Shrimp Scampi

Good Morning! As I mentioned yesterday, after watching Julie & Julia I was inspired to cook something different. After raiding our cabinets for ingredients I found this recipe to try. It’s nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary but something different for us. Shrimp Scampi.

I used the base of this recipe since those were all the ingredients we had and it turned out lovely.

Shrimp Scampi
(modified from the GoodLife eats recipe here)

1 lb shelled and deveined shrimp
2 Tbs Smart Balance Light buttery spread
1 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup white wine
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs parsley
cooked pasta for 2

Sauté shrimp in Smart Balance until cooked through. Add garlic, sauté one minute more. Add white wine and lemon juice. Simmer sauce until thickened, about 2 minutes. Add olive oil and some parsley. Combine cooked pasta and shrimp with sauce in large bowl. Toss with additional parsley and add freshly grated parmesan (optional).




This didn’t photograph well but tasted great. I especially liked this scampi since it wasn’t rich tasting like most made with real butter. It went great with steamed broccoli on the side. I also made salad but we were so eager to try the scampi that I forgot to get them out of the refrigerator. So I have my lunch ready for today.


This morning started off like any other day with my black coffee and oats.



At the moment PB and apple butter oats are my favorite!

½ cup oats
spoon of peanut butter
spoon of apple butter
cinnamon
½ packet of stevia
cooked with about 1 cup hot water

Perfection!

There’s a lot to do today so I need to step away from the computer. Here is what’s on the agenda:

• Give Elli a bath
• Get oil changed
• Workout
• Finish Cleaning

Doesn’t seem like much but the last on the list may take awhile. Off I go…. Have a great hump day everyone!

Getting back on track... Monday

Jeff was off work yesterday so we spent the day together running errands and watching movies. Fun stuff!

I started my morning off with pb and apple butter oats. Oh how I missed them! It feels so nice to get back into my routine. We then headed out to pick up our kitchen tile that finally came in and also did some grocery shopping.

First stop was Trader Joe’s where we got some odds and ends. Peanut butter (I can’t live without it), frozen vegetables, pizza sauce, and other random things.

The most fun we had was at Sam’s club! With our Christmas money we decided to join the club and do a big grocery shop. We cursed up and down every isle in the store and Jeff tried every sample too :) Most were meat but I got to sample a soft pretzel that held me over till lunch.

From what I’ve heard we would probably enjoy a membership at Costco much more since they carry more foods that we eat but Sam’s is much more convenient. I did get some good deals on daily eats like my 9 pound box of oats!! They had great produce too so I stocked up on fruit and salad. We were a little bummed that they didn’t have a faux meat products but were happy to see lots of soymilk.

When we got home I made a big salad


Lots of veggies, slivered almonds, and hummus. I’m really trying to get back to healthy eating after all the holiday treats I had the last couple days.

We rented two movies for tonight: Paranormal Activity (Jeff’s pick) and Julie and Julia (my pick of course). I am not a huge fan of scary movies but somehow Jeff always talks me into watching them. Promising to hold me tight...blah blah blah… you get the drift. It never makes the movie any less scary and Paranormal Activity was no exception. Needless to say I didn’t sleep well last night.

Julie and Julia was very cute and made me want to cook a fancy meal. Jeff kept reminding me that I could never live off French cooking. I assumed because it would make my ass huge but he just meant that they cook with a lots of foods I don’t eat. Either way I don’t know how the French stay so thin.

Before eating dinner I had to fit in a workout after the weekend I've had. So I did Jillian's 30-Day Shred level 2. These are the best 20 minute workouts!

For dinner we had a very Americanized meal of salad and pasta.





It was nice to spend the day with my hubby but now we're back to the daily grind.

I need to get motivated to run this afternoon. It's so windy and cold outside that I'd much rather workout in the basement but I haven't ran for a week. Santa did bring some warm running gear so I'll head out a litte later hopefully it will warm up.

Is anyone else having a hard time heading outside in the cold weather? I could really use a running buddy to help keep me motivated.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Cabin Fever

Happy Monday everyone! We got over 12 inches of snow this weekend so I’ve been stuck in the house. Needless to say it was a pretty uneventful weekend. I stayed home today as well since the city still hasn’t plowed our side street where we park. Can you say Cabin Fever!

Still sore this morning from Jillian’s No More Trouble Zones that I did yesterday, and not able to run because of the conditions outside, I opted for yoga today. Every time I do yoga I describe it as “much needed” yoga. It feels that way since it gives my whole body the tender stretching it needs and leaves me feeling calm. The rest of my day seems so peaceful.

Back to yesterday, Jillian kicked my butt! I’ve been doing her 30-Day Shred on weekdays, when not running, since it’s only 20 minutes. I had extra time on Sunday for this other DVD that is 50 minutes total. What an amazing workout! I felt like I was in boot camp and sweated my ass off. I highly recommend this one but will have to get myself pumped up to do it again.

Not too much went on this weekend. While stuck inside I took the opportunity to wrap all our Christmas gifts, clean the house, do laundry, and play with Elli in the snow. Oh yeah and I had fun trying a few new recipes! I shared the pumpkin spice pancakes but we also made Mama Pea’s whole wheat pizza dough for dinner on Saturday. Jeff added some spices (garlic, oregano, parley, and what ever else) to make it an herb crust. This was so easy to make and it rolled out nicely. We may have found a replacement for the Trader Joe’s pizza dough- sorry TJ’s!

We we not able to get very creative with the toppings. Lack of groceries. But we doubled the recipe and got two of these.


I also have to fess up about my consumption of sweets over the weekend. We can’t wait to take all the baked goods to our family this week and get it out of the house. I’ve had absolutely no willpower and it’s driving me crazy. I wish I could just suck it up and move on but it bothers me when I eat healthy all day than blow it will cookies and crap. My goal this week is to stay away from sugar, period!!

That’s about all for today. Pretty boring, huh? I’ll leave you with the cutest pup ever :)


And this new book I found. If it wasn’t too late I’d add it to my Christmas list.

Namaste.

Hip, I'm begging you!

Hello blog world! I kind of left you hanging yesterday with my eats. So I have to fill you in on my awesome dinner from last night: baked tofu with quinoa medley. This was the first time I ever made baked tofu and was pleasantly surprised by the result.

I pressed a carton of light extra firm Nasoya tofu on Sunday since this meal was planned. I was the only one eating it and still have 2/3 of the carton left. After searching a few baked tofu recipes I came up with this marinate, no measurements.

• soy sauce
• agave nectar
• apple cider vinegar
• dash of hot sauce
• garlic powder
• ketchup

Brush this mix over sliced tofu while the oven preheats to 375 degrees. Place tofu on non-stick baking sheet and bake until golden brown. Rotating one time through it takes approximately 20 minutes total. Serve with whatever sides you’d like!



I choose Nature’s Promise bulgur quinoa and vegetable mix I found at Giant. The two paired great together and made a very satisfying dinner. Can you believe this left me so satisfied that I didn’t even want dessert? Now that’s just weird and unheard of!

This morning I ran my scheduled 2 miles from yesterday. Have I mentioned how much more fun running is with my sista? I absolutely love my Garmin! My hip however is a different story, as soon as I hit the pavement the pain started. Really?! Maybe I need to rest for real or go get an x-ray. In pain I still managed decent time:

Mile 1- 9:34
Mile 2- 9:50

During my run it dawned on me that I need to use my heart rate monitor. It syncs with the Garmin to track my heart rates, which should help during training although I’ve never tracked it in the past.

I really want to try out Jillian’s 30-Day Shred so hopefully my hip pain will go away for tomorrow. Although I know I probably shouldn’t do anything.


For breakfast I packed a breakfast cookie in my Wrap-N-Mat. And enjoyed it with some chia tea with soymilk once I got to work.



See I snuck a bite of the cookie this morning after my run :) This one was made with oats, almond butter, soymilk, stevia, and raisins.

Around 12:00 I wanted lunch, not particularly hungry but just wanted to eat something. I had a coupon for Health Valley Organic soups and today I gave it a try. The grocery store I went to (not today, I’ve been good) only had two types to choose from. I went with the vegetable since the other was chicken noodle or something like that.



Now if anyone reads my blog then you know I’m a huge fan of Amy’s soups and I don’t like cheating on her. Blame it on the coupon.

The verdict is in and I don’t think I’ll be cheating on Amy ever again. Coupon or no coupon! The soup was very bland which is to be expected with only 140 mg of sodium. Of course I realize how evil sodium is but I also enjoy eating foods with some flavor.



Thank goodness for Mary’s crackers! Now these babies are tasty :)

My hips felt stiff all morning so after lunch I walked laps in our office building. It’s a good thing I was the only one there today because surely I looked like a fool. A good pace for 15 minutes helped loosen my body. Then back to the desk I went.

Here is my afternoon snack of peach soy yogurt, blueberries, and a little bit of Kashi 7 grain puffs cereal.



Total winner!

Well on the menu for tonight is shrimp pad Thai with sugar snap peas. I’ve been looking forward to this dinner and it will taste even better since Jeff is making it.

Heading out to take Elli for a walk… bye for now!

Oh wait... I waited a while to post this and now have a picture from dinner.



While eating Jeff asked what my favorite ingredient is in pad Thai...hummm? I'd have to say peanuts! The peanuts just add another element to the dish and bring all the flavors together. Dinner was so good I had seconds!

Check back tomorrow for our Christmas cookies :) Ok Good Night for real this time.

Kale, Yams, and Onions... oh my!

hello again, second post for today and then I'm done!

Decorating our Christmas tree today totally got me in the holiday spirit. We listened to festive music and ate sugar cookies :) Elli was so well behaved too.






I still can't get over the fact that she isn't interested in the tree. Maybe I should stop saying that so I don't jinx it.








We also did a lot of cooking today. Jeff made some huge turkey meatballs that he'll probably be eating all week long. I must admit they did look pretty good.



He cooked them then added peppers, onions, and seasoning.



Topped them with sauce and then put them in the oven for about 40 minutes.



Once they baked he covered them with a ton of cheese.


We each made our own dinners for tonight. I bought kale at the grocery store yesterday but have never cooked with it or ever eaten it for that matter. So I looked up some recipes on Veg Cooking and found this one. It sounded good and we had most of the ingredients. I had to modify it just a bit.

I chopped and cleaned the veggies.





Cooked the yams then added onions and garlic.



Tossed in the kale.


Once the kale was cooked down it was ready. Look at the vibrate colors!



This was a great way to eat kale for the first time. The meal was very flavorful, clean, and light. I believe I could eat the entire pot and not feel the least bit guilty. And I just might do that if I get hungry later :)



That's all for tonight. Time to put laundry away and plan my workouts for the week.

Have a good evening!

Training and Holiday Cookie

Monday, Monday, Monday….

I officially started training today for the Shamrock Half-Marathon! Waking up bright and early to run in 30-degree weather isn’t what I call fun but it felt great. I have to tough it out through the winter training outside and have a feeling it’s going to be a rough winter. You may have guessed that after some convincing from the hubby, I will not be joining a gym like I’d hoped. So there is no back up plan for running in a warm gym on a treadmill. Instead I’ll bundle up and hit the pavement. Maybe Santa will bring a treadmill :) along with the Garmin Forerunner. (Shhhh… I’m not supposed to know).



I mapped out my run after I stretched this morning and it ended up being 2.13 miles. Just a little over the scheduled 2 miles.

• Ran 2 miles (21:00/9:86)
• Stretched
• Abs (plank-side plank-reverse crunch- twisted leg crunch)

My hip felt a little better today while running. I definitely felt improvement other than my bruised butt that still hurts. Yes, it’s big and bounces while running! The worst pain I felt was during my ab workout. While holding plank, especially side plank, my hip really hurt. I tried not to over do it on my right side hoping not to put too much strain on it.

I also reserved our hotel room for the race today. My bestest girlfriend and running buddy is joining me. We are driving down on Saturday to check-in and p/u our race packets and the race is on Sunday, 3/21. Did I mention it’s on my birthday? Probably! I’m getting super excited!!

On my way into work today I stopped at Giant for dog food. Oh, and I got an awesome deal too! Regularly $14.99/14 lb bag, on sale for $12.99 plus each bag had a $1.50 coupon!! Anyway, what I was going to say is that I also picked up some vanilla Nasoya Silken Style Creations to make sugar cookies tonight. Hopefully this will get us in the holiday mood since we haven’t put up our tree yet. After seeing these cookies on Tina’s blog I have to try them.

For breakfast this morning I had oats, go figure. I decided not to photograph them since that picture is getting rather boring. I did switch it up by adding almond butter rather than pb.

• ½ c oats
• Dash of cinnamon
• ½ tsp agave nectar
• 1 spoon full of almond butter
• ¾ of banana

This was good but I still love my peanut butter. The almond butter doesn’t have the smooth and creamy texture that I like about natural pb.


Packed for lunch today is a variety of Amy’s organic soups (I have four cans in my desk), 2 clementines, and an apple.



I decided to have the alphabet soup since it sounded fun and a bit childish.



It tasted a bit like spaghetti-o’s but that didn’t stop me from cleaning my bowl. I wasn’t completely satisfied so I had a PB&J Larabar (also stashed in my desk) and saved the other goodies for tomorrow.

On the menu for dinner tonight is stir fry- one of my favorites! I marinated chicken for Jeff and tempeh for me in ginger sesame dressing. The vegetables are a mix including asparagus, carrots, mushrooms, squash and zucchini that we’ll have over brown rice.



Turns out the veggie mix had cauliflower which we found kind of strange in a stir fry mix. But it tasted pretty sweet.



Dinner is cleaned up and it's time to bake sugar cookie! Yay! I'll post them tomorrow... good night

Morning!

Good morning ya'll!

Not too much going on today but I wanted to share my lovely dinner from last night. The hubby made a beautiful meal and we had a nice evening in watching Christmas programs on mpt (Maryland Public TV). yes we are dorks. We threw this dinner idea together at the last minute: seared ahi tuna over salad and caramelized onion flatbread. We couldn't wait to try this flatbread mix from C and B.



Jeff had the perfect idea to top it with caramelized onions and balsamic vinegar.



He also marinated ahi tuna with some Asian flavors and seared for on top salad.

What a pretty plate. When we eat like this it makes me sad that we spend money going out. (sometimes it’s nice though)





Side note: I've been eating mostly vegan these days however I don't like to label my "diet". I do enjoy seafood now and than hence our meal with tuna.


The flatbread turned out wonderful! The mix is a little expensive and we probably won't buy it again unless we have another gift card. I'll have to find a recipe to make it from scratch.



Feeling like I have so much to do today. I just got finished eating breakfast which was ww toast with the new almond butter topped with 1/2 a banana and drizzled with agave nectar. I also had iced coffee since there were leftovers from what we brewed yesterday.


not great pictures.



Here is the rest of my day's agenda:

Whole Foods- quick/small grocery shop
Laundry
Clean house
Write "Thank You" note to my SIL
Write Christmas cards and mail
Workout- abs and leg routine
Pack lunches for Monday and set out work clothes
Plan menu for this week

That's enough!


Take care and enjoy your day :)

Work travel and hip pain

Staying out-of-town for work can be so relaxing. A night alone to yourself feels great sometimes. I’m sitting here with the TV on and control of the remote, my laptop, granola bar, and hot tea. It’s going to be a chill night.

So yesterday I fell down the steps, which is so frustrating! I felt like crap yesterday since I was sore and couldn’t motivate myself to workout. Feeling guilty I headed to the hotel’s fitness center immediately after our meeting today. Yeah, forgot to mention that I am in Lancaster, PA where my company’s headquarters are located, for our annual HR Department meeting.

Anyway… I had an hour-long workout this afternoon. Unfortunately I may have hurt myself worse than I thought yesterday. While running I felt a lot of pain in my right hip, the opposite side than I landed on. My bruised butt hurt while bouncing up and down too! So I did intervals of running/6.3 and walking/4.2 for 35 minutes. Then I jumped on the elliptical which felt so much better for 15 minutes of intervals. Stretched and showered to meet my co-workers for dinner.

The hotel we’re staying at has complementary dinner with wine! Sweet deal! Tonight’s menu was a Santa Fe salad bar with dinner rolls. Kind of boring but hey it was free. I had two helpings of salad with spring mix, cucumbers, tomatoes, and these tiny little shrimp. It wasn’t very filling so I had a whole-wheat dinner roll but skipped the wine.

After dinner we were all craving something sweet but there were no dessert offerings. We headed to the hotel’s “snack shack” for munchies. I couldn’t do ice cream as much as I wanted to. I opted for a granola bar that I’d never heard of: Mrs. May’s Naturals Trio. The ingredients sounded great.

Here’s the ingredient list: cashews, almonds, pistachios, cranberries, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dates, raisins, rice malt, natural flavors, evaporated can juice, sea salt.

Not near as good as Larabars but I had to try it!! I took a picture but will have to post it once I get home. The verdict- it taste good, whole, and filling. However I won’t go searching for these when I get home.

I am going to spend sometime exploring blogs and then hit the bed. Hopefully I’m not too sore tomorrow since I got a 6:00 am wake up call to workout. Nighty night all!

*I'll add pics when I get home*

One last thing- I almost forgot to add this link. Bobbi's post today offers some great tips for staying fit this holiday season.

Mexican Night and Week's Plan

Today was catching up day around the house. Didn’t get into too much just laundry, a little touch up cleaning, football, and we both managed to get a nap in. I’m really excited about dinner tonight- it’s my favorite MEXICAN! Since we had lots of leftover veggies in the frig we’re making grilled vegetable fajitas with refried beans and sweet potatoes fries. Strange combo but hubby was hungry for fries and since they’re so good I couldn’t resist.

I usually microwave sliced sweet potatoes in water before baking them. It seems to speed up the baking and allows them to get cruncher. However I’m sure you could omit this step but I microwave two sliced potatoes for 8 minutes. Then placed them on a pan, brushed them with canola oil, sprinkled with paprika and pepper, then into the oven. I just guess on time and temp but went with 425 degrees until brown, flipping after about 20 minutes. These fries are one of our favorite sides to make and we usually have them at least once a week.

Ready for the oven



After baking for about 40 minutes



For the fajitas we grilled sliced red onion, red and green peppers, tossed in olive oil and seasoning. I make my own taco seasoning and found a great recipe here.

Here are the veggies on the grill... love this grill pan!



To finish them off, we topped with Amy’s Kitchen traditional refried beans. Yummy!

Here is my plate, I decided to go without a tortilla.



Earlier today we planned our meals for this week, here’s what will fill our bellies:

Monday: Asian broccoli with brown rice
Tuesday: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and vegetable side
Wednesday: Boca burgers with sweet potato fries
Thursday: Jeff is on his own since I’ll be out of town for work
Friday: Shrimp and vegetable pad Thai

I plan on hitting the gym everyday this week. It’s my last trial week before I make my decision, to join or not to join? Anyway, Wednesday night we’ve planned a quick dinner since Jeff has basketball and I want to take the “Rock Your Skinnies” class at the gym. What a catchy name!

Well that’s all for tonight. I’ve had a sweet tooth since dinner so I think I’ll curl up with some sugar cookie tea. Good Night :)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We hosted both sides of the family this year and fixed our first Thanksgiving dinner. We were blessed to have lots of help from our family and everything turned out great. It was so nice having everyone together this year, all 17 of us. I was busying playing hostess and didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked.

Here is a quick recap and the few pictures that I took.

My sister-in-law works in the floral business and sent us a beautiful centerpiece. So very thoughtful and it looked perfect on our table.

We borrowed a table from church to extend our dining table. With help from my Mom and SIL we managed to set a quite a pretty table. If I must say so myself.

The "older" adults got silver... next year we'll have to combined two sets so we have enough for everyone.

We had two turkeys, one roasted and one deep fried. I didn't eat either of them but everyone seemed to really enjoy both. Jeff watched a lot of Food Network and prepared his first turkey. He also helped my Dad fix the fried turkey.

We started dinner off with my Mom's delicious pumpkin shrimp bisque. By far my favorite part of our meal. After we served soup and said the blessing the rest of dinner was setup buffet style. Again, no pictures.

I had to laugh at Jeff's first plate. A fried turkey wing with beer.

Once everyone stuffed themselves we cleaned up and got ready for dessert. With the help of my Mom and amazing Mother-In-Law the clean up wasn't too bad. They both kept me sane and I can't thank them enough.

Coffee was served and we enjoyed dessert. My Mom made pumpkin and pecan pie and also brought a couple pumpkin rolls made at a local culinary arts school. I sampled the pumpkin roll and pecan pie, both were quite tasty.

We sent everyone home with leftovers and cleared out our refrigerator. This way we are not too tempted with food over the weekend. We kept just enough for one more day of munching.

I want to take a moment to share how truly thankful I am for our amazing family. Jeff and I pulled off our first Thanksgiving dinner but we didn't do it alone. Everyone of our family members pitched in to help make this a successful "production". We love you all and thank you very much!!!


Big thanks to my BIL for getting up early after turkey day to run with me. It felt great to get out for a nice brisk run!

Good Night :)