I'm Alive! .... And yes, I do have recipes!

Well, as some of you may know I have spent the past 2 days and 2 nights babysitting my nephews. They are 4 and 1. Let me just say WOW. First of all, I will say they are very well behaved, but boy did I learn a lot. It's hard! I am not gonna lie. I'm giving a shout out to all parents right now because kids are sure a handful- especially two of them. Overall, I had a great time, and next time you see Paul, call him the "Baby Whisperer" because that is his new nickname. It was a great experience and I am very confidant that one day Paul is going to be a great daddy, and I guess I won't be too shabby of a mom either!

The good news is, I was still able to make a couple healthy meals while the boys were here. Friday night's dinner has got to be one of my faves. Here is what is was:



Agave Mustard Chicken, Bacon Wrapped Asparagus & Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes. To. Die. For.

For the Chicken:
Place two chicken breasts in a large ziplock bag. Add 2 Tbsp Agave Nectar and 4 Tbsp Mustard. You can use which ever mustard you like, I use this kind from Trader Joe's which is a aioli garlic mustard, it's yum. Next, zip up the bag and smash everything together, make sure that you thoroughly cover the chicken and the mustard and agave are mixed well. Let that marinate for about 10 minutes. In the mean time, strike up the grill on a medium heat... Chicken cooking times will vary depending on what you use. We usually cook ours on the grill for about 9-12 minutes each side.

For the Aspargus:
Snap the ends off of your asparagus then bundle them together by wrapping one piece of bacon around them. I think I did bundles of 8 or 9. 12 asparagus spears is 1 block according to the zone so it wasn't quite one block, because I was saving room for sweet potatoes. Throw the asparagus bacon bundles on the grill once you've flipped the chicken. Try to rotate the bundles every 2 minutes or so. The bacon does a great job of flavoring the asparagus- and you don't even have to eat the bacon if you don't want to- I didn't.

For the Sweet Potatoes:
I used one sweet potato for Paul and I to split. Scrub the potato, leaving the skin on. Then slice the potato in 1/4 in slices, so they look like little round patties. Spray a cookie sheet with pam and spread those puppies out. Drizzle 2 tbsp of Olive Oil on them, then sprinkle with cinnamon. Preheat the oven to 400, cook for 30 minutes. Zone says sweet potatoes are an unfavorable carb, weighing in a 1/3 of a potato for 1 block. I eyeballed-it, thinking I had close to my 3 blocks of carbs with the asparagus.

The dinner was delish, and we were able to enjoy it with the baby in bed, and the 4 year old watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. But the fun didn't stop there!

Saturday morning what did the kids want for breakfast? PANCAKES!!!! (And Bacon, I swear my 4 year old nephew is going to turn into a piece of bacon, he loves that stuff!)



So, I got to the kitch and started by gathering the following ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/3 c oats
1/2 banana


Just blend all of the ingredients together and you have yourself a zone-ish style pancake batter! The whole batter itself came to 3 PRO blocks and 3.5 CHO blocks. Add a little butter for your fat, and there you go. I wasn't too concerned with feeding the kids in "zone portions", but I was happy to use healthier ingredients than your average Bisquick box of badness. Anyway, I just used my electric skillet on 350, flipping each pancake after about 1 minute. And, I topped the cakes with Sugar Free syrup. Probably not the best for you, but maybe better than the stuff with sugar? Who knows? That's a whole other can of worms that I am not going to get into right now...

Well, there you go! I hope you enjoy the recipes and there will be more to come! By the way, I got some great feedback from some friends about this blog over the weekend, if you ever have any questions/comments, please let me know!