Back to Reality with Sizzlefish + WIAW

November 20, 2013 By Laura

Competition diets aren’t realistic. long-term

Disclosure: The following post is sponsored by Fitfluential LLC on behalf of Sizzlefish.

Eating like I have been leading up to my competition was a short-lived reality… again, it isn’t how you should eat forever. This week I’m thrilled that food is back to being fun again this week. I haven’t had time for a proper grocery store run, but I’ve had some help!

Sizzlefish provided me with a Sizzlefish sampler of their Omega-3 Protein Mix. It included Coho salmon, Atlantic salmon, sablefish, rainbow trout, catfish, Atlantic cod, haddock, and catfish.

Did you know that studies have shown that a diet high in fish, particularly fish high in Omega 3 fatty acids, enhances athletic performance and health?

My fish were frozen at the peak of quality, pre-portioned, and shipped on dry ice to have on-hand when I was back to “normal” food. After cutting fat, I couldn’t bust into this fast enough!

I came home late from a crazy work day, it was the perfect thing to quickly cook up. I was surprised by how fresh the frozen fish was! Check out my dinner below for more.

Side note: wouldn’t this make a an awesome holiday gift?! Mamma may be received a Christmas shipment from Sizzlefish…

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Since I haven’t done a full re-stock yet, this isn’t quite a normal WIAW, but it’s much improved from last week!

Read on for my eats, and then check out Jenn’s blog for everyone else delicious creations!

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Breakfast:

My healthiest addiction began my day – Aminos and ACV morning cocktail.

Breakfast is not long turkey or chicken – hooray! I traveled all the way from Colorado with this almost-empty jar of Justin’s almond butter in order to make overnight oats in a jar. Can you believe Heather’s hubby was going to throw it away?! All that nutty deliciousness hiding at the bottom of a mixture of oats, Greek yogurt, and goji berries laced with cinnamon and ginger.

Mid-Morning Snack:

Lisa, my competition buddy and co-worker, surprised me with homemade cocoa cookie bites. I asked if they were “healthy” and she said they are all-organic. Works for me! 😉

See the black dot on my pinky? That’s where I slammed a weight on my hand 3 weeks ago! Blood blisters are the gift that keeps on giving.

Lunch:

A quick trip to Whole Foods the night before resulted in a lunch of smoked rotisserie chicken mixed with shallots, paprika, nutritional yeast, ACV, and pepper over a slice of sesame Ezekial bread, mustard, and spinach.

This was the first time I’d seen smoked chicken at Whole Food – it is the best rotisserie I’ve ever gotten there!

Mid-Afternoon Snack:

Think Thin was nice enough to send me a little treat a few weeks back. I hadn’t gotten to dive into the box yet, but it has come in handy this week! I really enjoyed the Caramel Fudge flavor as a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. With the rest of the cookies from earlier…

Dinner:

Dinner was when I enjoyed my Sizzlefish. I got home really late, but was still able to have a good dinner! I couldn’t decide whether I wanted salmon or trout, so I had both. Life is short, why choose?

I had put them in the fridge the night before to haw, so when I got home I tossed them under the broiler with lemon juice and pepper for about 7 mins along with roasted veggies I’d picked up from Whole Foods.

Dessert:

I feel really lame… but I wasn’t hungry for dessert after eating dinner at 10pm. Instead, I had another holiday kombucha and called it a night.

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I am so very excited to buy all of the foods at the international market this weekend! Grocery shopping should be an Olympic sport. I’d medal.

Have you ever had frozen seafood? What is your favorite?

Have you started thinking about holiday shopping yet? Would you gift food? I couldn’t believe it when I realized Thanksgiving is next week!

Strange But Good: My Favorite Things

October 4, 2013 By Laura

3 years is a long time.

This blog is my longest commitment. Kidding… sort of.

In 3 years, I have learned a LOT! I didn’t have a clear vision outside of “food” when I began. I was playing roller derby, drinking a lot of beer with the occasional side of Waffle House, and trying to be a runner. 3 years later, I no longer play derby, I don’t run half as much as I did, and I’ve competed in 2 figure competitions (with 2 more just a month away – eep!). I also drink less beer, and am about 15 pounds lighter. Waffle House still happens after every figure competition though. 😉

#strangebutgood #yolkporn

In the beginning, no one read my blog except my mom. Now more people read ~~and my mom doesn’t~~. I remember my first comment from a stranger. It was from Tina – I was so excited!!! 3 years late, I’m honored today to call her a friend. I’m honored to call a LOT of my favorite bloggers friends. This is an inspiring, motivated community full of diversity, humor, and FUN.

End mush. Begin giveaway.

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On the last day of my Blogiversay Favorite Things week of giveaways, I wanted to share ALL the things! Rather than giving you a #strangebutgood recipe, I’m giving you things to make your own strangeness!

I am sooooo excited about this. Trying new things is a sport to me, so hopefully I’ll be able to share something new with one of you!

Some things aren’t so much strange as they are staples, or representative of things I love. Other items are in the pile because people are always asking where I get ingredients (I’ll be your dealer!).

House of Payne tank top – This is from my gym! The shirt is this style (it’s a small, but I can check if you need M or L). I love Steve Payne and his crew. Check them out here.
Peanut Flour – You all know I am having an intense love affair with this stuff. I like it better than PB2 (and others) because it’s less processed. The only ingredient is peanuts (no preservatives, sodium, sugar, etc). If you don’t win it, you can order your own from iHerb. Use discount code USO924 for $5-10 off your order!
Flavors – There are SO many ways you can flavor your food without salt, sugar, and other unhealthy things! These are a few of my favorites:

Olive oil from local farmers Sweetwater Growers. They have a variety of flavors, but rosemary gets me every time.
Butter extract – I find it at Whole Foods, but I know several of you haven’t been able to locate it. I’ve used it in Cookie Dough Oatmeal, Cauliflower Protein Pancakes, Oatmeal Cookie Protein Shakes, a healthy Everything Schmer for your bagel… it’s also awesome with the peanut flour.
Asian Seasoning – I’m not really sure what it is, but it’s good and it involves chili pepper. It’s one of the many random things I’ve located at Atlanta’s giant farmer’s markets.

Treats – These aren’t exactly the picture of healthy, but when I’m feeling snacky they sure hit the spot! And they aren’t the worst things in the world. Everyone knows and loves Quest bars. The Brownie is my favorite (cut in squares and baked for 10 min on 350). Vega’s Savi Seeds are a crunchy-salty satisfier. Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cup… I don’t think I need to explain this deliciousness. Lastly, my favorite gum. I cannot workout without it! Extra seems to be the longest lasting.
Burdock Root Crisps – I have no idea what this is. I got them to represent my love of the international farmer’s market and trying new things. Let me know how they are! 😉
Cherry-Flavored Dried Cranberries – I cannot stand dried fruit. Except for these funky-flavored things. Specifically, I love them in my…

Granola Cookies! Old picture because I haven’t made them yet… I will ship you a fresh batch. They can be made vegan and/or gluten-free upon request.

Thanks for helping me celebrate this week! Don’t forget the giveaway for my favorite protein powder, Growing Naturals, is still open through the weekend too
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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How have you enjoyed making co-workers, friends, or family stare with strange but good creations this week? The link up rules can be found here or by clicking on “Strange But Good” in the menu bar above. In short, I want to see what concoctions have earned you weird looks from co-workers, family and friends! Post your Strange But Good creations, grab the logo below for your blog, and link up here.

Remember to use #strangebutgood in any Tweets and Instagrams of your creations. 🙂

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I'll take a break from giveaways and get back to recipes next week. In the mean time, check out the Strange But Good link ups!

What would you try first out of this bag of my favorite schwag? Hee hee. I rhymed.

If you were going to send a box to someone that represents you, what would you include?

What I Ate at Blend

May 22, 2013 By Laura

Everyone in a while you meet total strangers who aren’t.

I swear that made sense in my head…

I hope I’m not the only one that feel like they “know” bloggers. So many of the fabulous ladies I met at Blend this past weekend are bloggers I’ve been reading for so long that I felt like they were my “real” friends already!

First, I have to say a huge THANK YOU to Janetha, Lindsay (with credits for the following pic), and Katie for putting together another life-changing weekend!

Heather, Me, and Lindaay

Second, I owe a big thanks to Growing Naturals for sponsoring me at the retreat. These guys are truly a great example of a small business offering good, clean products.

I was so thrilled to share their pea and rice protein powders and their protein drink mixes with my friends. More on their products here.

I know Bonnie was extra-excited to try this after the 9 mile run they did in the chilly Park CIty rain!

My friend Heather already used hers and shared a pic on Instagram:

It was also the start of my first post-workout recovery meal.

The vanilla rice protein was fabulous in my green smoothie (extra spinach!) topped with Muesli Fusion:

Stay tuned – this fall they are coming out with a new addition to their protein/supplement line – yummy greens to throw into shakes!!!

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Rather than a “traditional” WIAW post, today is all about What I Ate at Blend! We were totally spoiled all weekend, and I’m still enjoying all the tasty schwag-bag selections at home. 🙂

Check out my eats with my Blends below, and then click here to head over to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons to get to see what delicious foods everyone else is enjoying!

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Friday:

We arrived at the hotel excited and famished from travel. Famished. The schwag gods were smiling though… check out all the goodies we had to munch on: protein from Vega, Zevia, SoyJoys, a Lara Bar, muesli and granola from Bob’s Red Mill, Attune Foods chocolates, Healthy Bites (so in love)…. and more!

After a photo ops, we gabbed, snacked… and headed to event #1: a pre-happy hour with Justin’s Nut Butter! I was careful to sample everything, but stopped for a pic with one of the lovely organizers – Katie!

My top butters were: Maple Peanut and Chocolate Hazelnut. They were even better on Attune Foods graham crackers. All I needed was some apple juice.

The kind folks at Silk must have wanted to make absolutely sure the Blends were happy, so they set up a Happy Hour where we could unwind from travel ~~and begin the photo-taking frenzy~~. Heather was patient enough to take a gorgeous pic of her ginger-Silk drink.

There was also an amazing buffet of black bean cakes, veggie summer rolls, and cute veggie sticks in jars (how did they know bloggers like Mason jars?!). Let’s pretend like I didn’t attack this… the temptation was too tasty and I couldn’t wait until dinner! Plus, we all know it’s bad to drink on an empty tummy. 😉

Dinner itself was off the chain. It was a buffet… but a good buffet. Normally I’m anti due to the rogue dirty hands and food sitting out too long. That didn’t happen here. My Blends were nice and clean, and the hotel staff couldn’t have done a better job and keeping the food refreshed.

There were salad options, quinoa patties, roasted veggies, chicken breasts, and lemon-y fish filets. There was literally something for everyone! And it was all good!

No dinner is complete without dessert! there was Chobani panna cotta, apple pie, and berry tarts.

A few of us decided to split all 3… which I graciously finished off. Starving kinds in Africa, you know.

Thanks to Lindsay for this artful photo.

Saturday:

One would think that after all that I’d still be full… well, GPP Fitness fixed that with a little workout that left me waddling. More on that tomorrow but let me just say 200 burpees (I did refuse to yell “Yay burpees!” after each rep as instructed) is a certain cure for lack of appetite.

The highlight of breakfast for me was getting to try a new granola – Muesli Fusion. They have an “Athlete’s Fuel” mix that rocks my socks off. NO added sugar or sodium, and 7g of protein per serving. It’s like they designed it for me. I poured my unsweetened Silk all over that! There was a ton of fresh fruit (holy pineapple deliciousness), and a fabulously strong brew from Green Mountain coffee.

Then we had another workout! Zoomba. I’ll spare you the pics of this white girl shaking her thang… until tomorrow. 😉 Following that we did what any normal blogger does – we went to Whole Foods. I totally failed at life and didn’t take a pic.

I DID take a pic of the snack break that followed – Onnit provided us with some amazing chocolate-banana hemp protein smoothies and rice cakes with cashew-walnut butter (totally crave-worthy). What’s better than these blogger staples? Getting them handed to you by Miss United States! Whitney is one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met. How cute is she?!

And then there was dinner. Calee, Michelle, Heather, Heather, Heather (that’s not a typo – there were 3 beautiful Heathers) found an amazing restaurant on Main St. in Park City called Riverhorse. The food was incredible.

We started with a great Pinot Noir, chosen by fellow-wine lover Michelle (who I will gush about meeting later) and a beet salad served with micro greens, brie cheese, and a potato crisp with tarragon vinaigrette. Calee and I split the Trio of Wild Game for our entrée. It came with buffalo, venison chop, and elk over broccolini and asparagus with a port wine and huckleberry reduction.

I was nice and full… but when I saw the dessert menus I had to place one more order. Peanut Butter Bread Pudding with caramelized bananas and a chocolate drizzle. Can you blame me? 🙂

Every dish was near perfection. Lucky because our server was terrible. I swear I have the worst luck. She basically ignored us all night, added 20% gratuity (for a party of 6 who was clearly spending money… WTF?!), and when Heather asked about the charge (there was NO warning note on the menu) she snatched the bill out of Heather’s hand and stalked off. We tipped the man refilling our waters in cash on the side and spoke to the manager on the way out.

Like I said, the food was great. That combined with the fantastic company made for a great evening and we laughed about our crazy experience all the way back to the hotel (the cab driver was thoroughly entertained).

Sunday:

Holy breakfast heaven. This was the best breakfast out of any Blend Retreat. They had an omelette station!!! Protein at breakfast?! Color me happy. Thank you for this sponsored deliciousness, Chobani!

I got an egg white omelette with mushrooms, garlic, onions, and spinach. And a Chobani yogurt pancake. And fruit. I wanted ALL the foods! 😉

Be sure to check the #blend2013 hashtag on Twitter and Instagram for more action from the weekend!

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I snacked my way back to ATL with schwag bag goodies, and (obv) hit the Whole Foods hot bar immediatly after getting home. 😉

Soooo… are you all going to come to Blend next year with me?

Have you ever tried any of these fun products? What are you loving right now?

Back to Reality with Sizzlefish + WIAW

Breakfast:

Mid-Morning Snack:

Lunch:

Mid-Afternoon Snack:

Dinner:

Dessert:

Strange But Good: My Favorite Things

What I Ate at Blend

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

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