BRUSSELS

Monday Evening: 4/30/12

Workout

Our race is this Saturday! Crazy!! I didn't do any running tonight (legs too shot from broad jump burpees!) but am going to try get in some good running on Tuesday and Thursday this week.

Tonight I did a sweaty 30 minutes on the arc trainer and burned 373 calories.

Weight: 120.1 DOWN FROM FRIDAY!!! What?! I never lose weight on the weekend! So very pleased :) 

Leftovers

Well, I had a meal planned for tonight, but considering tupperware is falling at my feet whenever I open the fridge...I thought it best that we use up some of the abundance of leftovers that are accumulating!

The problem is that I always forget to halve a recipe (since I am only cooking for Zach and I!) and end up with enough to feed an army by the end of the week. So tonight's mish-mosh of "whatever falls out of the fridge" was a combination of: grapes, the cauliflower raisin dish from last Wednesday, a sliver of last night's pizza and cooked up some frozen brussel sprouts. (Side of organic ketchup for brussels dipping)

Roasted brussel sprouts (from frozen): coat with a little olive oil, sea salt and pepper and roast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. I LOVE brussel sprouts! How did I forget just how much I love them?!

The whole meal was delicious and satisfying with so many tastes and textures!

Zach used up the last of the chicken curry and the stuffing from the Mexican stuffed peppers (that I used in my salad at lunch today!) and made a nacho dish. Side of brussels and grapes for him as well!

He offered me a chip. I did not say no.

Sorry for the later post, we hosted Bible study at our house tonight!

So for Mon-Fri I am not going to be enjoying any wine as a little extra push to get race-ready for Saturday. That will make a glass on Saturday evening after finishing that much sweeter :)

By the way, only 53 days until Hawaii!!!!

Made up an evening snack by mixing my a tsp of my new White Chocolate Wonderful (can NOT get enough!!) with a half a tsp of Cacao Bliss to make a creamy, chocolatey dip for two organic Whole Foods Brand graham crackers. (Added a tsp of the white chocolate wonderful peanut butter on the side)

What a perfect combination <3

A MESS OF A MEAL

Monday Afternoon: 4/30/12


Whoo! My mouth is on fire! I still had some of the stuffing from my Mexican stuffed peppers left over to use. I combined it with a TBS of Salpica jalapeno queso dip and heated it up. This was my first time to try the queso and it was spicy and tasty! Could NOT pass up a cheesy dip that is 15 calories for two TBS. Seriously.

Then I mixed the filling up with a little kale and butter lettuce and topped with salsa, a dab of FAGE, and Xochitl corn tortilla chips (we love this brand).

Kind of a mess in there, but a delicious, spicy one!

Know what I wish I would have had extra to add on there? Avocado. But it was good nonetheless.

Afternoon Workout

I am soaked in sweat, arms are shaking so much it's hard to type and I am grinning from ear-to-ear!! I just conquered ZWOW 14!! WOW. That. Was. Tough. I had never even heard of ZWOW until I saw someone tweet about a ZWOW workout. A ZWOW is a Zuzana Light (that's a person) Workout of the Week. There are tons of videos on you-tube you can follow along with but I did the 14 just because this is the one I saw the person tweet about. 

This ZWOW was:

-10 push presses

-10 thrusters

-10 back lunge curls

-10 preacher curls

-10 weighted jump lunges

-10 broad jump burps

Then do it all FIVE times. I did have to stop about 3 times for water- it was intense! The broad jump burpees were so killer and it is tough at the end to keep good form, but good form is always  crucial when exercising. Remember: 5 reps of good form is much better than 15 reps of bad form. 

I will definitely be coming back for more!

EZEKIEL 4:9

Monday Morning: 4/30/12


Back to the weekly grind, it's Monday! Thankfully it didn't feel too Monday-ish when I woke up this morning, I had quite a bit of energy and was ready to jump right into my booty call. 


Booty call today = 30 minutes on the gazelle (went by fast today!)


I had been thinking about breakfast since last night (food freak, I know). But I was just so excited to have one of my favorite products back- Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted cinnamon raisin bread!!!

LOVE Ezekiel breads, and I have had several of them. They are soo nutritious and have great texture and flavor. This one has to be my favorite...I think. 


So I toasted a slice of bread and added a bit of Smart Balance butter to it and served it with a sliced green apple.

Who wouldn't love gooey raisins in their cinnamon toast? (Well maybe some people wouldn't but I am not one of them!)

My apple was extra crisp and it was a good breakfast, but I think the next slice of bread in the bag must be extra thick because check out how thin this slice of toast was!!!

Feeling a little gypped...


I have a KILLER workout I am going to attempt during nap-time today!!
*note- whenever I say nap-time I am referring to the fact that I run a home childcare so their nap-time is MY afternoon break!!

RUSTIC PIZZA

Sunday Evening: 4/29/12


Excellent dinner!! Zach was gone tonight coaching a soccer game and Mom and Dad came over for supper. I knew JUST what I wanted to fix tonight- homemade pizza!! Yesterday at whole foods I picked up a Rustic Crust cheesy herb pre-cooked pizza crust. This crust was SO good! The flavor was great and it was not too thin and not too thick!

We topped it with:
-home-made pizza sauce: just sauté onion and garlic in a little EVOO, add tomato paste, water and spices and cook until thickened
-red peppers
-green peppers
-mushrooms
-black olives
-turkey pepperoni
-FF mozzarella cheese
-Applegate Organics fire roasted red pepper chicken and turkey sausage (this sausage has all of the flavor WITHOUT all of the fat. Seriously. Check out the nutritional profile of these and you won't go back. No antibiotics, humanely raised, no fillers, etc. etc.)

Pizza went into the oven for 15 minutes and we enjoyed some salads while we waited. I topped mine with a small bit of lite Italian dressing.

Also enjoyed a glass of Cab throughout the meal and after! It was an 8 oz. pour but I ended up only having 5 1/2 oz. of it

Then out came the pizza, looking beautiful and smelling delicious.

After my first slice I had to have one sliver more, it was just too good! My family loved it as well :)

Off to spend some quality time with the folks!

We ended up taking a drive and just happened ;) to drive by IY where I picked out the sugar-free flavor of the day- a kid's cup of strawberry banana fro yo! Topped with some crushed graham crackers. 40 cal. of tummy-happiness (although I have to admit that the strawberry banana was NOT my favorite flavor...)

When I got home I was still feeling snacky (most likely only because I was a not super crazy about my fro yo flavor) but knew that I did not need a whole 'nother snack, so I settled on having a tablespoon of that fabulous White Chocolate Peanut Butter!

Good Night!

TASTING PLATE

Sunday Afternoon: 4/29/12


Today's lunch was a tasting plate of sorts. I love variety and it is fun to have several different textures and items to eat so I present: the Veggie Fruit Cracker Cheese Plate!

With a side dipping sauce of a TBS of Annie's creamy asiago cheese dressing. I have been hearing about Annie's dressings for quite some time and so I picked up my first bottle on our Whole Foods haul yesterday. This was great! Very flavorful, so even though I only used a TBS a little bit went a long way.

We got two of the Whole Foods brand of crackers yesterday (their brand is 365). I especially like these veggie crackers! Always love a list of ingredients that is all-natural as well.

The goat cheese was a new kind we had never tried before. It is from a farm in Indiana (yay for shopping local!) and is certified humane, which is a big deal to us.

(The big white cat in the background is Cotton! Now only Dixie has yet to be featured on the blog...) This cheese was delicious and I couldn't decide what it was better on, the crackers or the blueberries! I only used a 1/4 of an ounce because while I love cheese quite a bit it is very high in saturated fat so it is another of those "a little goes a long way rule."

Sprint Intervals

At the gym this afternoon I did 37 minutes on the treadmill doing sprint intervals. All-out run for 1 minute, recover at quick walking pace for 2. Repeat. 

It was great! I was feeling very strong and powerful on my sprints and kept taking my speed higher :) Hopefully I am totally past whatever was making me feel so fatigued and off the past couple of days.

Cleaning all afternoon some more!

{Edited to add}
Had a tiny afternoon snack of some pretzels with a brand new nut butter! I just love nut butters so much and am always looking for new ones to try and wow, this may be my favorite yet. It's called White Chocolate Wonder by Peanut Butter & Co. This is the first butter I have tried by them and it tastes amazing! I tried a tsp. of it with 7 pretzels. Salty + sweet = a perfect combination!

A white chocolatey peanut butter that is so smooth it is practically a frosting. Drool.

NEW CEREALS

Sunday Morning: 4/29/12


After last night's indulgent supper today is going to be pretty light eating! So breakfast was an easy bowl of cereal (without the milk, as you already know).
My mix:
-Fiber one bran
-cinnamon Puffins
-Three Sisters cinnamon sweets (so glad we stocked back up on these!!)
-Arrowhead Mills chocolate filled squares- made exclusively for Whole Foods Stores (their site was down so I will link up to it later!)

I loved mixing all kinds of cereal :) So much less boring! Now I try to make the bowl more of fiber one bran (it's all hidden!) and Puffins than the other, sweeter cereals. The cinnamon sweets and chocolate squares both have a wonderful ingredients list, but that doesn't mean that they are not more sugary and higher cal. Just because something is natural and organic doesn't always mean you can eat as much of it as you like with no repercussions!

This was my first time to try the chocolate squares and they are awesome! Calorie dense though for sure- 1 cup is 210 calories, pretty high. I tried to just use a small handful in this bowl but next time I need to use even less. They are so decadent it practically feels wrong eating them for breakfast ;)

Haven't been home for the last two weekends, so we are off to church this morning for the first time in a while!

PETITE CHOU

Saturday Evening: 4/28/12

Gym

So guess who couldn't handle being sedentary on a Saturday? (If you guessed Jordan you're correct) I got to feeling a LOT better and besides a persisting sore-ish throat I am fine! So off to the gym I went :) Didn't do anything very strenuous, just did 10 each on the elliptical, treadmill and arc trainer and burned an even 300 calories. I just feel pleased that I got to move around!

YUM

I was so excited for our dinner restaurant tonight- Petite Chou! This place is completely up Zach and I's alley for restaurant choices. Their food is purchased locally and organically according to what is fresh and in season. I had been here for brunch once before and had an incredible experience and KNEW that I wanted to take Zach here for dinner sometime! (Conveniently it's located about two seconds from the Whole Foods that we shop at)

Ready to head to dinner

Did I mention Petite Chou is a champagne bar? :D I had these two beauties during the night...

Hibiscus Champagne

Pomegranate Champagne

Did you notice the hibiscus flower in the first glass?!

We started with an appetizer of Duck Fat Frites served with a mustard dipping sauce and an aioli. This tasted incredible!! I had never had duck fat fries before and should probably limit my intake of them to oh, say, once a year haha! (But this whole dinner was about enjoying our date out by ordering what sounded best!)

Zach ordered the Chicken Paillard: seared, flattened, free-range chicken breast served with

your choice of either a lemon-scented pan sauce or a traditional mustard sauce,topped with baby arugula and shaved Parmesan along with a side of Gruyere Mac & Cheese (mmm Gruyere!). I, of course, was rewarded my obligatory few bites ;)

I ordered the Croque Monsieur:Premium ham, creamy béchamel sauce, Dijon mayonnaise and Gruyere cheese with a side of greens. (Zach received bites of mine.) Both dinners were so, so good. Although if I had to pick a favorite it would hands down be the mac and cheese...I am just such a pasta fanatic.

We ended the meal with the most increeeeeedible dessert. We had heard they were KNOWN for their dessert crepes and they did not disappoint! After looking over a long menu of decadent choices, we settled on the Caramel Apple Crepe. This must have been pretty new because I can't even find it on their online dessert menu. It was a fluffy crepe wrapped around apples cooked in butter and brown sugar all topped with caramel gelato. W.O.W. I probably shouldn't even have this thing once a year, more like every two!! But it was soooo worth it!

Sigh :) I not only had the best food this evening, but also the best company you could ask for!! We are off to continue this date by going to the hot tub (my parent's have one) and then "someone special" has offered to paint my toenails for me when we come home :D Who needs to go somewhere to get a pedicure when you've got guys like this?!

LEFTOVERS

Saturday Afternoon: 4/28/12


While still feeling a little "off" as the morning has progressed into afternoon I have been feeling much better! My stomach is back to normal, just still some soreness in my throat. I have decided to declare today an official formal day of rest and recovery. Normally if there is a day I don't work out it is Sunday but based on the way I have been feeling today I think that I will make that day today and get a good workout in tomorrow.

Lunch was a small piece of leftover lasagna and a slice of fruit pie. Lovely combination haha! Oh well, I was just glad to be hungry for anything.

We've been cleaning house and here in a bit we are going to head to Indianpolis to go grocery shopping at Whole Foods and have a fun dinner date! (We try not to eat out more than once a week so that when we do we make it a special thing :) ) All we have in town are chain restaurants anyway so we save eating out for when we can head to Indy and eat food that is farm-to-table. Support your local and organic farmers!!!

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!

Saturday Morning: 4/28/12


What in the world...is wrong with me?! Last night along with fatigue I had a bit of a scratchy throat. I had a great night's sleep and woke up with still a scratchy throat, but otherwise feeling good and ready to bust out a hardcore workout. As I got up and moving around the house I started having some really twisty stomach pains, but pushed through and ate a half a banana to fuel my workout.

On the way to the gym I was feeling worse but told myself it would go away and I could push through it. You know what's embarrassing? Going into your gym, swiping your card, getting right outside your workout class then suddenly being in so much pain you have to leave immediately past everyone who JUST SAW you come in.

It's so strange because I am not someone who gets sick very often or really has stomach pain or any pains but this morning was unbearable! I so wanted to get in class and just push through it and I really believed I could do that. Right up until it was time for class to start. I actually had to sit on bench and take a break just on my walk out of the gym!? So weird.

So now I am home (having disposed of most of last nights snack and probably dinner... :/  not throwing up at least) and hoping that the last bit of pain I am still experiencing will subside so I can get on with my day and still get a great workout in later!

LASAGNA REVISED

Friday Evening: 4/27/12

Gym

The gym kind of felt like one big fail tonight to be honest. I got off work late (much later than a normal Friday) so we were running late to Turbo Kick. We talked about going ahead and jumping into it in the back of the class, but when we got there it was so packed we couldn't fit :/ I also was feeling some serious fatigue during the last hour of work and that was only compounded when I was let down about turbo. Ended up doing just an easy 20 minutes on the treadmill and was feeling so, so tired.

Weight: 120.5 Another let-down. Was really hoping to see the teens by today and it didn't even budge from yesterday :/ I KNOW I will hit the teens next week, whatever it takes.

A Brighter Note

I was so excited to make tonight's recipe! Meatless Zucchini Lasagna by Taste of Home! I am such a ridiculous pasta fanatic and am always looking for ways to get my pasta fix without sacrificing my waist-line.

We had pans galore going on the stove! (Thankfully I had an adorable kitchen helper) We had the noodles boiling away, onion+garlic+tomato paste+spices going in another to make sauce, and zucchini boiling in it's own saucepan. A cheese mixture was created on the side with egg and ricotta and then the layering began.
 -Tomato sauce
 -Noodles
 -Ricotta mixture
 -Zucchini
 -More tomato sauce
 -Mozz cheese
 -REPEAT (Adding the parmesan cheese at the very end)

For our side dish (and for one more pan on the stove) I made asparagus. All I do is spray our pan with olive oil spray, snap the woody ends off the asparagus, sauté it until tender and dash it with garlic salt. Not sure why, but my husband thinks these are the. best. asparagus. Hah! At least it's so easy to please him :D

This recipe made quite a bit of lasagna! That means leftovers :)

Ooey, gooey, melty, cheesy. Happiness.

This was SOOOO fantastic! And with each piece coming in at only 280 calories (large pieces!) I can hardly stand it!!! My piece wasn't even a full serving size!

(Shared asparagus) I had to go back for seconds. Including a couple bites straight from the dish ;) shhh...it was THAT GOOD.

Tonight I am settling in with my friend Hillary to introduce her to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. (Remember my obsession with all things HP and LOTR?) I have been trying forever to get her to watch the series and tonight we start with the first one :)

Ready to bust it out in the gym bright and early tomorrow for both turbo AND strength training and have an incredible fun, healthy, active weekend!

{Edited to add}

Snack(s)

Ooof. Well I was just feeling empty and hungry and all around cranky so I sliced up a banana, drizzled it with honey and served it with a side dipping sauce of PB mixed with melted Cacao Bliss.

This was delicious, I was happy and this would have been a good and fine snack for my evening. I did not need anything else. Then my husband made a fruit pizza. Mmm boy. Last time I had fruit pizza had to be well over a year and a half ago. Normally I can exercise great will-power, but tonight my will-power meter was completely drained (I blame all of the fatigue/munchiness/etc. on that time of the month...) So I ate this slice...times 2. Yikes. Good thing I have a double workout in the morning!