What I Ate Wednesday/WODs

Happy Wednesday!

Middle of the week, it's all downhill from here!!! Just two more days until the glorious, glorious weekend! I know we are looking forward to getting out of the house and having a great date night & a fabulous Father's Day!

This month I have been really working on upping my leafy greens, here is some of what I've been eating:

Fabulous sub made by my daughter! So delicious!

Here are some of my snacks:

I wasn't very hungry so I hung with the kiddo in the morning & had a carnation instant breakfast, but after standing in line for 2 hours for the husband I was starving so I got this nifty little egg white, turkey bacon, and cheese on some sort of supposed whole grain bun it was a Starbucks find.

I've been trying to keep the sugar low by not adding sweeteners to things and letting the fruits I use in my oatmeal and what not be enough sweetener. I can tell my sweet tooth is really calming down! It's fantastic, I didn't think that would ever happen!

I've also been working out pretty well.

Last Wednesday: 2 mile walk/run, arms workout

Thursday: Barre Workout by Blender on YouTube

Friday: 3 mile walk on SeaWall, Yoga

Saturday: Took the day off & completely reorganized the kitchen. It was rainy & icky out we did get out for a quick walk in between the icky weather

Sunday: Another "off" day (hey, sometimes it happens lol). Took a 3 mile walk and did some stretching

Monday: 4 mile run on the sea wall, standing abs, light stretching

Tuesday: 15 minute warm up on the stationary bike in the fitness center, 45 minutes spent on shoulders, biceps, triceps, and back. Also did work on trying to get my crane pose down. I also ran all over town doing pre-orders on the XBox One & PS 4 for the husband, then had to rescue my teen & deliver two 24 piece puzzles for a group project. *sigh* kids, when is school out again, oh yeah 3 weeks.....

Today: I'm actually switching today & Thursday from my monthly calendar. I'm going to do Ballet Burn, then, if it is nice when I take my kiddo to her cheer class I'll do the 80 minute coached walk with resistance training built in on my Pear Heart Rate Monitor. 

So, things have been a bit hectic, but I am making sure I get in a workout each day & making the most of it. Same with my food. I'm making sure it is clean and healthy and well worth putting in my body!! 

Recipes Galore!

So, Thursday's I never quite know just what to post so I figured I have quite a few recipes I wanted to share so what better day than today?! Hopefully you'll see something that you want to try!!

Sweet Green Smoothie

Makes one generous single serving

8 oz unsweetened almond milk

1 Fuji apple (cored & chopped)

1/2 a banana (preferably frozen)

one large handful of spinach (I take fresh spinach & freeze it as soon as I bring it home from the store & it's been washed & dried)

1 Tablespoon Flaxmeal

Combine all in blender & blend on high until combined. If you want it thicker feel free to add some ice although it may water it down. I blended mine for roughly 3 minutes, I have just a regular old, less than $100 blender...nothing fancy ;)

Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal Smoothie

Makes one generous single serving

1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt

1/3 Cup Raw Regular Oats

1 Cup of Strawberries preferably with tops*

1 Tablespoon Flaxmeal

I packet Stevia

1 teaspoon Vanilla

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

*My strawberries I washed and froze with tops on as soon as I got home from the grocery store. I've recently learned the tops are very high in fiber so I use them as much as possible.

Now, combine all ingredients in blender. Blend for 3-5 minutes. Enjoy this super thick delicious shake!

Decadent Fruit Dip

Makes one snack size portion

1 Tablespoon Nutella

1 Tablespoon Almond butter

Various fruits

Chop fruits you want to use and arrange on plate. In a small bowl combine nutella and almond butter. Enjoy!

Variation: Combine with mini marshmallows for a "s'mores" dip.

Variation: To make a larger size of this dip for a party just combine nutella and almond butter in a 1:1 ration. Other nut butters could be subbed, but I haven't tried them.

Protein Packed Fruit Dip

Yields two single serving dips

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (divided)

4 Tablespoons almond butter (divided)

1 Granny Smith Apple

2 teaspoons maple syrup (divided)

*Note I don't really know how much protein this has in it but it has high protein Greek yogurt & high protein almond butter so I'd assume it's a decent amount.

First, chop apple into small slivers so a little goes a long way. Divide among two small containers. Next place  1/4 cup of yogurt into two small dipping containers similar to those pictured above. Then, place two tablespoons of almond butter over quarter cup of yogurt & top each with a teaspoon of maple syrup. You can go ahead & mix them together or do it when you go to eat it. I do it when I eat it so I can lick the spoon. :P

Popcorn

Feeds two adults

1/3 cup of plain bulk popcorn kernels

Olive oil or melted coconut oil

Nature's Seasons (or your favorite seasoning)

Fresh Grated Mozzarella Cheese

Paper bag & scotch tape

Ok, take the paper bag, open it & dump in 1/3 cup of the popcorn kernels (or if you want a single serving 2 tablespoons). Then, fold the bag over twice & tape down with the scotch tape. Pop as you would regular convenience popcorn in a bag carefully listening for when its done so you don't burn it. When done pour into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil or coconut oil. Top with your favorite seasoning & some shredded mozzarella. Then, stir it up & drizzle with a big more olive or coconut oil and sprinkle with some more seasoning and cheese. Stir it up again and eat!

Variations: There are countless variations here & I can't wait to try different combos. Try adding some chopped pepperoni/bacon or both for a "pizza" effect, some cinnamon sugar for a kettle corn flavor, some chocolate chips or m&ms & peanuts for a trail mix idea.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my recipes! I hope you decide to give them a try!!!

(Especially the smoothies & popcorn...amazing!)

Food & Fitness...

Ok, so I am getting slightly better at the blog posting thing. I’m hoping next week to get in every day! But, we’ll see how that goes. 

Today, I love linking up to the Pea’s & Crayon’s “What I Wednesday” linkey party because I love getting to see what sort of delicious goodies everyone is cooking up. 

I love drooling over stuff I’ll never make because it isn’t healthy & I love bookmarking new healthy recipes!! So, without further ado here is what I’ve been eating the last week or so:

Fries prepped & ready for some homemade healthier poutine!

This was from lunch with my honey last Friday! It was black bean tacos with black beans, rice & tomato's. It was slim picking on their veggie menu! But, it was delicious!

This was dessert a few days ago. Greek yogurt with cocoa, stevia, granola, strawberries & bananas! So delicious. It took me a while to hop on the Greek yogurt bandwagon, but I'm here & a willing participant!!

Delicious green banana smoothie! I'll post a recipe for this soon!

Greened up homemade hamburger helper! Found the recipe for homemade helper here. It tastes just like the real thing only fresher! I greened mine up by adding spinach & zucchini. The kidlet followed suit & even though she hates spinach she choked it down.  

"Green" strawberry smoothie. I greened this up by adding the tops of the strawberries into it. There is also some raw oatmeal in there. Gave it an amazing thickness! 

This was a fruit dip & fruit plate the kitlet had after school. I'll post the recipe soon for the dip,  it was tasty! She inhaled it all!

My amazing protein breakfast with fresh brewed lemon & ginger tea! 

On to the workouts!

So, last week for me was my Insanity rest week. So that meant a whole lot of core cardio & balance. I LOVE this DVD! By the end of the 40 minutes I feel like I worked, but not too hard. Also, at the end of the week my core is always much stronger! So Wednesday I did core cardio & balance, Thursday I did P90X, X-Stretch, Friday I did Core Cardio & Balance, Saturday I did core cardio & balance & X-Stretch, then Sunday I took a nap! Ha! Monday, started Month 2 of Insanity. This has been a rough week! I did my fit test as well as Max Plyo Cardio Circuit. I stupidly did the circuit first then did the fit test. BUT, my results were still AMAZING! I improved so much since my first fit test (yes, I missed a fit test somewhere in there lol). Next was Max Interval Training, and today was Max Cardio. So, during month one you get shocked that the DVD is only 36 minutes & then a second shock when it’s 20 solid minutes of nothing but cardio. Month two totally trumps that with a 47 minute DVD & 30 solid hardcore minutes of nothing but cardio!!! It’s hard but oh-so-worth it!!! Today I also competed in a walking lunges challenge on a fitness board I belong to. The highest number I could get to was 50, but my legs were quivering majorly & I was ok with not getting as much as others as I have been working out so hard!! Each day for me has also entailed a 20 minute each way hilly walk to the beach & a 30 minute post dinner walk with the kidlet. So, we've been moving & grooving over here! Tomorrow is a recovery day so I’m excited, but the Max Recovery is not easy I’m always sore so I may have to make some more poutine to bribe my husband to give me a massage ;)

What workouts have you been doing lately? Do you feel like you’re doing the best you can to be healthy????

Meal Plan & Prep

Breakfast options:

Kiddo: Cereal & Carnation instant breakfast (premeasure three Carnation Instant Breakfast), premeasure (2) ¾ cup of Cinnamon toast crunch & ½ cup of milk. Set aside two bananas for the cereal & three apples to go with the Carnation’s.)

Kate:

Monday: Spinach & cheese omelet with ¼ cup cottage cheese (premeasure into small canning jar) & ½ cup melon (precut melon & premeasure into mason jars

Tuesday: ½ cup eggwhites & spinach & ¼ cup oatmeal with berries

Wednesday: Peanut butter banana oatmeal smoothie

Thursday: Strawberries & cream oatmeal smoothie

Friday: Same as Tuesday. (saved leftovers of Tuesday’s oatmeal for today)

Everyone:

Saturday: Omelet’s (egg & cheese & bacon/spinach & cheese), with bacon & orange slices

Sunday: donuts

Lunch

Kiddo: buying, leftovers, nutella & jelly & fruit salad

Hubby: hamburger (premade when did monthly grocery shopping, cooked, & froze) & apple (2x’s), bbq pork (from leftover frozen pork tenderloin) & bacon sliders with pear, omelet, muffin, and apple, French dip sandwich (will serve this a day or two after we have it for dinner) & corn

Kate: spinach & chicken salad (3)(when I cooked Monday’s dinner I make two extra chicken breasts & just divided everything up into mason jars layering cottage cheese homemade avocado/yogurt dressing chicken, spinach, cucumber, onion & tomato) , shrimp po’ boy (will serve a day or two after making for dinner), fruit & almond butter bowl

Everyone:

Saturday: see breakfast, will be a “brunch”

Sunday: chicken & rice bowls

Snacks will be yogurt, zucchini chips, hummus, leftover oats, protein recover juice, banana’s & nutella, nutella filled strawberries, homemade poutine, etc. I don’t plan snacks too much as I try to make sure they are super healthy & consist mainly of fruits & veggies.

Dinner:

Monday: Chicken with rice & mixed veggies

Tuesday: ham crescent rolls with cinnamon apples & pears

Wednesday: Shrimp po’ boy & French dip sandwich with salad

Thursday: Homemade hambuger helper with salad

Friday: pizza burgers with corn/salad

Saturday: Ribeye’s with potatoes, green beans & corn

Sunday: Three cheese turkey pasta bake with salad/zucchini/corn

Well, I hope everyone has a great week! I have a fun tutorial on an easy way to clean up dirty sneakers & a cheer bow tutorial. As well as some fun revelations about my health & the way I’ve been taking care of myself!! 

Hope your week has started out well! What is your family's favorite meal?