Sausage Breakfast Muffins

These little muffins are delicious, super simple to make, and make for a great no-carb breakfast. The recipe is relatively new to me, I've only made it a few times, so I'm still making some small adjustments.

Ingredients

• 12 Eggs - I use 6 whole (yolk+white) eggs and 6 egg whites
• 2 Cups Cheddar cheese (shredded)
• 1 lb. Sausage - I like Jimmy Dean's sausage
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Pepper

Makes 12 servings/muffins.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Brown the sausage.
3. Mix all the ingredients together.
4. Either spray a 12 cup muffin pan or use little muffin papers.
5.  Bake 30 minutes.
6. Cool for 5 minutes and ready to eat!

I like to make these up on the weekend so during the week I have a quick and easy breakfast option before work. About a minute in the microwave does the trick.

This go around I made the sausage into twelve patties and browned them using my George Foremen grill. Only takes about 2-3 minutes. Then I put one patty in each muffin like I show below. Next time I think I will try browning the sausage in a pan, add it to the mixture first, and then pour the mixture into each cup. That might make for a better all around distribution of the ingredients. As they are now some of the bites tend to be a little overly sausage filled.

The reason I don't use all twelve egg yolks is to drop the cholesterol of the muffins a little. One egg constitutes about 70% of your daily recommended cholesterol intake. For me, I end up hitting 200% or better each day, so I try to cut cholesterol where possible. 

These things are tasty if you like eggs and sausage like I do, I encourage you to try them out! If I come across any new developments on ways to make these better I will be sure to bring you an update.

My Annual Torture: Bloomsday 2012

Finishers! With my dad and cousin Kaleb

For those that aren't aware, I run in a race each year called the Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, WA. With that kind of title it most certainly must be describing some feat of accomplishment, wouldn't you say? For many, I'm sure it is nothing more than their normal weekend run. But for someone like me, who gets out and runs maybe twice a week, and that's when I'm "training" for the race, saying it is tough is an understatement. It is a 12K (about 7.5 mi) race with three large inclines, the biggest of which is appropriately dubbed "Doomsday Hill". If it weren't for this hill I think I might actually look forward to this day each year.

The Experience

Kidding aside, while I do dread the actual race, mostly because of my lack of preparation ahead of time, I still look forward to the experience each year. Over 50,000 people run/walk in the race and it is the largest timed event in the world. Standing at the starting line and looking at the masses of people filling the streets of downtown Spokane is just awesome. Running side-by-side with so many people who have the same goal in mind is a very different experience compared to lacing up your shoes and going for a run alone. There's a special bond that's created when you encourage and cheer on the guy going up Doomsday in a wheelchair... then whizzes past you at 40 MPH on the straight away. Live bands dot the sidelines of the race and play inspirational music at key points in the course. This year there were even several Cougar flag wavers along the home stretch. Between wheezes I was able to get out some "Go Cougs!" and high fives to the flag-holding alumni.

The Family

The race is also a great excuse to get together with family. This marks the fourth year my dad, my cousin (Kaleb, far right), and myself have run in the race and we hope to continue the tradition. This year Kaleb's sister, Kaitlyn (middle), also participated in the tradition and next year my little cousin, Kaden, wants to join as well. We also changed it up a little bit this year by going up the night before and staying in a hotel. In the past, we would wake up early, drive up to Spokane and do the trip in one day. Waking up and not jumping right into a car definitely made for a more relaxing morning this year. It also made for a good excuse to get away for a weekend and enjoy a city that we generally don't frequent. We had a great weekend and in the future we will definitely opt for the weekend trip versus the one-day event.

The Perseverance

All these things are great but the thing I love most about Bloomsday is also the thing I dread the most: pushing myself. For me, there isn't another time in the year that I push myself harder, physically, than struggling up Doomsday hill. Every year my main goal has been to run the entire race without stopping to walk, even up Doomsday. The self-motivation and perseverance required to fight through the pain and just get to the top is incredible, but the feeling of accomplishment and success is worth every second of effort. It's just super hard to remind myself of that during the painful bits. Every year when I reach the top of that hill I am reminded that pushing through and persevering, even when it's tough and seems impossible, is so worth it. This is a great lesson to be reminded of each year and I try to apply it to other areas of my life.

Personally, at the toughest moments when I consider stopping and walking, I find that focusing on the goal or reward that I will receive, once the suffering is over, makes the pain far more bearable. In the case of the race, it is a self-awarded giant Blizzard or other delicious ice-cream concoction. The same principle can be applied to so many aspects of our lives. Such as the sacrifices we make during a diet: abstaining from delectable desserts in hopes of losing a few pounds. The monotonous hours spent practicing to improve at a musical instrument or repetitive drills that are run to become a better athlete. These examples are experiences I have encountered and have found that when losing focus on the end result it can be tough to continue. Focusing on the goal or reward, however, can give you that extra "oomph" to push on and succeed.

Grilled Salmon for Dinner

Tonight's dinner was some Costco salmon I had in the freezer. I cooked it up on the 'ole George Foreman and it turned out delicious. It's a pretty good hunk of meat so I think I will be enjoying it for a few more nights this week.

Ingredients

• Dill Weed
• Oregano Leaves
• Lemon & Pepper
• Onion Powder
• Basil
• Garlic Powder

When I grill I tend to take after my dad and start rummaging through the spice rack, tossing whatever seasonings sound good at the time in the mix. I don't measure anything... just try to evenly coat the meat in each seasoning. In this case I seasoned the backside first then threw it on the grill and seasoned the top while it started to sizzle.

Directions

1. Preheat electric grill.
2. Season the salmon.
3. Spray the grill with oil.
4. Cook the salmon 6-8 minutes (time dependent on thickness)
5. Salt to taste

I cooked mine for about 8 minutes, but it was thick, probably about an inch or so.

The only downside to cooking fish in the house is the stench seems to stick around for a day. Next time I think I'll take advantage of the nicer weather and use the outdoor grill. 

I added some green beans as my veggie and a small salad. The dinner was awesome, the salmon flaked easily with a fork and had great flavor with not even a hint of fishiness.  Definitely looking forward to leftovers tomorrow night!

I just had to include this classic since I'm thinking about salmon... Still makes me laugh.

 

Peanut Butter Protein Spheres

Peanut butter, one of the few foods I could eat continually and never get sick of it. I grew up with PB&J sandwiches being a lunchtime favorite and by high school had removed the jelly component from the equation entirely, feeling it detracted from the peanut buttery goodness. In actuality, the jelly removal was probably related to my journey of sugar avoidance, which started around the same time. It's no coincidence that I also started getting serious about weight lifting around that time as well. But I digress.

Striking Gold!

My recent decision to give the low-carb diet another whirl found me searching for snack ideas; that's when I found this recipe. I have tried the low-carb thing before and it has worked great for me, but in the past I hadn't bothered to find any low-carb snack options, other than nuts (another food I love dearly, go figure). The lack of tasty snack foods made it hard for me to stick with the diet very long. So, this time I decided to do some research and was pleased to find lots of options I hadn't even thought possible. You will probably see many of these recipes in the future as I attempt, and sometimes fail, to try some new things.

Time to get down to the goodness. This is a pretty simple recipe but it's pretty hands on and can get a little sticky.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Peanut Butter
• 1/4 Cup Flaxseed Meal
• 1 tsp Artificial Sweetener
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

• I used Truvia (stevia herb) as my sweetener but anything can be used, even sugar if you are keen on poisoning yourself! :)
• The first time I made this I made the mistake of adding a whole cup of flaxseed. I do not recommend that anyone consider trying this. They  packed a bitter aftertaste, even after dousing them with some stevia.
• For peanut butter, I love my Adam's Brand stuff! It's as natural as peanut butter gets and I highly recommend it. It takes a little getting used to at first, but now I will never go back to the hydrogenated stuff.

Directions

1. Mix ingredients well in a mixing bowl.
2. Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls.
3. Store the peanut butter balls in a container in the refrigerator. Or the freezer for a firmer, cold treat.

• I used a mixer the first time I tried this recipe and that worked fine. But this time I used a big spoon and it worked just as good without needing to clean the beaters. 
• You could probably use a fancy cookie scooper to form the balls but I hate doing dishes so I just used my hands.

That's it! Remember, it may take a day in the refrigerator before the peanut butter hardens. If they don't harden up and you don't like the stickiness you can also try rolling them in some crushed almonds or other crushed nuts to add a crunchy element to this delicious treat.

So far, this is one of my favorite low-carb snacks and I really suggest you give it a try, even if you aren't on a low-carb diet. 

Time for a Wardrobe Upgrade

Nothing quite this fancy of course...

Over the last couple months I have been growing increasingly aware of the lack of work clothes in my closet. My favorite pair of khakis received so much use that my wallet tried to dig its way out by developing a hole in the seat of the pants. This left me with only one pair of decent khakis and a couple pairs of older slacks that fit poorly. I also have only one pair of khaki-colored socks, meaning that I am required to break one of the cardinal rules of fashion and wear black socks with khakis. Oh and I'm pretty sure I have been wearing the same belt since I was in middle school. These things, combined with the sad truth that I have exactly one dress shirt for each day of the week, led me to the conclusion that I need to spend some money on my professional wardrobe.

Dress to Impress

Recently I have made the decision to start dressing more professional at work; dropping the casual (jeans) days in favor of more non-khaki slacks days. Most of my co-workers wear jeans and collared shirts, but I think it's time to stand out from the crowd more than I have been. Dress to impress, as they say. Plus, I have always enjoyed dressing up and actually find myself comfortable in a pair of slacks. When I dress nicer I feel more professional and I think I tend to act accordingly. I have heard some say that people treat you better/differently when you are dressed professionally, and I tend to agree. We dress up for interviews to impress and look our best, so why do most dress down as soon as we get the job? Shouldn't we want to look our best everyday for the people we interact with and meet? I think so! So, that's what I'm going to do going forward: stand out, be different from everyone else, but in a good way.

The Ocean's cast always dressed to impress!

Sale!

Anyways, back to my wardrobe upgrade. For the last few weeks I have been keeping my eye on deals for dress clothes. Just the other day, I discovered such a sale: Men's Wearhouse was, and most likely still is, having a BOGO (Buy One Get One [Free]) Sale on basically everything in the store. After work I headed over to check out what they had to offer. Half an hour later I was pleased to walk out of the store with two pairs of slacks, charcoal and black, and two 3-pair packs of dress socks, one khaki-colored pack to solve my khaki sock deficiency and a charcoal-colored pack to match my newly-purchased charcoal slacks. Sure, I still haven't fixed the 10-year old belt issue or lack of shirt variety, but I'm only physically capable of spending so much money on clothes in a single sitting. It used to be so much easier when the money wasn't coming out of my pockets, oh to be young again!

The best of socks+sandals

For now, I think I can limp along on my current professional wardrobe until the next sale comes around. I can mix and match my limited assortment of shirts with my new selection of slacks to create a little more variety in my workweek. With the new socks, I can stop worrying about the nice folks at What Not To Wear showing up in my cubical. I could really use a new belt though, I guess it's time to search for a belt sale now!

How do you guys feel about dressing up for work? Can it come across differently and possibly be a negative if we dress nicer than others?

My Story

My Hometown

I grew up in the beautiful desert of Tri-Cities, Washington. (No, the picture above isn't the Tri-Cities, haha!) For those unfamiliar with Washington, the east side of the state, especially the south east portion where the Tri-Cities is located, is very different from the northwestern side. There is very little precipitation (something like 8 inches a year) in the Tri-Cities, something so common to the Seattle-area. Instead we compensated for the lack of rain in sheer wind speed. I now live in Boise, ID not too far southeast of the Tri-cities. The climate here in Boise is nearly the same as that of the Tri-Cities; very little rain, more snow, and a ton a sun, I love it!

Early Beginnings

Most of my childhood was spent in the same house until I was about 13. For the majority of my younger years I was home-schooled by my parents, primarily my mom. I enjoyed homeschooling and even turned down the chance to go to public school on several occasions. I think homeschooling was very beneficial in getting me to where I am today. I attribute my self-driven attitude and ability to easily teach myself to the habits I formed while homeschooling. Sure, I may have missed out on some of the social aspects of public school like interacting with classmates and different teachers, but my parents did an excellent job making sure I was involved in numerous extracurricular social activities throughout my life.

Positive Influences

Attending church regularly was probably the most influential of those social activities in my life. I had interactions will many adults and kids throughout my years at church. I still have many good friends from growing up in my Baptist church and often go back for a visit. I praise and thank God for the chance I had to grow up with loving parents and a wonderful church family. I know I wouldn't be who I am today without that upbringing. My parents have had a huge impact in my life and I am still very close with them.   

Hardwood Experiences

The other big social outlet for me while growing up was basketball. I started playing basketball in 6th grade on an AAU team and loved it. I played all the way through High School and was lucky enough to get to go to the State Tournament three of the four years I played. I have so many great memories of basketball and the experiences I had with my teammates on and off the court. Of course there are things I wish I would have done a little different: been a little more aggressive, practiced more, and been more competitive. But we can't turn time back and I try not to regret my mistakes; instead, I try learn from them and continue living my life. I thought about going out for the team in college but decided I'd rather just focus on my studies and my future. Instead, I played intramurals and pickup ball pretty regularly. Now that I'm out of college I continue to play as much as I can. Just a couple months ago we finished up our Boise City League season and tonight we had our first game in my company's intramural 3-on-3 league. So, I try to stay brushed up on my skills (or lack thereof).    

Hitting The Books

But I got a little ahead of myself. We left off with homeschooling. So, homeschooling ended when I was a Junior in high school and started Running Start, a program in Washington that lets you take college courses at a local community college to earn high school AND college credits; oh, and the government foots the bill, it's a pretty sweet deal. Since I never attended public high school, I just attended community college full-time at CBC (Columbia Basin College). Ideally, with running start you can graduate from high school with a 2-year AA degree. I decided that was too easy, so I spent an additional two years at CBC to try and cram a 2-year AA degree into 4 years. I know you're probably thinking "That must have been rough!", but it's easier than it sounds. It wasn't the most efficient use of my time but I really enjoyed my time at CBC and I was able to get the majority of my lower-level degree requirements out of the way at a much lower cost than it would have been if I went to the university earlier in my college career.

Go Cougs!!

After my 4-year stint at CBC I headed off to Wazzu (Washington State Univeristy) in beautifully tiny Pullman, WA. I'm not going to detail my time at WSU because this is already getting long and there is far too much to tell about the amazing time I had during my two years in Pullman. I made many great memories and even better friends and I'm sure you will hear some of those stories/friends come up in future posts. In May of 2011 I finally completed my 6-year journey to a college degree and received a B.S. in Computer Engineering; making this month my 1-year anniversary of being a real-life adult.

Across The Pond

Once graduated, my parents and I took a 2-week trip to England as kind of a "yay graduation / we've always wanted to go" gift to our family. That trip was by far the best vacation I have been on and really kindled the great desire I now have to travel. One of the places I have always wanted to go is Switzerland. I'm not sure why, maybe it was the Swiss army knives or the expensive watch commercials, but even as a child it drew my interest. Two other places I hope to visit are Italy and Israel. I think it would be fantastic to get a better image of some of the many locations spoken of in the Bible and see the rich history of those locales.

New Life

After returning from the vacation I moved to Boise, ID and started work at Micron Technology. I didn't know a soul when I got here and I won't deny that the first few months were awfully tough. Thankfully, God provided a great church and good friends fairly quickly. I'm pretty settled now and have almost been here a year. I really love the Boise area and don't see myself leaving anytime soon.

My Interests/Passions

Most of my passions and interests will become apparent through the topics I write about in my posts but I thought I'd jot down a few anyways. Computers have been a large part of my life ever since I was about 13 years old. I also have an obsession with sports cars and love my baby (on the right). I'm pretty fanatical about nutrition and staying fit. And as of late, I have been enjoying good non-fiction books with topics ranging from business, leadership, and personal finance to relationships and autobiographies and any other topics that I find interesting.

You also may have gathered throughout my story that I am a Christian. I believe Jesus died for me and has Saved me with his blood. And I am looking forward to the day when He will come back and take me to Heaven for eternity! God has richly blessed me and I thank Him daily for all that He has done and is continuing to do for me. My utmost goal in life is following His will for my life and serving Him.

This is probably far more than you ever wanted to know about me. But if you stick around long enough there's a chance you might glean something useful from my experiences; and if not, maybe some good entertainment! :)

Living a Taylored Life

Pretty clever, am I right? For those that know me well, trying painstakingly hard to come up with witty quips is nothing new. This is no exception; it took me a good day of brainstorming to come up with that name. But I like it and I think it fits my persona pretty well and what I want to talk about, so you are stuck with it! :)

So, you may be wondering why I'm starting a blog. I've always enjoyed writing and I think I am at least half-way decent at it, but I'll let you be the judge of that. By writing this blog I hope to improve my writing skills and share whatever parts of my -- wait for it-- Taylored Life might be interesting to you guys.

I hope to share things I have learned, new experiences, and interesting things I stumble across in my everyday life. Most of my posts will be related to stuff that interests me, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would lose interest in the blog before you would! My most common topics will probably be related to cooking, nutrition, fitness, personal finance, and my new life here in Boise, ID. I may throw in a few posts on nerdy, techy things as well to keep you on your toes.

More recently, I have decided to try out a low-carb "lifestyle". This change in my diet has introduced some exciting new recipe ideas. So, for the next few weeks I will be posting some of the new recipes I try my hand at, along with the photographic evidence that I really do know my way around a kitchen. In addition to recipes, I will be posting some tips and tricks I have found useful when trying to lose weight or maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Another common topic I will probably be writing about in the next few months will be my first attempt at starting my own business. I am planning to start programming web and/or iOS Apps on the side and hope to make it profitable. For those that aren't familiar with iOS, it is the operating system used for all mobile Apple devices: iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Currently, I'm learning the ins and outs of a few coding language through various books and internet sources. So, you can look forward to regular updates on how that venture is going. Unless of course it doesn't interest you, then you can just skip those days and read someone else's blog! :P

I'm going to try and post something daily. So, check in often! But no guarantees... Tomorrow, I'm going to share a little bit more about myself for those that don't know me well.