The Breakfast Diaries…?

So I’m considering changing the name of my blog to The Breakfast Diaries because I seem to only manage to photograph breakfast each day! [Could it be the makings of a spin-off blog?!] Perhaps it’s because it’s my favorite meal of the day. Or maybe because 6 a.m. (just before hubby and baby get up) is the only time of the day that I’m not running around like a crazy woman. Hmmm…mixture of both I think!

Monday’s breakfast:

Poorly photographed French Toast!

French toast made with 2 slices of Martin’s whole wheat potato bread, topped with Smart Balance Light and ~1/2 a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s maple/agave syrup blend. (I also ate a banana with some almond butter while this was cooking….) This whole wheat potato bread is one of my new foodie favorites! It’s delicious and has phenomenal nutritional states: 70 calories, 1 gram of fat, 14 carbs, 4 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of protein per slice. Low cal, low carb, high fiber, high protein. Does it get any better than that?!

Tuesday breakfast:

Oat bran with banana, raisins, flax, a little bit of yogurt, and some honey almond butter drizzled on top. The 2 tablespoons of yogurt I stirred in added just a touch of creaminess. To pump up the protein, I also had some scrambled egg whites on the side.

Monday Fitness:

I had planned to go for a run in the morning before work, but I screwed up my alarm clock and overslept a bit. So I headed out at 8 p.m for a 3.5-miler. Running in the dark at night is scary…and dangerous. But it kept me running quickly!

Side note: I registered for another half marathon on Monday! So I’ll be running my first on October 10 and my second 4 weeks later on November 7! So excited.

Tuesday Fitness:

Today was an off day from running, so I had strength training on my agenda. Unfortunately it is ungodly hot today. I still worked out in my living room, but not for very long. The heat is making me ill!

*******************************************************************

So in all seriousness, now that I’m getting back to blogging, I feel like my blog may be taking a slightly different direction. When I first started it, I was a brand new mommy, working at home, and then later unemployed. [Read: I had a lot more time on my hands.] The goals behind my blog still hold true, but I feel that, given my new time constraints (exciting career with a long commute) and my new interests (running and fueling before and after my runs), my posts are going to be focused on other things…

Thoughts???

Rainy Days and Mondays

Anyone up on their ’70s music? Did you catch the Carpenters reference in my title?? [I actually despise ’70s music, but I have a soft spot for the Carpenters…] 

Moving on. 

Today was both a rainy day and a Monday. Blah. It definitely called for a pancake! Perfect comfort food. I have finally perfected my protein pancake recipe. These are the 2 stars of the show: 

 

Here’s my recipe: 

• 2 heaping Tbs of Instabake
• 2 heaping Tbs of Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder
• cinnamon to taste
• 1/2 cup of egg whites
• 1 Tbs of wheat germ
• 2 Tbs of nonfat plain yogurt
• splash of almond milk (or soy milk)

Here’s the end result, topped with some Smart Balance Light and 1/2 Tbs of Trader Joe’s maple syrup/agave blend: 

 

Deeeeeelish! I like to pour all my batter into one pan, but this makes enough that you could make 2-3 smaller pancakes. I do one pan because I’m too impatient and too busy to wait for several pancakes to cook! No griddle here; just a skillet. 

I forgot to snap a pic of my lunch before I headed out to work today. I brought a La Tortilla Factory whole wheat wrap with Trader Joe’s raw almond butter, sliced banana, and raisins, along with a plain Chobani. Mmmmmm. 

Time-saving tip: I always pack my lunch the night before. Saves me time in the morning and keeps me from buying something instead of packing something! 

Dinner was unspectacular and definitely not photogenic, so I will skip ahead! 

It was hubby’s turn to put baby to bed tonight. (By the way, my little girl is now 17 months. Growing up so fast!) We still alternate putting her to bed, which works out great with my half marathon training plan. I headed out at 7:40 p.m. for a dark and rainy 3.4 mile run. I killed it! I ran a 9:08 min. mile pace. My fastest yet! 😀 

And now, a couple product reviews: 

Earth’s Best Sesame Street® Organic Snackin’ Fruit Hearts 

There they are - front and center.

 

I’m a huge fan of Earth’s Best Organic snacks. I buy them for my daughter all the time and she loves them. So I knew these wouldn’t last long! I was right, too! She gobbled these up in no time flat. She did share a few with me though. They were really yummy – great blueberry flavor. And what I love most is that they are made with whole grains and don’t have much sugar – just 5g in one serving. I would definitely buy these! 

Garden of Eatin’® Popped Tortillas 

Clearly I opened these long before taking a picture!

I’m not a big chip eater, but I love to try new things. These chips were very light and airy. I immediately loved that you can see the whole flaxseeds in the chips. 

 

These were a bit salty for me when I ate them by themselves. But when dipped in hummus – heaven! Not sure I would buy these,  but they are a nice treat. I especially love that there are 20 chips to a serving, for only 110 calories. And one serving delivers 3g of fiber. 

******************************************************************* 

Stay tuned… I will review the rest of the products as the week goes on. 

Want to try these products for yourself? Don’t forget to enter my giveaway! You have until Saturday night! Be sure to visit www.TakeAHealthyBite.com too and register for the Family Fitness Fun Challenge!

New-to-Me Goodies!

Yesterday, I did the usual Saturday shopping circuit – Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Stop ‘n’ Shop. Armed with a slew of coupons, I came home with a TON of new-to-me goodies that I’ll be reviewing throughout the week.

Before my shopping extravaganza, I started my day with an old favorite – almond butter, raisins, and banana on a La Tortilla Factory whole wheat tortilla. I warmed this in the micro for 30 seconds, and ate it alongside some eggs – 1/2 cup of egg whites + 1 whole egg.

This combo never lets me down!

Post-shop, I came home to dig into my new treats. First up, Voskos plain Greek yogurt. I had a $1 off coupon, so this was a bargain at just 99 cents for an 8 oz cup.

I promptly turned it into “chocolate mousse.”

Mixed with 2 packets of Purevia and 1 tbs of cocoa powder

My thoughts?? I loved this yogurt! It was so creamy and filling! The nutritional stats are outstanding, too – 140 calories, 9 g of carbs, and 24 g of protein. I especially love the short ingredient list – Grade A pasteurized skim milk, live and active cultures. I definitely recommend this yogurt. I would love to buy it again, but I’m afraid it’s a bit out of my budget at $1.99 per cup.

To go along with my yogurt at lunchtime, I tried some new-to-mew cereal – Kashi Go Lean. I had been buying Go Lean Crunch regularly but that stuff is like crack! I’ve got to break the habit. I don’t need 13 g of sugar in the morning.

I had just 1/2 a serving (1/2 cup) with a little bit of unsweetened soy milk.

This is definitely a keeper! I was just the right amount of sweet, with just 6 g of sugar. A one cup serving has just 140 calories, and packs 10 g of fiber and 13 g of protein. I’ll be interested to see if this keeps me full when I have it for breakfast.

After a brisk 40-minute walk with the hubby and baby girl, I came back inside and warmed up with yet another new-to-me item – Celestial Seasonings Black Cherry Berry tea.

I love fruit teas, and this one was no exception! It had a wonderful, natural cherry taste. It’s amazing if you take a little bite of dark chocolate and then take a sip…which I may or may not have done. 😉

Dinner was a piece of baked salmon and a sweet potato. Simple and delicious.

Once baby was put to bed and my dinner was sufficiently digested, I squeezed in a 45-minute workout – Biggest Loser Power Sculpt. It was good to change it up. I’ve been doing Last Chance Workout for several weeks.

I then settled in on the couch to watch Food, Inc. All I will say for now is…WOW. I’ll post a full review later in the week.

What a great day of new foods, fresh air, and exercise! I think my favorite new item of the day was definitely the Voskos.

What’s your favorite new-to-you item?

*******************************************************************

Don’t forget to check out OpenSky’s Train Like an Olympian promotion! Receive 15% off some great fitness gear.

Back on Track

Hey all! I hope you had a great Valentine’s weekend. Mine was quite indulgent!

Hubby and I went out to a lovely Mexican restaurant where I consumed obscene amounts of freshly made tortilla chips and guacamole, chicken-chick pea-black bean salad with poblano pepper vinaigrette, followed by some food-gasmic chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream and raspberry drizzle. (Shame on me for leaving my camera in the car… :-() Oh – and did I mention that I washed it all down with a Chupacabra (tequila, liquor 43, and pomegranate puree)?

My belly was so full, I practically had to be rolled out of the restaurant at the end of the night! 🙂

I followed up my indulgent night with a brunch of french toast casserole. So good…but not the healthiest thing ever.

So it goes without saying that it was time to get back on track today. For me, getting back on track means starting the day with a nutritious breakfast.

• 1/3 cup of oat bran
• 1 HUGE banana
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• raisins
• 1 tbs of PB drizzled on top
• egg whites on the side

Carbs? Oats, banana..check! Protein? Oats, eggs, nut butter…check! Healthy fat? Peanut butter…check! Yep, this breakfast had it all!

I kept my healthy day rolling by sneaking in a brisk 15-minute walk at lunchtime and a 50-minute ride on my Spinning bike this evening.

How do you get back on track after indulging?

*******************************************************************

Be sure to stay tuned this week for an exciting OpenSky promo!

A Look Inside…

It’s time to invite you in for a look inside Healthy Fit Mama’s fridge, freezer, and pantry!

FRIDGE

For the most part, the hubby and I eat the same foods, but there are a few “his” and “hers” items in the fridge. Some of our staples include:

• water!
• unsweeetened soymilk (for me)
• skim milk (for hubby)
• OJ (for hubby)
• apples
• eggs
• egg whites
• yogurt – regular for the hubby and greek for me
• hummus
• sandwich thins (we keep these in the fridge because we don’t eat them fast enough)

• flaxseed meal
• almond butter
• mayo with olive oil
• sugar-free syrup (I have a confession – as natural as I like to eat, I can’t shake my sugar-free syrup addiction!! It’s the best on a big bowl of oats!)

FREEZER

My freezer is full of big bags of homemade baby food, plus:

• frozen shrimp
• green beans
• broccoli
• chicken
• bread, bagels, and english muffins (We freeze them and thaw them as needed. It takes us FOREVER to use them up! These are mostly for the hubby. I don’t eat them much.)

PANTRY

We never go without these items in the pantry:

• peanut butter
• Fiber One
• Kashi Go Lean Crunch (to satisfy my sweet cravings!)
• dates
• raisins
• oatmeal
• oat bran
• Larabars
• walnuts
• almonds
• Purevia (for me)

Do you an your significant other/roommates eat the same foods?

*******************************************************************

OPENSKY

I’ve been adding some exciting new products to my OpenSky store lately – including the George Foreman Next Grilleration! I rely on my George Foreman grill so much to grill up healthy meals in no time flat. Plus, there’s no need to go out in the cold to grill!

Protein Pancakes!

I’ve seen numerous recipes for protein pancakes in the blog world, and I’ve been wanting to try them. I love pancakes, but rarely ever eat them. I don’t like the idea of eating pure carbs for breakfast. But throw some protein powder in there and I’m all for them!

I decided to make my first-ever batch of protein pancakes a couple days ago before work. Into a mixing bowl went the following:

• 1/3 cup of Hodgson Mills Instabake Mix
• 1/3 cup of soymilk
• 1/2 cup of egg whites
• 1 tbs of Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder
• cinnamon

This resulted in some super thin batter. To thicken it up a bit, I added another tbs of protein powder and a couple tbs of oats. The result: a perfect pile of protein pancakes!

drizzled with sugar-free syrup

These were dense and chewy, with a very nice vanilla and cinnamon flavor. My batter yielded about 5 pancakes, all for about 300 calories. Sweet! You better believe I ate all 5 too! 🙂 I will definitely be making these again.

Have you ever experimented with adding protein powder to recipes?

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!

*******************************************************************

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. 

******************************************************************* 

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?

*******************************************************************

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!

*******************************************************************

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!!