FitFeat

Archive for November, 2009

Dance Dance If You Dare!

Nov 19

Posted by Shari B. in FitFeature, Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Hello FitFeat friends! 

Thank you for the great feedback in yesterday’s post about what fitness and nutrition topics you might like me to cover in future posts.  Cindy requested some more in-depth exercise instruction, preferably with photos.  Joan liked the idea of my attempting to put up some video instruction.  Tray would like more recipes.  Fantastic suggestions — thank you!  I’ll do my best to get more of that going for you.

Yesterday’s exercise included 50 minutes of cardio:  30 of it spent on the treadmill speedwalking at an incline, then 20 minutes of BOOGIE TIME!! 

Some of my best cardio sessions have been from random dancing (among other random things, i.e. yardio, snowblowing, etc.)  My heart rate while on the treadmill stayed neatly in the upper-130s.  But when it was time to get my dance on??  It shot up into the 160s, which is what I want!  And time spent dancing to get my heart up goes by MUCH FASTER than being on the hamster wheel treadmill.  It’s fun and you don’t need a gym membership to do it!

Get together an amazing playlist on your iPod or MP3 player, strap on your heart rate monitor, dim the lights a little for effect, and close the blinds! 

It’s home-clubbin’-time! 

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No, that's not me...!

Hop around, throw in some jazzy jumping jacks, skips, jump-rope movements, it doesn’t matter!  No one will see you so just have some fun with it!

My playlist yesterday was short since I was only doing 20 minutes, but these songs get me in the mood to groove!

The point is that exercise can always be made to be fun.  You shouldn’t have to trudge through boring cardio workouts ‘just to get your minutes in’.  Be creative, have a little fun, and you’ll reach your fitness goals that much faster!  (And no, there will NOT be an embedded video of my dancing!) 

Do any of you secretly boogie for cardio??  Drop a comment!

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday!

– Shari B. =)

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Nifty Ninety

Nov 18

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Well what do you know??  I didn’t crash my blog while doing the WordPress upgrade!  I saw a tweet from a blogger yesterday that mentioned someone had tried to hack into her site and had failed, luckily!  Which lit a bit of a fire under my you-know-what to get cracking on getting my upgrade completed.  Reading through the 14 step process had kept me a bit intimidated, because I was petrified something would end up ‘breaking’ on the blog.  And my IT department for the blog is … ME!  (OK, and sometimes MSP – but I try not to bother him with blog stuff since this is MY baby.)

And so here I am with the 90th FitFeat blog post!  This feels important to me because a few years back, I started a personal blog and just didn’t follow through.  Truly I think I made it to about the third blog post (if that) and fell off the wagon. 

When I first started the FitFeat blog, I did so on the free platform of WordPress.com.  I wanted to see how dedicated I’d be before moving to the self-hosted platform.  One, because self-hosting costs MONEY and two, because self-hosting requires a lot more administrative work.  You are in charge of your own backups, spam blocking, upgrades, etc.  The effort I put into blogging during my RV trip with mom and g-ma was what allowed me to realize that I would be blogging long-term.  Not only was I thoroughly enjoying it, but I was actually a bit obsessed.  (Who?  ME?  Obsessed?  … never!)  ;)

Thank you to everyone who has been following along, and a special thanks to those who have been here from the beginning!  I appreciate you all so much!  It would be very discouraging to put “pen to paper” (so to speak) if it seemed like no one was reading.  

Today’s question:  Since this blog is FOR YOU, are there any topics you would you like to see covered in a future blog post?  I’d love your input!  Drop me a comment!

***

On to the Tuesday recap… Tuesday was a ‘feat-less’ day (meaning no exercise) unless you count the effort expended in keeping my eyelids open.  I’m not sure what’s going on with our dogs lately, but they have been really active at night which has been interrupting MSP’s and my sleep.   We were out cold Monday night by 9:30 and at 9:50 Rascal was standing in the upstairs hallway barking his head off like he was facing off with the BoogeyMan.  We went from dead sleep to being doused in adrenaline in about 5 milliseconds.

After finally getting back to sleep again, Riley was up around 2:00 trotting laps on the hardwood floor downstairs, clickety-click-click-clickety.  She’s put on a bit of weight recently, and as a result is now eating ’lean’ food.  So she scavenges in the middle of the night around and around and around the kitchen island hoping we forgot to put away our dinner, I guess.  (You’d think she’d figure out in one lap that there is NO food to be found.  Why she keeps going around is beyond me.  Unless maybe she’s trying to work off some of that flab so that she can get back to eating real food again!)

I think she covets my gigantic salads.

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If you look closely you will see my homegrown sprouts in the salad!  They were interesting because they were all different seeds and some still had the seed attached, so they had a great crunch!  SO FUN! 

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The other items in my salad were:

  • HB egg
  • spinach
  • nutritional yeast
  • sundried tomatoes
  • spiralized zucchini
  • sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 avocado
  • 1/2 tbsp Annie’s Goddess dressing
  • dulse

And I ate it at 10:30 am.  That was lunch.  I was hungry!!  :)  

We had a wonderful time at our friends’ house last night!  (Thank you Lynn and Jim!  Sorry we caused you to miss DWTS!)  I ate steamed veggies with garlic sauce and some perfect edamame.  With a little white wine tasting.  It was a GREAT time! 

Well friends, off get busy with the Wednesday list.  AND get in some exercise.  Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!  And don’t forget to leave a comment about topics you’d like to see on FitFeat! 

– Shari B.  =)

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Happy Sprouts Dancing, Dirty Chai Trying and Veggie Spiralizing

Nov 17

Posted by Shari B. in Handy Kitchen Tools | 8 Comments

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.

***

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?

Nov 17

Posted by Shari B. in FitFeature | 9 Comments

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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The Quickie

Nov 16

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Quickie blog POST that is… Haha… I KNEW I grabbed ya with that title!  ;)   Good morning blog buds!  Another Monday morning is upon us.  And another weekend of snow is behind us.  We had a FOOT of snow over the weekend. 

I am off to the dentist in about 15 minutes, so I’ll be typing like mad to get this published before I head out.  Cross your fingers for me that I have NO cavities!

Yesterday morning brought a super late breakfast.  I got busy doing things and then ate a little too late.  You know that feeling when you go from hungry to famished to a little shaky and then full-on raging BEE-YOTCH??  It happens so quickly!  :)   So I tried to quiet the monster with a little breakfast tostada action.  While my breakfast wrap from the other morning was fab, THIS one was NOT a keeper. 

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Post-40-minute-treadmill green smoothie (still using that bag of cranberries!)

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Post-snowblowing butternut squash soup (which is now all gone…. I’m so SAD!)  I added a little sprinkle of cinnamon and a bit of orange zest, and BAM!  It was EVEN BETTER!

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Later some pseudo-healthful gingerbread men… no transfats or HFCS.  But still flour and sugar nonetheless.  Luckily the boxes are TINY!

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With a little almond milk in my very appropriate snowflake mug…

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Healthy popcorn with nutritional yeast during one of the worst movies of the year (G.I. JOE… sorry Channing Tatum, I think you’re great, but the movie was SO bad we had to stop halfway through because we started to feel our brains rotting…)

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And a little GARBANZO action for dinner!  We’ve  officially decided that we are off of our Garbanzo kick for a while.  We just don’t like our falafel char-fried.  There is a new place (whose name escapes me at the moment) that serves similar food.  We’ll try that next and compare their falafel.   

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I hope that you all had a SMASHING weekend! 

Today’s discussion:  I picked up a new Kindle book yesterday (well new to me, but not NEW new.)  It’s called Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  So far it talks a lot about nutrient-dense foods being the mainstay of our diets (hey, sounds a lot like what I’ve been aiming to do!)  Have any of you read it and/or apply his principles?

See you again soon!

– Shari B.  =)

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Run, Bike, Swim, Walk, Climb, Crawl…

Nov 15

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 10 Comments

Hello Sunday readers!  Thank you for joining me today!  Sundays are typically a slow day on the blog (at least that’s what the stats tell me) so I appreciate you coming by to take a gander at the happenings on FitFeat!

The other day I took a stroll down fitness boulevard memory lane and thought it would be fun to make a list of all the events in which I’ve been fortunate enough to compete participate.  

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I came up with 16 (see About Shari.)  There may be more that I’ve forgotten because I didn’t save the bib number. 

Here are some of the highlights:

Muddy Buddy:
This was fun not only because MSP was my teammate, but because you had to alternate running and biking to obstacle course stations.  And at the end, you and your partner had to crawl on your belly through a nasty stinky mudpit!  muddy buddy

The Carla Sanchez Fitness Fiesta:
This was my first experience with competing in the National Physique Committee (NPC) as a figure and fitness model competitor.  I’d say it was a highlight of my fitness memories because I’d worked SO hard to get there — even stepping on stage meant I’d won in my book.  Especially because just a few short years before that I was 40+ lbs more than I was while competing.  (One of these days I’ll post my ‘before’ photos.)  I competed in 3 divisions and came home with a 2nd place trophy and two for 4th place.   (If you follow the IFBB / NPC, that’s Elaine Goodlad - Olympia competitor – handing me my trophy.)

trophy

The PF Chang’s Rock-n-Roll Half-Marathon:
My friend Beth and I traveled to Phoenix for this one.  I was expecting to wear shorts and run in balmy weather.  I mean it’s ARIZONA, right?   It was their coldest day on record in 17 years that morning (the month was January).  Even a fountain froze over, and the temperature made the front page of the news. I had (luckily) packed my Nike down running jacket, and I wore it!  We spent much of the evening before the race trying to find gloves and ear warmers in the stores.  Not an easy task in AZ. 

The Avon Breast Cancer Walk:
39.3 miles on foot.  Full marathon distance on day one.  Half marathon distance on day two.  Avon does an AMAZING job coordinating this event.  It’s probably the most well-run event I’ve been involved in.  My friend Karen had invited me to do this with her, and each person had to raise $1800 in donations to participate.  We spent 4 months training and raising money.  What took this from ‘event’ to ‘adventure’ was the INSANE storm that ripped through right where the thousands of participants had pitched our tents to stay the night.  The winds were strong enough to snap power poles like toothpicks.  We had to take cover in the park restrooms!  All of the tents were upended and there was flooding everywhere!  We won’t soon forget it!

So many good times were made during all of my events.  And it makes me feel good knowing that almost every event’s registration fees went to a good cause. 

Swing on over to my revised About Shari page to check out the full list!

Today’s discussion:  What is the fitness favorite event you’ve participated in?  Is there one you haven’t done yet, but would like to? 

Well, it looks like I better go fuel up for some snowblowing action again.  Here is the backyard this morning and they (evil forecasters) say we are only halfway there:

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And for just a bit of comedy to put a smile on your face today, I’ll l eave you with the pride and joy of my collection of event photos (NOT!)  As Right Said Fred put it, “I’m too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt…”   Is this the pinnacle of hotness or what? ;)

Now that's sexy - ha ha

– Shari B. =)

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As The Sprouts Groweth

Nov 14

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 6 Comments

Happy Saturday morning FitFeat friends! 

It’s a happy day indeed.  I have the beginnings of some homemade sprouts!  So if you are a new reader who regularly makes your own sprouts and/or can actually grow things like live plants, you may want to read my previous post about my lack of a green thumb.  Actually seeing something GROWING in my kitchen is a FEAT for me!  So, any sprout experts out there want to chime in and tell me if it will be obvious to me when I can eat them?  :)

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I have a feeling that I will still need to buy sprouts in addition to growing them because I eat way more in a day or two than what I have growing here I think. Although maybe they will still have a growth spurt!

Speaking of sprouts, check out this beautiful “before” shot of my green smoothie from yesterday. 

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It looks awfully HOLIDAY-ish, don’t you think?  Pretty reds and greens!  I finally put those new cranberries to good use after all of Cindy’s cranberry blogging.  And in a recent comment she mentioned putting 2 bananas and a CUP of cranberries into a smoothie.  Cindy, are you trying to defibrillate my tastebuds?  I tasted one of those little buggers before I added them to my smoothie – they are t-t-tart!   I’m starting small for now!

I present to you my Festive Holiday CranApple Smoothie!

  • 8 oz water
  • 1/2 to 2/3 cup fresh cranberries
  • 1 apple, unpeeled and chunked
  • 1/2 small banana
  • fistful of spinach
  • a palm’s worth of sprouts (I used sweet clover sprouts)
  • 1/2 large cucumber, peeled and chunked
  • 1- 2 stalks celery, chunked
  • 1/2 tbsp hemp oil

Blend till smooth. 

(“Chunked” is an official culinary term right?)  ;)  

Here is the after: 

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It was definitely festive for the tastebuds!  Thank you Cindy for inspiring me to get some fresh cranberries, which I normally pass right on by in the produce section.  But learning from you of their anti-viral properties sold me!

I had a crazy urge for lunch-ish food at morning snack time so I toasted up some Ezekial sprouted grain bread, added some Tofutti spread, smeared on a little avocado, sprouts, cucumber, spinach and pepitas. 

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Which left room for a light lunch when it was actually lunchtime!  Oh yeah, you know what I rolled with:

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A little heavenly, gingery squash soup!  Reheated, it was JUST as good, if not better than, the first time.

And then a little slice of “pie” for a late afternoon snack.

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Next up, it was out for some Friday night fun with some girlfriends I hadn’t seen for MUCH TOO LONG.  We hit up a local wine bar for a happy hour that spilled beyond that hour by about three more!  It was a wonderful time!  Love wine time with my ladies!  And in standard Shari style, I’m sure you know I suggested HUMMUS for a shared appetizer!  (My name is Shari and I’m a Hummus-Holic.)  While the service at this place left a LOT to be desired, their hummus most certainly did not.  It was probably the best hummus I’ve ever had. 

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(Or maybe it was just the dim lights, candles and pretty plates that made it taste so good.  It couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with wine consumption!)

The manager left us with a complimentary bottle of vino to share (conveniently while we were trying to decide on just HOW small a tip to leave for our unattentive waiter.)  It was a moscato d’asti dessert wine and I do declare that I will run right out and buy a bottle to have on Thanksgiving.  (Does anyone declare that they watched this week’s “The Office”?)   ;) If not you are all going, ‘Huh?”

Heavenly soup by day, heavenly wine by night.  It MUST have been a Friday!

– Shari B. =)

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13 Exercises for Friday the 13th

Nov 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Happy Friday the 13th FitFeat friends!  Any superstitious readers out there?  In honor of Friday the 13th, I did this crazy workout this morning:

Today’s Feat:  Shari’s “13 for the 13th” Workout

Warmup on treadmill, 5 minutes

  1. Smith-squats (tabata style, 4 min)
  2. Seated Row (tabata style, 4 min)
  3. Leg Extensions (tabata style, 4 min)
  4. DB Upright Row (tabata style, 4 min)
  5. Leg Curls on FitBall (tabata style, 4 min — I was crying by the 3rd minute on these)
  6. DB Chest Flyes 1 set of 15 reps
  7. High StepUps 15 left, 15 right
  8. KB Side Lateral Swings 15 right, 15 left
  9. Band SideSteps 25 right, 25 left
  10. KB Biceps Curls 20 right, 20 left
  11. KB Ab Twist (in boat position) 30 reps
  12. Triceps Dips 15 reps
  13. Explosive Lunges 20 reps

OK, I officially have squiggle arms and squiggle legs…  ;)

Yesterday’s Feat

A beautiful (and tough) 3.6 mile hilly run with a training client 

Yesterday’s Eats

I had my standard pre-run meal Coconut Cream Pie Larabar with coffee about an hour beforehand.  I’m now officially out of this flavor in my Larabar stash and will have to wait until they go on sale again.  :( I refuse to pay more than $1 per bar if I can avoid it. 

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After our run, my client was telling me about these wonderful breakfast burritos she picks up on occasion, and it inspired me to come home and make a Breakfast Wrap:  whole wheat tortilla, leftover roasted potato bites, one HB egg, a bit of avocado and a drizzle of salsa.  It was SO good!  And it hit the spot after a fast-paced hilly run.  Perfect!

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It did such a good job of filling me up, that when lunchtime rolled around all I really wanted was a green smoothie!  And Brendan Brazier snuck into the picture too…

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I don’t often like to have two Larabars in one day, but a Lemon Bar sounded too good to resist.

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I spent some time late afternoon putting together dinner:  Heavenly Ginger Curry Squash Soup, for which I posted the recipe earlier today.  As mentioned in that post, I had to make myself eat a large salad to tame the hungry beast inside before I devoured my soup.  I KNEW I wouldn’t have leftovers if I started with it, it was that yummy.  My salad included spinach, dulse, sundried tomatoes, carrots, nutritional yeast and 1/2 tbsp of Goddess dressing. 

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And then the main event.  I am already dreaming of lunchtime today when I can have some more of this delicious meal!  Behold the best soup ever:

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And I didn’t figure the evening could get any better, but it DID!!!  MSP surprised me with dark chocolate covered cacao nibs!!!  WAHOOO!  (Thanks MSP!  You’re the best ever!)  Wow these are delightful.  Good thing these come in small bags… Not something I’d want to stay stocked up on because I had a hard time putting them down last night.

I’m looking forward to tonight when I get to catch up with some girlfriends over wine & apps tonight!  In the meantime, there is a LOT to accomplish so I better get crackin’!  Have a FANTASTIC Friday! 

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Heavenly Ginger Curry Squash Soup

Nov 13

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 7 Comments

I have been wanting to make a butternut squash soup for some time and just haven’t done it.  I finally took the plunge because I happened upon a recipe where I had most of the ingredients and had the right things that I wanted to substitute in it.

You know I love Amy’s Organic Soups. But after a recent disappointment with her Butternut Squash soup, I wondered whether squash soup was just not supposed to be flavorful.

Oh, was I ever wrong.

Friends, let me tell you this soup is to die for.  I had a few tastes while it was in its final cooking stages and it was so good I knew I had better fill up on a huge salad before dishing this one because I may have just gone and eaten the whole thing otherwise!

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The original recipe from Allrecipes.com called for a 2 lb butternut squash, but mine was only 1.25 pound.  I happened to have a leftover plain mashed sweet potato in the fridge so I used that to round out the lack of squash.  It also called for two pears, and I only had one.  So I used one pear and one apple.  Additionally I did not want to use butter or half-and-half, so I substituted Earth Balance (vegan butter) and MimicCreme in place of the half-and-half.   Thank you Allrecipes.com for the inspiration from which I have adapted the following.

The Ingredients:

  • 1-1/4 lb butternut squash (cut in half, seeds removed, baked facedown for 40 minutes at 375 , then soft pulp scooped out & set aside)
  • 1 small-med sweet potato (peeled, cut into chunks then boiled till soft, about 20 minutes)
  • 2 tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter spread
  • 1/2 onion
  • 2 cloves minced garlic (I used a canned pre-minced version)
  • 2 tsp minced ginger (again, I used a canned pre-minced version)
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cans of chicken or vegetable broth (14 oz cans) + 6 oz water
  • 1 firm pear, peeled & diced
  • 1 gala apple, peeled & diced
  • 1/2 cup MimicCreme

The Preparation:

1.) Once the sweet potato and squash are prepared and set aside, melt the earth balance in your soup pot over medium.  Add onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder and salt.  Cook until onion is soft.  Mine took about 8 minutes.

2.) Add the broth and water to the pot and bring to a boil.

3.) Add in the pear, apple, sweet potato and squash.  Simmer for 30 minutes (until pear and apple are soft).

4.) Blend in batches until smooth and creamy.  Return to pot, stir in the MimicCreme, and reheat.  Simmer until ready to serve.

5.) Try not to eat it straight out of the soup pot face-first.  It will taunt you with its delicious aroma.

Enjoy!!

Action shots:  ;)  img 712

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Thai-hini Stir Fry

Nov 12

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 13 Comments

That would be pronounced “tie-heenie” not “hiney” – this is a family friendly blog and I see you over there giggling like a 12-year old boy…  ;)  

So “Thai-hini StirFry” was dinner last night!  I used to make a Spicy Thai Peanut Stirfry developed by Stella’s Kitchen.  But I have tweaked it so much that now it’s not even remotely like the original.  I finally gave into HEAB’s subliminal tahini messages and bought jar yesterday.  

For the sauce:

  • 1/4 c tahini
  • 2 tsp thai red curry paste
  • 1 tbsp lite soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 3/4 tsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp lime juice
  • 1 tbsp pineapple juice (my stirfry had a few chunks of pineapple in it, but you can omit the juice if you aren’t adding pineapple)

Mix all ingredients with a fork until smooth and creamy.

This was a double batch of sauce because I needed to make one stir-fry pan for MSP (with meat) and one for moi (without meat).  If you like more spicy HEAT in your food, add more of the red curry paste, and maybe a pinch of cayenne & red pepper flakes.

My pan had carrot, celery, broccoli, zucchini, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and about 6 bite-sized pieces of pineapple.  Stirfried for about 5 minutes in a smidge of coconut oil.  Once the veggies are done, add the “thai-hini” sauce, mix around to coat veggies (adding water a few tablespoons at a time if you like a thinner consistency.)  Serve.

For a meat version, I stirfried one large chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces until close to done, then added in some bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and whole baby corn cobs.  Continue stirfrying until the veggies are heated through, then add the “thai-hini” sauce, coat well (again adding a little water if you like it thinner).  I served his on a bed of brown rice and sprinkled both plates with toasted sesame seeds.  

The final products:

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We sat down last evening ready to enjoy “Modern Family” as I had mentioned in yesterday’s post, only to find that it WASN’T ON thanks to the CMA’s.  Noooooo!  I had been looking forward to it all day.  I must admit I was a little crushed.  :(   Recorded “Mad Men” would have to suffice.

To recap the rest of the Tuesday eats, I started the morning post-yoga and post-dog wogging with a scoop of Amazing Meal (green food drink).  A green smoothie was still sounding a little to bone-chilling, and this mixture was room temperature. 

Mid-morning I had the usual piece of toasted Ezekial with raw almond butter and raw honey drizzle.  I almost ALWAYS forget the photo before taking the first bite.  A little green tea on the side:

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Lunch was a good sized salad that somehow looks small when shown below.  Spinach, zucchini ribbons, carrot shavings, dulse, sundried tomatoes, with about 1/2 tbsp of Goddess dressing and the leftover half of a Sunshine burger.   New lesson learned:  reheated sunshine burgers become sunshine rocks.   And not “rocks” like “dude that rocks” but rocks like this:

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And a bubbly on the side!  Gingerberry flavor!  Gotta keep pumping those probiotics in me to fight off all the flu bugs out there!

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The salad was so tasty, I thought you’d like a close-up!

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Dessert was a large spoonfull of mashed sweet potato and cinnamon.

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How ’bout  my fortune with a side of Ginger Snap Larabar? 

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Why thank you fortune, I agree!

I made a “quick trip” to the grocery store to pick up a few things to make dinner.  And it turned into this:

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I can never make it out of the grocery store for less than $40.  I could go EVERY day and still end up with $40 worth of stuff each time.  The same thing happens with Costco only those visits are always $100.  What is this strange phenomenon??  MSP is having lunch with a coworker today at Whole Foods and invited me along, but I’m scared that another $40 will mysteriously fly out of my wallet if I step through their front doors!

But look at all the goodies I got!  Spinach, sprouts, broccoli, clementines, apples, grapefruit, avocado, mango, tomato, squash, bananas, pear and even some cranberries courtesy of all of Cindy’s cranberry creations.  I too would like a facemask that I nibble on while applying! ;)

Today’s discussion:

Does this happen to you at the grocery store?  Do you avoid going often because you suffer from this odd affliction that I too have?  :)   Drop me a comment – I need to know if I’m alone in this or not! 

Random note:

Can you believe Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away???  What?  I’ll be putting up my Christmas tree and decorations two weeks from tomorrow?  (I always do this on the day after Thanksgiving.)  I better break out my Harry Connick Jr. holiday CD and start baking some healthy cookies, so I can force myself into the holiday mood!  I love this time of year – it’s just that this year it seems to have really snuck up on me.

Bday Wishes:

Also, I’d like to give a bday shout-out to Gina the Fitnessista.  Enjoy YOUR day!!   

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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