8-Mile

Hey there! Hope you’re all enjoying the weekend. I started my day bright and early. My half marathon training schedule called for 8 miles today, so I got up at 5 a.m. to head out for my run. Saturdays are always filled with grocery shopping and other errands, so it’s most time-efficient if I just get my run out of the way first thing in the morning.

Prior to today, the longest run I had ever done was 6.2 miles. Today, I ran 8.2. It was a perfect temperature for running – about 50 degrees. I started out a little bit slow so I didn’t wear myself out. I started to pick it up a bit more around the 2.5-mile mark.

When I reached about 5.5 miles, my right hip and knee started to bother me a bit. But I kept going. I completed my 8.2 miles in 1:17:40 – roughly a 9:30/mi pace. Not too shabby. It may not seem too impressive to all of the hardcore runners out there, but it is certainly an accomplishment for me – something I never thought I could do!

What’s one thing you have done that you didn’t think you could do?

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Have you entered my giveaway yet?? This is your last chance! I will be randomly picking a winner in the morning. Your chances of winning right now are pretty darn good.

I still ow you some product reviews – 3 to be exact. Unfortunately I only have 2 here! One more item to try, and I’ll review it when I post the winner.

Health Valley® Granola Bars:

No beating around the bush here. Sorry Health Valley – as soon as I saw the nutritionals on these, I knew they weren’t for me. The ingredient list is a mile long! I took one bite… WHOA! Holy sugar! These were soooo sweet. My daughter likes them, of course, but I won’t let her have more than 1/2 of one at a time. And I certainly wouldn’t buy them. Sorry to be harsh on a product that’s included in my giveaway! The rest of the products make up for it though. 😉

Garden of Eatin’® Multigrain Blues:

These are a new product for Garden of Eatin’. They actually weren’t even included in the initial giveaway picture and description I was sent.

I ripped open this bag tonight specifically so I could review these chips in my post!

I’m not really a big chip eater, but I was pleasantly surprised by these. They had a great taste to them (almost nutty) and just the right amount of salt. These would be great for dipping in salsa or guacamole. I bet they’d make some mean nachos, too! I would definitely buy these for a party.

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Well, off to veg for the rest of the night. I already feel the soreness setting in to my legs. No big plans tomorrow – just more errands. What about you?

My First Maranatha…and Time-Saving Tips

It’s Thursday! You know what that means? Tomorrow’s Friday! 😀

Today was not a good day for me at all, so I’m just going to focus on a product review and a time-saving tip or two.

Have you entered my giveaway yet???? You have until Saturday at 11:59 p.m. ET. And if you win, you’ll get (among other things) a jar of this:

I have read rave reviews on many a food blog about Maranatha No Stir Creamy Peanut Butter, so I was pretty pumped to try this.

I typically eat regular, all natural peanut butter made with nothing but peanuts and salt. This peanut butter has added palm oil and cane juice. After an intial stir and some time in the fridge, the consistency is much like that of shelf-stabel peanut butters, like Skippy and Jif.

Being the classy lady that I am, I taste-tested this with my right index finger. My reaction? Eh, it’s ok. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll eat it all, eventually. But after eating peanut butter with nothing added other than salt for so long, this didn’t even really taste like peanuts to me. If you grew up on Skippy and still miss the taste of it, then you will love this. I wouldn’t buy it for myself, personally, though.

I’ll review the final few products in the giveaway tomorrow and Saturday. Check back in!

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Now that I’m training for a half marathon, I have to save time however I can. Training takes up a lot of time! My training schedule called for 5 miles on Wednesday. I had been doing my runs in the evening after my baby girl went to bed, but it’s starting to get dark earlier and earlier. So I decided on Tuesday night that I would get up at 4:45 a.m. and run before work. I’d rather run when it’s dark, but getting lighter instead of when it’s light, but getting darker!

Getting up that early to run took some planning ahead. Here are a few things that helped me save time in the morning (and make sure I had no excuses NOT to run!):

1. Packed my lunch the night before. I typically do this anyway, but I can’t stress enough how much time this saves me in the morning. I hem and haw sor far too long about what I want to pack for lunch. I would spend my whole morning trying to decide!
2. Laid out my workout clothes. This eliminated any fumbling around in the dark. I laid out my gear, including shoes and iPod, right next to the bed. That way they were staring me in the face when my alarm went off at the ungodly time of 4:45! No excuses.
   

   Look what just came in the mail!!!

3. Prepped my breakfast the night before. Until I discovered the world of food blogs, I never would have thought to do this. What a time-saver! I tend to eat a pretty extravagant breakfast, spending about 15-20 minutes making it in the morning. Tuesday night, I made Overnight Protein Oats.

This bowl contained:

• 1/2 cup of old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup of plain, nonfat yogurt
• 1 mashed banana
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• 2 Tbs of Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder

In the morning, I popped it in the micro for 1 minute (I have eaten it cold before though). I topped it with a few raisins, some walnuts, and a drizzle of TJ’s maple/agave blend.

This bowl didn’t satisfy as much as a piping hot bowl of protein oats, but it did the trick – and saved me a ton of time in the morning.

What’s your best time-saving tip??

Branching Out

Hey friends! Sorry I’ve been away so long again.

So, one of the greatest things about my new mostly-vegetarian lifestyle is that it has really forced me to branch out and try new recipes. You can’t just eat sauteed veggies every night, right?!

Tonight I tried this great recipe for Southwestern Quinoa with Black Beans. I used red quinoa and a mix of orange and red peppers. For a protein boost, I had some Trader Joe’s chickenless pulled “chicken” with it.

These two went quite well together! The quinoa was delightfully spicy, but not too hot; and substantial, but not too heavy. What a nice change from veggie burgers and sweet potatoes (not that I don’t love that combo!). I will be making this again, for sure.

Do you like quinoa? What’s your favoite way to eat it?

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I have to admit, I’ve been a little – make that A LOT – bored with my Spinning bike lately. I’d much prefer to do a circuit training DVD than ride my bike for 45 minutes. I do need to give my muscles a break from strength training sometimes though. So I forced myself onto my bike tonight. Surprisingly, I really go into it! I think the key was the music. I put on some great music and focused on it – and sang! It was great! 45 minutes was over before I knew it.

How do you keep your workouts fresh?

Mediterranean Pasta Toss

Hey! Nice to see some newcomers to the blog! Keep the comments coming. There’s still time to enter my Wellness Kit giveaway!

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I recently began eating a mostly vegetarian diet – which you can read more about here. Since adopting this new vegetarian lifestyle, I have been forced to become a little more creative in the kitchen. (Who wants to eat veggie burgers every night of the week?!) I’ve also had to really overcome my fear of carbs.

Before I get into more detail about my kitchen creativity, let me just tell you that I used to be seriously carb-a-phobic – like, wouldn’t touch a slice of bread with a 10-foot-pole. After much reading of nutrition books, I realized that there is no reason to fear carbs! Carbs fuel us. Carbs are good for us – provided we are eating the right kind of carbs.

Ok, back to the kitchen… I had a jar of artichoke hearts, a jar of roasted red peppers, a bag of spinach, and a bottle of aged balsamic vinegar on hand. I spent an entire day at working thinking about how I coul possibly put all these things together to make a meal. Then I remembered I had also recently bought a bag of whole grain penne pasta at Trader Joe’s. I had an “a-ha” moment – and the result was this delicious dish that I have dubbed the Mediterranean Pasta Toss.

While my penne pasta was boiling, I wilted some fresh spinach in some olive oil and garlic. I tossed in some quartered artichoke hearts and sliced roasted red peppers to heat them up. When the pasta was cooked, I added that to the pot with the spinach/artichoke/pepper mixture, then drizzled aged balsamic vinegar over the whole mess.

OH.MY.GOD. Delicious!!! The aged balsamic vinegar is key, since it’s sweeter and more syrup-y in consistency. It coated everything very well. This was so very filling too! Who needs meat?!

This is definitely my new favorite pasta entree!

What’s your favorite healthy pasta dish?

March Madness!

Wow – I soooo did not mean to be away for so long! The month of March has been crazy busy so far – both personally and professionally. Because of all the craziness, I haven’t been very good at all about photographing my eats. 😦 I plan to get back in the swing of blogging this week.

I did recently try a new recipe, though, that I managed to capture on camera – 5 Factor Lasagna from the 5 Factor Diet book. (I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my hobbies is reading diet/nutrition books, although I don’t follow any one of them.)

This had layers of roasted eggplant, fat free ricotta cheese, sliced roma tomatoes, fresh basil, tomato sauce, and mozzarella on top.

Not the prettiest presentation, but it tasted great! The only problem was that it got kind of watery. I think it’s because I put it together a couple hours early and stuck it in the fridge until I was ready to cook it. I don’t recommend that!

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In other news, I’ve been doing great sticking to a mostly vegetarian diet. I eat chicken maybe once a week now (only organic, antibiotic-free chicken) and occasionally have fish. I’m finding that I really don’t miss having poultry at lunch and dinner. There are so many great vegetarian recipes out there!

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Sorry for the quick and relatively uninteresting post! I promise I’ll be back to more frequent blogging this week. Stayed tuned tomorrow for a review of some fabulous coffee!

Move Over Oats…

…there’s a new hot cereal in my life!

There’s nothing I love more than a big bowl of hot cereal in the morning. Usually I stick to oatmeal or oat bran, but recently I tried rolled spelt flakes.

Spelt is a relative of wheat that’s high in both fiber and protein. It’s also packed with a whole host of other nutrients, including vitamin B2.

I cooked 2 servings on the stove for me and the hubby:

• 1 cup of spelt flakes
• 1-1/2 mashed bananas
• 1-1/2 cups of water
• vanilla
• cinnamon

I topped my bowl with some sliced banana, raisins, and a scoop of Naturally Nutty Vanilla Almond Butter.

I really enjoyed this cereal! It had a nice nutty flavor. It was much chewier than oats (maybe I didn’t cook it long enough??), but it made me slow down and savor it. It was definitely a hearty meal. I’ll be adding this to my breakfast rotation for sure…though probably just on the weekends, since it really has to be cooked on the stovetop. I’m usually a microwaved oats girl! Convenience rules.

Have ever tried spelt?

What’s your favorite hot cereal?

Sweet!

Hey everyone! It’s been a crazy week…crazy in a bad way at work. 😦 But, I received a sweet little package to cheer me up! 🙂

The nice folks at PureVia sent me this fabulous travel coffee mug along with a sample box of their stevia packets.

Stevia is an all-natural, no-calorie alternative to sugar and other artificial sweetners. Here’s some great facts from the PureVia site:

Some Sweet Facts About PureVia

• It has zero calories.
• It’s made from the sweetest extract of the stevia leaf.
• It uses only natural ingredients.
• Our stevia extract is 97% pure Reb A.
• Each PureVia sachet sweetens like two teaspoons of sugar.
• PureVia is suitable for people with diabetes.
• It’s Certified Kosher Parve.
• PureVia is not genetically modified.

I’ve been using one packet of PureVia each morning in my coffee. It adds the perfect amount of sweetness and, unlike some other stevia brands I’ve tried, it doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste.

I’ve also used it in my Greek yogurt and it blends right in. It doesn’t make my yogurt gritty at all. It dissolves and doesn’t leave my yogurt tasting “fake.”

Not only do I love the taste of PureVia, but I love that it is derived from a natural herb that has been used as a sweetener for hundreds of years in South America.

Thanks again, PureVia!

Foodie Deliveries!

It felt like Christmas all over again this week! I’m in foodie heaven with all the delicious treats that have been delivered to my door:

I received this through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program.

I have A LOT of product reviews to do!! Allow me to start with some nut butters…

From the Naturally Nutty website:

Created by a Vegetarian Mom for her kids, we make amazing organic and natural nut butters in a variety of flavors, all made with organic flax and organic hemp seed. Containing wholesome and organic ingredients, each jar has been handcrafted from small batches with the following benefits:

• Organic Flax Seed (Omega-3, Omega-6)
• Organic Hemp Seed (Omega-3, Omega-6 and Omega-9)
• American Grown Organic Peanuts and Natural Almonds
• No Stir Formula – Minimal Oil Separation! (Peanut Butters)

Naturally Nutty Vanilla Almond Butter – Being the classy gal that I am, I opened up this jar and stuck my finger right in to scoop out a taste. I thought I was in heaven! I believe my exact words to my husband were, “This is heaven in a jar!” I can’t wait to use this in my oats…and on a banana and on toast…

Naturally Nutty Butter Toffee Peanut Butter – Just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be anything more delicious than vanilla almond butter, I went and opened the butter toffee peanut butter! HOLY DELICIOUS! This is just the right amount of sweet. It tastes so indulgent, yet it’s so healthy! I definitely filled up on this PB right from the jar for dessert! Try this now!! You’ll be hooked. I guarantee it.

Naturally Nutty Organic Sunflower Butter – This was only the second time I’ve ever tried sunflower seed butter. With just a hint of sweetness, this is a nice alternative to almond butter and peanut butter. I’m looking forward to experimenting with this new-to-me seed butter.

All of these nut butters are available in my OpenSky shop.

Be on the lookout for more fun product reviews in the next few days!

Dinner Specials

Well, make that special dinners! What made my last 2 dinners special, you ask? (Even if you didn’t ask, I’m going to tell you anyway! ;-)) I tried out 2 new-to-me vegetarian products.

On Monday night, I tried out some Light Life Savory Chick’n Smart Tenders.

I heated them up in a skillet and served them alongside some broccoli covered with parmesan cheese.

These were delicious! They had a really nice flavor, and 16 grams of protein to boot! The one drawback – 3 tenders weren’t enough to fill me up. I probably could have eaten the whole package of 6. Had to share with the hubby though. 🙂

Tuesday night I tried out the Gardein Marinara Chick’n Good Stuff.

I ate this alongside some wilted spinach with garlic.

Holy yum! This was a-ma-zing! It’s filled with vegan cheese that tastes just like the real thing. If I hadn’t told my husband it was vegan cheese he never would have known the difference. Fabulous taste aside, I do have a gripe with these – super long ingredient list. I might buy these once in a while, but I’ll probably just focus on finding some great vegetarian recipes instead.

What are your thoughts on faux meats?

Food For Thought

A couple nights ago, I sat down to watch Food, Inc. I knew going into it that it was likely to change my eating habits, but I had no idea just how much…

This movie was truly eye-opening. We really don’t know or fully understand exactly what we’re eating. When we buy chicken breasts at the store, we’re buying chicken breast meat that has been genetically modified and enhanced. We’re buying chicken that has been “cleansed” in ammonia before it was packaged.

Can you even believe it?! Bathing chicken in ammonia to clean it?! I don’t know about you, but ammonia is a chemical that I clean my kitchen counters with…and I don’t make a habit of eating my cleaning chemicals.

Basically it’s safe to assume that unless your tofu, soy milk, or any other soy product specifically says it’s not genetically modified (GMO), it’s safe to assume that it is. About 90% of the products on our store shelves contain some form of GMO derivative.

Essentially this film made me want to move to a farm in the middle of nowhere and grow my own crops! But since that’s not possible, I will be making the following dietary changes:

• I will eat mostly vegetarian. If you have any good vegetarian recipes, send them my way!
• If I eat chicken, it will be organic, free range chicken.
• Any fish I eat will be wild caught.
• I will seek out non-GMO products.
• Whenever possible, I will avoid products containing soybean oil.

Have you seen Food, Inc? If so, did it change the way you eat?