This girl is back on the Fix wagon. I finished up Hammer and Chisel a few days early so that I could join my rock star challengers with a new round on May 1st. Since I have a few newbies in the group, I decided to go to battle with them and do the 21 Day Fix again on Beachbody on Demand. I’m excited. I know this program gives me results and that is what I’m looking for! So many exciting things coming up this summer and I want to be in tip-top shape. My group truly inspires me to be better and to do better.

To celebrate my first week of the Fix, I am putting up a super easy breakfast recipe that you can make in your Instant Pot. Don’t have an Instant Pot? No problem. Make it on your stovetop. Then, go to Amazon and order your Pot! (I’m sorry, but I just love that thing.)

This recipe is a sweet twist on quinoa while still being clean and healthy. When served with berries and nuts, it makes for a hearty breakfast. Eat it up, then go get your workout done! Enjoy!

xo Jaime

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon and Beachbody, but this is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. When you use my links for purchases, you are directly helping to keep this blog afloat!

Print Recipe

21 Day Fix Approved Instant Pot Good Morning Quinoa

Servings

Ingredients

• 1 cups dry quinoa rinse well before cooking
• 2 cups Water
• 2 TBSP Maple Syrup or Honey
• 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• Dash Salt
• 3 cups Strawberries or Blueberries Use 1/2 cup per serving
• 3/4 cups Pecan Halves (roughly 10 pecan halves per serving)

Servings Ingredients 1 cups dry quinoa rinse well before cooking 2 cups Water 2 TBSP Maple Syrup or Honey 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract 1/8 tsp Nutmeg 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Dash Salt 3 cups Strawberries or Blueberries Use 1/2 cup per serving 3/4 cups Pecan Halves (roughly 10 pecan halves per serving)

Instructions

1. Pour all ingredients into inner liner bowl and stir well.
2. Set Instant Pot to one minute, high pressure. Allow a natural release.
3. Fluff with a fork before serving. Top 1/2 cup quinoa with 1/2 cup berries and 10 pecan halves.

Recipe Notes

21 Day Fix container counts: 1 Yellow, 1/2 Purple, 1 Blue

Share this Recipe

You probably already know that I love my neighbor, Sharon, since I feature her on here frequently. She loves to cook just like I do and we have a blast texting each other recipes and swapping samples. Good neighbors make life so much more fun.

Sharon texted me the other night very excited about a steel cut oats recipe she saw on The Chew. Sharon never leaves a recipe the way she found it, and neither do I. So, I took Sharon’s recipe that she had adapted from The Chew, and I made my own changes based on the ingredients I had. Of course I also had to adapt it for the Instant Pot too!

What resulted was a breakfast dish that not only tasted good, but has incredible nutritional value. As Sharon said, “If I can get high fiber, anti-inflammatory antioxidants, and a proper glycemic index all in one bowl, I’m good!” Not to mention that steel cuts oats are very filling and help keep your bowels moving.

Print Recipe

Sharon's Dang Good Oats [Instant Pot]

Course

Breakfast

Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

25 min including time to pressure and release

Servings

Ingredients

• 1 TBSP Tahini Butter
• 1 TBSP Butter
• 1 cup Steel Cut Oats
• 1 can Coconut Milk Lite or Full Fat
• 2 cups Water or fill your empty milk can
• 1 pinch Salt
• 3 TBSP Flax Meal
• 2 TBSP Maple Syrup or Honey Add more after cooking if you prefer sweeter oats
• 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Cinnamon

Course Breakfast Prep Time 5 min Cook Time 25 min including time to pressure and release Servings Ingredients 1 TBSP Tahini Butter 1 TBSP Butter 1 cup Steel Cut Oats 1 can Coconut Milk Lite or Full Fat 2 cups Water or fill your empty milk can 1 pinch Salt 3 TBSP Flax Meal 2 TBSP Maple Syrup or Honey Add more after cooking if you prefer sweeter oats 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract 1 tsp Cinnamon

Instructions

1. Set Instant Pot to Saute. Melt tahini and butter. Add oats and toast for 2 minutes, stirring continuously. Add in remaining ingredients and stir well.
2. Turn off Pot and reset on Manual HP for 3 minutes. Allow pressure to release naturally. Stir and add additional sweetener to taste. Serve hot and enjoy!

   

Recipe Notes

This recipe was adapted from one seen on The Chew.

1 cup of dry steel cut oats should only be considered 2 servings, but this is an extremely filling recipe. I could have easily fed my family of 4 and still had leftovers.

Share this Recipe

Happy Sunday, all! This weekend I am full of mixed emotions – happy and sad at the same time. Why is so hard to let go of “stuff?” The husband and I are on a mission to plow through a list of things we want to do to our house. On that list, I begrudgingly agreed to sell my bedroom suite that we have been keeping in our guest room. We decided to sell it for $500 which was ridiculously cheap for such high quality furniture, but we needed it gone fast to get started on projects in that space. I put a post on Facebook and it was sold in less than two hours, and picked up and gone in less than 24 hours.

I got that furniture when I moved back to Nashville after a rough patch in my life in ’05. It went with me from my downtown Nashville apartment to crashing in a basement belonging to my late friend, Gary. From there, it went to a house that my best friend, Ted, let me pick out for him sight unseen in the Germantown district of Nashville (he was living in Africa). After three years there, it went to my future husband’s house. Finally, it ended up in the house I now call home with FotoJo and our two boys. Throughout a lot of changes in my life, that bedroom set was the one thing I “owned.” I knew I had a bed wherever I would land. It was kind of like the “everything’s gonna be alright” furniture. High quality and familiar no matter where it was. After settling in our new home, it was replaced by a bigger and better set and and sat pretty much unused for that three years except for the occasional house guest. We now have big plans for that guest room – a Murphy bed so we can utilize the room more efficiently and a place for a massage chair that we have always wanted to buy. In order to make room for change, I had to say goodbye to something I loved. Isn’t it that way with so many things in life? It’s hard to explain to other people why you hold so tightly to material things, but it shouldn’t make you feel bad to have those feelings. Only you understand why your “stuff” means so much. At the same time, you have to allow yourself to grow and change, and that means sometimes letting go and moving on. The lady that bought the furniture just bought a house in Nashville and I know she will take good care of the set. I hope it becomes her “everything’s gonna be alright” furniture too.

Geez, who knew I could get so deep about furniture? How about we lighten this post up with some yummy pancakes? I’ve been experimenting with these ‘cakes for quite a while and I think I’m pretty close with this recipe. Before you make these, however, I need to give you fair warning. If you are expecting these to be the same texture as your Cracker Barrel pancakes, don’t even bother. They are more egg-y than fluffy, but they are tasty and very moist. Best of all, they soak up your maple syrup in the most perfect way. I have even eaten them topped with some savory meats like Beef Barbacoa to add a unique twist to dinner.

Important note: Because these are heavy in the egg department, you absolutely must cook these at a medium temperature or they will burn.

Modern Day Fox Paleo Sweet ‘Tater Cakes

(Makes 10 – 3″ pancakes)

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 mashed sweet potato (about one large potato)

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBSP Tapioca Flour

2 TBSP Coconut Flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

Big pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

First, cook your sweet potato until soft and peel skin. I used my Instant Pot and put my potato in my steamer basket. I added one cup of water to the stainless steel liner pot, and set the pot to 25 min HP with QR. The peel slid off easily. Mash the potato until smooth and let cool.  When cooled, mix in eggs and vanilla extract in a medium size bowl. In a separate small bowl, mix the remainder of the ingredients. Then, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until thoroughly blended.

Preheat a lightly greased griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Drop batter mixture onto the prepared griddle forming 3.5″ pancakes, and cook until golden brown (approximately 2 minutes per side), turning once with a spatula. It is important to cook over medium heat so that pancakes do not burn. Recipe yields about 10 3.5″ pancakes.

If you like some crunch in your cakes, add pecans in the batter or on top! I love to top these with Enjoy Life dairy-free chocolate chips for a breakfast dessert!

21 DAY FIX counts – 2 pancakes equal 1 YELLOW, 1/2 Red

Please welcome, Kelley Anne, who will be contributing posts related to her journey into the world of auto-immune deficiencies and allergies. This is her first post in this series.

“You could live forever on that breakfast alone,” Emma’s doctor enthusiastically exclaimed.

To say that having a doctor who is supportive of “let food be thy medicine” is an understatement. My 13-year old daughter, Emma, had two bouts of Epstein-Barr Virus (ages 9 & 11) and ever since has lived with chronic fatigue, chronic stomach issues, food sensitivities, sleep disturbances, and anxiety. A year ago I was told by a doctor that she was an “autoimmune kid” and that perhaps there aren’t tests that are sensitive enough to detect WHICH autoimmune condition she was going to end up with.

Seriously?

I’m just supposed to sit back and wait for my daughter to be stricken with an incurable autoimmune disease where her body attacks itself beyond the point of self-repair? No. I refuse.

So, I am diving head first into nutrition plans that support the reduction of inflammation, which I hope will allow her body to rest and heal. Because she has always been drawn to meat, fruits, and veggies, and is allergic to milk and wheat, it was very easy to see that a Paleo lifestyle was right up her alley. Then, I read The Autoimmune Solution, by Dr. Amy Myer, and she takes Paleo to the next level with her variation of the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP). At the moment, I am incorporating both Paleo and AIP recipes into Emma’s daily nutrition plan and keeping close watch to see if her symptoms decrease.

The Instant Pot has changed everything for me as I try to heal my precious girl. I can quickly put together our favorite sweet treat (adapted and inspired from Jennifer Robins’ Paleo Cooking in the Instant Pot Breakfast Cobbler recipe) that has our doctor’s stamp of approval. “Can I have my apples?” is asked by every member of the family every day — this stuff is good! I make a huge batch of “apples” that lasts us two days. The dairy-free yogurt topping has yet to be perfected, but I’m working on it!

(Note from Jaime: When I made this recipe and photographed it, I added pecans. Nuts are not included in Kelley’s recipe for obvious reasons!)

Kelley’s Allergy-Free “Apples”

INGREDIENTS:

4 apples, 4 pears, & 4 plums, chopped
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 dashes ground nutmeg
1 dash ground cloves
1 tsp gluten free vanilla extract (not AIP)
2 heaping tbsp raw, local honey
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp vegan “butter”

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all ingredients in the Instant Pot, Steam for 12 minutes, and quick release. Remove the lid and switch to Sauté to cook out all the extra moisture. Sometimes it can take a good 10 minutes, but it all depends on how juicy the fruit was to begin with!

I serve 1/2 cup (warmed up or cold) with 2 tbsp yogurt topping. If you tolerate raw coconut, a sprinkle on top is fun! If you tolerate nuts, be like Jaime and add some! Just be sure the ingredients are clean! You’d be surprised what manufacturers sneak into coconut, for example. Just FYI, I had to buy organic coconut from Publix in order for it to be certified gluten free. Eye roll!!

I wish I could offer you a perfected non-dairy IP yogurt recipe, but I just don’t have it yet. I recently ordered a vegan yogurt starter from Amazon and I hope that does the trick! What I have been making gives us the probiotics we need, but the texture is gritty. I’ll get back to you as soon as I make a smooth, tart, vegan yogurt that excites the whole family!

My number one priority is the health and safety of my family, myself included! I know that food has the ability to hurt us or to heal us. I intend to keep searching for ways to change my daughter’s “fate.” I believe the answer is in the food she eats. Have you allowed medicine to be thy food?

Love and light,

Kelley Anne

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links for products I use and love. All opinions are my own with no sponsorships unless indicated. If you use these links, you help support this blog!

Another post from my lovely neighbor, Sharon!

(Post and photography contributed by Sharon Harrod)

A Tennessee snow day means a cooking day for me! This recipe is my take on BAKED EGGS from “The Chew.” It starts with a delicious tomato basil garlic sauce in the bottom of a ramekin, an egg in the middle, and topped with Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. The tomatoes in these baked eggs add many vitamins and beta carotene which act as antioxidants, so this recipe could also be a nice addition to your morning menu. This breakfast offers a yummy change from your tired scrambled eggs!

Baked Eggs (Adapted from The Chew)

Ingredients
1 28 ounce can of organic crushed, diced, or whole tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons roasted garlic

2 tablespoons fresh or dried basil

6 eggs

1 Cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

Directions:
First, pour a 28 ounce can of crushed, diced or whole tomatoes into your Vitamix or whatever pureeing device you own. I use organic tomatoes.

Next, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of fresh or dried basil. The Chew recipe called for fresh basil and raw garlic however I believe that the roasted garlic adds another level of flavor. I always roast a couple of heads of garlic and then squeeze the garlic out. I keep them in a container in my refrigerator to use as needed. I also had a massive amount of Basil in my garden this year so I dried it and then crumble it into my recipes throughout the winter. Blend thoroughly.

Pour the sauce into medium sized ramekins or small baking dishes. Crack an egg over the sauce. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese over the egg and salt and pepper.

Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until the egg center is to your liking.

Top with fresh basil and serve.

Enjoy every cheesy bite!