Clean Eating Sweet Potato Pancakes

I have come to find out that I am loving cooking lately! I love coming up with new ideas for my family, especially breakfast foods. I am so over the sugary cereal. This morning I had a left over sweet potato and I had seen recipes online for sweet potato pancakes. I decided that I wanted to try it this morning. These can also be used if you are on the 21 Day Fix or following a Paleo diet.

Ingredients:

1 small sweet potato
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1-2 tsp cinnamon
A dash of nutmeg (optional)

Optional Toppings:
Maple syrup (be careful because if you use to much it has a lot of sugar in it)
Coconut butter
2 tsp honey

Mix all of these ingredients together in a bowl. I cooked mine on a skillet griddle and was able to make 4 small pancakes out of this mixture. Because these are easy to burn cook on medium heat and it takes a little longer to cook because it is a sweet potato.

My final thoughts:

These were much tastier then I thought that they would be! I really liked them and because there is protein and a powerhouse of nutrients from the sweet potato my hunger has been kept at bay.

21 Day Fixers:
1 red, 1 yellow, 1/4 purple

Nicole McDuffie
Independent Beachbody Coach

Lemon Chicken Supreme

We have been searching for some new recipes lately just to come up with something different then the normal weekly dinners we were having.

I came across this one and cooked it last night. What I loved about it is it is a crockpot meal and was super easy to make. What I loved the MOST about it is that it tasted delicious and was so juicy! All of my kids ate it without complaints, a rare occurrence in this house!

Lemon Chicken Supreme:

4 chicken breasts (or as many as you need, but you may need to increase ingredients if you add more)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary (I was out of rosemary last night, instead I used fresh cilantro and I think I like it better then the rosemary!)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbs butter (real unsalted butter)
1/4 c chicken broth
1/4 c fresh lemon juice (I used a whole lemon, peeled it, and juiced it with my food chopper)
Dash of salt and pepper

Wash chicken, pat dry, season w/salt and pepper.
Melt butter in frying pan and brown chicken and then transfer to crock pot.
Add a little water to the pan and scrap out any brown bits and pour over chicken
Mixed the rest of the ingredients together and pour over the chicken.
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7 hours.


We served this with steamed carrots and brown rice. We will be adding this recipe into our rotation of dinners! If you try this let me know what you think!

Nicole McDuffie
Independent Beachbody Coach

T25 and PiYo hybrid

I am just completing week 3 of the T25 and PiYo hybrid that I have been doing. I am doing this combined with the 21 Day Fix food plan and Shakeology daily, and I am seeing some great results. I talked earlier this week about our move and having some depression from that. Along with that has come weight gain of 10 lbs, so I wasn't feeling the best about myself and feeling frustrated!


I am happy to announce that I lost 4 of those 10 lbs, and I am feeling SO much better about myself. My energy level is up and my stomach is no longer bloated and feeling icky! I am posting the hybrid calendar that I have been following in case you are interested in doing the same hybrid. If you need extra support and accountability I would love to help you through them!

Click here to fill out an application and I will contact you within 24 hours.

Sneak Peek into Beachbody Coaching

New Sneak Peek starts on Monday September 22.


I know you guys know that I am a fitness enthusiast, but I also am very passionate about helping woman add some financial freedom to their families. For me, the way I do that is with Beachbody Coaching. I have been able to provide for our car payment and student loan payment, and I am not stopping there. I am helping my team to do the same. There is nothing better then helping someone to lose weight and gain financial freedom all while doing it myself.

We are all mothers, full time workers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, wives, military families, any profession you can think about. You do not have to be a trainer or a fitness professional, what you do have to have is a strong work ethic and a desire to help people better themselves. BUT remember that you are on your journey to it doesn't matter if you are 100 or 400 lbs you have an ability to add worth to people's lives! One way of doing that is through Beachbody Coaching.

If you have been seeing me post about coaching and wondering what it is all about and want some more INFORMATION before considering it please join us. Our goal and desire is to share all the important details with you before you make your decision. After this group you will be able to decide if coaching is right for you & your family.

There is no commitment required. It simply is to help you see if this is a good fit for you. Beachbody coaching and my team has completely changed my life & I am passionate about passing this on to others.

If you want to be a FLY on the wall in this group please send me an RSVP at fitnic13@aol.com or shoot me a friend request at www.facebook.com/nicoleswartzelmcduffie

It feels good to be back

I have been absent from my blog lately and here is why:

We are a (very proud) Navy family and we have only PCSed (relocate) one other time. The one other time we moved to Houston, TX about 7 hours from home. We were only gone for one year and my husband was picked up for a program in the Navy where he was able to finish out his schooling in college as a nurse. So after one year of being away we got to move back to our hometown where our family's live and where we grew up.

  It took John almost 3 years to complete his degree and we were to PCS to Virginia. Close to his completion we were told that if we wanted we could stay where we were for another 3 years as John would only have about an hour commute. Needless to say, we have been extremely blessed, this is not typical for military families. My kids got to grow up for 6 more years with grandparents and our church family.

We found out that we would indeed be PCSing to Virginia for real this time. Only about 14 hours from home. My heart was sick. However, despite the sadness we know that this was the will of God, and where we were supposed to be coming. We decided that we were going to buy a house. So 2 months before we drove up to meet with the realtor and see some houses. We had been searching for weeks and found about 20 homes in the neighborhood we wanted and the schools that we wanted. When we sat down to meet with her the day before going out to look we found out that about 15 of the 20 homes were already under contract! I was thinking what do we do now!

We go back to the hotel, PRAY, and we did another search. We came across a house in our price range with 5 bedrooms. There were no pictures of the inside only the outside. I told my husband, John, I don't care it is in our price range and it would mean that each of our 4 kids could have their own bedroom. Something my 11 year old had been praying about for a few months because she was tired of sharing a room with her sister!

 

The next day, we found out we could see the house, and we did. It was absolutely perfect. It had EVERYTHING we had prayed about in a home that we wanted. A fenced backyard for our kids to play in and the dog to be able to run around in, an office space for my Beachbody business, did I mention 5 bedrooms, a closet that was big enough, and lastly a jet spa tub (yes I prayed for that!!!). I didn't need to see any other house, this is the house that I wanted!

Living Room

My office

     God is so wonderful and amazing in the ways that he works for our good. I never imagined that we would be able to have something so nice, but he worked it out. We came home with a renewed peace. I held on to that peace until we moved. Moving was so much harder then I thought it was going to be. I thought I was prepared to leave home and move away from all that we had known. BUT I was so wrong. I wasn't prepared for the loneliness that we would feel. I have still been holding on to God's promise that he is guiding our path even if it has been with one finger and I don't feel it, everyday I say I have faith in you and your will. Because he has been with us every step of the way.

The Kitchen

The Backyard

     I have been missing because I had to do some soul searching and come out of the fog of depression. I had to get back into the word of God again so that I could feel at peace again. I had to make sure that helping people lose weight and gain financial freedom was something that I could do still. A friend who has been also going through some troubles posted about them and she had some beautiful words of wisdom. Sometimes the best way to help yourself is to help others! With that this is where I have been, but I am back and ready to help!

Fountain in the backyard

Are you a military family facing your first move or your tenth? I would love to hear from you and any advice you may have for me or just to connect with you! Shoot me a message at fitnic13@aol.com or find me on facebook.com/nicolemcduffiesfitness.


Nicole McDuffie
Independent Beachbody Coach