Tag Archives: veggies

Greens At Every Meal

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Because of the extra large dinners I’d eaten and enjoyed the past couple of nights, I vowed to clean up my eats a bit for the remainder of the week.  What does this mean?  It does NOT mean any crazy diet, calorie restriction, or extra time at the gym.  (I ran five miles this morning, but that’s due to my half marathon training.)  What it does mean is smaller portions, extra veggies, and lots of water.  My goal for yesterday was to include greens in every meal.  Mission accomplished.

Breakfast: Steamed kale sprinkled with nutritional yeast and eggwhites topped with sriracha for some heat and extra flava’!

Lunch: Spinach, chicken breast, raw pepper slices, and carrots dipped in a homemade avocado – greek yogurt sauce.

Dinner: Leftovers of brisket, carrots, mashed potatoes, sweet koogle, green beans, cauliflower, and broccoli.

See?  I told you I’d still enjoy leftovers; I just placed a bigger emphasis on my greens.

Note: This is not everything I consume in a day.  It is merely my three square meals.  Rest assured, there are many *healthy* snacks eaten throughout the day.

I hope you liked today’s WIAW!  For my newbie readers, WIAW = What I Ate Wednesday.  Itz a day to gawk at delicious food and beautiful pictures and maybe even drool a bit. 

Click on over to Jenn at Peas and Crayons to check out the many other awesome blog posts celebrating WIAW.  I know I will!

Do you eat greens at every meal?  What are your favorite greens?

Farmer’s Market Fresh Rainbow Salad

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Have I said before how much I absolutely love farmer’s markets?  Well, I do, and when I go, I fully stock my fridge with fruits and vegetables.  And when my fridge is fully stocked, itz what I eat – all day, every day!  I’ll share some of my particularly fresh farmer’s market eats from the past couple days during today’s WIAW with Jenn.

The theme of this month is Fall Into Good Habits, which is perfect for today’s post.  Since most of my food is from the farmer’s market (ie: fruits & veggies), I think that definitely classifies as a good habit.  Let’s begin: My breakfast is what I ate after the 10K race.  Itz a peanut flour pancake topped with coconut oil, fresh strawberries, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Pretty and delicious!  Lunch is also filled with fresh farmer’s market goodies.  Itz actually a rainbow salad with the ingredients I had on hand.  Instead of broccoli slaw, I started by spiralizing one zucchini and one squash.

Such pretty noodles they make!  Next, I added a ton of fresh, colorful produce!  Tomatoes from our garden, red, orange, yellow, and green pepper, red onion, and one apple.  After the produce, I added two protein sources: pinto beans & tuna.

Now that’s a good looking rainbow salad if I’ve ever seen one!  For the dressing, I mashed one ripe avocado, squeezed the juice of a lime, added 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and about a half cup of Chobani’s plain greek yogurt.  Mixed it all together with the gorgeous salad beast and wah-lah!

A nutrient and protein packed salad fresh from the farmer’s market.  Snacks have also been from the farmer’s market.  Like this super juicy plum I enjoyed.

I had to eat it over the sink because it was so juicy!  Dinner was made in the crockpot.  Again.  Itz just so easy!  In the morning, I threw in 1 pound of ground chicken, 1 pound of dry navy beans, diced red, orange, yellow, and green peppers, onion, tomatoes, corn, some garlic and cayenne pepper.

Then I poured a container of reduced sodium chicken broth, turned the bad boy on, and dinner was a-cookin’!  I served it over a bed of fresh kale and a dollop of Chobani plain greek yogurt.

Jonny and I both “mmm-ed” our way through dinner.  And we’ll be enjoying the leftovers for the next couple of nights, too.  Benefits of making a gigantic batch at once!

What farmer’s market staples have you been eating lately?

Eat A Rainbow Salad

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With the many bites of delicious peanut butter I’ve been eating lately, I figured it was time to up my veggies.  And what better way to do that than to make an enormous salad beast containing every color from the rainbow!  (Don’t worry peanut butter, I’ll always have room for you.  And YOU still have time to enter the PB Crave giveaway!)

Step 1:  Start with a base.  I’m not so much a romaine, iceberg, mixed greens, or any of the typical salad lettuce bases kind of gal.  I have nothing against them, and love ordering them when out, I just never make those types of salads at home.  I prefer to start with a bag of broccoli cole slaw.  The particular bag I use is from my local grocery and contains hearts of broccoli, carrots, and red cabbage.

Step 2:  Load up with the colors of the rainbow!  I use whatever I have on hand, really paying attention to incorporating a variety of colors.  Last night I used 2 red peppers, 2 large carrots, 1 cob of corn, 2 stalks of celery, 1 green pepper, 1 apple, a handful of raisins, and a bunch of sunflower seeds.  And itz always more fun to make it look pretty!

Step 3:  Make your own dressing.  Most store-bought salad dressings are laden with fat and high fructose corn syrup (especially the creamy versions).  Yuck.  Making your own is much healthier, just as easy, and probably more cost-effective.  I always start with an avocado, mash it up, then add other ingredients.  Last night included: 1/2 cup of plain nonfat yogurt, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon lime juice, dash of garlic powder, a little fresh pepper, and a few squirts of sriracha (we like it hot!).  It doesn’t look very pretty, but it does taste good – I promise!

Step 4: Mix it all up and WA-LAH!  You’ve got yourself a nutritious, colorful salad beast!  I make such a large portion that it suffices for dinner, and several lunches.

Usually, I would make sure there is some type of protein source in there.  We did have sunflower seeds which adds a little protein, but most of the time I add beans or a lean meat.  Last night, we had leftover meat for our dinner and the salad was just a side.  It was Jonny-approved though!

What are your favorite colorful foods for salads?

Itz WIAW

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I think itz safe to say, I’m fully cured of my food hangover.  Now that I’ve got that situation under control, let’s talk food again.  Good, healthy, wholesome food.  Specifically, WIAW food via Jenn’s Peas and Crayons.

We had leftover mushrooms from something I made last week, so for breakfast I threw the baby bellas in with the spinach while it was wilting over the stove top and topped my eggs with them.  Very tasty!

With all the hot weather summer brings, I am a huge smoothie fan.  I made a very vanilla smoothie with ice, vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder, shredded unsweetened coconut flakes, Bob’s Red Mill ground flaxseeds, Chobani plain yogurt (for extra protein and added creaminess), vanilla NuNaturals sweetener, vanilla unsweetened almond milk, and spinach.

Love that green!  For lunch I decided to break out my spiralizer because it has been way too long since I used it last.  I spiralized a zucchini and topped it with tuna salad I made.  Some garlic herb bread accompanied my lunch.

I mixed some tuna with a little of Trader Joe’s eggless reduced fat mayonnaise, relish, and red onion.  Simple, packed with protein, and tasted good.  I wanted to continue my theme of cramming as many vegetables in with my meals as possible (remedy for food hangover), so I decided to grill whatever veggies were in my fridge: red peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, green pepper, and an onion.

Confession #1: I’ve never grilled before.  I know, I know, ridiculous!  Jonny does all of the grilling around here, but after reading Powercake’s post yesterday, I decided to give it a go.  I figured I couldn’t really mess it up unless I burnt the heck outta them, so I made sure to keep a close eye on them.

Confession #2:  I may or may not needed to call my dad just to turn the grill on.  Thank you, FaceTime.  Jonny wasn’t home, and I wanted to get dinner ready by the time he arrived.  How was I supposed to know all it takes is a twist of the left burner, right burner, and igniter?  Well, now I do, so you can all stop laughing at me because dinner turned out just lovely!

We are in dire need of some grocery shopping around here, so all the veggies were served with was some quinoa and corn (which was an awesome combination!).  There was one leftover hot dog, and I graciously let Jonno have that.  I even threw it on the grill to heat it back up.  Just call me the grill-master!

After dinner, I was hankerin’ for something sweet, but didn’t want to overload on the sugar.  Again.  I had just a half scoop left of my banana protein powder, so I combined that with my Sunwarrior vanilla to make protein fudge.  I topped the fudge with Barlean’s Strawberry Banana Flax Oil.

I tried to make a heart, but the swirl got a little drippy.  Don’t forget: YOU can enter the giveaway to win a bottle of Barlean’s Omega Swirl Strawberry Banana Flax Oil!

What is your favorite food to grill?

PS: A very special happy birthday goes to Meg who I simply cannot wait to meet in August during HLS!! xoxo

Itz WIAW

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A new month brings a new theme to WIAW by Jenn at Peas and Crayons!  This month, itz Sensible Snacking which is perfect for the summer months.

So you know how much I love the great deals that are available at Farmer’s Markets, right?  Well, last weekend I bought three avocados for $1!  Amazing!  They didn’t last long, but I did incorporate one into my breakfast.

I spread avocado over a piece of toast and then put a sunny side up egg on top (times two).  It was a very simple, yet savory breakfast.  Since I am home a lot more, you better believe there is a whole lot more snacking going on.  Luckily, LÄRABAR came to the rescue and sent me a surprise package with four bars from their new line über.

The über bars are über delicious.  Hehe.  The other day I was in a very snacky mood, so instead of sitting down and eating a proper lunch, I snacked my way through.  First, I made a smoothie with Sunwarrior vanilla protein, plain greek yogurt, vanilla NuNaturals sweetener, ground flaxseeds, shredded unsweetened coconut, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

After running a couple of errands, it was time to eat again.  At the Farmer’s Market, I had also picked up a bunch of peppers, but had nothing to dip them in.  [Oh no!]  So I created my own humus and was quite pleased with how it turned out!

While I was at work, I had soaked half of a cup of almonds in water.  After I drained them, I put them in a food processor along with half of a cup of roasted chickpeas, some minced garlic, a dash of olive oil, one-fourth of a cup of nutritional yeast, and a few shakes of sriracha and red pepper flakes.  Once I let the food processor go for a bit, I slowly added water – probably between one-fourth and one-half of a cup.  The consistency was perfect, the flavor was great, it had a nice kick, and it more than sufficed for dipping!

Dinner was a combination of leftovers from Sunday night dinner with the in-laws and some freshly prepared vegetables.

Pork steak, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli with nutritional yeast, and roasted zucchini slices.  Yum!  You know what else is yum? Barlean’s Mango Peach Omega Swirl.  Enter here for your chance to win a bottle ($25 value!).

What have you been snacking on as of late?

3 or 8?

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I had a very busy evening last night.  First, I went to get my toesies painted as they were in dire need.  I’d post a pic since I do have pretty feet, but feet in general just weird some people out, so I won’t go there.  :)   You’re welcome.  After my toes, I stopped by Trader Joe’s to get three items: eggs, marinara sauce, and parmesan cheese (TJ’s has the best!).  However, 3 turned into 8 quite quickly.

I can’t ever walk into Trader Joe’s and get only my intended items!  But then I saw bananas and remembered I wanted some for my pre-race meal this morning.  Then I saw the olive oil and remembered we were out at home.  Ditto for the greek yogurt.  When I spotted the apple cider vinegar, I decided to pick up a bottle for the first time.  Recently, I have been reading all sorts of benefits it can provide, and when Katie posted about it the other day, it sealed the deal.  I’ll let you know what comes of it.  I was headed for the check out line and grabbed a loaf of bread.  So 3… became 8.

Then I came home and began preparing dinner.  I sliced a zucchini and squash and roasted it in the oven at 425 for 25 minutes.  Next, I cooked half a bag of whole wheat pasta.  I sautéed an onion and two green peppers.  When it was time to drain the pasta, I threw some frozen chopped spinach in the strainer and then poured the piping hot water and pasta over it, replicating this fancy new trick.  I mixed everything together, added some garlic, frozen corn, leftover great northern beans, and about half the jar of marinara sauce.  I added a little parmesan to the whole pot then topped our bowls off with it, as well.

Wah-lah!  Dinner was served!  Jonny was a little wary since there was no meat in it (how could it possibly fill him up??), but then he gave his profound review a couple bites in, “This is incredible!”  And when he finished, “I’m stuffed!”  Told ya so.  It was mighty delicious and the best part is that we have leftovers in the fridge.

After dinner, Jonny and I went to watch a few of my students’ play in their softball game.  I love attending my students’ events outside of school because it really helps build our relationship and it’s awesome to see their strengths outside of the classroom. Since I’m running a 5K later this morning, a low-key evening was just what I needed.  The game didn’t start until 8 and it took two hours, so I didn’t go to bed until 11.  That’s late for me regardless, but especially the night before a race!

Today will be a go-go-go day as I’m running my race at 9, dashing home to shower, getting to my best friend’s bridal shower hopefully on time by 11, and then some of us ladies are hittin’ the town this evening.  See you tomorrow and have a great day!  :)

Can you stick to your grocery shopping list?  Clearly, I can’t.

Itz WIAW

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True story: I wrote my “Joining A Gym” post on Monday night and then went to the gym bright and early per usual on Tuesday morning.  While there, this guy came up to me and goes, “Hey, I think you live in my neighborhood.”  After discussing where he lives, we discovered that we do live in the same neighborhood which isn’t all that surprising since the gym is about a mile from where we live.

The funny part is that I literally had a similar conversation two weeks ago with a different guy.  He approached me and said, “Looks like your house got some hail damage.”  At first I was like “Uhhh what?  Who are you?”  And then he told me he lives nearby and sees me outside with my dog.  So that is PROOF of points #4 and #5!

Speaking of the gym, I used my Bit Timer to do some abs after 30 minutes on the elliptical.  (I needed something light after my tough leg workout.)  I set the timer for 30 second intervals with 10 seconds of rest in between.  The exercises: low plank, side plank, high plank, other side plank, superman, repeat.  A solid 6 minutes of ab work that I am definitely feeling.  :)   Now let’s talk food.  Specifically, WIAW at Peas & Crayons!

Breakfast was a glorious combination of plain greek yogurt sweetened with NuNaturals vanilla mixed and topped with strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, almonds, and homemade granola leftover from my frozen yogurt bites.  I got a little picture happy because the bowl was so pretty.  Pre and post granola pix:

Doesn’t that remind you of summertime?  I love fresh berries, specifically containers of strawberries on sale for $1 at the farmer’s market!  On Sunday, I made a bunch of vegetables and beans for this week’s lunches.

I roasted broccoli, eggplant, squash, and zucchini and then cooked peppers, onions, and corn on the stove.  I mixed it all together with the great northern beans and tossed it with some orange ginger sauce.  It was fantastic!

My friend, Diana, made her grandmother’s vegetable chili the other day, and she was sweet enough to bring some by because she knew Jonny and I would love it.

 She was right and even promised the recipe!  Talk about a good friend!  Jonny and I ate this as an appetizer to our dinner last night.  His parents had given us some lox leftover from the Mother’s Day brunch, and we wanted to use it up.

Egg and lox scramble served next to steamed spinach – delicious dinner!  That sums up today’s edition of WIAW.  I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday with some tasty eats!  Today is “Pride Day” at school (aka: Field Day), so I have lots of outdoor fun and games during my Wednesday.  What about you?  What are you up to today?

Rainbow Chard

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Confession #1: I did NOT wake up yesterday to workout.  Go figure considering I was just boasting about how last week I did get up every single day to workout.  I did not sweat it though since I hadn’t taken an off day from the gym last week, so my natural rest day happened on its own as it usually does.

Today was different though.  One rest day is cool.  Two consecutive rest days for no reason other than sheer laziness of not getting out of bed is uncalled for.  So I dragged my booty outta bed at 5:12 this morning.  It helped that my friend met me at the gym that early and agreed to let me lead our workout sesh.  Accountability, baby.

On my way to the Healthy Eating Challenge class, I had some time to kill so I went next door to Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  I used to tease my mom because she went to Linens ‘N Things (remember that store??) ALL.THE.TIME. when I was younger and some of the sales associates actually knew her name.  Well, now that I have my own house, kitchen, and life… I get it.  I loved Bed, Bath, and Beyond!  Nerd alert, I know, but I do.  Anyway, I treated myself to a new cutting board.

I had been wanting a larger cutting board for quite some time, but this past weekend sealed the deal.  On Sunday, I prepped a lot of vegetables on my teeny tiny cutting board and a whole head of cauliflower barely fit.  (I told you it was tiny!)  So that was my justification though I didn’t really need one.  This new board is significantly larger (much needed), BPA free (always a plus!), dishwasher safe (if need-be), and made in the USA (always nice).  I’m excited about it.  You know your life is really exciting when a cutting board excites you…

The theme of last night’s class was healthy fats.  We received two recipes: Creamy Cucumber Dip and Black Bean Salad with Avocado-Lime Dressing.  Both were so tasty and will definitely be recreated in my home.  These recipes and many more can be found at wholefoodsmarket.com/healthstartshere.

We plated our own food and there was a line of people behind me, so my quick tossing food on the plate did not turn out with the cleanest presentation.  The Creamy Cucumber Dip contained cashews and no oil.  I have made Mama Pea’s Mmm Sauce before and that has almonds, chickpeas, and oil (among other ingredients), so I was curious how this oil-free dip would turn out.  I’m glad to say I was very impressed!  I think this would be a major hit as a dip at a party and people wouldn’t even know it was healthy.

The salad was delicious, as well, and I liked the hint of lime more than I anticipated.  In my bowl of goodness for today’s lunch, I actually drizzled some lime juice on top because I liked it so much!  As I’ve mentioned before, one major thing that I am taking away from these classes are the idea of variety.  Kale and spinach are excellent leafy greens, but there are several others.  Last week I branched out, bought, prepared, ate, and enjoyed collard greens.  I was ecstatic that last night they prepared some chard.

Confession #2:  I’ve never eaten chard!  The guy made rainbow chard (hence the pretty colors) by simply tossing some in a pan, adding some vegetable broth and a hint of tamari (gluten-free soy sauce).  He covered it and let it steam for a couple of minutes.  When I make kale or spinach in the morning, I spray my pan with nonstick cooking spray, but the vegetable broth gave it a little added flavor.  I really liked the flavor of the rainbow chard as it not quite as bitter as collard greens.  It definitely earned a spot in my leafy green weekly mix!

If you are new to healthy eating or if you’re a pro, I would strongly encourage you to branch out and try new vegetables and/or new ways of preparing them.  It really makes cooking and eating a lot more fun.  Plus, just think of all the nutrients your body is getting.  Healthy eating can be fun!  (Nerd alert #2.)

What is a new vegetable you have tried recently or want to try?

The Big {4}

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{4} is the theme for today.  Why 4?  Jackson turns 4 today!  And I have four pictures to share.  Let’s start with the man boy of the day: Jackson Zane.  I’m his god-momma and just love him to pieces.

I love him so much that to keep him entertained on the long car ride during our family vacation last summer we put big boy undies on our heads!  I can’t believe he is four already.  We’re having a family celebration this evening at my parents to celebrate his big day.  Pics to come tomorrow once SCP takes them, edits them, and posts them.  The joys of having a photographer in the family. :)

Last night’s dinner was very random.  That big ol’ batch of beans and veggies made an appearance, but I needed to bulk up our dinner somehow.  Last weekend I went to the Farmer’s Market, so our fridge is loaded with veggies.  I steamed some cauliflower and sprinkled some cheese on top.  Then I roasted some eggplant with marinara sauce and cheese.  Eggplant pizza?  It was yummy.

Though everything with cheese on it is yummy.  Best part?  Leftovers for lunch today!  A couple of hours after we ate, Jonny said he was going out to get an oreo mcflurry.  I  kindly reminded him that it was Passover and oreos wouldn’t fly, so I suggested I make something cold, creamy, and delicious.  He was sold, especially since it involved him plopping back down on the couch to watch the Cardinals. :)  I made an ultra-thick vanilla-coconut protein smoothie that satisfied our sweet tooth and provided the extra protein our veggie-filled dinner lacked.

The weather here has been so ridiculously nice lately that I’ve been doing everything possible to take advantage of it.  Yesterday, Zoey and I went on a stroll around the neighborhood.  It was a crisp 60 degrees, but with the sun shining it felt warmer.

Blue skies, green leaves, and a shining sun.  Love it.  This post is coming full circle to share one more picture of the birthday boy with his daddy/my brother.

See you tonight, boys.  Happy birthday, Jackson!

Tell me something about the number {4}.  This is the fourth day of the workweek and the fourth time I woke up to workout.  Yay me!  :)