Hi! I'm Angela, and I'm The Girl Who Went Paleo. I started this blog to keep myself motivated to eat the right things and work out in order to feel well (and not to look 'good' for others.) Be encouraged, join in on the topics, share some recipes. Sit back and relax and let me tell you about my paleo experience!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Bacon and Egg Morning Cups

Bacon and Egg Morning Cups
 
 
Well, hey there! How are you? Do you need an awesome breakfast, snack or super fast meal idea? You've come to the right place then because this one is loaded with delicious protein and carbs and is sure to keep your taste buds happy and belly full. I won't lie, I've seen photos on pinterest with something similar but have truly never looked at a recipe. Why? Because I wanted to make my very own and deliver it to you!


You're welcome.
 
So, it's pretty simple and you can make you own version with different meats, or leave the meat out if you don't have anything on hand. What I'm giving you is a recipe that makes exactly 12 morning cups and I will give you instructions on how to refrigerate/reheat and freeze/reheat. Again... you're welcome.
 
Top with avocado slices or salsa or both and enjoy a very delicious paleo and gluten free meal!
 


Ingredients:
(Recipe makes 12 regular sized muffin cups)
12 slices of bacon. I use the pre-cooked but use your paleo version if you like
6 whole eggs
1/2 cup liquid egg whites
1/4cup chopped turkey meat - I use deli meat so find a paleo version if you'd like *Sub any cooked/chopped meat if you prefer another over turkey*1/2 bell pepper, chopped. I like red, orange or yellow *Make it spicy with a jalapeno!*
1 cup chopped spinach
Salt and Pepper to taste
 
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line a regular sized muffin tin with precooked bacon. If you are going to use raw bacon, precook it in a skillet or in the oven until it is almost all the way cooked. It needs to be pliable enough to put in the muffin tin.
In a bowl, scramble the eggs and egg whites together with the salt and pepper. Add the remaining chopped ingredients and stir to combine.
Using 1/4cup measurement or an ice cream scoop (which is my preferred method), pour one scoop of the egg mixture into each cup. You may have a little left over in the bowl so make sure you put all of that goodness into a cup that may not have gotten enough.
 

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until the eggs have cooked entirely through. My cooking time is somewhere between 23-25 minutes so keep an eye on them.
These will puff up in the oven and then will deflate just a little bit so don't be too disappointed when they come out. It's suppose to happen this way.

When you refrigerate these and are ready to reheat, you can pop them into the microwave for a minute or back into a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and they will be perfect.

For freezing, place on a plastic-wrap lined cookie sheet and freeze for about an hour then transfer to a freezer safe container. When ready to reheat, place the amount you want to serve on a cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. By the time your oven reaches temperature, it should have been given enough time to thaw out a little. Bake 25-30 minutes to reheat.

Serve and enjoy!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Thanksgiving Meal Ideas
 
 
 
If you're like me, you're already planning for Christmas before Thanksgiving even arrives. Well, I wanted to make your life a little easier and give you a list of delicious Thanksgiving proteins, sides and gravy to make your tummy scream THANK YOU!

These recipes are all found on my other blog but I wanted to share it here as well.
 
So, here's a list of what will be on our dinner table this year along with some extra goodies. Enjoy!
 
Chicken, or turkey! No Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is complete unless there's a bird involved. My husband loves turkey and I love chicken so please use this recipe on either birds and enjoy because it is just so juicy and moist!
 

Then there's the gravy. This is honestly the easiest and most full-proof method I've been able to follow. Making the gravy nice and dark cooks out the flour taste and gives it a rich deliciousness that you need to smother the chicken with.

Hey you paleo and gluten free people.. I know corn starch isn't exactly paleo but substitute equal parts corn starch for the flour and you'll have an excellent gravy. You might try it with arrowroot flour but I've never had good luck with that for some reason. Corn starch is easier on my tummy.
 
 
 
The next item of business is a green vegetable. No matter how you cook your green beans, you need to try this blanching method before cooking. It truly makes life a lot easier. Give it a shot!
 
 
 
Hey, how about some dessert? Tired of the same old pumpkin pie every year? Okay, maybe not but if you are, give this delicious Sweet Potato Pie a try. It's so sweet and creamy. I love how it tastes right out of the oven but it's even better after it's been refrigerated!
Here's a paleo recipe for it, too.
 
 

Last, but certainly not least is sweet potato souffle. This is, by far, the best thing at our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Always good hot and/or cold and if I make a paleo/gluten free recipe, I'll be sure to post it.
 

 


There are a lot of other delicious meals so look at the search bar on the top right side of my page and type in an ingredient and I'm sure you'll find some great recipes there. If you have any questions or need any help with preparing a meal, feel free to leave me a comment below or shoot me an email at angelasglutenfreebakery@yahoo.com
 
Here's to a THANKFUL holiday season this year.


Thursday, November 15, 2012

Stuffed Bell Peppers
 
I've been super busy preparing for our local farmer's market that I sell my gluten-free baked goods at. Thanksgiving is also around the corner and I've had to mentally prepare for that so I needed something quick and easy to throw together and this was truly delicios!

Other things I'm thinking about lately is opening up a food truck business (Paleo and GF items only), writing an e-book, and selling to one of our local mom&pop shops.

Life is busy, isn't it? Phew!
 
Well, here's a delicious paleo and/or primal meal all in one. It has the carbs, proteins and fats all in one pretty little package. Now, this recipe does include cheese so if you don't eat cheese, leave it out. Just add some salt and pepper and you're good to go!
 
Ingredients:
Serves 2
2 green bell peppers
1/2 - 3/4 pounds ground meat. beef, chicken, turkey, sausage.. whatever you like
3/4cup crushed tomatoes
1/2cup onion, diced
1/4cup bell pepper, diced (see notes below)
S&P (salt and pepper) to taste
1/4cup cheese, shredded
 
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and preheat a skillet over medium heat.
Slice off the tops of the bell peppers and reserve them for future use. Remove the seeds/ribs on the inside and discard. Using a knife, remove the stem from the tops of the bell peppers you just sliced and dice into bite sized pieces.
In a medium skillet, add the ground meat, onions and bell peppers and cook thoroughly (about 8-10 minutes) and season with salt and pepper. Drain the excess fat and place back in the skillet or clean bowl. Add the crushed tomatoes and stir thoroughly. Scoop the mixture into the bell peppers and top with cheese.
 

In an oven-safe dish, add a tiny bit of water - about 1/4 cup - and place the bell peppers inside and then bake about 40-45 minutes until the peppers have softened.
 

*Tip* If you want to make a lot of these and freeze them, make it all the way up to where you stuff the peppers then freeze them. When you want to bake these, transfer to an oven-safe dish and immediately bake. Do not defrost these. Baking times will be longer since it's frozen.
 
Eat and enjoy!


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Greens. Southern Style.

Greens. Southern Style.
 
 
 
To me, growing up in the south meant that there was usually greens and cornbread on every menu in town. It's surprising how that has somewhat gone away now but I guess people just forget what makes a good and healthy meal.

My mother's garden is so much more vibrant than mine. She keeps reminding me "It's been 5 or 6 years that I've been planting and harvesting and working on my soil." Compared to her green bean harvest, I only have about 15 beans and I planted a day before her! Oh well.. my soil sucks and I know it but hey, my eggplants and peppers are abundantly producing so go me.

Back to her garden. She was kind enough to let me have a bag full of fresh cut mustard greens the other day and wanted me to try a recipe she found online and of course I gratuitously accepted her garden veggies and went home and cook them. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than baby mustard greens cooked fresh. Tender and delicious.
 
Thanks, mom.
 
Ingredients:
1 pound mustard greens, washed and de-veined
1/4 diced white onion
1tsp minced garlic
2 pieces of bacon
1/4cup chicken stock
1tsp olive oil (or coconut oil)
S&P (salt and pepper) to taste
Pinch of red pepper flakes
 
 
Directions:
In a large skillet, pre-heat olive oil over medium low and add the bacon. Cook until crisp and remove from pan, drain on a paper towel and crumble. Set to the side.
While the bacon is draining, add the onion and cook 2-3 minutes and season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes then add the garlic. Once the onions are soft, add the greens, chicken stock and 3/4 bacon pieces (1/4 will go on top as a crunchy garnish). Stir until the greens have wilted. Once the greens have wilted, cover and reduce heat to low and cook 30-45 minutes until soft. Garnish with remaining bacon pieces and serve hot!
 
 
Let me tell you something.. I never was a big fan of greens until the past few years and this is by far the best tasting recipe. Give it a shot.. and if you eat cornbread, smother it in butter and indulge!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Time for Another Whole30

Time for Another Whole30
 
This past October, my diet was pretty terrible. And by terrible, I mean I ate wheat, dairy, lots of grains and sugar. When I was eating it, I didn't think too much about it but when I really looked at the whole month, I ate way too much bad stuff. I think this was the first time since January that I let it get out of control. I don't know why it happened this particular month, but it did. October is over and I have a new mindset.
 
Determination.
 
As I begin this journey for the second time this year, I will be monitoring my daily consumption of food and liquid and see how I feel at the end of each day and in the morning when I wake up. If you'd like to start on a great health journey, start it with me today! Check out Whole 9's web page to get started on a Whole30.
 
I'm going to share with you some very helpful information, some gross information and some recipes. Let me know if you have a recipe you'd like to share so I can test it out! It has to be grain free, sugar free, dairy free, processed free.
 
This morning for breakfast I had two scrambled eggs, two pieces of bacon and a smoothie that you can find here at my other blog. For lunch, I had taco meat (recipe coming soon), a large salad of romaine lettuce and some tangy salad dressing (recipe coming soon), an apple and some garlic toasted pecans which you can find here at my other blog. I also had an apple pie lara bar because I was pretty hungry before church (thank you time change for screwing up my meal time!), half a cup of coffee (the other half is in the fridge for iced coffee tomorrow) and 12 ounces of water.

I have to drink 70-80 a day to be where I want to be with that quota so I have a lot of work to do today.

My gut is pretty normal right now but I do have some itchy rashes, which I thought for the longest time was eczema, but not I believe it's a side effect of eating wheat. (I've diagnosed myself with celiac.. I've yet to get that medically confirmed). I also have acne on my back and shoulder but I think it's from sleeping in a sports bra so I'm doing my own research with that lovely eyesore, meaning no sports bras unless I'm working out. The acne on my face has cleared up thanks to washing my face with castor oil and olive oil (crazy, right?). My body goal this time is to replace the fat I have with healthy muscle and gain weight. When I work out hard and eat right, I can gain some pretty good looking muscle so I'm hoping it works out this way for me.

As for emotional/mental, I don't have too many up's and down's but I hope to have a lot more energy than I do right now. As I'm typing, all I can think about it finishing up and going to bed for a quick afternoon nap.

And for being in the gym, or working out at my home gym, I plan on 3-4 days per week with no slacking. I'm trying to better myself so why be a slacker?


I hope you join in and keep me posted on your goals. Happy Sunday!

~Angela





Sunday, October 28, 2012

The Hangover

The Hangover
 
No, I'm not talking about that hilarious movie. I'm talking about a terrible feeling the next day after eating poorly the night before.

I thought it was silly that people talked about a hangover feeling; "like food could make you feel terrible the next day." Uhm, well excuse me but it happened and it was horrible! I woke up this morning with pain over my right eye, my eyelids were swollen, I had a headache (just a tiny one.. not a real hangover headache), and I woke up weighing 3 pounds heavier than I normally weigh at the end of the day. It was funny weird last night seeing myself on the scale at 139 pounds, because on a "fat" day (pms days) I only get up to about 136 pounds or so. I knew there was going to be trouble this morning for sure! (I know what you're thinking.. and guess what? The only weight I gain is when I eat poorly or when I loose fat and gain muscle, even then it's hard to gain weight. You think it's hard to loose weight? Well guess again, folks.)
 
Okay, here's the back story since I know you're dying to find out how I gained so much weight in one day and ended up in pain the next...
 
It was a dark and stormy night.. we were sitting around the campfire..
 
Sike!

My mom was throwing a cute little party for my kids and my nieces/nephew and some other children. She wanted to make pizza like we did at my sister's birthday party (grilled pizza dough ROCKS!) so she had everything set up where you make your own pizza. There were toppings everywhere and they were delicious. She grilled one side of the pizza then we put our toppings on the grilled side and then we threw it back on the grill to cook it the rest of the way.
 
Aren't these the cutest Frankenstein cups ever? Good job, Mamma!

I had a gluten-free pizza crust at my sister's birthday party a few weeks ago because I hate the adverse reactions I get when I eat wheat, but yesterday was going to be different. Gosh-Darn-It! I was going to eat a big, fat, glutenous piece of pizza.

Well. I ate two pizzas. I also had a cupcake and a slice of cake. Oh, I had a few pieces of candy but this time I didn't go bizerk on it like I did at a wedding a few weeks ago.
 This is my little man, Owen.

Guess what? I'm human. I like bad food sometimes. I like knowing that the paleo way I eat almost 95% of the time makes me feel wonderful and healthy and keeps me well. The days I don't eat paleo, I really enjoy what the paleo lifestyle does for me. This is a crazy analogy but I'm going to do it anyway. It's almost like going to a party, getting wasted and thinking you're having the time of your life and then waking up the next day in the same clothes, reeking of cigarette smoke with the worst hangover of your life. (Not that I've ever experienced that.. my mom reads my blog for crying out loud!)
 
Back to being serious about food for a moment. I truly never thought I'd have such a bad reaction to food. I figured I might have the sniffles or wake up with a stomach ache but never did I think I'd wake up the way I did this morning.
 
If you're tired of waking up and being lethargic all day, or tired of being sick for half the year, or find yourself constantly battling sugar high's and/or low's, maybe it's time you do something with your diet. Maybe it's time to kick yourself in the butt and get off the couch and get some good food coursing through your blood.
 
 My other little guy in action!


Food is a healer and I'm definitely healing myself today.

Don't get me wrong, last night's food was delicious and I have been keeping that meal as a cheat meal this week but I guess my body is moving on whether I like it or not and I have to remember that wheat is not my friend. It never will be my friend again. Reminds me of that dumb song "We, will never ever ever get back together." Thanks Taylor Swift for making another dumb song to get stuck in our heads.
 
So, here's to weighing 134 pounds in the morning, a healthy start to a fitness routine and a week full of healthy food choices!
 

Don't eat this cake.. because it was awesome :)

Hope you liked the photos.. they were from the fun Halloween party my mom put together!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Sticks and Stones

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but Wheat, Oats and Candy Will Always Hurt Me.
 
I attended a wedding this past Sunday and was so thrilled that my friend of 13+ years was getting married. I was a little sad because we made a pact when we were younger that if by the time we were 30 and we weren't married, we would marry each other. Well, I've been married now for 5.5 years so that pact went out the window a long time ago and I'm madly in love with my man. It was honestly a bittersweet moment to see him marry the girl of his dreams. The wedding was beautiful and so was his bride. I couldn't have been happier for him and I know she'll be treated well. He's a great guy!

Anyways, back up a few days before their engagement photos, he asked me to cut his hair and I was petrified because I didn't want to screw up his haircut! (I'm a licensed hairdresser and mostly work on women's cut/color). The haircut looked great .. then he asked me to cut it a few nights before his wedding. UGH! I thought I'd butcher it up but his woman gave me the thumbs up so it was all good. That night I told her how excited I was to eat all of the food they were going to have and told her I was going to eat a ton of cake. Why? Because I ate 100% faithfully paleo the week working up to it and this was going to be my cheat meal. I was so excited for cake!
 
When it was time to eat, I saw the caterer bring out a huge hunk of meat. Can I get a whoop whoop for some prime rib. It was fantastic! I ate that, a roll, a few meatballs, a mushroom stuffed with sausage and topped with cheese and a lot of other stuff that is definitely not paleo. It's okay because it was my cheat meal and I deserve it, right?

Well, that's what I thought.

Dude! I forgot to mention they had a candy bar with tons of candy.. and yes, I ate a ton of it and brought a bag home for my kid. I know. I'm an idiot!
 
Okay, so after having a wonderful time at their wedding, I came home to a seriously bloated gut and a rumbly tummy. It wasn't long until I had to use "the facilities" to help rid myself of all the wheat/sugar/bad stuff I just consumed. Well, it didn't end that night. I woke up the next morning with a rumbly tummy and had to use "the facilities" again.. I know, I know.. TMI (too much info) but I need you to understand my point!
 
Ahh. My point. My point is that before I started eating healthfully, I never knew I had digestive problems or upset. I really thought it was normal to be gassy and to stink up the bathroom for hours. Gross, right? After starting the paleo lifestyle, I realized that life is so much less stinky if we just ate the right things. Not only do grains, sugar, and dairy upset our stomachs, they also upset our hormones and make us have acne, headaches, and flu-like symptoms.
 
Eat the right things and you'll feel good. Eat the right things and you won't stink it up so badly. Eat the right things and your body will heal itself and will thank you for being good to it. Eat the right things and I guarantee your body won't get as sick as it used to. I'm living proof of that!
 
I don't have any awesome pictures from the wedding but I had a great time watching two people be united as one and I'll always remember their special day!

P.S. DON'T EAT CRAP!
the.end.

~Angela