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June 2017

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How To Find Fitness When Your Schedule Shifts Dramatically

by Nellie

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Premier Protein.

I am a creature of habit.

During the school year, I get up at quarter to 6 and get the kids out of the door by quarter to 7. I get myself ready and head to the gym for my daily dose of endorphins before I get my work day started. Pretty sweet set up right?

Except now it’s summertime. The boys are out of school and we are likely not doing a full summer camp because of extensive travel in August. So now, instead of a early morning beautiful run in the park I will be making breakfast and trying my best to entertain these two boys.

So what do I do?

I figured out a few ways I may be able to get my endorphin fix in the next few days…

  1. Early Morning/Late Nights at the gym: I may have to start hitting the gym at 5 am or 7 pm. Since my husband doesn’t leave for work until 7:30am I can sacrifice a little bit of sleep for some early morning endorphins. Similarly when he gets home, I can always head out for some late night fun at the gym (even though the evening hours are PEAK hours!) For my sanity, I’m willing to try it.
  2. Workout at home: I’m not quite the fan of working out at home because the boys are always all up in my space when I try! lol. If they are not trying to do cardio dance with me (which IS kinda cute) they are always asking me for something they can’t reach while I’m on my Maxtrainer. If I have to, I will, but it is definitely not my first option!
  3. Get a babysitter: It’s tough but I might ask my mom to come by and watch the kids for an hour while I go workout. She knows how overwhelming it can be to be cooped up in the house with the kids so hopefully she will have some kind of mercy on me! Besides, once her hour is over with her grandbabies, she gets to go home! (win/win!)

Premier Protein ® Shakes

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Premier Protein Shakes are packed with 30g of delicious protein to give you the good energy you need every day – they are low in fat, with 160 calories, only 1g of sugar, and 24 vitamins and minerals.

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Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberries & Cream, Bananas & Cream and Caramel.

How do you find time for #fitness when your schedule flips? #TheDayIsYours @PremierProtein AD Click to Tweet

How do you deal with schedule shifts? Any tips or tricks?

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Summer Running Tips to help you make running in the heat a bit easier!
running

5 Tips To Run Through The Heat

by Nellie

5 Tips To Run Through The Heat

I have mentioned many times that I am a bit of a running weather snob. I love perfect running weather that doesn’t quite require a jacket but also doesn’t require me to run half naked either! Alas, I do not live in a perfect weather all the time city like say, San Diego, so I had to learn how to run in all kinds of weather including the very hot NYC summers.

During the past few years, I’ve been training for the NYC marathon so that inevitably means lots of miles during the summer. It was not always fun, but I figured out a few tricks that have helped tremendously.

Summer Running Tips to help you make running in the heat a bit easier!

  1. Run Early: If you can try to run before 8 am. The temperature is the coolest in the morning and if you can run (in a safe area!) before the sun comes up, that is a huge win!
  2. Hydrate properly: I gave a ton of tips in my runner hydration post last month, and it is important to hydrate well all year round, but especially when it’s hot because you are sweating way more profusely.
  3. Take it easy: It is important to run and train hard but when the temps go over say 80 degrees, it’s important to slow down and not push too hard. Getting the miles on your feet is the most critical part of training.
  4. Run in the shade (on purpose): Map out your training run to include a lot of trees and/or shade. Running in the open sun is a lot tougher when it’s hot versus running in the shade.
  5. Run by the water: When it gets exceptionally hot around these parts, I usually take myself to the edge of Brooklyn to run across the Brooklyn Bridge or in Brooklyn Bridge Park where there is lots of water and the temp is noticeably cooler.

This month I am teaming up with my favorite runner bloggers to share our best tips for running in the heat, so make sure you check them out because they are awesome!

Allie @ Vita Train 4 Life

Summer Running Tips to help you make running in the heat a bit easier!

Laura @ This Runner’s Recipes

Carly @ Fine Fit Day

Angela @ Happy Fit Mama

Summer #Running Tips from @CarlyPizzani, @VITATrain4Life, @HappyFitMama & @ThisRunRecipes! #runchat Click to Tweet

How do you beat the summer heat when working out?

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finished Authentic Jamaican Rice And Peas recipe in the pot
Recipes

Delicious Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe

by Nellie

Delicious Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe made with coconut milk, allspice, scallions and more! I've tried many recipes but this one is the best hands down!

This Delicious Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe is made with fresh coconut milk, allspice, scallions and more! This rice and peas is the best hands down and will make you feel like you are in the Caribbean! 

Last year when I attended my cousin’s wedding in Poughkeepsie, I realized that my generation of kids have been spoiled tremendously by our big family and army of talented cooks that came before us.

My cousins and I (all 5200 of us) got together and realized that we will NEED to continue this amazing authentic Jamaican family cooking for our own children, or the culture will die with us.

Being the first generation to be American born, we are so used to being spoiled by our parents and aunts and uncles that were taught to cook by their parents in the islands.

It is so interesting having to marry the two cultures together, but cooking authentic caribbean recipes is a fantastic way to keep the culture alive in our own families going forward.

Authentic Jamaican Rice And Peas on a wooden spoon

Cooking Authentic Caribbean Cuisine

For a while now I’ve been trying different recipes from all over the internet. I’ve even tried Youtube! I love Pinterest but there are SO MANY “authentic” Jamaican and caribbean rice recipes out there that its hard to decipher which ones are awesome and which ones…are not so good. It’s a crazy popular dish and for good reason!

How Do You Cook Like A Jamaican?

Well, this is a magical question. Even after growing up in this culture, I didn’t really learn until I got much older! I am learning though that seasoning is key.

A lot of the Jamaican cuisine, especially meats, require complex seasonings that usually marinate for a long period of time.

You will notice that a lot of Jamaican food recipes require the baseline of scotch bonnet pepper, fresh thyme, onion, garlic cloves and scallions (green onions). There could be more or less but those spices are a really great place to start when it comes to main dishes. Don’t forget the salt and pepper!

Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe

Don’t worry though, I’ve done all the leg work and have finally perfected one of the foundational pieces of any Jamaican dish.

If you ask me, Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas is an awesome and flavorful side dish that goes with pretty much any main dish such as curry goat, curry chicken, Jamaican stew chicken, oxtail–you name it! It’s the perfect side dish.

It’s even good on it’s own. With so many different ways to cook rice and peas, I am happy that I finally hit the jackpot with the right ingredients and the right type of rice. Caribbean food is not easy but once you nail it, it’s so worth it!

Some people like to use long grain rice, and some folks like pigeon peas or gungo peas in their rice and peas. (This recipe uses dry peas — dark red kidney beans) Some people even use full allspice berries instead of the allspice seasoning that I love.

To be honest, I’ve tasted so many different versions of rice and beans that I have lost count. This rice dish is definitely my favorite and I’m so excited to share this recipe with you today.

Types of Rice Used In Jamaican Rice and Peas

Before I found this money recipe I tried a bunch and they were epic fails. This recipe is my new go to, but it took me a smooth 5-6 recipes before I finally found a winner with this one.

My favorite type of rice in general is Carolina long-grain white rice. My mom and most of my family are fans of using basmati rice for their rice and peas which has a richer flavor. It can be debated though what people think the “traditional rice” is for Jamaican rice and peas.

Related: The Best Jamaican Rasta Pasta Recipe – Add Your Favorite Protein!

I absolutely love to use Jasmine rice though because it has a fantastic flavor and although it is a bit sticky it’s not annoyingly so.

How Long To Soak The Peas

A lot of you have asked whether or not you can used canned peas for this recipe. I DO NOT recommend it unless you like your rice really wet.

Air Fryer Sweet Fried Plantains – Healthy Twist On A Classic Dish

The extra water content from the can throws off the recipe. Between the water and the coconut milk addition, the extra water content makes the rice really soupy. 

Which ingredients are needed for these Jamaican Rice and Beans?

1/2 cup dark red kidney beans (dry)
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 scotch bonnet pepper
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
3 sprigs thyme
2 cups Jasmine rice
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3 scallions
2 cups water

I highly recommend dry peas. I usually soak it in the same pot that I plan on cooking the rice in. If not available you can easily soak the peas in a bowl at room temperature. I usually soak my peas for 5-6 hours.

Generally soak the peas for a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 24 hours. Anything over a day might mess with the integrity of the peas.

Keep in mind the longer you soak the peas the less time it takes to cook, and the more “red” color gets added to your rice and peas. I don’t know about anyone else but I generally judge the authenticity of Jamaican rice and peas by the color of the rice!

Do you cook the rice covered or uncovered?

This is a really good question! The answer is both. While you are cooking your peas, adding spices, and coconut milk, I leave it uncovered. When I add the rice and mix everything in, I cover the pot so it can cook like regular rice.

I generally like to leave my rice covered and cooking but this particular recipe calls for constant stirring to make sure nothing burns on the bottom of the pot.

How To Store Rice and Peas

Once I got the hang of this rice and peas recipe it was super easy to make it for my family. The rice stores in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and it freezes perfectly.

If you do freeze, I recommend to let the rice thaw out naturally and slowly in the refrigerator, but if you don’t have the time, you can thaw in the microwave too, it might be a bit soggier though.

Be Careful Of That Scotch Bonnet

The scotch bonnet pepper is not to be played with at all! For this recipe you need to use the whole scotch bonnet–do not slice it, poke it, nothing. You will be adding the hot pepper to the uncooked rice to give a ton of flavor to the rice. Don’t worry, you remove the entire whole scotch bonnet pepper half way through the process.

The scotch bonnet pepper adds a fantastic flavor to the rice as a whole without any of the heat. Trust me, you don’t want any of the inside–it’s a super powerful pepper!

Enjoy! Be sure to let me know in the comments how it turned out!

(Updated April 2021)

Delicious Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe made with coconut milk, allspice, scallions and more! I've tried many recipes but this one is the best hands down!
finished Authentic Jamaican Rice And Peas recipe in the pot
Yield: 6 servings

Delicious Authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

This amazing and authentic Jamaican Rice and Peas recipe uses allspice, coconut milk, thyme and more fresh ingredients for a wonderful experience that will make you feel like you are in Jamaica.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup red kidney beans (dry)
  • 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
  • 1 scotch bonnet pepper
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 thyme sprigs
  • 2 cups Jasmine rice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 3 scallions
  • 2 cups water

Instructions

  1. Soak the peas in a bowl with the water for 24 hours, if you don't have that kind of time soak for at least 2 hours.
  2. Chop the Scallion, Garlic, & Onion.chopped scallions onion and whole scotch bonnet pepper
  3. Once the peas are properly soaked (they will likely plump and absorb a lot of the water) place the peas and the water in a saucepan. red beans for rice and peas after they have soaked for 6 hours
  4. Fill the pot with additional water if needed--the water should be about 2 inches over the peas. Bring to a boil.
  5. Add the onions, garlic, scallions, & thyme. Add the salt & allspice. Add a full scotch bonnet pepper (do NOT slice, put it in WHOLE). garlic, scallions and scotch bonnet pepper for jamaican rice and peas
  6. Cook for 20 minutes. (Peas may cook quicker depending on how long you soaked them) After the rice has cooked, put the onion thyme scallion and garlic to cook
  7. Continually add cool water as needed to make sure that the peas don't burn. Watch closely! You know that the peas are cooked when you can break the peas in half easily with a fork.
  8. Remove and discard the scotch bonnet pepper. Add the coconut milk and the uncooked rice. Stir throughly.
  9. Important: There should only be about a half an inch of liquid above the peas and rice. Turn stove down to medium/low and stir (I use a wooden spoon to make sure no rice sticks to the bottom) every 5-7 minutes until cooked.
  10. In about 30 minutes you will have fluffy and yummy rice and peas! Authentic Jamaican Rice And Peas on a wooden spoon

Notes

A lot of folks ask if they can do this recipe with canned beans, I wouldn't recommend this as it increases the water content substantially.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

© Nellie

Stay tuned, I’ve got some more authentic Jamaican recipes that I’m going to be sharing with you guys over the next few weeks!

Before you go, grab Your Free Printable Recipe Kit —Today!

Write down your favorite recipes and create your own personal cookbook of your favorite food creations!

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For more recipes check out:

20 Minute Easy Weeknight Penne Rosa Pasta Recipe

Fresh Homemade Cheesy Beef A Roni Recipe

Delicious Air Fryer Roasted Vegetables

Have you ever had Jamaican rice and peas? What classic recipes have you learned from your parents?

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brothersfamilyfamily fun

I Am Now A Believer: Why MonsterJam Is The Perfect Family Show

by Nellie

There are not many reasons for me to travel to New Jersey. Even though the state is a few minutes away from NYC and lots of good friends live there, I pretty much never go. That was until I had the opportunity to take my family to the MonsterJam show at MetLife Stadium.

Both of my boys are huge car fans–my eldest child loves cars while my little is actually obsessed with everything automobiles. Every birthday, every trip I know he will be happy with any kind of car as a present. We have cars on every floor of our home. It’s actually quite insane. When he sees the commercials for the MonsterJam shows he goes ballistic, he can watch professional car racing for hours.

The day started out with a LOT of rain but once we made it out to New Jersey, the skies had cleared and it was time to party!

Toy Preview

Before the show we got to check out some of the brand new MonsterJam toys that are on the market. By this time the excitement was pouring out of my son. He was SO happy to check out the new toys and honestly so was I. It was a really cool way to check out what was coming and maybe even eye some potential Christmas gifts!

A few of my favorite included:

  • Monster Jam® Truckin’ PalsTM Hunter Grave Digger : Wooden Vehicles and Plush (Available in September)
  • New Bright Chrome Grave Digger®
  • Skechers Sneakers
  • Monster Mutt® Dalmatian Duffle Bag (I love the Dalmatians, so this was my favorite!)

MonsterJam Show at MetLife Stadium

I absolutely was not nearly as excited as the guys to witness what would obviously be a bunch of boys and their souped up cars. However, once we entered the gorgeous suite, things changed a little. We ate some yummy food and were ready for the show! Since this was my first time I had no idea what to expect.

The show was SO COOL. I LOVED IT. I literally turned to my husband and said “this is AWESOME–wait–who AM I?!”. The cars were beautiful works of art. I couldn’t stop taking pictures. The kids, especially my little was jumping and waving his MonsterJam flag non stop for 2 hours straight.

I wore earbuds, because oh my word it gets LOUD in there! The kids had special earphones to block out the excess noise.

The show started with races and it pit two of the gorgeous trucks against one another until there was one winner. What made it exciting though was that they were all super skilled so the winner was often defined by a photo finish.

Next was the parts that had me “hoopin and hollerin” (quoted words from my husband)–the trucks did awesome tricks including donuts, and flips and 2 wheel tricks. The cool part was that the audience did all the judging on their cell phone! My personal favorite of the night was El Toro Loco & Wonder Woman.

Why @MonsterJam is the COOLEST show ever, plus a #monsterjam exclusive toy preview! Click to Tweet

To learn more about MonsterJam and when they are coming to a city near you check out the official website!

Have you ever been to a MonsterJam show? What have you experienced recently that you loved that you never thought you would?

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goals

4 Ways You Can Manage Your Financial Fitness

by Nellie

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Prudential.

I am all about physical fitness, but what about financial fitness?! Are you financially fit?

Since quitting my very stable 9-5 last summer to become an entrepreneur, I have learned quite a few things when it comes to budgeting. When I was working at a corporate job, I was making a decent amount of money, more than I even realized. As an entrepreneur, cash flow is super unpredictable, it can be incredible one month and pennies the next.

I quickly had to adjust and make sure that I was ready for whatever came my way. It was about time to become financially fit, but there were so many other parts of the financial picture I had to make sure that I was aware of: my 401K, life insurance and so much more.

When it comes to women and money, we are fantastic at budgeting but often don’t pay as close attention to our retirement funds and social security.

Did you know?

On average women’s have 30% lower retirement balances than men1

44% of women have no life insurance. Even among the ones that do own life insurance, most are underinsured2

Prudential is making women aware of the financial challenges women face with a great campaign called Own My Future. They believe that women should AND can take control of their finances.  The goal of this program is to help raise awareness and start a dialogue about money.

There are four major gaps that women have to grapple with when it comes to their finances:

1) Wage and Income Gap:

The average woman working full-time earns 79% of the income earned by her male counterpart.3 This is because of many issues–we are a lot less likely to ASK for equal pay, plus there is time out of the workforce, and differences in pay.

The wage gap not only impacts women’s 401K balances over their lifetime but it also impacts their social security payments. Women’s social security benefits are 27% lower than that of their male counterparts.4 (I had no idea!)

2) Investment Gap:

Women don’t invest to the same degree as men.5 Women’s discomfort with investing comes at a high cost for them: They are apt to delay investing, invest more in lower risk, lower return investments and are more likely to run out of money in retirement.

3) Women Are Living Longer and Living Alone:

Women outlive men by an average of 5-6 years.6 We need to be prepared for our later years likely with one income!

4) Time Gap:

On average, women in the U.S. spend 28 hours per week on household chores – 65 percent more than the average for men.7 That is uncompensated work and it does not figure into women’s financial planning. We work hard around the house but unfortunately, it is not paid work, and often doesn’t factor in to women’s financial planning.

Hopefully knowing all of this information will help women be more aware of important financial decisions and help us to make better decisions going forward!

Knowing these four facts really made me take a strong look at my own personal finances. I have always wanted to invest further than my 401k, HSA and the boys’ 529 savings account for college. I’m going to look into researching and purchasing stock especially since it is way more accessible with mobile apps! I also need to split more of the household duties with the kids and my husband—This will give me more time to grow my brand and business!

Click here to learn more and find a Prudential advisor who can help you own your future.

How financially fit are you?

Sources:
1. Prudential Retirement analysis reflecting defined contribution plan balances of Prudential record-kept plans as of December 31, 2015
2. LIMRA study, Life Insurance Ownership in Focus, U.S. Person-Level Trends: 2016
3. U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Income Tables Table P-40: Women’s Earnings as a Percentage of Men’s Earnings by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2016
4. Social Security Administration, Fast Facts and Figures About Social Security, 2016
5. http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/sallie-krawcheck-ellevest-launch;
6. Prudential Retirement analysis; National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2015: With Special Feature on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Hyattsville, MD. 2016
7. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, October 2016, http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=54757

Sharing important ways from @Prudential how women can stay financially fit! #OwnMyFuture #ad Click to Tweet

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