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Posts Tagged hummus

Early Thanksgiving Table

Oct 9

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 5 Comments

Happy Saturday!

I’m so glad for the weekend, because I feel like I met myself coming and going this past week.  This morning I’m heading out on a hike with one of my classmates, so I’m really looking forward to it!  Can you believe I haven’t been on a hike since JULY???  Boy, that Pikes Peak trail did a number on us!  Hoping to see some beautiful fall colors along the way today (different trail), and bring back some pretty Colorado pics to share with you.

Before I go I wanted to put out a quick post to show you how my “starter chicken” turned out!  Perfectly, if I do say so myself!  When we sat down at the table, I told MSP this was more than we do for a typical Thanksgiving dinner.  Last Thanksgiving he had Boston Market and I had Butternut Squash soup.

The chicken came out with beautiful color and flavor.  Inside I’d placed sprigs of thyme and big lemons with the ends cut off.  I placed lemon slices, salt and pepper between the skin and the meat.  Then brushed coconut oil all over the outside, with some more S & P.  I even had a few bites for ‘quality control’, and it was very moist.

The veggies from the pan in the drippings were beyond flavorful:

A side dish of lemon cashew green beans:

Big spuds baked just how I like (close to crispy so that I can eat the skin!):

The whole thing:

In class this week, one of our instructors said if we can roast a great chicken and make a killer broth, then we’ll be well on our way to being great cooks.  ;)   WAHOO!

***

Also, yesterday  morning before I left for class I whipped up some zucchini hummus since I had two small zukes to use up.  The recipe I used can be found here. It’s nice to have a bean-free hummus alternative sometimes.  We had it last night with some flax crackers as appetizers for our dinner.

Pretty tasty!

Well friends, I need to gather my stuff, eat my favorite pre-workout breakfast (Ezekial with AB & raw honey! mmmm…) and head out for my hike!  I’ll be back again this weekend with the Week 3 recap from school!  Enjoy your Saturday!  Hope you are having beautiful weather wherever you are!

– Shari B. =)

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Chatty Legs

Feb 18

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Hi friends!

Thanks for the great tips you left in comments to the YAYS and NAYS post!  After this post I’ll be replying to the comments from Tuesday!  I had the busiest day yesterday – I didn’t even SEE my home computer at ALL!  So I didn’t get a blog post out and I didn’t even get to reply to any emails.  I woke up this morning and it feels like Wednesday was a total blur.

I would almost think Wednesday didn’t happen, if it weren’t for my SORE LEGS!  They are proof that I did in fact get up and workout yesterday! :)

Wednesday’s Workout:

  • 5 min warmup on TM

Three Sets in a row of:

  • High Step-Ups 15R, 15L
  • Explosive Lunges 18
  • 1-Arm Overhead Shoulder Press 18R, 18L

Two Sets in a row of:

  • Plié Squats with heels raised 10 full, 10 low pulse, 10 full, 10 low pulse
  • Static Lunge Right 10 full, 10 low pulse, 10 full, 10 low pulse
  • Static Lunge Left 10 full, 10 low pulse, 10 full, 10 low pulse

One Set Each of:

  • Thigh Dance from Physique 57 (Tabata style) 2 minutes
  • Straight Arm Planks 1 min
  • Forearm Planks with 20 hip dips

Legs = FRIED!  :) I love the day after a good leg workout when all the muscles are reminding you they are there!  The legs are TALKING TO ME TODAY!

***

I’ve had some good eats in recent days that I thought you’d like to see.

A grilled goat cheese sandwich (made on Ezekial bread, what else??) with a side salad and another WONDERFUL new soup (Imagine brand Organic Fire Roasted Tomato Bisque).  A very creamy yet DAIRY-FREE tomato soup!  I LOVED this soup… very flavorful.  A quick and tasty dinner.  I went very light on the goat cheese to keep it from being too calorie dense, about an ounce and a half in thin slivers.

I also attempted to make an Edamame Hummus, after having devoured that appetizer at Root Down last week.  I had a 10 oz package of organic frozen shelled edamame and scanned through a few recipes on the internet.

This contains lemon juice, sesame oil, sea salt, and some veggie stock.  I think what I ended up with was more Eda-mole than hummus.  It needed a LOT of added sea salt to have some flavor, so I’ll be trying a few more recipes.  This one wasn’t really worth sharing just yet.  Not bad, just not WOW.  And definitely not nearly as good as Root Down’s.

If you have a recipe for Edamame Hummus that you’d like to share (or ANY hummus for that matter, seeing how I am a HUMMUS-HOLIC) I’d love to hear from you! Drop a comment!

Speaking of hummus, we made a trip to Garbanzo’s and my hummus plate lasted for THREE meals!  Now that’s budget- friendly!  You get a big dollop of hummus in the middle and then I order all the veggies they offer, and skip the rice, pita and chips.   Then I bring it home and using an Ezekial pita, I do this:

Smear a little hummus inside the pita, add two falafel, pickled eggplant, tabbouleh, and the chopped tomato/cucumber salad.  Then I made a side salad with spinach from home, added a little hummus, some pickled eggplant and a drizzle of their tahini dressing.  THREE MEALS I got out of this for the $6 plate.  And TASTY!

And Berni,  you will be happy to know that I did in fact wash my ALL of my spinach as soon as I read your comment about doing it on the weekend.  :)   Which had crossed my mind, but I was being LAZY!

No fecal material in MY salads or smoothies, thankyouverymuch!

***

Well, I am off to take my pics for tomorrow’s FLEX-IT FRIDAY.  Send me your pics today to shari at fitfeat dot com.  If you DO NOT get a reply from me by email after sending your pic(s), drop a comment here at the blog to let me know.  Because I will write each person back when the pics come through to let you know I got them, so no return email means that they didn’t make it through.  And if you are a blogger, include your URL and I’ll be sure to link back to your site when I write the post.

Where are the peeps from Cindy’s CORE Challenge? This is for you!

Have a terrific Thursday, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Umeboshi, Kabocha, and Falafel .. Oh My!

Jan 8

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Hello FitFeat Friends!  Welcome to the weekend!  Ahhh I’m so glad it’s Friday.

Thank you all for having fun with my “Twenty Questions” post from yesterday! I loved reading the replies, and Cindy I’m SO bummed your comment went “poof” off into a bloghole somewhere!

Oh my, where to start?  Guess we’ll start with the fact that I did NOT get a workout in yesterday.  :(   I was faced with working out or writing a blog post, and I just don’t like to let down my awesome readers!  To be fair, Tuesdays and Thursdays are tough days for me to get workouts in anyway, so it’s not biggie.  The weather will be above freezing this weekend so I know I’ll be outside making up for lost time.  Don’t go thinkin’ I’m slacking off or anything!

Yesterday’s eats were great!  I started with just a couple of bites of a Larabar before my first client.  Which held me over just fine for a bit.  Then I made a cinnamon raisin  Ezekial and almond butter sandwich to go, with a side of travel decaf.

For the record, I do not condone much eating while driving, because it’s ‘mindless munching’ where your brain is otherwise occupied and as such, not really registering all the face-stuffing going on.  But I am guilty of needing to do it on occasion and understand when clients need to as well.  Yesterday was the ridiculous snow day where people where driving like we got 2 feet of snow when in reality it was 2 inches — my 10 mile drive took AN HOUR on the interstate.

Lunch at my desk (lookout, blurry iPhone photos are running rampant in today’s post) consisted of a salad with mixed greens, dulse, grape tomatoes, broccoli, and sugar snap peas:

Along with a side of leftover Azuki & Squash dish from The Kind Diet:

(There WILL be a review.  I know I’ve been saying that all week – but I don’t want to rush it.  :)   It’s getting there, I promise!)

Midafternoon I had a BUBBLY!!!!  Mmmm you know that makes me happy!  I had a few bites of raw goat cheese along with it. Totally felt like I was at a wine tasting party.  Only better.

Dinner was at Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill with a very good friend.  We choose to do dinner since it’s been a bit too cold to SOCIALCIZE lately!  (Or as that particular friend calls it:  ChatterCize!  Love that!)  I had about half of this humongous falafel plate:

I think I’ll get at least three meals out of that one!  Yikes!  This time I asked for some extra pickled eggplant.  DEEE-VINE!

I went to the dinner location a bit early since there is a brand new Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocer nearby.  I’ve been skimping along this week at the end of my almond butter jar so I needed to make a stop.  In typical Shari style, leaving the store with the ONLY item I went in to get was not possible (because apparently I don’t have enough food in the house already):

First I finally found Umeboshi Plums!  During the course of reading and reviewing The Kind Diet I tried to find them at Whole Foods with no luck.  But they actually JUST got them in at VCNG.  Wahoo!  So excited to try one!

Next, I have been searching for a kabocha squash for a few months now.  I hear from everyone how great they are, how nutty they taste, and of course the recipe I made this week from Alicia’s book called for one (and I had to sub in butternut).  Finally found a little BABY KABOCHA to try!  Look how cute!

And last but not least, the almond butter I went in for in the first place.  I decided to splurge this time on the organic version.  Last time I just got the raw creamy Maranatha, because the organic version is DOUBLE the price of the non-organic jar.  But I thought for sure it tasted different and it was really bugging me.  So I got the organic and did a taste-test last night when I got home.

And it DOES taste different!  The raw is a more delicate, slightly sweeter flavor than the non-organic.  So I wasn’t crazy (well maybe crazy but for other reasons!) I will need to do further reading on whether I want to justify the cost of the organic.  I spent more than ONE HOUR of PAY on that jar!  I’m telling ya, this part-time job is solely to support my health food store addiction!  :)

***

Well friends, I better hit the ‘publish button’ on this post so that maybe my friends on the west coast will have a little light reading to do while they are watching the clock count down to 5:00.  ;)   I think it’s time to have a little glass of wine to celebrate the arrival of Friday evening, and I have a feeling there will be a bit of Wii Resort in my evening!

Have a FABULOUS Friday and an even better weekend!  I’ll be back again tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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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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It’s a Wonderful Life

Dec 21

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Happy holiday week!  Did the Santa pop up to greet you as you came to the site today? (If you are reading on Google Reader, via email, etc., come out to the actual site to see it.)  I found that cute little plug-in yesterday and had to install it, at least for this week! 

For those of you who visit the blog on Sundays and wonder why I’m being a lazy bum not putting out a post, I often use my ‘blogging time’ on Sundays for the administrative side of owning a self-hosted blog:  running backups, installing WordPress upgrades, learning, etc.   So I’m still working on the blog on Sundays just not in a way that you can necessarily see!  :)

I hope that each of you had a weekend as awesome as mine was!  It was a fantastic weekend!  We had been holding this weekend open because some family members were coming into town from California and Ohio (well, to a town 90 minutes away, that is).  We wanted to be free to meet them up in the mountains during their visit.  Sadly it didn’t pan out for us to get to meet up with them, but the good news is my cousin will be coming again in early 2010 so hopefully I’ll get to see her then. 

As a result we had a rare weekend free of plans!  And we took full advantage.

Saturday morning, I’d hoped to run outside.  Thanks to the 19 degree weather, I chose to keep it INSIDE after all.  I hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes (the maximum amount of time my attention span seems to allow on there) and then I did 35 minutes more of  “See Shari Dance” cardio, with my heart rate in the high 160s.  It was a SUPER workout.  I had a blast. :)

Afterward, I had a mini-green-smoothie.

Followed by an egg and veggie breakfast sandwich (Ezekial english muffin, roma tomatoes, 1 whole egg + 1 white, zucchini ribbons).

Mid-day I met up with a good friend at Garbanzo Meditteranean Grill for some (unpictured) falafel, pickled eggplant and hummus (I skipped the pita this time to focus on the extra veggies).

And in the afternoon I had some Wasa Light Rye crackers with Tofutti un-cream cheese and a side of organic, sulfite-free red wine.

I didn’t really have a dinner per se Saturday night since I snacked pretty late on the wine and crackers.  I had a handful of Newman Organic wheat-free dairy-free Os (basically organic Oreos) before bed. 

I’d received an invite via Facebook from a friend for a 5-mile run on Sunday morning, so MSP and I accepted.  We were meeting at 8:00 so I had a cup of coffee and a pre-run snack (toasted Ezekial with raw almond butter, a drizzle of raw honey and coconut) at 6:30.

And I packed up my favorite running fuel “to go” (half a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar - which I didn’t end up nibbling on until I was home from the run):

We conveniently met for the run in a Starbucks parking lot (hmmm wonder who planned that meeting spot??), so we had to swing in afterward for a post-run soy latte.  Pictured below are two of my favorite things!  Starbucks and running gear!   Isn’t this the best running shirt?  My mom got it for me a few years ago for Christmas and I absolutely LOVE it.
 

Speaking of loving it, the run was FABULOUS!!!  It was 26 degrees at the start and it definitely felt VERY cold.  But we warmed up quickly and got busy chatting, so the chill was fast forgotten.  The sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day in Colorado.  We got in the 5 miles of running with an extra 0.9 mile of warm-up and cool-down.  A decaf soy latte tastes SO…CRAZY… GOOD after a cold run!   

Later for lunch I had veggie ‘spaghetti’ (zucchini ribbons topped with marinara, steamed green beans & baby bella mushrooms, an artichoke heart, olives and nutritional yeast.

During the extremely exciting Broncos/Raiders game, I had some healthy homemade popcorn and a side of BUBBLY!  (Did you SEE that game???  WOW!  Even though the Broncos lost, it was a ‘perch on the edge of your seat’ game.) 

I tried a new BUBBLY flavor this time:  SuperFruits.  It did not disappoint – it was definitely super! :)   I don’t think I’ve met a Synergy Kombucha that I didn’t like.

This bottle had a LOT of the live culture strands in it!  Mmmm probiotics!  And was the appropriately colored drink for watching a Broncos game.

And to top off the end of the weekend, 3/4 of VEGGIE (Boca) Burger from FatBurger with a small portion of fries. 

It was a terrific weekend filled with healthy food, visits with great friends, invigorating exercise each day, and even some time built in to catch up on some reading and some Whole Foods browsing.  Not to mention our “Avatar” 3D adventure on Friday night. 

And knowing that I have a 3-day workweek this week makes it even that much better!  

Do you have extra days off around the holiday or do you have to work?  I feel fortunate that my new boss suggested that I work extra hours last week to make up the day for Christmas Eve, so I get a 4-day weekend that begins when I clock out at the end of the day Wednesday! 

Speaking of working, I better scoot on out the door!  Have a MERRY Monday everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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The Quickie

Nov 16

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I hope that you all had a SMASHING weekend! 

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

See you again soon!

– Shari B.  =)

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As The Sprouts Groweth

Nov 14

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 6 Comments

Happy Saturday morning FitFeat friends! 

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

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

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

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

I present to you my Festive Holiday CranApple Smoothie!

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

Blend till smooth. 

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

Here is the after: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Shari B. =)

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You Are My Sunshine (Burger), My Only Sunshine (Burger)…

Nov 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

“This blog is being brought to you live from …

under my heating blanket…!!!”

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I’m FUH-REE-ZING this morning.  It’s not even that cold outside.  I got chilled first thing during a client session and have not been able to warm up since.  So I undocked the laptop and now the puppies have turned it into a slumber party while I blog.

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Riley’s head is blurry because as I was taking the picture she was trying to worm her head under MY blanket.

What I’m craving right now is some Bikram’s Yoga.   Mostly just the 100 degree room… :)

A little SUNSHINE will do the trick!

Half of an Original-flavored Sunshine burger in a pita with hummus, avocado, leftover roasted mushrooms/tomatoes, cucumber with carrot sticks and a few roasted taters on the side.

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Here is why I prefer the Sunshine brand of vegetarian burgers (well besides the fact that they are named for my favorite thing ever, sunshine!):

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Look at the healthy stuff in that ingredient list!!  It is simply brown rice, sunflower seeds, carrots, herbs and sea salt.  That’s IT!!  Nothing in there that you can’t pronounce or that can’t be readily found in nature.

Compared to another brand of veggie burger (who shall remain nameless in the interest of being nice) whose ingredient list reads:

ORGANIC TEXTURED SOY PROTEIN WITH WATER, ORGANIC WHEAT GLUTEN WITH WATER, EGG WHITES, EXPELLER PRESSED SUNFLOWER OIL, CORNSTARCH, NATURAL FLAVORS FROM VEGETABLE SOURCES, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF ONION POWDER, MINCED ONION (DRIED), MALT POWDER, SEA SALT, KONJAC FLOUR, SPICES, NATIVE TAPIOCA STARCH, GARLIC POWDER, GUM ARABIC, YEAST, EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, TORULA YEAST, YEAST EXTRACT, EXPELLER PRESSED CANOLA OIL, LACTIC ACID, NONFAT DRY MILK.

That’s a lot of extra stuff that I just don’t need.  Malt powder?  In my burger?  No thanks!
That’s why Sunshine burgers rock!
It’s always nice to find food we can feel good about and companies willing to make healthy food extra-convenient!
Alrighty friends, it’s time for me to scoot!  Have a TERRIFIC day!
–Shari B. =)

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How Do You Avoid the Winter Slump?

Nov 5

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Wahoo it’s Friday-EVE!

I have been a bundle of energy since yesterday’s crazy coffee that I swore my dogs spiked.  Well until 8:15 last night when I was trying to watch “Modern Family” and my eyelids kept doing this weird thing where they’d fall down over my eyes uncontrollably.  :)   Are you someone who go-go-gos and then the minute you sit still your body just decides it’s time to sleep? But I woke up at 4:00 this morning feeling FANTASTIC.

My dogs, however, were another story:

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Apparently they think 4:00 a.m. is just too early.  Zzzzzzz zzzzzz zzzzz.

And I wasn’t out of bed 5 minutes this morning when Miss Thing decides to take not only my spot in the bed but also my PILLOW!

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Yeah Alien-Eyes, I mean you. If I find drool on my pillow, you’ll be in trouble!

(Sorry MSP for the early morning “camera flash as alarm clock”!)

With all that energy yesterday, you’d think I’d have squeezed in a fabulous workout.  Unfortunately, no.  It was just one of those days where it wasn’t high enough on the priority list.  I don’t let it happen often, but it was necessary yesterday.  You can even tell by my food that I was busy.  No big salad as I didn’t have time to CHEW!  :)   I’ll get some extra time in today though.

I did have time to chew my favorite breakfast:  Ezekial toast with raw almond butter and a drizzle of raw honey.  (Sorry for the repetitive food!  I know it’s SO boring, but it’s just so yummy and goes really well with the morning joe.)

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While in front of the PC I had a mid-morning snack of baby carrots and a plop of homemade hummus.

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I really don’t think I can eat enough hummus in my lifetime.  Since I love beans so much and especially baked beans (which I haven’t been eating since I gave up meat), I am certain that someday I will attempt a baked bean hummus and combine two of my favorite foods — if I can find a pork free version of Busch’s beans.  Mmm beans.   I know you will all be secretly CLAMORING for the recipe when that happens. ;)

My lunch if you can believe it was actually a soy chai latte.  This is not a “lead by example” moment for sure.  A latte does not a lunch make. But it just sounded so darn good and I can’t resist their holiday cups!  What a nice message it has:

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And by the way Mr. Starbucks CEO, please put some of your mugs on clearance, would ya?  I haven’t seen a single clearance mug since last Christmas and my Starbucks mug collection is getting boring.  But I already pay you a ridiculous amount of money just to steam my soy milk, so I won’t also give you $12.95 for a mug.  $5.00 please. Thank you.

Later, a quick afternoon snack while running upstairs back to the computer.

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I did at least manage to get some greens into  my crazy day.  Spinach, cucumber, sprouts, 1/4 cantaloupe, 1 tbsp hemp oil, celery stalk, and a pear.  I had this glass X 2.

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Dinner was another attempt at the leftover chalk balls falafel.  Even adding Annie’s Goddess Dressing and some juicy tomato slices could not save them.  The rest are going in the trash today.  In the future I’ll stick with making mine from scratch, or giving in to the deepfried version at Garbanzo’s.  This powdered mix is a big DON’T.  Looks tasty, though, right?

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Today’s discussion question is about Winter Slump:  Are you finding that with the change of seasons your exercise is not as abundant?  Or does it have no effect on your routine?  What strategies to you use to keep from falling off that wagon?

I definitely get less active this time of year.  With the snowstorm last week, then the time change so causing evenings to be so dark it is easy to let motivation be zapped a little.  During the warm months, I was getting the dogs out for a couple miles every day on top of my running and weights plus a few hikes here and there.  Even my yardio.  Add to that the fact that cold weather makes one crave heartier foods like Halloween candy root veggies and squash which are a bit higher in starches and calories, the body composition can definitely take a little hit.  I can feel it this week for sure and will be making an effort to ramp up the intensity in the upcoming days (in order to get some “afterburn” calories) and keep the “hearty” foods to a minimum.  I’ll add in additional faster intervals, a round or two of Iron Yoga, some high-intensity Tabata weight sessions, and last but not least I’ll be getting out for runs as much as possible when the weather cooperates.

Speaking of season changes…

Guess what?  It’s time to get outside! Our forecast for today is 76 degrees! Wahoooo hallelujah!  Maybe this is why I’ve been a bundle of energy.  Vitamin D City! It was even in the 60′s yesterday!  Maybe all the snow still in our yard from last week will disappear.

Today will be much less computer-filled than yesterday if I can at all help it.  :)

Last call for biceps flex pics today!  Join in the fun!  I have some fun ones from Cindy to choose from… the rest of you get busy flexin’ today!  Email them to me:  shari@fitfeat.com and I’ll plug your blog as well!  (FYI if you did email them to me and I did NOT reply with a thank you message, then for some reason they didn’t make it through… drop a note in the comments section if that’s the case.)

Have a GROOVY Thursday and join us tomorrow for some FLEX IT FRIDAY fun!  :)

– 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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