Grilled Tilapia and Lemon Seasoned Zucchini

It is still pretty hot here in Texas so I wanted to fire up the grill before the cold set in. It's comin' y'all!

I grilled this amazing tilapia and zucchini after marinating it for a few hours. It was delicious.

 This recipe is so simple. You just need a little salt and pepper, lemon, and olive oil. 

Slice the zucchini length wise and then slice in half. Be sure to cut the ends off, as they can be a little tough. 

Zest a lemon.

Put the zucchini in a ziplock bag along with some salt and pepper, the zest of the lemon, and the juice from the whole lemon that was zested. Seal the bag and shake to incorporate all of the flavors. Place in the refrigerator to marinate. I did this in the morning and then took it out for dinner. 

Wash and pat dry tilapia. Season with Gazebo Room Greek Dressing and Zatarains Big and Zesty Garlic and Herb Seasoning. Remove Zucchini from the refrigerator and fire up the grill!  

This is the end product. A nice healthy dinner that is Paleo friendly! 

Pork Tenderloin with Preserves and Red Potatoes

These two herbs do wonders for pork. 

 Rosemary and Thyme

These herbs combined with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil are amazing! 

Summer is here and that means no work for me. School is out and I can focus on my other passion, cooking. I have been a terrible cook this past school year. Nothing came out right. Everything was too salty, overcooked, or just plain gross. My poor husband had to deal with it, though he often suggested we eat out. We spent WAY too much money doing that so I was sure that once school was out I would begin to focus on cooking much better, healthier meals. 

Pork Tenderloin Recipe

1-2 lb. Pork Tenderloin (all natural)

1 tsp. Kosher salt

1tsp. Crushed black pepper

2-3 tbsp. chopped, fresh rosemary

2 tbsp. chopped, fresh thyme

1 tbsp. Herbs de Provence

1 tbsp. Olive Oil

I started today with a yummy pork tenderloin. I just picked up a little all natural pork tenderloin (organic) from the grocery store. This tenderloin does not have any additives or flavoring in it, which is what you want since you will be adding all of your flavoring yourself. 

Rinse the tenderloin off and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in a gallon sized plastic bag. Add salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and olive oil. Mix all around making sure to cover the meat with all of the seasonings. Get all of the air out of the bag and seal it shut. Put it in the fridge and let it marinate 4-6 hrs. I turned it over after 3 hrs just to make sure all of the juices were flowing.

Take tenderloin out of bag and place on roasting rack (I covered my roasting rack with foil for easy clean up). You want to bring the meat to rest outside of the fridge for a bit. Cold meat doesn't do well straight out of the fridge and into a hot oven.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven. Meat should no longer be pink and juices running clear. Take out of the oven and let rest for 10-15 min. Slice thin or thick. 

Preserves

1/4 c. Fig preserves

1/4 c. Apricot preserves

1/3 c. water

1 tsp. vinegar

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring to mix. Let boil for 5 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Take off of heat, stir, and let stand for 5 min.

Red Potatoes*

1/2 lb. red potatoes

1 tbsp. diced garlic

1 tbsp. chopped rosemary

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. kosher salt. 

Slice red potatoes in half and place in water. Bring to a boil until potatoes are soft. Strain. Heat a large skillet with olive oil. Sautee garlic and rosemary in the oil. Place the potatoes, cut side down into the skillet with olive oil, rosemary and garlic. Once the cut side is crisp, take out and sprinkle with kosher salt.

*I have to credit my dear friend at work for the potato recipe. Thanks LAB!

Etouffee with Sauteed Kale

This Etouffee was absolutely delicious.

Shrimp and Chicken Etouffee

2 lb. Shrimp peeled and deveined (Steamed)

16 oz. Free Range Organic Chicken Broth

1 Red, Green, and Orange Bell Pepper 

3 Celery Stalks

1 Yellow Onion

4 cloves garlic

3 skinless Chicken Thighs cooked and de-boned*

4 tbsp. Butter (unsalted)

2 tbsp. flour

4 tbsp. Tony Chacheres' Cajun Seasoning

Coat shrimp with 3 tbsp of Cajun Seasoning. Steam shrimp and place to the side. Dice bell peppers, celery, onion, and garlic. Sautee veggies in 1 tbsp. butter for 3-5 minutes. Shred de-boned chicken thighs and place to the side. In large stock pot or dutch oven, melt 3 tbsp. butter. Once melted add flour and wisk combining flour and butter together (you are making a roux). It will be lumpy so be sure that you are mixing fast. Continue to cook until you have the desired color of your roux. The longer you cook, the darker the color. Be sure not to burn which can happen if you stop stirring or your fire is too high. You Tube "roux' if you want to see the different colors. Add Chicken Stock and stir. Once heated through add veggies and meat. Let simmer for 15 minutes and taste. You may need to add more (the rest of the seasoning) depending on if you need more salt. The shrimp seasoning will go into the soup so you may not need to add any. 

*The chicken is just baked with Italian seasoning at 375 degrees until cooked through. Then de-boned and shredded. You want to bake it with the bone to allow the flavor. 

Serve over rice (we used brown)

FYI: The green and white stuff is sauteed kale and parmesan. I just put it in the same bowl. 

Sunday Fun Day

I have been sooooooo lazy lately. I get out of bed around 12 after playing all types of apps on my phone for 3 hours. It's BAD!

I had enough today so I decided to go to the Fort Worth Museum with my mom and nephew. I actually got out of bed, brushed my hair....well finger combed it.....put on my fresh to death fit and drove my lazy ass to Fort Worth. I had so much fun!

Note to self: More arm workout....starting now!

They had life size lightbrights!! I totally loved this. My mom had to use her mommy voice to make me get away from this.

Love these 2

After The Museum we went to eat at Zoe's Kitchen. This is my favorite place to eat when I am on that side of Fort Worth. I love Greek food and this place is just right. Their food is always fresh and they grill food right when you order it so it's nice and hot. I wish we had one by my house.

Zoe's Kitchen

They have a thing for runners. There is a special menu dedicated to pre and post running food. Their website is filled with recipes for some really good food. There is also a Zoe Blog. Check this restaurant out.

Ryan had a yummy turkey sandwich with fruit and an organic chocolate milk.

Mom...mid bite.....had shrimp kabobs with Greek salad, rice, and pita.

I had salmon kabobs with Greek salad, pita, and hummus. There is a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and seasonings that they make in house. I am not a big fan of it so I asked for a lemon vinaigrette that I had before on another type of salad I ordered. My mom was not a fan of either and enjoyed her salad with the abundance of feta cheese and olives as flavoring.

Plateaus

I feel like I have hit a plateau in my weight loss journey. I have tried to incorporate more carbs in my diet and switch things up but that is not working. I stopped drinking coffee and tea but that's not working either.

Now I have to admit with all of the weddings, birthday parties, get togethers, and such lately I've been lazy and eating whatever I want. I like to go by how my clothes fit rather than the actual number on the scale. Don't get me wrong the scale gets put to use but it depresses me so I try not to weigh myself that much.

I've been doing 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels but unfortunately my DVD has a huge imperfection in it so I can only do the first workout. I've been reading a lot of blogs lately that suggest Taebo by Billy Blanks for loosing that extra puff around the arms and tummy. I'm thinking about incorporating that plus the 30 Day Shred....once I get it fixed or traded out.
I've also gone back to straight Paleo in the hope that all of this combined will help me lose a few extra pounds and tone up.

This may seem vain to some but this is how I feel about my body and lifestyle. I want to be healthy and not have jiggle.....nobodies trying to get a Beyonce bod here! Although that would be great....

Paleo Lifestyle

Last summer (2012) I had the wonderful opportunity to lose weight.....LOL! This is just about every woman's dream. I lost 30 lbs. and I did it through the Paleo Lifestyle. A friend of mine introduced it to me. You can check out her blog here:  I Heart Groceries. We were discussing our health issues and she told me about how she had been researching the lifestyle. Later I read her blog and found out that she lost a ton of weight by completely following Paleo.

Now I sometimes fall off the wagon, especially during the holidays, and eat 3 pieces of pie in one sitting so I try to eat better on the next meal. My recipes are not always Paleo, I do live with a southern man who is not having any kind of "lifestyle" except "southern" so I tweak or add sides for him.

 How Mr. Lovely feels when I'm making Fried Pork Chops:

 The current book that I am reading is:

The Paleo Solution

I highly recommend doing your research before committing to this.

I like how this diet makes me feel. I am never really hungry and my stomach and face (acne) issues are disappearing. This lifestyle almost completely cuts out carbohydrates, gluten, and sugar in your diet. You will feel better and look better in no time.

(I am totally not getting paid by these people to write about this. I just want everyone to look healthy and feel fabulous!)