Well Happy Friday Guys!!

It has been almost a month since my last post. I know you have been chomping at the bit for a new post
 ( NOT! lol)

The reason for the delay was because I had to get a lumpectomy on my right breast and i have been recovering from that. The results came back very positive, its not cancerous. It was a very long and scary experience. About 5 months of dealing with ultrasounds, failed mammograms, and trying to fight to get the lump removed. Even though the lump was not cancerous, the peace of mind i have gained from this experience is so worth it. No matter how young you are always pay attention, and be your own advocate. Fight for what you feel needs to be done for YOUR body! I am so thankful to have dealt with such wonderful doctors. Breast Cancer can happen to anyone at any age!

Check out the cutest breast exam poster ever made below...

During my recovery time I definitely ate some serious comfort foods, and threw all healthy dieting out the window, and i had to pretty much rest for about two weeks so i didnt exercise either. After the two week period of recovery i seriously packed on about 10 pounds. This caused me to be at the HEAVIEST weight i have ever been! (about 191 pounds. BOO HOO HOO!!) Now i am so motivated and determined to get to my BEST weight ever! It's not fun when your "Fat" clothes dont even fit you...plus its practically summer.

So in the next week i will be getting my gym membership back and experimenting with all kinds of really cool and interesting things like a full week cleanse of just eating fruit and veggies, and drinking water. Ive done this before and i love how it makes me feel a week later. Its not about dropping quick weight, its about recharging your system! 

Also im excited to learn about juicing!! so stay tuned to learn about it with me! 

In a few days i will be posting pictures and a list of the tools i will be using for my weight loss journey, and feel free to copy me if you like them! 

Here's to getting into shape and creating your ideal body, whatever weight and size that is!! 

Please FOLLOW my blog! i would love you forever!! 

Have a good weekend!! 

Love,

Pookie!!

Costa Vida Knock Off: Sweet Beef Salad

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

I hope you all had a great weekend, I did!! Lots of margaritas, enchiladas, and ice cream later i'm feeling a little pudgy. The scale looked at me on monday morning and screamed at me! hahaha. Oh well. Whats life worth if you cant indulge once in a while. Plus it was Cinco de Mayo so i had to celebrate, and i officially had the best margaritas EVER on sunday. Thank goodness my parents have talented friends! And not to mention my mom made her famous white enchiladas!

Now that i gained the four pounds back that I lost last week its time to get back to work!! Even though i like to eat healthy, and Junior has to eat SUPER healthy to get to shipping weight for the Marines ( they could ship him off any time now...) i still like to make healthy meals that taste downright sinful. Thats where my recipe for a Shredded Sweet Beef Salad comes in! Its a total re-do of the Costa Vida Sweet Pork Salad. There isnt a salad in the world that i love more than a Costa Vida Salad! So i wanted to re-vamp it to be healthy! It turned out soooo good and you couldnt even notice all the calories that i kicked out of the original recipe.

Rebecca's Costa Vida Knock Off Sweet Beef Salad:

 

 

 



 

Sweet Beef Recipe:

 

For the sweet beef you are going to want to use your crockpot.

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

1. One bonelss beef roast about 5 lbs.

 

2. A low sugar bbq sauce

 

3. Organic low sugar Ketchup

 

4. One 12oz bottle of Diet Coke

 

 

Step 1: Set crockpot on low. Add Beef to crockpot.

 

Step 2: Pour a generous amount of BBQ and Ketchup all over the beef. Spread around the entire beef roast

 

Step 3: Pour bottle of Diet Coke into the crock pot

 

Step 4: Put the lid on the crockpot and let it slow cook for around 6-7 hours.

 

-After 6-7 hours the beef sould be very tender and falling apart. ( Never cook the beef on High, i made this mistake and had to hand shred the beef, it also made the beef SUPER tough)

 

 

 

Now for the salad:

 

You will need-

 

1. chopped romaine lettuce

 

2. two cups of my sassy strawberry salsa ( you can find that in recipe in my last blog entry.)

 

3. 2 Avacoados peeled and diced

 

4. Feta Cheese to sprinkle over the entire salad.

 

5. Steamed rice (white or brown, you can squirt lemon juice over the rice if you'd like, i recommend it!)

 

Step 1: Put down a layer of rice on the plate.

Step 2: Add a bed of lettuce on top of the rice

Step 3: Then place your cooked shredded beef on top of lettuce

Step 4: Then top it with your Strawberry salsa, and avacado chunks.

Step 5: Sprinkle the salad with the Feta cheese.

Step 6: Then pour over the cilantro ranch dressing ( Recipe below)

ENJOY!!!

 

Cilantro Ranch:

 

i didnt get very fancy with this, but it tasted fancy. I actually didnt plan on making this dressing, but then i was like HEY!! why not? and boy am i glad that I did!

 

Here it goes:

 

I used the rest of our vegan ranch we bought at Whole Foods, they also have it at New Earth Market!

 

 

 

This ranch is definitely alot better for you compared to regular ranch, and i think it tastes so much better!

 

So i took about 4 table spoons of this ranch and poured it into my blender, then i added about 1 cup of cilantro, stems and all into the blender. I blended it together and TA-DAAA! Delicioso!

 

 

Pour this over your salad and fall in love! I cut about 400 calories out of the original recipe from Costa Vida! I think this was another success in Pookies kitchen!!  I hope its a success in your kitchen as well. I know it looks like alot of steps, but it really isnt and you'll have leftovers for days! The beef even tastes better the next day after its absorbed even more of the juices!!

 

Kicking butt one recipe at time...

 

Love,

 Pookie

 

 

 





 

 

 

Sassy and Simple Summer Yummies!

First of all I would like to thank each and everyone of you who read my first blog post. As you can see I have changed the background, and I'm also experimenting with customizing and learning all the detalis involved with having a blog worth following.

In the past 24 hours my blog has been visited by sweet people like yourself over 100 times!! I was pretty shocked that so many people checked it out! Thank you again!! Please follow my blog, it's really easy to do!

Okay so a couple days ago I was in the mood for light and refreshing but HEALTHY things i could pre-make easily and eat all week. I decided to make Greek Salad, Kale chips (i'm still experimenting with getting those to a texture i like, so i wont be posting about them just yet...) and my Sweet and Sassy Strawberry Salsa! (say that three times fast!) They were so amazing, Junior loved both the salad and the salsa so im going to chalk this one up as a success! I'll share the recipes with you guys now...

I spent about $12 on the groceries needed to make both dishes.

SWEET AND SASSY STRAWBERRY SALSA

Ingredients Needed :
-2 boxes of fresh strawberries
-Bunch of Cilantro
-About 3-4 Jalepenos
-Half of a purple onion
-Lime Juice
-Palmful of sea salt

Okay now the fun part!

Step one: Cut the strawberries in half and dice into small pieces. You could also use a food proccessor and chop them up that way. I dont have one of those fancy gadgets so i had to do it the old fashioned way.

Step Two: Finely dice the jalepenos. I cored them out first and took all the seeds out because i have a "Baby Tongue" as Junior calls my inability to eat spicy things. Add the jalepeno pecies to the strawberries you already put in a bowl.

Step Three: Dice the onion, and chop the cilantro into REALLY small pieces. When you are done doing that, throw it in the bowl.

Step Four: Drizzle the lime juice over it all and sprinkle the salt over it too....then mix it all up!

Step Five: Crack open a bag of tortilla chips ( We LOVE Don Pancho Chips from Winco in our family) or keep it light and healthy and eat it with some celery sticks!

This is now my new favorite kind of salsa, plus its totally Paleo, it doesnt have any added sugar or other junk that ups the calorie counts. It all just fruits and vegetables (not including the salt) and it tastes so summery! I hope you like it too! Please feel free to comment about your experience making it below in the comment box!

GREEK SALAD

Ingredients Needed:

-About 5-6 large cucumbers
-3 cups of cherry tomatoes
-Two cans of sliced black olives
-Half of a large purple onion
-Feta Cheese
-Bottle of a light greek dressing

Step one: Cut the cucumbers in half and then chop them up in medium sized slices
Step two: Cut the cherry tomatoes in half
Step three: Chop the onion into small slices
Step four: Add all the veggies into a  big bowl or tupperware container (preferably something with a lid because this amount could last you and your family a few days in the fridge)
Step Five: Drain the olives and add them to the bowl
Step Six: Add a good amount of the feta cheese crumbles ( I say the more, the merrier)
Step Seven: Pour dressing all over salad
Step Eight: Let the salad chill in the fridge for about 30 min and ENJOY!

This recipe is great for everyday and any kind of party. Your guests will love it!


Happy chopping, hopefully you dont cry too much from the onions!!

With a full belly and a happy heart i wish you good luck!!

Love,
Pookie

The Starting Line...

Hey everyone!!



My name is Rebecca and i'm a 20 year old California girl. I have lived in the same small town my entire life and sometimes i cant wait to finally leave. My life is going through alot of changes lately. The two biggest changes are that i'm starting the hard but exciting journey of trying to get this body of mine into shape. Also my boyfriend is joining the United States Marine Core. He will shipping out really soon!!



I thought writing blog would be a fun way for me to share all my adventures, recipe successes and failures. There are lots of other people who want to get healthy or are in my same shoes of learning to live a good chunk of your next year without your significant other...Why cant we all write blogs and inspire and support eachother?!

First of all this is NOT a "health" blog that focuses all the emotion and attention into being  size two models. I have nothing against models, or really skinny people, i personally would just like to stay curvy and wonderful, but get toned too. My boyfriend personally loves my "Phat" ass as he calls it. (He has to put the P.H. in front of it or i'll get pissy. HAHA) I dont aim to be societys idea of perfection. In my mind thats boring. This will be a blog about good, healthy recipies, sharing about experiences at the gym (maybe even bitching about it sometimes too), and all the things that encompass becoming your idea of a sexier you.

Also this blog is about all kinds of other awesome tid bits and things that we can enjoy to make each of our days a little better! Basically even if you arent looking for health info, or you arent the significant other of a future soldier, or of a current member of the military this blog can still be for you. It a blog for anyone that loves sillyness, and most of all REALNESS!!

Happy Thursday! Only one more day til the weekend! HOLLA!!!

Love,
Pookie! XOXO