Breakfast Switch-Up

February 19, 2014

When it comes to breakfast, I tend to find something that works and stick to it. I think I spent a whole year eating overnight oats for breakfast Monday thru Friday. I have definitely been getting in that routine lately with smoothies. I’ve touted the benefits of throwing everything in the blender and being good to go. Another reason smoothies are good is that I usually eat breakfast while literally running out the door. This works great for convenience, but I must say sometimes I miss “eating” my breakfast during the week. I also noticed, that I tend to stay fuller longer when my breakfast consists of more than liquids.

So here are a few of my recent breakfast change-ups.

Overnight oats are showing a resurgence. I use the Basic version of this recipe. It is easy because it is just 1/3 cup of everything so I use one measuring cup and good to go. This one was in a Trader Joe’s Almond Butter jar. The almond butter was really hard at the bottom (I was having a hard time parting with it becauase we don’t have a Trader Joe’s here. So it may or may not have gotten extremely hard sitting in the fridge because I knew I wouldn’t be able to replace it anytime soon. #foodhoarder) but it did the trick. I added banana, strawberries and blueberries to the top. With iced coffee.

Overnight oats again. This time I topped with blueberries, half a banana, crumbled half of one of the oatmeal cookies I made the day before and almond butter. Again with the iced coffee.

Oatmeal made with almond milk, water and a mushed up banana. Topped with strawberries, blueberries, vanilla greek yogurt and almond butter.

This was just Chobani Vanilla yogurt topped with blueberries, bananas and Love Grown Foods Sweet Cranberry Pecan topped with almond butter and chia seeds. Iced coffee on the side.

Another overnight oats topped with strawberries, blueberries, half a banana, Love Grown Oats and this peanut butter. I have a slight addiction to this stuff. A Fresh Market JUST opened by us (we are so behind) and they were on special at the grand opening. So good, and I think I’m somewhat obsessed. I’m also late to this bandwagon but the Double Espresso flavor is soooo good! It is definitely a splurge considering I normally make my own iced coffee. But I am hooked.

So I am feeling like these breakfasts have made it a little easier to break out of my smoothie rut. Overnight oats are good too because a little prep the night before makes for a quick breakfast when I’m in a hurry (which is every day). As you can see I’m a fan of sweet breakfasts. If I’m going to consume sugar in the day I like to get it out of the way early-on. My workouts have been a little longer lately also, so I feel like the more substantial breakfasts are really helping.

What are your favorite go-to breakfasts?

Paleo-ish

February 7, 2014

So we have been feeling a little sluggish in the household lately. Our main motto is to try and be as healthy as possible during the week so we can indulge a little on the weekends. Well since the holidays, our approach feels like two steps forward, three steps back. Our weekends have run over into the weeks and our M-F routine has gone out the window. Enter: Paleo.

I will say it is definitely a better fit for my husband who is a meat guy. He can’t be bothered with “sides” so I thought this would be good for him. I am by no means a Dr. so I can’t speak to the science of it, but basically we have eliminated sugar, grains and dairy, and pumped up the protein, veggies and fruits. As to be expected the husband was a fan and is officially on-board. He has downloaded two Apps and I keep getting emails with different recipes to try. For me, I was hoping to use this as a jumping off point to get back into some sort of reasonable eating pattern. I’m not sure I can move away from my yogurt and whole grain carbs. I feel like with my body, when eaten in moderation, they actually help my energy and keep me fuller longer.

Here are some of the things we ate this week.

I couldn’t give up my smoothies. Except for one day when I had eggs, I still had smoothies for breakfast and some of them did include yogurt-oops!

I only took a picture of one.

Here are the Breakfasts.

This smoothie had almond milk, frozen banana, protein powder and blueberries.

Excuse this horrible photo, our house is super-dark in the morning. This was two egg whites, banana with Trader Joe’s Roasted Almond Butter (Hurry up and get here TJ’s!!) with strawberries and blueberries on the side.

This one was the husband’s. Definitely more “Paleo”. Leftover mojo pork, a fried egg, tomato slices and a quarter of an avocado. Looks kind of gross here but he was really hungry and when I was ready to snap the pic he had already dug in. Men.

Lunches were good.

Monday I got to eat mine with this smiley face.

Deli turkey over shredded kale, brussels sprouts, romaine and broccoli slaw. Added a tomato, half an avocado and salsa for dressing. As you can see the strawberries and blueberries were promptly confiscated by the berry-monster.

Tuesday’s lunch was was a lot like Monday.

Same salad mix but with leftover roasted broccoli and brussels sprouts and I added dried cranberries and sunflower seeds (they came in the kale/brussels sprouts salad kit). Pineapple on the side.

Wednesday was Chipotle with this guy. We had to head home so we took it to-go and ate outside.

His cilantro rice, chips and chocolate milk. Cheese quesadilla already gone.

Mine was a Barbacoa salad with veggies, tomato and medium salsas and guacamole. I added Tabasco Chipotle sauce when I got home. This was super yummy and it was nice to be able to eat out.

Dinners

This one was spicy Italian chicken sausage sauteed with broccoli slaw and the kale/brussels sprout salad mix. Roasted cauliflower, broccoli and brussels topped with Sriracha. Tomato and avocado on the side.

The other nights that I didn’t photo included a Brazilian Curry Chicken from PaleOMG. It was really good and we had leftovers the next night and last night we had spaghetti squash with turkey tomato sauce. I just made up the sauce with some whole canned tomatoes, mushrooms, ground turkey breast and tons of seasonings. Pretty tasty, but I think I will work on it a bit, to see if I can get more flavor (add chili flake, tomato paste maybe).

All in all the week went okay. I’m not sure I’m ready to commit 100% but I will incorporate some of the fundamentals because I think they work for us. Love: lots of veggies, fruits and proteins. Don’t love: the uber-prep time for everything and of course the yogurt-thing. 😉

We’ll see how it goes.

Have a great weekend!

What are your thoughts on Paleo? Like or dislike?

Gym Machine Workouts

January 14, 2014

I have been going to the gym off and on for years (more off than on). I know my way around pretty well but for some reason I am completely and utterly intimidated by the weight machines. Every day I skip my butt to the Arc trainer and jog/climb/run/walk whatever it is I am actually doing and get my cardio in for the day. I watch the people making their circuit rounds on the machines and it looks pretty effortless really. Unfortunately, when I try to use the machines my absurd social craziness kicks in and I feel like every.one.is.watching. Watching me look at the machine to see which muscles I will be working, and then when I clumsily pull on the handle to adjust the seat (26 times) then finally get ready to go and just know I look like a dufus. I’m sure I am exaggerating but I really want to become more comfortable with the machines. I know the benefits of strength training and have really been trying to incorporate this into my workouts. I have been scouring Pinterest to find good workouts and schedules for each day of the week but keep coming up short. I will keep looking for ideas. My husband said he will walk me through it as apparently he is a exercise equipment master. So I will give it a try again tomorrow and see how it goes. Will give a report on the dufusness.

Breakfast followed my gym escapade. This smoothie had Unsweetened Almond Milk as the base, Chobani strawberry yogurt, almond butter, a frozen banana and a scoop of Designer Whey. So yum. I just really love smoothies. Mainly because I usually have zero time to eat breakfast in the mornings but also because they are so good.

Lunch was inhaled at my desk. Strawberries, cheese stick, deli turkey breast and a tomato and baby carrots dipped in Ken’s Blue Cheese Vinaigrette.

I am also getting back into using MyFitnessPal. Love this App. Has a million different food choices. I was a Weight Watchers member for a while and I was always searching for foods and having to calculate when I couldn’t find them in the database. MyFitnessPal has SO many things in the database. Love it. I really like getting back to keeping track of what I eat and how much I move.

Hoping to try a turkey chili recipe for dinner tonight. We will see how it goes!