A few weeks ago I was reading a cooking magazine and saw an ad for single serving almond boxes. Hello, these have my name all over them!! I bought one of each color (so I can have one in every purse).

How cute are these guys?!!

Then yesterday, I received my spring eco sample pack from Eco Luxe Life and realized I never shared this site with you. I love the concept behind it. I purchased a yearly membership early in the year and now receive quarterly eco-friendly samples of cosmetics and household products. Since I’m constantly on the look-out for new environmentally friendly products, I find that it’s a great way to discover them. The company asks for feedback on all products in the packages and also sells them in full size if you want to stock up. Isn’t it a neat idea? Here is what I received this spring:

I can’t wait to try the organic shampoo and conditioner but let’s see if I can actually use this fancy Moroccan rose water.

Mints, laundry detergent and bug spray will definitely be used soon.

Have you come across any new cool products? Do share!

Yesterday was supposed to be my day of tackling my to-do list. I was getting crazy stressed out about everything and Adam made me realize that it’s time to trim down that list and work on not adding anything new to it. Yeah, that’s going to be a toughy.

I printed out a list and got to work. Making waffles was first on the list!

BREAKFAST

Multigrain waffles with Barney Butter, fresh peaches, yogurt and maple syrup

For the waffles, I used this recipe from 101 cookbooks. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for rye but otherwise followed it to the T. I came out with 4 thin waffles (see 3 of them above) and 15 “normal” sized ones. These were the best waffles I’ve ever made!!! The “secret ingredient” was butter. Definitely an indulgent breakfast to start the weekend on the right foot.

WORKOUT

I plan on going on a long run as soon as I finish typing this post, so I kept Saturday’s workout to a simple pilates class. It was great for core work and minimally taxes my legs. Hopefully I can bang out some miles today!

LUNCH

We had some mashed potatoes left in the fridge from Mother’s Day dinner at my parents’ so I put them to use in a samosa  quesdailla (recipe here, found through Musings from the Fishbowl). Enjoyed out on our patio. I love sunshine

I added a good amount of garam masala to the mashed potatoes for a more pronounced Indian flavor and couldn’t resist a few gorgeous tomato slices for some freshness. Such a yummy lunch!

Yes, I went a little crazy with the pictures.

Kale massaged with lemon juice and basil EVOO + fresh tomatoes complemented the creamy quesadillas perfectly. I have a slight obsession with massaged kale, I think.

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Some blue baby carrots, a boiled egg + edamame “hummus”

Oops, I was on custom (morning) white balance mode on my camera, shooting in the afternoon light. The blue lighting makes it a bit more mysterious looking, no? Ok maybe not, but hard boiled eggs + hummus is heaven. That I can promise you.

DINNER

No wonder I didn’t get THAT much done. There was quite a bit of cooking going on. I can’t resist sometimes!

For dinner, I marinaded some chicken following this Ellie Krieger recipe (missed it a few weeks ago for CEiMB) and Adam grilled it for us.

The marinade was great – super fresh and flavorful – perfect for a light summer meal!

I also attempted to grill some fresh artichokes but they came out tasting like cardboard. I steamed them for 15 minutes, then plopped them on the grill. Have you ever grilled artichokes? Any tips? I really want to try it again!!

Since our designated veg was a giant failure, I threw together a super quick salad – mixed greens, arugula, pea shots, feta, tomatoes + walnuts, in lemon juice and basil EVOO

Near East parmesan couscous was our delicious starch for the night. The company sent me 2 boxes to sample and we really loved it! The couscous came out a bit sticky which was really fun. I wonder if I can roll the leftovers into balls and do something with them. Mmm, I bet that would be pretty awesome. On the other hand, on its own the couscous was super flavorful, so maybe there is no need to mess with perfection.

Dinner was fresh and lovely. Adam and I shared a cherries, chocolate and peanut butter granola bar for dessert (recipe can be found here).

Since my white balance was all screwed up, this picture looks terrible but the bars were phenomenal. Mine have more sugar than Lauren’s (I used chocolate pb, 1/2 cherries/1/2 raisins, regular choc chips and rice crispy cereal – since that’s what I had on hand) but I’m okay with that – this way I can eat them for dessert and they’ll also provide me with plenty of (quick) energy before a workout. I’ll try taking some better pictures another day because these seriously were amazing!!

All right, are you tired yet? This post ended up being way too long and my mile-long to-do list is waiting for me. Wish me luck on my run. That’s next!

]]> http://healthyandsane.com/2010/05/cool-stuff/feed/ 8 http://healthyandsane.com/2010/02/kashmir-review-take-ii/ http://healthyandsane.com/2010/02/kashmir-review-take-ii/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:43:22 +0000 Elina http://healthyandsane.com/2010/02/kashmir-review-take-ii/ Yesterday’s eats were kind of random and not too exciting so instead of boring you with pretty and no-so pretty pictures of food that didn’t taste great, I’ve decided to post about Kashmir – an Indian restaurant Adam and I went to last Friday. We’ve actually been to Kashmir at least once and loved it (you can find my previous review here) so when I saw a Groupon for the restaurant a few months back, I had to buy it. I think we paid $15 for a $35 gift certificate. Not bad, especially since I knew we would go back to Kashmir anyways so the discount was pretty much free money.

As a side note, I was just contacted by a Living Social representative yesterday to let me know about their new website and a deal on one of my other favorite local restaurants – Pazzo. The website works exactly like Groupon – there are daily deals with large discounts. I signed up yesterday and got a $30 certificate for Pazzo that I paid $15 for (I twitted about the deal so follow me on twitter if want other randomness from me in between posts). This was another one of those “no brainers” – I knew I’d be back to Pazzo (especially after being reminded of how much I loved that place) so might as well get a few bucks off the bill. If you’d like to sign up for Living Social, use this link and you’ll get $5 “deal bucks” that can be used towards your first purchase. I’ll get $5 too when you use that credit. It’s a good deal for all of us. [PS - the Pazzo deal is no longer available but they have daily deals and I'm sure something fun will come up. Living Social also has deals for DC, LA, NY, San Fran, Austin, Seattle, Atlanta and St Paul.] All right, back to Kashmir…

Last time we went to Kashmir, we were seated outside. I love their outdoor patio on a nice summer day. In the winter, however, a cozy warm space is the perfect recipe for comfort. This is an example of what the space looks like. The dim lighting left me with few usable pictures. If you’re in Boston, you should come and check it out for yourself!

Compliments of the chef… something oniony

I had to wash it down with lots of wine. (okay, I think I really had 2 glasses tops, throughout the entire dinner)

This Cono Sur cabernet is made with organically grown grapes; bikes instead of trucks were used to transport the wine (thus the bike on the label). I love the company’s environmentally conscious practices! The wine was quite nice as well. We picked up a bottle of the Cono Sur Pinot Noir on the way back home from dinner (to enjoy later).

For the first time in my life, I wanted to order something other than samosas and chicken tikka masala at an Indian restaurant. Call the doctor! Seriously, this has never happened but I’m trying to expand my (Indian food) horizons. I know these are not traditional dishes (well at least tikka masala isn’t) and I was also hoping for something lighter. Indian cuisine has a lot of spices, which to me means that I should be able to enjoy something healthy-ish without sacrificing great flavor.

This was my thought process behind ordering the tandoori tikka salad – (from the menu) strips of barbequed white meat chicken served over garden salad with our special homemade dressing

I was surprised to be served this:

Not exactly the light salad I was hoping for. Surprisingly, this actually tasted lighter than it looked. The dressing wasn’t the heavy mayonnaise coating typical in “chicken salads” – I believe it was yogurt based. I picked at it a bit and packed the rest to take home. Adam still ordered the vegetable samosas and I stole one.

I couldn’t resist it especially with all the yummy sauces (the sweet one on the left is my favorite)

For my main entree I also steered away from chicken tikka masala and ordered the malai kafta – vegetable balls cooked in a creamy nut sauce with fresh herbs and spices

+ garlic naan and basmati rice

My first plate (you can multiply it by 3)

The malai kafta was really great, but here is the kicker – it tasted exactly like tikka masala sauce but with the added crunch of a few almond slivers and the occasional raisin (I think there were 4 raisins in total). The vegetable balls also appeared to be made of something mushy like potatoes and they were fried – again not exactly the light fair I was hoping for. I LOVED this dish and nearly licked my plate clean but that’s because I love chicken tikka masala. Since I am not a vegetarian, I actually think that going with white meat chicken would have been a healthier option + after thinking about it a bit more, this does not speak much for the restaurant’s versatility. I mean, 2 dishes tasting identical? I can tell you this in fact was the same sauce because Adam did order the chicken tikka masala and we compared it. Oh well, I’m going for something non-creamy next time (onion hatred is my giant limiting factor but I’ll try to find something anyway).

All in all, this was another delicious meal at Kashmir and I will definitely be back there since the food is good, the atmosphere is inviting and it’s a few blocks from our house. Do you have any onion-free recommendations for me for my next visit?

For other restaurant reviews, check out my Restaurant Reviews page. Happy Friday!

Here is a box of this delicious dinner of TJ’s chicken tikka masala. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is nearly restaurant quality, for way less calories (due to the small portion)! I am looking forward to satisfying my craving for this favorite “Indian” dish of mine without a night out and thousands of calories consumed. Awesome!

In all seriousness, there are 2 reasons why you’re only seeing this pathetic meal instead of a healthy home cooked version.

1) I couldn’t find my camera in my purse today. Yes, I actually did bring it to work but I thought I forgot it so I didn’t snap any pictures all day long. Boo me. Again, no blogger of the year awards for sure here!

2) Today was just tough. I started the morning with a healthy breakfast of an english muffin with Barney Butter, cherry preserves and kiwi and it kind of went downhill from there. I was hungry all morning. I finally dug into my snack (which I usually have around 11, but today it was at 10) – a cranberry/goat cheese muffin. This wasn’t enough, I was still starving. About 30 minutes later I had a mini pack of somersaults and then a pack of YouTrailMix. Bad, bad idea. This resulted in a stomachache that lasted for hours and prevented me from going for a run during the lunch break. After finally having a healthy lunch of leftover beef provencal later in the day (which resulted in yet another stomachache), a craving for cookies hit. I tried to ignore it but it wouldn’t go away. I wrote a note to myself in my journal. It was quite inspiring. Today wasn’t wasted yet, I could turn this around. Half hour later I had a pack of organic oreos. 30 minutes after that I had 2 cookies from Paradise Bakery (what I actually wanted all afternoon). No gym today.

Total calories consumed: 2253.

So yeah, it was a tough day, after which I just didn’t have the energy or the desire to cook an elaborate meal. I actually considered skipping dinner but that seemed like deprivation and I really don’t want to go down that line. I basically had 2 cookies too many. Not the end of the world, and I’m very well aware of this. Tomorrow is a new day, and I will stay within my range. Seriously, those 8 pounds are coming off me, whether they want to or not (I think they do actually ).

Do some days just seem harder for you stay healthy? Do you give in or try to stay strong?

BREAKFAST

I kept my eats as clean as possible today. I felt I needed to detox a bit. Banana oats with unsweetened dried cherries, turkish apricots, flax and almond slivers. Simple and delicious

LUNCH

Tuna/hummus/pickle wrap + baby carrots. If you haven’t tried adding hummus to your tuna yet, you’re missing out. It really makes everything nice and creamy (I used 2T for a can of tuna and with these proportions you don’t actually taste the hummus) – no mayo necessary, and you get some healthy fats

SNACKS

Clearly, I’m obsessed!

This is what 100 calories of nuts looks like, if you’re curious

See the little packets of ketchup in the right top corner? I thought they were so cute so I had to take a picture (this is at work)!! I’m such a dork What’s not cute is the high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients list. We only buy organic Heinz ketchup for the house (same taste, no junk!).

DINNER

Organic chicken and green beans in TJ’s masala simmering sauce + brown rice

This was a quick and easy dinner, but nothing special. We missed the creaminess of the chicken tikka masala you get at restaurants (which unfortunately is full of full fat yogurt and cream).

I baked some pumpkin pie muffins for breakfast tomorrow. I may have to get a little taste test while they’re still warm from the oven

Oh for workout today, I took a crazy abs and spin classes. Lately my workouts have been extra intense. Not sure if it’s me or the instructors   Off to get ready for tomorrow. I’m actually going to attempt to get up early for an pre-work workout. We’ll see how that goes

The winner of the V8 soup giveaway will be announced tomorrow night.

Here are yesterday’s eats. I tried the Amazing Grass original powder and didn’t hate it! I really thought it would taste like dirt, but in a smoothie with bananas, mango, mixed berries, milk and white grape juice, it just tasted like fake protein powder. With all the amazing stuff that’s in this powder (wheat grass, barley grass, rice protein, hemp protein, acai, carrot, blueberry, goji, rose hips, maca, banana + various enzymes) it could be worth a purchase to bulk up breakfast on occasion. I have a few other samples, including the chocolate flavored kind, so we’ll see if I become an addict by the time my stash is gone

This girl needs solid food with her breakfast… add organic spelt toast with Barney Butter. Yum!

Random discovery: a red grape covered in the toasted almond hummus tastes like a maraschino cherry. I’m actually a sour cherry kind of a girl but I thought it was fun I just had 1 of these for experimental purposes

Pre workout snack: 2 medjool dates

Lunch: mixed greens, roasted veggies (eggplant, zucchini, peppers), grape tomatoes, shrimp + goat cheese.

It was a great salad, but my sweet tooth wanted to be satisfied too. I reached into the desk drawer for some chocolate and found a fudge brownie. Sweet! Totally forgot I stashed it there.

Mid afternoon snack: TJ’s low carb tortilla + Barney Butter + 1/2 banana. Who said you can’t have Barney Butter twice in 1 day

Dinner: healthy chicken tikka masala + brown rice and nonfat yogurt (by popular demand, the recipe for the chicken has been provided in the comments section )

+ juicy personal sized watermelon slices

I also overindulged on some pecans and roasted almonds straight out of their bags. Gotta stop that!

Sorry for a lack-laster post. I went to an amazing restaurant on Sunday and am dying to do a restaurant review post (even if you don’t live in Boston, the pictures will make you hungry!) but that will have to wait. Hope you’re having a great week. I’ll try to post as often as I can but I can’t promise much at this point. I’ll be better next week

Anyways, we were originally going to go to a place in Washington Square in Brookline (that’s where our friends live so we were in the area) but parking in Brookline is not always easy.  After doing a few rounds around the block, we gave up and headed home.  But wait, there are a few more places in Coolidge Corner!  Yes yes, let’s go there!

We’ve been to Rani before for their lunch buffet.  Indian buffets are actually a wonderful way to taste a bunch of new things, although with my onion aversion it’s not always easy.  I seem to recall there were only a few dishes “safe enough” for me to eat.  Luckily there is always a chicken tikka masala or something like it present at every Indian buffet.  We liked the place a lot and decided to give it another go on Sunday.

The place is even more cozy during dinner, as the dim lights really create a comfortable ambiance.  And yes, I ordered my favorite chicken dish, but first I stepped a little out of my Indian comfort zone and instead of the usual samosa (love those!) I ordered the Sabzi Pakora: potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and chili dumplings served in a spicy sauce.  Did it say fried anywhere?  I didn’t think so, but fried it was.  Here is my half of the appetizer:

Delicious, but FRIED!  I’m not a big fried food fan.  Love samosas, though.  I think they’re fried too, but they don’t taste fried.

On to the star of the show: my beloved chicken tikka massala with basmati rice and panneer naan.  All of it was amazing!  Actually the chicken was a little dry but the amazing sauce more than made up for it.  I practically licked the plate clean

Oh, in the other little dish is some kind of chickpea thing that they serve with every entree.  It was nice, but I didn’t eat all of it.  There is a lot of food on that plate!

My husband got the lamb chutney gosht.  He (not so secretly) wanted to order chicken tikka masala too, but we don’t like being those people that order identical meals.  So I won and ordered the chicken and let him have a bit of the sauce.  He said the lamb was delicious.  I wouldn’t know, I’m not a lamb eater, but next time I think I may let him order the chicken and I’ll get something vegetarian.  All the paneer dishes sounded incredible!

Do you guys like Indian food?  What’s your favorite dish?

I woke up extra early this morning so I could vote before going to work. The first thing I did was turn on the coffee maker! The coffee went with me to the voting place in my to-go cup It took a little under an hour to do the voting (there was a huge line outside before the place even opened!) but I was so happy I did it!!!

By the time I got to work, I was starving! I grabbed breakfast on the go, so it was the same old combo: 2 kashi golean waffles with a Barney Butter packet + 1/2 banana. I couldn’t wait to bite into it

Yesterday at the gym they were trying to have people sign up for a Boxercise class. It was at 5:30 pm today so I swapped my usual lunch workout for the evening one to try this new class out. This meant lunch first, then 2 snacks later (or three…).

Lunch was a simple turkey, dijon mustard, tomato, avocado sandwich on 2 slices of Arnold double fiber bread… with some baby carrots on the side.

Good stuff!

Instead of working out, I did some serious farmers market shopping during lunch. I bought so much stuff I couldn’t carry it home I left it in the fridge at work to bring it all back tomorrow, when my husband picks me up in the car.

First snack of the day: the rest of the larabar from yesterday (chocolate hazelnut kind) with some tea.

I decided that you really can’t taste the hazelnuts and that it tastes just like the regular chocolate larabar. Still good though, just the name is more exciting than the product. Sorry larabar! I still love you!

Second snack: about 2 tablespoons of Sabra original hummus, 1/2 serving of Back to Nature crispy wheats (just like reduced fat wheat thins, but I think they may be more natural… I loooove these) and a pretty large apple. A pretty good combo!

And then a little before the boxing class I was craving almonds, so I had a 100 calorie pack of raw almonds. These are an excellent grab ‘n go snack, because the nuts are already pre-portioned for you. You can of course buy a bag of almonds and pre-portion them yourself, but this is just something that’s already been done for you. 100 calories worth of almonds is about 15-20 almonds, depending on the size.

And at 5:30pm I got to the Boxercise class… basically a (contact) boxing class. It was ok. It was quite introductory. Only 2 other people showed up; the guy was trying to actually get a paid class going and this was his introduction course to get people to sign up (I didn’t know this until the end of class so he wasn’t pushing this or anything). Anyways, because it was pretty basic stuff (I’m not a boxer, but I’ve taken cardio kickboxing classes before so I know “the moves”). I kind of had to work myself extra hard because it was pretty easy to slack off. I basically jump roped in between all the segments (probably did about 15 minutes of solid jump rope overall) and kicked as much as I could. I know I’ll be sore tomorrow (in fact I’m sore already) but I won’t be back to this class, and certainly won’t pay to go. The guy was really nice though (definitely a boxer!) and told me I had a future in boxing. Haha!

On to dinner… I actually wasn’t that hungry. Most of the time after a workout I’m not very hungry for a little while (unless I haven’t eaten for hours in which case of course I’m starving but that’s not because of the workout) but when I got home my husband really wanted me to cook dinner asap. Good thing I planned another “20 minute meal” from Cooking Light. On the menu for the night was “pork vindaloo”… you can find the recipe here. I of course omitted the onions, but otherwise basically followed the recipe. Garam Masala is such an awesome spice. I love indian food, and garam masala is definitely the spice in indian dishes. Yum!

My serving (about 1/4 less rice than was suggested) + some sauteed spinach with garlic:

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again: those 20 minute meals in Cooking Light (there are 6 of them in every issue) are the best!!!! I’ve never had a bad one (in fact every one was super delicious!) and they are really easy! When I asked my husband how many smiley faces this recipe earned (that’s how we rate them), he said: “Fill the page!” Hehe, yup, he loved it! And so did I!

Onto today’s goal accomplishments:
-Calories (1200-1650)- DONE- 1576, including 4 oz of champagne I will have when Obama wins
- Exercise – DONE- Boxercise class (about 55 minutes) + walked home (25 minutes)
- Water – DONE – 8 cups and counting…
- F&V (min 5 servings) – DONE – banana, tomato, avocado, baby carrots, 1/2 larabar, apple, spinach, diced tomatoes

Another awesome day! Healthy AND Sane… that’s how I like ‘em!

**edited to add** Go Obama!!!!!

+ I had a handful of pecans:

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