There is nothing like hanging with the friends with who you have real history. Last week I jumped at the chance to go visit my besties, Kelley and Jake, in Fort Rucker for a quick 36 hour stay. We all went to college together and I remember when they first met. I even sang “Sin Wagon” at their wedding reception like a true friend should. When we get together, laughter ensues. It is like we never miss a beat. This visit was no different.

One thing that Kelley, Jake, and I have always had in common is our love for food. We can pig out like nobody’s business. In honor of the holiday, Christmas Eve Eve (yep, the day before Christmas Eve), we prepared a feast. Jake slapped chicken on their fancy Traeger Smoker, and Kelley and I prepped the sides. I had seen a beautiful post by one of my favorite bloggers, Juli Bauer, of PaleOMG, for her Sweet Potatoes and wanted to give it a go. It was a super easy recipe, and fit the dietary needs of Kelley’s family who try to steer clear of gluten and dairy.

Check out the full recipe here!

First, we thinly sliced the sweet potatoes which probably would have been easier with mandolin.

We arranged them around the cast iron skillet.

Meanwhile, Kelley mixed the maple syrup, sugar, oil, and ghee for the glaze. She also chopped fresh rosemary which offered a wonderful holiday aroma.

She drizzled them on the taters.

And had a little company while she did it!

We placed them in the oven to bake.

I mixed up the pecan yumminess that would be the topping.

We pulled the skillet out and added the pecan topping, and then placed back into the oven to bake. The smell was heavenly!

Rosemary made a beautiful garnish!

This made a lovely dish, both aesthetically and in flavor. The peels left on the sweet potato were a little chewy, so I think made next time I might do a partial peel just to tone it down a bit. That didn’t stop me from devouring a couple servings along with the some of the best smoked chicken I’ve ever eaten.

I hated that I had to eat and run, but right after dinner I had to hit the road back to Tennessee to prepare for Santa. Friends and fabulous food- it was worth the six hour drive!

Check out PaleOMG for thousands of wonderful Paleo and/or gluten-free recipes peppered with a lot of hilarity in Juli’s writing! She also has three wonderful cookbooks available on Amazon. Thanks, Juli, for yet another wonderful treat!

If you try Juli’s recipe, let me know what you think in the comments!

xo Jaime

You guys really inspired me after your response to my last meal prep post on social media! Apparently, there is demand for this type of content so I happily made another post.
Here is a link to a video I created documenting the whole process:

Here are the instructions for cooking:

Hardboiled Eggs (using This Old Gal recipe)

1 cup water, eggs in steamer basket 2 min High Pressure, NPR, and Done!

Whole Chicken (modified from Healing Gourmet recipe)

Remove gizzards and season well on both sides.

Using Sauté setting on Normal, place breast side down and brown in 1 TBPN coconut oil for 6 minutes.

Flip chicken and add one cup chicken stock to the pot.

Manual High Pressure for 25 min (although I might do 24 min next time) with NPR

(Reserve your broth!)

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Pour 1 cup broth from your chicken into pot.

Add Potatoes in your mesh steam pot (or on trivet) inside pot.

Manual High Pressure 10 min with NPR
Cooked Carrots

1 cup broth from your chicken

1 bag of carrots in your mesh steam pot

3 min Manual High Pressure with QR

Divide into your Tupperware using your color-coded portion containers!

1 Red (chicken), 1 Yellow (potato), 1 Green (carrots) and 1 teaspoon if you add butter or oil to your potato

I used the hard boiled egg for a snack. One egg is half a Red and I will eat it with a piece of fruit which is one Purple!

What’s in your pot??

As always, hit me up if you want to know more about 21 Day Fix! Let’s get in shape together!

xo Jaime

My Instant Pot is my newest obsession. It is a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, a yogurt maker and more. It cuts a lot of time off prepping meals. I put this post together for all you of you fellow dieters out there who meal prep (and need to balance out all those delicious Instant Pot cheesecakes)! Easy meal prep in the Instant Pot that actually tastes good! 
This makes four meals and when portioned out to the 21 Day Fix meal plan, each meal equals the following: 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Green and one orange if you use the barbecue sauce.

Brown Basmati Rice – 1 cup brown basmati rice, 1 1/4 cup water, teaspoon butter, big pinch of sea salt

Manual, High Pressure, 22 min with QR

Chicken Breast – 2 cup chicken stock, three chicken breast with seasonings of your choice, put the chicken in the broth, Manual High Pressure 12 min with QR

Fresh Steamed Broccoli – Use chicken stock that’s in the pot from the chicken, 3 cups of fresh broccoli in your steam basket, Manual Low Pressure 0 min, QR

**I still haven’t completely mastered steaming fresh broccoli. My first batch overcooked so I made cream of broccoli soup with it. My second batch was better (user error first time around) but it was still a little more done than I’d prefer. Any suggestions welcome! ***

Here is a photo of my cream of broccoli soup that ended up being a happy mistake! I just used two cups milk, two cups chicken stock, a couple tablespoons flour and a tablespoon butter. Seasoned it up well and mixed it in my Vitamix. Added some cheddar cheese at my husband’s request! Not clean eating, but great for a winter’s evening!

Back to the meal prep:

Portion out into four containers, brush on some BBQ sauce if you want. There you go… four healthy meals in your fridge to help you stick to your diet goals!

I also made a video on my Modern Day Fox YouTube channel. Check it out here:

Happy prepping in your IP!

Have prepping ideas? Share them in the comments!

xo Jaime

In the past year and a half, I have really made my fitness a priority. For me to try to inspire people to be their best without committing to being my own best is just dishonest. I jumped on the Beachbody band wagon after a best friend had fabulous results from 21 Day Fix. Seeing her transformation of both mind and body got my attention. Since that time, I have done three rounds of the 21 Day Fix, two rounds of Hard Corp 22, and just recently one round of Beachbody’s newest program, Core De Force. Four months ago, I even decided that I loved Beachbody so much I would become a “coach.” My decision had little to do with money (although being able to pay for my  monthly shakes was definitely motivating), but more so my desire to share these totally awesome, manageable programs with my friends! I didn’t want to keep that a secret!

I was hyped about the release of the MMA inspired program, Core De Force. I had tried Combat which was similar in that it included boxing. But, between the over-excited trainers and the choreographed almost dance-like moves, I didn’t last long. (I had friends who absolutely loved it, but it wasn’t for me.) Core De Force seems to have a less formal feel, and trainers that I find calm and inspiring. The nutrition plan was very similar to that of 21 Day Fix, albeit a little more strict. You are still sent the color coded containers which make portioning out food groups a breeze. It comes with a sample meal plan, and there is a host of meal plans online available for free. I also made one for Week One which you can try out:

Now, let me warn you about the workouts. Some of them are freaking hard. The first day you start out with MMA Speed and it is 27 minutes long and you think to yourself, “Oh hell yeah, I’m gonna own this.” And then, day two rolls around with Dynamic Strength and you’re like, “Whaaaaaa???” Push-ups in formations I have never even considered and it is 47 minutes long. It is a beast! As the workouts went on, I enjoyed the pace and found myself getting less clumsy with the combinations. Just about every other day, the workouts alternated between combination and conditioning. I’m not gonna lie – I enjoyed the combination workouts way more, but I did build a lot of strength as a result of the conditioning. My favorite combo workouts were MMA Power and MMA Plyo. You really can’t help but feel like a bad-ass when you are kicking, punching, and jumping across the room. It was a great release of aggression. In addition to the combos and conditioning, there were active recovery workouts and core-focused workouts like 5 Minute Core on the Floor.

Later in program, the required workouts start doubling up. This is where things got tricky for me. I admit that I’ve been spoiled by the thirty minute 21 Day Fix workouts and especially by the 22 Minute Hard Corp. Anything over 30 minutes for me feels like a lifetime, and actually is hard for me to fit into my current schedule. If there is one thing I’d change, it would be just to make the workouts each day no longer than 45 minutes. But, that’s just my preference!

Now, on to what everyone wants to know! What were my results? I did this program at a tough time during the month of November. I thought the only thing I would have to deal with was Thanksgiving, but then sadly I had a cousin pass away and made an unexpected trip to Florida for his funeral. I also ended up having to work in Maryland, so my whole family decided to travel up with me and spend Thanksgiving with my family. While I did 30 days of workouts in Core De Force, I have to be honest and say that I did not stay on track everyday. I still lost a couple inches off my waist and lost about 4 lbs. At this time of year, that is great!  Check out my before and afters here:

And here are my before and afters from when I started 22 Minute Hard Corp in April, until now. I am so happy with my transformation in 7 months!

I will be starting a Beachbody Challenge Group on Facebook on January 4th. Hit me up if you are interested in transforming your health in 2017. I will help you find a program that fits your needs, and I will support you through it!

xo Jaime

On Day Two, we met in the hotel lobby and headed to our Demo Class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. It was a fantastic experience that I highly recommend. The Chef, Big Kevin, was 6’9 and 410 lbs! (He told us!) He taught us how to prepare Shrimp and Artichoke Soup, Crawfish Etoufee Rice, and Pralines. And, the best part was we got to eat everything he made. He was very engaging and entertaining, and stayed after to hug us and sign our cookbooks.

After the class, four of us headed to the Atlantis Spa for some pampering. I booked a massage and facial. It was wonderful and relaxing. I only wished I would have booked this on the last full day and not the first! All of the walking we did kind of cancelled out the massage.

We had plans to have a picnic by the river in the early evening, but the rain made other plans. Instead we stopped by Central Grocery so I could get a famous Muffaletta. Yum. The rest of the girls wanted to eat at Jax Brewhouse. I split some brisket cheese fries with Jenny, and they were so good that they made up for the horrible odor in the place. The French Quarter is full of scents, and many of them are not very pleasant!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to get gussied up. I made everyone let me take a portrait of them out in the street, and they were super excited about that. From there, we went to the famous Pat O’Brien’s dueling piano bar. Somehow, we scored a front row table! We had a blast singing along and talking with the folks sitting around us. The Hurricanes were nice and strong too! Lori Brown flew in to NOLA that night and joined us around 10pm at the bar. After all of that excitement, we were nicely buzzed and sleepy so we headed back to the hotel. It was a great day from beginning to end.

Stay tuned for Day Three…