Today is one of those days…I have been dragging since the moment I woke up. It definitely didn’t help that my husband and I stayed up late watching the first episode “Revenge” (of this season) last night, but it was SO good! In addition, my body just feels tired and somewhat rundown, so I don’t know if I am fighting a bug or coming down with something (hopefully not!). Needless to say, I’ve loaded up on vitamin C and started Zicam! I am planning to head to bed early tonight and hopefully feel better tomorrow.
Before I talk about our day, I have to share this picture of Keenan. He had SO much fun playing in this box last night that we received from Target, for my friend’s baby gift! I am thinking of making it into a car or train for him…any other ideas?
Enjoying his box!
As promised, here are the recipes for the almond flour flaxseed pizza crust and pumpkin muffins:
Our beautiful pizza before it went into the oven the second time!
Almond Flour Flaxseed Pizza Crust:
(Adapted from the Paleo Plan)
Ingredients:
– 1-1/4 cups flaxseed (ground)
– 1 cup almond flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 tsp baking powder
– 1 Tbs honey
– 1 tsp Italian seasoning
– 1 tsp garlic no-salt seasoning from Costco
– 3 large eggs, beaten until smooth
– 3 Tbs olive oil
– 2 Tbs water
– toppings of choice
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 425° F.
2. Combine flaxseed, almond flour, salt, baking powder and seasonings until smooth.
3. Beat eggs, oil, honey and water until smooth.
4. Pour liquid mixture into dry ingredients.
5. Press into desired shape and poke a few holes in the dough with a fork.
6. Place on a pre-greased or non-stick pizza pan or on parchment paper on a pizza stone.
7. Bake for 15 minutes in the center of the oven until cooked.
8. Add your favorite toppings, return the pizza to the oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes.
*Notes: Remember to poke holes in the dough before baking, otherwise your crust will have large bubbles, thus making it hard for the toppings to stay on (this is what happened to our pizza!).
Mixing the ingredients all together to form the pizza dough.
Forming the pizza crust prior to baking it.
Pumpkin Almond Flour Muffins:
(Adapted from the Paleo Plan)
Ingredients:
– 1 cup almond flour
– 1 cup canned pumpkin
– 2 eggs
– 1/4 cup almond butter
– 1/4 cup honey
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend well.
3. Coat muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and divide batter among six cups.
4. Bake for 32-35 minutes or until muffins are cooked all the way through.
*Notes: Oven baking times vary, so set your timer for 27-28 minutes to check and then (if needed), bake for an additional few minutes. My muffins were done in 28 minutes. Also, this an easy recipe to involve your kids! Keenan was my “baking assistant” and loved putting the ingredients into the bowl and mixing everything all together.
Fresh out of the oven!
This morning, Keenan woke up requesting to watch “Elmo’s World” on my nook in our bed, so we spent some family time cuddling in bed watching Elmo! It was nice because my husband and I were not quite ready to get out of bed yet. But, I have to say the past few mornings have been nice nice because Keenan has been waking up at his usual time again, 7:30! Anyhow, after we got out of bed and made our way downstairs, we had breakfast, our “
usual” and then played with legos, before getting dressed and heading to the park with our friends.
His lego house!
The boys were SO excited to see each other, it was too cute! After playing at the park for a while, we headed home and had lunch. Keenan had his favorite: peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich with a couple of baby carrots and a glass of milk. Yesterday, he ate a baby carrot without spitting it out, so I think with his two top molars, he can now eat raw carrots! I’m so excited because it makes my life easier! 🙂 For my lunch, I made myself an
Egg White Florentine in a Mug topped with some pasta sauce and a side of leftover grilled zucchini. I craved something sweet, so Keenan and I shared a small peach. A little while later, I also enjoyed an iced coffee, since I didn’t have time to make a latte this morning.
After Keenan’s nap, we are heading to CrossFit (as usual). Yesterday’s workout was tough. The WOD was 3 rounds of: 21 deadlifts of 95 lbs (not bad), 15 pullups and 9 hang cleans (95 lbs). I didn’t have time to eat a snack prior to going to the gym, so I was “out of gas” before starting the workout (not a good thing!). I was able to finish in under the time cap at 12 minutes and 37 seconds (the time cap was 20 minutes), but it wasn’t a great. Lesson learned: I need to make time for a pre-workout snack, no matter what! Today’s workout should be interesting. My husband went to the morning class and told me about it, so I am already dreading it! The WOD includes a mile run followed by as many rounds as possible of 26 over-the-box burpee jumps, 16 grasshoppers and 6 back squats (135 lb). We’ll see how it goes…
After dinner, I’m excited to pick-up the book, “Paleoista,” at the library. I requested it a couple of months ago, so I can’t wait to finally read it. I have heard some good things about it, especially the recipes it contains. For dinner tonight, I am trying something new in my crock pot: chicken topped with chopped tomatoes, onions and garlic, followed by chopped kale. I placed frozen chicken thighs at the bottom and poured a can of chopped tomatoes on top, along with an onion (chopped), some garlic, spices and a lot of kale (as you can see from the picture below). I am hoping the kale will be nice and soft and the chicken will be tender. I am planning to serve the chicken, tomatoes and onion over a bed of the cooked kale. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Tonight’s dinner experiment!
Oh, I forgot to mention that my TOMS and Reebok Nanos arrived the other day! I’m SO excited to start wearing my TOMS, once the weather starts getting more fall-like (I can’t believe that we are still having 100 degree weather in October!). I’m going to wear my Nanos to CrossFit today, so I’m curious as to how they will do.
My TOMS!
My Nanos 2.0!
Enjoy the rest of your afternoon!
Question: If you are coming down with something, what do you like to do/take? I don’t like taking a lot of medicine, so I’m a big proponent of taking more vitamin C and zinc, along with drinking plenty of water and/or tea.
Almond flour is wonderful. I use it tons in baking along with flaxseed and quinoa. I have been baking lots of Gluten free stuff this way and it turns out wonderfully. Not to mention is much much healthier than traditional flour. Love seeing your recipes. Thanks for posting.
Thanks, Tina! I completely agree. It’s hard to go back to whole wheat flour, since I have started using almond flour in my baking!
The muffins sound good! I have not used almond flour yet but would like to try it. I’ll have to try the recipe and pass it on to my friend who has celiac. Thanks!
I love using almond flour because it not only adds more protein, but the flavor is great and I find that it makes things more moist. Let me know how your muffins turn out!
I take vitamin c and drink plenty of fluids. I don’t like take medicine either.
Yes, vitamin C is my number one go-to when I’m feeling ill! I love Zicam, too! Fortunately, I’m feeling a little better today. I hoping another day of lots of vitamin c, water and Zicam will do the trick!