The ocean and I have a such a love/hate relationship.  Let me be more specific, the PACIFIC Ocean and I have such a love/hate relationship.  I remember when I first moved from a little town in Maryland out to sunny Southern California.  My impression of this side of the country had almost solely been based on Bayside High and Baywatch.  When I moved here, I wanted to drive a yellow convertible right up to lifeguard stand, give David Charvet (if you don’t know who that is, I’m sorry for your eyes) a boyfriend-worthy kiss and bound into the warm blue waters that lapped up onto this beautiful left coast.

However, my experience was a bit different.  I drove up in a black Mazda Protege (black, lowered, with illegally tinted windows and black rims that I had to buy from a “Your Job Is Your Credit” used car lot), ran across the grey sand into the dark blue water and went into immediate shock.  It was about 50 degrees and my entire lower body was wrapped in seaweed and my foot was bleeding from a rogue shell colony.

Since that day, I have been in the Pacific exactly 5 times in last 7 years.  And once was to save Gidget when she got caught in the current and I found out not all dogs can swim.

Moral of this story: Don’t believe everything you see that stars  David Hasselhoff.

But what, I DO love about the ocean?  Eating everything in it.  Sometimes I wish I was a shark, so I could just swim around with my mouth open and get free sushi for miles and miles. But, I’m not.  So, tonight we settled for the next best thing – this Roasted Lemon and Garlic Shrimp.  It was fantastic and reaffirms my love for the ocean… from afar.

Last week I only made it to the gym two times and I gotta say, it had a little something to do with having Monday off and not getting my week started on the right foot with a good work-out on Monday.  (Have you been trying the Monday Rule?) Today, I was excited to get back into it.  As much as I feel guilty when I don’t make it to the gym 4-5 times a week, it really is nice when you get that “absence makes the heart grow fonder”  feeling and you’re pumped to be back.

Well, today I was super motivated and took on the workout like a price-tagless shopping spree at Lulu (aggressively).  While I was doing box jump burpees, I felt something really painful in my toe, but kept going through the workout and when I got to my car, I whipped off my shoe to see… GET THIS… a cactus spike sticking out!!  I KNEW I had a spike in my toe after kicking that stupid cactus a couple weeks ago.  Well, all of the pressure and sweat must have thrown that creep right out of my foot house!  I can’t believe I’ve been walking around with a spike in my toe for two weeks.  I feel like a Spartan warrior.

Moral of the story, a good work-out helps release all the bad stuff… sometimes quite literally.

Exhibit A:

After that, I wiggled my new found painfree toes into the kitchen and pulled together a simple dish that was ready in 20 minutes and tasted like I was a real pro in the kitchen – Thai Coconut Curry Tilapia.  It had some heat, TONS of flavor and still left me feeling full, but light.  I paired it with a nice salad and a small bit of rice (mostly to catch that delicious sauce!)

Recipe after the jump:

*Inspired by my girl, Gina at SkinnyTaste

It’s funny how your life and priorities change as you get older.  How you become what your high school self would consider the LAMEST person EVER. And how you just love every minute of it.  When I was in high school, the moment any friend’s parents were going to be out of the house for longer than 4 hours we were concocting a plan to have a party and have every person we’ve ever know be there to enjoy some Beast Ice and Boone’s Farm (if you know, you know) in a basement or garage.  Now, I won’t even answer the door if you come over unannounced.  I mean I will, but I won’t like it.

Now, my “social hour” is during boot camp (I do have friends… right guys?? Are you out there?? But during the week, it’s me being lamer than your Grandma.) As much as I love creating and finding fun recipes, sometimes there’e something to be said for letting your food have a little “alone time” of its own and just letting the main ingredients sing.  The summer provides so many naturally flavorful fruits and veggies – I try to take advantage of that as much as possible.  Tonight, I let my dinner components stay home from the ingredient party and kept it really simple.  This is the kind of clean eating that gives you no excuses – it’s simple, low carb and will make your body feel great.

Tonight we dug into Grilled Lemon Pepper Salmon on a bed of sauteed garlic spinach with heirloom tomatoes on the side.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 pound of wild caught salmon (cut in half)
• 1 large bunch of spinach, washed and chopped
• 2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 2 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
• 1 lemon
• Lemon Pepper Seasoning
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

Preheat grill.  Season salmon with lemon pepper and salt (optional). Grill for 7-10 minutes, skin side down until fish flakes easily with fork.

During the last 4 minutes of cooking, saute garlic in olive oil over medium heat, about 30 seconds.  Add spinach and a pinch of salt and stir while it wilts.

Plate sliced tomatoes, spinach and salmon on top.  Sprinkle with lemon and serve immediately.

While I’m in Joshua Tree, I asked one of my favorite people to guest blog – so I present to you… the mom, the myth, the Lexie!

I’m super excited to have the opportunity to be a guest writer for Lemons and Lunges.  The fabulous Courtney White is a great inspiration and a hard act to follow!

Ever since I became a parent seven years ago, I tried time and again to find a way to maintain a good workout and diet routine.   Its been a struggle to fit this time into our crazy schedule and not sucumbing to eating the leftover nuggets and cheese pizza dipped in ranch can be tough.

Finally it occurred to me that I needed to make the routine not just about me but about all of us.  I needed to make working out and cooking healthy meals a family affair… a new Sunday funday routine has been born!  An afternoon spent together preparing food  has made my week less stressful and the kids love to be involved.  If they cooked it they will usually even eat a bite or two.

I love…no I actually LOVE vegetables and I love cooking them.  The best veggies are fresh and local harvest. Do I have time to tend to a vegetable garden, um no.   I don’t even have time to go to the farmers market.  I discovered several years ago that for a small fee you can join a  Community Supported farm and have veggies delivered to a close-by drop-off location weekly… genius!  Recently we’ve also joined a CSA that delivers fresh sustainable seafood.  2 different types of fresh caught fish each week, might as well take advantage of the great fish caught locally in our Monterey Bay!

I also love butter but butter and I have recently parted ways and I’ve begun a new love affair with coconut oil.  The recipe below is for a local fish called sand dab, but it works for any white fish, is full of protein and can be prepared in under 20 minutes – now thats my kind of fast food!

Sand Dabs & Rainbow Chard

Sand Dab Ingredients:

• 1 lbs sand sand dab fillets
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 -2 cup almond flour (or breadcrumbs if you prefer)
• salt & pepper
• Coconut oil OR butter/olive oil  (for frying)
• lemon wedge

Sand Dab Directions:

Dip the sand dabs into the beaten egg; season with salt & pepper, roll in almond flou or bread crumbs. Heat a large skillet, coconut oil and fry until golden brown and crisp. Serve with  lemon wedges or your favorite dipping sauce.

Rainbow Chard Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• ½ an onion minced
• 1 pinch of turmeric  or your herb of choice
• 1 large bunch Swiss chard, ribs removed and chopped, leaves roughly chopped
• Sea salt & pepper to taste

Rainbow Chard Directions:

Add the oil to a large saute pan with the garlic, onion and herbs. Cook over medium heat until the garlic turns golden. Remove the garlic and discard. Add the chopped Swiss chard ribs and saute until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the Swiss chard leaves and season with salt, to taste. Cook until the leaves are wilted.Squeeze fresh lemon juice to taste. Serve immediately.

One reason why I love summer cooking so much is the easy clean-up when you grill up your dinner.  Today was suuuuper hot in San Diego and after an extra sweaty session of boot camp, all I could think about was eating a light, fresh dinner.   Adam is back from another out of town trip and the last thing I wanted to do was waste any time cleaning dishes, so this dinner hit the spot and checked all the boxes – Clean Eating, Low Carb, Fresh Ingredients, Easy Clean-up.  CHECK!

This would be a great meal for this weekend as well!  Any fun plans for Labor Day?  Not laboring, I hope. That’s unpatriotic, tell your boss I said so and proceed to your bbq/pool party/etc.. Adam and I are going to Joshua Tree for some hiking, camping and off-the-gridding, I’m really excited to figure out some creative camping food.  This gal doesn’t do hot dogs more than once a year.  And I’ve already been to a baseball game, so…. you do the math.

Chicken Chipotle Skewers with Avocado Creme

Ingredients:

Chicken

• juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• 1/2t  chili powder
• 1/2t paprika
• 1/4t  cumin
• 1/8t cayenne pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2t light brown sugar
• 1 1/2t minced chipotle in adobo
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• minced fresh parsley, to garnish

Avocado Cream Sauce

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
• 1 clove garlic
• Juice of 1 lime

Directions

Whisk together the lime juice, canola oil, salt, chili powder, paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic, brown sugar, and chipotle in a pie plate. Add the pieces of chicken and toss to coat. Cover the plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or up to an hour), stirring and turning the chicken once at the halfway point as it marinates. (OR just toss it all in a gallon ziplock, shake it up and lay flat on in the fridge – turning once)

Preheat grill to medium-high heat. While it’s heating up, thread the chicken onto skewers (throw away any remaining marinade). Transfer the kebabs to the grill, and cook, turning every few minutes so all sides are browned, until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 F. Transfer the kebabs to a plate, tent with foil to keep warm, and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the avocado sauce: Split the avocado in half and remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh and add to the bowl of a food processor along with the yogurt, garlic, and lime juice. Process until the sauce is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the kebabs with the minced parsley to garnish, and serve with the avocado sauce for dipping.

Side: I added a tomato, avocado, cherry tomato and bacon salad.  Just chop everything up; add salt, pepper, a drop of Tabasco and a tiny bit of olive oil and you’ve got a perfect summer side!

The more you know… the more you wonder how the f@#% you’re still alive.  That’s what I’ve found the more I learn about the food we eat and more specifically the food that is most readily available to us.  I recently saw an article about ten American foods that are banned in other countries.   Let’s just say, it’s not just Cheetos and high fructose corn syrup.  It’s things like farm raised salmon (the kind that many, many restaurants serve), certain food coloring (used in things like Goldfish crackers, Kraft Mac & Cheese) and flame retardant drinks… yes you read that right FLAME RETARDANT DRINKS (think Mountain Dew).   These foods have been found to contain cancer-causing agents, drugs and chemicals not safe for human consumption and other disturbing additives.

Now, don’t worry, I’m not going vegan (not that there’s anything wrong with that) anytime soon, but I do try to be more conscience about the foods we eat in Casa de L&L.  It’s still baby steps, but this baby is movin’ in the right direction.

So, tonight’s meal is fresh to death and legal in not only the US… but also Australia and New Zealand.  Phewwwwyy.  We’ve got wild caught grilled Sockeye Salmon with a light and fresh mango, avocado and black bean slaw.

Wild Caught Salmon with Organic Summer Mango Slaw:

Ingredients: 

• 1 lb. Alaskan or Sockeye Salmon – non-farm raised!
• 1 15 oz. can organic black beans, rinsed
• 1 15 oz. can organic sweet corn or 3 ears of grilled corned cut off the cobb
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1/2 organic red pepper, chopped
• 2 organic mangos, peeled and chopped in squares
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped
• 2 T. chopped fresh oraganic cilantro
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 T. pickled jalapeno, finely chopped
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1 bunch of fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 lemon
• a couple shakes of seafood seasoning

Directions:

Preheat grill to medium high heat.

Saute red peppers and corn over medium heat for about 4-5 minutes. Combine peppers, onion, corn, black beans, mango, avocado, cilantro, lime juice, jalapeno and salt and pepper. Set aside to let flavors come together.

Season salmon with salt, pepper and seafood seasoning (optional) and grill for 7-10 minutes, skin-side down. Salmon should flake easily with a fork.

While salmon is grilling, saute chopped spinach with salt and pepper until wilted.

Plate salmon over wilted spinach and top with Mango Avocado Slaw.

So, are you up for a serious challenge?  Here’s how it goes: Grab The Police’s “Roxanne,” turn up your speakers and position yourself in a plank.  Whenever Sting says, “Roxanne,” you do a push-up; whenever he says “Red Light,” you do a plank knee tuck.  Throughout every other part of the song, you’ll be holding your plank.  As you know, verse 2 and 3 are really when you either get incredibly drunk (me 6 years ago) or when you want to vomit  from exhaustion (me 3 days ago). Okay,  go try it now. Ryan and I will wait…

HOLY HELL, eh? But kind of awesome too, huh?  Welcome to your new chapter.

Speaking of The Police, I’d like to arrest this dinner for being so damn good. This meal is so sneaky – it’s low-carb, high protein, gluten-free AND you significant other/roommate/Kramer-like neighbor will never suspect it’s healthy.  What a snnnnnnneeeaakkky mom!  If you’ve got 20 minutes (from start to plate), you’ve got dinner that people will high five you for.

Mexican Zucchini Skillet with Carne Asada

Mexican Zucchini Skillet:

Ingredients: 

• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lb zucchini, diced
• 1 large tomato, cored, seeded and diced
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp minced pickled jalapeño
• 1/2 cup crumbled queso blanco (or queso fresco, cotija or feta)
• 1/2 avocado, cubed
• fresh lime juice, to taste
• salt, to taste
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Cook the garlic in oil in a large skillet over medium heat 1 minute, stirring until sizzling. Add zucchini and cook stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes or until slightly softened. Add the tomato and green onion and cook about 3 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat and add cilantro, jalapeño and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste and top with queso blanco and avocado.  Serve hot.

When you add the tomatoes, have your dinner partner throw the carne asada onto a high heat grill.  Cook 2 minutes each side and cut into strips, served over the mexican zucchini!

Anyyywaaayyyy, I’ve got a little secret to my success when it comes to getting in 4-5 workouts a week that I thought I’d share.  For me, it’s starting on Monday.  I know… that sounds like the biggest DUH ever, but it’s one small trick to getting me to my goals.  If I start out Monday with a good sweaty bootcamp session, I’m so much more likely to not make excuses for the rest of the week.  And then, best of all, if I get in five days between Mon-Fri. I have NO PROBLEM being a lazy bum or whatever I want all weekend.  Has anyone else tested this theory?  Let’s start next week!  Try to make me (and more importantly YOURSELF) the promise that you will work-out on Monday.  Then, let’s see where that takes you.  Look at us, setting goals together.  We’re so cute.

Tonight for dinner alllll I wanted was a burger, I loooooove burgers, but my genetics do not and if I had a traditional burger every time I wanted one, I’d be writing this blog from back of a flatbed truck on my way to Montel to discuss how I felt when then crane ripped my roof off to take me out of my house.  So, I have to find a workaround and that’s when I decided on this delicious little summer treat, a Low Carb (BIG FLAVOR) Turkey Bruschetta Burger.

 adapted from SkinnyTaste

(I promise I’m REALLY doing some serious research on good cameras and programs to up my photo game.  But, in the meantime, I’d like to take a second to pat myself of the back for figuring out that little overlay on tonight’s dinner photo!)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
• 2 medium vine ripe tomatoes
• 3 small cloves garlic, minced (OR more… I lurrrve garlic)
• 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 3 oz part skim mozzarella, diced

For the turkey burgers:

• 3/4 lbs. 93% lean ground turkey
• 2 tbsp.. seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tbsp red onion, grated
• 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• pinch of thyme
• salt and fresh pepper
• oil spray or 1 tbsp. olive oil

For Serving:

• 2 cups loose spring mix lettuce

Directions:

Combine the red onion, olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Set aside a few minutes while you chop the tomatoes, then place in the bowl. Add the garlic, basil and additional salt and pepper, to taste and mix well and set aside. Toss in the cheese when ready to serve.

In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, worcestershire, thyme, breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, salt and pepper. Form into 2-3 equal sized patties (depending on how big you want them), forming them as flat as possible.

Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. When hot, lightly spray with oil or add olive oil. Add the burgers to the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until browned, about 6 minutes, then flip and cook another 6 minutes, careful not to burn. **Depending on how big your burgers patties are, you may need to cook them a little longer**

To prepare, divide spring mix between plates, then top with the burger and finish with the bruschetta (don’t forget to add the cheese), serve right away.  And don’t forget a glass of wine for the cook.  You deserve it.