Apple Italian Chicken Sausage

Ingredients:

1 Lb Ground chicken breasts 

Apple

2 Tbs Italian sausage seasoning ( I get this at Whole Foods at the meat counter) 

2 Tbs coconut oil 

Sauté chicken in pan with coconut oil and add seasoning. Skin apple and chop into small chunks. Add apple to chicken and finish cooking.  Add an egg and some veggies for a nice breakfast! 

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients:

1 can organic coconut milk

2 ripe but not brown bananas

1/2 ripe but not brown avacado

5 Tbs cocoa powder

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. 

Serve plain or with fresh strawberries or raspberries. Enjoy! 

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Ingredients: 

chicken cutlets 

Coconut oil

Lemon pepper ( or seasoning of your choice) 

Melt coconut oil in pan. Season both sides of chicken cutlets with seasoning and sauté in pan. 

The idea for this chicken is to cook several pieces at once to use for meals or snacks for a couple of days. This chicken is also great with my balsamic roasted mushrooms! 

Balsamic Roasted Mushrooms and Peppers

IIngredients:

Portabella Mushrooms 

Red peppers

Yellow onions

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper

Balsamic vinegar ( I use the thick balsamic) You can always skip the balsamic and just do olive oil salt and pepper. 

Quantity of ingredients depends on how many people you are serving and if you want left overs.. This is a great dish to make to add to salad or chicken breasts. 

Surgery and Day After

Here I am before my surgery yesterday! I felt ready to go and ready to get it over with. 

I loved my yellow socks they gave me! I was comfortable and in good hands! My surgery went very well.  I was one of the lucky ones and woke up with no pain! I was just a little uncomfortable.  I felt good waking up from the anesthesia.  No nausea!  I sat in the recliner for a bit to recover before I could go home. 

I had three holes in my abdomen area.  The camera scope was thru my belly button and the tools were on each side of my bikini line.  It's amazing to me that this is even possible!  Laparoscopic surgery is much faster and easier to recover from.  These holes are sealed up with a liquid bandaid that hardens.  Both of my tubes were removed during the surgery.  I had a lot of inflamation, scar tissue and blockages.  No wonder my body did not want to house a baby.  Now my I uterus is all cleaned up and ready to go! 

So today is my first day after surgery and I still feel pretty good!  Doc told my family I would probably feel pretty sore waking up this morning, but I don't!  It's a bit uncomfortable trying to sit up and done from the couch, but  manageable.  I have been keeping up on my pain meds and Advil.  Throughout the day today, I think I can work my way off the pain meds and just take Advil!  So far so good! I will give another update soon:)

Surgery week!

Surgery week is finally here!  Tomorrow I have two pre-op appointments and Tuesday is my surgery. I check in on Tuesday at 10:00 and my surgery is at 12:00.  I am more excited than nervous. This is just the first step to having our baby.  I am not looking forward to the after effects of the anesthesia, but peppermint oil shoud do the trick.  H was pretty nauseous after his surgery last week and because of that we have everything prepared and ready for what might sound good to me.  After my appointments tomorrow, I will give an update of what will happen during surgery:) 

Serendipity

Serendipity is my favorite word.   It means "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; a fortunate mistake.  "Fortunate mistake" is my favorite definition.  I think we tend to focus on what we want to happen in our lives and spend so much time trying to make our desires and dreams come true, we often forget to think about the great accidental moments in our lives.  Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with trying to make your dreams come true, but take a step back once in a while and let life happen.  Be present in those fun moments where you think, "oh my goodness, I can't believe that just happened, but I am so happy it has!".
Tonight I left to teach a yoga class and made a cup of Citrus Sage Lavender tea.  It was in my car riding with me to yoga.  I walked into the studio, taught my class and forgot about my tea!  I  was on my way home,  I look down and saw my tea.  I totally forgot I made it, but was so happy that I had tea to enjoy after my evening of yoga and for my drive home.  I know this seems like a silly story, but in that moment I was so happy.  Maybe sometimes we need to forget about what our intentions are, and be present for the actual outcomes of our intentions.  Embrace and enjoy our serendipitous moments in life!  Sometime they can be more exciting than what we were planning in the first place!    
Share with me some of your serendipitous moments or share with me your favorite word!

Chicken Enchiladas

These chicken enchiladas are super easy to make and yummy.  

Ingredients:
2 chicken organic chicken breasts
1 jar salsa

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprika 

organic corn tortillas 

pepperjack cheese- shredded
around 3 cups red enchilada sauce (or you can make your own)
plain greek yogurt 

Place chicken breasts, salsa, and spices in slow cooker on high for about 3-4 hours, until fully cooked.   When cooked, shred chicken breasts with forks and place back into the slow cooker.  Stir and let sit with slow cooker turned off.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Coat the bottom of a casserole dish with a THIN layer of enchilada sauce.  Take tortillas out of package and wrap in a couple of wet paper towels.  Place in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.  Do this right when you are ready to use them.  Put some chicken mixture into corn tortilla, roll and place crease side down.  Repeat this until you have filled the pan or ran out of tortillas. Coat the tortillas with sauce (don't drench them) and sprinkle desired amount of cheese on top.  Save some remaining sauce to heat in sauce pan and drizzle on top of enchiladas as you serve them.

Place in the oven for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly around the edges.  Serve with a small spoonful of greek yogurt and a drizzle of sauce and ENJOY!

Green Sunrise Smoothie

This green smoothie is so yummy and quite refreshing!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple juice or 1 small sweet apple
1/2 cup water
2 cups fresh spinach
7-8 chunks fresh pineapple
2 stalks celery
1/2 banana/ whole banana if you want

Blend well in blender and enjoy!

Holiday Peppermint Bark

Yea!  The Holidays are here and there are many things to make, starting with homemade peppermint bark!  This is so easy and so much better than store bought kind.  
I am not very good at writing recipes. I usually do not measure things.  So I hope this all makes sense:)

Ingredients:  
3 candy canes 
bag of dark chocolate chips (you can use milk if you prefer)
bag of white chocolate chips 
peppermint extract or flavoring
parchment paper
cookie sheet

Step 1: Use a double boiler, or create your own using a small pan and a glass bowl.   Melt the bag of dark chocolate chips and then add 1/2 tsp peppermint.  Place parchment paper on a cooking sheet.  Spread the chocolate over the paper to your desired thickness.  Place in freezer to let sit until hard.

Step 2: Rinse out the bowl or double boiler and melt the bag of white chocolate chips.  By this time the dark chocolate should be hard.  Spread the white chocolate over the dark and sprinkle crushed up candy cane all over the top.  Place back into the freezer.  

Step 3:  Pull out of  the freezer after completely frozen.  Break apart and place in a storage container and place in the fridge.  Or enjoy a few pieces of yummy peppermint bark!

Update and Quote of the day!

First of all the update:
My surgery is scheduled for November 26th.  H has his shoulder surgery next Monday the 18th.  I will keep you updated on how that goes as well.  

Quote of the day:

What's new?

As some of you already know H and I have been trying to get pregnant for a couple of years.  We had a very early miscarriage last December, 2012.  We finally decided to visit Conceptions, a fertility center in Denver.  After several tests, we have finally discovered why we have not gotten pregnant!  This may seem surprising, but it was a relief to finally have some answers.  My left fallopian tube is completely blocked and my right one is almost fully blocked.  I have what is called Hydrosalpinx.  This means my fallopian tubes are blocked and distended and filled with a watery, clear liquid.  You could also refer to the liquid as toxic pond water.  It does not create symptoms for me, just the inability to house a baby if one were to be conceived.  How does this happen?  At one point in my life I may have had a pelvic infection and never knew.  This is not uncommon. Many women do not have symptoms and never know they have it unless they are doing fertility tests.  

So what's next?  This leaves IVF.  The problem is, the chances of IVF being successful with Hydrosalpinx is very small.  It would leave me at risk for an ectopic prenancy or another miscarriage.  Of course we do not want that.  So now what you may ask:)?

Surgery!  I am having surgery at the beginning of December to remove my fallopian tubes. This is not a bad thing!  They are never going to make a healthy baby so why have them.... Once the surgery is over and I have a couple weeks of recovery, I will then begin our IVF process.  Yes, IVF!! The chances of IVF being successful increases dramatically after the tubes (Hydrosalpinx) are removed.  My body is perfectly healthy otherwise and would then love to create a home for a baby.  We have over a 75% chance of having a healthy pregnancy with IVF.  I am the "perfect" candidate you could say! 

So why am I sharing all of this information with all of you?  Many reasons.  I have learned throughout this process that there are so many women experiencing the same versions of what H and I are.  I want to be open and share our experiences so other women can feel that they are not alone.  Also I love all of you and it is easier to have all of this information in one location than me telling the same story 30 times:)   

So I will keep updating my blog with our process as well as other fun and exciting information!  Thanks!

New Day Quote...

"There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done.  One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live."
-Dalai Lama- 

A New Day and A New Blog!

As I wake up each morning, I remind myself of the amazing life I truly do have.  I have a wonderful husband, loving family and friends, and the best kitty ever, Muri.  What more could I ask for?  I practice yoga as often as I want, I exercise daily, and eat as well as I possibly can.  Of course I get cravings for the not-so-good foods on occasion (lately it's doughnuts for some reason)  but who doesn't right?  I always remind myself to be thankful for the great life I have and to never take for granted what and who I have in my life.  I teach yoga, work as a nanny, and love to travel as often as I can.  In this blog I would like to share with all of you my story.  The story of my life, family, food, yoga, children, love, struggles, and life.  So stay present for each "New Day"!