sweet potato « Healthy and Sane

Entries Tagged as 'sweet potato'

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.

[395 calories]

I just totaled up my calories for the day and realized I’m a bit low. I’m munching on a clementine and calling it a day.

See you later alligators!

[Read more →]

Giving ecto another go

February 2nd, 2010 · 17 Comments · Boston, salad, snacks, sweet potato

I am still on the lookout for the most efficient way to blog. It seems that so many people figured out what works for them, and I still haven’t had my perfectly smooth blog posting experience. Wordpress is okay, I just constantly have to do 4 things before my images upload in the order that the pictures were taken (instead of backwords – most recent first) and then once I start moving them around (especially since I just started using 2 cameras – that really messed up their order!), each one has to be fixed manually or else they disappear from the post when you click on it. It’s kind of annoying, and it’s time I’d rather be spending working on content of this blog, learning about photography or hanging out with my husband or family and friends.

So last night, I finally asked Tina for help – she LOVES ecto. If you’re not familiar with what it is – ecto is basically an offline blogging platform. You should be able to write your post, insert images, etc. offline and once there is an internet signal, the post can be published. Tina uses it mostly to upload images because of the aforementioned trouble we all have with uploading pics through wordpress. Anyways… I guess that was a long introduction to my coffee date with Tina. She happened to be in my hood this afternoon and promised to show me the ecto ropes. I was so excited! Could my previous ecto frustrations be finally put to rest? Was it time for my ridiculous daily ritual with wordpress to come to an end?

We met at Wired Puppy – a cute little specialty coffee and tea shop on Newbury st with all organic offerings.

The muffins in the display case looked divine! I was a good girl and stuck to just a simple calorie-free beverage.

I got a loose leaf tea, and being the great blogger than I am… I forgot to write down exactly what I had. It was very fruity and flavorful. I also loved that glass mug!

Tina and I caught up on recent life events and then we got to our little demo from the ecto expert. My ecto was messing up a bit for Tina, just like it did for me, but I seemed to learn a few tricks from Tina.

Tonight, after a very long day at work, I thought I’d give this (ecto) baby a whirl. Um, it still sucks!!! My images imported at a different size from what I wanted them at, so I tried to change them all at the same time – no luck. I decided to stick with the default size, and then all of a sudden, my next batch of images started uploading at the right size. WTF?! How did that happen, and will it stick around? I manually changed the size of each of the previously imported images, and I hope that was the end of that. Is anyone out there an ecto genius? (Sorry, Tina, I guess I’m a bad student). I think this is the least intuitive program ever! I thought Apple was supposed to be great for media stuff like that. **Ok, ending the rant here. Thanks for listening, guys.

Let’s jump to the rest of my eats, shall we? Ah, much better!

BREAKFAST

2 mini Holey Donuts cinnamon buns + coffee

[200 calories]

SECOND PART OF BREAKFAST / MID-MORNING SNACK

A super juicy pear with plain oikos – no other sweetener required!

[135 calories]

LUNCH

A gigantic salad: mixed greens, sweet potato, ham, pinto beans, cherry tomatoes, broccoli + 1T Annie’s balsamic vinaigrette

[275 calories]

The salad had so many flavors and it was SUPER filling. The sweet potato chunks were definitely the best. I may have to recreate this exact salad asap.

MID-AFTERNOON TREATS

Things I was able to avoid at the office:

I am EXTRA careful today with my teeth.

Things I sank my teeth into:

[150 calories? They were small and had some nougat in them]

This was followed by a healthier treat…

[180 calories]

Which contributed to this…

[135 calories]

… being my DINNER! I planned on attending a 7:30pm sweat box class and the only thing I could stomach prior to it was a small snack (which due to work, I ended up having like half hour before class – dangerous!!)

And now I’m snacking on this little love

[80 calories]

Total calories consumed: ~1500

It was really easy eating well today. I hope this health-kick continues. My body is screaming for a detox!!

Does my post look any different in ecto?

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Restless

January 7th, 2010 · 24 Comments · Boston, Ellie Krieger, breakfast, dessert, salad, shrimp, smoothies, snacks, sweet potato

I’ve been restless all day today, in a good way. I’ve been just super happy and chipper and couldn’t sit still. I just kept day dreaming about our new kitchen, thinking about how well I’ve been doing in general with my diet and exercise this week, how awesome my blog readers are and how I can’t wait for Friday night! It also helped that I had 3 things to look forward to – 1) a fun lunch date with Mary Kate; 2) a great boot camp class after work; and 3) a yummy home cooked dinner. Could you contain yourself with all this excitement?

BREAKFAST

A “green” monster + a power bran muffin

In the monster – 1/2 frozen banana, frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup skim milk, large handful of baby spinach + Amazing Grass Green Food packet… it kind of came out black but still delicious I loved getting so many servings of fruits and veggies by 8 am!

The bran muffin was toasted from frozen and was still yummy although a little dry.

[405 calories]

MID-MORNING SNACK

1/2 cashew cookie larabar. I love this flavor!!

[105 calories]

LUNCH

Lunch was the aforementioned date with Mary Kate at Tossed. I got a giant salad with mixed greens, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, mandarin oranges, snow peas and cajun shrimp + dijon mustard dressing on the side (I used about a tablespoon).

So much veggie awesomeness!

After paying I realized adding the shrimp cost $5!!! I will say the shrimp was delicious.

[~272 calories]

Mary Kate, I had a great time catching up with you. I’m looking forward to future lunch dates

When I got back to my desk, despite feeling uncomfortably full, I wanted chocolate in a bad way. A little calcium did the trick. Taking vitamins is so hard. lol

[30 calories]

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

The craving for a baked good hit later in the day. This chocolate brownie zbar really satisfied me today. I used to eat these all the time and forgot how good they are. I think I need to stock up – these are great and are only 120 calories!

[120 calories]

DINNER

Dinner was unphotogenic but very delicious. I made Ellie Krieger’s nutty sweet potato soup, hosted by Popsicles and Sandy Feet this week on CEiMB. I think a dollop of greek yogurt on top would have made it a little prettier but we are all out. I tried crumbling some goat cheese on top but it just sank. In any case, the soup was hearty, flavorful and just the right amount of spicy (I used 1/2 amount of cayenne). The only little problem I had with it was the texture – my peanut butter didn’t melt that well. Once in a while there were pb chunks on the spoon. Not the worst problem but I was hoping for a super creamy consistency. Probably my fault. On the side I enjoyed 1/2 FFL english muffin with some four pepper goat cheese. A perfect meal on a cold winter night!

[399 calories]

NIGHT-TIME SNACK

Once again I haven’t had enough calories during the day. I was craving white chocolate and I was cold. I grabbed a piece of chocolate and went to the cupboard for tea… and then I saw hot chocolate packets! Brilliant

These are fancy shmancy French hot chocolate packets we got at a gourmet cheese store last year. I used 1/2 cup of 1% milk, 1/2 cup hot water and the whole hot cocoa packet to make my hot chocolate. This was so rich and satisfying that I ended up only eating 1 little square of the white chocolate. Yay for listening to my body and being reasonable around yummy foods!!

[~155 calories]

Total calories consumed: ~1500

I’m going to dinner at Oleana in Cambridge tomorrow night with the hubs. Calories will not be counted at dinner but every bite will be enjoyed. This is how I keep myself sane!

Happy Thursday/Friday (if that’s when you read it)!!

[Read more →]

New fitness friends

October 25th, 2009 · 25 Comments · Cooking Light, pasta, running, soups, sweet potato

Hi bloggies! How was your weekend? Mine was full of fitness fun

Saturday started by meeting a reader, Allison, who teaches lots of fitness classes at the Beacon Hill Athletic Clubs. I decided to attend her muscle and abs class at the center in Brighton. After chatting for about 10 minutes before the class, we got to business The class was really a blast. Allison knew everyone’s name and mentioned Jillian Michaels, new tv shows, while kicking our butts with moves I’ve never seen before. We used every gadget you can think of, and just kept moving. Awesome! Allison also introduced me to the class as her special blogger friend. If some of you Brighton BHAC girls are in fact reading this post, say hello in the comments section!

Allison and I after a super sweaty class:

I actually decided to take a break from taking pictures of my food for the day, so Saturday eats will have to be my little secret Let’s get to Sunday!

I woke up super excited for my first Healthy and Sane social running group meet-up! I fueled up with some dessert for breakfast: When Pigs Fly chocolate bread with chunky Barney Butter + coffee. Not a bad way to start the day, that’s for sure

Our first social run was awesome! There were just 4 of us running today, which made for easy navigation. We ran across the Mass Ave bridge towards Cambridge, looped by the Museum of Science, then ran to Fenway and back to the Back Bay. I ran 7 miles and didn’t even realize it! I was too busy having fun!! We held about a 9:30 minute pace (I think, I actually reset my garmin by mistake without checking) and all felt great! I got to meet and get to know Shannon from Lessons to Learn, and hang out with my Boston girls, Shannon (from Tri to Cook) and Molly of course. Great fun! I feel so lucky to have met so many cool people because of my blog! If you like running and live in Boston, you should join us. I can almost guarantee a good time

Oh, look what Shannon brought for me…

Baked mini cider donuts!!! Yum! But we’ll get to that later… onto…

LUNCH

1 cup of V8 Vegetable Blend soup with the bud of the olive bread.

I tried the soup by itself this time, without adding anything else, and it was delicious! Mmm, chunky delicious veggie soup (a few more days left to enter the V8 soup giveaway!)…

+ yummy olive bread. I think I’ve eaten my weight in bread over the past few days. It’s too good!

+ Dessert: mini baked cider donut

These tasted like delicious mini muffins – lots of cinnamon and spices. The perfect fall treat! My parents in law came over and got to enjoy them as well. They were a hit for sure! Check out Tri to Cook in a few days for the recipe

OTHER SNACKS

There were lots of snacks because I’m never hungry after a run, which made for a small lunch and a ravenous Elina later in the day

One of the last apples from the apple picking trip:

Mini peach pie slice with Stonyfield nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt:

Yellowtail cabernet sauvignon:

This is a pretty nice wine, especially for the price. Brings back memories of buying giant bottles of Yellowtail wine with my sister and polishing them off way to0 quickly in our NY apartment. Good times! :lol

DINNER

Dinner ended up being such an amazing fall treat! I wanted to make something with wonton wrappers we had on hand, and came across this recipe in Cooking Light for sweet potato ravioli with lemon-sage brown butter. This was my first time making ravioli… pretty fun! The wonton wrappers are a great shortcut to making the pasta dough, and these really did taste like real ravioli. I was a proud ravioli mama

I cut the amount of butter a little bit, but the butter lemon sauce makes these really special so definitely don’t skip the butter sauce!

Absolutely delicious! Rich, flavorful, and so “fall.” Adam loved them as well, despite being hesitant at first. Sweet

What a great weekend! Lots of food, lots of exercise. Perfect! What food defines “fall” for you?

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Eating like an adult – responsibly

August 7th, 2009 · 11 Comments · Cooking Light, The Best Light Recipe cookbook, breakfast, dessert, fish, salad, salmon, snacks, sweet potato

First of all, thank you all SO much on your comments on my previous post! It sounds like most of you have seen yourself at a lower weight and realized that in fact, it’s not “worth it” to stay there, so you eased up a bit. Very interesting. I’m definitely more accepting of my body lately but I’m not going to pretend that the fact that I’ve been working out hard has nothing to do with it. I’m more accepting of my body because I think it’s looking better but also I am starting to truly question whether this “fight to be thin” is actually a road to more happiness or a self-destructive journey. It’s not so dramatic, really, but you get the point I should also mention that you guys sure know how to flatter a girl. I was blushing reading most of the comments. It’s funny because I almost didn’t post that pic of myself, thinking that I looked terrible, but decided to go for it. I guess you liked it Thank you SO much! Perhaps everyone’s comments are starting to register too – maybe everyone is not wrong and I’m the one who’s setting expectations that are too high. I had a little story to tell you guys, but we’ll save it for another day – ok?

I ate really well today. By “well” I mean healthy AND delicious foods. I also made some choices I’m proud of. If you’ve been paying close attention, the last few days had more than 1 treat. I honestly was not beating myself up over it (hello, progress!) but I also would like to treat my body with respect and I think that 1 sugary/fatty treat a day is plenty. So today I made a conscious choice to eat a lot cleaner. It was not about deprivation but rather moderation. I already bought a treat to enjoy tomorrow so I know it’s only a day away. I made a comment to my husband the other day that sometimes we need to stop eating like kids, who don’t think of consequences their food choices may have on their future bodies or health, and act like adults. Eating like an adult today to me meant that the chocolate chip cookie that I purchased at the farmers market will wait until tomorrow. I plan on fully enjoying it then with a nice cup of tea

The day’s eats:

Breakfast – 1 egg + 1 egg white + 1 sl. of American cheese + 1.5 sl. bacon on a Food for Life english muffin

Pre-workout snack: local peach

Lunch: baby spinach, grape tomatoes, cucumber, 1/4 avocado, 1/3 giant sweet potato + 1T Annie’s organic goddess dressing

+ TJ’s 100 calorie dark chocolate bar (it was for the anti-oxidants )

Mid-afternoon snack: TJ’s ww low carb tortilla + 1 Barney Butter packet + 1/2 banana

Dinner was spectacular! I was craving salmon and we haven’t had it in a while, so I decided to go to my go-to salmon recipe I raved about previously here (check out #8 of top 8 meals in 2008). In case you didn’t link there, this is the sweet-spicy glazed salmon from Cooking Light (recipe is available online here). I kind of think my salmon pic looks better

The green beans look unassuming in the back of that picture but they were beyond amazing too! I followed a recipe for skillet green beans with garlic and lemon from my current cookbook obsession The beans were a little spicy, saucy and so flavorful. I could eat a whole pound of them in one sitting – easy!

And now we get to dessert. I haven’t caught the “raw food bug” but I was intrigued to taste the famous raw banana soft serve that’s been all over the blogosphere lately. I had 2 frozen bananas sitting in the freezer waiting to be used up for a green monster or banana bread, and this was the perfect opportunity to give them a new life After about 3 minutes in the food processor, the bananas became beautifully creamy and produced a delicious soft serve!

Wow, that’s just bananas? That’s it? Yep! Amazing!!! Adam and I shared this portion. I couldn’t help but add a few walnut crumbles to “spice it up.” What a perfect way to finish a great meal… the healthy way!

As you can see above, eating like an adult did not mean that there were no treats. The treats were just much healthier, so really it’s about balance. That chocolate cookie definitely has my name on it tomorrow, though

Hope you finish the work week strong and have some fun plans for the weekend!

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Entries Tagged as 'sweet potato'

Vacation booked

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

Giving ecto another go

February 2nd, 2010 · 17 Comments · Boston, salad, snacks, sweet potato

Restless

January 7th, 2010 · 24 Comments · Boston, Ellie Krieger, breakfast, dessert, salad, shrimp, smoothies, snacks, sweet potato

New fitness friends

October 25th, 2009 · 25 Comments · Cooking Light, pasta, running, soups, sweet potato

Eating like an adult – responsibly

August 7th, 2009 · 11 Comments · Cooking Light, The Best Light Recipe cookbook, breakfast, dessert, fish, salad, salmon, snacks, sweet potato

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