Archive for November 17th, 2009

Happy Sprouts Dancing, Dirty Chai Trying and Veggie Spiralizing

Hi friends! 

So I’m back for a second time today to give you the recap of yesterday’s Feats & Eats.  Twice in one day, wow!  But before that I want to let all you awesome readers know that I am going to attempt the WordPress update very soon.  If things look a little wonky here and there, that’s why.  I’m crossing my fingers all goes well!  :)

And speaking of crossed fingers… thanks for all your good vibes yesterday for my dentist visit!  It helped!  Because I didn’t have a cavity! Wahoooo!  See, all this good eating does a body (and teeth) good!

First thing out of bed yesterday, MSP and I were feeling the need for a DVD to motivate us to workout.  My brain wasn’t wanting to wake up, so at that point listening to some other trainer boss me around sounded just fine with me.  We chose Cathe’s “Legs & Glutes”.  She killed us.  We were sweat machines and today our bums are S-O-R-E… which I L-O-V-E.  It was about a bazillion reps of squats, lunges, and step-ups with about every variation you can imagine for an hour with no breaks. 

Thank you Cathe for clearing out my Monday cobwebs.

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Look what’s still coming along in my kitchen…

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My sprouts are doing great!  They got to sit in the window sill to collect a little chlorophyll!   I’ve grown something!  I’m doing the Happy Sprout Dance!!

In other random news, I had an interesting visit to Starbucks yesterday…

Me:  I’ll have a grande soy 2-pump chai latte please.

SBUX guy tries to sell me on a bunch of stuff to which I kindly decline.  I wanted to say, “Hey, put your mugs on clearance and maybe I’ll buy something besides this ridiculously expensive soy milk”  but I digress…

SBUX guy:  do you like coffee?

Me:  Yes, but generally only first thing in the morning.

SBUX guy:  So you normally get chai then?

(Soon SBUX Guy will be renamed to Captain Obvious if this keeps up… is he going somewhere with this or just weirdly chatty)

Me:  Um yes, but usually in the fall because it feels holidayish to me.

SBUX guy:  Ever heard of a Dirty Chai? 

Me:  Um no.

It took him forever to get to the point, but ultimately I’m glad I was polite and stuck it out.  Because a dirty chai is a chai latte with a shot of espresso in it.  So they offered to let me try one with a decaf shot and if I didn’t like it they’d make my drink over. 

And you know what??  It was really good!

Next time  you’re at Starbucks and want something new, give Dirty Chai a try!

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Which segues perfectly into ANOTHER new thing I tried yesterday:  a spiralzer!!!   My friend Pat loaned me her spiralizer to play with since I am asking Santa for one for Christmas this year.  (Thanks Pat!  I’m having too much fun!)

Look at what it does!!

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I made a little Zucchini Pasta Salad to eat while I was waiting for my dinner to cook.  I added 3 pieces of artichoke hearts, some kalamata olive and sundried tomatoes.  Oh so good!  This makes eating zucchini entirely too fun!

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I even had to put some of the bigger zucchini ribbons on my pita pizza!  (Mine are the ones with tomato and spinach on them.  MSP’s are pesto and light mozzarella.)

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Doesn’t it look DEE-LISH-USH?  It was another great dinner chock full of veggies! 

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I am getting ready to clean up and head out for dinner at a friend’s house – which means more fabulous veggies are in my immediate future!  (and I bet some vino as well!)

I hope that you all had a fabulous day!  Thanks to those who chimed in for today’s discussion on egg yolks in my previous post

I’ll see you tomorrow — maybe a bit later than usual just depending on how upgrading goes!  :)

– Shari B. =)

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Are You Yolking?

When I eat eggs I eat the WHOLE egg.  I don’t eat them nearly as often as I used to, but I do eat a few each week.

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The Zone Diet told me NOT to eat egg yolks because of the arachidonic acid the yolks contain (AA is an essential fatty acid – and we do need SOME AA in our diet.)  Body for Life preferred I eat only egg whites so that I would avoid the fat of the yolk to consume a ‘lean protein’.  Beverly International’s bodybuilding diet was a bit more lenient offering me one yolk to three whites.

It always felt a little wasteful to me to toss out a perfectly good yolk – like having a dollar’s worth of quarters and throwing two of them in the garbage.  Then I learned more about the goodness that is the egg yolk.

Did you know that a whole egg contains all vitamins except for Vitamin C?  Throw some chopped red pepper into your omelet and now you’ve got Vitamin C covered too!

Egg yolks contain lutein and zeaxanthin which are thought to be protective for our eyes. If you throw out the yolk, your eyes are missing out on the antioxidant properties of these nutrients.

Over 90% of the following nutrients are housed in the yolk portion of the egg vs. the white:  iron, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, B12, A, D, E, and K

In a nutshell eggshell, an egg is like nature’s prepackaged multivitamin. 

On top of all the nutritional reasons to eat the whole egg, I learned what a hen endures just to produce that egg for me.  I don’t want to waste half of her effort by separating my whites out.  And I no longer support large factory farms by purchasing their eggs because I would prefer that my food ‘vote’  goes to farms where the hens at least get to see the outdoors, foraging for their own food and preferably not having the tips of their beaks removed. 

I recently learned that a close family member of ours has a chicken coop in their backyard (in a city!) I am envious!  I’d love to take care of my own chicken and know exactly where the eggs came from.  And what a great way for their kids to learn the importance of knowing that all food does have a source.  I think in today’s society, it was WAY TOO EASY for us to detach from the process of how the food just happens to arrive on our tables.

I’m not a vegan as I still eat eggs and fish.  And who knows what the future holds for me?  But for now, I will continue to eat the WHOLE egg when I do eat one and be thankful of the hardy little hen that so kindly produced this nutrient rich gem for me.  

How about you?  Do you eat eggs?  Just whites or yolks too? Drop me a comment!

Sources and Further Reading:

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