Santa has left the building. Or at least the FitFeat blog.  That super cute Santa pop-up I had on here Sunday and yesterday was not playing nicely with my blog and I was forced to deactivate the plug-in.  I love plug-ins – they are fun and some do GREAT stuff.  But boy they can sure do some wacky things to blogs.  You may have noticed if you were commenting that the buttons for REPLY or EDIT where nowhere to be found!  (That was Santa’s fault!) So I’ll be experimenting with a different ‘greeting message’ in the near future.

My Monday was great and insanely busy.  I’m finding that my time at the office means most of my meals need to be sippable through a straw because I just don’t have a lot of time to chew! So I made a set of “Now & Later” smoothies:

The “NOW” smoothie had rice protein, chia seeds, banana, cucumber, sprouts, spinach, celery, and pepitas.

The “LATER” smoothie had a pear, hemp protein, spinach, cucumber, celery, sprouts, and pepitas.

I am telling you what, I got a LOT of greens in yesterday!  I bought a couple of new protein powders on Sunday, both of which I’ll be reviewing soon here on FitFeat.  I want to try each of them out in different types of drinks first.

I also had a favorite Larabar:  Tropical Fruit Tart!

***

Back in the early spring our popcorn air popper decided its time was done and went to small appliance heaven.  Smack in the middle of a home movie.  The internet saved the day because there were a BUNCH of sites that talked about making homemade microwave popcorn without all the chemicals and fake flavors that come in the pre-packaged stuff.

Now I know for some of you this is old news – any follower of health food blogs will have seen this info.  But I also have some readers who do NOT follow other food & fitness blogs (Hi Mom!!) so I’m going to put this info out there for their benefit.

I’m a snacker.  I get the munchies.  Sometimes when that hits, I go for things like baked kale.  Other times I’m in a hurry for a snack.  So I turn to this instead:

Healthy Microwave “Airpopped” Popcorn:

  • One paper lunch bag
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup popcorn kernels of your liking
  • Microwave

Measure 1/4 to 1/3 cup kernels and put them in the paper lunch sack.

Fold the top of the sack twice, like so:

Place in microwave standing upright and microwave on full power for approximately 2 minutes (depending on the strength of your microwave).

Listen for the popping.  As it nears two minutes it should start to slow down.  When there are a few seconds between pops, stop the microwave.  Take out the popcorn and open the top carefully (keeping your face away from the top as kernels may continue to pop.)  Place the popcorn in your favorite bowl and top with healthy toppings (if you smother it in butter, you’ve just defeated the whole purpose of HEALTHY popcorn!)

I like to put nutritional yeast and sea salt on mine (the yeast gives it a cheesy flavor.)  Sometimes I’ll use garlic salt or Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic sprinkles.  Or chili powder.  I especially like my popcorn with a side of Kombucha tea!  :)

Now you have a snack of about 150 calories that is fiber-rich and VERY filling.

Well blog buds, as usual I have MORE to say but not enough time!  Exercise is calling followed by work!  I didn’t cover yesterday’s exercise in depth but I bet you can guess what it was!!  Yes, TABATA!!  :)   For upper body.   It was awesome!

See you soon friends!

– Shari B.  =)

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