Yogurt Parfait...

Hey Guys,

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday! First things first, I promised you guys the recipe for the yogurt parfait. Although I use the same ingredients, I like to eat my "parfait" bowl style vs actual parfait style.

Here are the deets: 6oz. Greek yogurt 1c of raspberries 10 whole almonds (the recipe calls for 2TB of slivered, but I like the texture of whole almonds) Procedure: Layer this baby up parfait style. I added a TON of my favorite cinnamon to the yogurt. This got me thinkin...why don't they make a cinnamon flavored yogurt? Question of the day: What's your favorite type of yogurt to eat and how do you eat it? My answer: Chobani non fat with almond butter stirred in!

Good morning...

Good Morning Everyone,

Monday is over with!!! Yay...I always find Monday's to be the hardest day of the week. Last night I made it back to my apartment at 8:45pm. Much later than expected. I whipped up my Cinch! Smoothie with yogurt,berries and almond butter. I also added a sprinkling of cinnamon :-)

By 9:15 I was exhausted and had showered and was comfortably watching Antenna TV (All In The Family is so much better now than what I remembered), when I looked at my room and thought about rearranging. Now, I told myself that I'm pretty tired and I will rearrange when I come home at a decent hour. The problem is, I was already thinking about how I would rearrange my room and once I go thinking about it, I know I will do it. Yup...so as exhausted as I was, at 11pm, I started rearranging! Ok- so it wasn't that bad. I only moved my bed and TV. For some reason they were bothering me the most. I still have a couple of other things to move, but they are some light things which I will finish up today. Needless to say, I got a pretty good nights sleep.

Ok- now that you know all about my night, let's talk breakfast. This morning I had my Cinch! breakfast a little differently than yesterday. I chopped up my spinach, sliced my egg, added slivered almonds, dusted with some onion powder and balsamic vinegar. On the side I had a bowl of berries. This time I got a mix of black and red berries. So far so good, this is day 2 and I've been doing well!

Will post more later....

Question of the day: What is your favorite tea to sip on?

So far so good...

So far today has been pretty good. I have not felt really hungry and I am right on track with my meals. Although I have not been hungry I started my day off pretty tired and still am pretty tired. This is only due to the lack of sleep I got last night. I drank some tea late in the evening and I'm pretty sure this is what put me on my long night of tossing and turning! Needless to say, I have been exhausted all day. Right now I am craving to go home, slip into my PJ's and watch some good old Antenna TV, while sipping my smoothie in bed!

Anywhoo, as tired as I've been today, I managed to get half an hour of cardio in. Not bad. I did try to do some push ups, but they were a total fail! I'm trying to to about 10 a day to build up arm strength.

How is your day going?

It's Yogurt Parfait Time...

Here's a teaser for the recipe tomorrow! I had my yogurt parfait, which, I know hardly looks like a parfait, but was still delish :-)

Like I said before, I think this time around will be much easier since my body is already used to smaller portions. So far I feel good and am even thinking about getting to the gym for a workout!

The Cinch!...AGAIN!

Good Morning All,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! So, last week my dear friend and coworker, Vianny asked if I would be willing to do the five day fast forward plan of The Cinch! with her. I've already tried this in February, with success and have not gained any of the weight back, as I'm doing a good job with maintaining.

I decided to go ahead and do this but tweak it just a teensy weensy bit. One of the things that irked me the first time I did this was the amount of raspberries that needed to be eaten. I LIKE raspberries, not LOVE them and to be having so many in a day really got to me. Last time, by the end of the fifth day, I did not want to look at another raspberry! The good thing about The Cinch! is you could substitute any berry and still get the same result. So, for today, I'm subbing the raspberries for blueberries.

Now, the typical Cinch! breakfast is an egg scramble with sauteed spinach and a cup of raspberries and slivered almonds on the side. I decided to have a hard boiled egg sprinkled with onion powder with spinach on the side. I had a cup of blueberries and 10 whole almonds, which I'm thinking is about 2TB chopped or slivered. So, that was breakfast. I'm guessing The Cinch! will be much easier for me this time around because I've already adapted the ways of eating.

Question of the day: What's your favorite berry and how do you like to eat it?

New Find: Trader Joe's Healthy 8 Chopped Veggie Mix

You may have noticed that a lot of my recipes this week called for "chopped veggies". Last week when I went to Trader Joe's I noticed for $2.99 they sell a fairly decent size container of chopped veggies. The container has 8 different vegetables (broccoli, carrots, green cabbage, red cabbage, jicama, green bell pepper, radish and celery), all chopped up for you! This is extremely convenient for salads, pastas or stir fries and saves you a bunch of time.

I used these babies in my Whole Wheat Pasta and Veggies and my Macaroni and Tuna Salad.

The only downfall to this product? There is a lot of moisture in the package and if you don't use the package within a few days, you'll notice some sliminess on the bottom. Gross, but true. Overall, I think this is a great convenience and nicely priced for something that will easily give you your vegetables!

I give this product a thumbs up!

Recipe Alert: Whole Wheat Pasta and Veggies

Yesterday for lunch I had a hearty pasta and veggies dish is a creamy sauce. The secret of the creamy sauce is Greek yogurt. This is such a wonderful trick,if you mix a tablespoon of pesto sauce into 6oz. of non fat Greek yogurt, you get a thick, rich, creamy sauce with such little fat and calories. Below is the recipe for my Whole Wheat Pasta and Veggies. Ingredients: 1TB of pesto sauce 6oz. non fat Greek yogurt 1tsp. onion powder 1tsp. garlic powder Freshly cracked black pepper 1/2 cup of cooked whole wheat rigatoni 1 1/2c of chopped veggies of your choice Preparation: Stir the pesto sauce, onion and garlic powders and black pepper into the greek yogurt. Place the pasta and veggies in a bowl. Add the pesto- yogurt sauce. Toss to coat. I enjoyed this meal cold and it was delish. Enjoy! Servings: 1 Here's how this meal shapes up: Whole grain: pasta Plant fat: pesto sauce Produce: veggies Lean protein: yogurt Sass: onion and garlic powders

Lunch...

Lunch today was this beautiful protein and flavor packed pasta and veggies! Mmm..totally filling but will post recipe later.

Recipe Alert: Raw Chocolate Cookies

Hey Everyone, I wanted to share my healthy and nutritious recipe for Raw Chocolate Cookies! The recipe is now posted on TheAjnabee.com!

http://theajnabee.com/?p=7074

Breakfast time...

Make sure you all start your day off with a healthy and nutritious breakfast! I started mine off with a bowl of my Creamy Oatmeal! Stay tuned for tomorrow's breakfast post as I will be utilizing my Squeezy Fruit!

What did you have for breakfast?

Good morning...

Good morning all, This morning I woke up a bit under the weather :-(. Well, it actually started last night with a stuffy nose, which lead me to be up all night. Hopefully I will feel better through out the day. I really want to be able to get a workout in, especially since I didn't workout yesterday. More to come later... Question of the day: do you workout when you are not feeling well?

Lunch Today...

Lunch today was another serving of my whole wheat macaroni tuna salad. What did you guys have?

New Find: Squeezy Fruit

This morning in the grocery store (I go often, I can't help it :-p), I found Squeezy Fruit by Goodness Gardens. I picked up the strawberry one and decided to try this out. I did see other flavors like blackberry, mango, pineapple and blueberry, but strawberry seemed the most neutral to try out.

Just two tablespoons of this squeezy goodness is 20 calories! The ingredients are not too bad either: strawberries, water, sugar, xanthan gum, vitamin C and citric acid.

I'm thinking about using this for a number of things, but the first use that popped up was for my creamy oatmeal. Yes, stay tuned tomorrow morning for a different variation of my oatmeal.

Have you guys used Squeezy Fruit?

Breakfast this morning...

Good Morning All,

Today I woke up to a slight wintry mix, but no worries...all I needed was a cup of steaming coffee.  I LOVE my coffee black, with cinnamon sprinkled in.  I usually make my own coffee in the morning, but since I was running a bit late and was a bit lazy last night to set the coffee timer last night, I bought a tall cup from Starbucks.  When I got into work, I made my famous bowl of creamy oatmeal, with one change:  instead of the whole almonds, I used two tablespoons of raw almond butter.  Mmm...so deliciously creamy!

How was your commute this morning?

Question of the day:  Do you take a multivitamin?

Recipe Alert: Whole Wheat Macaroni Tuna Salad

As promised, I wanted to share my delicious lunch with you guys. Today I had Whole Wheat Macaroni Tuna Salad. Here are the deets: Ingredients: 1/2c cooked whole wheat macaroni 1c of chopped mix veggies of your choice (I used Trader Joe's chopped mixed veggies made of carrots,cabbage and radish) 1/2 can of tuna, drained Small box of raisins 2tsp of onion powder 2tsp of garlic powder Freshly cracked black pepper 1TB of Kraft Olive Oil Mayo Preparation: Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Stir to combine well. Enjoy! Servings: 1 Here's how this meal shapes up: Whole grain: whole wheat pasta Lean protein: tuna Produce: veggies and raisins Plant fat: olive oil mayo Sass: onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper

Kraft Olive Oil Mayo

The other day I was walking down the grocery store aisle looking for my regular reduced fat mayo when I noticed Kraft's Mayo with Olive Oil.  I decided to try this out when I compared the ingredients with Kraft light mayo. 

Kraft Olive Oil mayo has the following ingredients:  Water, Olive Oil, Soybean Oil, Vinegar, Modified Food Starch, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Eggs, Contains less than 2% of Salt, Mustard Flour, Dried Onions, Dried Garlic, Natural Flavor, Enzyme Modified Egg Yolk, Beta Carotene* (Color), Lactic Acid*, Potassium Sorbate* and Calcium Disodium Edta As Preservatives, Phosphoric Acid*

Kraft Light Mayo has the following indredients: 

Water, Soybean Oil, Vinegar, Modified Food Starch, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Eggs, contains Less Than 2% of Salt, Enzyme Modified Egg Yolk, Mustard Flour, Lactic Acid (Ingredient Not Normally Found in Mayonnaise)Potassium Sorbate (Ingredient Not Normally Found in Mayonnaise)Calcium Disodium EDTA as Preservatives, Phosphoric Acid (Ingredient Not Normally Found in Mayonnaise)Dried Onions, Dried Garlic, Natural Flavor, Beta Carotene


Seeing the ingredient lists not too different from each other, I decided to buy the olive oil mayo and give it a shot.


Nutritionally, the stats are slightly different.  Light mayo ranks in at 50 calories per TB and olive oil mayo ranks in at 45 per TB.


So, what's the verdict?  One TB of this stuff is very creamy and you do taste a slight taste difference from regular light mayo.  This could be due to the addition of olive oil.  I do like this a lot.  Yesterday I made an awesome Tuna Salad for lunch.  Today, I made a whole wheat macaroni salad (pics and recipe to come later).

I suggest if you use mayo, go ahead and try this out!

Question of the day:  Does chewing gum make you more hungry?

Lunch and then some....

Alright, so I know today started off with a dull note...you know, it being a rainy Monday and all, but the day started to look up. A few hours after my delish breakfast, I snacked on a PB and Chocolate Chip Larabar. I was also able to start my week off right by hitting the gym and getting my cardio in as well as an ab workout and push ups!


Lunch was a delicious tuna salad that I made. I used half a can of tuna, a TB of Kraft Olive Oil mayo, shredded cabbage, brown rice and some chopped up veggies from Trader Joe's.

Monday morning breakfast...

Good Morning All,

Well, another week has started.  I totally have the Monday morning/day blues.  Probably because of the wintry mix of weather we are having right now!  Nothing like waking up to a cold, rainy Monday morning. 

On a brighter note, breakfast was delish!  I'm continuing to following the Cinch! principles and each of my meals contains a whole grain, plant fat, lean protein, produce and sass.  Today I had a  yogurt bowl with some oatmeal in it.  Now, this may sound weird but this was a deliciously creamy bowl of goodness!  I took 6oz. of non fat Greek yogurt, 14 whole almonds, sliced banana, cinnamon and a 1/4c of McCann's Instant Irish Oatmeal in Maple and Brown Sugar (I cooked this quickly in the microwave with water), and mixed it all together for a creamy bowl of goodness!

mmmm....creaminess!

I LOVED this because I got just a teeny bit of sugar from the oatmeal, creaminess from the yogurt, fiber from the banana and almonds and plant fat from the almonds!  YUM!!

What did you guys have for breakfast?

Question of the day:  How was your weekend?

Breakfast this morning...

Toast with sliced banana's, cinnamon and almond butter.  A glass of coconut milk on the side!  Mmm...delish..and I feel so much more energized than yesterday!

Back On Track...

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!!!

Yesterday I went right back on track from my little setback! I started my day off with a bowl of oatmeal made with 1/4c of oats, raisins, almonds, cinnamon and some coconut milk.

A couple of hours later I got hungry for a sweet treat so I grabbed a wedge of my favorite TJ's chocolate. This kept me satisfied until lunch time.

I usually bring my lunch to work but forgot yesterday. So, I went out and bought some brown rice sushi. I bought one brown rice california roll and one brown rice veggie roll. This was delish and kept me full
for a while.


mmm...sushi...



As much as I was not feeling up for a workout, I made myself go to the gym and get my 30 minutes of cardio in. The reason why I made myself do this is because I know I was only feeling sluggish from the day

before. If I did not go to the gym I would start to fall out of my routine and I do not want to lose this habit.



Dinner last night was a very filling smoothie! Now, I know what you're thinking..."Smoothie that's not enough for dinner", before you go on a tantrum, I made myself a vegetable smoothie. This was practically a

whole salad in a blender: 1 ripe banana, 2c of frozen spinach, 1TB of EVOO, 1c of coconut milk. This smoothie may sound weird but it was delicious and nutritious! I swear...you don't even taste the spinach.  I wish I had taken a picture. It would have been perfect for St. Patty's Day!

So, that was my day in a nutshell. Now I'm onto another!

Question of the day: I'm thinking about buying a Magic Bullet. What do you guys think of this product?

My little setback...

Yesterday, I had a great breakfast and an awesome lunch!  My little set back came in after lunch.  This is what happens when I don't come prepared. If I need a snack and do not have a healthy one on me, I grab for whatever I can find.  Yesterday I found a bag of granola and coconut milk.  Sure, these are healthy things to eat, but only if you eat ONE portion. I probably finished the whole bag of granola with coconut, even though I was full after a serving!

Dinner felt like an even bigger disaster!  I went to the Indian street in Jersey City and checked a new joint that opened up, called Chore Baazar.  The theme of this place was good, but the food and chai was not that great.  I did have a craving for biryani and ordered that from Lucky's Biryani stall.  First of all, the biryani did not taste that good, second of all, they were out of the mirch ka salan, third of all, I asked for hot oil and they gave me mint chutney.  I don't know if it was just Lucky's being like or if the whole joint is like this.  I may give Chore Bazaar one more shot, just to check out another stall and see how the food is.  The service was good and so were the portions.

So, I did eat the biryani for dinner.  The overload of granola and biryani has made me feel very sluggish and bloated this morning and I do feel like doing a lot of clean eating today, such as a salad for lunch.  This morning's breakfast was oatmeal with raisins and almonds.  I plan on eating right through out the rest of the day.  Even though I had a set back yesterday, it's exactly that, just a temporary set back.  This really did not effect my weight, just my mood and energy.  I also did not work out yesterday, which did not help me either.

Ugh, I do feel out of it today :-(

Recipe Alert: Pesto Salad



mmm...Pesto Salad!

 Lately, I've been liking my pasta for lunch. Yes, a great thing about following The Cinch! Concept is you don't have to shy away from carbs!  With some healthy choices such as using whole wheat pasta and portion
control, you can guarantee you will be on your way to a healthy lifestyle and weight loss. Try my recipe below for a delicious Pesto Salad.

Ingredients:
1/2c of cooked whole wheat rotini
1c of frozen spinach
1/2c of sliced mushrooms
1/2c of sliced red or yellow bell pepper
1/4c of skim ricotta
1TB of pesto sauce

Preparation:
Place the mushrooms in a bowl. Top with frozen spinach. Microwave this for five minutes, until the spinach has defrosted and the mushrooms have softened. Place aside. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta and
pesto. Place the pasta in a salad bowl. Top with spinach and mushrooms. Add the bell pepper. Toss with the pesto mixture. Sprinkle with black pepper if desired. Enjoy!

Servings: 1

Here's how this meal shapes up:
Whole grain: pasta
Lean protein: ricotta
Plant fat: pesto
Produce: spinach,pepper,mushrooms
Sass: seasonings in pesto

Breakfast...lately....

Good Morning All,

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend!  I wanted to share what I've been having for breakfast lately.  Yes...I have moved on from oatmeal bowls to cereal bowls.  I pick a whole grain, high fiber cereal and carefully portion out a serving size.  These days I'm liking Kashi's Honey Sunshine cereal.  I then top my cereal off with some raisins and almonds -14 almonds to be exact.  Lately, I've been on a coconut milk kick.  Silk makes an amazing coconut milk.  I've only found the sweetened version, which contains 6g of sugar per 8 ounces. I use half a cup. so that's not bad.  I also sprinkle in a ton of my favorite cinnamon - Simply Organic Cinnamon.  This bowl of cereal will seriously keep me satisfied until lunch time!

Here's how this breakfast shapes up:
Whole grain:  cereal
Lean protein: coconut milk
Plant fat:  almonds
Produce:  raisins
Sass:  cinnamon

Also, weighed myself this morning, and I'm down .6 pounds from last week!  Yay!!

Recipe Alert: Yogurt and Granola Bowl

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all are getting a healthy start to the day.  If you haven't had breakfast yet, you should try making my Yogurt and Granola Bowl.  Breakfast this morning was so delicious and satisfying.  Also, a good change from my ricotta toast breakfast, don't get me wrong, I still <3 my ricotta toast :-)  Here are the deets for my wonderfully delish breakfast:

Ingredients:
6oz. of non fat Greek yogurt
Small banana, diced
2TB. of sliced or slivered almonds
1/4c of low fat granola
Cinnamon

Preparation:
Place the yogurt in a bowl. Top with banana, almonds and granola. Sprinkle cinnamon.  Enjoy as is or stir to combine all ingredients.

Servings: 1

Here's how this meal shapes up:

Whole grain:  granola

Plant fat: Almonds

Lean protein: yogurt

Produce:  banana

Sass: cinnamon

Snack Alert: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Wedges

One of the great things I LOVE about The Cinch! is you are required to get your dark chocolate fix daily.  Trust me, I don't skimp or slide on this!  I wanted to share my favorite dark chocolate fix with you guys. 

My good friend, Vianny, introduced me to Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Wedges.  These are delicious portioned wedges of 70% Belgian Cacao wedges which are AMAZING!  Just two satisfying pieces are only 70 calories.  These are so delish and sinfully sweet!  Dab a little almond butter on these and you are in for a sweet treat.

So, there you have it.  This is how I get my dark chocolate fix for the day!!

Recipe Alert: Mexican Bowl

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Luckily, I was able to eat healthy consistently and did not have any set backs.  I weighed myself this morning and lost .4 pounds since last week!  Yay!!  So far, no weight has been gained back.

So, I wanted to share my recipe for a Mexican Bowl.  I made this for dinner last week and brought in for lunch the next day.  This bowl was pretty filling and contained all the pieces of the Cinch! puzzle that I needed.  Enjoy my recipe below for my Mexican Bowl!

Ingredients:
1/2c of cooked brown rice
1/4 of an avocado
1TB of lime juice
1 green chili, very finely diced
1/2 tomato, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2c of white vinegar
1/2c of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 yellow or  red pepper, diced
2tsp. of chili powder
2tsp. of cumin powder

Preparation:
Place the tomatoes and onions in a bowl and pour the vinegar on top, set aside. Mash the avocado with the lime juice and chili, set aside.  Mix the black beans with the chili and cumin powders.  In a deep bowl evenly distribute the yellow or red pepper as the first layer.  Place the black beans as the second layer.  The tomato and onions go in as the third layer, followed by the brown rice.  Top with dollop of avocado.

Enjoy!!

Servings: One

Here's how the meal shapes up:

Whole Grain: brown rice
Lean Protein: black beans
Plant Fat: avocado
Produce: tomatoes, onions, peppers
Sass: cumin, turmeric, chili powder

Snack Alert: Avocado yogurt

Who says yogurt needs to be sweet or flavored just with fruit? I decided to make a savory yogurt snack using avocado and some veggies.  Here are the deets for an easy and tasty savory yogurt!

Ingredients:
6oz. Non fat greek yogurt
1/4 avocado, mashed
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 tomato, diced
1/2 onion, diced
White vinegar
Black pepper

Preparation:
Add the vinegar to a bowl and place in tomato and onions.  Allow to sit for ten minutes.  In the mean time, place the yogurt in a bowl. Stir in bell pepper and mashed avocado.  After ten minutes, stir in the tomato and onions and black pepper.  Enjoy by itself or with a slice of whole wheat toast!

Today's Wrap Up....

Hello Everyone, Hope you all had a good day! Today started off extremely cold and ended...extremely cold :-p. I grabbed my coffee on the go and headed to work. Breakfast was my ricotta toast, but this time I used a ripe banana as the fruit. I really liked this combination. The banana provided a nice smooth creamy texture, with a hint of sweetness. This went very well with the ricotta and sliced almonds.


Shortly after, I did have a blood orange as a snack. What does a blood orange taste like? I have to say a twist of berry and tangerine. Very delicious! Lunch was a mexican bowl I made last night. Mmmm...so delish. This was made with brown rice, avocado, black beans and a tomato and onion ceviche. I will post the recipe soon. Dinner was at a wonderful Thai restaurant called Room Service. Delicious Thai food with a chandelier right in the middle of the room. See pic.


Anywho, I incorporated The Cinch! Puzzle and ordered: steamed mussels, brown rice, sauteed greens in garlic and oil. Yup...got my lean protein, whole grains, produce, plant fat and SASS in one cute lil meal.


Couple of things I'm really happy about: I'm really happy because my favorite cinnamon arrived today. I LOVE LOVE Simply Organic's cinnamon. Its like no cinnamon you've ever had and I put this on everything...I even sprinkle in my morning coffee! I bought a pack of three from amazon for $10. Not bad, considering the store I get them from is $4.69. So, yay! I'm also happy that I made it to the gym and got my workout in! Yes...so far on track for the week. Well, that's it guys. That's my day in a nutshell. How are you guys doing?

Recipe Alert: My Version of Curd Rice

Hi Guys,

So, I feel I may be a little out of my league on this recipe, but this was adapted from the South Indian dish, Curd Rice. Now, I looked at many recipes online and found many different ways to make this, and I have to say, mine is a bit different, but hopefully provides the same flavor. So, all you hard core curd rice eating people out there, don't kill me for this adaptation :-)

Of course, I applied the Cinch! puzzle method for this recipe. I have to say, this recipe does not LOOK appetizing, but it tasted fantastic!

Here are the deets:

Ingredients:
1/2c of cooked brown rice
1TB of canola oil
1tsp. of mustard seeds
1tsp. of cumin seeds
1 dry red chili
1tsp. of turmeric
1c. of frozen/fresh spinach
1/2c. of shredded cabbage
1/2c. of non fat greek yogurt

Preparation:
Add the oil in a sauce pan, place on medium heat.  Once hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chili and turmeric.  Allow this to cook for about a minute.  Stir in the brown rice.  Stir in the spinach and cabbage.  Allow to cook for a couple of minutes.  Stir in the yogurt.  Enjoy this dish hot!

Servings:  1

Here's how I incorporated The Cinch!.

Whole Grain:  brown rice
Lean Protein:  yogurt
Plant Fat:  canola oil
Produce:  spinach, cabbage
Sass: cumin, turmeric, chili

Today.....

Hello Everyone, Today was a very tiring day at work but I managed to eat right throughout. Breakfast was my usual: Ricotta Toast. I'm thinking about changing this up tomorrow, I will keep you posted. Lunch was my own south indian inspired, yogurt rice dish. Ill post the recipe tomorrow :-). Later on, I did have a larabar for a snack. I also had a blood orange. Hey, they are in season somewhere. Dinner tonight will be my own Mexican concoction. I'm thinking brown rice, beans, avocado and some veggies. I'll definitely take pictures. So, I'm trying to workout five days a week. My schedule is: Monday -workout Tuesday -workout Wednesday -rest Thursday -workout Friday -workout Saturday -workout Sunday -rest Going by this, my rest day is today, which is good because I'm exhausted and still have to make dinner and do laundry. Today was also a go to work in my glasses day!


Oh, I weighed myself this morning. I'm down .3 pounds from last week. Not bad! So far I have not gained any weight!!! Yay, go me. How did your day go?

Recipe Alert: Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Hello Everyone,

As promised from yesterday, here is my recipe for my Mediterranean Pasta Salad.  I had this twice for lunch this week and it is delicious!  This dish is so flavorful and hearty you will love it.  Just a side note, 2oz. of uncooked pasta yields to one cup of cooked pasta.  So, make 2oz and you will have two portions.  If you don't know what two ounces of pasta looks like, get a cheap scale.  I bought one from Target for less than six bucks!

Ingredients:
1/2c of cooked whole wheat pasta
1c of mushrooms, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1c of spinach, fresh or frozen
5 cherry tomatoes, halved
3 cloves of garlic, shredded
2tsp. of chili powder
1/4c of crumbled feta cheese
1TB of of EVOO
1TB of balsamic vinegar

Preparation:
Place the mushrooms, celery and spinach, garlic and chili powder in a saute pan. Place on medium heat and saute until spinach has wilted or completely defrosted. If necessary, add a little bit of water.  Once the veggies have sauteed, place them in a bowl.  Add the pasta and toss.  Add, the cherry tomatoes.  Drizzle with the balsamic vinegar and EVOO and toss.  Top with the feta cheese.  Enjoy!

Here's the breakdown:
Whole Grain:  Pasta
Lean Protein:  feta cheese
Plant Fat:  EVOO
Produce:  mushrooms, celery and spinach
Sass:  garlic, chili powder

Today......

Hi everyone, Today was another good day! You may have already read how I started my day, with a wonderful breakfast. Lunch was a wonderful Mediterranean pasta salad that I made. I'll give you the recipe tomorrow, but tease you with a photo now :-p


Dinner was another creation of mine. I don't have a name for it now, but was inspired by a south Indian yogurt rice dish. I'll think of a name and post the deets. My go to snack for the day was a peanut butter larabar. Oh sooooo good, but they can be a bit expensive. I'm working on creating my own version of larabars which would be much cheaper! Lastly, I managed to get my workout in today. I did thirty minutes on the arc trainer and then did 90 crunches. I feel good. How are you guys doing?

Breakfast: Toast with Almond Ricotta and Nectarine

Hello Everyone,

So, I'm going to try to bring you one Cinch! recipe, that I have
created, a day. Today, I'd like to share one of my favorite
breakfasts which is a fruit and almond spread on toast.  I love this breakfast because it keeps me quite full and energized.

Ingredients:

1 slice of whole grain toast
1/4c of skim ricotta cheese
2TB of slivered or sliced almonds (I like slivered)
1 nectarine, diced
1tsp of cinnamon

Preparation:
Place the ricotta, almonds, nectarine and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir to combine. Top toast with spread. Enjoy!!

Here's how this meal shapes up:
Whole grain: bread
Lean protein: skim ricotta
Plant fat: almonds
Produce: nectarine
Sass: cinnamon

If you're following Weight Watchers, this meal comes out to 5 points.