Most  of the time, I’m on the lookout for yummy, nutritionally sound recipes to add some excitement to my family’s dinner time.  I’m not going to lie, I do cook not so healthy stuff every now and then, but for the most part I search out food that is something that will fuel our bodies and make us feel good while eating it.

I LOVE cucumbers!  When I was a little girl, I read a book where the well-to-do people ate cucumber sandwiches so I pretended to be well-to-do and prepared some…that’s probably when my love affair with all things cucumber began.  I love cucumber sandwiches, raw cucumbers, cucumber infused water, cucumbers in salads….well, you get the point.

So, today as I was browsing around on Facebook, imagine my excitement when I saw a recipe titled Cucumber Cashew Roll….I was intrigued…..I mean, seriously, cucumbers, cashews, a roll (well, not really), how could I not look into this.

To give credit, where credit is due, I “shoplifted” (it’s a compliment really) this recipe from a coach I know, Trina Kincey, and now I share it with you!

CUCUMBER CASHEW ROLL

(this recipe serves one as written)

• 1 Ezekiel Tortilla
• 3 teaspoons premium hulled hemp seeds
• 1/2 cup chopped cucumber
• 1 cup chopped romaine lettuce
• 1/2 medium-size tomato-chopped
• 6 raw cashews-chopped

Olivella Dressing (for cucumber cashew roll)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh parsley-finely chopped
• 1 medium clove garlic-minced

Warm the tortilla, then brush with a very light coat of the Olivella Dressing.  Sprinkle hemp seeds atop tortilla.  Mix together your lettuce, cucumber, cashews and tomato.  Drizzle with remaining dressing and toss lightly.  Place mixture evenly atop tortilla.  Roll tightly and enjoy.

Let me know how you like it!

“What’s the big deal with nutritional cleansing anyway”?  “Nutritional cleansing sounds awful, I don’t have time to hang out in the bathroom all day”.  “Those cleanse things only make you lose water weight, they don’t last long-term”.  

You name it, I’ve heard it all!  In fact, I’ve said those same things myself, but then I got really curious and just did it.

It all started late October, 2014, I saw pictures of my friend and she looked amazing!  I reached out to my friend, only to be told she had been working with a nutritional coach who had customized a plan just for her.  Well, I couldn’t afford that, so I just shut the idea down in my head.  A week later, the same friend posted ANOTHER picture and I just could not stop thinking about it so I set up a time with the coach to talk.

Fast forward to November 5th, the day I jumped in and decided to try nutritional cleansing.  You see, I knew that I could get a complete refund if I hated it or it didn’t work, so ALL I had to lose was my pesky, stubborn fat, and who really wants that hanging around anyway, right?!!!  I was tired of being tired and my clothes were starting to get tight.

I noticed after only 4 days that I had TONS of energy, my sugar cravings were GONE and I was sleeping better than I had in years!  I think I was on to something, so I got my hubster on board too!  (I must say, it’s fun doing this together)

I finished one 30 day program, (yes, I did it during Thanksgiving, and DID NOT feel deprived at all), and finished the month out with a 14 pound loss of fat…..YEAH BABY!!!!  So, I decided to continue on the journey.  Month 2 finished out with me down 7 pounds, TONS of inches, and noticeably looser clothes.  So far, I’ve lost almost 30 pounds, 42 inches overall and I’m still on the program.  See, the beauty of this is that it works differently on everyone, it’s not a one size fits all.  And, I love that it helps to support lean muscle development and remove the stubborn visceral fat (the fat surrounding our organs).  This is NOT a diet (because what are the first 3 letters in that word), it’s seriously a lifestyle change!

My hubster lost 32 pounds in 30 days, because, well….lets face it, men sneeze and lose 10 pounds!  But, he is sleeping better, not snoring and has more energy as well.  And, it’s fun to be on this journey together.

I love that this is NOT a dreaded colon cleanse, but rather, a whole body, gentle cleanse!  It not only helps remove the visceral fat, but it helps to build lean muscle and increase natural energy, all while using products with no harmful stimulants, artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners. It’s so easy to follow, even with our crazy lifestyle and all the traveling we do.

This picture collage shows me when I started, at the end of month 1 and at the end of month 2.  I haven’t updated yet, but plan to soon.  I just love how I feel now, in fact, I love it so much that I now share it with others and coach them to better health and wellness too.  If you’re curious, let me know, no obligation!  I’m seriously doing something I love now and I love the calls, texts and emails I get from happy clients.

Have a wonderful day, and look for a healthy recipe tomorrow.

Before I begin, I’d like to give Justataste.com credit for the fabulous recipe that will follow on this blog.  This recipe, Skinny Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Noodles is a healthy alternative and one of my quick, go to meals.

So, it all begins with the Veggitti…….

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, but you’re wrong!  I don’t stay up late watching infomercials, I rarely watch tv at all.  But, inevitably, you’ve probably seen (or heard of) the Veggetti…It’s that weird, hour-glass shaped, tool that turns things like zucchini into spaghetti noodles.  And, we all know, most of those “as seen on tv” gadgets don’t seem to work that easily once you get it home, right?!

One day, while shopping at Target, there it was….hanging on an end cap with a price tag advertising $14.99…..so I grabbed it and figured, what the heck, we ARE on a journey towards better health and nutrition….right?  I was alone, so I figured, if it didn’t work out I’d make it disappear, no one would know I’d fallen for a crazy gadget.  I snatched up some zucchini and headed to the checkout, excited with my find.

Once home, I googled recipes and came up with the one I will share below, I was so excited.  Skinny Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Noodles, sounds good and easy.

I opened up the Veggetti and pulled out the zucchini, ready to begin.  The instructions said to slice off the end of the zucchini and insert it into the veggetti and begin twisting, I did and IT WORKED!  Magically, my zucchini turned into LONG, noodle like strands….I was hooked!

Now…..for the yummy part…

Skinny Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Noodles

Ingredients:

Directions:

Okay, here’s a little disclaimer for all you who may be looking for a health or wellness tip today, from time to time my self diagnosed ADD will kick in and I will stray from health and wellness, well, sort of…in my opinion, this DOES deal with health and wellness….MINE and those who are/were traveling with me.

Let me back up a few days and begin where I should, at the beginning!

We, here in Texas, have had a rough patch, weather wise, the last several weeks, in fact it’s been down right FREEZING!  (and for all you people who live north of Texas, we consider anything below 50 to be freezing).  So, it was no surprise to me when, upon entering our garage Friday morning, my senses were assaulted by the smell of something dead, like rotten, decaying dead.  We figured, due to the amount of mess in our garage, that there had to be a dead mouse somewhere in there and it would be found eventually.  After driving the car out of the garage, however, it became increasing evident that the dead smell was following us and actually blowing into the car via the air conditioner/heater.  Now, I must say, once you are going along at a brisk speed, the smell dissipates (or maybe we were used to it….cringe), so we thought maybe we’d gotten lucky and the item had fallen out on a bumpy road somewhere.  Arriving back at the homestead, the hubster decided to leave the car in the driveway, thus not stinking up the garage again.  While the car was in the driveway, hubby decided to take a look and try to figure out the source of the stink.  After much investigating, he did locate a nest that had been created and he was able to successfully remove it, we hoped that was the end of our dilemma.  Fast forward to the next morning, we are up and at it bright and early (too early) headed to a volleyball tournament, and BAM…..there it is to assault our senses before we are fully awake and coherent…..THE SMELL!  We dealt with that stupid smell all weekend, we had no other choice.

Monday morning……..drag everyone out of bed, get them into smelly car and notice the tire sensor light is on…….oh joy!  After dropping kids off, I head to our favorite, hole in the wall, tire supplier to get the tire checked.  As I drive up onto the ramp, the tire guy says to me (think heavy Hispanic accent here, I’m talking Cheech and Chong accent) “smells like something died in here”……ya think?!!!!  Get my tires checked, fixed and paid for and drive my stink mobile to our friendly Toyota dealer for my oil change and maintenance check up.  After driving into the service area, I’m met by the friendly service tech who greets me and asks what I’m there for.  As I begin to explain, I notice him looking around and kind of crinkling his nose a bit while doing so.  “Did you run over something?” he asks me, “Nope,” I reply, “but while you’re looking under the hood, can you please locate and remove whatever has crawled up there and died?”  “yes, ma’am” he says, although reluctantly, “but it’s going to be about a 2 hour wait”.  (At this point, I was thankful to be breathing clean, pleasant air, and would have gladly waited longer to get that stink removed).

I enter the overly crowded service area and find an empty chair.  Thankfully, my job of coaching people toward better health travels wherever I go, so I set up my laptop and went to work, all the while hoping for an end to the nasty smell.  Throughout the course of the day, people came and people left, but of course people where everywhere when the service guy came to talk to me.  “We found the source of the smell,  Mrs. Deese”  (of course he uses my name) “there was a large rodent, dead, but it’s been removed now.  Thank you for your patience, we’ll have you on your way shortly”.   As he walks away, I notice the horrified looks on the faces of two ladies sitting very near me……”no”,  I want to shout, “it wasn’t in the car, it was in the engine area, I don’t drive around with rodent passengers”!  Instead, I pay my bill, thank my rodent remover and drive off, thankful for clean air.

Be sure and check back tomorrow for some yummy, healthy recipes,

Here’s to breathing,

Stephanie

Baked lettuce anyone?!  I’ll be honest, the thought of baked lettuce DID NOT appeal to me at all, but then I found myself stumbling into a gluten-free convention in Austin, Texas….

So, there we were, in Austin, Texas at another volleyball match…this time it was the final stop on the Tour of Texas Volleyball Tournament Series.  My friend, Marissa, myself and a few other vball moms were wandering the convention center, trying to get our fitbit steps in while we were waiting between volleyball matches.  When we reached the other end of the convention center, we noticed people, mostly women, entering and exiting a hall with overflowing cloth grocery bags…..we HAD TO know what was in there!  (Okay, don’t judge,, you know that you would have been curious too, I mean seriously……go in with an empty cloth bag and come out with it loaded up……who WOULDN’T want in on that?!!!)

A Gluten Free Convention…..full of TONS of free samples to try to take home……..wait…..there’s a groupon for buy one get one free admission tickets?!!!!  Marissa and I were in that convention in 15 minutes flat, carrying our empty grocery bags.  So, to spare you from boredom and the details of our greedy “pig fest”, (let’s just say we each had 2 bags stuffed with FREE samples when we were done….BUT, you aren’t judging, remember?!), I’ll cut to the point of this post.  One of the items in the magical bag was Kale Chips, these were obviously processed kale chips,  because they were in a convenient little chip bag, but our girls LOvED them!  So….after talking to one of the vendors at this convention, he explained how easy it is  to make your own Kale Chips, and I set out to find a recipe comparable to the highly processed one the girls loved.

Okay, so I might have fibbed to get your attention, it’s not really lettuce, it’s Kale.  So, what is kale?  Kale is a SUPER FOOD! Kale is a dark, leafy green that hails from the cabbage family, and it’s packed with vitamins and minerals.  At only 33 calories, one cup of raw kale has almost 3 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of fiber (which helps to manage blood sugar and help you feel full), vitamins A, C and K, Folate (a B vitamin that’s key for brain development), and it’s another way to get omega-3  into your diet (think fish, but a little less, it’s a healthy fat)..

Baked Kale Chips

1/2 bunch of kale leaves

1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or melted coconut oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Remove the stems and tear the kale leaves Into large pieces

wash and dry the leaves thoroughly

put the kale into a bowl and pour the oil over it, massage oil into all the nooks and crannies , you may also sprinkle with any spices you choose

spread onto parchment paper, being careful not to overlap any pieces

Bake 10 mins,  rotate the baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes longer or until they start to firm up.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 3 minutes before eating.

ENJOY!

Hello World!

My name is Stephanie Deese and I’m a wife, a mom of 4 beautiful (almost grown) kids, a health and wellness coach and basically a jack of all trades!  I chose my blog name, thatskinnytallgirl, because I’ve always been referred to as just that, you know, “that skinny, tall girl”.  At least I used to be referred to as that, now it’s probably a wide range of ______________’s mom,  Rick’s wife, that lady that runs the ballpark, or that tall lady.  Somehow the SKINNY part has fallen away over the years, (probably in part due to giving birth to 4 monstrous sized babies in just under six years) and thus began my quest to get it back.

I started my journey towards better health and fitness in early November, 2014 and it has launched into so much more than I ever dreamed or went looking for.  My husband and I are both on this wonderful lifestyle change together, and it’s even starting to rub off on my kids…it’s truthfully changing our health futures.  My goal now is to continue to share it with as many friends, family and strangers that I can, because I see what it has done and is continuing to do for us, as a family. 

Am I an expert, HECK NO!  Am I learning as much as I can at every opportunity I’m given, HECK YES!  Am I willing to continue to learn more to enable me to help others, ABSOLUTELY!  And, I’m always looking for friends who are willing to teach or learn with me.

My goal in starting this blog, is that I can share all the tricks and tips I learn with all of you, I may even veer off subject occasionally with a funny story, we will just see where the mood takes me.  I will share healthy recipes, exercise tips (because that’s being added in too with this journey we’re on), and even occasionally post interactive posts.  You’ll just never know what may happen here, because neither do I.

Here’s to your good health!

Stephanie