Coconut Flour Chicken Bites

I really should learn by now that if I am going to post a food pic on Facebook or Instagram that I should already have the recipe on my blog. 

Trouble is though that I make just a lot of stuff on the fly. I know enough kitchen tricks and have enough skillz that I have a general idea of how something is going to turn out. Sometimes I'll start off with a legit recipe from a book and will often just say get the book, lol. Then over time I'll fiddle with the recipe until I've made it my own. More of this, less of that, kind of thing.

These chicken bites are something that I cobbled together. Normally I used a paleo chicken finger recipe that I adapted off of another blog (get the original here) but I didn't have chicken breast or arrowroot flour.

It seems though some of the best things though just seem to happen. They were GREAT!

Coconut Flour Chicken Bites

8-10 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk (dairy, almond, coconut)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
black pepper to taste
1 cup lard

-Cut the chicken breasts into bite size-ish pieces - that's a technical term by the way ;)
-Put the lard into a large high walled frying pan, melt, and bring to temperature
-Beat the eggs and milk together
-Put the chicken pieces into the egg and milk mixture
-In a larger bowl mix together the coconut flour, almond flour, sea salt, and black pepper
-Take the kitchen pieces from the egg mix and into the coconut flour mix and toss them around until evenly coated.
-Put 10 pieces or so of chicken into the hot oil at a time, flipping over, until cooked, usually about 5-8 minutes depending on their size. Repeat until all are fried.

**Note: you can add other spices if you like, sometimes I'll do a 1/2 tsp dried basil or parsley, or 1/4 tsp paprika. Play with it to find what you like.

Honey Drill Drizzle

I am a HUGE honey dill fan, fan of sauces in general, but honey dill is perfect for these. Now the regular honey dill has a lot of nasty things in it so I decided to make my own AND use as a drizzle instead of a dip so I was eating WAY less. Win/Win. It's all about the wins!
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp dried dill

Mix the two together. Using a spoon lightly drizzle over your chicken bites.
See? EASY!

Now you may or may not be wondering about the lard. Yes, I do deep fry these, no, I don't have them multiple times a week. I also choose lard versus vegetable oil or canola oil. I personally prefer to use oils that haven't been highly processed and am a fan of natural animal fats. It's what I rock and how I roll. That being said you could use coconut oil (but I'm too chincy to do that).

Let me know if you try them in the comments below!

Personal Development: What I'm reading now...

Welcome back to another post about personal development. If you haven't read it yet be sure to check out my previous post on why I think it is so important. 

I thought I'd share today what I am currently reading or just recently finished.

So this is what I have going on right now in hard cover. I am slowly working my way through all of them. I just seem to be having a love affair with my Kobo right now and doing a lot of reading on there as well. 

On my Kobo I just recently finished The Slight Edge, Go Pro, Max Lucado's Live to Make a Difference. Felt pretty good to finish up three books all in the past week. 

As soon as I was done those I started on a few more. I am currently reading Think and Grow Rich and the Five Levels of Leadership. Those are both a different format than just reading straight through. They are meant to be taken slowly, read carefully, thought about afterwards. Same as the Laws of Growth book in the pic above. 

So why do I do all this personal development? Well why the heck not? It is amazing for you. Some may think it is boring but it is real life and I want to Rock my life, not just eek my way through it. 

It's not like I have my nose stuck in a book 24/7 either. I do a lot of my reading in the evening or while watching the kids play in the back yard. It is kind of cute actually I've been reading to my kids my books at bedtime and they LIKE it. 

I'll close with this quote here as it really seems to sum it up. BELIEVE. Believe that you are worth that time. My reading, fitness, health, those are all parts of developing who I am, making myself a better person. 

Tex-Mex Ranch Chicken

I have always loved tex-mex kind of dishes. A little spicy, a little cheesy. Plus I have always loved sauces and dips and things like that. Sadly though a lot of that time that means lots of fats, calories, and carbs. 

Solution?

My tex-mex ranch chicken recipe. So easy to make and very tasty. You can serve it over greens/salad. You could have veggies and quinoa or rice on the side. Prep takes only 5 minutes and bakes in about 35.

On the 21 Day Fix this meal would account for:

2 Green (greens, carrots, tex-mex sauce)

1 Red (chicken)

1 Blue (cheese)

1 Orange (ranch)

STEPS:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350

Step 2: Make the tex-mex sauce (recipe below)

Step 3: Pour sauce over chicken

Step 4: Shred cheese

Step 5: Sprinkle cheese over chicken

Step 6: Bake in oven for 35 minutes

Step 7: Plate over greens or with chosen sides and put rockin' spicy ranch on top (link to recipe below) 

Tex -Mex Sauce 

In a saucepan over medium heat combine the following:

1 can tomato paste

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper

Warm until just simmering.

You can find the recipe for my rockin' spicy ranch here. 

Let me know if you try this recipe in the comment section and what you think of it. It's a newbie of mine but I'm pretty happy with it. Hope you all think it ROCKS too. 

My Personal Development Library

Yesterday I wrote a post on the importance of Personal Development. You can read that post HERE. 

It really is the root of so much. How you feel, how you approach things, the ideas you have in your mind are like clay and can be moulded into a positive outlook through personal development. 

In today's post I just want to share with you some of my favourite books (some I have fully read, some I have skimmed or jumped around in, others I plan to read again, and some I have yet to get started in).

This is just  a brief showing and in the coming days/weeks I am going to expand more on what these different styles of personal development can provide as well as going further into some of my favourite authors, series, etc. I do actually have a few others not even shown here (such as my extensive Robert Kiyosaki collection).

As you can see I have quite a variety. There are many ways that you can develop yourself as a person. It is important that we are always growing. I don't like settling for what is. I am always on the search for bettering myself.

Here I have spiritual books, business books, money books, general happy books. One of my favourite series is The Secret (I have The Secret, The Magic, Hero, and The Power). Then there are parenting books and even a sub category of parenting/business books, since work at home/mompreneurs are becoming a force of their own.

This is also just what I have in hard copy and doesn't even get into what is on my Kobo. When I purchased my Kobo I did so strictly as a business tool, for using it for personal development to make myself a better leader, mother, Christian, so that I can be the best to help others.

Now I'm not knocking fiction, everyone needs something to dull their mind every so often, I'll admit I've read some pretty out there fiction. But overall I would much rather spend my time reading something that is going to improve my life as opposed to something designed to help me escape from life. I want a life I don't want to escape from.

Two amazing books that I highly suggest getting started with are The Compound Effect and The Secret. Start reading those NOW and you will see amazing improvement and develop the belief that YOU TO can ROCK your life!

Starting From Within: Personal Development

Let's face it NO ONE is perfect. We all have issues that we need to work on. Maybe we have low self esteem or lack self confidence. Some people just seem to be always grumpy. Others constantly pessimistic and think the worst of everything.

It isn't that people like being that way, who likes being in a bad mood or feeling bad all the time. Certainly not me. While it may be hard to believe for some though I used to REALLY have a hard time with confidence. I used to think really badly about myself.

A major turning point in my life was taking a trip to Germany when I was 16. Not only did I leave my tiny town of 1000, but I left my COUNTRY! I saw such an amazing world out there. It was at that time that I realized how amazing life can be, that we aren't limited to our surroundings.

It wasn't always easy though. I had a lot of times that still brought me down. But overall I approached life with positivity. As much progress as I made in the past I have gone even further in just the last 8 months.

It is a little thing called PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT!

Taking only 10-15 minutes to read personal development per day can have a HUGE impact in your life. It doesn't matter where you start either, just that you do start. If you want to change your life, if you want improve things, if you want fulfillment, then personal development is the first step. Just because we stop growing physically doesn't mean we should quit growing our minds, our hearts, and our abilities.

It is about opening your mind. It is about seeing that there are other ways of doing things, we don't always have to live in the rat race. Learn about the importance of being true to yourself, time management, dealing with your finances. You name it, what ever personal problem you have there is a way to get over it.

Too busy to read? Well, then that is exactly WHY you need personal development. You need to make the time for yourself. But I get it, so why not get some audio personal development. Slap it on your iPod, put the disc into your car whatever you have to do. Chances are you are commuting anyways so instead of listening to sucky music or boring talk radio listen to something that is going to improve your life.

When I started my Beachbody business I really delved into personal development, it is one our vital behaviours after all. At the core my job is to be my best self so I can help others be their best selves. How many jobs can you say that about? Very very few. But the better I am the better I can help others. See how that works?

I was so excited when I received a Beachbody chq that allowed me to buy my Kobo and fill it with loads of books that would help me grow as a person. I have separated my personal development into different sections. I have spiritual and faith development, parental development, business development, and then really working on myself. I want to be a better Christian, a better Mother, a better Leader, the whole thing.

If you really want to start ROCKING your life you have to start from within. It just won't happen on it's own. You have to believe in yourself, you have to open yourself and get the heck out of that comfort zone. You can't do those things without working on them.

Feel free to send me a friend request at Facebook.com/jsanfordfamily I'd love to give you some suggestions to give you direction on your personal development journey.

That Time I Decided To Offer A Free Nutrition Webinar

Today I got to do one of those things that I always wanted to do but just never really ever thought I'd ever be in the position to do. 

For a long time I've always felt like I'd like to present, guest speaker style. I have had experience with public speaking and performing but that was different. In this context I always lacked the confidence and didn't really know what I was even qualified to present about. I just knew I somehow wanted to share and touch people. 

But this morning I headed out, laptop in hand (well, in my Lug bag for real) and headed for one of Winnipeg's largest high schools. Seriously more students there than my entire HOME TOWN!! I was going to be presenting to three different classes on Food, Nutrition, and the Journey to Health (what I titled my presentation).

Like really, here I am, someone only three years ago that was 250 lbs, and really didn't have a hot clue about proper nutrition (hence why I was 250 lbs). And now today I am guest speaking on that very topic. Kind of twilight zoneish if you ask me.

How Did This Even Happen???

Well it all started a month or so ago when had the honour of being asked by the Foods & Nutrition teacher to come in and present to the class. We had previously worked together and she had seen a lot of my postings and sharing my transformation on Facebook.

I was ECSTATIC to be given that opportunity. I had a lot of nervous feelings about it though. Would I present well enough? Would the classes appreciate what I had to say? Would I be able to provide value?

Another worry was that my story is predominantly weight loss related and I wanted the students to have an understanding about the importance of health and not just weight. The last thing I wanted to do was just focus on losing weight because that can be difficult for a lot of teenagers.

Weight + Teenagers = touchy subject

Overall though I felt like I came up with just the right combination. I started off sharing my story and how presenting on food and nutrition is the LAST I'd be seen five years ago, and how I came to be there today. After sharing my story I went into some of the most important things I learned in the process of becoming healthier and my subsequent weight loss. Some students even had a few questions which was great.

In the last section of class I shared my apple dip recipe and spicy ranch dip recipe with them. Seriously folks, teenagers were coming back up to get more carrots and celery sticks to dip in the ranch dip. Yes, I got teens to eat veggies. A few were too full from our healthy snack that there was no need for them to get the greasy, nasty, cafeteria food for lunch.

HUZZAH HUZAH HUZZAH!!!

It was such a great experience and I absolutely LOVED the feeling I got for being able to present today. So much that I am thinking of turning my presentation into FREE live webinar sessions. People could ask me questions, learn my story straight from me, see that I am a real person too, and share some of the most important things I learned. 

If you'd like to be able to participate in my online webinar (roughly 40 minutes) send me a friend request at Facebook.com/jsanfordfamily Perhaps I can bring some of my knowledge and experience to you. 

Now that I have been able to tick this dream off my list, it's time to Rock it to a whole new level!