Weekly Prep Returns

Now that we have our new kitchen, I've been more in the mood to cook in a new, lovely environment.  So much so, that I even got back to my weekly prep.  I developed a bad habit of not bringing my lunch to work every day and I needed to stop that stat.  Having healthy options in the fridge will do that quickly!

The first thing on my list- egg salad.  I usually think of it as a summer food, but it's pretty awesome if you think about it.  It has protein, healthy fats, and can include some veggies if you spike it like I do.

My recipe is simple:

• 5 medium eggs, boiled and chopped
• Chopped celery and onions- 1/4 cup each
• Paprika
• Dill
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1.5 Tbsp organic mayo
• 1 Tbsp yellow mustard

Just mix all ingredients and refrigerate for 30 minutes or eat right away. 

 Next on my list was tabouli. I also made it before here with quinoa instead.  This time I went with whole wheat cous cous.

 I used all the same ingredients, except for subbing halved cherry tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes:

• 1 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
• 3 tomatoes, diced
• 2 cucumbers, seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt and pepper to taste

To round out my prep, I roasted a pound of butternut squash with olive oil, paprika, salt, and pepper.  The silly people on the package say it serves 5.  I don't think they met me.
 

After all that prep, I was ready for a snack and had some kiwis.  They have been sitting in my fridge for weeks and were so good!  Now I'm set for a few days and won't be tempted by the hot bar.

The holiday drinks at the Starbucks in my building may be a different story though!

Any new meal planning or prep ideas that have been working for you?

Like It

I just spent the last few minutes 'liking' pages on facebook.  Likes of note include:
~Dirty Dancing
~UFC
~Target
~Modern Family
~'Working Out'
~Dancing With the Stars

I have eclectic tastes people.  Seriously- is there etiquette to how many items you 'like'?  What if you only kinda like them?  I like sleep, but that's obvious, and not really something I need to tell my network about.  Do people judge facebook likes?  Ah the things I ponder.

There are a few things that I like this week and I'm not ashamed to admit them.

Cherries!  It's cherry season somewhere in California and they are gooood!

Heaping plates of fruits and veggies swimming in hummus.

Eating the same breakfast for probably a whole month in a row.  My waffle is the bomb.

iPhone apps- I'm all over them now.  My new favorite is mynetdiary.com.  I'm using it to track nutrients, water intake and other moderately OCD numbers.  Today I found out that my ratios are
34%fat /49%carbs /17%protein.  Definitely something to work on and so easy to track since my phone goes everywhere with me.  People get all hot and bothered over counting calories but I think it's always good to do a pulse check so I'm going to try it for a while.

The upcoming long weekend.  Oh long weekend- I'm swooning just thinking about it.  I hope my wolf pack will take me to see Hangover 2.

Happy Thursday kids!

My Day in Numbers

I've seen a few numerically inclined blog ladies do a few fun numbers posts.  Here is my last 48 hours in numbers:

24: Roughly the number of hours I spent awake and working in the last 48 hours

6: The number of hotel food 'opportunities' I have had over the last 48 hours.  This halibut was really good.  The rest was alright.

21: The number of floors I had to ride to get to our meeting space over and over again in the high speed motion sickness machine (elevator). 

4: The number of hours of sleep I got last night
3: (but realistically 8) the number of pictures it took to try to get a decent shot of my work outfit to make sure it looked OK since I didn't plan it so well.  Apparently me and iPhone self-photos don't mesh.  And hello booty.

2: The number of buttons I broke on my keyboard at this meeting.  I'm a savage.

1: The number of recipes I will share with you tonight:

Vegan Wheat-Free Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Ingredients (cupcake batter):

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Flax eggs (~2 Tbsp ground flax to 6 Tbsp water)
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice mix
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/4 cup coconut milk

Ingredients (frosting):

• 1/2 - 3/4 cup Tofutti cream cheese
• 1/4 cup honey
• Meyer lemon zest and juice (I used half of a lemon)
• Vanilla extract to taste

Instructions: I have to admit I winged this recipe and this makes a really dense muffin/cupcake.  This batch will make 20 mini cupcakes or about 8 regular cupcakes.  Instructions are very loose.

1. Combine all dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, shredded coconut, pumpkin spice)

2. Add in wet ingredients (flax egg, shredded carrots, vanilla extract, coconut milk, agave nectar) and mix until combined

3. Scoop batter into cupcake wrappers and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes

4. Make frosting by combining all ingredients and mixing for 1 minute (I mixed by hand)- set in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes

5. Frost cupcakes when cooled

6. Enjoy

Ciao Bellas ;)

Potatoes Are a Snack Food

Side note: I'm watching Man vs. Food and it's making me gag a little big. This guy is eating 5 pounds of nachos.  Who does that?!

This afternoon on Day 3 of the Vegan Challenge, after a particularly stressful situation at work in which I worked through 'lunch', I realized that I had only eaten the first part of my lunch (a salad with a black bean burger if you care) and was hungry about 2 hours later. 

Luckily I had more food with me in my enormous bag of food but my typical poor planning left me with a sweet potato.  I'm sure my Eastern European ancestors were proud of me for eating a potato for a snack, but I just went for it and it was really good, unconventional but good.  It was sweet, salty, filling, and warm.  Kind of like a chocolate chip cookie, but in potato form ;)

Onto other things- I wanted to share another grain with you- buckwheat.  Does anyone else think of The Little Rascals when they hear 'buckwheat'? (picture source)

Buckwheat (the grain) is a great source of manganese, fiber (~5 grams per cup), and flavanoids, making it really good for the heart.  It also helps to prevent diabetes and gallstones, and is great for those avoiding wheat or gluten.  It's also a fruit seed, rather than a grain and is eaten throughout the world.  (picture source)

I've been cooking up the fruit seed (?) for the last 3 weeks for hubby's breakfast.  He heats it up and drowns it in almond milk- a twist on the traditional serving of buckwheat in Russia minus the full fat milk.  It can also be eaten as a savory food in place of rice or quinoa.


Do you ever have unconventional snacks?  I think a sweet potato tops my list.

Black Bean Burgers

I really enjoyed reading your comments to my last post.  There were a lot of thoughtful responses (which I love) and a lot of great food rules.  I encourage you to read the comments here.  While the jury is still out on the mystery cheese (vegan cheddar) I am still enjoying my vegan eats.  I can't really say that I have felt limited since I live in my own bubble. I bring my lunch to work daily and most of our friends and family already know that we have made some modifications in our foods, and the others just know that the food I eat is 'weird and healthy' and I'm perfectly fine with that.

Given my fear of mystery meat, I still wanted to make something that incorporated some protein that I could eat.  This week I cooked up a ton of black beans and I made my first attempt at Black Bean and Millet Burgers.

Serving suggestion ;)

Here is the recipe- it can use a few tweaks like more spice, but it worked for me and is a great base recipe.

Black Bean and Millet Burgers:

• 1 cup cooked black beans
• 1/2 cup cooked millet
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 2 Tbsp coconut milk
• Cumin
• Salt
• Pepper

*Place all ingredients in food processor and whirl until ingredients are combined
*Scoop the 'burgers' onto sprayed cookie sheet (my recipe made 5 large burgers)and bake at 370 degrees for 20 minutes
*Enjoy with your choice of sides

I baked these while I made my husband some baked chicken and some other sides.  I also popped in my Shape Pilates DVD and did a quick workout while my food baked- multi-tasking at its best!  While I was doing my DVD I was thinking about Melissa's post today about blog comparisons and how long people generally work out.  I used to work out for hours but now I keep my workouts to 60-90 minutes for yoga classes, or 30-40 minutes for cardio.  I know some bloggers spend a lot more time than this and a lot of 'real life' people spend a lot less than this and either extreme can create a triggering reaction.  It took a while, but when I read people's routines I think 'well that's nice' and love to read the variety and people's goals, but I don't internalize it.  Most of the time workout posts motivate me to try harder but I know my bad knees won't let me run a marathon, so I move on to the next delicious cookie post.

Question for you: Do you ever make your own burgers?  What kinds?

I Like A Challenge

If you missed yesterday's guest post from my hubby, please check it out here. 
What I'm here to blabber about today is the Vegan Challenge that is going on right now in the little ole blog world.  While I have never wanted to label my eating style, I think it's safe to say I don't usually eat a lot of animal products.  I'm not sure why, but I have never been overly carnivorous and I tend to not eat some animals because I think they are cute.  My perception of dairy is usually pretty passive, unless ice cream is involved- then we're talking.  So when the challenge came up, I decided that one of the richest and most powerful women in the world could do it, this challenge was my next step to ruling the world. 

Challenge accepted. But I would have my own rules:
1. I would eat whole foods including fruits, veggies, and grains
2. I would be soy free
3. I would still maintain my gluten free and food combining as much as I could
4. No fake meat
5. Limit of 2 substitute products (described below)

The reason behind all my rules is that I wanted to see how normal people did it, without relying on Whole Foods and other specialty markets or frankenfoods that don't make any sense in my head.

I did choose to experiment with a couple of items that I have been wanting to try and had fairly recognizable ingredient lists.  I purchased both of these items with my own money and these opinions are my own.
SO Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt

Loved it!  With 12 grams of sugar and 90 calories per serving, this was a perfect afternoon snack.  It was a lot thinner than regular yogurt and I bet it would be delicious in a smoothie. 

The other product I tried was Daiya Vegan cheese.  The ingredients in it are below:
Filtered water, tapioca and/or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, inactive yeast, vegan natural flavours, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor), annatto.

I was honestly freaked out by this 'cheese', but it melted.  Not that I didn't believe other people, or the package, but I had my doubts. 

Before:

After:

I gave my husband a bite and he said it was good, but didn't taste like cheese.  I agreed.  It was OK and I'll finish it, but it tasted like some other substance that I couldn't describe.


I think that by trying these two substances early in my challenge, it will be much easier to just eat real food.  I honestly enjoyed the roasted veggies I made today much more than the specialty products I tried.

Roasted butternut squash and zucchini
 

I think the rest of my week will be filled with some of my favorite real foods and that's just how I like it.

Question for you: Are you doing the vegan challenge?  If not, what are your personal food rules?

I'm Not Perfect: The Hummus Course

The Hummus Course
Not that I have you guys fooled, but I think we can all agree the healthy living blog community likes to keep things beautifully edited and styled- from food pictures to meal posts.  I like to keep things positive because I love the uplifting community and the motivation I get from interacting with you guys.  However, I think sometimes we perpetuate a life of perfection.  It's 9:30 PM and I just settled in after my workout, bringing stuff in from the car, cooking buckwheat for tomorrow (you're welcome, hubby), and packing lunches.

In case you ever had a fleeting thought that I have my stuff together, I present you with my typical weeknight culinary delight- the hummus course.  I really, really like having this and eat something more filling along with it.  The sharp objects in the background are optional.

Instructions:
1. Fill bowl with veggies
2. Dip in hummus
3. Refill bowl and repeat
4. Find a nice snack to eat after, like millet toast with almond butter and coconut butter

I did make something last night that was true perfection.  We all know Gena's banana soft serve, yes?  Since I'm not eating chocolate or other fun stuff like ice cream, I made my own soft serve and added some raspberries and it was fabulous. I ate it out of order in food combining rules, but it was perfect according to my rules.

Adapted Soft Serve:
Adapted from Choosing Raw

*1 frozen banana
*1 cup of frozen raspberries
*little bit almond milk.
*Blend, blend, blend!
*Optional: coconut butter topping

 

 I loved this and I'm definitely going to be making this more often.

Question for you: Tell me your quick 5 minute go-to meal. Go!

2 Week Recap on the Eats and Fitness Update

Happy almost weekend!  There is something so hopeful and fabulous about Friday that makes me all giddy for the weekend!  Don't you think so?

As promised I wanted to give another update on our new eating plan since it has been 2 weeks.  I am proud to say that I am 2 weeks sober today- no chocolate or coffee in.2.weeks.  That is insane for me!  Would I jump into a pot of coffee and a dark fudgy brownie?!  Heck yes, but I haven't yet!  This week has been fairly easy.  Overall I'm happy with how things are going and looking forward to seeing if this lifestyle is something I can maintain.  Here is a short recap and a few highlight of my favorite eats:

Highlights of the week:

• Planning, planning, planning!  All lunches, dinners, and snacks were packed for hubby (and me most of the time) and I also made a lot of progress pre-cooking for the week (go me)!
• Trying new foods and snacks (like my new beloved millet)
• I've kicked my coffee habit and feel great
• Eating lots of almond butter and avocado
• My vacation ice cream weight is gone and I'm holding stable at my happy weight
• We have been eating so.many.veggies- I have gone through 5 pounds of carrots this week and will soon be orange.   My favorite dinner is this millet, mixed greens, kale, onion, garlic, and sauce-filled salad:

This bowl is a gigantic mixing bowl.  Please don't hate on me. I get hungry.

Things that can use some improvement:

• While planning for hubby has gone fabulously, I have found myself a little unsatisfied.  I had to resort to buying these before the gym so I wouldn't pass out, my snack was missing, and that's just stuuuuuupid.  Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? These were yummy!

• I should make my own juice.  I bought this kale, cucumber, lemon, celery, apple juice for the price of a down payment on a condo.  No bueno.  I need to stop being lazy and make my own.  It was so good though!

•  I'm not sure if I'm getting enough protein because I get hungry pretty quickly after meals.  I'll be sure to monitor this week
• I'm probably mixing up some foods in the wrong combos and in the wrong blood type, but I'm flexible and this is not meant to be restrictive

Fitness Update
In my last post, I also mentioned that I would do a quick fitness update. I haven't been accountable lately and I think now is the time.  I'm still LOVING my yoga classes. Loving them!  However, while on vacation and hiking, I did notice that my cardio was not where it was before and I have decided to incorporate more cardio into my routine.  This may be the first time in my life that I'm eating and exercising for health and I want my fitness to reflect that too. 
My goal for now is 3 yoga classes and 3 cardio per week.  I tend to lean towards yoga, but the gym has been fine and I have had a chance to zone out, people watch, and listen to some ghetto fabulous beats while I pretend I'm in a music video in my head.  Am I the only one?  I am still not running like I said I would, but when my new shoes come in, I might give it another try.  Always time to try something new, right?

Questions for you:
1. What kind of music do you prefer to listen to when you workout? Rap and a little Euro trash house for this lady
2. Do you have any new exercise plans going on right now?  I'm adding in some cardio for my ticker.

Winter Salad

I don't know about you, but there is nothing less appetizing to me than attempting to choke down the bushels of veggies I can normally scarf down during the warmer months.  I realize I live in California, but 50 degrees is not warm to me. I still can't tell you why I eat frozen yogurt until my lips turn blue on cold days, but that's another story for another time.

These days I have been roasting veggies and adding frozen veggies to my soup and one night I threw this together to sneak in more produce for dinner.

My Winter Salad
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice (Trader Joe's)
• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup roasted squash, chopped
• 1/2 large apple, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 1/4 cup lemon (or citrus juice of choice)
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

*Cook rice according to package instructions and set to cool.
*Add in the celery, roasted squash, apple and dried cherries, mixing to combine all of the ingredients
*Make a dressing with the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil and pour over the ingredients, adding salt and pepper to tasked
*Combine and set to cool in the refrigerator

We added this to the rest of our dinner- which I think may have included pizza that night...and probably chocolate.  I loved the sweet, crunchy, and tangy combination.  Hope you give it a try!

Veggies For Breakfast

For the last six months or so, I have regularly eaten a sweet breakfast.  My absolute favorite- almond butter on toast with banana was the reason I even woke up all Winter long!
However, the warmer months are coming and I have taken on a challenge to eat veggies for breakfast.  It's not on a real blog style challenge (the kind that I tell you all about and count my offenses because that would drive me nuts) but I am on a 'try harder' mission to get some delicious veggies into my day.  I love them as is, so if anything, this will mix up my routine.
This past weekend my parents gave us some asparagus.  I love my parents- they give me food whenever I come over.  Life is good. 
After I roasted up a whole boatload of them, I saved some for my morning wrap.

 

Asparagus Wrap: Flat out wheat wrap, asparagus spears, Trader Joe's spicy hummus, and 2 slices of Swiss cheese

All wrapped up and microwaved for optimal cheese melting capabilities:

This wrap is pretty promiscuous.  I can see that asparagus showing some leg.
I enjoyed this wrap so much that I put together another one for this morning- this time a Spinach Roasted Red Pepper Wrap.

Spinach Roasted Red Pepper Wrap: Flat out wrap, hummus, roasted bell peppers, and spinach

This wrap held itself together a little bit better.  I can see myself eating this every day for the next six months.

So now it's your turn- what are you adding to your daily food party lately?  (I don't use 'diet' because diets suck).  
What kind of veggies do you eat for breakfast? I eat them all now!  Until I get bored of them.

Getting Down to Business

Welp, I'm back- only a week later.  No worries- I missed all of you immensely but was busy being terribly important (at least that's what I tell myself) at work.  Along with this little lapse in posting, I have been trying to keep up with eating well and exercise, but of course life gets in the way, so I'll show you what happens when I get real.

I always eat my veggies first:

Veggie wrap with cucumbers, hummus, spinach, shredded carrots, and cheese with another pound of cucumbers on the side.
Veggie-palooza 2010:

Roasted sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts, yellow tomato, mushrooms, and cucumbers.
Once I get that out of the way, I get down to business- Exhibit A and B, respectively:

Fro yo love

I plead temporary insanity while cramming for my Finance test.  Plus, my spicy tuna sushi and massive amounts of wasabi were burning my face off.

Both were necessary.
Also necessary was getting some quick exercise in- I did one of my favorite strength/cardio workouts as a cool down the other day:

Can you see me back there?  Yep- I bring my iPhone and take pictures at the gym. Don't judge.  I love pushups and taking breaks so I bike hard for 1 minute then get down and do 20 pushups on the bosu ball.  Repeat, repeat, repeat till you get to 100.  It's fun and I love that I can tone while I do cardio.  Give it a try if you have workout ADD like I do.

I'll be back tomorrow (I promise) with some actual cooking but I've gotta give it up to the fabulous moms in my life!
Happy Mothers Day to both Tanias and Elena!
Hope you celebrate with the special mom in your life and if you are a mom- hope you enjoy some extra love and sanity on Sunday!

Help Me Pick!

Hey Beautiful Friends!  I'm winding down from a fantabulous weekend and getting ready to brace myself for a new week.  I start grad school again this week with a mind-numbing schedule.  Would anyone like to take Managerial Accounting on Friday evenings for 4 hours?  Please raise your hand.  Oh, wait- I do!!!!  I can't believe that's my schedule, but it's worth it to graduate on time (hopefully)!  You can ask me again in a couple of weeks!

Last night we went to Baby Ben's 3rd Birthday dinner.  I was a bad blogger and forgot my camera.  Highlights of the evening included delicious eats, sitting under the dinner table playing with the birthday boy (his idea, kinda), playing a new baseball/bowling hybrid game we invented, and being directed to go 'right durrrrrr' by a little boy who has developed a St. Louis accent (who remembers Chingy?).  It was a great time for all!

Food Prep
Today I was a food prep maniac because I have school on Tuesday and Friday night this week.  I turned on the oven and roasted 3 huge trays of veggies for the family.  As a reminder, there are only two of us.

I kicked up the broccoli by using some TJ's taco seasoning on it:

I pumped up the brussels sprouts with s&p and chili powder:

I put the finished smellyness into a tupperware for easy access:

I packed up the butternut squash in a separate tupperware with roasted carrots for less stinky food lovin:

For my lunch plate, I broke into all the new goods:

I also had cottage cheese and blueberries to round out the high amount of fiber here with more fiber.  Yum!

My strategy for meal prep is to make the staples (veggies, protein and carbs) and then make a couple of meals combining them so that they are fresh, balanced, and ready to go.  I focus mainly on the hubby's lunches because I am a maniac and prefer to pick my meals out that morning.  This usually gets me through until Wednesday, when I can replenish the supplies and start all over again.  I'm no Martha, but this plan works for me and we save a LOT of money on not having to buy lunch, unless we really want to.
Here is a preview of one of hubby's lunches this week:

Brussels sprouts, roasted broccoli, parmesan cheese potato wedges, and parmesan roasted chicken thighs.

Workouts
Ever since my whine-fest on Friday night, I have been taking it easy on my lower body and adding variety to my workouts.  On Saturday I did a fun bike/elliptical workout and called it good after 30 minutes.  I followed it up with a lot of stretching.
Today I stretched a lot at home, did 20 minutes of bike and let myself run a slow mile to test out my knees and hips.  Some may call it masochistic, but I wanted to see if this would cause pain and I'm happy to report that I was able to go for one mile with very little pain. I decided to stop and not push it, although I felt like I could go longer.  The bright side of this frustration is that I am mixing up my workouts and adding more strength.  I had the pleasure of being trained by my own personal fitness expert.  Today's plan was to make my triceps cry- and they DID!  We did my favorite exercise, skull crushers and 2 more!  I felt so great and accomplished and the frustration I had going into the weekend has disappeared.  Let's hope it continues!

I'll be back tomorrow with a semi-homemade recipe for Meditteranean pizza.  I made it tonight and LOVED it!

For now, I have a question for you.  I'm making cupcakes for my nephew's 3rd kiddie birthday party.  I have decided to make chocolate, vanilla, and 1-2 other flavors.  If you were a pre-schooler, which flavor(s) would you eat?

• Lemon
• Caramel
• Orange
• Strawberry
• Banana chocolate chip
  

Babies are picky and bloggers aren't, so I don't have a good idea of what to make!  I'm staying away from anything with nuts so I don't poison the little guys!  I would love to hear what you have for me!  I need to start experimenting soon!
Hope everyone has a great week!