FitFeat

Posts Tagged healthy eating

The Lean, Light and LARGE Smoothie

Mar 16

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 5 Comments

Happy Friday FitFeat Friends!

It’s amazing how good one can feel after a few consecutive nights of really great sleep!  Today’s workout was fabulous.

  • Dynamic warmup for 5 minutes + some rotator cuff exercises
  • Deep smith squats (I mean DEEP.  Hamstrings touching calves)
  • Overhead shoulder presses
  • DB rows with horizontal grip
  • Curtsy lunges with weight vest
  • Back extensions on the ball
  • Ball crunches
  • Biceps with the band
  • Triceps with the band
  • Angled pushups on smith machine with varying hand placements

And later today, when the weather is supposed to be mid-70s I get to do a little socialcizing at my favorite hilly loop with a good friend for some catch up time.  It’s going to be a great day!

After weights this morning, I made a super post-workout smoothie.


This thing was massive!  32 ounces.  It didn’t even fit into my large cup!  It was like the Big Gulp of smoothies!

So I wondered – if my smoothie is THIS big and this filling, what kind of calories are we talking here?  Just out of curiosity I decided to enter it into a calorie calculator to check.  In addition to 10 ounces of water and a couple of ice cubes, here are the ingredients and the calorie info (if it is hard to read, click on the image to see it full-size):

Only 216 calories and a very solid balance of protein and carbs.  I don’t mind that the fat is low, because I get plenty of healthy fats in my lunches and dinners by way of avocado, egg yolks, olive oil and more.

Look at all the goodies packed into this smoothie: Ginger is included for its anti-inflammatory properties, not mention helpful for digestion and it is a warming ingredient.  Lemon for a boost of alkalinity.  Mixed berries (black, blue and strawberries) rich in antioxidants.  Frozen organic spinach because no meal is complete without some leafy greens!  Cucumber (also anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich) for healthy connective tissue and cleansing water content.  Celery – hello fiber!

If you are looking for a calorie controlled breakfast option that you can eat on the run, this one’s for you!

Have a fabulous Friday friends!  And a safe and fun St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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Dressed Up Like Tabouleh

Mar 15

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 5 Comments

I LOVE tabouleh (or tabouli if that’s how you prefer to spell it). :D I love it made using couscous as the base or quinoa as the base or bulgur or chickpeas… you name it.  So it occurred to me that I should just put the flavors I love from tabouleh into a salad dressing and then I can just drizzle it over EVERYTHING (read: leafy greens).


Tabouleh Salad Dressing:

As written this will yield just under 1/2 cup.  Add more or less of any of these ingredients to adjust to your own taste. I like the tang of lemon so it’s in equal parts with the olive oil.

  • 1 cup parsley tops
  • 1/3 cup mint leaves (from about 4 small sprigs)
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or other favorite cold-pressed oil, like hemp)
  • 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 2 small lemons depending on their size and juiciness)
  • 1/2 clove of garlic, minced or pressed (if you like garlic, go for the whole clove!)
  • sea salt and pepper to taste – start with 1/4 tsp of each and adjust as you like

Place all ingredients into a small blender or Magic Bullet and blend until smooth.  Store in a glass jar.  I use it fairly quickly anyway, but I’d say definitely try to use it up within 3-5 days.

The advantages to this dressing are that you can use a good amount on your salad if you so desire.  Plus you are basically adding more greens to your greens!  It doesn’t get much healthier than that!



I added it to salads and drizzled it into wraps.  I love it with greens, chopped red onion, chopped tomato, cucumber and avocado.

To add some extra Middle Eastern flair, heat a Falafel Sunshine Burger to crumble over a salad or into your wrap.



Super fast, very easy and extremely GREEN!

– 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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Blackberry Spread

Oct 17

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 6 Comments

Where on earth is this month going? I can’t even believe it’s past mid-October and that Halloween is right around the corner.  It’s the middle of the day as I type this and only 46 degrees outside (brrrr!).  I have my space heater pointed at my feat already.  I can’t complain though because Saturday it was 84 and GLORIOUS.

I was excited to see that you like the idea of a series of “Recipes to Inspire” and that you like to see how I would go about tweaking them.  I’ll be sure to do more posts like that!

I was also recently inspired when someone asked me about making a healthier version of jams/jellies since so many of them are so high in sugar, and often times you find a lot of extra stuff in them, whether it’s artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup or preservatives. I instantly suggested using the sea vegetable agar agar along with blended fruit.

So of course I had to give it a try!

If you are new to agar agar, don’t let the fact that it’s a sea veggie deter you from giving it a try.  It’s very similar to using gelatin, but in a vegetarian version derived from red algae.  It provides fiber and volume without adding any calories.  And all you are going to taste is the food you mix it with – I promise your jam won’t taste like seafood!

Gingered Blackberry Spread (“Jam”)

by Natural Chef Shari Becht
Yield:  ~ 1 cup

1 cup frozen organic blackberries

2/3 cup water

1 ½ teaspoons agave nectar (or other sweetener of choice such as raw honey or organic maple syrup)

1 teaspoon minced ginger (I use a jarred version by The Ginger People)

Pinch of stevia (optional)

2 teaspoons agar agar flakes

In a blender, add all ingredients except for the agar agar.  Blend until puréed into a liquid.

Pour the purée into a medium saucepan and bring to a light boil over medium-high heat.  Once the purée is bubbling, add the agar agar flakes and stir vigorously at first to dissolve the flakes and avoid clumping.  Allow mixture to bubble for 5 minutes, stirring often.

Remove from heat and carefully transfer into a glass jar.  Set aside at room temperature for 10-20 minutes, long enough to slightly cool and stop steaming. Place in the refrigerator (uncovered) for 2 to 3 hours to chill, which allows the agar agar flakes to ‘gel’ fully.  At this point, a lid can be placed on the jar.

Notes:

1.)    People/kids who are used to eating a much higher sugar content in their foods might find this to be less than sweet on their palate so feel free to add a little additional sweetener during transition.  I tried to keep the sugar as low as possible while still having a somewhat sweet flavor.

2.)    Make in small batches in order to use within a week or two.

3.)    Play with flavors you like – I used frozen blackberries because it’s what I had on hand, and ginger pairs well with blackberries.  Be creative with what you have in your kitchen – you might come up with an amazing combination!  (Agar doesn’t play as well with citrus fruits though, just as an FYI – you need more flakes for acidic blends/juices.)

Slather this on your toast (and your kids’ toast) knowing that they are getting a much healthier alternative. I could even see this being a fun way to make CRANBERRY SAUCE for Thanksgiving! Let me know if you try it!

– Shari B. =)

***

Shari Becht is a Certified Natural Chef, Fit Living Coach and ACE Certified Personal Trainer.  She is extremely passionate about teaching people how they can take steps to fit healthy habits into their busy lives.   If you or someone you know would like to learn how to eat more healthfully, achieve a healthy bodyweight or incorporate more “FIT” into life, please feel free to email her at shari [at] fitfeat  [dot] com.  For more information, click here.

 

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Giveaway: Win A Fun New Cooking App

Sep 19

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Giveaway Contest | 2 Comments

Hi friends!

Earlier this year, I was invited to participate in something really fun that I’m excited to share with you today.  I was asked to select a recipe to test and write about for a project that was in development at the time.  I have strong admiration for the person who was putting this project together.  She is Deborah Chud, MD.  And her project is called Trufflehead, a new healthy cooking app for iPhone, iPad and iTouch.

I just recently installed the app on my own iPhone now that it’s been released and can’t wait to try some of the recipes from it when I’m back in my own kitchen after I’m home again from “travel mode”.   It is a SUPER SLICK cooking app.  What I especially love about it is the inclusion of video guidance for certain steps IF you need it.  For example, if you are making the artichoke appetizer, but have never worked with a fresh artichoke before and are unsure of how to prep it for use, all you do is click the video arrow inside the recipe and it walks you through the steps.

When I tried the Sesame Slaw with Pea Pods recipe as a contributing blogger, I was provided with the video for destringing the pods, something that I’d never done before.  You can read about my experience with this recipe and the video on the Trufflehead site at this link: Shari Becht’s Sesame Slaw with Pea Pods.

I also love that every recipe has a photograph.  I will almost always pick a recipe with a pic over one that doesn’t when I’m looking in cookbooks.  In this app, I don’t have to choose because EVERY recipe has one.

There’s something here for everyone:  omnivores, vegetarians, pescetarians, vegans.  I saw a recipe in the app for vegan Pumpkin Blondies that I definitely want to try.   Some of the recipes do call for Splenda OR sugar, and I can’t judge because I used to use Splenda myself (but I no longer do).  Deborah addresses the sweetener issue both in the app and on the website, and I appreciate the way the topic is handled.

To learn more about Trufflehead and the cool features included in the app, take a look at this video clip:

Here’s the best part!  Deborah has kindly offered to GIVE a free download of this awesome app to TWO FitFeat readers!

The first two people email talk@trufflehead.com with FitFeat in the subject line will receive a free download.

Let me know if you are one of the winners!

Now, if you DON’T win, you can still purchase this app at a 50% discount for a limited time from the iTunes store.  When I went to check it out at iTunes, the iPhone version was only $1.99 during this sale.  Think about how expensive cookbooks are to purchase and this app only costs $1.99?  That is a steal – and I really mean that because I know that Deborah put a LOT of work into bringing this to fruition.

Have a MAGNIFICENT MONDAY FitFeat friends!  See you soon!

– Shari B. =)

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Tech Break

Sep 17

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 2 Comments

Hi friends!  Welcome to the weekend!

Many thanks to those of you that spent the last three work weeks focusing on cleaner eating, whatever your own version of clean eating entails.  For some maybe it’s less sugar, for others maybe it’s more protein and less starch.  Everyone has their own food journey.  Either way, I sure appreciated the company!  And I hope your body is thanking you for it!  FitFeat will return to normal (read: more random & topic based) posting now so I hope I didn’t plug up your Google readers or inboxes during this challenge.

Today’s questions:  Do you enjoy reading/seeing the food & exercise recaps regularly?  Does it help you come up with ideas for things to do with foods in your fridge and pantry?  I’m a pretty simple eater. I don’t like to take the time for things that are overly complicated or require a bunch of ingredients.  The advantage there (besides a savings of time) is improved digestion.  When you put too many types of food in your system at one time that don’t necessarily combine well, you create internal stress.  Therefore, I feel that the way I eat makes for a relatively boring food blog most days!  :)

A Break from Technology:  I’ve got a lot going on in the coming days which means I won’t have access to my laptop or be on my phone much.  But I’m hoping that I’m able to capture some fun stuff to share with you at the end of it.  I’ve already written a few posts for next week though so I hope you’ll still stop by!   And if you have an iPhone, iPad or iTouch, be sure to check back 1st thing Monday morning for a little giveaway!  (Watch, now I’ve jinxed myself and my “auto-post function” won’t work!  Cross your fingers for me!)

Have a SUPER Saturday and good luck on Monday with the giveaway!

– Shari B. =)

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Who Needs a Garden Anyway

Sep 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

…when you can find this kind of loot at the farmer’s market?  (Shhh… don’t tell my garden that I was cheating on it today!)  Check out this size of this zucchini:

It’s been a fun day so far!   We got up this morning and did a Tabata workout.  Cory did his regular Tabata leg workout (smith squats, leg extensions, deadlifts, machine curls, lunges and abs).  I of course had to tweak my workout (just like I do with recipes, because I get bored so easily I guess!) so I did my Tabata routine with these:

  • standing kickbacks with banding
  • smith squats with a narrow stance
  • kettlebell windmills (alternating sides each set)
  • single straight leg deadlifts – balanced on a yoga mat**
  • hamstring curls on fitball
  • plank mashup (some straight, some with hip twist, side planks)

** I don’t have a cool balancing disk or a Bosu so when I want to ramp up the intensity of an exercise a bit, I add a bit of balance to it by folding up a yoga mat.  Looks simple, but it really does throw your body just a bit off kilter when you are doing single leg exercises.  Like this:

After our workout, I had a big green juice with kale, a green apple, a little lemon, some ginger, celery, cucumber, and broccoli stalks.

Then we took the crazy beasts out for a walk.  They got their greens with breakfast too (my dogs go nuts for kale stalks) – look closely and you’ll see him licking his lips!  His little tongue is poking out:

When it was time for some real breakfast food, I made buckwheat pancakes (with some extra protein powder and greek yogurt mixed into the batter) topped with some blueberry goat cheese and a little organic maple syrup:

I can’t tell you the last time I made pancakes – it’s been a long time!  Granted when you are using buckwheat they aren’t the same “cake-y” delightful ones you might get at IHOP, but these sure are better for you!

For lunch I made a spinach and pesto quesadilla.  Don’t mind the bite out of the tortilla.  ;) I was trying a new sprouted grain tortilla and wanted to make sure I liked it first before I actually made my lunch.

A good trick when you are using cheese is to grate it with a super fine microplane.  You get the “visual effect” of a good amount of cheese, but by weight you hardly have any because it’s so light.  Here I’m using my favorite Mt. Sterling raw goat cheese.

Pile on a bunch of baby spinach, fold in half and cook on your Foreman grill for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and sizzling.

I was planning to have these baby carrots on the side:

But unfortunately they were frozen solid.  On to plan B:

Who doesn’t love the Pampered Chef crinkle cutter?  :)

My afternoon snack was a SUPERGREEN smoothie (and this one even tasted a little greener than usual).  Frozen mango, kale, spinach, greens powder and egg protein.

I’ve definitely had my fair share of greens today!

How about you?  Did you get a lot of greens in?  Or do you need to include a leafy green salad with your dinner?  :)

Before I go I have two more pics to share.  One I took on the way to meet my client for our run yesterday.  Look at how dark it is now in the morning!  This was at 6:15 AM.

I don’t mind cooler days, but I already miss the extra daylight!

And this other pic I took when Rascal saw a squirrel from our window – this was too cute NOT to get a snapshot…

My two *men*  :)

Hope you are having a GREAT weekend so far!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

 

 

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Garden Bust

Sep 9

Posted by Shari B. in Food Rants, Keeping Fit | 3 Comments

Happy Friday FitFeat friends!

It’s going to be a gorgeous weekend here.  The high heat of summer is gone and in its place we have nice cool mornings and mild days with blue skies.  Perfect Colorado weather.

The downside to summer being on its way out is that my garden is WAY behind.  For those of you who might be new to FitFeat, this is a first attempt at gardening in our house.  My ability with house plants SHOULD have clued me in to the fact that I have no business trying to grow FOOD.  :)

The plants themselves have grown, so that’s promising.

This is what it looked like in May when we planted:

Here it is today:

But outside of a thriving MINT plant (which from my understanding you can’t kill a mint plant if you tried!) and a few scallions, not much else is going on.

I have kale, but they aren’t the darker green I’m accustomed to seeing and the leaves are pretty small.

We have the beginnings of cucumbers…

…so we were hopeful that they’d grow into something, but they seem permanently stuck at this size.

And just last week we were so excited to see our very first zucchini just starting to grow (at a time when we are hearing how most gardens are overflowing with zucchini already) but today when I went out to see how much its grown, it looks like a bird beat us to the table:

I’ve had two teeny tiny peppers and one miniscule heirloom tomato.

I am holding out hope for the Brussels sprouts since I’ve read they are a fall harvest and actually like the cooler weather.  If not, then I’m going to pluck all the leaves and just juice them!

I’m not sure how we could have gone SO wrong on ALL of the plants.  I’m more than a little bummed about it and feeling like it’s all been a waste of money, water and definitely time.  I told Cory that next year I’d rather just do herbs and kale and leave it at that.  I think it might be best to leave the veggies to the pros and just continue picking up my produce at the market!

How has your veggie garden done this year?  Let me live vicariously through your bountiful harvest!  Please share!

***

Feats & Eats recap:

After 2 days of an ‘on and off’ headache, feeling zapped of energy, and not finding my regular food to be remotely appetizing (no I am NOT pregnant!!), today I feel brand new!  I had the hilly trail run this morning with my early client and it was a BRISK 49 degrees out at 6:10 AM.  Brrrr!  But it was a very nice start to the day.  After I got back, Cory and I went to Panera and I got a post-run bagel, since it’s FRIDAY!  Not something I eat very often, but a fun way to kick off the day.  But due to its pretty dense caloric value, there won’t be a mid-morning snack.  This will hold me over until lunchtime for sure!

I’ve got some work to do and some recipe testing on tap for this afternoon!  Hope you have a FANTASTIC Friday!

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

 

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Weekend of Weddings

Sep 2

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Are you excited it’s Friday?  I love long holiday weekends.  They feel like little vacations. We have so much planned for the weekend in addition to that hike I mentioned yesterday.  We’ll be going to the wedding of my good friends Beth and Jason (very excited about that!), hopefully dropping in on the Taste of Colorado to try some interesting eats, and I’m sure we’ll see a movie at some point because that’s just how we roll.  There’s another wedding happening this weekend as well – my cousin Carrie is getting married in California.  Unfortunately I don’t get to go to that one, but I’m thinking I should probably eat TWO pieces of wedding cake at Beth’s reception, in order to honor Carrie’s, right?   ;)

Congrats to BOTH sets of the soon-to-be newlyweds!

I’m excited for all of you!

***

Let’s talk about yesterday!

Thursday’s workout was an intense run at my favorite hilly spot.  Hike up the first steep big hill, then run fast on the downhills and “sprint” intervals on the uphills.  I put “sprint” in quotations because it’s an attempt to sprint for sure, but when going uphill you feel like one of those cartoon characters whose feet are moving so fast they are all a blur, but the rest of the body’s not moving at all.  :D

It was a gorgeous morning for it – getting outside for a run as the sun comes up is always a great way to start the day, even if I do grumble a little while I’m getting ready to go.  ;)

Before I left for the run I had my half-caff coffee and a little serving of Mom’s Best Naturals Toasty O’s for some fuel.

When I got back I felt the need for some GREEN but not of the smoothie variety because I just wasn’t too hungry.  This would my lazy version of a green smoothie – dried greens powder mixed with water:

Morning snack was cucumber cups filled with hummus and topped with leftover tempeh strips:

When lunchtime rolled around, I took a peek in the fridge and realized I had a lot of Italian-ish items (shocker right?  :)   Somehow I always have Italian goods…. they are my FAVORITE!):

So I made a little sauté of mushrooms, zucchini and shallots in balsamic, then tossed in cannellini beans and arugula toward the end.

I also made some whole wheat penne pasta which was tossed with pesto.  The veggies were served alongside and then topped off with a few flakes of raw goat cheese and a chopped heirloom tomato from my garden:

It was a TINY tomato…

But it was sweet and succulent, almost like you could taste all the nurturing that’s gone into the plant over the summer.

I’m glad it was good, because so far it’s been the only one we’ve gotten out of the garden this year.

After lunch I was craving a little chocolate, so I mixed up some almond butter, protein powder, carob powder and agave, pressed it together into a ball shape then tossed it around in hemp seeds.

I’m guessing the are somewhat similar to Gina’s protein balls, but I didn’t measure anything so I have no clue if they taste the same or not.

It was a delicious little bite and shut down the “craving monster”.

In the afternoon I had a few slices of raw goat cheese along with some unpictured Mary’s Gone Crackers flax crackers.

By dinnertime, I was feeling a little how Riley looked… which is to say TUCKERED OUT:

For dinner I made some brown rice with some shallot gravy (made with minced shallots, olive oil, spelt flour and vegetable stock) to serve with the last of the meatless loaf from earlier in the week.  But I just couldn’t bring myself to eat ANY MORE of that loaf.  As much as I loved it, I’d eaten it too many times this week.  So I just had a few ramekins of the rice and gravy while Cory cleaned up the loaf.

Then later a protein shake and piece of toasted Ezekial.

Mmmm it was a yummy day!

I hit up Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocer’s today to gather some goods to make a fun dinner tonight in honor of Labor Day weekend.  I’m crossing my fingers it turns out.  I’m trying a product I’ve never worked with before so I have no idea what to expect!  But I’ll share the results with you tomorrow!

Have a beautiful evening and a LOVELY start to your Labor Day weekend!  See ya tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

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Another Fun Use for Coconut Oil

Sep 1

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Hi friends!  It’s Thursday!  Wahoo, that means a new episode of Jersey Shore tonight!  :D   I readily admit to turning my brain to mush each week during JS and Bachelor Pad 2.  There’s something to be said about watching people behaving badly on TV that just makes you realize you are pretty darn normal.

So here is a random tidbit I came across the other day:  did you know you can use extra virgin COCONUT OIL as an underarm DEODORANT???  WHAT??  (Is there anything coconut oil CAN’T do?)  I have been on the lookout for something to replace my good ol’ Secret solid.  Yes it works great, but regular antiperspirant/deodorants really are just chock full of toxins.  I’ve known this but it’s been the one thing I haven’t yet fully embraced for replacement.  I’d heard great things about WELEDA deodorants from one of my instructors last year, and in doing some reading on it again this week I ran across some bulletin boards where people had good luck with coconut oil.  Well… I have it in the house so rather then drop $10 on the WELEDA, I’ll try this first.  I already keep some in my bathroom to use as a moisturizer.

I mean it does make sense, since coconut oil has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.

Obviously you’ll still SWEAT because there’s nothing in it to prevent that.  But sweating is good for you because it releases toxins through the skin.

So after my shower, I rubbed on the coconut oil until it had absorbed.  And at the end of the day, there was no odor!  I did sweat a little here and there when I was toasty, but no “pit smell” at all!  (Poor Cory even [begrudgingly] put up with me saying, “smell my pits – do I stink to you??” in the evening.  If only I had a camera handy for the look on his face… the things that man endures being married to me!)

Going forward, when I’m out in public wearing something that I don’t want to sweat in, like a nice blouse, I’ll still stick with conventional for now, but on days when I’m not dressed up you can bet I’ll be rocking the coconut oil!  Pretty cool!

Have you tried this?  Do you have any alternative deodorant brands you recommend?

***

On to the food recap: after my killer leg workout yesterday and my delicious post-workout green smoothie, my mid-morning snack consisted of toasted Ezekial with a hearty schmear of blueberry goat cheese.  We found the cheese on a recent Costco outing (they have a GREAT cheese selection for those of you looking for organics, for raw, for goat cheese, for sheep cheese – tons of cheese!).  And it did not disappoint – so so good!  While it will stain everything in sight (teeth, lips, fingers, white shirts!), it’s quite worth it!

For lunch I needed to cook up some tempeh that’s been sitting in the fridge.  So I sautéed some onion slices in one pan, sprinkled with Hungarian sweet paprika.  I sautéed sliced mushrooms in another pan with some Spanish Hot Smoked paprika and smoked sea salt, and then cooked the tempeh in the sides of both pans.

I used romaine leaves as little “taco shells” and stuffed them with the goods, the drizzled with a touch of ranch dressing, to “cool off” the heat of the rest of the meal.

It was pretty darn good!

My afternoon snack was a mini homemade Mocha Frap, blending ice, chocolate egg protein powder, almond milk, a small squeeze of chocolate syrup and a few shakes of decaf VIA.  Totally hit the spot on the 98 degree day!

Dinner was late and eaten in a bit of a rush… but I still tried to savor each bite.  Two eggs, scrambled with some arugula and fresh garlic then rolled into a whole grain tortilla.  Quick and yummy!

Fortunately I can slow down a bit today and eat more GREENS because my work week is done for the most part, so I’m kind of unofficially in “Labor Day Weekend” mode!

Any big plans for the weekend?  I really (really really) want to get out for a hike!  It’s been WAY too long!

If you need a movie recommendation for the weekend, definitely check out The Help. Cory and I saw it last weekend and we both thought it was FABULOUS!  Fellas, it’s not a chick flick.  It’s worth seeing no matter your gender.  Heartbreaking and heartwarming all in one.  I read the book a few years ago when it first came out, but this time the movie even succeeded in surpassing the awesomeness of the book.

Have a GREAT day blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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