So Much to Do, So Little Time!

Is tomorrow really already Wednesday?! I am in the midst of an extremely busy week, and it is flying by! Unfortunately, in all the craziness, I’ve been neglecting my little blog here. 😦

I went to Virginia overnight for work over the weekend. Because I flew out so early on Saturday, I had to shift my half marathon training schedule. I pushed out my long run to Sunday. I ran a very painful 10 miles in 1:33:18 – a good pace, but it truly was an ugly run. I was gritting my teeth the whole way. My right knee started screaming at me around mile 2!

I wanted to get back to my regular training schedule this week, but that would have meant running on Monday, the day after my long run. I woke up at 4:30 am and my knee was sending me a very clear message – no running. I ended up waiting until the evening to any exercise. I replaced my scheduled 4-mile run with a 45 minute ride on my Spinning bike. I had a great ride, and my knee felt good since cycling is so low-impact on your joints.

Flash forward to today… I attended day one of a two-day social media marketing workshop in Boston. I wasn’t sure what the food situation was going to be at the conference center, so I made sure to eat a hearty breakfast before I left.

• 1/2 cup of oatmeal
• 1 mashed banana
• raisins
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• 1 Tbs ground flaxseed
• 2 Tbs vanilla rice protein powder
• 1 Tbs TJ’s PB, which was later mixed into the oats

This held me over until lunchtime, when I had a delicious grilled veggie pita at the conference center.

Dinner tonight involved a new to me product – Trader Joe’s Meatless Meatballs.

These are vegan and have great nutritional stats – 140 calories, 8 g carbs, 16 g protein. I was a little nervous to try these because my only other experience with meatless meatballs was not good. I don’t remember what brand those were though…

I simmered these “meatballs” in TJ’s marinara for about 10 minutes and served mine up over a bed of fresh spinach with a sprinkle of parmesan (to de-veganize the meal!).

My thoughts: Delicious! These were soooo yummy. Not too many spices. The flavor was just right and the texture was great too. Even my little girl ate them! I will definitely be buying these again.

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One more chance to enter my giveaway! I’ll announce the winner in my next post!

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?

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?

PB is Key!

Hey everyone! Sorry to have been MIA for a whole week. Totally unintentional. I wish I could say that I’ve been up to something exciting…

It’s been no secret on this blog that Mama has a BIG appetite! Especially when it comes to breakfast. I’m notorious for slamming 500+ calories in the morning and still being hungry a couple hours later. I think I have finally found the key to staying full through the morning – PB!! Adding peanut butter to my oats in the morning keeps me full for hours – which is great for extremely busy workdays when there isn’t much time to eat.

This morning, I had the most amazing bowl of oat bran:

• 1/3 cup of oat bran
• 1 cup of water
• 1 mashed banana
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• raisins
• 1 tbs of PB

Check out that amazing PB drizzle!!

Trader Joe’s PB is the best for drizzling!

Per usual, this ginormous bowl of oats was eaten along side a plate of eggs (1/2 cup of egg whites + 1 whole egg). Holy full tummy!!

I didn’t dig into my lunch bag until about noon time today. That’s 6 hours of fullness. Incredible!

I neglected to photograph my packed work lunch… Throughout the afternoon, I had the following:

• protein shake (1/2 cup of unsweetened soy milk + 2 tbs of Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder)
• deli chicken wrap with light mayo
• teeny, tiny apple
• a few almonds
• plain Chobani mixed with stevia and cocoa powder

I also packed some Trader Joe’s low sodium minestrone, but I never got around to eating it.

When I got home from work, though, the hunger started to set in. I munched on some mushrooms and roasted garlic hummus while I prepped dinner.

baked tofu, peppers, onions, and mushrooms all coated with Trader Joe's sesame soy ginger vinaigrette

Tonight’s exercise was Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout. Have you bought this video yet??? You should! It’s the most kick-butt at-home workout I’ve ever done. You definitely get some bang for your buck!

I wish I had taken a picture of my evening, post-exercise snack. It was delish!! 1/2 cup of non-fat yogurt mixed with cocoa powder and stevia (I’m hooked on chocolatey yogurt!!), and about 1/2 cup of frozen cherries. I will definitely be having this again in the near future!

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Have you checked out my Opensky Store yet?? I recently added apple pie Larabars! YUMMY! 😉

Chocolate for Breakfast!

Hey everyone! I don’t have a particularly interesting topic today… Just a run down of the day’s eats and exercise.

So who says you can’t have chocolate for breakfast?! I started my day in a sweet way with this beautiful bowl:

plain Chobani mixed with stevia and cocoa powder, with banana and peanut butter

I promptly stirred this all together and it was AMAZING! Mmmmm! I need to have my greek yogurt at breakfast more often.

To make my breakfast even more protein packed, I also had a side of eggs – 1/2 cup of egg whites + 1 whole egg to be exact.

Since I’m still fairly new at my job, I feel weird about taking pictures of my lunch and snacks during the day. So I photographed everything together this morning before I left the house.

Friday’s have become my almond butter and jelly day. I look forward to it all week! Today’s sandwich was almond butter with Trader Joe’s cranberry apple butter on a whole wheat sandwich thin. Awww yeah! 😀

Dinner was pretty simple. Typical end of the week meal…not too many ingredients left in the kitchen.

grilled chicken and microwaved sweet potato

I got a little impatient, so the sweet potato was quite cooked enough. Oh well – still tasted good!

Tonight’s exercise was Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout. I have never loved and hated a workout so much in my life! 55 minutes of Jillian is tough. She gets results though!

Speaking of Jillian Michaels, have you heard of her new line of diet pills?? I must admit I have lost some respect for her as a health and fitness professional. How can you advocate a healthy lifestyle and hawk diet pills at the same time??

What are your thoughts on Jillian Michaels selling weight loss supplements??

Take Time to Stretch

Lately I’ve been really stiff and achy…which definitely takes a toll on my motivation to exercise. Yesterday in particular, my hips were killing me! It was supposed to be my night to ride my Spinning bike, but I just couldn’t do it. It’s my own fault – I hardly ever take time to stretch after I work out. 😦 

Rather than taking the night off from exercise though, I decided to try some yoga. I went to my new go-to exercise video source – ExerciseTV. I pulled up the Yoga Fitness Fusion video, turned off the lights (using only the light of my computer screen to see what the heck I was doing), and got down to business. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this video was both challenging (hello quads!) and relaxing. I was able to get some great toning exercises in, and more importantly, stretch out all my tight muscles – namely, my hip flexors. 

I felt amazing after my 45 minutes of yoga! What a great reminder of the importance of stretching after a workout. I plan to incorporate more stretching into my exercise routine – and do a yoga video at least once a week. 

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I’m still working on my exciting blog addition… Hopefully I’ll have that up in the next few days. 

In the meantime, here are some of my eats from today. Warning: I totally failed at taking pictures today. I mean, I took pictures, but they are crazy blurry. I need to slow down a bit and steady my hand before I shoot! 

Breakfast: 

pumpkin oat bran with raisins and walnuts, with 1/2 cup of egg whites + 1 whole egg

 

Lunch & Snacks: 

apple, banana, Chobani, protein shake, turkey wrap

 

Dinner: 

ground turkey seasoned with garlic salt and pepper, zucchini, onion, and Trader Joe's marinara

 

I used frozen, crinkle cut zucchini for this dish. So quick and easy! You can get just about anything frozen. Super convenient and super cheap! 

Exercise: 

45 minutes on the Spinning bike 

Question of the day: Do you use frozen fruits/vegetables? Why or Why not?

1 Year Gym-Free

At the end of this month, it will be one full year since the last time I set foot in a gym. So hard to believe. The gym used to be my second home!

When I was 32 weeks pregnant, I was told I couldn’t work out anymore. That was the end of my gym going days.

After my daughter was born last March – and after I was given the go-ahead to workout again – I quickly discovered that I didn’t have time to get to the gym. I had to make due with whatever time I had at home. This is something I wrote about a few months back.

While I’ve been able to get back in shape and stay in shape at home, there have been some challenges – the biggest being boredom! I’m finding I have to be more and more creative these days to keep myself motivated to workout in the evening.

Here are some of the ways I’m keeping things fresh:

• Recycling routines. I had been buying a new workout DVD every 6-8 weeks to beat boredom. Now that I have a good collection of videos, I’m cycling back to the ones I did several months ago.
• Surf the web. There are some great sites out there offering free workout videos and exercise plans. My new favorite is ExerciseTV. You can mix and match shorter videos to create a great workout!
• Read magazines. There are so many health and fitness magazines out there that have handy tear-out cards and pages with quick and effective strength and cardio plans. I like: Shape, Self, and Fitness.
• Alternate. I never do the same thing 2 days in a row. In fact, lately I’ve been trying not to do the same routine more than 3 days a week. I’m much more motivated when I’m trying new things.

What’s your favorite outside-the-gym workout?

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It’s been quite a busy week, hence the lack of posting this week. You can rest assured though that I’ve been eating delicious, nutritious food and gettin’ my sweat on!

1/3 cup of oat bran, 1 small banana, vanilla, cinnamon, raisins, and PB

I was definitely a late adopter on the oats and PB mix, but now that I finally tried it, I’m hooked!

1/2 cup of egg whites + 1 whole egg

Apple, Chobani, Z Bar, chicken salad, and TJ's minestrone

I’m not usually a soup person (especially not canned soup) but I LOVE this Trader Joe’s low-sodium minestrone!! It’s loaded with veggies and they’re not overly mushy, like many other soups. It tastes homemade!

grilled chicken with roasted balsamic carrots

This is one of my new favorite ways to cook carrots. I cut baby carrots length wise and lay them out on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. I sprayed a little more cooking spray over the carrots too and sprinkled on some salt and pepper. I roasted the carrots for about 30 minutes, drizzling the balsamic vinegar over them about 5 minutes before I took them out.

My exercise tonight was more Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout. I have a love/hate relationship with this video. It’s 55 minutes of Jillian Michaels. Yowsa!

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I’m working on an exciting new addition to the blog. I’m hoping to have it up by the end of the weekend. Stay tuned!!

Sesame Soy Ginger Tofu

Tonight I actually tried something different for dinner for a change! I tend to make the same things over and over again because it’s easy and I don’t have to think too much about it.

I picked up some Nasoya lite firm tofu at the grocery store yesterday – something I don’t usually buy, but it was on sale for $2. I’m a sucker for cheap, healthy foods!

I’ve never been fully satisfied with the different ways I’ve cooked tofu before. So I decided to try marinating it before baking it this time. I used another new item I picked up this weekend – sesame soy ginger vinaigrette from Trader Joe’s.

This dressing has a little more sugar per serving than I would typically go for (8g), but it sounded too yummy to pass up. And it was!! Mmmm!

I pressed most of the water out of my tofu block and sliced it into 10 thin slices. I marinated the slices in vinaigrette in the fridge for a couple hours. Then I baked the tofu at about 375 for 40 minutes.

To go with my tofu, I cooked up 1/2 a bag of frozen bell pepper strips (one of my new favorite bargain foods) and one sliced onion with some more of the vinaigrette. The result was a delicious, out-of-the-ordinary meal – and one that involved very little prep!

Eating Cheap – and Healthy!

It’s no secret that times are tough for many people these days – myself included. But just because you’re on a tight budget doesn’t mean you have to give up your healthy diet. Don’t get me wrong – there are tons of specialty health foods that I love that are pretty darn pricey, and have been eliminated from my budget. But with a little planning, I’ve been able to slash my grocery bill quite a bit.

Here are some tips for healthy eating on the cheap:

• Shop the freezer section. No, I’m not talking about frozen entrees! Instead of buying all fresh produce, stock up on store-brand frozen vegetables and fruit. They’re often just $1 or $2 a bag and are just as healthy (if not more so) than fresh produce. Frozen veggies and fruits are frozen immediately after being picked, preserving those oh-so-important nutrients.

 

• Be a bargain hunter. Every Saturday, my husband and hit 2 grocery stores – Trader Joe’s and Stop & Shop. While I do love Trader Joe’s because of its variety of natural foods, I also love it because there are many things I buy on a regular basis that are actually cheaper than the regular supermarket. Some examples: eggs (just $1.49/dozen!), soymilk ($2.99/gallon), almond butter ($4.99/jar), liquid egg whites ($1.99/carton), and peanut butter ($1.79/jar), just to name a few…

• Stock up! I used to be hesitant to stock up on things when they were on sale. I’d think, “Well, I don’t need [name of item] this week.” Umm, if I’m going to need it next week, why not buy it now while it’s cheaper?!
• “Clip” coupons. There are some great coupon websites out there that allow you to browse and select coupons without having to buy up all the Sunday papers. Sites like coupons.com allow you to print coupons right from your computer. But if you’re like me and don’t always (or ever!) have ink in your printer, you might favor The Coupon Master. This is my new favorite coupon source. You can search for and select coupons, and have then sent right to your home. You do pay a small handling fee for each coupon (8-10 cents), but when you’re saving $1.00 or more on some of your favorite items that you’d buy anyway, it’s totally worth it. Net savings of 90 cents!

Unfortunately they're sold out of these now! I think I bought them all. 😉

• Buy in bulk. Bulk items are definitely cost-effective! If you have the storage space, buy things like nuts and oatmeal in larger containers. You may shell out more in the short term, but overall, you pay less per serving.

Hopefully these tips will help you save a buck or two…and stay healthy at the same time!

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I’m having a hard time getting back into the groove of photographing every meal… So I don’t have pictures from each of the last few days. But here are today’s eats:

Breakfast

1/2 cup of oatmeal,1 banana, vanilla, cinnamon, raisins, and PB

1/2 cup of egg whites + 1 whole egg

This bowl of oatmeal was amazing! The PB mixed with the sweetness of a super-ripe banana tasted like a peanut butter cookie! 😀

Lunch and Snacks

protein shake, greek yogurt, apple, turkey and hummus on a whole wheat sandwich thin

Dinner

It was a fend-for-yourself night since the fridge was getting pretty bare…

greek yogurt mixed with cocoa powder and stevia, banana, and almond butter

Dinner of champions for sure…

Fitness

Tonight I did my Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout DVD. This video just came out last month, and I made sure I pre-ordered it! It is 50 minutes of pure, kick-ass Jillian Michaels. So intense! If you watch the show, you know that the last chance workout is no joke! I highly recommend this one if you workout at home, like me.

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I hope you all are enjoying my more focused blogging. I’d love to hear feedback! Also, if there are topics you’d like to read about, let me know!