Breakfast tacos

Yep, that's right.

Tacos for breakfast.

Or, as a recovery meal after a long workout.

And maybe even for dinner too!

There's no overthinking breakfast tacos.

1) Take your favorite omelet ingredients and scramble them all together in a skillet.
2) Stuff inside a taco (or two, or three).
3) Top with your favorite omelet/taco toppings - gauc, cheese, sour cream, salsa.
4) Yum

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On Saturday afternoon, after a 4 hour ride, I was suddenly in the mood for something savory and crunchy. Although my post ride pancakes were super delish, tacos sounded amazingly awesome while watching the live stream of the Ironman 70.3 Ironman World Championship.

I sauteed kale in a skillet and added mushrooms and onions. When my veggies were cooked, I scrambled together 2 eggs and combined with my sauteed veggies.

I then took taco shells and slathered the inside with smashed avocado, sprinkled on the shredded cheese (so that it would melt on the shell when I added my hot ingredients) and I stuffed each shell with my veggie and egg mixture.
There was some overflowing of eggs and veggies, which wasn't a problem until I needed to take a picture....thus the far-away picture of messy overly-stuffed tacos.

I encourage you to break away from any food rules or repetitive eating habits that are keeping you from enjoying a healthy and fun way of fueling and nourishing your body.

Breakfast tacos anyone? 

Family-style meals - pizza and tacos

                                           

Growing up, my brother and I were on different schedules all the time. Whereas my brother had gymnastics practice for a few hours every day in the evening, I started my day super early with my dad driving me to swim practice at 4:30am most days during the week. After school, my day would finish with another swim practice, piano lessons and perhaps some after school activity squeezed somewhere in there. Oh, and then there was time for homework in the evening before it all started over again and again and again until I graduated High School.

Then I re-created my similar lifestyle in college with swimming, school, studying, swimming and studying....with eating throughout the day with my swimming teammates.  

Although eating was not scheduled with my family growing up, I always enjoyed the times when we could eat together. And still today, I not only enjoy eating with Karel but also with friends and family. 

Why should we eat together with others? 

Regardless if it is with family or friends but we should all be able to enjoy sharing our day with others. Whether it is first thing in the morning or in the evening (or somewhere in between), eating with others is a very meaningful and powerful to connect with others.
We all need to eat so why not enjoy your eating time with someone else who also is eating.

(And this should be a big message that we all should slow down and take time to sit down and eat a real meal. At a table. Eating slowly. With minimal distractions.)

I'm sure many people could not imagine eating alone on the holidays, even if it does happen every now and then. So, why should we limit the wonderful experiences of eating together to just the holidays? 

Laughing, smiling, smelling, tasting and listening. 

In today's society, with so many food intolerances, allergies, preferences and dietary habits, perhaps some people feel as if there can not be a positive eating experience with friends/family or if tried, it would be too difficult to enjoy special diets around others.  Well, I want to prove you/them wrong.

As a 22-year lacto-ovo vegetarian (since the age of 10 yrs), I have never once felt as if I need to eat alone, I can not eat around others or if my dietary preferences are extreme compared to my friends and family. Yes, it was a little challenging for the first few years as there were a lot of new eating experiences for me (especially as an athlete) to get use to but once they were all achieved, eating time became much more enjoyable for me and my family/friends and now I don't even feel as if I am eating any differently than others. 

Eating together is an opportunity to connect with others over food. Not every meal needs to be the same for every person (or be super complicated) to be enjoyed. 

Part of the fun of eating together is preparing food that everyone can enjoy. Not always do you have to eat everything that is served and never should you put yourself in a food-centered experience with friends and family and feel as if there is nothing for you to eat.

Conversations around food can certainly be about food but I find that the eating experience should be more about being together and celebrating the day, the past and the future. 

To create the most positive and healthy meal-time experience, it is important to make meal time a happy, relaxed, fun and non-stressful time. So to help you out, I will give you two delicious meals that the entire family (and friends) will be sure to enjoy!

FAMILY-STYLE PIZZA

INGREDIENTS

Fresh dough (from your local pizzaria or grocery store. Plan 1 ball of dough per 2-3 people)

Pasta sauce

Mozzarella cheese (chopped)

Fresh basil

Chopped garlic

Tempeh

Cooked/seasoned chicken

Broccoli

Zucchini

Onions

Mushrooms

Corn

Artichokes (canned/jarred)

Asparagus

Peppers

1. Roll out dough on floured surface. Preheat oven to 430 degrees. Place dough on pizza dishes.

2. Every person get his/her own personalized pizza to decorate with sauce, cheese (optional) and basil and then with individual toppings. 

3. Bake for 20-40 minutes.

4. Yum together!

 FAMILY-STYLE TACOS

INGREDIENTS

1 package taco shells

Cabot cheese (Shredded)

Black beans and chickpeas (rinsed from canned)

Brown rice

Tri-colored quinoa

Boca veggie "meat"

Cooked/seasoned chicken

Sauteed mushrooms/zucchini/onions

Chopped romaine

Steamed mixed veggies (from the bag)

Plain Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream)

Salsa

1. Every stuffs their own taco with warm ingredients.

2. You may also omit the shell and create a taco salad in a lettuce bowl.

3. When your taco overflows, use your extra toppings for a side dish

4. Yum together!

Trail run, beach and Tacos

When you own your own business, the weekends often get squeezed together with the weekdays as every day is a work day.

Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition, LLC works great for Campy because in his world, every day is a weekend!!

I'm really looking forward to speaking at Speaking Of Women's Health in Jacksonville on August 24th on behalf of the HeartWise for Women prevention program. I can't wait for my talk on "Keeping eating healthy, easy and delicious" and doing a cooking demo with Mai Oui Gourmet catering my talk.

I also have a talk this Sunday with two other GI MD's at Baptist Medical Center Beaches where we will all be discussing GI related diseases and how they affect the fitness enthusiast. My portion will be on fueling the individual who has a GI-related disease (Crohn's, stomach cancer, IBS, celiac). 

I wonder what they are dreaming about?

It's been a very busy two weeks since returning from Lake Placid but I wouldn't want it any other way. 

                            

This morning (after my 2500 form focused swim + hip/core work) around 7:40am, I prepped the set for my 8am hour TV segment with News4Jax on "Healthy budge-friendly lunches for kids". I will share the link via Facebook and blog when it is on the website. 

So for my last weekend of unstructured training....

A little girl time on bikes with my friend Heidi

A little mountain biking in Hanna Park for Karel (Sunday - 1 hour) after we slept in with no alarm. 9 beautiful hours of sleep and not working out until 9am.

And on Sunday, my 2nd run since Ironman Lake Placid, a 40 minute run on the trails (10 min run, 2 min walk after each trail segment). I was drenched in sweat and covered in spider webs and looking forward to wearing my new swim suit from Oakley Women. 

Love my unstoppable Oakley bag - perfect for a beach day with Karel to enjoy unstructured exercise before easing back into structured training. 

So on to more delicious news.....

Plant strong tacos

1 wrap
Veggie meat
Mixed greens
Onions
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Garlic
Lentils
Salsa
Cheese
Greek yogurt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a casserole dish (small yet tall rectangle), spray lightly with non stick spray and place 1 cup (per person) veggie meat and 1 package sliced mushrooms (washed) w/ 2 cloves garlic chopped and 1/2 large onion chopped (thick slices) into the dish.
3. Steam broccoli and then cut into segments and place on top of mushroom mixture (the meat, mushrooms and onions will soak up a lot of flavor from the meat and the broccoli will be nicely roasted). Sprinkle with turmeric and a pinch of salt. See step #6.
4. After 20-25 minutes or until broccoli is a little brown, remove from oven (and turn off oven).
5. Remove broccoli from the top of the casserole dish and stir together meat with mushrooms, onions and garlic.
6. Prepare lentils according to package (I did a 1:3 ratio of lentils to water).
7. Place 1  warm wrap on a plate and spoon cooked lentils on the wrap. Add a little cheese (any kind - the real kind, not factory made cheese like fat-free) and a spoonful of salsa and then top with a big spoon of mushroom mixture and then with leafy greens. Close wrap and top with dallop of greek yogurt (not pictured as that would make my picture messy looking).
8. Serve with roasted broccoli and enjoy!

Homemade "chips" - toasted wrap at 375 degrees for 3-5 minutes each side (or until almost hard and slightly brown), then broken carefully into triangles (kinda) and drizzled with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt and black pepper. I bet cinnamon would be yummy on these too!