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keto crack crockpot chicken recipe

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I have died and gone to Heaven! This is the BEST crockpot recipe for chicken that I have ever eaten. HANDS DOWN.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning
  • 2 lbs of thawed chicken breasts
  • 1 package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (8 oz)
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
  • 8 slices of bacon (or bacon bits – no judgement!)

Directions:

  • Add chicken broth to the crockpot and stir in Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packet. Then add thawed chicken breasts.
  • Cover and cook on high for 4 hours OR low for 8 hours.
  • Cook the bacon before the timer ends.
  • After the cook time has ended, shred the chicken with two forks.
  • Cut up Philadelphia Cream Cheese into chunks and add to the mixture.
  • Add in the shredded mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan cheese.
  • Re-cover for 5-10 minutes to let the cheeses melt.
  • Uncover the crockpot and stir the mixture well. It’s ready!

Now, here’s where you have some options. You can eat this chicken as-is right out of the crockpot, you can spoon it over some spinach for a delicious salad topping, or you can add it to some riced cauliflower for a keto-friendly “chicken and rice” dish. I chose the latter!

Finally, I consider the bacon to be the crowning jewel of this recipe. If you like soft bacon, you can chop it all up and add it to the pot when you add in the cheeses. However, if you’re like me and prefer crispy bacon, crumble a couple of slices over your plated chicken dish as the last touch, and….

EAT YOUR HEART OUT. 🙂

Bon Appétit!

Blessings,
Emily

ten minute salad recipe

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In my effort to continue eating healthy in the middle of the covid-apocalypse, tonight I made another delicious salad. However, we were running low on spinach, so I added some steamed broccoli into the mix to get 3 full servings of greens with my lean protein.

Chicken Sausage Spinach Salad
  • 60 grams of freshly washed raw baby spinach
  • 90 grams of Steamfresh broccoli (one bag only takes 5-6 minutes in the microwave)
  • 2 wedges of Laughing Cow Light cheese
  • 2 links of Gilbert’s Bourbon Apple chicken sausage (these are individually wrapped and only take 30 seconds each to heat up in the microwave)
  • 2.5 tablespoons of plain balsamic vinaigrette

Pair this salad with a can of Pomme Baya (apple cranberry) La Croix sparkling water, and you’ve got yourself a tasty, healthy meal!

Choose well, and Be well! 🙂

Blessings,
Emily

mama’s plate

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There are few things in this world more irresistible to a toddler than the food on mama’s plate. It doesn’t matter what you’ve prepared for your child, and how delicious it may be. In fact, most of the time, we’re wishing we could eat what’s on our kid’s plate instead of what’s on our own. Goldfish? Yes, please! I’ll take that golden cheddar-y goodness ANY day over the crunch of baby carrots.

Sigh. Let me tell you a story.

Right before this pandemic arrived, I started a healthier eating plan. Yes, you read that right; I’m trying to eat more healthy foods during the apocalypse. I even joked with my husband that I should have known the world would come to an end if I actually began losing weight on a consistent basis. The devil is determined to keep me miserable! Here I am, trapped in my house with all of my husband’s and daughter’s carb-happy snacks. Times like these make you want to look up into the heavens and say, “Are you kidding me?!?”

Sigh.

Nevertheless, I have persisted. I have resisted. I am still going strong. Yes, I may want to cry whenever I see someone getting a pizza delivery, but I have not caved and ordered one for myself.

A couple of nights ago, I cooked some chicken nuggets and broccoli for my child (one of her favorite meals), and she began to eat while I made myself a big spinach salad with shredded chicken, Laughing Cow Light Swiss, and my homemade balsamic vinaigrette. This meal has become one of my favorite go-to’s for something quick and healthy.

Well, I’m sure my mama friends know exactly what happened as soon as I sat down at the table with my big salad bowl. Yep, my child immediately became more interested in what I was eating, than in her own food.

Now, I’ve tried to give Grace a raw spinach leaf from my plate couple of times in the past, but she has simply spit it back out. She’s eaten soft butter lettuce without rejection, but only in very small amounts. Her 2-year molars are still coming in, so for safety’s sake, I wanted to give her enough time to grow the teeth she needs for raw veggies and not rush things.

Keeping all this in mind but not wanting to deny her a chance to try something healthy (again), I decided to try giving her the long stem from the spinach leaf instead, since that part stays crunchy and might be easier for her to chew. And wouldn’t you know it–she ate it up and told me she liked it! Soon she was pointing at the cheese and the chicken as well, and all of a sudden, my salad became her salad.

Aside from learning that I’d need to make a bigger salad (for two) from now on, I realized that when people say your children are watching you and mimicking you, they aren’t kidding. It’s not just some cutesy, fun cliche; these kids actually want to be just like us. So if we’re eating crap, they’re going to eat crap too.

If, however, we make the choice to fuel our bodies with good nutrition, our children will want to do the same. No, they won’t understand they’re making healthy choices until quite some time from toddlerhood; for now, they’ll just want to eat what’s on our plates. But one day, they will understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy choices. And if we’ve done right by them, by the time they do, the healthy habits will already be in place, and their taste buds will be well-acquainted with these better choices.

Being a parent is a heavy, but joyful burden. Everything we do is molding our kids into the person they’ll become. It’s a huge responsibility, not to be taken lightly.

There’s certainly a happy medium we all need to find between eating tree bark, and eating slop.

So in the middle of this virus situation, while we’re all cooped up with our families, let’s make sure to model good choices for our kids as best we can. If you have access to healthy foods, make the better choices whenever possible. In doing so, we’re equipping our family’s bodies and immune systems with the good nutrition we all need to help fight off these germs and keep us out of the hospital.

Image by Karolina Grabowska
Choose well, and Be well! 🙂

Blessings,
Emily

the day Mama went Home.

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December 20, 2019.

~Reading scripture to Mama~

The hospice center was filled with the brightest sunlight we had seen in the last 5 days. A guitarist began to play beautiful acoustic music right across the hall from my mother’s room. My mama, who had always carried a deep love of music within her heart, was being serenaded and beckoned by the Almighty. It was so beautiful that I powered off the thermostat so she could hear it more clearly.

I spoke gently to Mama, reassuring her that I would take care of my sister and handle anything I thought she might be worried about. And for the first time in 5 days, I felt absolutely sure that I wanted to be there when her soul entered the Kingdom of Heaven. I told her so, and also made sure she knew that my sister would want to be there with her too. Just as I finished up the last of countless chats I’d had with Mama over the past week, my sister returned from the hospice kitchen and sat down on the other side of Mama’s bed.

It had been 5 days since Mama left ICU to be transferred to the hospice center; 5 miserable, long, tortured days of watching her “sleep” while telling her how much we loved her, how proud we were of her for fighting so hard for so long, how sorry we were that she had suffered so much, and how thankful we were for her and the gift of every moment we had shared together in our lifetimes.

It was incredibly hard not to hear her sweet voice responding or see her beautiful eyes gazing back at us as we spoke to her throughout that week, but we had been repeatedly assured by the medical staff that she could hear everything we said. So, we spent every day saying our “see you later’s” knowing that according to the doctor, she should not survive another hour, let alone another night. And then we’d wake up in awe each morning once we discovered she was still with us, still fighting.

But this morning was different. Her breathing was more labored than in the previous days, and I could sense a change happening. There seemed to be less of her there; less of her spirit was trapped inside the sick body that had held her captive with cancer for nearly 3 years. There was more of her elsewhere now, than in this hospice bed.

The guitarist played on, strumming the most beautiful selection of songs — hymns, Christmas songs, and old southern favorites that brought back wonderful memories. I heard several of Mama’s favorites, and I knew she was listening and smiling over us. As the music filled the air around us, I suddenly felt an urging to tell my sister that Mama’s time was near so she would be prepared. I knew in my heart that her transformation would soon be complete.

Then, just minutes after I had spoken those words, an old familiar guitar tune fell on our ears. The song immediately grabbed my sister’s attention, because it’s about dancing — something Mama had longed to be able to do again. My sister began humming the tune, and filled in the words once it reached the chorus:

“Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he...”

My sister looked down at our mother, touched her hand, and said, “Now you can dance again, Mama.” And at that moment, Mama took her last breath and saw the face of God.

In that instant, I saw Mama’s spirit leave her broken body; I knew right away that she was finally free. And thru my tears of both sadness and joy, I thanked Mama for fighting so hard and for waiting for us to be okay before leaving. I also thanked God for the gift He gave of allowing us to witness that moment and feel Heaven in that hospice room.

It was the most beautiful, unimagined ending to Mama’s long and faithful fight. What an incredible blessing it was to experience such a heavenly event. We had been given the gift of closure, knowing that Mama was alive and well in Heaven — perfect and whole in every way.

“Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he...”

Blessings,
Emily

peanut butter delight no-bake protein cookies

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Who doesn’t love those classic fudgey peanut butter delight treats?! They are one of my absolute favorite sweet treats of all time. Unfortunately, they aren’t too easy on the waistline or the glucose. But I’ve just discovered a healthy new way to appease the same tastebuds, that helps to keep my jeans intact! 😀 This recipe makes about 12 cookies, and is packed full of nutrients and healthy goodness that makes eating them that much more fun! The only question is: to share or not to share. 🙂

peanut butter delight no-bake protein cookies

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups instant oats
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder 
  • 1.5 scoops Ladyboss Lean shake mix (or your favorite vanilla flavored protein shake)
  • 1/2 cup all-natural creamy peanut butter (Skippy is great!)
  • 1/2 cup melted coconut oil (takes 30 secs to 1 min in microwave)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • dark chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together first. Then add in the wet ingredients, and combine everything together well. Roll into balls and smash onto parchment paper-lined tray. If you want to add a few dark chocolate chips on top of each cookie, now’s the time to do that. Then just put them in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes, and enjoy!

Notes:

If you use unsalted peanut butter, you’ll want to add a pinch of sea salt to the dry mixture in the first step above. You can also cut calories by using PB2 powder (or similar); just make sure you mix it with some extra almond or coconut milk to create a creamy consistency similar to regular peanut butter, before adding it to the cookie mixture. Feel free to taste-test the mixture before shaping it – I always do! If you have a sweeter tooth, add in a tbsp of maple syrup. 😉

Blessings,
Emily

Zero Fasting app

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If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you already know I’m a firm believer in intermittent fasting for some fantastic health benefits.

What you may not know is that I have struggled to say on track with my fasting schedule. Between working and toddlering, I am plum exhausted by the end of the day. There have been a lot of nights in the last few weeks when I haven’t been able to close my “eating window” until I was an hour+ past its expiration. ☹️ And instead of just powering thru a full 16-hour fasting window to eat again, I would begin eating at my usual time, repeatedly cutting my fasting window short.

While this may not seem like such a terrible thing, for someone with a thyroid issue who struggles to lose every single ounce (#me), this sort of behavior put a complete stop to any and all weightloss.

But I recently found a new tool to keep me motivated and on track: the Zero Fasting app.

Zero Fasting app screenshot

This app links you to helpful articles on the benefits of fasting and tips on how to be successful, maintains a timer to help you track your selected fast (there are several options to choose from), displays a charted history of your fasting successes, shows you how many other people are using the app and fasting with you (YAY, community!), and it checks in with you from time to time to see how you are feeling while fasting.

So far, I love this little app! It has kept me on track for over a week now, AND I even lost 2 lbs during my first week back on the 16:8 fasting schedule (which included one cheat night so I could enjoy a couple of glasses of red wine after hours)! 😃 I won’t always have a “cheat night” every week, but I like having that cushion so I can relax a little and enjoy myself if I decide to partake in an adult bevvy from time to time. 😉

What are some of your favorite ways to stay on track with your health goals? Do you use the Zero Fasting app? I would hate to be the last one to the party, but it wouldn’t be the first time! Ha! 😂

Blessings,
Emily