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Archive for February, 2012

EatingWell Giveaway Winner Announced

Feb 25

Posted by Shari B. in Giveaway Contest | 1 Comment

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!

I entered the names into a list randomizer to assign each of you a number and then entered those numbers into the generator to pick the winner.

And the winner is …. number 6.  MATT!!

Matt congratulations!  And even bigger congratulations for having lost 13 pounds in your weight loss journey!  GREAT job!  I’ve already sent you a message for your mailing address.

To those of you who entered but didn’t win, stay tuned.  I might be able to work out a little something as a “door prize”.  :D

– Shari B. =)

UPDATED at 9:17 AM:  OK friends!  Those of you that entered but didn’t get selected, if you email me your full name and mailing address before 6:00 PM MST this evening, you’ll get one too!

Please know that this information will be entered into the Eating Well website – FitFeat LLC will not use your information for any other reason as your privacy is very important.  I can’t, however, speak for what Eating Well does with the addresses once they have it.

 

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Wild West Weather (and a Giveaway!)

Feb 23

Posted by Shari B. in Giveaway Contest | 11 Comments

Well, never a dull moment in Colorado weather.

Yesterday, 61 degrees and 80+ MPH wind gusts. Forecast called for a ‘light dusting’ of snow overnight.  Now?  At our end of town we have easily close to 10″ to a foot of snow and it’s still coming down.

This was the sneakiest storm I think I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve lived here.  It was dry at 3:00 AM.  The wind woke us up so we looked out the window to see if our fence and trees were still in place.  Completely dry out.  We stayed up after that and next thing you know, we were in a full-on blizzard.

One of our local neighbors (or even someone in Kansas with this wind) is likely the new owner of a nice beige cover for patio chairs/table.   Ours seems to have blown away.  I’m hoping that it’s hiding under the snow somewhere in our yard.

So after all this complaining about cold and snow, there was a super bright spot in my day!

My new Eating Well issue arrived.  I love this magazine.  I find a lot of fun recipes in it and love looking at the beautiful food photos.


Especially this particular cover because it just reminds me of SUMMER when our patio and backyard look a little more ready for lemonade drinking:


I want someone else to get the same enjoyment I do from seeing this show up in their mailbox, so I’m going to giveaway a one-year subscription.  I know it’s no KitchenAid Mixer like PW (hey, when I’m up to 15,000 comments on a post, I promise I’ll giveaway something SUPER cool too!) and this is sponsored by my own wallet.  It’s the thought that counts, right?  ;)   But 6 times over the next year, the winner will go “YAY!  The new EW is here!  Let’s get cooking!”

To enter**, all you have to do to is leave comment below.  You don’t even have to tell me what your favorite food magazine is (but I’d still love to know if you want to share!)  If you also tweet and/or Facebook the link to the giveaway, come on back and leave another comment for extra credit!

I’ll select a winner Saturday morning (Feb 25) at 9:00 AM MST using random.org.  Good luck!

– Shari B. =)

**The winner has to have a U.S. mailing address.  So if you live outside the U.S. hopefully you know someone with an address in the states.  ;)

 

 

 

 

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Revisiting Rhabdo

Feb 21

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Good morning FitFeat friends!

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday weekend, if you had Monday off for Presidents’ Day.  My weekend flew by in a blink!  (Don’t all weekends, though?)  What I REALLY wish would fly by in a blink is WINTER! Because this solar-powered lady is really ready for a little warmth from the sun.  I have a little heater than I sometimes move from room to room with me so that I can pretend it’s really a 90 degree day outside.


This morning after I wrapped up personal training appointments, I decided to do some Iron Yoga and let me tell you – it felt GREAT.  When I get away from practicing yoga for awhile, it’s easy to forget how relaxed and centered I feel afterward.  Since I have a really packed list of work ahead of me today and could tell my mind was already feeling scattered and jittery, I knew that yoga would be the answer.  After a quick 35 minutes, I had squiggly legs and a much quieter mind.   Perfect! I recently bought a Groupon for a month of unlimited yoga at a local studio, so I’m very much looking forward to getting that started in March.

Walking and hiking outdoors are two other exercises that really help me feel more at peace in my mind. We are supposed to have a warm 60 degree day tomorrow (although very WINDY) so I will have to pencil in some time before the sun goes down to try to get outside and soak some of it in.

What exercises make you feel most at ease when you are finished?

***

On a completely opposite note of relaxing exercise… Last June when I had to check into the hospital for rhabdo, I was nervous to write about it on the blog because as a fitness professional, I felt a little embarrassed.  However, that post has become one that I am so glad to have written.  At the time, I made the decision to write about it publicly because if it helped just ONE person get to the doctor a little faster than I did or even prevent it in the first place, then it would be a good thing to share.  Well, a number of people have reached out to me since then, some privately via email and others via the comment section, to share their own experience with rhabdo.  Some of the private emails brought tears to my eyes, especially when people say that the post helped them know what tests to ask the doctor for or that they got tested sooner rather than later after reading here.

The post continues to remain active in the comments area – I wanted to bring it back up today so that the regular readers of FitFeat could revisit it.  And if you are new here, it’s a good thing to be aware of if you exercise.  And I also mention the post today because it’d be great if you would like to wish RALPH a speedy recovery in the comments section of the original post.  Ralph commented there last week with his experience and as of today, he is now on his 6th day in the hospital recovering from rhabdo – his CPK levels were more than 5 times higher than mine.  It’s a really scary thing to end up spending a week in the hospital when you were trying to do the right thing for your body by exercising and living a fit lifestyle.  So if you have friends who exercise and strength train PLEASE let them know about rhabdomyolysis and maybe even send them the link.  Especially if that friend is interested is CrossFit or bootcamps – because if you read through the experiences mentioned, all but one so far specifically mention CrossFit.

Here is the link to the original post:  Rhadbomyolysis:  If You Exercise, Read This.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share their experience here on the blog and also to those who have contacted me privately.  I really feel for each of you and I hope that you ALL are able to recover quickly and completely.

– Shari B.

 

 

 

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Philly Fail

Feb 15

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 11 Comments

Hi blog buds!  As promised, here’s my recap of that philly cheese steak crockpot recipe I mentioned wanting to try in the last Recipes to Inspire post.

It started out so well.

Sliced up my organic green bell pepper and onion…

Cleaned, de-scaled and cut my 2 big portobello mushrooms…

Selected an organic grass fed top round for Cory…

Sliced it so nicely…

Added everything in the crockpot with the listed seasonings and spices, turned it on, and sped off to work.  When I came home last night, it smelled wonderful.

Loaded it all up onto hollowed out whole wheat rolls from Whole Foods.  My veggie version with some goat cheese and his meat-only version with some organic white cheddar just out of the broiler and ready to eat our fun little Valentine’s Day meal.

And then it all went downhill.

It was TERRIBLE!!!  Don’t you just hate it when you follow a recipe to a T and it just doesn’t come out how you’d hoped?  Nothing against the recipe writer because who knows what went wrong.  Maybe my crockpot runs hotter, or is smaller or something else was different.  But this meal had ZERO flavor.  The vegetables tasted like I’d boiled them in water, and that expensive top round was bland and DRY!  (How something becomes so dry when cooking in low, moist heat I will never understand.)

After a few bites of mine, I actually tossed it in the trash and ate an avocado instead.  Cory finished his, but only after he doctored it with some BBQ sauce and the rest went in the dogs’ bowls with their dinner.

Looking back on in, I’m not even sure why I decided to try this recipe.  If I’d just taken the same ingredients and sauteed them, it would have taken about 3 minutes more than I spent prepping this anyway.   I’m rarely satisfied with crockpot meals and I know this – but somehow the ‘idea’ of coming home to a finished meal always nabs me and I try again.  Mrs. Crockpot, I am moving you back to the basement storage where you belong.

These are the days I joke that I need to hire myself for one day a week.  :D

However, Valentine’s Day itself was not a bust.

Cory picks great cards.  And we had a really fun evening playing Monopoly against each other on our iPhones.  Aren’t we romantic?  ;)   (I sound like I’m joking, but we had a BLAST!)

***

Do you use a crockpot?  Love it or hate it?

– Shari B. =)

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Happy with Hummus

Feb 13

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes, Vegetarian | 5 Comments

Hello there blog buds!

Hope your week is getting off to a good start!  I started my morning with a good upper body strength workout, then had a green smoothie before getting to work.  I told you that my no-slacker tracker was giving me the stink eye!  So I had to remedy the situation.

One of today’s snacks was the return of an old friend:

HUMMUS!  I don’t know why but hummus kept getting left off my food rotation.  I have missed it.  I must restrain myself from wanting to slather it on everything I eat.  That would make for a lot of boring food pics.  “Here we have green smoothie with hummus.  Almond butter toast with hummus.  Clementine with hummus…”  ;)

You’ll see too that I have a few pieces of cauliflower there, leftover from making that recipe from the last Recipes to Inspire post for Poorman’s Shrimp Cocktail.  I thought it was really fun!  Cory even ate it and he’s not usually a big fan of cauliflower.  The chilled cauliflower does actually take on a bit of the texture of shrimp cocktail when you bite into it.  The cauliflower even without the sauce had a nice flavor.  I didn’t have Old Bay seasoning in my pantry so I used a Phillips Seafood Seasoning which I think is similar.

I halved the recipe and it still made quite a bit, so just a heads up if you decide to try it too.  This was one head of cauliflower and it took up my entire cutting board:

It occurred to me that you might think I just post those recipes and never actually do anything with them.  Sometimes I actually try them out.  I even picked up the ingredients to try the crockpot Philly Cheese Steak for Cory’s dinner tomorrow.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Have a LOVELY Valentine’s Day tomorrow friends and I’ll be back next time to let you know how the cheese steaks (and my veggie version) turned out!

– Shari B. =)

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The Power of My Tracker

Feb 9

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

My “no slacker tracker” is calling me out.  “Slacker, slacker!!”

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That calendar is looking very sparse after such a great job in January!  The power of my tracker is real because I feel bad that it’s so bare!  I better hop to it!

:)

– Shari B.

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Recipes to Inspire: Volume 3

Feb 7

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes to Inspire | 4 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to do another installment of the Recipes to Inspire series, in case you are going to be cooking for your Valentine.  Here are some of the recipes I’ve seen around the interwebs ;) that have caught my eye.

Red Curry Salmon Chowder

Besides the fact that this just LOOKS delicious, what I am really drawn to in this recipe is all the healthy fats.  Smack in the middle of winter means drier skin and hair, at least where I live.  My hands especially have been really dry, so I’ve been boosting my intake of the good fats to try to alleviate that without always needing lotion.  This recipe is chock full of healthy fats:  coconut oil, coconut milk and salmon.  The ginger and spicy pepper will make it a warming dish as well, perfect for dinner on a cold mid-February evening.

Nothing to tweak on this one – it’s written by one of my instructors and she’s a healthy eating maestro!

Jalapeño Crab Cakes

I adore crab cakes (or really any type of fish cake!).  It’s something I especially enjoy when dining out because I like to compare them from one restaurant to the next (even though I know when I eat them out I’m getting a few days’ worth of fat intake!).  I think the twist of adding jalapeño to them is interesting and original.

Shari Tweaks:  While I do have panko in my pantry, I usually sub my own bread crumbs that I make with the leftover heels from my sprouted grain loaves.  For pan frying, I’ll use coconut oil rather than the canola oil listed in the recipe.  As far as the slaw/salsa part of the recipe, I think I’d look for something a little different than what is shown because if I read this correctly the slaw is undressed?  I think this Southwestern Corn Slaw looks fun and light!

“Poor Man’s” Shrimp Cocktail (but no fish!)

How fun is this one?  It’s from the recent issue of Bon Appetit.  It’s not really shrimp.  It’s cauliflower!  Boiled in Old Bay.  I must try this.  I have some friends coming over for dinner in a few days – this might be a fun and easy appetizer.

Not really any tweaks to make to the recipe because everything is pretty straightforward.

Philly Cheese Steak (in your crock pot!)

So now that I’ve shared a bunch of ‘fishy’ recipes, I figured I better include one that MY Valentine would appreciate and eat, since he doesn’t like fish.   He loves Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches though and the fact that this one is for the crock pot is ideal, because I have a personal chef job that day and the LAST thing I want to do when I get home from cooking all day is cook some more!  :D   This way I can have something at the ready with just a few minutes of prep when I walk in the door.

Shari Tweaks:  Since I’m not much for meat myself, I’ll add a few large sliced portobello mushrooms to the crockpot over to one side to be the ‘steak’ portion for my sandwich.  And I’ll probably pick up a whole wheat demi-baguette to use in place of the roll, and hollow it out a bit for serving.

***

Any big plans for Valentine’s Day?  If you are cooking, what’s on the menu?

***

For fun:  I love the idea from last week’s “Parks and Recreation” episode of getting all your gal pals together on February 13th for “Galentine’s Day“.  If you could use a chuckle, check out this slideshow of Leslie Knope’s “Tips for Creating Your Own Galentine’s Day“

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Previous Recipes to Inspire Posts:

Volume 1

Volume 2

 

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Too Much White and Not Enough Green

Feb 6

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Hi blog buds!

If you are a Colorado resident, hope you enjoyed the snow day on Friday.  For those of you not in CO, we had a solid snowstorm, dropping about 2 FEET of snow on most of us along the outskirts of Denver.  (I heard Blackhawk got FOUR feet!)

Views from our windows:

Not sure if this happens to other people, but there is something about a blizzard that makes me LAZY.  I didn’t work out all weekend and I ate a lot of starchy comfort food.

I do blame part of the food on having received this as a birthday gift:

Excitement just doesn’t cut it!  I’ve always wanted a stand mixer.  Now I finally have one!   (Thank you to my sweet husband for adding to my kitchen gadget arsenal!)

So of course I had to make stuff!  Almond cake, two different batches of dark chocolate chunk cookies, a loaf of yeast-free bread.

This mixer might be bad for my waistline!  ;)

But now that the ‘birthday blizzard weekend of gluttony’ is over and it’s MONDAY, that means my year of “Fit & Fine at 39” commences!  2012 in general has been off to a really great start with fitness and food – now I plan to dial it in even a little further.

The first item on the menu today?  A green juice!

And as I write this I am drinking a multi-green kombucha.  The color tone I plan to set for this year is GREEN.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  And if you have sunshine near you, please send it our way so we can melt off some of this white stuff!

– Shari B. =)

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Miso Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Feb 1

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 12 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

How did your first month of 2012 go?  Mine will be known as “Jam-packed January”.  I don’t remember the last time I had such a busy month!  When the blog gets quiet, you know things are going bonkers around here!  No complaints though – I’m thankful to be busy with work.   Although recently I’ve been finding that the more cooking I do for clients, the less cooking I do for my household.   It’s kind of a “cobbler’s children go unshod” situation – the chef’s hubby is left unfed!  ;)   Thank goodness for Chipotle bowls!

I did have one quick snack recently that I wanted to share with you.  As you may know, one of my favorite spices is Smoked Spanish Hot Paprika.  I love to pair it with sweet potatoes.  Well, I had half of a baked sweet potato left over so I mashed it up with a few sprinkles of paprika and a small spoon of fresh red miso and WOW was it delicious!   A little sweet, a little salty (from the miso), a little spicy & smoky…  I shaved a little raw goat cheddar over the top and finished it with a little sesame seed gomasio.  This would be a great side dish for burgers or even some seared tuna.  Don’t worry about measuring the spice and miso.  Just go by taste!


I’ll be working on the next installment of Recipes to Inspire soon.  I have had a brand new Bon Appetit magazine sitting on my coffee table for 2 weeks and last night was the first time I had a chance to crack it open.  Since I have some time scheduled for recipe testing next week, I’m on the lookout for some fun ideas!

Here’s to a FABULOUS February for us all!  And Happy Groundhog Day EVE!  :D

– Shari B. =)

 

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