New Approach

So, I'm working at this thing called healthy living. It's rough. I'm not always on track. (In fact, I'm often off track.)

This blog will have to evolve with me or go away—so I'm gonna go with evolve!

For now I'll be journaling, and sharing recipes, and they won't all be 27g, but I promise they'll all be healthy. That said:

Today is day 2-in-a-row of eating super healthy. I feel good. When I woke up I weighed myself and was down 2.2 lbs, so that's a good start. Later I ran for about two minutes while walking the dog and it actually felt really good (whereas usually when I try to run for two minutes I'm hyper aware and bothered by my excess self, and I feel like I couldn't possibly stand running for a third minute).

I had the same salad for two meals today, because it was easy and fast to do so—work was crazy and I was fueled by lots of coffee, so I was anxious to just get things done, not mess around cooking myself fancy meals. Luckily it was pretty good, too, so eating it twice was actually enjoyable! Here's what that salad consisted of (apologies, I forgot to take pictures. I know, it's shameful.):

1c red leaf lettuce
1c romaine lettuce, chopped into thin strips
1/2 a grilled chicken breast, sliced
1/4c shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 scallion
3 grape tomatoes
3T sliced black olives
1/3c Fage 0% plain greek yogurt
2T salsa
lots of cilantro
Franks Hot Sauce


I like to do my taco salads as a chopped salad—chopping all the lettuce into thin strips, and dicing all the vegetables into small bits—then everything mixes well. Just chop everything up, dollop with the greek yogurt and salsa, and top with as much cilantro and Frank's as you like.

Enjoy!

Yes, this. Amy Peohler, truth speaker.

Southtowns Healthy Meetup

Interested in getting back on the wagon, or helping others do the same? I decided to start a Meetup group—a weekly :45 meeting to get together for a cup of something healthy and keep eachother on track. Please join and spread the word!

Get Your Greens In Early

Wow, it's been a long time. I have some back-logged posts to get up here so there'll be new recipes coming soon.

Along with the arrival of spring, I am recommitting myself to the healthy stuff again. While no longer a pesca-vegetarian, the meat I use is organic, free-range, and/or grass fed as much as possible, and I'll keep posting lots of light, healthy vegetable-focused recipes. (Looking forward to doing fun new things with my CSA goods this year!) I hope you'll join me for it.

Today I just had a super simple smoothie for breakfast:

2 scoops of Lexington Co-op QuickTein, a cup of organic baby spinach and some water and ice, and voila - breakfast of champions. Not the best tasting protein shake mix ever though—so I'd recommend the Isopure I've mentioned before over the one above. But what a simple way to get some greens in at breakfast. Most people have caught on by now but if you haven't, please try it! You can barely taste the veggies when you get a good tasting protein shake mix.

Have a healthy day today!

photo credit: thebittenword.com via photopin cc

Shrimp, Broccoli and Fiddlehead Stirfry

I bought some fiddlehead ferns (cuz they look so cool!) but then waited too long to use them—so I needed a quick way to incorporate them into a meal and figured stir fry was a pretty safe bet. Luckily, it turned out halfway decent!

You'll need:
1 clove of garlic
Lemongrass
1 tsp. ginger (fresh or candied)
1 bunch of broccoli
1c fiddlehead ferns
1 onion
1 red bell pepper
14 shrimp
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Mirin
Red chili pepper flakes

Thoroughly clean the fiddleheads, chop the broccoli and onion, mince the garlic, and prep your shrimp. In a wok, heat up a small amount of oil and add in the garlic, stirring for 30 seconds. Toss in the onion, lemongrass and ginger and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly. (Once stuff begins to stick, you can add a splash of the sauces or water, so as not to go overboard with oil.) Then, add in your fiddleheads—you need to make sure these cook all the way through, so give them a few minutes, covered if needed, to get them cooked most of the way before adding in your broccoli. Once the fiddleheads are almost fork tender, add in the broccoli and red bell pepper and cook just until they get that bright color, but still have a bit of crunch. Add in the shrimp, the sauces if you haven't added them yet, and a couple shakes of red chili pepper flakes for kick. Cook until the shrimp is done (4 minutes tops) and enjoy! Makes two 27g servings.

Garlic Scallion Eggplant

Whenever possible, it's good to keep your recipes simple and from scratch—that way there are no hidden calorie bombs. This is super basic, easy and fast.

You'll need:
1 eggplant
1 scallion
1 clove of garlic
1 T. olive oil or sesame oil
Salt & pepper or soy sauce

Chop your eggplant into bite-sized pieces, mince your garlic, and slice your scallions. Heat up a wok or sautée pan with oil and add in the garlic and scallions; stir constantly for about a minute. Add in the eggplant and stir to coat, season with some salt and pepper, and cover, stirring every minute or two. Once the eggplant is cooked all the way through (about 10 minutes), serve it up. Feel free to season with a little soy sauce or similar, if this is a little to bare for you. This isn't 27g of protein, but it's lite and easy, so I say roll with it!

Dual Salads

Weeknights can be tough, especially if you're challenged with accommodating different dietary restrictions and personal tastes. That's where these delicious salads come in—everybody adds their own toppings, chooses or makes their own dressing, and everyone has something they actually like. We kept this one pretty simple.

For both salads, you'll need:
Mixed field greens
Scallions
Red bell pepper
Salt & Pepper

Tuna Steak Salad:
1 Tuna steak
Lemon pepper
1/2c. fat free Greek yogurt
Dill
Juice of 1 lemon

Chicken & Bleu Cheese Salad:
1 Chicken breast

Bleu cheese
Ken's Lite Honey Mustard dressing

Chop your scallions and red bell peppers and sprinkle onto bowls full of field greens.

For the 27g dressing, mix together the Greek yogurt, juice of 1 lemon, and dill, salt and pepper to taste.

Cook your chicken (we get the marinated organic chicken from Wegmans) in a pan on the stovetop, on medium-high, about 7 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, broil the tuna, seasoned with lemon pepper, for about 4 to 5 minutes each side. Allow the chicken and tuna to cool for a couple minutes, then chop up into bite-sized pieces.

Top one salad with chicken, bleu cheese crumbles, and your store-bought dressing. Top the other (27g) salad with the tuna and as much of the dressing as you like. (Which is the best part of this dressing, no need to go easy on it, go ahead and load it up!) Enjoy!