Tasty Tuesday

Today's post is about snacks. I think this is one of the biggest areas I struggle with. In the past I have fallen into eating all of my kids bag of goldfish and wash it down with a soda and a box of little Debbie's. Sounds great, but I felt terrible afterwards. So if you are eating good meals all day do not waste that with a few bad snacks. I have found it easiest to buy the kids snacks that I also will eat. That way I am not tempted by their snacks into something bad for me, which I feel better giving them healthy stuff anyways. Now I am not going to lie here, my kids do sometimes get special treats that I do not really partake in. I think yes we should eat healthy foods, but it is okay for my kids to occasionally have little treats. So anyways back to our healthy snacks. For my snacks I of course like something that I do not have to put a lot of prep into, and are both health and cost effective. A few clean eating snacks that I enjoy are as follows:

* A slice of pumpkin bread (I posted the recipe the other day), I usually will have a glass of water with it, but a cup of hot tea is also very yummy with it. Most of the time if I have this I just eat this, but you could add maybe a handful of nuts (if you did not put any in your bread) or a piece of fresh fruit.

* 1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt (I like Stonyfield) with a drizzle of raw honey or agave, 1/2 cup of granola (you can do homemade or an organic one that does not have a lot of added sugars. I like the ones from KIND. There are a lot of different flavors that are good), mix with some fresh fruits (strawberries, blueberries, banana whatever fruit you have on hand)

* 1/2c unsalted nuts (cashews, peanuts, almonds, walnuts whatever you have), string cheese (get a brand that is real cheese not processed), and a piece of fruit (pear or apple is my favorite)

* 3-4 celery sticks with organic peanut butter, string cheese

* Fruit/Veggie protein smoothie (use whatever fruits/veggies you have with some organic peanut butter or protein powder)

* Organic carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks and cucumber with 2tbsp fresh hummus

* 1 slice whole grain bread with 1tbsp organic peanut butter, 1 tbsp. fresh jam (grape, strawberry etc...), whole organic carrot

* 1 hardboiled cage free egg with a little pepper, handful of fresh berries

* 1c no salt added cottage cheese with fresh fruit (pineapple, strawberries, blueberries whatever you have), 1/4c unsalted nuts, 1tbsp chia seeds

* 1 apple (I like honeycrisp but whatever you like) cut into slices, 2 tbsp. organic peanut butter

* 1c fruit salad (grapes, oranges, kiwi, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pears, peaches, strawberries whatever you like) a drizzle of agave 1/4c chilled quinoa

These are just a few of the snacks I enjoy. What is great is all of these are also kid friendly. There are a lot more, but these are all very quick, easy, healthy and cost effective snacks. I usually drink a glass of water with all these snacks as well. What are some of your favorite healthy snacks.

Tasty Tuesday

Since fall is coming up I know a lot of us will be pulling out our crock pots to do some easy cooking, although I must say I use mine year around. So today's recipe is going to be a crock pot recipe. Now we do not eat beef that much in my house. We prefer to eat the lean meats, we mainly eat chicken, turkey and fish. Occasionally we do have beef or pork. It is a "special treat" sometimes. So here is a beef recipe for you that is yummy, easy and healthy.

Beef roast

3-4lb grass fed London broil (I like to get mine at the farmer's market, but anywhere that you can find one is fine) with all the fat cut off
1/2lb portabella mushrooms cut in half(you can use a different kind of mushroom, but this is what I like)
2 cups low sodium organic vegetable broth (you can use chicken or beef and you can also make your own)
1/2 purple onion chopped
4 organic carrots chopped
1tsp garlic powder
dash black pepper
1tsp oregano
1tsp parsley

Add your broth first, then mushrooms, carrots and onion. Place the roast on top of this and add seasoning to the top of the roast. I put it on high for 2 hours then low for another 3-4 hours. Now if you are putting this on in the morning before work or something you can just do low for about 6-8 hours or so. I will check it about 30 minutes to an hour before serving and mix it up and make sure it is all shredded.

My whole family loves this especially my picky husband and picky 6 year old. They usually have seconds on it. I have served it with a lot of different things. You could do sweet potatoes, brown rice, wild rice, whole grain pasta or quinoa pasta. Typically we will have steamed broccoli with it (that is my husband and 6 year old favorite veggie), but you could really do any kind of veggie with it. The best thing is with having a bigger roast there is typically leftovers. It is actually much better then next day. You could eat the leftovers the same way or try it as a sandwich. You decide what the right size roast is for you. You can do a smaller one just make sure you cut everything in the recipe down, or you can do a bigger one just make sure you are adding more of everything else as well. I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does. As I said we do not eat beef often so this is a treat meal for us.

This is a pretty good broth to choose, but the best would of course be homemade. I will get together a recipe for that to post.



Scrumptious Saturday

Is breakfast the hardest time for you to get in a healthy meal? I know it always has been for me. I was never a breakfast eater until about 6 months ago. Now I always eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up, but there are some mornings where I just do not feel like making anything. So I stick to my quick and easy healthy recipes on those days. Most people love pancakes right? The problem is when you load them down with butter and syrup and use all that white flour in them. They are pretty unhealthy. Well here is a recipe for some healthier pancakes that are delicious and very quick to make.

Protein Pancakes (makes 2-3 pancakes)

1/2 cup oats (or another grain of your choosing)
6oz plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1 scoop vanilla whey isolate protein powder (you can use a different flavor if you prefer and you can also use a different protein whey, soy, rice, pea, hemp etc...)
3 egg whites
1/4 cup almond milk (can use coconut, soy, low-fat milk etc...)
1-2tsp vanilla extract

In a blender or food processer add your oats. They will look like flour once you grind them up. Then add the rest of your ingredients. I use a griddle for my pancakes and spray with a little bit of olive oil. Then add your batter it should make about 2-3 pancakes. If the batter looks to thick for you add a little more milk to it. You of course can double or triple this recipe or more. They will cook quickly so I suggest about 3-4 minutes on each side. Once they are done I usually add a little agave and maybe some fruit.

There are about a million different variations you can do with how to eat serve them. You could add 1-2 tablespoons natural peanut butter to the batter and top with some bananas, or you could add the bananas in the batter if you prefer. You could add any kind of berries to the batter. Cut up apple slices and add some cinnamon for a nice fall pancake. Also pumpkin puree and cinnamon would be good. Some dark chocolate chips in the batter would be good as well. You could also do a savory pancake and add shredded zucchini and some onions (of course in this one I would eliminate the vanilla and probably choose an unflavored protein powder and add some black pepper). Try these pancakes out for a quick breakfast or snack. Let me know what your favorite pancake combination is.

Tasty Tuesday

I think that snacks are the biggest area I struggle in with my eating. I have always been a big snacker. Before deciding to be healthy I would raid the fridge and cabinets. I would sit and eat a whole bag of chips along with a whole sleeve of cookies without even batting an eye. I would buy my kids the most unhealthy, sugar, crap filled snacks and I would sit right beside them and eat them with them. I am so happy we do not eat those snacks anymore. I still sometimes struggle in this area though. A snack should be something quick and easy. Unfortunately when I think quick and easy it is usually one of those unhealthy snacks. So I just do not buy those things and keep them in the house. If it is not here I cannot eat it right. So one quick and easy go to snack for me is a smoothie. They are healthy, yummy and very quick. My kids love them too. They will usually try to steal them from me when I make them. Of course when I do ones with protein powder I do not let them have those. I make them a version minus the protein. So here is a protein smoothie that I love.


Protein Smoothie

1 scoop vanilla whey isolate protein powder (you can also do soy, hemp, rice, pea, whey whichever you have on hand)
2 handfuls spinach/kale mixture
1/2 avocado (you will not taste it at all, it just makes it very creamy and yummy)
1/4c blueberries
5 whole strawberries (do not cut off the greens they have tons of good nutrients in them)
1tbsp chia seeds
1/2c unsweetened coconut milk (you can also do almond milk, fat free milk)
4 ice cubes


I put my ingredients in the order they are listed here. If you notice it is not mixing well you can add a little water, and it should mix much better after that. This is a very basic recipe. You can add lots of other things in here as well. I like a spoonful of natural peanut butter. I have also added a lot of other fruits, mango, pineapple, banana, oranges, etc...I have also added a few spoonfuls of plain nonfat greek yogurt. Very yummy and very easy.

Scrumptious Saturday

I love trying new recipes, my family is so-so on this. I think they would happy having the same things they like over and over again especially my 6 year old. Food is what we fuel our bodies with so we should use premium right. We should enjoy this fuel too. I do not believe we should eat boiled chicken and steamed broccoli every night in order for us to be "healthy" and lose weight. No thank you that sounds so boring to me. There are so many yummy foods out there if you are just willing to try them. I like to go on pinterest and find new "clean eating" recipes to try. I also enjoy making up my own recipes. I am currently putting some recipes together to write an ecookbook actually. I'm not sure how long it will take me, but I am very excited about working on it. Sometimes the recipes I try are failures, and sometimes we have major successes, but you never know till you try right. Today I made up a new recipe, new for me I'm sure a lot of other people have done it before I just have not seen a recipe for it. I did peach chicken. We are having it for dinner, and I will update on how it tastes later. I can say that it does smell good; which is always a plus right?



Peach Chicken

2lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts or cutlets
2 peaches
1/2c honey (you can also use agave. I would just use a little less because it is much sweeter)
1/4tsp sea-salt
1tsp black pepper
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp dried oregano
1tsp onion powder

Cut your peaches in slices and put in the bottom of the crock pot. Then top with chicken, honey and spices. Cook on high 2 hours then low 3 hours. I will probably serve this with either quinoa pasta or wild rice and steamed carrots. I will let you all know how it turns out.



*UPDATE~ This turned out very good, but it I think next time I will add some no salt added vegetable broth. I think that will keep where it won't get too dry. My daughter had thirds on it so I guess she enjoyed it.

Tasty Tuesday

I don't know about you, but breakfast has always been the meal I have struggled with. I am not a morning person, and as much as I like to cook I really do not want to do it when I wake up first thing in the morning. So some easy healthy breakfasts sounds like music to my ears. One really easy nutritious breakfast is overnight refrigerator oats.


Overnight Refrigerator Oats

1/4c oats (old fashioned or steel cut)
1/2c milk (your choice I usually use coconut or almond, but you can use fat free milk)
1/3c plain nonfat Greek yogurt (I usually use Fage)
1/2 tbsp. chia seeds

Mix all ingredients together in a mason jar and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. You can add a little more milk and warm up some if you like warm oatmeal better. I usually just eat it straight out of the refrigerator. Add whatever toppings you like. I have done almond butter and banana, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, honey, agave, etc...The possibilities are endless. I like the almond butter or organic peanut butter because it gives me a little more protein in the morning. That's it. Simple yummy breakfast.

Scrumptious Saturday!!

Have you tried spaghetti squash yet? If not you should it is very yummy, and very good for you. When you cook this squash the strands fall away to look like spaghetti.

There are a million ways you can prepare this delicious vegetable. I have one easy, healthy, delicious way. I don't know about you, but those three words always sound good to me in a recipe.


Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash
2 tbsp. oil (Olive, coconut, or grapeseed)
1 tomato
2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 c finely shredded mozzarella cheese (or nutritional yeast)



Cut your squash in half and remove the seeds and the center strings. Drizzle the squash with the oil, garlic powder and black pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes open side down. Then take it out of the oven and scrape the squash with a fork to make strands in the squash. Turn the oven to broil and add the tomatoes and basil and top with mozzarella. Broil it for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted.

There it is a super simple, yummy recipe. You can eat this by itself or with some sort of protein (fish, chicken, turkey). This is a good side to use in place of pasta.

Workout Wednesday

So this is another one of my love hate exercises. TRICEP DIPS!!

 

 

 

It seems so simple, but once you start doing a few you realize why I love to hate them, especially the next day :)  The triceps are the large muscles on the back of your arm. It is sometimes called a three-headed muscle because there are three bundles of muscles, each of different origins, joining together at the elbow.

So how can you achieve the horseshoe look for your triceps? There are lots of different exercises you can do to help build this muscle. One that was very scary for me was tricep dips. I did not want to do them for a long time, but now I try to do them along with my other tricep workouts if I can. To do this exercise you can do it in a gym or the comfort of your own home or while running at a track you can do them on a bench in between intervals. When I first did these I used my legs to lift myself up and down and thought wow this is not bad on my arms, but my legs are really sore. WRONG!! You want to push your body up and down using your arms not your legs. That way you are working the muscle you want. You will definitely feel them the next day in your arms if you do them right. Watch the video that is linked to see the right way to perform these.


http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/bench-dips



There are lots of variations you can do with this exercise. Like I said you can really do it from anywhere. You can also use two benches put your arms on one and your legs on the other and add weights to your mid section to add a little more difficulty. Have fun and go do your dips.


If you are interested here is a challenge for you to try with your dips. Just break them into sets.

 

Scrumptious Saturday

I made this dish the other day. It is very yummy. I had always heard about quinoa for a long time, but was always scared to try it. Now I eat it a lot. It is good with breakfast, on salads, just as a plain side, in casseroles etc...This recipe is very filling you really do not need to eat anything else with it. I did have some extra protein with it, however. Quinoa does have 8g of protein in it. Which makes it very good for vegetarians or vegans. I froze some of this in 1 cup bags so I can just pull out a serving when I want something quick for lunch.


Quinoa veggie bake


1c quinoa
2c water
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1c sliced portabella mushrooms
1/2 c purple onion
1c organic cherry tomatoes
1 eggplant
2c asparagus
1/2 c spinach
1/2 c kale
2 tbsp. organic coconut oil
2 tbsp. ground flax seed
salt and pepper to taste




Preheat the oven to 375. Cook the quinoa in the 2 cups of water. While that is cooking chop up all the vegetables. Put the 2 tbsp. coconut oil in the baking dish. Put all the vegetables in there and mix in flax seed and quinoa. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Bake 45 minutes.


That is it. Super easy and super yummy. It would be good with some avocado, hummus or fresh salsa mixed in. I have eaten it by itself and also with chicken. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Workout Wednesday

We should all strive to get at least 30 minutes of activity in everyday. I know some days are harder than others. There are some days when I get up that I do not want to do anything at all. I have found that the best thing for me is to do my workouts first thing in the morning. This way I get it done, and I am not worrying all day about getting something done. My husband and I go to the gym in the evenings 3 days a week. I try to get something done in the morning at home so that way I always have some sort of activity in. I like to do a lot of different exercises. Also what makes it fun is that my children will try to do the workouts with me. One of my favorites and theirs as well are wall sits.

Wall sits are exactly what they sound like. You are sitting against the wall. Sounds easy right? Well go do some I bet you will think differently. Make sure your legs are at a 90-degree angle, press your back against the wall, and hold it until you absolutely can't hold it any longer.Tip: Place your hands on top of your head or hold them out in front to add a little work for your shoulders. But whatever you do, don't cheat and rest them on your thighs! In a wall sit you are working the entire muscular system in your lower body.

The quadriceps and buttocks work to hold the body in place. Since this is an isometric exercise, the endurance in the lower body muscles improves the longer you hold the position. The wall sit-down exercise improves performance in running, skiing and any sport involving jumping. Practicing this exercise makes it easier to get up and down off the floor and to use the leg muscles to lift heavy objects.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/437325-proper-wall-sit-down-exercise/#ixzz2bLMUpIeq

 

 

 

You can vary this exercise by using a stability ball behind you, between your knees or adding weights. So go do some wall sits now. You quadriceps will thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tasty Tuesday

I know that healthy eating is where I have struggled in the past, and a lot of people I talk to this is the area that they struggle in as well. So here is another day that we can do some yummy healthy recipes. I know it is still summer, but I LOVE fall. I am so ready for it to be here. Today in honor o my love of fall I am doing turkey chili. I am actually making a batch of this right now, and will be eating it for lunch for awhile. What is good about this recipe is you can make it as big or as small as you want. You can also freeze it, and pull it out when needed. What I am doing is freezing 1 cup servings, and that way I can just pull out one serving at a time.

Turkey Chili


1 lb 99% fat free ground turkey
1 can organic low sodium black beans
1 can organic low sodium dark red kidney beans
1 can organic low sodium pinto beans
1 can organic low sodium great northern beans
1 can organic low sodium fire roasted tomatoes
1 can organic low sodium tomato sauce
1 small red onion chopped
1/2 red and yellow bell pepper chopped
2 chili peppers chopped
2 seeded and chopped poblano peppers
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tbsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp sea salt or no-salt
1 tsp olive oil



Open and rinse all of the beans from the cans. This will help reduce some of the sodium in them. Put the olive oil in a pan and sauté the turkey with the onions and garlic. Combine all the other ingredients in the crockpot and stir to combine. Once the turkey is browned add it to the crock pot. Cook on high for 5-6 hours.

Browning the turkey

 

Rinsing the beans

 

 

 

 

This is a super simple recipe. If you do not like all these beans you can interchange them with others or just do one or two. I like this many because it gives me extra protein. You can also do dry beans instead of the canned ones. When I do dry beans it just takes so much longer of course. You could also do this with some grass fed beef or chicken as well. You can add more spice to it as well. I just do not like my chili really spicy. You can eat the bowl of chili plain, add sour cream or nonfat plain Greek yogurt, add olives, low fat cheese, avocado, salsa verde or red salsa. Really any toppings would be good with it. You can also eat it over some whole grain, quinoa or brown rice pasta. I have some garden of eatin no salt added blue corn tortilla chips that I am going to eat with mine. I am going to try to come up with a clean recipe for corn bread. If I do I will post it here.

Feel free to add any of your favorite healthy recipes in the comments.

Scrumptious Saturday

I'm going to be posting my favorite healthy recipes on scrumptious Saturdays. We all know that nutrition is major part of fitness you cannot out exercise a bad diet! I love to cook, and my family loves for new to cook. I also like trying new things. I think it us important to vary what you are eating so you do not get bored quickly with healthy foods. So this week I am going to start off with an easy recipe. Turkey meatballs. You can eat them by themselves, in a sandwich, with pasta, on pizza. There are so many things you can do with these yummy treats. I bet they would be good in a clean eating barbeque sauce as well. You can make the serving you need or make a big batch and freeze them to reheat for a later meal.



Turkey meatballs


1 lb 99% fat free ground turkey
1/2 cup organic oat bran 2 egg whites (if you do not eat eggs you can substitute with Chia seeds and water)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp mrs. dash Italian seasoning
2 tsp organic ground flax seed
2 shredded organic carrots
1/4 cup diced red onion (if you do not like onions you can substitute with 2 tsp onion powder 1 tsp organic coconut oil


Preheat your oven to 400 Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. I usually just use my clean hands to do it, but you can use a wooden spoon as well. After thoroughly washing your hands line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Then it's time to make the meatballs. Just round them out to balls. You can make them whatever size you wish. Thoroughly wash your hands again and place the cookie sheet in the oven. Bake them for 30 minutes.



You can double, triple etc this recipe or you can half it. Super easy right. They are healthy and delicious. Also they are picky husband and picky kid approved! Please feel free to comment with any of your favorite recipes.

It's not a diet...

Since starting my journey I have tried to surround myself with positive motivating people. I sometimes do encounter unsupportive people. I hear how's your diet going, why are you eating like that, oh it's ok if you have some, why do you need to workout, women should do cardio to lose weight not strength training etc... I am not on a diet. It is a LIFESTYLE!!!! This is how I plan to live the rest of my life. I am not living a life of depriving myself, but I also never, ever want to fall back to what I was doing before. These are my choices. I am not pushing them on anyone. If you feel guilty for what you are eating don't bring me down because of the choices I am making. I support your decision to eat and do what you want, and I would appreciate you doing the same for me. I workout to be healthy and strong. I lift weights to become healthy. Strength training is what has set me up for success!!