I made this Instagram post a couple weeks ago about where my nutrition journey started in 2013 and a friend commented about the avocado and sun-dried tomato stuffed burger I was "food logging". Honestly, I totally remember that burger being SO tasty, so I found it and brought it back! It also brought back even more memories of all the paleo food blogs that helped get me started with my journey. It is truly my biggest hope that my blog here is that same resource for many others who are either just getting started on their nutrition journey or need some motivation and help along the way. If you are reading this, thanks for visiting the site and feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions! I didn't have it all figured out in 2013, but every year I made small improvements. That one small improvement you can make today is simply making one nutritious meal to eat, like this one. Plus, it's really delicious and now you have a weeks worth of one daily nutritious meal to eat! More about the burger though...there are only 4 ingredients plus salt and pepper. I have been eating them all week and haven't noticed the avocado turning that gross brown color either. I think the key for that is to make sure the avocado mixture is truly stuffed inside the burger and not finding it's way out the sides. Also, I have found it tough finding sun-dried tomatoes that don't have any added ingredients or preservatives in them. My recommendation is to find some fresh ones in the produce aisle or at your local natural market if you can. Let me know if you give this one a try and what you think!

Avocado and Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Burgers
Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Ground Beef
• 1 Tbsp Black Pepper
• 2 Tbsp Salt, separated
• 2 Avocados
• 1 cup Sundried Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat
2. In a bowl combine the ground beef, black pepper and 1 tbsp salt and mix well with your hands
3. Then form into very thin patties as you will be pressing two together around the stuffing
4. In a separate bowl mash the avocado and mix in the sundried tomatoes, lemon juice and 1 tbsp salt
5. Scoop some of the mixture on top of a patty, then cover with a second patty and seal around the edges, making sure none of the avocado mixture can leak out. Repeat until everything is used up.
6. Grill evenly on both sides

Original recipe found here


​My Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:

• 4-6 Sweet Potatoes (Depending on how much you want to make. 5 medium sized sweet potatoes usually gets me 6 oz of sweet potato fries for 6 meals. I think my idea of medium sized is bigger than most though.)
• Olive oil spray
• Sea salt (I love using Garlic Sea Salt!)
• Optional: Cinnamon, Paprika, any other Spices

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Skin and cut the sweet potatoes into whatever shape you want. I either do fries, wedges or circles.
3. Spray baking pan with olive oil. Lay down sweet potato fries flat (do not just dump a pile on the pan).
4. I fill my Misto with olive oil and lightly spray the fries, then add some sea salt (or whatever spices you enjoy).
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Take out of the oven and move them around or flip them over. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.
6. Keep an eye on them, if they are thin bake for less time, and vice versa. Key is to move them around or flip them over half way through baking them. I usually make mine thicker, so I bake them for at least a total of 40 minutes.

I've been prepping my moms meals for over a year now with the goal to just help improve her overall health and quality of life. Well just like in my own nutrition journey, once you find your groove with one thing you never stop and live there satisfied. Instead, this is a point where you ask yourself, "how can I make this better?". Now I'm not looking for something drastic to implement, but rather just find one small thing to improve on. With my mom, it's easy to pack her lunch and dinner with vegetables, but breakfast is more difficult. I mean really, how many vegetables can I pack into egg muffins? I decided a Super Greens supplement was worth the try to get more nutrients into her diet. I personally enjoy the original version, but I purchased the berry one to hopefully mask the "green" taste. Unfortunately, even the flavored ones are super strong tasting, so I came up with the smoothie recipe below to help mask the taste and make it a delicious smoothie she enjoys each morning. Side note, I never tell her when I implement these nutrition changes (err experiments), so she has no idea I did this, and she didn't complain once! My mom is not one to hide her distaste for foods either, so this was a huge success and indicator that the smoothie was indeed delicious!

I'll probably continue to experiment with adding other nutritious ingredients like chia seeds, berries, spinach, or even some avocado. Just use the recipe below as an outline and swap ingredients for ones you know you enjoy! I love the Vanilla Nut Paleo Protein because it has a probiotic blend in it, but I have used both the Vanilla Nut and Double Chocolate in these smoothies. Note, the chocolate flavor does cover up the green color of the smoothie better, so I might do a combination of half and half in the future. As for the Amazing Grass Super Greens, the product is organic, vegan, and free of soy and sugar. The main ingredients include wheat grass, barley grass, spirulina, a blend of antioxidants, and a blend of digestive enzymes and probiotics. For the quality and price, I prefer using this brand, but there are a ton of other super green products out there to choose from. I typically will prep the recipe below and store in mason jars in the freezer. I recommend taking one out of the freezer and leaving in the refrigerator the night before to thaw out, or you can defrost it in the microwave for 5 minutes the morning of. For those interested, I also included a snapshot of the nutrition facts below with the ingredients that I used and indicated. Let me know if you try a version of this out and what you think!

Super Green Strawberry Banana Smoothie
(Servings: 5)
Ingredients:

• 1 Can of Coconut Milk** 
• 1 Cup Water
• 5 x ½ ripe frozen Bananas (or 2½ bananas, frozen)
• 10 oz bag frozen Strawberries
• 3 Tbsp Almond Butter (or your favorite nut butter)
• 4 Tbsp Flaxseed (I used this Golden Flaxseed) 
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• 5 scoops Protein Powder (I used this Paleo Protein)
• 5 scoops Super Greens (I use Berry)

Directions:

1. Add all the ingredients to your blender. Place the lid on and puree (use the “smoothie setting” if your blender has one) until smooth and desired consistency is reached.
2. Serve immediately, or portion into freezer safe canning jars and store in the freezer for later use.
3. Enjoy!​

**Canned coconut milk is more rich in flavor, but you can also use boxed coconut or almond milk if you prefer, just check the ingredient label for one with no unwanted additives and sweeteners.

Slightly different blog post on another staple "meal prep" that I have been making for over three years now, Kombucha! I'll get more into what Kombucha is all about below, but ever since my friend helped me get started I've never looked back, and I've also continuously helped others get started as well. As I recently gave away another SCOBY (keep reading below for more on what that is) along with directions for the Kombucha making process, I realized for the amount of times I share these directions I should just make a blog post about it. SO here it is!  Leave a comment if you have any questions or need more help getting started!

What? Kombucha is a beverage produced by fermenting sweet tea with a culture of yeast and bacteria (technically referred to as a symbiotic culture of acetic acid (vinegar) bacteria and yeast, or a SCOBY), also known as probiotics. Our body's are full of good and bad bacteria, and probiotics are helpful bacteria to keeping your gut healthy!

Why? Your digestion system and gut health matter, I mean that's where your food is processed! Here are just some symptoms that suggest your gut health is not working up to par:

• Gas
• Bloating
• Inconsistent bowel movements
• Thyroid issues
• Fatigue
• Mood disorders like anxiety/depression
• Allergies / Seasonal Allergies

There are many reasons to explore as to why you might be experiencing less than optimal gut health, but one way to help is adding probioitics into your daily consumption. 

How? Making your own Kombucha is easy and extremely cost-effective (buying a bottle from the store everyday = $$$)!  Here's what you need to get started:

• Gallon-Size Glass Jar
• Tight-Weave Cheese Cloth or Paper Coffee Filter
• Something to secure the cover to the jar (rubber band or canning jar rings work well)
• 1 Cup White cane sugar
• 8 Green or Black Tea bags (I like doing half Green/half Black)
• 13-14 Cups Unfluoridated, Unchlorinated Water
• 2 Cups Starter Tea (tea from a previous batch of Kombucha) or Distilled White Vinegar 
• Active Kombucha SCOBY (click link if you do not have a SCOBY)

Optional:

• 7-8 Smaller bottles
• Fruit, ginger, peppers, spices, herbs, etc. for flavoring
• Funnel
• Small strainer

Directions:

1. Clean and dry the gallon size jar you plan on using. Add the starter tea and SCOBY into the jar.
2. In a pot, combine 4 cups of hot water and 1 cup of white cane sugar. Put on stove at medium heat. Stir around a few times. Once the sugar dissolves, take the pot off the hot burner and place 8 tea bags in the water to steep (I use organic black and green tea).
3. Leave the tea bags in for about 20 minutes then remove them. Then add 8-10 more cups of cold water so that the tea mixture cools down enough - needs to be 68-85ºF. 
4. Add this tea mixture to the gallon size jar with the starter tea and SCOBY.
5. Cover the jar with cheese cloth and place a rubber band around it.
6. Allow the mixture to sit undisturbed at 68-85°F, out of direct sunlight, for 7-30 days, or to taste. The longer the Kombucha ferments, the less sweet and more vinegary it will taste. (I usually let the mixture sit for 10 days. You can stick a straw into the mix, hold your thumb at the top of the straw to hold some tea in, then remove and taste. If it's too sweet, then continue letting it ferment.)
7. Once you are done fermenting your batch, have your 7-8 bottles ready. Add some fruit into each bottle and any other flavors you want to experiment with (ginger, peppers, spices, herbs, etc.). I always add raisins to help with carbonation in addition to some fresh frozen fruit like pineapples, blueberries, and raspberries. 
8. Once each bottle has it's flavorings in it, distribute the Kombucha from the gallon-size glass jar into each bottle, and seal air tight. **Make sure to leave at least 1-2 cups of tea in with the SCOBY so you have enough starter tea for your next batch**
9. You can either put the bottles into the fridge right away, or leave them out for a couple extra days (I personally let the bottles sit for another 3 days to carbonate more before putting into the fridge.) Once you put the bottles in the fridge (or the starter tea and SCOBY mixture), the fermentation process stops.
10. Congrats on finishing your first batch! Go back to the first step and do it all over again to begin your next batch. 

Notes: Your SCOBY grows, so every 3 or so batches I peel mine in half and save it to give to someone who might want to try making their own Kombucha. When I do this, I store the SCOBY in a clean mason jar, add some of my Kombucha tea so they have their Starter Tea, then seal the jar tight and leave it in the fridge. Again, when stored in the fridge, the fermentation process stops, so you can leave it in there until you are ready to start your batch. The optional funnel is to help pour your Kombucha into the bottles, but if you purchase a Gallon-Size Glass Jar with a dispenser then you will have a much cleaner and enjoyable time bottling your Kombucha. The optional strainer is to strain the fruit from the bottles before drinking, or you can just leave the fruit in there and answer everyone's questions as to what the hecht you are drinking, or is it Moonshine, if you want! If you do strain the fruit, you also might need the funnel to help pour the Kombucha back into the bottles. For the 7-8 smaller bottles you can get fancy and purchase your own, or when I first started I simply washed and reused Kombucha bottles that I had bought from the store. Last, but not least, for those who have never tried Kombucha or a probiotic supplement before, I highly encourage you to ease into things slowly. A cup of Kombucha or half of the prescribed probiotic amount is always a good place to start, see how your body responds, and go from there.

​If any of this digestion and gut talk sparked your interest or concerns about your health, click that nutrition coaching tab above and lets chat! 

I used this website for help when I first started making my own Kombucha and for reference in the directions above. Check it out for further information and help!