snacks « Healthy and Sane

Entries Tagged as 'snacks'

Birthdays and soup

March 11th, 2010 · 21 Comments · Ellie Krieger, sandwich, snacks, soups, turkey, yogurt

I’m writing this post a day late due to CEiMB rules of Thursday recipe sharing. You see, it’s my mom’s birthday today (Happy Birthday, mom!!!!!!!!!!!) so we’re going out to dinner tonight. That means that I made my featured recipe of the week on Wednesday but I’m posting it on Thursday so we’re all good On that note, let’s start with dinner, shall we?

DINNER

This week’s CEiMB’s recipe was chosen by Grandma’s Kitchen. I rarely make soups so I was actually excited to be “forced” to make Ellie’s lemon chicken soup with orzo (recipe is on page 86 of The Food You Crave and has been retyped here). The idea of a lemony soup sounded so fresh and appealing to me. Adam wasn’t too psyched but once in a while he has to eat things for the love of the blog (plus I know what he’ll really hate and I wouldn’t serve that to him)

So chicken + lemon sounded delicious but onions and celery did not. For some reason most soups call for carrots, onions and celery as the only veggies. Given my hatred for the 2 latter veggies, I was determined to replace them with veggies I do like… but what would work in chicken soup? My twitter friends helped me out with this dilemma (follow me on twitter if you don’t already!). I decided to add a pepper, some frozen corn and baby spinach. I also realized I had some leftover cooked wild rice so I nixed the orzo for the rice. Since I wasn’t cooking the orzo in the soup (and my rice wouldn’t absorb much of the liquid), I also cut the amount of chicken broth to 4 cups in total. I guess at the end, my soup did not resemble that of Ellie’s much… although I did still use chicken + lemon.

Here are all the goodies!

The soup was lacking in flavor a bit so I added extra lemon juice and a dash of cayenne pepper to add depth and a bit of spice. Much better! I really liked how the egg made the soup a bit creamier. I’ll use that trick in my next soup adventure! What’s your favorite kind of soup?

[Rewind]

BREAKFAST

TJ’s european style yogurt, chia seeds, mango, muesli + TJ’s nutty American trek mix

My favorite trail mix is back at TJ’s!!!!! It’s been gone for probably a year (I thought it was discontinued) so I almost squealed with excitement when I saw it at TJ’s a few days ago. I bought 2 packages – just in case.

Best yogurt bowl I’ve had in ages. Amazing!!

LUNCH

The yummy eats continued with an amazing sandwich. TJ’s ww Tuscan pane with pesto, turkey, mozzarella and tomato. All ooey, gooey…mmm

Steamed brussels sprouts + a pickle for some added veggie love

And an impulse V8 juice I spotted at the back of the fridge. I love this juice but need to get used to the low sodium kind.

SNACKS

Mid-afternoon I snacked on a Zbar (brownie flavor) and an orange and after dinner this guy was very much enjoyed…

Whole wheat Tuscan pane with roasted garlic hummus and avocado

Definitely lots of deliciousness all around.

I skipped my workout for the day because my mid-morning meeting ran into lunch and I missed my spin class. I had no motivation to do my own thing so it turned into a rest day. I used the extra time at night to research Haiti relief programs and chose to donate 100% of my February blog earnings to the National Nurses United. Every dollar donated is used to send volunteer nurses to Haiti.

Happy Thursday… and please wish my mom a happy birthday in the comments. I know she’ll feel the love.

[Back tomorrow with a restaurant review]

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Help me re-energize

March 10th, 2010 · 13 Comments · Italian, smoothies, snacks, sweet potato

I’m not sure what’s going on lately, but I’ve been TIRED… like all I want is to do is sleep- tired. Hoping to avoid looking and feeling like a zombie, yesterday I decided to start my day with a super nutritious green smoothie.

In the blender – 1+ frozen banana, frozen blueberries, 1c water, 1c 1% milk, Greens+ wild berry burst, 8 ice cubes, baby spinach and 1/4t xantham gum and 1/8t guar gum

It made 2 awesome smoothies – Adam and I shared them.

I paired my smoothie with a Food For Life millet toast with Barney Butter

[300 calories]

MID-MORNING SNACK

[70 calories]

LUNCH

Leftover savory pumpkin pudding

Still delicious the next day

[450 calories]

MID-AFTERNOON SNACKS

TJ’s 100 calorie dark chocolate bar

+ 2 somersault packets

[All together: 240 calories]

WORKOUT

I had a lunch meeting, which meant I had to go to the gym after work. I REALLY hate working out after work but for some reason I got a burst of energy right at 5pm. I left a bit later and found Adam on one of the treadmills finishing up his workout. It never gets old seeing my husband running! Unfortunately, the second I started running, all that energy disappeared. I was dragging. I had 4 miles with 6×200 on the schedule but I wanted to get off the treadmill a minute after starting running. I finished 6×200 with walking for recovery for most intervals (I NEVER do that!) and then got off. I probably ran a little over 1 mile instead of 4. Ugh This is my 3rd crappy run in a row. I considered quitting all together last night. Something is off with me on the running front, and I feel trapped. Maybe the 5K I’m running this weekend will be the perfect fun distance for me, and then I can get back to distance running. We’ll see how it goes.

DINNER

Sweet potato gnocchi with brussels sprouts and walnuts (recipe can be found here, originally discovered through Tri to Cook)

To make this, I used the Nuovo sp gnocchi (purchased at Whole Foods). This was super quick and Adam and I both really enjoyed it. The brussels sprouts overwhelmed the sweet potato taste a bit when eaten together in one bite, but alternating bites between the gnocchi and the brussels sprouts resulted in a great balance between sweet and earthy. The walnut pieces added a nice crunch as well. Great, great dinner!

Oh yes, and there was a bit of vino involved. This bottle of Cono Sur pinot noir was fantastic. So smooth. I had this glass and another splash after that. What a fun treat on a Tuesday night!

Label close-up:

Dessert: the infamous peanut butter chocolate chip granola bar cookie

This time I ate it like dessert and enjoyed it immensely. It really is kind of a perfect bar cookie (minus the calories).

Are you ever super tired for several consecutive days? Any ideas on how to re-energize? I’m all ears!

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Orange takes over

March 8th, 2010 · 18 Comments · breakfast, pumpkin, salad, sausage, snacks

Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post. I knew there was no reason for me to beat myself up over what happened, especially since I made the best choices based on all the information that was available to me at the time, but I’m not going to lie – finding out that Saturday accidently was such an indulgent day ruined my 11 mile run on Sunday morning. My head just wasn’t in it. The best thing I could have done was to forget it and move on, but somehow I just wanted to give up on everything. I did have my friend Molly to keep me company on my run. I asked to walk pretty much every other minute (or so it seemed). If you are a runner, you know that voice in your head that tries to tell you to stop because it would be just so much easier? The voice you usually ignore? I let that voice get the best of me. Molly was such a great sport, though, and indulged my wishes. Together we finished a little over 9.5 miles but I’m not sure how much of it we actually ran – maybe 7-8? I know it’s still something to be proud of and I’ve moved on for real this time. Lesson learned.

Oh and btw, you all were right. I was not hungry at all today due to a very indulgent weekend (yesterday kind of became indulgent again) so I still nourished my body but consumed less calories than usual. I guess it does balance out. Wanna see what I ate today?

BREAKFAST

TJ’s organic fiber blueberry muffin + coffee

[265 calories]

MID-MORNING SNACK

2 clementines and a sample packet of somersaults – still love them!!

[140 calories]

LUNCH

As usual on Mondays, I get to come home for lunch. I made a small detour through TJ’s to stock up on veggies. The star ingredient was Gena’s carrot miso dressing (found through Soap & Chocolate).

The dressing came together quickly since I had all the ingredients on hand and the vitamix is a beast. It was almost “whipped.” Since I couldn’t just eat it with a spoon, I decided to make a salad. Might as well, right?

Mixed greens, steamed broccoli, shredded carrots, chopped cucumber, shrimp + miso carrot dressing

Here are all the greens + shrimp!

To be honest, something was missing there and the whipped texture of the dressing was actually a bit strange. I was imagining it would taste like the dressing you get on house salads at Japanese restaurants but that wasn’t the case. Also, I may have overdone it on the ginger or maybe it was missing salt? After a few bites of the salad I went to the fridge for water and noticed a jar of spicy Italian pepper rings. For some reason those sounded appealing and they really saved this meal for me. My mouth was on fire… in a good way!

Dessert: caramel oikos. Oh yeah, that’s the stuff!

[All together - 280 calories. I was actually shocked to find how low that was!]

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

[180 calories]

WORKOUT – Monday’s usual – Rack it Up. I just love that burn!!

DINNER

Ever since trying Shannon’s savory pumpkin bread pudding, it’s been on my list of must make meals. I knew Adam would love it. I mean this screams “man meal”, since bread, sausage, cheese and sour cream are the main ingredients. This dish even made it to my top 9 homemade meals in 2009 - it was that good. Tonight Adam finally had a chance to taste Shannon’s masterpiece – made by moi this time.

The verdict? He LOVED it! I know my husband so well. I thought Shannon’s execution was a bit better but I still enjoyed it.

[450 calories]

This was one hearty dinner, let me tell you. I am STUFFED hours later!! No desire for dessert or anything. I think one of the key “tricks” for avoiding over snacking is to have super filling meals. This was the perfect example of it. Could be a little heavier in the veggie department but I sure took care of that during lunch.

Total calories consumed: 1316. I can’t believe how crazy full I am for such a small amount of calories. I guess I’m like a camel – I stored this weekends’ eats for later.

Looking at this post, apparently I ate a lot of orange foods. So just for fun – what’s your favorite orange food? Any favorite way to consume it?

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Picking up steam

March 5th, 2010 · 31 Comments · Ellie Krieger, breakfast, dessert, pork, snacks

This week has been wonderful. Something in me just clicked! After what seems like months of trying hard to eat healthy but nearly every night succumbing to a bag of nuts, cookies, etc., this week it all finally made sense again. I’ve been eating delicious eats, stopping at just one serving, and got rid of those snacking demons at night. This sudden change in attitude has been puzzling me – how can my mindset change so drastically for no apparent reason? I think I figured it out! It’s this…

No, not spices. It’s my new kitchen (with this awesome built-in spice drawer) that makes me smile every time I walk into the house and I cannot wait to get in there and cook something healthy and delicious! Why waste calories on stupid stuff when you can have a satisfying meal? There are so many recipes I’ve marked over the past month and a half of construction, I don’t have enough meals in a day to execute all of them. But I’m up for the challenge! Now, should we take a look at that spice drawer again? [And yes, I alphabetized them!]

Yesterday the black peppercorns were the star of dinner.

I haven’t participated in CEiMB in almost 2 months now. This was a great recipe to dive back into it! I used to hate pork but pork tenderloin turned that around – it’s lean and tender and I’m pretty sure it’s one of my husband’s favorite meats (we discovered it together). For this reason, when I saw that Rachel of Rachel Hearts Food chose Ellie’s pork au poivre as this week’s featured recipe, I was more than happy to jump back on the CEiMB wagon.

This recipe was easy and had a very short ingredients list – perfect for a weeknight meal!

Gena’s carrot fries (found through Thinspired) made for a perfect side dish! Adam was making fun of me when I started making these but I knew they’d be amazing. I cut up a bunch of carrots (maybe 3/4 lb?) and used 1T of coconut oil. I think I’ll cut down on the oil even further next time, there seemed to be more than ample amount of it, but let me tell you… there will be a next time. Soon! Adam quickly stopped making fun of me after tasting these babies. They reminded us both of sweet potato fries due to a subtle sweetness from the coconut oil (I think that’s an important ingredient!). SO so good!! Adam said to add this recipe to our short list of “favorites.” Yup, carrot fries need to be on our favorites list. I’ll leave it at that.

Veggies take over the world! Or at least this plate… (carrot fries were accompanied by garlicky string beans which I just stir-fried while the wine sauce was reducing)

Did I mention this pork au poivre was great? It was! Tender, juicy, flavorful – we both loved it!

Oops, don’t forget the wine sauce!! I’d double the sauce amount next time… it was quite nice.

So yeah, dinner was amazing. Let’s fly through the rest of the eats.

BREAKFAST

Bacon, egg and cheese on a FFL english muffin + coffee

Breakfast of champions! Or something like that

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

1/2 blueberry muffin with 1T Barney Butter + tea

Oh yeah…

WORKOUT – 75 minute vinyasa class. It was great today. I was almost able to do the crow pose. Yay for progress!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

1/2 cup reduced fat cottage cheese + 2 clementines

The clementines deserve a spot at the front and center too

MORE SNACKS

I finally got my last package of the bake sale for Haiti winnings. This one included some peanut butter/choc chip “granola bars” and banana bread.

These granola bars are basically bar cookies… and they are amazing!!!!!

It took a lot of will power to only eat 1. They are full of oats, seeds, choc chips and peanut butter – so dense and buttery. Oh yeah, there IS butter in them. Like I said, not exactly granola bars but damn, worth every calorie for sure! (I can provide you guys with the recipe if you’re interested).

The banana bread was nice too

I had 1/2 of this slice.

And that’s how you do it!

Do you ever lose motivation to keep eating healthy or exercising? What pushes you to keep at it? I have a feeling not everyone can just redo their kitchen

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Vacation booked

March 3rd, 2010 · 20 Comments · breakfast, sandwich, snacks, sweet potato, yogurt

I followed Inna’s eating rules today and this turned out to be a great day of mindful eating. It’s amazing how just paying a little more attention to simple things adds up to so much more. I’m liking this new motivation! What else is motivating me? Our vacation in FIVE weeks! We booked a little 4-day getaway to Aruba today. I am so excited! I think it will get busy at work soon so I should be more than ready for some time in the sun at the beginning of April.

Now onto today’s eats…

BREAKFAST

TJ’s european style yogurt, pear, fresh blueberries and 1/2 blueberry muffin + coffee

The muffin chunks tasted like CAKE for breakfast! Best idea ever.

All messy… mmm

[302 calories]

MID-MORNING SNACK

The other half of the muffin + orange slices

[206 calories]

Man, it hurts me to post this ugly picture. It was crazy delicious though. I promise!

WORKOUT - abs + spin. Nice and sweaty

LUNCH

Baba ganoush, turkey, cucumbers and mustard on white whole wheat bread

A garlic pickle <3

+ baby carrots and cucumber slices

All together:

[326 calories]

I know this is obvious, but I just wanted to remind you all that cucumbers in sandwiches are awesome!!!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Strawberry Soyjoy I got at a conference ages ago.

[130 calories]

I liked it a lot. It kind of tasted like a strawberry cookie.

DINNER

Did I mention how much I love our new kitchen? Because I do! It’s seriously a pleasure being in it. I can’t get enough! I hope Adam can keep up with all the dish washing because I kind of want to live in the kitchen for a little while

For dinner tonight I made some sweet potato falafel by following this recipe from the Pink Apron. My pita bread totally fell apart so this was one messy meal, but it was quite tasty nonetheless. I loved how crunchy the baked falafel balls were and the subtle sweetness of the sweet potatoes added a fun twist to the traditional recipe. The tomatoes + cucumbers added a nice freshness to this meal. Unfortunately, the sauce, to be honest, was just okay. I didn’t thin it enough so it was quite thick and Adam is not a fan of parsley so I just used a bit of dried parsley instead of fresh and the sauce ended up tasting kind of like plain sour cream. Not that exciting (not Kelly’s fault since I didn’t follow her directions properly). I’d make the falafel again but probably use hummus for sauce.