Buffalo Chicken Meatloaf

I found this easy, delicious, leftover-friendly recipe while trolling the interwebs for paleo recipes. No, I'm not necessarily "going paleo", but lets just say I'm exploring. There's paleo, there's gluten-free, the Wheat Belly diet...all of these seem to be somewhat related, but I haven't figured out the nuances. Anyone else feel that way? Hey, there's an idea for my next post!

This recipe is courtesy of The Dedicated, originally courtesy of PaleOMG - both awesome sites. The chicken meatloaf turned out to be delicious - especially if you like spicy! It's the Frank's RedHot. You really can put that sh*t on everything!

The recipe is idiot-proof (as I am an idiot, and it came out okay). The leftovers were even better. And as the aforementioned websites mentioned, it is super filling. Like, more than you would expect - a small slice or two will do you.

Can We Talk Pork?

I bought Spanx last night.  I've also consumed some kind of pork six times in the last 72 hours.  Is there a correlation or did I just leave my jeans in the dryer for too long?  I'm going to go with the latter.  I also realized that I have a creepy amount of bacon pictures in my phone.  Bacon porn, perhaps?  No, I'm not in denial people.  If you tell me to "just stop eating so much bacon, fatty" I will probably backhand you with an extra crispy bacon strip.  I'm pretty sure Weight Watchers states that it equals "free points", right along with spinach, broccoli, and water.  No?  I'm officially off to crazy town?  Okay fine, maybe I'm in denial.  With that being said, I'm going to continue to stuff my face with this ridiculous meat candy, so something's got to give.  Oh, and the bacon roses?  I actually got those on Valentine's Day last year.  There's at least one guy out there that knows a way to a woman's heart is through cured meat!   

Let's talk pork.  I'm not down with turkey, tofu, or any other weird variation of this incredible meaty delight.  I want the REAL DEAL.  However, most varieties have their drawbacks.  I'm really not worried about the fat content, but rather the weird chemicals they add to keep it fresh.  After some major research, I started to get a little scurrrred.  One of my favorite websites, naturalnews.com, posted an article stating that the chemicals added to processed pork products increase one's risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%.  EEEEK!  They lay down some pretty scary facts:

"We've known for years that sodium nitrite consumption leads to leukemia in children and brain tumors in infants," explained Adams. "Now we have a large-scale study of nearly 200,000 people that provides solid evidence of the link between processed meats and pancreatic cancer." The ingredient also promotes colorectal cancer as it passes through the digestive tract.

The USDA once tried to ban sodium nitrite, but was unsuccessful due to political influence and lobbying efforts of meat processing companies.

Say what?!?!  I'd like to enjoy a few (dozen) bacon strips without fear of dying!  But don't give up yet, bacon peeps!  I dug a little deeper and found out that nitrite-free meat is basically a bunch of BS.  Check this out: 

"When it comes to food, vegetables are the primary source of nitrites. On average, about 93% of nitrites we get from food come from vegetables. It may shock you to learn that one serving of arugula, two servings of butter lettuce, and four servings of celery or beets all have more nitrite than 467 hot dogs.  And your own saliva has more nitrites than all of them! So before you eliminate cured meats from your diet, you might want to address your celery intake. And try not to swallow so frequently.

All humor aside, there’s no reason to fear nitrites in your food, or saliva.  Even if nitrites were harmful, cured meats are not a significant source, as the USDA only allows 120 parts per million in hot dogs and bacon. Also, during the curing process, most of the nitrite forms nitric oxide, which binds to iron and gives hot dogs and bacon their characteristic pink color. Afterwards, the amount of nitrite left is only about 10 parts per million."

So, what's the verdict?  For every article bashing bacon, there were two backing it up.  Does it contain chemicals?  Yes.  Are the chemicals going to kill you?  Maybe...if you eat 87 strips a day like me.  Oops.  As with everything in life, moderation is key.  Enjoy that 'ish at a hungover Sunday brunch, then get back to the egg whites on Monday morning.  No biggie!  You can still enjoy a meaty Bloody Mary as long as you keep it in your 20%.  Hey!  Did you know they have bacon vodka?  Don't even get me started...

Cheers!  

           

Dylan on The Today Show

So it took a little longer than I hoped for Dylan’s first national media gig (ha!) but she had the good fortune to appear on a Today Show spot, which aired on June 23rd. The spot is about baby food, and the piece was hosted by the lovely and engaging Jenna Wolfe, who is expecting her first baby girl this year! So,where to begin…

Well, the opportunity arose when The Baby Grocery Store posted on their Facebook page about a “national media opportunity”.  I immediately jumped on that shizzle!! I hunted down the cutest pictures of Dylan I could find, and e-mailed them over on a Friday night while drinking wine.

For the record, this was the photo magic that sealed the deal:

 

The Wine Guy

I was in the mood for wine on Saturday night.  Wait...I think that's every night...but let's get to the point.  My dear friend Lisa and I decided to check out The Wine Guy in Gahanna, OH for some food and booze.  She had a buy-one-get-one coupon, and we're all about free eats.  I'd been there once before last summer on a fairly disastrous date (hey boys, don't ever tell a girl on a first date that you've been prescribed Cialis...legit creepyballs) so I think I tried to black out my memory of this joint.  But when free food is calling, you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

When you walk in, the walls are lined with hundreds of bottles of wine.  You can walk around, pick one up, and have it served with your meal.  We decided on the wine flight so we could try a bunch of vino.     

The Green Monster

'Ish got weird this weekend.  REAL weird.  And by weird I actually mean awesome.  My 4th of July festivities started on the 3rd and ended....well...today.  The last seven days have included fireworks, a wedding, boating at the lake, a road trip, a concert, a few country drives, and probably thirty adult sodas.  Oh, and throw in about ten red bulls in there too.  Oops.  Sorry for partying.  Despite eating mostly organo all weekend, my bod is still in shambles.  It's time for some major damage control.

I headed to the grocery store and loaded about fifty pounds of produce and other goodies into my cart in hopes that the nutrient bomb would cure my week long vodka head.  I'm a smoothie freak (see last smoothie post) so I bought tons of items to throw in the blender and go.  Here was my grocery list:

•  spinach
•  frozen blueberries
•  bananas
•  frozen mangoes
•  apples
•  kale
•  avocados
•  frozen papaya
•  frozen raspberries
•  frozen strawberries
•  frozen pineapple
• Greek yogurt
• OJ
• green tea

I got home and decided that I needed to make the greenest smoothie possible, because that was obviously going to reverse an entire week of poor decisions....right?  Well, I whipped up this little guy and was pretty freakin' impressed.

Below are the ingredients for this bad boy:

• 4 oz. organic OJ
• A ridiculous amount of spinach ( just dump a ton in there so you can feel smug about yourself )
• 1/2 cup of fat free greek yogurt
• 1/2 banana
• 1 cup of frozen papaya, mango, and pineapple ( I bought this sweet combo in a "tropical" frozen fruit mix )

Blend. Chug.  Pat yourself on the back for taking this green monster straight to the face.  This smoothie is honestly SO good.  And it blends into a freakishly neon green color which is pretty sweet too.  I recommend starting out your day or ending your day with one of these guys.  What are your favorite smoothie recipes?  What fab ingredients do you add to make your smoothie amazeballs?

Oh, and I'll leave you with a little evidence of the weekend's shenanigans....gah!

I wear my sunglasses at night...

Cheers!

First Friday Blog Hop

We are SO excited to share that we have teamed up with the gorgeous ladies of I Don't Go To The Gym to co-host their First Friday Blog Hop!

First of all, let me take a moment to tell you about these ladies - they get us. They love cooking healthy, actually doable recipes, and know how to get some hot bods without slaving away at a creepy gym. They also know a way to a man's heart is in the kitchen (and man, do they have some cute ones!) and I LOVE how they highlight that a fit bod is 70% what you eat and only 30% about exercise. We couldn't agree more.

So back to the Blog Hop! This is a really great way to discover other fabulous blogs, as well as an opportunity to promote yours. Here's how it works:

1. Follow Organoblondes on Bloglovin here.
2. Pop over and follow I Don't Go To The Gym.
3. Link up below to your home page, bloglovin' page, favorite post - whatever YOU wish to promote!
4. Share about the hop by grabbing our button or share with twitter, Facebook or Pinterest. The more successful the hop is, the more potential followers for YOU!
5. Visit as many blogs as possible and spread the love & follow back :)

Organoblondes is a fairly new blog, and we're looking to find amazeballs new bloggy friends. Let us know if you'd like to swap buttons, set up a guest post, or any other fun ideas you might have!

Say Cheerio to GMOs

We've ALL eaten them. They are as American as apple pie and booze before noon. Cheerios are supposed to be a healthy, heart-friendly breakfast....right?!

Furthermore, they are marketed toward children...and even recommended to tiny babies as one of their first finger foods. At our six-month appointment, my own pediatrician recommended that I give Cheerios to Dylan.

So what's the big problem, you ask? Well, like the vast majority of the food in this country, a deeper look into the ingredients will give you pause...and if you're like me, frantically searching for alternatives.

Take a look at this fantastic analysis by GMO Inside. The highlights are basically that all Cheerios products are made with corn products sourced from the US, 88% of which are genetically modified. In addition, the article states:

Vitamin E in Cheerios comes from Mixed Tocopherols which are most commonly derived from soy, corn, or cotton – the most extensively genetically engineered crops.



Via