a week's supply of it of they wish to give it a try!

August 17th - Will be my 30 day challenge group. I am calling it Busy Women Find A Balance. This group is for the woman who laughs when I suggest starting a new fitness and eating program for fall. Your thinking yeah right honey you should see my calendar and what I am up against for fall, there is no way. The last thing you think you have time for is yourself and something new. I want to challenge you to give it a try anyways. Some of you are getting into new habits and routines for your children why don't you do the same for yourself. I will be right there with you in the trenches as I take on the start of a new school year for myself and my family. I will be coaching you along when it comes to sticking with exercise and clean eating but I will also share my dirty little secrets of a busy working woman. All my secrets that help me keep my head above water I will share with you. I will also be working on some easy meal plans with healthy quick dinner recipes. In addition I will throw in a little bit of healthy lunch box ideas and stress busters. It really will be an overall wellness group both physical and mental. Something that you can't afford not to try. Your health is the most important thing you can invest in. The other stuff really doesn't matter all that much if you don't have your health so let me teach you how to make yourself a priority again.

August 24th - August 26th - 3 Day Refresh Group
This group is for those who are not ready to commit to being in a month long challenge group but still want a kick in the butt and be able drop a quick 5 - 8 lbs. The 3 day refresh program is meant to help get you back on track if your eating habits have been off. Of course I recommend that you stay on track after you finish the program and work on keeping some great eating habits. But if you need a quick fix, this will be your best option. I was amazed with my own results when I did and it with my husbands when he did it was well.

Please fill out the application below and let me know which group you are interested in being a part of! I will be in touch shortly.

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