FitFeat

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Archive for category Cooking

My Basil Is A Bully

Feb 9

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 8 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!  Hope your Tuesday is off to a terrific start!

Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Marathon Monday feature.  Sounds like you guys like it, so I’ll definitely keep it up throughout my training.  I’ll be sure to include all the ups AND the downs so that you guys can learn from my mistakes as well as my wins… since this is my first full marathon, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of “whoops, bad call” moments!

I feel a RANDOM post coming on so I’ll just give you fair warning now.  :) It’s probably going to be all over the place!  Lots to catch you up on!

Lets start with some EATS, shall we? A few food highlights to share from the last few days.

Here’s my portobella ‘burger’ that I grilled on the George Foreman using Ezekial ‘heels’ as the bun.  Toppings include broccoli sprouts, avocado, Tofutti, salsa and some spinach.  On the side I have steamed cauliflower sprinkled with nutritional yeast.  That was a tasty dinner right there!

Yesterday’s packed lunch was SO GOOD!  I’ve really been missing my large salads that I used to eat every day for lunch when I was home at lunchtime.  So I packed up a good ol’ Shari-Salad of the past (spinach, dulse, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, nutritional yeast and Annie’s Goddess dressing.)  I also warmed up some leftover steamed veggies from the weekend and put them on top of the salad.  Then I shook the whole thing up and darn near licked the last few drops of salad dressing out of the bowl when I was done.  I ate an ENTIRE CONTAINER of spinach yesterday between my green smoothie at breakfast, my salad at lunch and my dinner.

Dinner was a mushroom and spinach quesadilla.  This pic is before I put on the top tortilla:

The ‘innards included mushrooms, spiralized zucchini, spinach, small sprinkle of raw goat cheddar, a spoon of 505 gluten-free vegetarian green chile and some nutritional yeast.  While it TASTED FANTASTIC, I have a new “note to self” which is this:  Do NOT use just-steamed veggies  for the innards of a quesadilla – you end up with a SOGGY-dilla instead.  Next time I will use leftovers because they’ve had time to drain.

***

OK switching gears on ya!

A FitFeat reader and good friend of mine is also on a mission toward her first marathon.  Unlike yours truly who is running a marathon because I can’t seem to say no when presented with a challenge, Beth is actually doing her marathon for an amazing cause.  I’m sure many of you have heard of Team In Training, that raises money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Beth has signed up to run her first marathon in June in honor of her friend Diane who is a 15 year Leukemia survivor.  If this is a cause near and dear to your heart (or you just did your 2009 taxes and realize you could use more charitable write-offs for 2010!) head on over to Beth’s TNT Page for more info on the TNT cause and info on how to donate.   Beth has been a running machine the last few years, competing in tons of half-marathons and she’s very excited to be aiming for her first full marathon.  I’m sure she’s gonna kick that course right in the shin(splints)! ;)

I’ll be getting a link set up in the sidebar too so that if you think of people to whom you’d like to spread the word for donations, you can send them right to FitFeat and there will be a banner to click on.

***

OK this will be the last gear-change, I promise.  I thought I’d give you a little update on how my AeroGarden is doing.  The basil is going CRAZY and growing beautifully.  I even harvested my first few leaves on Sunday for a Lemon Basil White Bean dip that I made for a SuperBowl party.

However the chives and the thyme are not looking quite so happy!  In fact, they’re looking downright PATHETIC.

I think the basil is a big bully, stealing all of the UV light and shading the other two in its huge leaves.  And probably using up all of the root space in the bowl!

***

Time is flying by and I have lots to get done on the ‘catch-up’ day so I better get cracking!

Near-future blog topics you’ll want to come back for:

  • Thoughts on Physique 57 (finally, I know)
  • Thoughts on Born to Run
  • Calling all ABS for our next Flex-It Friday feature

Make it a FIT day!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Accidental Dressing

Feb 2

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 7 Comments

Hi friends!  WOW, what a collection of RUNNERS and GOALS we have here at FitFeat!  It was so fun to read all of your comments to yesterday’s post!  Thank you all for contributing to the friendly community we have going here!

Monday turned out to be a great start to the week.  On the fitness front, the day began with a Physique 57 session.   On the food front, I had felt a definite lack of veggies in my Sunday meals so I was anxious to get back to my weekday routine.  Sometimes the weekends are so jam-packed that our eating schedules get a bit out of whack.  MSP and I end up with opposite hunger signals on the weekends:  when he’s hungry I’m not and vice versa.  As a result I think we tend to snack more and not focus on mealtimes.

My post-exercise meal was a GLORIOUS giant green smoothie.

Many of the usual ingredients went into the blender:

  • small banana
  • 3/4 leftover orange
  • 1 clemetine
  • huge handful of spinach
  • 2 scoops of hemp powder (equates to only about 7g of protein)
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1 small scoop Amazing Greens
  • large stalk of celery
  • 1/2 large cucumber
  • small handful of sunflower sprouts
  • 8 oz water

Around 10:00 AM it was time for my daily Larabar:  Coconut Cream Pie.  Mmmm.  A little taste of paradise in a tiny package!

For lunch I heated up about 1/3 of a Chipotle vegetarian bowl (rice, black beans, peppers, onions, two salsas, and a small dollop of guac) and put it on top of a bed of spinach to make a southwest salad of sorts.  It was fantastic!  I’ll eat my Chipotle that way again for sure!  Unfortunately I don’t seem to have a pic – I thought I took one on my phone, but it has apparently gone into hiding.

For my afternoon snack, I have to give a shout out to Fallon.  When I posted the “favorite cracker” question last week, she said she toasts up some Ezekial Sprouted Grain Tortillas and used those as crackers.  Well this past weekend while I was making some dinner in the over, I tossed the rest of my Ezekial tortillas in there too and HOLY tasty cracker, she wasn’t kidding!  They did remind me of Mary’s Crackers but not SO hard that your teeth felt in danger – which I appreciate!  These went perfectly with hummus – so thank you Fallon for the great tip!

I’m still a hummus-holic.  LOVE..LOVE..LOVE the hummus.

For dinner, I was feeling like making some sort of stir-fry.  I was freshly stocked on veggies from the weekend grocery shopping trip.  So I hopped on to Allrecipes.com and searched for “stir-fry sauce”.  You will never guess what happened…!  A recipe came up for which I actually had EVERY ingredient on hand to make the sauce!  Light coconut milk, cilantro, one lime, agave nectar, minced ginger root and minced garlic! That NEVER happens! I’m almost always subbing something to make up for a lack of one ingredient or another!  (I better run out and get a lottery ticket today!)

I can’t reprint the recipe as it is copyrighted material, but I’ll link here to the full recipe.  I only used the Cilantro Lime Coconut Sauce portion. They had a bean and mango stir-fry, while I was just using veggies.

I whipped out the spiralizer and ribboned 3/4 zucchini, sliced up an orange bell pepper and the rest of the veggies came from a bag of broccoli slaw:

I stir-fried all the veggies in just a bit of coconut oil until they were about tender (about 10 minutes).

During that time I blended up the sauce:

When the veggies were done, I added some sauce just as I turned off the burner and served.

Here’s the thing.  This sauce was not stellar as a stir-fry.  Once you added the veggies, the flavor of the sauce seemed to get lost.  So I ended up doctoring my plate ever so slightly with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and a tsp of tahini.  NOW dinner was ready.  And tasty!

However, I have about half of the sauce left and I tried it alone.  By itself it is really, really good.   It will make a FANTASTIC salad dressing! So you can bet I’ll be pouring some on my spinach and veggies for lunch!

Have you ever started out with a recipe for one thing and realized it might work better as something else? This seems to happen to me on a regular occasion in my kitchen!

Have a TERRIFIC Tuesday!  Oh and I almost forgot:  Happy Groundhog Day!  I can handle 6 more weeks till spring – especially if they are as pretty as today!  Clear blue skies with a 50 degree forecast!

– Shari B. =)

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Mimic Your Favorites with Healthy Substitutions

Jan 21

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Handy Kitchen Tools, Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Well hello there blog buds!  Did ya think I disappeared today? It’s been a busy one.  (What’s new, right?  I say that every day!)  ;)

Yesterday after jury duty, blogging, and some work I squeezed in 12 minutes of cardio boogie-ing and then did 42 minutes of my Physique 57 dvd, taking care to keep my toes out of the equation (or at least try).  I only did 42 minutes because I wasn’t in the mood to do abs, so I did all the upper and lower work.

And NOW I just got back from a wonderful 4 mile run outdoors all by myself (no crazies on leashes) as the sun was setting.  It was perfect running weather, around 45 degrees with the little sunshine that was left.  So now I’m enjoying one of these:

Coconut water is ‘Nature’s Gatorade’ as Brendan Brazier would say.  I’ve now definitely worked up an appetite for dinner.  Which will most likely be leftovers from last night’s dinner because it was AWESOME! Doesn’t it look tasty?

Every year my mom and grandma make homemade noodles to include with their Christmas care packages.  This year, my sweet mommy made me a package of spinach noodles because she knows I’m a veggie-holic these days.

So I gathered up some of my ingredients:

Spinach noodles, organic Bertolli spaghetti sauce, and two Sunshine veggie burgers.  While the noodles were cooking, I worked on making the extra “pasta” that I’d be adding to my plate.

One zucchini and one spiralizer with the medium ‘noodle’ blade.  Check.  Check.

Once my mom’s noodles were done, they were drained.  I mixed mine with the zucchini ‘noodles’ to keep the veggies high and the flour intake lower.  Topped with the heated spaghetti sauce, crumbled Sunshine burgers and nutritional yeast.  MSP’s (on the right) was noodles, sauce, parmesan and the ‘burger’ crumbles.

This deserves a review of the close-up again!  :)

Such a fast and delicious meal.  And I totally went back for seconds.  Mom, thanks so much for the thoughtful gift!  Your noodles are the BEST!!  Can’t wait to have them again tonight!

Just goes to show that healthy eating does not require much time or even much thought.  Just pull together lots of veggies and try to ‘mimic’ some of your favorites.

1 cup of zucchini = 18 calories, whereas 1 cup of cooked spinach noodles = 185 calories

You don’t have to deny yourself things you enjoy, like my mom’s homemade noodles.  Make the MAJORITY of your meal out of low-cal, high-fiber veggies.  Then SUPPLEMENT with the ‘richer’ items that add up in calories faster.

I’m so excited that “The Office” is back tonight!  Wahoo!

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday night!  See ya next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Narrow Dodging

Jan 20

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 5 Comments

Hey there FitFeat friends!

So I narrowly dodged the jury duty bullet today.   I’m talkin’ by the skin of my teeth and the hair on my chinny-chin-chin kind of narrow!  If one more person ahead of me in the ‘pool’ of people had been stricken (struck?) by one of the attorneys, I’d be going back the rest of this week.  It was definitely interesting to see how this county handled it compared to other counties.  I was impressed to say the least.  And also amazed at the grilling we got while they were deciding who to keep.  I was there for 5 hours!

Thanks for all the great comments yesterday about exercise tracking!  I’m impressed with all the ANTI-slackers who follow FitFeat!  You are awesome!

A couple of highlights from yesterday’s eats:

I tried a new kind of kale in my green smoothie.  I’ll have to also try it OUT of a green smoothie to see how it actually tastes.

Lacinato Kale… Have any of you ever tried this kind in recipes? Feel free to share your thoughts and/or favorite ways to use it.

Last night’s dinner was in honor of Cindy since she likes it when I use my spiralizer.  :) I spiralized a zucchini and lightly sauteed the ‘noodles’ in a pan with a some chopped tomato and garlic.  Then after a few minutes I added just a smidge of tahini and nama shoyu for a makeshift ‘peanut sauce’ and it was DEE-LISH!!  The zucchini cooked right down to nothing so next time I’ll use more.  But luckily I was eating it with a huge slice of butternut squash so I was plenty full afterward.

Well friends, MSP just got home and it’s time to figure out what sort of meal we’ll throw together tonight.  I’m HUNGRY!!!

Enjoy your evening!

– Shari B. =)

The Day of Many Dates

Dec 31

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

Hi friends!  Happy New Year’s Eve!  :)   My eyes popped open at 4:03 a.m. this morning – oh boy, midnight seems like a L-O-O-O-N-G time from now.  I have a feeling I’ll be celebrating on East Coast time and out like a light at 10:02.  ;)   That is, if MSP is driving us home from the party.  If not, I better borrow some toothpicks from the marinated mushrooms I’m taking so that I can keep my eyelids propped open long enough to drive home.  Then it might me more like 10:32.

Yesterday was a great (if not super busy) day.  I had dates with a couple of “new friends”, Tanya and Alicia.

First Tanya.  She is the instructor on the “Physique 57″ DVD.  Still doing my ‘try lots of new exercises till I can get OUTSIDE for a run’ game.

There is only ONE reason really that I chose to purchase this DVD – this little lady right here:

(Photo Source)

I have a little “fitness crush” on Kelly Ripa.  So if SHE does it, I wanna try it too.   Her transformation through the years has been fun to watch.  She’s said in the past that she goes to classes at Physique 57, so now that it’s available via DVD I wanted to see what it does to my body, being someone who already works out with weights and runs.  I’ll keep you posted for sure!

My second date was with Alicia Silverstone:

It was a short date, only enough time for one chapter.  I’ve been coveting this book since its release.  And I took a good long look through it at Borders the day after Christmas.  It has a beautiful full color format and a lot of great recipes.  And as much as I wanted to take it home that day, I knew it was half the price on Amazon.  The first chapter and the intro are great – I have a feeling I’ll love this book.  I’ll give a better review when I’ve read it and tried some recipes.

I also had dates with Costco, Vitamin Cottage, Safeway and Whole Foods!  (Any guesses on what I had for dinner? Yep, Gigande Beans at the WF Food Bar!)

And last but not least I had a date with my kitchen.  It was a messy date, can ya tell?   :)

When you are in the mood for new recipes that are healthy, raw and vegan, head on over to Choosing Raw.

Gena’s blog always inspires me.  She has a style of writing that I could read all day.   And recipes that I could try all day as well.  This week, I tried her Raw Zucchini Hummus and her Cashew Cheese with Meyer Lemon & Cherries.  Except that my hummus wasn’t completely raw, and my ‘cheese’ didn’t have meyer lemons OR cherries in it.  But you work with what you’ve got, right?

The zucchini hummus is genius.  I love it.  I will love it even more when the tahini that I currently have in stock is GONE (because it’s roasted AND salted) and then I can buy the raw unsalted version.  This brand I have in the fridge has an almost burnt flavor that is too strong in this hummus, but luckily it has mellowed out in the fridge the last few days.

Per Gena’s recipe notes I did NOT add the sesame seeds so in turn I also left out the olive oil. It came out with a perfect hummus consistency.  ;)   Yesterday I smeared it on Wasa crackers with some mashed avocado and leftover black bean burgers halves for lunch at my desk.

I know, I know, again with the blurry iPhone photo! How 'bout that snazzy legal pad placemat too?

And the sweet Cashew Cheese?  Amazing.  It reminds me of neufchatel cheese with the subtle tart and sweet flavor.  I couldn’t find Meyer Lemons (so I used regular lemons) and I didn’t have dried cherries (so I added a small palmful of raisins), but it’s fantastic nonetheless.  It made me want to smear it all over a cranberry bagel.  But that would defeat my ‘clean eating’ somewhat.  So instead I’ll probably put it on some Ezekial toast or a sweet wheat cracker that I happen to have on hand. It would also make a perfect breakfast crepe filling.

Gena's Cashew Cheese with Lemon

Part of the excitement in trying this cashew cheese?  Getting to use one of my new xmas gifts from MSP:

A microplane superfine zester!  It rocks!!  I’ve been using a teeny tiny thing that only takes off one piece of zest at a time, so I was SO excited to find this inside some gift wrap under the tree!!  (Isn’t MSP the best??  I’m certainly a lucky girl!)

***

I’ve been reflecting on what an interesting year 2009 has been.  It started off a bit on the rough side and is ending beautifully.  Isn’t it fun to rewind the year and consider all of the changes that you never would have expected?  If you’d asked me last December 31 if I thought I’d:

  • walk away from my job with the really NICE salary and benefits during an economic recession
  • stop eating chicken, beef, pork and cow’s dairy and finally be someone who eats veggies because she WANTS to
  • eliminate soda, artificial sweeteners and a list of other ‘health thieves’
  • go back to personal training
  • start a fit living blog (and actually STICK WITH IT for more than 2 days!)
  • make new & wonderful friends all over the country from that blog (I love you guys!)
  • be able to go off ALL medications (and it was quite the laundry list)
  • recover from chronic insomnia
  • go on an RV adventure with my mom and grandma
  • and much, much more

I would have said you were talking crazy talk.

But lo and behold, that is what this year has included.  How about you?  What’s the most ’surprising’ thing that’s happened this year that you would never have expected when you started 2009?

It has been an absolutely ENLIGHTENING year.  And I can’t WAIT to see what 2010 brings!

Have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR celebration tonight!  I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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Exclamatory Addiction

Dec 17

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

So I happened to be re-reading yesterday’s post right before I composed this one and realized that the first TEN sentences were punctuated with an exclamation point.    I must have had some seriously HAPPY coffee while writing that one.  (I actually punctuated that last sentence with an exclamation point and backspaced to add a period instead.  Not using exclamation points while writing [or smiley faces for that matter] is like holding down a person’s hands who needs to gesture while speaking.)  Apparently I am super-enthusiastic while writing my blog.  I’ll try (…try…) to tone it down somewhat!  (Aw crumb, I already used one!  This is hard!)  :)

But I digress. 

Yesterday’s ‘organized exercise’ was 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill.  I woke up on the PMS cranky side of the bed and stood around in my gym trying to decide what I wanted to do for exercise while MSP was getting down to business with back & biceps.  I needed to do legs, but the smith machine and the ball were in use.  And I wasn’t in the mood for step-ups or lunges.  So cardio is what I went with.  Maybe by FRIDAY I’ll get some official ‘weight training’ in.   By ‘official’ I mean work actually done in my gym with dumbbells and other fun toys made of iron.  And not heavy boxes of marketing materials.  Since my cardio session was pretty short in the morning, I figured I’d come home after work and maybe squeeze in a Tabata session for weights.  But I moved around enough of those heavy boxes again while at the office and got so much movement that I was truly exhausted by the time I left.  

No complaints here though – I’d prefer some physical activity to go along with the desk job.   You’ve heard of the “secretary spread” (if you haven’t, hit up Google today) and it’s definitely something I’ve experienced in the past with desk jockey jobs! 

NOTE:  I just googled it and there are TWO definitions (who knew? and Oh MY!!).  For the record, I meant this one relating to hips getting wider and NOT the other one which I won’t even link to from my blog.  This is a PG show, folks.  :)

Tuesday’s FitFeat EATS went down like this…

Totally yummy breakfast of a toasted Ezekial flourless sprouted grain english muffin with raw almond butter, raw honey drizzle and cinnamon sprinkles.

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I made my “Green Smoothie To Go“  for later.  It was meant to be a mid-morning snack, but actually ended up as lunch.  Check out the little green smoothie junkie EYEING my drink.  He’s  hoping I’ll drop it while taking a one-handed photo.  That’s quite an intent stare!

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This particular green goodness had 10 oz water, BIG fist o’spinach, 1/2 banana, a mango, 1/2 peeled cucumber, small fist o’sprouts and 2 stalks of celery.  I feel so CLEAN after drinking these!  :)   The green smoothie was then sipped on from about 1:00 to 3:00.  I’d packed a Curry Lentil soup, but didn’t get a chance to eat it.  :(

I did have an unpictured Chocolate Coconut Lärabar as my mid-morning snack. 

After-work snack was two Wasa Light Rye crackers, smeared with Tofutti non-dairy ‘cream cheese’ and sprinkled with cumin and Mrs. Dash Tomato Garlic Basil.  That was followed by airpopped popcorn kernels (1/4 measured before popping).

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I’ve been craving pita pizzas all week so we had them for dinner.  I even turned down an offer by MSP to pick up something for take-out!  (GASP!!)  That’s how AWESOME these things are!  Can you guess which are mine?  :)

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You’d be correct if you picked this one!  img 1012

An Ezekial sprouted grain pita topped with olive oil, minced garlic, nutritional yeast, zucchini ribbons, roma tomatoes, kalamata olives, chopped artichoke hearts, marinated mushrooms and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.  Whew - that’s a lot to fit on a tiny little pita! 

And an obligatory side salad of spinach and turnip greens.  (I’ll have you know that MSP actually ate some of the turnip greens in his salad!)

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Is it Friday yet?  I feel in dire need of a weekend to catch up on things! :)   I’m really looking forward to the long holiday weekend next week!  Wahoo…..

And there I go with the exclamation points again…. :)

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Am I in the Holiday Spirit Yet?

Dec 7

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 4 Comments

Good morning blog buds!  Wow, Monday already?  This weekend FLEW by!  

It was an exercise-less, flour-full weekend.  The point of this past weekend was to accomplish as much Christmas shopping as possible.   And we did a fine job of it!   Then spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon getting things wrapped.  I still have a few remaining items to get but now the idea of having the gifts packed up and shipped out for arrival in time for Dec. 25 actually seems FEASIBLE!  So that’s some serious progress from where I stood on Friday!

But it also meant we ate out a lot.  And while my food choices were pretty good, it is VERY hard to avoid a lot of sodium in “meals out”.  And I can feel the effects today.  Even my upper eyelids are bloated!! 

And it’s another C-C-Cold Colorado day … This morning as I write, the snow plow is going by to clean off our street.  Yes, MORE SNOW in Denver.  And it’s 5 degrees outside right now.  I am having severe “outdoor run withdrawal“.  Treadmill, I do love you…. just not every day!

It really IS going to be a long winter.  :)

***

As MSP was bundling up yesterday to head outside for some snowblowing, he mentioned that he wished we’d bought the gingerbread cookies we’d seen at Safeway after all.  They make our favorite ones because they are SUPER crispy and are perfect for dunking in hot cocoa or coffee.  So I figured while he was out there, I’d find a quick recipe and try to surprise him with homemade cookies as thanks for going out in the freezing cold.

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I used a recipe from Allrecipes.com called Fresh Ginger Cookies.  I made just a few substitutions (I used whole wheat flour in lieu of white, and I used agave nectar in lieu of molasses – mostly because I didn’t HAVE any molasses!)  They turned out GREAT!  They were perfectly crispy for dunking!  I did sample a few even though they were full of butter – if I’d had enough of my vegan butter I would have used it.  But these were also meant for MSP’s enjoyment and I didn’t want to make too many changes.

Yes I have linked you to a totally fattening, sugary recipe from my fitness blog.  But because it’s the holiday season and we are all looking for good recipes, I thought I’d share!  Plus I still like you guys to see that I do eat like an average American SOME of the time!  ;)   This weekend just happened to be a little TOO average for my liking! 

We enjoyed these after he came back in from the cold, with a side of XM Radio’s “HOLLY” xmas music station and some gift-wrapping!  If that doesn’t do the trick to get one into the holiday spirit, I don’t think anything will!

***

Earlier in the day after we had our housework & groceries done, we sat in front of the Broncos game and enjoyed some Chipotle.  I had the Veggie Bowl (about 3/4 of the bowl).  img 943

We weren’t really hungry for a real dinner when the time came, thanks to the filling ginger cookies, so we each made a cracker plate.  Mine had olives, flax crackers spread with Tofutti, and a few pieces of Manchego (sheep’s milk cheese). img 946

It was a GREAT weekend – I enjoyed the food, the fun and the break from exercise.  And now I am in dire need of getting back to my normal eating habits (and un-bloating my eyelids!)  I am CRAVING a green smoothie this morning!  So I’m headed downstairs to get my workout started and then on with the rest of my day!

How was your weekend?  Do you ever have a weekend where you just feel like your body is in need of ‘hitting the reset’ button? 

Have a MAGNIFICENT Monday friends!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

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Eau du Broccoli

Nov 21

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 7 Comments

Happy Saturday!  My favorite day of every week!  I hope you had a fantastic Friday.  Mine was bueno:  it was so nice to get back to my regular eating schedule.  I seems like my eating has been a little erratic this week.  I would miss an afternoon or mid-morning snack and then after dinner I would feel like I hadn’t had enough to eat and was experiencing crazy cravings.

The day started with a trusty old friend:  1/3 cup old fashioned oats (measured dry for those of you wondering), sprinkled with some raisins, unsweetened coconut flakes and cinnamon.  Mmmm.  Coconut was meant for oatmeal.  It seems like such an odd combo, but it is fantastic!

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For lunch I had the leftover veggie enchilada from Thursday’s visit to Three Margaritas, with a side of stinky broccoli.  More on the broccoli later…

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After lunch I needed a “dessert” so I grabbed a medjool date.  Perfect little snack to squelch that sweet tooth!

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And later a beloved Lemon Larabar…  Larabar, it’s been a few days.  I’ve missed you!

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MSP wanted his favorite for dinner (Chipotle) before heading off to poker night with the fellas and my tastebuds just weren’t in the mood for the spice and onion overload.  So while I was out picking up his dinner, I swung through Whole Foods to wander around uninterrupted grab something from the salad bar.  I left with a $26 grocery bill (not bad considering that it’s usually over $40 there, AND $5 went to a donation to the Women’s Crisis Shelter.  But then again, I had just come from Vitamin Cottage, where I spent $21 so see… I’m right back at $40+ for a “quick trip to the store”.)  But if it meant I got to eat these beautiful treats for dinner, then it was well worth it:

 

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Sesame emerald kale, gigande beans, and quinoa pilaf with roasted red peppers.  I should take a picture of these beans next to something to give you a reference of their size next time.  They truly are GIGANDE!  Every once in a while you see one with vericose veins!  I’m not joking!

And because I was feeling a definite lack of greens in my day, I couldn’t resist trying a new BUBBLY flavor, aptly called multi-GREEN.  ;)

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Doesn’t it look tasty?  ;)

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And still I was craving more veggies, so for “dessert” I had a spinach salad with leftover roasted mushrooms and my homegrown crunchy sprouts. 

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Ah, that did that trick.  Full now. 

So back to that stinky broccoli…  the other day I had this idea to bake broccoli, much the same way that I do with kale.  I had about 3/4 bag of florets left in the fridge…

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…so I tossed them with some macadamia nut oil and some nutritional yeast and put them next to the mushrooms I was getting ready to roast.  Cooked ‘em good at 350 degrees until they started to get brown tinges on the edges.

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While I definitely loved the flavor of the baked broccoli (tasted an awful lot like baked kale, who knew?) I most definitely did NOT like the stench that was left hanging around.  It was so BAD!  If we left the house and came back, it smacked us good and hard in the face each and every time we walked back in the door.  Putting the leftovers in the fridge made it exponentially worse.  I wasn’t even really in the mood for broccoli with my leftover enchilada, but I couldn’t take the stanky stink any longer. 

I have never experienced that with broccoli before.  I will have to pay closer attention to how I prepare it.  I want to make a broccoli salad for Thanksgiving, but now I’m thinking I may have to run down to Tokyo Joe’s and just place an order just for steamed broccoli to use in the recipe so that I can keep the house smelling nice that day! 

Another lesson learned: (one that I think I’d read one time about cruciferous veggies and methane, and made the mistake of not committing to memory):  there is a limit to how much broccoli should be consumed in one sitting.  Scarfing down half a bag of baked florets was not a smart idea.  I want to save you poor souls (and the poor souls standing within smelling distance) from this horrible misstep. 

There, I’ve done my good deed for the day.  :)  

Have a SNAZZY Saturday friends!   See you back here on Monday!

– Shari B. =)

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All That and a Bag of (Kale) Chips

Nov 4

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Product Review | 4 Comments

Hello FitFeat Friends!

Whew, what a busy bee kind of morning it’s been so far, and it’s only 8:47 as I begin to type this.  I’ve had a lot of blog-related catch up to do this morning, emails to reply to, made a pancake b-fast for MSP today, am still in my PJs and have yet to finish my post!  What’s weird is my coffee this morning seemed to be UBER-caffeinated! I used the same single-serve pod brand that I’ve used every day for years, and today it hit me like a truck for some reason.  I am having a hard time sitting still, my fingers are going faster than my brain and I feel almost shaky!  Crazy java!  Maybe the dogs slipped a”wog ruffie” into my mug, in hopes that I’d take them out to burn off this extra energy ;)

Speaking of dogs… yesterday’s exercise included a 30 minute WOG for the pups.  Poor Riley hadn’t been out for a real wog since her cone-inducing incident.  And you could sure tell.  She was a maniac!  I spent most of that 30 minutes snapping her leash, shouting “Riley, BACK”.  I think she has stubborn mule syndrome short term memory problems because she only follows commands now for about a millisecond and then goes right back to whatever she was doing before I corrected her.   She thinks she can get away with anything now that she’s OLD, but I’m on to her little scheme.  :)

Since the wog was more for them than for me, I then hopped on the treadmill afterward, while watching an episode of “Eastwick” on Hulu.  It was 40 minutes of interval fun!  Speedwork this time:  I focused on including intervals of 9+ mph.  It was definitely a sweat-maker!  I might have to do it again today!  :)

Yesterday’s eats included a quick bite before my a.m. client, Ezekial toast (which looks to be drowing in vegan ‘non-butter’ but really it just doesn’t melt well!)

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Later a PUMPKINY green smoothie…

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This one had:

  • 1/2 cucumber
  • sweet clover sprouts
  • 1/2 banana
  • about 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
  • palmful of raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
  • BIG fist o’spinach
  • 1/2 cantaloupe

I felt like NOT having a salad for lunch, so how ’bout a salad in a can?  Amy’s Organic Minestrone, mmm warm and veggie-ful.

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Late afternoon while I was prepping dinner stuff, I made a little batch of kale chips, this time with a good dash of nutritional yeast… and ate the whole batch.

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We’ve been craving a visit to Garbanzo’s lately and just haven’t made it up there, so I decided we’d make our own homemade version.  I finally tried this box of Falafel mix I had in my pantry.  I wanted to see if it was easier better than the ones I’d made from scratch.  The answer:  NO WAY.  Not that the ones I made at home were all that and a bag of kale chips, but these were SO flipping dry you felt like you needed to load them up on some sort of sauce, which we did not have.

In their defense, I did follow their “broiling” instructions rather than frying them in oil.  They obviously wouldn’t be so dry if they were sopping around in a pan of olive oil before eating.  But that would defeat the purpose of them being a bit healthier than the charred deepfried version we get when eating at Garbanzo.  Sorry “Fantastic World Foods”, this one won’t make it into my grocery basket again anytime soon.

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Here’s how my plate turned out:  smeared with my  homemade hummus, topped with a little rice pilaf, some roasted zucchini & baby bellas,  a rooster tail of romaine and 1/4 whole wheat pita.  Oddly, the broiled falafel look like GINGER COOKIES!!

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And MSP made his into a pita pocket (sadly lacking any veggie action) :)

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I need to make a good cucumber dill sauce to put on our leftovers to combat the dryness, so I’ll be on the hunt for a good (read:  EASY) recipe that I can use MimicCreme in.  :)   If you  have one, please feel free to share in the comments section!  Or if you  have a homemade healthy falafel recipe that you love, please share that too!

OK, fit peeps, I need to get this party started moving on my Wednesday.  Don’t forget to email me a pic of your awesome bicep flexing for FLEX IT FRIDAY before midnight Thursday!  If you have a blog, be sure to include your blog address in the email so that I can mention it!

Have a brilliant day and I’ll see ya next time!

– Shari B. =)

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You Found Me!

Oct 17

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 4 Comments

Happy Saturday blog buds! :)

If you are reading this post then some of the propagation changes have occurred or your subscription is working.  (woohooo! and thanks for finding me!) At our house, the blog change hasn’t hit our ISP provider server yet so I’m having to use a workaround to put out this post.

Who’d have thought moving a simple little blog/website from one Wordpress platform to another would be such an involved process?  I won’t go into details because then a full-on venting session may ensue…  I guess I take a while to ‘embrace’ change.

I spent a good part of yesterday working on setting up a new theme so that FitFeat would have a neat new look for you when you got here today.  Being that I’m not someone versed in CSS or PHP coding, it was a slow process.  I did learn a lot and had the whole thing pretty much set up but there was one thing that I just could NOT customize and it drove me nuts.  So I ultimately decided to revert to the ‘theme’ that you are used to seeing.  Maybe in the near future when banging my head against a wall for a few hours won’t hurt so bad, I’ll give it another shot.  I’m going to set up a test environment first and play with it.

So all that said, this is of those days where yesterday morning feels like FOREVER ago!  Lots to catch you up on.

My Friday started out with my beloved energy elixir (aka java).  I think the selection of my “drama queen” mug may have set the karma for the day.  I certainly became one by the time 7:30 PM rolled around when I was hungry and ready to STOP being in front of the computer.  I may or may not have thrown a temper tantrum in poor MSP’s direction.   ;)

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After my jolt of coffee, it was time to head downstairs to the gym for some upper body weight training.  Immediately following I had this pretty little pluot to put a smile on my face.  VIBRANT is all I can say about this little cutie:

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Changed and ready to start the ‘workday’, it was time for my real breakfast, an EXTRA-green smoothie. Holy-tastes-like-grass-clippings Batman!  It was cucumber, avocado, sprouts, spinach, celery and only 1/4 of an apple (because I seriously sliced the rest and FORGOT to add it to the blender… didn’t notice till I went to put everything away and then took a sip of my smoothie!)  It tasted green, that’s for sure!  I did love the texture the avocado gave it, though.

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I realized when I posted about having all those avos, I didn’t explain that normally I buy one or two at a time.  I happened to be at Costco last weekend and they had bags of 5 for a bargain.  So I bought a bag, and they all ripened together.  I didn’t want to waste any of them so I was frantically trying to find a way to use them all and not get sick of the flavor!

Thank you for all of your comments and suggestions about things to do with avocados!  Did any of you happen to read about the dryer lint smoothie in Cindy’s comment?  I’m linking you to her site so that you can see it… it DOES look like dryer lint!  Too fun!

One of the things I decided to make since I happened to have all the ingredients was a Mango-Avocado Salsa from allrecipes.com.  I made a few adjustments:  used agave in lieu of white sugar, and rice vinegar in lieu of white (because I didn’t have any white!). I don’t think it made any difference which vinegar was used in it.  Got all my prep stuff lined up:

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All made and ready to rest in the fridge so the flavors can “mingle”:

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I also still had some leftover kale that I wanted to use.  I was going to try the great recipe Alexandra wrote about in the comments section recently… only I realized too late that I didn’t have any cashews!  So I improvised and mixed up about 1/4 cup of roasted red pepper hummus, some olive oil, little squeeze of lemon juice and nutritional yeast, put it all in a gallon ziploc bag, then added the kale and shook it all around.  Then baked.  Here’s the end result:

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Wow, it was GOOD!  I ate the entire batch for lunch. SO good!  Thank you Alexandra for being the inspiration.  When I get some cashews, I’ll be trying yours next! I also want to try the sauteed kale that Joan mentioned in her comment too.

From there it was all PC work the rest of the day.  A Gingersnap Larabar mid afternoon…

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That was it until I was done with the blog move.  At that point, it was out of my hands.  I’d done everything on my end.  As I’d mentioned, I was SO ready for a glass of wine.  I chose a little organic table red called “Our Daily Red” which MSP so kindly picked up for me on the way home.  (When he offered to help me earlier in the day, my response was BUY ME SOME ALCOHOL ON YOUR WAY HOME FROM WORK! That’s the kind of help I need right now!)  No I do not turn to alcohol to relieve my stress.  :)   Just this time, I swear!

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I munched on a couple of pieces of raw goat cheddar with my glass of vino.  Then this:

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I just felt the need for some ‘naughty’ food.  And believe it when I say I did read the ingredients and selected this because it did NOT have any partially hydrogenated gunk in it.  It had other gunk, but at least it was semi-real gunk.  ;)    It was time to park it in front of the TV for a bit in order to let my brain stop clicking… so I turned on the episode of “The Office” that I’d missed most of Thursday night and what happens?  I FELL ASLEEP AGAIN!!  Twice I’d missed this episode!  Guess if I ever have a bout of insomnia again, the trick is to watch a little Michael Scott and Dwight!  :)

Well my friends, it is a BEAUTIFUL Saturday here.  Not a cloud in the blue sky, and WARM!  You know what that means!  Shari needs her vitamin D fix!!  Have a SUPERB Saturday and thanks so much for sticking it out with me during the blog move!

Stay tuned this week for the first FitFeat Contest Giveaway!!

–Shari B.  =)

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