Seafood Enchiladas (GF and dairy free)

With the holiday weekend, I had a little time to experiment with making one of my favorite dishes: Seafood Enchiladas. The most challenging part was making a cream sauce that is dairy-free, but this turned out muy excelente!

Ingredients:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Lightly spray a 13 x 9 in glass baking dish.

2. In a small bowl, combine the following:

*1 C green tomatilla salsa (I used "Frontera" brand, medium spicy)
*1 1/2 C plain soy yogurt (you can use regular yogurt if you like)

3. In a separate bowl, combine the following and mash it up with a fork until it looks like cottage cheese:

*8 ounces extra firm tofu
*1/2 tsp salt
*1/2 tsp agave nectar
*1 tsp apple cider vinegar
*1 clove minced garlic

4. Put 10 (6 inch) corn tortillas in the microwave and heat them up until they are soft and pliable - about 45 to 60 seconds.

5. Spread 1 Cup of the salsa mixture in the bottom of the glass dish

5. Spread 1 tablespoon salsa mixture over each tortilla, add 1 ounce of pre-cooked crab or salad shrimp (you could also use shredded chicken), add 1 ounce shredded almond cheese (mozzarella style). Roll up the tortilla and place it seem side down in the dish. Continue doing this with all the tortillas.

6. Pour the remaining salsa mixture over the top of the enchiladas. Pour all of the cottage mixture over the tortillas. Shake a little bit of paprika over the top as well to give it color.

7. Bake for 25 minutes, remove from over and spinkle 1 can of sliced ripe black olives (drained) over the top. Bake for an additional 5 minutes.

A few notes: if you use pre-cooked seafood, be sure to use REAL and not imitation. Imitation seafood almost always contains gluten.

Upcoming book signing, plus article feature in Bicycling magazine!

Normally I would ask my brilliant web master to splash this all over my homepage, but she is on the verge of going into labor any second (good luck Ashley!)so I thought I would do a simple blog post and hope for the best! Upcoming event: Local author showcase at The Bookworm of Edwards Friday, September 7th at 6 p.m. http://bookwormofedwards.com/event/local-author-showcase-fall-2012 $10 gets you into the event. There will be complimentary appetizers and a cash bar. Come on out! ************************ Also, Bicycling magazine is featuring a workout I put together called "4 Minute Fix for Core" in it's September issue. Pick up a copy and turn to page 20 to see the four moves I created! http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/hard-core-strength-workout ************************ And finally....book #2 is officially available for pre-sale! The title is Tom Danielson's Core Advantage: Core Strength Routines for Cycling's Winning Edge. http://amzn.com/193403097X Tom Danielson (my co-author and cyclist extraordinaire) just finished up an amazing season by placing 7th at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. He also won the jersey for "Most Aggressive Rider"

Gracefully side-stepping social pressure to overeat during the holidays

December 18th. Smack in the middle of holiday season, you may feel like you're trapped in the trenches of culinary warfare. Your friends, family, and co-workers have all surrounded you, relentlessly firing round after round of peppermint brownies, peanut brittle, and chocolate pound cake. You do your best to hold back the line, but you're one person against an army- how long can you really last? Reluctantly, you waive the white flag and surrender, turning yourself over to the enemy and all the excess calories they will force you to consume. Defeated yet again, you promise to fight harder next year.

This little story was easy to write because I hear it every year, without fail, from practically every one of my personal training clients. Sadly, I see people canceling their appointments because they are "too busy" and don't have time to prioritize anything except shopping and attending multiple holiday parties. Well, it's time to fight back! This year try to use a few of the following strategies to combat the battle of the bulge.

1. Don't write your own story of holiday weight gain.

If you tell yourself that you're going to gain weight over the holidays, you will. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, tell yourself that you're going to make healthy choices and feel good about yourself so that you don't have to wake up on January 1st with yet another resolution to "get fit and lose weight."

2. Never go to a holiday party hungry.

We've all done it. You know what I'm talking about- you intentionally skip lunch and your afternoon snack because you're trying to "bank" calories for the holiday party that night. News flash: this strategy never works. If it's worked for you in the past, then congrats because you're the exception. 9 times out of 10, if you show up at the office party starving, you will be much more tempted to make poor food choices because your stomach is crying out for calories.

3. Stay hydrated

Drinking lots of water helps in two ways. First, it helps fill up your tummy so that you don't confuse thirst for hunger. Second, it decreases the chances that you will try to hydrate with alcoholic beverages, which are full of calories and sugar.

4. If you're at a family gathering, suggest that everyone take a walk together after dinner.

This is an old trick that works every time. Studies have shown that if you're committed to some type of physical activity after a meal, you are much less likely to overeat. Also, by suggesting that everyone take a walk together, you are encouraging the whole family to spend time together in a healthy, active way. You're a hero!

5. Don't multi-task while you're eating.

Eating mindlessly is the quickest road to over-eating. If you're talking to someone at a party, watching TV, or cooking, you aren't really paying attention to what's going into your mouth. When you are eating, try to sit down, take a breath, look at your food, and then think about how it tastes with each bite.

With these battle tactics, you're well-prepared for holiday warfare. Good luck soldiers- may you fight well!

Illness and working out: the shoulds and shouldn'ts of exercising while sick

This may seem like an unseasonal topic to discuss in June, but I've recently witnessed a round of late-season colds, flus, and general ickiness amongst my clientele, so I decided to go ahead and do an entry on the subject.

The question of whether or not to workout while sick is a hotly debated one, and experts in the field of health and fitness often disagree on what's appropriate. I was interviewed for a newspaper article on this topic back in November, 2010, and when I gave my response to the question of "Is it ok to do light cardio when you have a low-grade fever" (my answer was "No, of course not!") the reporter seemed surprised and said "huh, that's exactly the opposite of what the other person I interviewed said." So....I guess I fall into the conservative camp on this particular issue.

My thoughts on working out while sick are very similar to my thoughts on working out while injured. I can sum up both with this statement:

It's much better to take two days off for recovery than to workout one day too soon and consequently have to take the next month off.

If you're under the weather and just dying for some "cleansing" movement, then I suggest a gentle yoga session, but not at the gym. Do yoga at home so that you don't expose the rest of us to your illness. This is actually a huge pet peeve of mine; it is never appropriate (or appreciated!) when you should up at the gym and cough your way through the locker room, weight room, pool, etc. Your 30 minute workout session just put about 200 other people at risk of missing valuable days at work and being able to care for their families. Don't be selfish- stay home!

That being said, I always assume that gym rats are selfish (sorry, it's the realist in me) so I clean off the gym machines before I workout on them, as well as after.

Bottom line is this: if you don't feel well, take a day or two off and concentrate on eating healing, whole foods as your "workout." Salud!

Are you suffering from holiday food guilt?

Black Friday. Not only is it the single biggest shopping day of the year, it's also one of the busiest days at Flatiron Athletic Club, the gym I work at in Boulder. There was a line to get in at 8 a.m.,class attendance was approximately 150% higher than normal, and I had clients begging me for personal training appointments.

These are all classic signs of "food guilt." The gastronomical crimes of yesterday must be avenged! The weight room seemed to transform into a confessional booth as I overheard members fess up to glutunous consumptionstory of pie, bottomless glasses of wine, and eating to the point of feeling ill. There was a sense of desparation in the air as people frantically moved from one exercise to the next, hoping to reach the end of the exercise rosary by noon.

So how can we deal with the inevitable food guilt of the holiday season? The obvious answer is to avoid over-eating in the first place, and here are some quick tips for how to accomplish this:

1. Limit your alcohol intake. The true dietary downfall of booze is not so much the booze themselves (though mixed drinks can really pack a big calorie punch) but the poor food choices we make after a few drinks. Let's face it, you're much more likely to justify three desserts when you're tipsy.

2. Drink water. Be sure your body is not mistaking thirst for hunger.

3. Make a date with your family to go on a walk after dinner. Studies have shown that when people know they have to move after eating, they are much less likely to overeat.

4. Don't eat dishes you don't like. It sounds like a no-brainer, but somehow we always feel like we just have to eat Aunt Mary's sweet potato casserole or else she'll be offended. Politely decline the dishes you aren't interested in, and allocate your calories towards treats you really enjoy.

5. Eat slowly and enjoy your food! Don't be the human garbage disposal. You'll miss out on all the great flavor, and you're more likely to overeat if you haven't been paying attention to what's going into your mouth.

Stay happy and healthy during the holidays!

The best winter cardio workout is.....

Snowshoeing. That's right, the simple act of walking through snow while wearing funny shoes can actually burn lots of calories. For a 150 pound person, snowshoeing burns approximately 500 calories an hour. That comes close to running, which burns about 600 calories an hour. If you add in the intangible joy of swishing through fresh snow, soaking up the gorgeous bucolic surroundings, and chatting it up with a few friends while walking through snow.....well, snowshoeing ranks right up there with the "best of" list of winter cardio exercises.

A good pair of snowshoes can be purchased at a pretty economical price. Amazon.com offers some great options- Tubbs, Atlas, Redfeather, and TSL are all great brands to look at. If you aren't quite up for the investment of snowshoes this season, start with a $20 pair of Yaktrax. These nifty little devices fit directly over your running shoes and give you great traction through the snow. They are not, however, water proof nor nearly as durable as snowshoes.

If you happen to live near a mountainous area, check out active.com for some great snowshoeing events. Nothing will get your heart rate pounding faster than the exhilaration of a 5k or 10k running through fresh powder!

Happy Winter!

Sneak preview of my book "Gluten Free Fitness"!

Many of you know that I've been working on a book titled Gluten Free Fitness (or The Gluten Free Athlete...I can't decide) and I've spent the past 4 days on retreat in Keystone with the express purpose of writing, writing, writing. And while mucho writing has indeed transpired, so has mucho recipe experimentation. The process of spending hours in the kitchen has actually been quite restorative, though I must admit that the results have not always been superior. I've tried several different recipes from different cookbooks, and tweeked them here and there to make them my own, all with varying degrees of success.

Here is one of the home runs:

Gluten free, dairy free pizza with grape tomatoes, fresh basil, and pepperoni


Preheat oven to 350.

For the crust:

1 1/2 C almond flour (I use hulled almond meal/flour by Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

Stir these ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Whisk together 1 T grapeseed oil and 1 large egg in a smaller bowl.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until a chewy-looking dough is formed.

Allow to sit for 10 minutes (this is ESSENTIAL!).

Spread 1 T margarine (I use Earth Balance, it's dairy free and vegan)on a cookie sheet and then place dough mixture on top of it. Using your hands, press the mixture into a thin pizza crust approx 10" in diameter and 1/4" thick.

Top with a pre-made pizza sauce of your choice (I use MuirNew pizza sauce and it was delicious), then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese (Try Daiya brand. It's dairy free and melts just like real cheese)

Finally, place 5-6 slices of Applegate Farms pepperoni slices in concentric circles, then top with 6-7 leaves of fresh basil and 8-10 chopped grape tomatoes.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serves 2-4, depending on how hungry you are.

I had friends over for dinner tonight, and they loved this crust recipe.
Hopefully you will love it too!