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Cherries and Clementines

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:51:07 +0000

This morning’s breakfast: whole wheat toast with butter, local eggs (these guys were huge!), and a little fruit salad of cherries and clementines. I’m taking time to eat a filling breakfast in an attempt to eliminate the need for a snack before lunch. If I just eat cereal or something lighter, I’m hungry one or two hours later. Sometimes I’m just not satisfied and I find myself looking for something else to eat regardless of hunger. I’m thinking this will tide me over for at least four hours. Eating three filling meals a day helps with clearing my mind. I don’t have to worry so much about eating when I’m not truly hungry because it’s more clear this way. And eating enough to keep me full for hours is so helpful. I should note that I don’t think snacking is a bad thing for most people. In the past, snacking for me, leads to more snacking and eating without hunger. I’m finding that if my meal is filling, I really don’t need to eat between them. Do you eat between meals?

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Cherries and Clementines

In The Kitchen Challenge

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:33:26 +0000

I’ve been making my way through FloCoIMo with my 31 recipes challenge. So far, I’ve made 12 recipes. Here are my not so good phone photos of what I’ve made so far. Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos Krissie’s Mom’s Potato Ravioli P ork Potstickers Lemon Pancakes w/ Strawberry Jam Pastor Ryan’s Chili w/ Guacamole and Chips Blueberry muffins w/ Streusel Topping Krissie’s Pork and Apple Meatballs w/ Sour Cream and Garlic Noodles Ginger Baked Salmon w/ Smashed Potatoes and Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms Recipe Recap With Links: Tandoori Chicken Burgers Sweet potato and black bean enchilada casserole (I used kidney beans) 5 ingredient granola bars Pastor Ryan’s Chili (I used this as a base recipe. Added mushrooms and carrots to mine, didn’t add crackers) Lemon Pancakes (I added lemon to the batter and used whipping cream+ water instead of milk) Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos (made recipe, placed in flour tortillas with napa cabbage) Baked Pasta (no photo, recipe coming!) Krissie’s Mom’s Potato Ravioli (didn’t use the peppers or onions, added more potatoes) Blueberry muffins (I used frozen blueberries and didn’t cook them down, next time I would use more.) Pork potstickers Krissie’s Pork and apple meatballs (I served with egg noodles with sour cream, butter, salt, garlic and parsley) Ginger baked salmon and smashed potato (my recipes, coming soon!) I really don’t like posting recipes without saying a little bit about how they turned out. I can honestly say I’ve loved every single thing I’ve made so far and would make everything again. I like having new staples to turn to and also love that this challenge has prevented the usual food rut of “what should I make for dinner?”. This has also cut back on eating out dramatically, which is healthier and saves money. Josh’s favorite recipe is the Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos which I’ve made twice, once with and without the breading. They are pretty amazing. The cabbage is so necessary. The potstickers were very good and slightly disappointing. I’ve been buying the frozen kind off and on for awhile now and always love them. Part of me hoped that making them from scratch would make them even more glorious. While mine tasted fresher and didn’t have any additives, they only tasted slightly better than frozen and they took three hours to make. If I made them again it would be with other people. You get 100 pot stickers at a time which makes it worth it. I loved Krissie’s recipes as they were both cozy and perfect for winter evenings. I love chili and could eat it more frequently than I do, I always pull up Ryan’s recipe as a guideline. The lemon pancakes were sweet and tart. My perfect pancake is a little crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, these were just like that. The blueberry muffins were amazing and by far the best muffin recipe I’ve made. 12 down, 19 to go!

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In The Kitchen Challenge

31 Recipes

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:06:34 +0000

This month I’m participating in FloCoIMo which is Floyd’s (and beyond) alternative to NanoWrimo . My idea first was to create an art journal, but after the first day of the year that seemed like too much work for me right now. I imagine I’d sit around the last week of the year hurridly putting something together, just because. And so I went back to my original idea, which someone told me would be too much, but that’s me, I’m doing it any way. 31 recipes in January. So far I’ve made five and I actually want to do it, I look forward to each recipe. It goes along nicely with my resolution to cook more and I’m trying out new recipes that I’ve been saving up for way too long. Yesterday morning for brunch I had another tandoori chicken burger served on naan. Recipes one and two of the month. I just love this recipe. For dinner I made Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchilada Casserole. I was scared that I wouldn’t like the mushy texture of the sweet potatoes in this, but I did. This recipe was a success, Josh said “I think this is even better than I think it is” as he is now battling the same sickness I had over the weekend. It was very good. Savory, spicy (but not too hot) and comforting. I made a few minor changes to the recipe, which you can find here . I used kidney beans instead of black because my black beans were not done soaking. I used tomatoes with green chilis in the sweet potato mixture instead of just chilis. I added red onions to the layers. I didn’t use cream cheese. I used cheddar cheese instead and on top. I used beef broth instead of chili when making the green chili sauce, only because that’s what I had on hand. I served with avocados sprinkled with sea salt. I also made more sweet potatoes than that recipe suggests so I could put it in a bigger pan and make six servings. This will definitely be made again. My fifth recipe is Five Ingredient Granola . I used pecans, oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, sea salt, honey+corn syrup. These were good, but way too sweet, especially post Christmas. Next time I would use dried cranberries, more nuts and all honey.

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31 Recipes

It Chooses You

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Good morning! Did you guys get any snow yesterday? So far we just have a dusting, it’s mostly cold and windy. Is it bad that I’m hoping for at least one big snow this winter? Yesterday’s breakfast was so good. I had one of Jeanne’s eggs fried in butter, a couple of slices of peach ham, a clementine and a small slice of banana bread. I ended up not eating more than a bite of the banana bread because I got overzealous with reheating it in the microwave. I think a loaf of banana bread is in my future. Lunch was really late in the day so I kept it small. A shared chicken burrito, half of an avocado, and salsa. Dinner took forever to cook, but it was so worth it. I made tandoori chicken burgers with yogurt cucumber sauce and naan. I topped the burgers with cucumber, red onion and cilantro. It was amazing. The chicken patties were tender and had a lot of Indian spice flavor to them. I also really liked the cumin in the cucumber sauce. I didn’t get a good photo of the burgers because it was 9pm and I didn’t feel like pulling out the natural lights, but these were amazing. I’ll definitely be making them again. You can find the recipe for the tandoori chicken burgers here . The only difference for me was the chicken. I used whole chicken breasts and ground them up in the food processor with the spices. The naan recipe is here . I did not exercise yesterday and can tell it’s going to be hard at first to get back into the swing of things. I woke up early to exercise and then waited for Josh and then just kept putting it off until we were both too tired. I think honestly we were both excited to get back to work and have a normal day that it took second seat to everything else. No excuses today though. I’m almost done reading It Chooses You by Miranda July. Oh my. It’s so very interested and surprisingly sad and deep. Miranda’s comments about life, time and death feel so familiar to what goes on in my own head that it’s comforting to read the words from someone else. While writing or trying to write a screen play she decides to seek out the people from the LA Penny Saver for interviews. What she finds is a whole lot of crazy in a world that exists without the internet.

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It Chooses You

Finding My Groove

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:35:53 +0000

Today marks week four, day two of consistent exercise with Insanity . That is, 6.5 workouts, most of them are 40 minutes long. And I’m reminding myself that I’ve been here before. In the spring, I made it 14 weeks. I was seeing improvement and then it stopped. I don’t remember why exactly (something to go back and read) but I’m telling myself that this doesn’t stop when the calendar fills up or when 60 days are over. If I’m being honest, it will take a full year of consistent exercise for me to really be in a better place physically. Probably two. And then for the rest of my life. In the past three weeks, my food intake has been hit or miss. I’ve been experimenting with different calorie counts, and I think I’ve found one that will work for me. On myfitnesspal (lorriebee) you work with net calories. This means if your net calorie goal is 1,400 and you burn 500 calories, you can eat 1,900 calories in a day. I think this is a great tool, but for some reason I’ve been struggling with the notion of eating all of my burned calories. Myfitnesspal gives you an estimated calories burned, but I’m not convinced it’s accurate. I think I’m burning 400-600 calories during Insanity. But when I log it in, it’s usually more. And then I’d see this insane amount of food I could still eat. And for some reason that triggered me to eat beyond hunger. So to calm my tender brain I’ve decided, which some research and calculating, that I will consume 1,600 calories a day regardless of how much I burn during exercise. Of course there will be some ups and downs with that number, but I feel good with that. I’m burning about 400 calories, six days a week, so that is a net of about 1,100-1,300 calories which is totally in the weight loss zone for me. I also feel like 1,600 calories is a very reasonable amount of food for me. I can wrap my head around it and not be obsessive. I can move the numbers around easily to accommodate my day. It feels flexible to me. If I know I’m going out to dinner or to an event in the evening. I can still have a 200 calorie breakfast and 400 calorie lunch with 1,000 calories to work with in the evening. Or if I’m in the mood for a bigger, 500-600 calorie breakfast/brunch sort of thing. I can make that happen too. It goes with my new mantra “I can have what I want, but I can’t have everything I want” which simply means that yes, if I want to go out to dinner with my husband, I can do that. But, it doesn’t mean I need to go out to eat twice in a day and then snack all day and have dessert after every meal. I just don’t need that much food. Yesterday was my first day trying out my new set calorie count and it went so well. I even showed a two pound loss on the scale this morning from it. I woke up and had a serving of mexican chili for breakfast, and again for lunch. I measured it and estimated the calories. I hate two teas with milk and sugar. A small treat. And dinner was teriyaki chicken. I didn’t feel obsessive about anything and when I hit the 1,600 calorie mark I felt comfortable and done for the day. I know this probably sounds like the ramblings of a man-woman, but I needed to share. Mainly to work through these fears I have of sharing and acting. I’m trying to change my inner dialogue and making this a positive journey. Not one of self defeating agony. Last night I was in that bed staring at my clothes hanging in the closet and I visualized what it would be like to fit in all of them, effortlessly. And then I visualized them being too big. I imagined that the sweaters looked like deflated balloons where my arms used to go. I realized in that moment that I can make all of these things happen, there is nothing stopping me.

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Finding My Groove

Resound11 Prompt 11: Best Meal

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:55:42 +0000

What is the best meal or best food that you have eaten all year? Did you make it? Did you get it at a restaurant? Do your best to describe the food and the experience with us. How will you resound? This one is really hard. I had so many good meals while traveling this year. From jerk chicken in the caribbean, to lamb burgers with tzatziki sauce here in Floyd or fire cheese in DC with the ladies. I ate really well this year. My favorite home cooked meal is this: Cashew chicken! This year I mastered Chinese food. The closest Chinese takeout place in 35 minutes away and one of Josh’s favorite meals happens to be Kung Pao, so I set out to make my own at home. I make some sort of Chinese dish every week and I’m always surprised at how close I get to the real thing. Not only is it very close, it’s a lot better. So much so, that I don’t even like going out for Chinese food anymore because I’m always disappointed. Not to mention, it’s so much better for us. I use less oil and lots of fresh vegetables.

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Resound11 Prompt 11: Best Meal

I Will Wear Anything

admin — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:47:22 +0000

The day started with an Insanity workout , which was insane. I skipped Thursday’s workout meaning that I will have to exercise tomorrow, my usual day off , to make up for it. I’ve learned that morning exercise is the way to go for me, especially in the winter and Thursday just didn’t happen. I drank tons of water and made a mental note to carry my water bottle with me where ever I went today. I made a fruit smoothie for breakfast. Granola was an amazing addition. And then I got dressed for the day and realized something that I need to share: I will wear anything. Even if I probably shouldn’t. I’m sure there is some rule book out there for big girls in their late 20′s. You know the one about not wearing puffy vests, and bright colors? I laugh in the face of fashion rules! This is why I should never give fashion advice. I will try my darnedest to “make it work”. For real. Too old? no! too fat? no! too bright? no! Bring it! This is also why you should never take me clothing shopping with you. I will encourage you to buy anything that makes your heart pitter patter, even if fashion says otherwise. I will encourage and celebrate headbands on grown women, false eye lashes for the office and sparkly shoes that were trendy seven years ago. You’ve been warned. Lunch was a big giant salad that I’m calling “fall salad”, because of the cranberries, of course. It was filled with other yummy things like goat cheese, pecans and ginger dressing. And then I hemmed and hawed over having baked spaghetti. Would the salad be enough? Do I really need the spaghetti? Will the salad keep me full? So I did was any rational person would do and ate the spaghetti. The cream cheese baked spaghetti that my bff Jasmine told me that I needed to “omg make right now!” because it was on pinterest and it’s delicious. So I made it with whole wheat noodles and vodka sauce and I’ll be darned if that didn’t come out to 530 calories per serving. That’s what happens when you put a whole block of cream cheese into your spaghetti. You won’t regret it. Luckily, I portioned everything out into single serving freezer cups to prevent it from tempting me too much. For a mid-afternood treat I drank a mug of Tazo passion tea, unsweetened. For dinner I made the most popular Fenn household dish. Are you ready? Vegetable and peanut stir fry! Not kidding, it’s the very best thing that I make. We both love it, it’s easy, it’s quick, it’s healthy, it’s bulky, it’s vegetables, it’s cheap, it’s everything I could hope for. It’s so easy and fail proof, just vegetables, garlic, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, peanuts, rice vinegar, water and honey. I had another tea right after dinner. This time it was caramel black tea with a little milk and sugar. And then I succumbed to an after-after dinner treat while re-watching Mad Men. I really went back and forth on this. I rationalized heating a little cookie dough in the microwave. I really truly did. It wasn’t much, and I ate it slowly. Did I need it? no. Did it derail my day? no. Did I end up eating more? no. So I’m okay with that. I did have a real moment with myself when I wanted more, because I will always want more in that, more wouldn’t taste any different and would make me sick. I’ve been there. I just wanted a little. But, I’ve been here before with “just a taste” which has turned into a weeks worth of calories. I’m realizing that eating more of anything when I’m full is never fulfilling, I just need to keep reminding myself of that every day. Stuff I liked about today: I had a plan with food, exercise and even my work. I got a lot done today and I feel good for that. I also feel good that I drank lots of water and had servings of fruit and vegetables at each meal. I net about 1,600 calories.

A Reader Recipe: Vegetarian Collard Greens

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:19:09 +0000

FitSugar reader Gabriela Une Vie Saine has a recipe for collard greens that is not only healthy, but vegetarian too! She shared the recipe in our Healthy Recipe group . These collard greens are a healthy take on the traditional Southern version. They have a great smokey flavor that tastes amazing with spicy food! Read on for the recipe!

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A Reader Recipe: Vegetarian Collard Greens

Alternative Rock Winter Playlist

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:50:01 +0000

Rather than run Christmas classics ragged when working out, opt to play these alternative tunes mentioning Winter, snow, and the holidays. Upbeat tracks from bands like Vampire Weekend will keep you feeling powered up despite the dreary weather. Mumford and Sons, Simon and Garfunkel, Fleet Foxes, and the Head and the Heart offer classic, folk rock sound and seasonally appropriate lyrics so you can still shake it (without having to listen to something like “Jingle Bell Rock”) in the spirit of the holidays. Winter-themed songs from the Dodos, Swimming With Dolphins, and I Break Horses are lively and addictive to keep your spirits high even though the temperatures are low. See the track list.

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Alternative Rock Winter Playlist

Sugar Shout Out: Go Vegan With Your Holiday Brownies

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:55:16 +0000

Make it: vegan brownies for a healthier treat! Anne Hathaway is engaged! See her beautiful diamond ring! Try these five healthy post-Thanksgiving meals Deck the halls with a candy cane manicure Prince William comes to the rescue – see his cutest moments in uniform Find picture-perfect looks for festive toddlers Chic little stocking stuffers to shop now Video: see Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes’s romantic Parisian date! Holiday steals to give and get for studio apartment dwellers Check out more new pictures from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Time-saving gifts for busy professionals The Obamas and Bo receive the White House Christmas tree 57 gifting giving ideas for the geek in your life PopSugar NYC: 15 holiday gifts worth giving

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Sugar Shout Out: Go Vegan With Your Holiday Brownies