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Posts Tagged spiralizer

16 Weeks Till 26.2

Jan 24

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Yes, it’s Sunday and I’m blogging!  :) I’ll use a weekday for ‘blog maintenance day’ sometime this week instead.  I think my list of maintenance/admin items is getting so long that I’m avoiding it somewhat.  Still want to design a custom banner, a logo, a BETTER tagline, a new profile picture, add a few more ‘pages’ and I really want to buy the Headway theme so I can drag and drop things to move them around on the blog.  Ah well.  When I get to it, I get to it!

***

Last night for dinner I broke out my HUMONGOUS salad bowl again.  I used to eat out of this every day for lunch over the summer when I was home during ‘business hours’.  I miss my monster salads!  It takes a long time to chew through an 11″ diameter salad so I don’t eat them as often at the moment.

This one had half a box of spinach, some leftover tofu, spiralized carrots, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, dulse, pepitas and a drizzle of Goddess dressing.  Mmmmm.  Brendan would be proud.

And on the topic of veggies, I found something today that I have been looking for since summer and am SOOO excited to have found it:

Pre-cut organic kale! Now I can make kale chips even faster than before!  Wahooo!  So you know I immediately got busy baking all kinds of veggies.  Eggplant chips, kale chips and a batch of roasted red peppers, mushrooms and zucchini (for use maybe on a pita pizza later!)  My eggplant chips got a little more done than I meant them too, but they were still great and I ate them ALL!


Looks a little weird, but tastes great!  (Much like a green smoothie!)

***

So reader Beth has keen eyes, :) noticing immediately that yesterday’s post was categorized under “Marathon Training” and inquired as to whether I had decided to run another half-marathon.   Yes and no.  :)   A couple of my favorite people to hang out with (and run with) are aiming to run a full marathon in May.  So being the sucker I am for a new challenge here and there, I’ve decided to join them in the training and see where it takes me.

I’ve chosen not to register for the race until after I’ve surpassed about the 15 mile mark in our training.  I’ve done five half-marathons previously so I know I can tackle the 13.1 mile distance.  But I want to see how I feel physically after going beyond that.  If at any time it ceases being somewhat enjoyable  or determine that the rest of my exercise is suffering (or knees aching, etc.), then I’ll know now is not the time.  And since the registration fee isn’t cheap, I don’t want to spend that money and then have to drop out only to have wasted that money.

This will also give me an opportunity to put some of the Thrive Diet principles to good use.  My goal is to do this marathon injury-free and recover as quickly as possible from my long runs so that I can continue with my regular training during the work week.  I love my Physique 57 and Tabata training and yoga enough that I don’t want to miss out on those sessions.

So I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!  The countdown is on:  16 weeks till 26.2.  (eeek!)

– Shari B. =)

P.S. if any of you like to read Runner’s World magazine, I noticed on their website that they are offering their subscription for A DOLLAR an issue, which is 80% off the newsstand price (and a great deal), so thought I’d mention it.

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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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Chili and Ice

Jan 12

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 5 Comments

Hi blog buds!  How’s your Tuesday treating ya?  I hope I’m not throwing off your reading schedule by posting in the afternoon the last couple of days.  I thought I’d play with my schedule a bit to see which I like better.  What I’m coming up with is post when it fits, instead on a SCHEDULE! :)   Hopefully it doesn’t matter if it’s morning or afternoon!

Well Monday turned out to be a fun exercise day.  First I did 25 minutes of intervals on the treadmill in the morning.  I really do get bored on the treadmill and have to vary my speed and/or incline constantly just to stay interested.  After a quick warm-up I did 1 minute intervals of 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5 mph running then walk one minute, then increase the incline a notch and do it again.  The time goes by so much faster that way.

Then when I pulled in the driveway after work, our street had been plowed again!  Which is good on one hand because at least they were moving all of the big ice chunks onto the sunny side of the street.  Unfortunately that also meant our ‘ice trench’ was covered up AGAIN!!!  So I put on my grubbies and some waterproof boots and went out there to dig yet another trench.  It was 50 degrees yesterday so things were just starting to melt a bit in the shaded part of our street.

This ice issue in front of our house has become the neighborhood comedy – neighbors sure like to chuckle at me every day as they drive by, thinking “Suckers!  You got stuck with the worst lot on the street!”  :)   I appreciate that it at least provides a neverending workout, that’s for sure.

But THEN the exercise gets better … because it was so nice out, I couldn’t resist getting the dogs out for a some WOGGING!  It’s been so long I think they forgot what WOGGING is (and you readers may have as well!)  I can’t keep a steady pace with my crazy pups because they like to stop every two seconds to sniff something, then run, then sniff.   So we’re walking AND jogging:  WOGGING.  They had a blast and actually didn’t drive me insane this time.  I think it had something to do with the treats I stashed in my pocket.  ;)   It was perfect weather for a walk.  Now THIS is the Colorado winter weather I love and miss!

***

Every weekend, usually on Sunday, I sit down to come up with food ideas for the week for his dinners (mine are much easier because I always have veggies on hand and as such always have a salad, wrap, sandwich, soup, etc.)  This time MSP said he wanted me to make my mom’s chili during the week, but make it VEGETARIAN.  I’m sorry, say that again? Did you just tell me to make VEGETARIAN chili?  By George, he did!  He said he’d be fine if I used a meat substitute for the beef so that we could both eat it.  (When I made it last time, I just made two pots side by side, mine without beef, his with.) He’s the best, huh?  No wonder I love him to pieces.  :)

So I picked up some Gimme Lean “Ground Beef Style Veggie Protein” and used that in place of the beef.  My mom’s chili is awesome.  We love it.  And it’s very easy and we had it last night for dinner.

I always seem to change the recipe around in some way.  Here’s what I did this time:

Brown 1 package Gimme Lean “ground beef” veggie product in the bottom of  a large soup pot.  If you like onions, you can brown it with that.  I just added a little onion powder, since MSP doesn’t like onions.

After browning, add the following to the pot:

  • 46 oz can of tomato juice
  • 15 oz can organic azuki beans (rinsed & drained)
  • 15 oz can organic kidney beans (rinsed & drained)
  • 1/4 tsp celery salt
  • 1/2 to 1 tsp garlic salt
  • 2 Tbsp chili powder

Simmer for a few hours.

I plated my helping over some spiralized zucchini (just for Cindy, since she wants a spiralizer) and then topped it with some nutritional yeast (in place of cheese).  Mmmm my mom’s home cooking, with a twist!

What are your favorite beans to use in chili?  Are you a WHITE BEAN chili lover or a RED BEAN chili lover? I like ALL chili colors!  :)   I don’t think I could pick a favorite.  I just love BEANS, period!

– Shari B.  =)

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Nifty Ninety

Nov 18

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Well what do you know??  I didn’t crash my blog while doing the WordPress upgrade!  I saw a tweet from a blogger yesterday that mentioned someone had tried to hack into her site and had failed, luckily!  Which lit a bit of a fire under my you-know-what to get cracking on getting my upgrade completed.  Reading through the 14 step process had kept me a bit intimidated, because I was petrified something would end up ‘breaking’ on the blog.  And my IT department for the blog is … ME!  (OK, and sometimes MSP – but I try not to bother him with blog stuff since this is MY baby.)

And so here I am with the 90th FitFeat blog post!  This feels important to me because a few years back, I started a personal blog and just didn’t follow through.  Truly I think I made it to about the third blog post (if that) and fell off the wagon. 

When I first started the FitFeat blog, I did so on the free platform of WordPress.com.  I wanted to see how dedicated I’d be before moving to the self-hosted platform.  One, because self-hosting costs MONEY and two, because self-hosting requires a lot more administrative work.  You are in charge of your own backups, spam blocking, upgrades, etc.  The effort I put into blogging during my RV trip with mom and g-ma was what allowed me to realize that I would be blogging long-term.  Not only was I thoroughly enjoying it, but I was actually a bit obsessed.  (Who?  ME?  Obsessed?  … never!)  ;)

Thank you to everyone who has been following along, and a special thanks to those who have been here from the beginning!  I appreciate you all so much!  It would be very discouraging to put “pen to paper” (so to speak) if it seemed like no one was reading.  

Today’s question:  Since this blog is FOR YOU, are there any topics you would you like to see covered in a future blog post?  I’d love your input!  Drop me a comment!

***

On to the Tuesday recap… Tuesday was a ‘feat-less’ day (meaning no exercise) unless you count the effort expended in keeping my eyelids open.  I’m not sure what’s going on with our dogs lately, but they have been really active at night which has been interrupting MSP’s and my sleep.   We were out cold Monday night by 9:30 and at 9:50 Rascal was standing in the upstairs hallway barking his head off like he was facing off with the BoogeyMan.  We went from dead sleep to being doused in adrenaline in about 5 milliseconds.

After finally getting back to sleep again, Riley was up around 2:00 trotting laps on the hardwood floor downstairs, clickety-click-click-clickety.  She’s put on a bit of weight recently, and as a result is now eating ’lean’ food.  So she scavenges in the middle of the night around and around and around the kitchen island hoping we forgot to put away our dinner, I guess.  (You’d think she’d figure out in one lap that there is NO food to be found.  Why she keeps going around is beyond me.  Unless maybe she’s trying to work off some of that flab so that she can get back to eating real food again!)

I think she covets my gigantic salads.

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If you look closely you will see my homegrown sprouts in the salad!  They were interesting because they were all different seeds and some still had the seed attached, so they had a great crunch!  SO FUN! 

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The other items in my salad were:

  • HB egg
  • spinach
  • nutritional yeast
  • sundried tomatoes
  • spiralized zucchini
  • sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 avocado
  • 1/2 tbsp Annie’s Goddess dressing
  • dulse

And I ate it at 10:30 am.  That was lunch.  I was hungry!!  :)  

We had a wonderful time at our friends’ house last night!  (Thank you Lynn and Jim!  Sorry we caused you to miss DWTS!)  I ate steamed veggies with garlic sauce and some perfect edamame.  With a little white wine tasting.  It was a GREAT time! 

Well friends, off get busy with the Wednesday list.  AND get in some exercise.  Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!  And don’t forget to leave a comment about topics you’d like to see on FitFeat! 

– Shari B.  =)

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Happy Sprouts Dancing, Dirty Chai Trying and Veggie Spiralizing

Nov 17

Posted by Shari B. in Handy Kitchen Tools | 8 Comments

Hi friends! 

So I’m back for a second time today to give you the recap of yesterday’s Feats & Eats.  Twice in one day, wow!  But before that I want to let all you awesome readers know that I am going to attempt the WordPress update very soon.  If things look a little wonky here and there, that’s why.  I’m crossing my fingers all goes well!  :)

And speaking of crossed fingers… thanks for all your good vibes yesterday for my dentist visit!  It helped!  Because I didn’t have a cavity! Wahoooo!  See, all this good eating does a body (and teeth) good!

First thing out of bed yesterday, MSP and I were feeling the need for a DVD to motivate us to workout.  My brain wasn’t wanting to wake up, so at that point listening to some other trainer boss me around sounded just fine with me.  We chose Cathe’s “Legs & Glutes”.  She killed us.  We were sweat machines and today our bums are S-O-R-E… which I L-O-V-E.  It was about a bazillion reps of squats, lunges, and step-ups with about every variation you can imagine for an hour with no breaks. 

Thank you Cathe for clearing out my Monday cobwebs.

***

Look what’s still coming along in my kitchen…

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My sprouts are doing great!  They got to sit in the window sill to collect a little chlorophyll!   I’ve grown something!  I’m doing the Happy Sprout Dance!!

In other random news, I had an interesting visit to Starbucks yesterday…

Me:  I’ll have a grande soy 2-pump chai latte please.

SBUX guy tries to sell me on a bunch of stuff to which I kindly decline.  I wanted to say, “Hey, put your mugs on clearance and maybe I’ll buy something besides this ridiculously expensive soy milk”  but I digress…

SBUX guy:  do you like coffee?

Me:  Yes, but generally only first thing in the morning.

SBUX guy:  So you normally get chai then?

(Soon SBUX Guy will be renamed to Captain Obvious if this keeps up… is he going somewhere with this or just weirdly chatty)

Me:  Um yes, but usually in the fall because it feels holidayish to me.

SBUX guy:  Ever heard of a Dirty Chai? 

Me:  Um no.

It took him forever to get to the point, but ultimately I’m glad I was polite and stuck it out.  Because a dirty chai is a chai latte with a shot of espresso in it.  So they offered to let me try one with a decaf shot and if I didn’t like it they’d make my drink over. 

And you know what??  It was really good!

Next time  you’re at Starbucks and want something new, give Dirty Chai a try!

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Which segues perfectly into ANOTHER new thing I tried yesterday:  a spiralzer!!!   My friend Pat loaned me her spiralizer to play with since I am asking Santa for one for Christmas this year.  (Thanks Pat!  I’m having too much fun!)

Look at what it does!!

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I made a little Zucchini Pasta Salad to eat while I was waiting for my dinner to cook.  I added 3 pieces of artichoke hearts, some kalamata olive and sundried tomatoes.  Oh so good!  This makes eating zucchini entirely too fun!

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I even had to put some of the bigger zucchini ribbons on my pita pizza!  (Mine are the ones with tomato and spinach on them.  MSP’s are pesto and light mozzarella.)

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Doesn’t it look DEE-LISH-USH?  It was another great dinner chock full of veggies! 

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I am getting ready to clean up and head out for dinner at a friend’s house – which means more fabulous veggies are in my immediate future!  (and I bet some vino as well!)

I hope that you all had a fabulous day!  Thanks to those who chimed in for today’s discussion on egg yolks in my previous post. 

I’ll see you tomorrow — maybe a bit later than usual just depending on how upgrading goes!  :)

– Shari B. =)

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