Protein Packed Breakfast Bowl

Mmmm. Breakfast. My favorite meal. Breakfast for breakfast is amazing enough, but breakfast for lunch or dinner... Unbeatable. While I really enjoy a good waffle or fat-laden omelet from time to time, during the week, I try to come up with food combinations that will keep me fueled all day and help repair my muscles from working out (not to mention the muscle pains that come from chasing and lifting a very healthy-sized two year old boy).

I recently stumbled upon this snack on Pinterest and it inspired me to turn it into a breakfast bowl by adding an egg and omitting a couple of other ingredients. I had it for breakfast this morning and (I promise) I have been filled with energy all day and have not had any potato chip/Oreo/peanut butter out of the jar cravings. Not to mention, this healthy, delicious, filling breakfast takes less than 10 minutes to put together.

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 1/2 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 C low fat cottage cheese
• 1/2 C chopped tomatoes
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• Cayenne pepper to taste (optional. I personally like almost every food to be spicy)

Directions

1. Scramble egg to desired consistency, adding pepper and cayenne pepper if desired.
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. 
3. Sprinkle on more black pepper, if desired.

Decadent 200 Calorie Snack

Let's eat a snack that has it all today. Let's eat something that is decadent, filling, gives you energy, doesn't take forever to put together, and is low in calories!

Here's what you do. Get some crackers (go with some Kashi Original 7 Grain crackers, because you'll get more caloric bang for your buck. Five crackers will only cost you 24 calories). Cut an avocado in half (use one half and wrap the other half with the pit in saran wrap to keep for 24 hours) and spread a thin layer of avocado on top of the crackers. Then (this is gonna sound weird, but trust me), drizzle a little rice vinegar on top. Just a smidgen will do! Finally, put some roasted sesame seeds or chia seeds on top.

This snack is the perfect snack to curb cravings before lunch or to give you a boost during the "mid-afternoon-can't-keep-my-eyes-open-why-do-I-always-crash-at-2pm?" part of your day! And the good news?  210 calories. Enjoy!

Sore Muscle Mender Smoothie Recipe!

My husband and I have been a smoothie kick lately. Usually, once a day (most often for breakfast or lunch), we make ourselves a smoothie as a meal. We fill it with fruits, veggies, proteins (found in tofu and yogurt and almond milk), and antioxidants.

A few days ago, I was feeling particularly sore after a new, particularly tough workout the day before. I did a little research before lunch and decided to try to make a "sore muscle fixer smoothie". I sipped on it for nearly 30 minutes (some of the ingredients were frozen so admittedly, it was a bit too thick to begin with...) and maybe it was a placebo effect, I don't know, but it actually seemed to ease the soreness.

Ingredients

• 1/2 C blueberries (frozen or fresh) -- Full of antioxidants. (P.S. Coffee and red wine have a good share of antioxidants, too!)
• 1 medium banana (frozen or fresh) -- Bananas=go-to for potassium. We've all heard the old wives tale, encouraging us to eat a banana when we have a leg cramp or a charley horse. It's actually logic and fact-driven. Potassium helps muscles.
• 1 T chia seeds -- I've been going crazy for chia seeds for awhile now. Basically, they give you "Energy. Protein. Omega 3 fatty acids. Fiber. Iron. Calcium." as written in my blog from a few months ago. Read it here.
• 1/4 C silken tofu or Greek yogurt -- Here's where you get some more protein. We don't use Greek yogurt, we use Mountain High and it's amazing. If you can find it at your grocery store, pick some up. You won't be disappointed.
• 1 C almond milk -- More potassium, calcium, and iron and low in calories. Plus it puts a bit more sweetness in your smoothie!
• 2-4 Cubes of ice (optional)
• 1 C fresh spinach -- Think Popeye. We all know that this stuff is full of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants.

Directions

1. Put all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.
2. Drink it up and feel all kinds of great!

Here's another exciting thing about this super-food smoothie. It's low in calories. Between 275 and 295 (depending on whether you use tofu or yogurt. The tofu is less, in case you're wondering). If you add five of the Kashi 7 Grain Sea Salt Crackers and some neufchatel cheese (1 oz., which sounds like not a lot, but it's 1/8th of a package) you are still way under 500 calories and I promise you, you will not have hunger pangs for hours. Plus, it's scrumptious. All of it.

Sources:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09355.html
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/the-healthier-choice-almond-milk-vs-milk.html
and, as always, http://caloriecount.about.com/

Pause and Unpause.

Nearly two years ago, I started my health and fitness journey. I've told many of you all about in in previous posts, and many of you about it in real life. I've had these stages that I've gone through. Stage one, for example, was hating it, not understanding it, but pushing through anyway because I knew that no matter what, I would see a positive result in the not-so-distant future. There was another step (much further along) where I realized that I liked the "burn" that exercise gives you (previous to this, I'd often thought people who claimed to like the "burn" were crazy liars... I guess I'm just one of those crazy liars myself, now).

That all brings me to now. The step where sometimes life gets in the way. And I don't mean the everyday rat race of kids and work and commitments and delicious, high-calorie food dangling in front of you at every possible juncture. I mean when huge things happen and just stop you in your tracks. I wrote about my husband and I being in a car accident a little over a month ago. I was lucky enough to come out with some bumps and bruises and my husband broke his back and had surgery. He's making a full recovery, by the way! But my point is that life sometimes blindsides you and every moment you spent doing "normal daily things" before gets shifted for a little while.

I spent the week that my husband was in the hospital pacing. Pacing his room, pacing the halls, pacing hospital stairs, pacing the parking lot... Just pacing. It was 50% intentional and 50% unintentional. I knew I had to move during the day. I'd spent the last year and a half losing 35 pounds and becoming healthier than I ever remember and I was absolutely not going to sacrifice that. The half of the pacing that was unintentional was due to the fact that I was on the phone CONSTANTLY with friends, family, insurance companies, etc. and well, I'm one of those people who paces like crazy when I'm on the phone. Nervous habit I guess.

The week Dan got home, I went for a couple of walks with my friend Mollie. Real, actual, strenuous walks. It felt SO GOOD to actually sweat again. Towards the end of the following week, I started doing various crossfit DVDs and walking almost daily. And then last week and this week... WHEW! I started jogging again (what a stress-buster!), I've done an early morning workout almost every morning, and I managed to squeeze in a decent bike ride yesterday afternoon, even though the temperature was 100º... Maybe not my brightest idea ever, but hey, it feels great to move again. And I'm so glad I didn't allow the "I'm not going to work out because there's too much on my plate" thing go any further than it did. Because as I or any other avid exerciser will tell you, the longer you wait to jump back into it, the harder it gets to jump back into it.

Now. If you're wondering about Dan. My husband, my amazing husband... He is five weeks out from breaking his back and having it put back together with rods and screws. And he is walking a mile and a half every day. With our dog. Who pulls like it's her job. He's not using a walker, a cane, or any other assistance (aside from the required back brace, obviously). He had his brother fashion a pair of higher-than-usual handlebars for our stationary bike and he has been going for 10-20 minute rides on that frequently. And last night he got on my actual bicycle and rode it to the end of the block.

Here's my point. BIG THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN IN YOUR LIFE. GOOD AND BAD. HUGE THINGS ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU WANT TO STOP. DON'T. JUST DON'T. YOU SHOULD PAUSE, BUT REMEMBER TO UNPAUSE EVENTUALLY AND PUSH FORWARD. LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH THE INTENTION OF BETTERING YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES. QUITTING WON'T HELP ANYONE.

And on a separate note: we have have made and canned so much salsa and jelly and jam in the past few days... We're making lemon out of lemonade, my friends! Or... Salsa out of tomatoes... Or jam out of ditch grapes... Or... You get it. We're making lots of yummy shtuff.

Peach salsa and black bean/sweet corn salsa. YUM.

 

A Dozen of My FAVE healthy(ish) foods!

1. Sliced hard boiled eggs with Cholula hot sauce drizzled on the slices.
2. English muffins with creamy peanut butter.
3. Avocados.
4. Coffee with light cream.
5. Iced coffee with light cream.
6. Curried veggies wrapped in lettuce leaves.
7. Grapefruit with a little brown sugar sprinkled on top.
8. GOAT CHEESE.
9. ANY CHEESE.
10. Vanilla almond milk blended with cocoa powder and chia seeds.
11. Cashews.
12. Blueberries.

That's it. Maybe I'll sit down and actually write later, but for now, just a tribute to things I could eat every day and never get bored.

SO. FREAKING. TASTY.

Kale Chips Will Surprise and Delight You! (recipe)

We planted a big garden this year. We planted lots of broccoli and tomatoes. Onions, peppers, zucchini, melons, cucumbers... Pretty much all the regular stuff. And then I went on a kale-purchasing binge at one of our local (and quirky, chemical-free, and amazing) greenhouses. I bought like, nine or more plants. I had NO IDEA of the yield of kale this would give us. I get two grocery bags stuffed full of kale twice a week. That's me being overly careful about it, too. Who needs that much kale? We juice a lot and that's still way more than we need. I plan on saving some of the juice by freezing it, but for now, I'll make some shockingly hearty kale chips.

Doesn't it seem like there's this odd stigma with kale? It's up there with other "EW!" veggies like brussels sprouts and radishes. Weird. But like I've said in so many past posts, veggies and fruits have so many health benefits. Kale is outrageously high in vitamin K. It's also got a ton of vitamins A and C. This may be obvious, as it's a leafy green, but kale is full of fiber. Less obvious, it has a ton of iron. (Sources here and here.) So the next time you hear someone accuse a vegetarian of not getting enough iron from veggies? Um. Well... Probably incorrect. Kale is good. Kale is healthy. Make yourself some kale chips.

Ingredients

• 2-3 C Kale, cut or ripped into 1"-2" pieces, roughly.
• 2-3 T Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/2 T Garlic Powder (optional)
• 1-2 T Parmesan Cheese (optional)

The pieces should kinda look like this.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. Remove the stem/vein that runs down the middle of the kale leave and tear into chunks. (They don't have to be pretty.)
3. Rinse and towel dry kale pieces.
4. Spread onto cookie sheet (or sheets).
5. Drizzle with olive oil.
6. Add salt and pepper. (You don't need much, but it's totally your call as to how much you'd like to add).
7. Add garlic powder and/or Paremesan cheese, if desired.
8. Cook for 10-15 minutes until edges look brown and crispy.
9. Remove and let cool for at least 10 minutes.

This is before I put them in the oven. (I'm a horrible
photographer and the after picture was fuzzy and
awful. )

Kind of a Club...

Two posts in one WEEK!? I can hardly believe it myself. My mother-in-law has my son today, though, so my thoughts aren't being constantly interrupted by The Aristocats (the only thing my son will watch on the television... So, I'll admit it, it's on our TV frequently...), Legos being banged on any given piece of wooden furniture, or my dog being harassed and eventually whining to go into the bedroom with the door closed so she can be free from the terror for a few moments.

So anyway. I thought of something else that I wanted (but forgot) to include in yesterday's post. And of course, I encourage you to read yesterday's post if you didn't already. Some shameless self-promotion never hurt, right?

Here's what I left out. I think one of the hardest things for me when I started exercising was the intimidation factor. I'm not a gym person. Maybe I will be someday, but I don't know what 87% of the machines and other pieces of equipment do, so I don't want to look totally foolish. And I'm very frugal (call me cheap if you want, it's true), so I don't like the idea of spending $30+ a month on a membership to a place that I'm scared to go into in the first place. Why am I scared of it? Truthfully? I'm afraid people are going to judge me for not running fast enough on the treadmill, for not wearing the proper workout clothes, for not utilizing the machines (because, like I said, I DON'T KNOW HOW), for not being perfectly muscled and toned in all the right places...

I'm afraid people are going to judge me for everything. Even though, realistically, I know that they're not. And also, realistically, I don't really care if they do because it'll probably be in the form of silent judgement that I'll never even be aware of anyway. But that paralyzing, unrealistic fear is what has always stopped me from doing almost anything athletic. It stopped me from sports in high school, it stopped me from taking up running earlier, it stopped me from ever joining a gym... It actually stopped me seven weeks into an expensive ten-week boot camp a few years ago.

What I have recently learned (and the point of this entire, rambling-on-forever post) is that most of your peers in the athletic world are cheering you on. They love to see new faces enjoying their exercise or sport of choice. At my 5k on Saturday, I can't tell you how many other runners encouraged, congratulated, and cheered me and other runners on. It's just what they do. Every time I'm on my bike and see someone else on their bike, there's a smile shared and usually a hello. My friends who have been faithful in exercising and eating well are so happy to see that I've joined them. And I'm thrilled when one of my friends decides to start exercising. And honestly, anyone who you know who lives the exercise/eat well lifestyle will be over the moon to talk to you about it.

Yes. It is kind of a camaraderie, kind of a club. But it's open to anyone who wants to start and we're all here for you when you're ready. There's so much joy for you when you join that there there won't be any room for judgement.

Update: I'm chatting with my good friend and she said, "I totally get the intimidation factor of the gym. Especially when these meathead type guys walk in and they can see right into the Zumba studio. But here is my thought on that: 'Judge me when I'm at the mall stuffing my face with a pretzel, you wanna judge me actually DOING something about it - that's your problem.'" YES!


(Picture credit here.)

Quinoa Parfait Recipe

Two healthy, delicious recipes in a row?! Yup, yup, yup! I couldn't resist trying this today and blogging about it tonight so maybe some of you can try it out tomorrow morning!

This one I found on PopSugar.com and kind of adapted it. Partially because I don't use some of the ingredients (i.e. Stevia) and partially because there's no way I could eat that much in one serving. And I can eat a lot. I also keep looking to quinoa to help give me protein because I don't eat a ton of meat anymore and I manage to get way too many carbs between my love of bread and all of the fruits and veggies we eat in our family. Why quinoa for protein? Well, because it's a complete protein. A complete protein is one that has all of the nine essential amino acids that the body doesn't make on it's own. A lot of protein sources don't contain all nine. More details on complete proteins here.

Onto the recipe!

Ingredients

• 1/8 C dry quinoa (cook it as usual in 1/4 cup water and it will expand to about 1/4 of a cup.)
• 1/2 C fat-free yogurt
• 1 t honey
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/3 C blueberries
• 1/3 C chopped strawberries
• 1 ripe peach, chopped

Directions

1. While quinoa is cooking, mix yogurt, honey, and cinnamon.
2. In a separate container, mix blueberries, strawberries, and chopped peaches.
3. Layer quinoa, yogurt mixture, and fruit mixture. Repeat.

Calories in this one? 272. Paired with a medium boiled egg for breakfast, you're not even close to cracking a huge 400 calorie breakfast, packed with healthy protein and low in sugar.

(All calorie values from caloriecount.about.com.)

One Replacement: FRUIT.

My last two posts (One Addition: Chia Seeds and One Addition (and/or) One Replacement: Lemon Water) have made me very happy. Why? Because I have had quite a few people reach out to me and tell me that they've started using chia seeds, that they started drinking lemon water, that they keep a bottle of it on hand all the time and that they've noticed a significant difference in the way they feel. I'm proud of that. I've said before that I don't write these posts to change lives or be "inspirational" or any of that. I write them because finding your way to good health is a hard path to walk and if I can offer up my experiences to anyone who is looking to help themselves out, I'm so thrilled to do it.

And now that that's been said... Onto this week's Replacement. Fruit vs. cookies or a Snickers bar. Pretty dang obvious, wouldn't you say?

Okay. So this week, when you pack a lunch, pack a couple of extra snacks. Eat those in the afternoon instead of b-lining it to the vending machine. And if you must grab a Snickers, do it on Tuesday and Thursday and spare yourselves the calories and poor nutrition on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm not asking you to become a health-food fanatic overnight or ever. I refuse to ever be 100% health food 100% of the time. NO. WAY. It's all about moderation. Again, here I go with the obvious.

Here's what the banana vs. Snickers bar swap will save you:

SNICKERS NUTRITION
296 CALORIES
25% FAT
10% DAILY SODIUM

BANANA NUTRITION
105 CALORIES
0% SODIUM
1% FAT
17% VITAMIN C

I think this one is pretty obvious. You're basically saving yourself 200 calories. Why. Not. And don't forget-contrary to what the Snickers commercials say (that your mind will somehow be sharper after consuming a Snickers), if you eat this product, you will feel sluggish afterwards. Don't deny it. We've all felt the post-bad-for-you-snack sluggishness. It's awful. A banana will almost definitely give you a mid-afternoon revival. Try it.

Now. If that's not enough for you, I did a little more research. My husband loves Keebler Fudge Shoppe Striped cookies. LOVES THEM. Six of those babies are... are you ready? 300 CALORIES. 22% FAT (which, by the way, computes to 14 grams of fat), and 14% CARBS. Uh... Yikes? Switch it out for an apple and a tablespoon of organic peanut butter. 216 calories. 4.5 grams of PROTEIN.  12% fat, but remember, it's the good kind.

Something else that works for me? When I start craving bad food (which I do because bad food is so good...), I remind myself that I want to fuel my body, NOT STIFLE IT. Which is exactly what junk food does. Forget about the calories, forget about all the nutrtional information that I just laid out for you. Remind yourself of this: you have a choice to either feel good or eat bad.

Sources:
caloriecount.about.com
prevention.com

An Update, A Fitness Buddy, and Meal Planning

Yoga: still loving it. I'm not pretending I'm good at it, because I'm not. But I love it.

My husband bought a really kickass (and manly) spin bike with his Christmas money. He wakes up early every morning to work out. Because of this, I end up waking up early to work out. So my workout, shower, and breakfast is now completed by 5:30am. NICE. Now I have time to do the dishes/laundry/vacuuming before the little one wakes up for the day. Or I can sit and sip my coffee and watch Desperate Housewives on Netflix. Either way, it's fulfilling. And either way, the earlier the workout, the easier my day goes.

And meal planning. Friends, if you have not jumped on this bandwagon yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. We have managed to save money and eat healthier because of this. I've managed to save hours of time that would have usually been spent in a grocery store buying odds and ends. In a totally surprising twist, we've managed to eat classier meals as well. Not just "Boom, here's your meatloaf!" but also, "Hey, here's this baby spinach and goat cheese frittata with a sweet potato hash!" We still eat meatloaf, just not as frequently.

So meal planning. What a pain, huh? I've finally come up with a formula that makes it more simple. Share? Well of course!

Breakfasts: Pick out three or four healthy breakfasts that you like. Choose a breakfast for each day, never let the same breakfast be eaten two days in a row. To me, monotony leads to eating bad-for-me stuff. To the left is a picture of this week's breakfast meal plan for myself. (Saturdays we always eat something bad-pancakes, cinnamon rolls, etc. and Sundays we eat light because we go to church and eat donuts.)

Here is a link to some really yummy (and healthy) ways to prepare oatmeal.

Here is my link to my low-cal breakfast burritos.

And if you want a healthy, satisfying breakfast to take with you, here is a link to overnight oats.

Lunches: I hate coming up with lunch ideas. My current rotation: smoothie and hummus with veggies one day, black bean burger on one of those thin, 100-calorie buns and sweet potato fries the next, and a big, healthy salad the third day. Then I start the rotation over again.

Dinners: Here is where I go to Pinterest and find healthy, easy, seemingly-fancy recipes. Every Saturday, I sit down, write out the entire week's meal plan and a grocery list. I'm trying to teach myself to remember about the food we already have. I try to use leftovers accordingly so we don't throw much away and have to spend more money. Yuck. Who wants to spend more? Here's a picture of this week's dinner plan.

A link for the OUTRAGEOUSLY good spinach, goat cheese, and sweet potato frittata.

The curried butternut squash recipe.

And the peach, feta, and chicken pizza recipe.


So yes. Meal planning is kind of like watching paint dry. To me it is at least... But it has a huge payoff. I highly recommend you give it a shot.

Have a lovely three-day weekend, friends!

Right Path.

I stumbled across a website the other day that told me that my weight should "ideally" be between 144 and 174. That may not sound that shocking until you understand that I am 6'1", 28 years old, and had a baby last year.

I want to say something that may sound somewhat contradictory to a lot of what I've blogged about in the past.

NO WONDER PEOPLE ARE SCARED TO WORK OUT. NO WONDER PEOPLE ARE SCARED TO EAT RIGHT. NO WONDER PEOPLE THINK THESE STANDARDS ARE UNATTAINABLE. NO. WONDER.

Hey, guess what? I am pounds upon pounds heavier than the so-called "heaviest" I am supposed to be to be considered "ideal." According to that wack website at least. (Mind you, other websites have said I'm right where I'm supposed to be, so I didn't take a lot of stock in it... I also realize that well, not everything the internet says is true.) So anyway, I'm overweight (says wack website) and I look GREAT. I can see it in pictures, I can see it in the mirror, I can see it.

Here's the deal, friends. Don't don't DON'T buy into some of this stuff. It's still simple. Get your heart rate up multiple times a week, eat mostly good foods, and just keep living. I sometimes think that some of these things that are meant to help us and encourage us just push us to a place where we feel like our goals are impossible to reach. Then we just say, "SCREW IT!" and go grab some BK and stuff our faces as we submit to the notion that we'll never quite live up to these "ideal" standards. Is it obvious that this has happened to me before? On multiple occasions? Because it has.

So yes. Grab an occasional burger. Just don't eat it while you're throwing yourself a pity party. No, you may not be the stick figure that the BMI charts say you should be, but if you're healthy and you're doing the right things, you WILL LOOK GREAT. And, more importantly, you WILL FEEL GREAT. (I had to state the obvious cliche there.)

And that brings me to tonight. While still clad in workout clothes from exercising earlier this evening, I ate a dinner of homemade onion rings and fried green tomatoes, made lovingly by my husband who thinks I look great, too. Yum and yum and yum and I don't care if it was battered and fried because I know I'm healthy and happy and on the right path.

Fried green tomatoes are
healthier than a burger, right?

Simple (219 Calorie) Salmon

I've never cooked fish before. Partly because, until late last year, I didn't particularly like fish unless it was rolled up in sticky rice and labeled "sushi." Tonight, I made my maiden fish-cooking voyage. And it was by no means as hard as I thought it was going to be. It's important to note also that prep time for this was far less time than for your average (unhealthy) Hamburger Helper AND it's only 220 calories! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• Salmon fillet, cut to roughly the size of your palm (palm-size is roughly how large a portion of meat or fish is supposed to be per serving.)
• Lemons, thinly sliced
• Butter (Yes, butter. Because your body knows how to process butter-not margarine.)
• Pepper or other seasoning of choice (I used some delicious concoction from Penzey's.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. Slice lemons very thin and place on sheet of aluminum foil that is large enough to wrap your piece of salmon in tightly.
3. Place salmon fillet on top of lemons.
4. Spread butter evenly across the top of the salmon. I used roughly 3/4 of a tablespoon per salmon fillet.
5. Sprinkle seasonings on top to taste and wrap in foil tightly.
6. Place on cookie sheet and cook for 25-30 minutes. (If you want exact numbers, mine was probably in the oven for about 28 minutes total.)

It only can be described as scrumptious.

The salmon cooked perfectly. Just the right amount of lemon flavor. And again, prep for this was under 10 minutes! It's possible to cook quickly and eat healthy, friends!