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!

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?

Breakfast: Raspberry Cheesecake Cream....

Well, after my totally INSANE workout this morning, I had a delicious protein filled breakfast. With a little prep work the night before, I had a quick, rich and creamy breakfast!  In yesterday's post I mentioned I used vanilla protein powder in my smoothie. Even though I used just half a scoop, I could taste all the artificial ingredients.  Luckily, I'm not use to eating more natural foods, so anything with artificial ingredients really wheys (ha, get it...whey protein :-p) me down. I decided to start using non fat ricotta cheese in my smoothies to replace the protein powder. I like this for many reasons.  First of all, the ricotta cheese will take on the flavor of anything you put in it.  Secondly, there are no artificial ingredients...it's pure protein.  Third, the same amount of calories/fat/protein I get from a protein powder, I can get from the ricotta cheese.  In just 1/4c of non fat ricotta cheese, there is 30 calories, 0g fat, 6g of protein.  I used half a cup of ricotta today for only 60 calories and 12 grams of protein!  Lastly, ricotta cheese, when whipped or blended has an unbelievably smooth, creamy texture...think cheesecake peoples!

Now, going back to my prep work from last night.  In my little blender I put half a cup of non fat ricotta cheese, 1 cup of frozen raspberries, 2TB of almond butter.  This morning I was going to add some water to make it a more smoothie like consistency, but changed my mind when I saw the defrosted raspberries let out some juice.  I whipped this all up in my blender and  had an unbelievably, decadent berry breakfast.  This tasted like I was eating raspberry cheese cake!  So smooth and creamy!  I think this will be my new go to breakfast for mornings!  So yum and delish!  Best of all, no weird metallic after taste from protein powders, but all the protein needed!

How was your breakfast?

Egg Salad Sandwich and Salad.....

Hello hello! How is your day going so far? I was able to take my lunch break and make it to the gym for a calorie burning workout on the stair master. According to the machine, I blasted out 300 calories while stepping away at level 12. Not bad for a mid day break.

Lunch was eaten at my desk while working. Last night, I hard boiled an egg and brought that in along with my Arnolds Sandwich Thins. At my little fridge at work I keep reduced fat mayo and some salad dressings, like Newman's Own Light Balsamic. I quickly peeled my egg and chopped it up. Then I mixed a tablespoon of light mayo, pepper and onion powder. Mmm..I slapped this eggalicious mixture on my toasted sandwich thins and had a great lunch. I also made a chopped side salad of cucumber and grape tomatoes, dressed with a little bit of light balsamic.

Yum...a healthy and delish lunch!
What did you guys have?

Snack time...

A delish mango treat from my co worker! So juicy and sweet!

Dinner Last Night: Steak with Blue Cheese Dressing

Good Morning Everyone,

Last night I made it home just in time to do a Tae Bo Cardio workout and then make myself a quick dinner. Now, I've cut out a lot of red meat and chicken in my diet. I use to have at least one serving of red meat or chicken a day, be it for lunch or dinner. Now, I probably have this once a week. Last night, I was really, really craving a steak salad with blue cheese dressing. I went to the grocery store and bought some lean steak, salad, cucumbers, grape tomatoes and crumbled blue cheese. Now, I bought blue cheese crumbles vs. the actual blue cheese dressing because I noticed most of the blue cheese dressings had 15 grams of fat and over 200 calories...for just TWO tablespoons!! I was like, WHAT THE H?!?! Also, there were a ton of ingredients listed for the dressing! Instead, a quarter cup of blue cheese crumbles has 8 grams of fat and 100 calories! Hello....I would just make my own blue cheese dressings with actual blue cheese..like the way it's supposed to be!

So, I went home with my ingredients, cooked my perfect portion lean steak and started to assemble my salad. Then I made my delicious, low fat blue cheese dressing.

The deets:

2 TB. of blue cheese crumbles
2 TB. of non fat Greek Yogurt
2 TB. of white vinegar
2tsp. of reduced fat mayo
1tsp. of garlic powder
1tsp. of onion powder

Mix all the ingredients together for a creamy blue cheese dressing for a little less than 100 calories and you know all the ingredients going in!!!

Breakfast: Cinnamon Yogurt and Almond Cup

Breakfast today was a bowl full of Greek plain Greek yogurt, a ton of my favorite cinnamon, almonds and sliced banana.  A fresh, delicious, stick to your ribs kind of breakfast, to give me the energy I need to get through the day!

mmm...deliciousness in a mug

Question of the day:  What did you have for breakfast?

Morning...

Hey Everyone,

I've conquered the Monday blues and was totally on schedule yesterday! I left work right at 6:30 and was in my PJ's by 8pm, eating my dinner and watching Castle by 10pm. Yes, the downtime was awesome!! This morning I enjoyed my breakfast bowl, however, instead of adding PB to the mixture I added 14 whole almonds.

This was very satisfying in both texture and taste. I can't wait for the weather to get warmer outside, that's when I really crave big smoothie bowls. Alright guys, till lunch...

My first cooking video...

Guys, Here's the link to my first cooking video.. http://yfrog.com/66ipuz This a recipe for a healthy banana pudding Comments welcome!

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

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?

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?

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?

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