Adventures in the kitchen

Blueberry pancakes, I love you.

So funny tidbit, there are several Registered Dietitians working at the home office for my Dietetic Internship.  Around Christmas-time when everyone starts bringing in treats to work, the RDs get really creative with gifts instead of passing out the typical cookies.  My Internship Director actually gave me homemade multi-grain pancake mix, pure maple syrup and green tea!  On days like these, I know I made the right career choice.

Anyways, I finally decided to use the mix in today’s breakfast and they turned out great! Nice and thin, just how I like ‘em.  I added blueberries and topped with the syrup and a smear of peanut butter.  A great pre-run meal.

For some odd reason I was up way too early this morning and ended up grocery shopping before 9am.  It was nice to get a start on my cooking projects though! Check out the Elvis Granola:

Turned out even better than last time I think. I probably had at least a cup of this throughout the day via handful, spoonful and bowl.  It’s just too good to resist!

Lunch was rushed since I had to get to work [not long] after my run/stretch/ice/shower routine.  Enter the smoothie!

This one had 1% milk, frozen banana chunks, frozen blueberries and spinach.  Just enough to hold me over for a couple hours until I could get back home and eat this lovely egg sandwich:

LOVE the yolk of an egg. I also had some raw veggies + hummus for my cooking snack while I worked on dinner (seems like I was in the kitchen all day today!  Not that there’s anything wrong with that…).

Dinner was hands-down the best meal I have eaten in a long time.  I got this Creamy Spinach-Mushroom Lasagna from Runner’s World and it was fantastic!

I used garden vegetable cream cheese for more flavor, and I also added some sliced black olives and artichokes in just because.  Make this now!

Best lazy day ever.

It’s been SO long since I’ve had a day as relaxing as today.  Trained one client in the morning, came home and made pancakes, took a 3 hour nap… doesn’t get much better than that!  I’m not even really a nap person but I was so tired from the long week that I pretty much collapsed right after breakfast.

First off, dinner last night was pretty solid too.  I made a veggie-filled lasagna on the fly and it turned out good!  Here’s what it looked like:

I layered a jarred red sauce (sauteed spinach and mushrooms were added to it), asparagus sauteed in garlic and red onion, ricotta and mozzarella cheese, and sundried tomatoes. I’m pretty excited to dip into the leftovers tonight because lasagna always tastes better the next day.

And this morning, as promised, I whipped up a recipe from my beloved Hell’s Kitchen cookbook and it was amazing!!!!!

I made the Lemon Ricotta Hotcakes. These are melt-in-your-mouth wonderful.  And the lemon flavor really comes out strong.  I can’t type out the recipe, but I can tell you that the trick involves whipping egg whites to stiff peaks, similar to an angel food cake. I finally got to satisfy my mad craving for bacon too.  Perfect brunch.

Aaaaaaaaaand my me list is coming along pretty great as well.

5 ME things to do this weekend:

1. Wake up without an alarm on Saturday morning and make a really good breakfast. CHECK
2. Bake something CHECK
3. Manicure and Facial (no need to pay someone, these I’m doing myself!) CHECK
4. Long run (9 miler)
5. See Valentine’s Day!

I used the Quaker recipe to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  I’ve been wanting to make these forever!! There’s nothing healthy about them–2 sticks of butter, cup and a half of sugar… yeah.  Gotta do what you gotta do I guess.  They’re calling my name from the kitchen so I’m probably going to have to bring the majority of them into work so I don’t eat the whole batch in 2 days.

I’m about to continue my lazy day theme by laying on the couch and watching some TV.  And eat some more cookies.  Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

How to Makeover a Burger

I’m hosting a cooking demo that focuses on making great-tasting, healthy food that is realistic for college students to cook, so I got this recipe from my friend’s mom because it’s a twist on a traditional burger that’s moist and flavorful (a hard task when dealing with turkey).

Since I’ll be feeding this to a group of people, I figured a test run would be a good idea so I threw them together last night and they were just as delicious as I remembered!

So incredibly basic… You mix 1 lb of extra lean ground turkey breast (not just ground turkey, make sure it’s breast), 1 block of thawed frozen chopped spinach, 1 container of crumbled feta, 3 cloves chopped garlic, and 1 tsp of seasoned salt. You can change up the amounts to suit your own taste.

I made 6 burgers out of the mixture because I like to put a lot of toppings on mine, but you could probably get away with 4. After cooking the patties in a buttered pan for about 5 minutes on each side (?), I used spinach, tomato, red onion, ketchup and Dijon mustard for the toppings and some kind of sandwich thin for buns. These were great because you can really taste the filling and not just bread. Voila! There’s your easy/tasty recipe for the day…

Other photo-worthy meals of late:

Whole Foods heaven. I subbed for a friend in some doubles indoor sand volleyball (fantastic way to spend an afternoon, by the way) and used it as an excuse to hit up the salad bar for lunch SINCE I was near the city of course. That chipotle tomato soup in the top right corner was nothing short of amazing. I wish I could eat this for lunch every day.  I would be an extremely happy person!

And this is the way I do breakfast on a Saturday morning. I swear there are pancakes under that massive pile of berries! Chocolate chip ones, actually. I love weekend mornings so much.

So I won’t be able to spend as much time cooking now that SCHOOL is starting back up in two days, but I do have some ideas brewing for posts already. Hmmm…

Exciting news—-I’m officially registered for the Boulder Spring ½ Marathon!  Ahhhh

Boring Lunch, Exciting Dinner!

Annnnnnnd Breakfast wasn’t too shabby either:

Leah and I were laughing earlier because we had an extremely similar breakfast this morning.  I swear I’m not a copycat! lol These are my leftover banana walnut pancakes from Sunday morning, this time topped with AB and berries.  This was exactly what I needed to get me going this morning! With my tea from above:

I’ve been eating breakfast super early lately (around 6:00) so mid-morning snacks have been a must!  Today I had a pink lady apple and this bar that I tried for the first time:

I LOOVEEEEEEEED this thing!!! Here’s what it looks like on the inside:

This baby was loaded!  It had peanuts, almonds, choco chips, pretzel pieces, sunflower seeds, oats, dried fruit (I think?)… Anyways, the important thing is that it was good.  A little high in sugar, yes, but on days where I’m moving around a lot I don’t really mind.  I love the sweet/salty combo!

As stated in the title of this post, my lunch was a predictable bowl of  leftover lentil soup and fresh pineapple.  Still so good! haha I think tomorrow will be my last day of eating this soup for awhile… the rest is chillin’ in the freezer.

Dinner was this RAINBOW of a salad that I threw together and ate before I went to lab:

I was surprised at all of the wonderful fixins I had in my fridge to make this beauty!  This may have been the best-tasting salad I have ever created… Here’s what went in:

• Earthbound Farms Herb Salad Mix (the best base ever!)
• Red pepper
• Avocado
• Carrot peels (I chomped on the rest while I put it together)
• Walnuts and Raisins (my favorite way to make any salad better)
• TJ’s Goddess dressing

You can’t really see how big this thing was, but it took up a large dinner-sized plate… I finished it in about 5 minutes flat!

I’m just getting ready to watch the Biggest Loser and take it easy for the rest of the night.  Tomorrow is another long day which includes early morning NSCA studying, internship office hours, Chem studying (lot’s!), Lecture, Body Step, and a “Biggest Loser Debate” group meeting.

I had a mini-emotional breakdown today, so let’s hope I can keep things together for the rest of the week.  Nothing serious, just one of those days, you know?  Nothing a chat with Mom and a swift run couldn’t cure though… I went for 35 minutes and felt super fast.  Without music or a buddy, I completely zoned out and just took in all of the fresh air.  Much better now!

What are your favorite ways to relieve stress?

My ode to summer

Well folks, another Sunday has arrived.  Can you believe it?  I officially have only 4 weeks of regular classes + 1 week of hell (a.k.a. exams) and I am DONE with my first degree!!!!  As the semester goes on, the weeks seem to be going by faster and faster!  LOVE IT!:-)

Anyways, as graduation nears, so does my favorite season–SUMMER of course!  I thought I would dedicate this post to all of the things I love about this time of year since it’s currently about 32 degrees outside and I want to think positive before my run:

• Running and road races
• Farmer’s Markets and the FRUITS and VEGGIES in season
• Camping
• The 4th of July (shout out to K–this is also her birthday!)
• Cookouts
• Boating
• Reuniting with friends who I haven’t seen all school year
• Making a campfire and sitting by it ALL night
• Mojito’s
• Saying bye-bye to bulky winter coats
• Brewer’s games!

Ahhhh I love just thinking about it.  What are your favorite things about summer?

Back to the topic of FUEL and FITNESS–Here was this week’s Sunday breakfast:

Banana walnut pancakes (I used the recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch) and a fruit salad made with strawberries, blackberries, pineapple, and the other half of my nanner.

I halved the recipe and still had 3 to stick in the freezer, but I think I messed up the proportions because these were a little on the dense side.  The flavor was spectacular though!  I definitely prefer mixing the banana slices in the batter vs. placing them in once on the skillet.  The walnuts added great crunch.

I also found a surprise in my fridge that I keep forgetting about…

Fresh maple syrup that my brother’s girlfriend gave to me a long time ago. I finally remembered to use it today for some dipping action.

This should be good running fuel (planning on doing a 5 miler today).

ALSO… I watched Twilight last night!!! I wasn’t very interested in watching this when everyone was going mad because I assumed it would be cheesy and I’m not a fan of Harry Potter-like movies.   BUT, a friend from the hospital convinced to me give it a try, so I did. Surprisingly, I thought it was really good!  The love story is just so intense… As soon as school is over I will be reading these books.  YEAH, I SAID IT.

Have a great day, be back lata!

Spring-a-Ling-a-Ding

Happy Friday night everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic day! SO happy it’s the weekend!

Breakfast was the last of my Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes with AB & J.  They held me over SO much better today! I’m not sure if it’s because I worked out later on in the morning (seems to suppress my appetite), or because I used extra almond butter but it did the trick.

I pulled out a Blueberry Oikos too, but I was full by the time I finished this so I ate it mid-morning instead…

Unfortunately, I have to admit that I didn’t care for this yogurt nearly as much as the vanilla flavor.  It was overly sweetened for my taste and the thickness just wasn’t there.  Also, I’m not sure if it was just me, but there seemed to be less in the container?  Sorry, SF but I have to be honest and I wouldn’t buy this flavor again.

I’m excited to try the plain flavor because I seem to like plain yogurt better than sweetened varieties.  I think I’ll be using it in my lunch tomorrow…

So between classes, I ate a packed sandwich while working on a presentation.  I didn’t get a picture because there was people all over and I was shy:-). I can tell you that it was a combo that you’ve seen on here before…hummus (tons!), spinach, red bell pepper, and jalapenos on whole wheat.  I just love it!

I practiced doing a sub-maximal exercise test with a few people from my Health/Exercise Leadership Skills class too.  We have to perform this on a partner for our final exam and I’m actually really nervous!!

The test involves progressively increasing intensity on a cycle ergometer and taking blood pressure and heart rate at set intervals.  Then we plug the numbers into equations and do all kinds of fun stuff…

Anyways, when I was finally done for the day, I snacked on a bowl of Great Grains (all gone now…) and a handful of carrots before Nichole and I picked up some basics from the grocery store.

Then, my room mates cooked an awesome dinner!  I present to you, Turkey Portabello Wraps:

Saute cubed turkey and mushrooms in a skillet like this:

Then roll up in a wrap with mayo, diced tomatoes, spinach, and mozzarella cheese!  We used these wraps tonight:

Inspired by a restaurant back home that we all used to go to…these are so delicious!  I’m still hungry but I haven’t decided what else I want yet LOL… Maybe ice cream?  I’ve been thinking about some good quality ice cream lately… Since it’s the first day of Spring, why not?

Enjoy your night!

Surprise!

This is the first mid-day post I’ve done in awhile, but I figured I wouldn’t have time for the rest of the day because I’m doing homework until my early dinner, then going to chem lab and then hitting the town to celebrate St. Patty’s! I don’t know if buzzed blogging is a great idea so I’m just going do it now… LOL

I’ve been starving today!

I heated up 3 of the Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes from Sunday that I froze.  They reheated really well!  I topped ‘em with crunchy PB, and some mashed banana (which I mixed with a drizzle of honey and cinnamon, then microwaved for 20 seconds so it was liquidy).

These tasted wonderful, but I was starving about 2 hours later for some reason?? I had to dip into my packed lunch by 10:00… Here’s what I had packed:

Hummus, spinach, red pepper, jalapenos, red onion and a sprinkle of cheese on Ekekial tortilla. The only thing that made it to “real lunch”.

Sliced apple with lemon juice squeezed on.  TRY THIS NOW if you never have.  Not only does it prevent browning, but the flavor is amazing!  I do it with cucumbers too.

I threw in my second LARABAR as well:

I feel like such a little kid when I pull out the lunch box, but sometimes it’s just gotta be done! Haha

BTW, cherry pie larabar RULES! Haha I don’t care what anyone says, I think it’s my favorite flavor besides maybe key lime pie, which I can never seem to find…  Why doesn’t anyone like it?? Pure deliciousness.

I hammered my arms today at the gym with just about every exercise I could think of.  Nice and sweaty… and I just had an orange.

Have a great St. Patrick’s day!

Also, if you haven’t already, check out For the Love of Oats to see my guest post on a super fast workout!