A Wonderful Wednesday...

Good Morning!

I'm so excited about today because it's going to be a hot day :-). I really hope this summer weather is here to stay. The weather yesterday was not too bad either. It was suppose to rain and luckily it didn't. It was also a nice night to sleep with the windows open. 

I started off my day with coconut pancakes with cinnamon apples and banana. 

Boy, did I miss my pancakes! I made a batch the night before and heated these babies up the next morning. The cinnamon apples were delicious paired with pancakes. All I did was chop up an apple and sprinkle with cinnamon. When I warmed my pancakes and apples up the next morning it was like eating a warm apple pie. 

Luckily, this breakfast held me over for a few hours. I took my lunch break and headed over to the gym. I completed two sweaty miles on the treadmill. Not bad, but I'm trying to get to three miles at a decent pace (6.0?). 

Once I finished my workout I needed to eat my lunch. Enter my roast beef sandwich that I made the night before. Oh so delicious. Roast beef, cheese and mustard between two slices of ezekiel toast. Totally filling but lacking veggies :-(. 

My sandwich held me over for a few hours, then it was snack time! I had plain, non fat Greek yogurt with carrots. This little snack held me over till dinner time. 

An hour and a pedicure later, I was headed home.  We made a delicious Vera Cruz fish (thank you TJ's) and salad dinner. The best part... we ate out on our patio and had a blast. The evening weather was so nice! We lit up our citronella candle and stayed out on the patio for a while enjoying dinner, dessert and conversation :-) Nice night. 

For dessert I had a serving of my avocado ice cream. Delicious. 

I have to say my day was filled with eating right, getting exercise in and having a nice evening! Oh, also watching DVR episodes of the last season of The Office. 

Hope you all had a good day!

How to Prep For a WEEK of Healthy Eating...

We all like to have our indulgences on the weekend.  The key is to eat healthy through out the week.  With a little prep work it can be very easy to maintain healthy eating during the week!

Here are a few tips and tricks to help you keep a healthy lifestyle during the week:

• Plan out your meals -  Sit down for about an hour and plan out what you will be having for breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  Write everything down.  I usually plan three different dinners for the week and keep the leftovers for lunch the next day.  I also buy a few things to have on hand for breakfast.  For example, I keep a box of oats at my desk to make oatmeal in the morning or if I want something different, I make it the night before and bring it with me in the morning.  For example, sometimes I make a big batch of my coconut flour pancakes and have it during the week.
• Do your grocery shopping ahead of time - Once your meals are planned out, jot down all the ingredients you will need to make your meals.  Along with the ingredients for your meal, pick three different bunches of fruit to buy.  This will aide having a side for breakfasts and having snacks on hand.  Also, pick two snacks to have per day.  I like to pick non fat Greek yogurt, almonds or hard boiled eggs.  Also buy three different veggies to pair with your dinners for the week.  I usually buy one bag of lettuce, a bunch of asparagus and beans or brussels sprouts.
• Prep your fruits and veggies - Once you get your fruits and veggies go home and start chopping/dicing/slicing.  Do what you need to do so you can grab and go if needed
• Have snacks on hand - Again, buy things that you can grab and go.  If you buy almonds, portion them out and put them away.  Want hard boiled eggs? Boil a dozen up at once so you can grab and go.  A few other suggestions, string cheese and yogurt.

These are just a few tips that help me maintain a healthy lifestyle.  This may seem a lot at first but as soon as you get into the swing of things all of this can be done very quickly!

Getting My Food On...

Wow...already into Hump Day. This week is flying by! I hope you all had a great evening. 

Yesterday I completely forgot to make my breakfast and bring it to work. I definitely love to splurge on food, but on good food. Not on a bowl of oatmeal that I overly paid for, that I could have made myself! Anywho, so, I started my day off with a small bowl of steel cut oats with a banana mashed in. I got the oats from Pret A Mangier and they were delish!

Lunch was a chicken lime burger and a salad. All leftovers from the previous day. Sadly, no picture since I inhaled it :-p

A little while later I snacked on a Chobani non fat lemon yogurt. Mmm..mmm perfectly tart and sweet. Also, kept me full until dinner time :-)

Yesterday, was so cold and rainy. All I wanted for dinner was something warm and comforting. Thank goodness I had leftover lentil chili!! Oh yes, this totally hit the spot. I heated up a bowl of lentil chili and had a slice of ezekiel toast on the side. This was an awesome dinner followed by watching DVR episodes of The Mindy Project! Oh, I love Mindy! 

I also managed to make today's breakfast last night. Here's a sneak peek:  

:-) Enjoy your day!

Back To The Grind...

Good Morning!

Wow, the three day weekend flew by! None the less, it was a great weekend! I have to say though...yesterday was probably the coldest Memorial Day on record. 

Well, lets go over the shenanigans from the weekend, shall we?  Friday night was great. Had dinner with friends at The Beechwood in Jersey City. I had a delicious roasted veggie sandwich with a broccoli salad on the side. My sandwich was full of flavor and had a schmear of pesto on there.  Mmm...mmm good!

Saturday morning I prepped a delicious lunch. I made a lentil chili (recipe from the Whole Foods app). The chili was full of veggies, fiber and protein. I forgot to take a picture, but I do have leftovers and will take a pic tonight. I love the Whole foods app. I've never had a failed recipe when I follow recipes from this app. Anywho, the chili was served with a side of couscous, bread, grated cheese and sour cream. A healthy and delish meal! 

Oh, the other star of the meal was dessert. I made Nestle dark chocolate chocolate chip cookies. 

What was even more exciting was my sister, brother in law and my little munchkin were joining us for lunch. We love when everyone comes over and just chill out. That little one... I'm telling ya... I'm so lucky to have her in my life <3

The rest of Saturday was spent doing absolutely nothing. We did clean a little bit and went out for a bit, but really, that was it.  For dinner we made carna asada steak salads.  

Oh yes, another delicious and healthy meal!

Sunday we finally made it to the gym. I forgot, I have a 5K to run in June. I just started practicing :-p Eh, I'll be fine! The rest of Sunday was spent running errands, grocery shopping and walking around. 

Sunday morning breakfast:

Finally, we get to Monday! Monday started off with breakfast with fam at a diner. Followed by a fun filled, getting lost in woods hike! Really, it was fun, we had a great time and plan on doing it next weekend also. We also bought a map for next time. We went hiking in South Mountain Reservation (entrance conveniently located near the diner :-p ). We started off on the Lenape trail which was six miles. The Lenape trail was marked with yellow tags. Somehow lost yellow, ran into some white, throw a little blue and green in there and after some time wound up back in the parking lot from a totally different entrance! It was really fun though. I'm just glad we had eaten. We were already starving when we found our way back!

After the hike and some lunch, I went to work on our patio garden!!!  Ohhh, I'm so excited about this! This year we are growing:

Cucumbers

Cayenne peppers

Bell peppers

Okra

Mesculun

Tomatoes

Blueberries

Beans

The patio garden took a couple of hours but looks great!

Finally, dinner last night was had on the balcony. We made burgers and salads. We really did try to enjoy the weather and layered up with fleeces, but it was still chilly. I have to say... I am looking forward to more evening dinners on our little balcony... It's time well spent that we  enjoy!

So, that's my weekend in a nutshell. How was yours?  Now, back to the grind...

Healthy Memorial Day Weekend...

Hello and Happy FRIDAY!!!! Finally, the day has come and we can look forward to a THREE day weekend!

Any plans this weekend?  I plan on doing some grilling and working on the patio garden. I'm excited about the patio garden. There's just something about growing your own herbs and produce and using them in meals. More on this later. Ok, lets get to having a healthy three day weekend...

One of the things I like to do over long weekends is make sure I stay on a healthy eating track. Of course, there's always room for indulgences but the scale won't show this if you eat healthy most of the time and manage to get some exercise in. Here are some tips for staying on track during a weekend of BBQ's, parties and late nights out!

• Stay hydrated - water is your best bet here. For 0 calories, carbs and fat, water helps stabilize hunger and flush out toxins in your body. 
• Going to a few BBQ's? Bring a healthy side dish. This way you know there will be something you can enjoy guilt free. 
• Stick to lean meats and veggies from the grill. The great thing about grilling is some of the fat from the meat and marinades drip off while being cooked and you still have very flavorful meat and veggies. 
• Watch your portions. Try not to eat meat portions that looks like more than a deck of cards. Fill extra space on your plate with veggies. 
• If going to a dinner party DO NOT decide to eat nothing all day to save up in calories. If you do this you will be ravenous by the time the party comes around and over eat. Instead eat light before hand. Instead, munch on fruit and veggies during the day and have a light breakfast and lunch. 
• Go ahead and have some dessert but watch your portions and if you know you are going to indulge get a little extra exercise in during the day. You'll feel better about having dessert instead of over indulging and feeling guilty. 
• Try to get some exercise in. Go for a walk, bike ride or run. Really...just do something :-p

These are just a few tips that I have.  How do you guys stay healthy during a long weekend?

Recipe Alert: Avocado Ice Cream

The other day I was working on a healthy key like pie recipe. I tried this out yesterday and thought it tasted a lot like avocado ice cream! I'm still working on the key lime pie recipe and I think if I tweak it a bit more I will get it. In the mean time, I think this is a great recipe for avocado ice cream. This ice cream was so easy to make and is a great base, meaning, you can jazz it up with really anything... bananas, chocolate chips or berries. This ice cream alone is very delicious. 

Avocado ice cream may sound strange but I'm seeing it pop up more and more in local ice cream shops. I personally love avocado ice cream and I'm happy that I experimented and came up with this recipe. 

Here are the deets to this incredibly simple and delicious Avocado Ice Cream:

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados, peeled and pitted

2 TB lime juice

1/4 cup agave syrup

1TB coconut oil

Splash vanilla extract

Sprinkle of cinnamon

Water as needed to get things moving in blender

Preparation:

Blend away until smooth. Pour into a container or muffin tins and freeze. Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving. This allows the ice cream to soften a bit and easier to scoop out. 

Enjoy this healthy and delicious treat!

It's Smoothie Time!!!

Good Morning and Happy Thursday!!! The weekend is almost here!

I started my day off with the usual. A steaming cup of hot coffee. I also had half a banana. Shortly after I made myself a delicious Berry Breakfast Smoothie. I had this smoothie around 7am and I'm hoping it will keep me satiated until lunch time. In the blender went: 

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 cup of frozen berries (thank you Trader Joe's)

1/2 banana

1TB coconut oil

6oz nonfat yogurt

Then I blended it away and poured into my favorite Tervis :-) Delicious!

Now, I'm off to work...

What did you guys have for breakfast?

Happy Hump Day...

Wow... We are already into midweek! Another couple of days and we have a three day weekend to look forward to :-)

Yesterday I managed to get a twenty minute cardio workout in with the elliptical. Not bad, especially since it had been a couple of weeks since I worked out. Today I'm hoping for a similar workout. 

Yesterday was also a Trader Joes day for lunch and dinner. Lunch was leftovers from the night before. We made TJ's Garlic Chili Tilapia with a side of string beans. Delicious! Dinner was TJ's Roasted Vegetable Lasagna with a side of salad and balsamic asparagus. Guess what's for lunch today :-p...

Once again, this morning I woke up ravenous. I drank my coffee, had a banana and made my breakfast for the road. Two slices of Ezekiel toast with an omelet. Breakfast has already been devoured. 

Last night I worked on a healthy key lime pie filling. I plan on trying it out tonight. If it's good be sure to look out for the recipe. I did use a very healthy ingredient for this recipe. Any guesses?

Well, I hope your hump day goes quickly! 

And We're Back...

Good morning! I'm finally back after a two week break away! I'm also back to my regularly scheduled healthy lifestyle :-) 

This mornings breakfast was bright and early at 6am. I'm still jet lagged but I'm hoping to continue to wake up a bit early so I can ease into my morning. It's nice...waking up, having a cup if coffee and my breakfast while listening to the news in the background. 

The weather is finally getting warmer. It's so nice to be able to sleep with the windows open. Another plus...this weekend is Memorial Day weekend which means a three day weekend :-) you guys got any plans? I plan on starting my patio garden. I think this year I will plant spinach, basil, cilantro, mint, tomatoes and maybe string beans... Lets see. 

So, my breakfast this morning was very simple. I had a cup of black coffee with a dippy egg, slice of ezekiel toast and banana. Delicious and filling!

How have you guys been?

Recipe Alert: Raw Coconut Chocolate Cookies

Lately, I’ve been experimenting a lot with raw snacks. Especially since I love my Larabars so much, I thought it would probably be much cheaper to start making my own. I’m very close to perfecting a couple of the snack bars, but during this time I also came up with a few of my own concoctions. My recipe below is my raw version of chocolate cookies. Notice there is no added sugar in this recipe. The cookies are sweetened with the banana and dates. Enjoy my recipe below for Chocolate Cookies. These are pretty healthy and make for a great snack!

Ingredients:

1 1/2c of unsweetened, shredded coconut
1 banana cut in half
1/4c of cocoa powder or raw carob powder
Teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 dates, sliced
Preparation:

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process for a minute. Once combined, take ‘dough’ and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Take the chilled dough and with two tablespoons worth form into a ball and then lightly pat to shape a round cookie. Place on a plate and repeat with the remainder of the dough.

Tip: make a batch of these cookies and freeze them up for a quick treat anytime!