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Aug 18, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Aug 18, 2009 in dieting, Dinner Idea, general ideas, lunch, News, salad | 13 comments
A great way sometimes to make some food that you have even better? Accessorize it!
Last week, two of my friends at work and I walked 3/4 of a mile to Whole Foods. Its where I bought my Chia seeds and visited the salad bar to make my lunch way better! I had some leftover taco meat + one tortilla, and no veggies, so while I was at Whole Foods, I hit the salad bar and for $2.25 I really made my lunch healthy!
I love my Whole Foods. If I ever win the lottery, I would love to do my weekly grocery shopping there!
But, back to my lunch!
I got edamame, shredded carrots, mixed greens, peas, corn and red onions and chick peas.
I just mixed in some of my leftover taco meat and voila, a yummy lunch! I also had some salsa which I poured on top too. Since I only had one tortilla, I decided just to break it up into my taco salad.
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So guess what I did during my lunch today?? I ran a 5k!! My friend and I decided to start running 3 days a week. As some of you know, I’ve run 2 marathons + lots of half marathons, but once you stop running, its like starting all over! I have no endurance right now! In preparation, I did jog on Saturday. And it doesn’t help I’m running with a girl in my office who is a lot lighter than me and 13 years younger!
But, I surprised myself. Maybe because I was running with someone. But we ran the first 5 blocks without stopping. I did think I was going to die a couple of times, but after a little bit, I felt much better. After we got back, I did mapquest to see how far we had run. 1.65 miles each way!
So, we’ll see what the scale says this Friday! Wish me luck!!
Aug 4, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Aug 4, 2009 in Dinner Idea, lunch, News, potluck, salad | 16 comments
When I was at my local Farmer’s Market on Saturday, I happened to walk by a table from a local restaurant in my town called Trattoria 225. They were passing out little cups of this FANTASTIC orzo salad with a recipe card! I make an orzo salad with cooked orzo, feta cheese, fresh spinach, olive oil and pine nuts but this recipe was way better than mine!
SUMMER ORZO SALAD
1 pound cooked orzo pasta
1 zucchini, seeded, grilled and diced
1 yellow squash, seeded, grilled and diced
1 large ripe tomato, seeded and diced
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
4 oz. fresh basil, chopped
1 oz. kalamata olives, quartered
4 oz. lemon vinaigrette dressing*
salt and pepper to taste
1). Add orzo to large mixing bowl
2). Add all diced vegetables to bowl
3). Dice fresh basil into small squares, add to bowl
4). Add diced olives to bowl and toss all ingredients
5). Lightly dress with vinaigrette
6). Season with salt and pepper
*I didn’t look at the recipe until I got home so I couldn’t ask them what their lemon vinaigrette dressing was. You can make your own, otherwise, I used Paul Newman’s Light Lime Vinaigrette dressing!
It makes a lot, so feel free to cut this recipe in half.
I also wanted to show what I have had for desert every night the past few nights:
The best watermelon I’ve had all summer!
Check out my twin sister’s blog for her August 1st give-a-way this month, it’s a great one!
Jul 9, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Jul 9, 2009 in dieting, Dinner Idea, lunch, News, salad, Side dish | 8 comments
I bring my lunch to work about 99% of the time. It’s easy, I know what’s in there and I can keep it healthy. I was running late, so I opened my fridge, and took some leftover taco meat, a little cheddar cheese and that was it!
As it was approaching lunch time, I thought I have to accessorize my lunch! So I walked around the corner from my office to a restaurant that has a great salad bar.
I got fresh spinach, mixed greens, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, a few jalapenos, corn, and red onions, for $1.65!
So, I heated up the taco meat, poured it over the veggies, sprinkled it with the cheese I brought from home, and then my friend Lilly was making her lunch and offered me some sugar snap peas which are my favorite!
I ate the sugar snap peas first, then started on the taco salad and could only finish half. It was so good!
So, if you have a restaurant/grocery store with a nice salad bar, its a cheap and easy way to accessorize any lunch!
Also, check out the nice tile I got to bring home from work yesterday! I work at an architecture firm and we were cleaning out our library, sometimes there is tile, fabric samples, carpet samples. I may make a few coasters out of some, and maybe a trivet for setting hot plates on, who knows?
Jun 2, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on Jun 2, 2009 in Dinner Idea, general ideas, lunch, News, party food!, salad | 7 comments
One of the great things about having a food blog, is people will tell me their recipes that they love and they think are “blog worthy!”
My Mom especially has thrown recipes my way, so I would like to post her recipe for Chicken salad she made! So, without further ado, here is my Mom’s post!
I just made the most yummy chicken salad, tried out a new recipe in the newspaper. it is DELISH!
4 servings:
2 poached chicken breasts, diced
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use Kraft mayo with olive oil, it’s lower in calories, and only 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons pesto sauce (I have homemade in my freezer)
1 Fuji apple, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper to taste
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (I used half)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (used the Greek vinegar, so I cut this in half since it’s stronger)
Mixed baby greens
Combine chicken, mayo, pesto, apple and celery. Season with half the salt and pepper.
Whisk oil, vinegar and the remaining salt and pepper and toss with the greens.
Put the chicken salad on top of the greens. Yum yum yummy! You can also add slivered almonds on top.
With my substitutions, it’s only 260 calories per serving. The original recipe is 410!
Sounds like a great recipe Mom! Thanks for sharing! And thanks for figuring out a healthier version!!
May 19, 2009
Posted by Jennifer on May 19, 2009 in dieting, Dinner Idea, lunch, News, salad, Side dish | 16 comments
When I got home from work, well even before I got home, I told myself I was going to work out before dinner. I announced it to my family when I walked in the door, immediately got changed and got busy! I did 20 minutes on my elliptical followed by 20 minutes of a Biggest Loser work out. Did you know that if you have Comcast Cable (in the Chicago-land area) that there is a channel on demand called Exercise TV, and there are hundreds of work outs to choose from for free! I found 6 Biggest Loser work outs, Taebo, Yoga, work outs with weights etc… so there is no reason at all that I can’t work out!
I was done by 5:45 and headed to the kitchen to make dinner. I had no idea what to make! I went to the store but only threw things in my basket hoping I would be able to come up with 5 meals this week for dinner.
I checked my freezer, I had frozen chicken tenders. So I thought I would cook those up, sprinkled with Lemon Pepper Seasoning. I had a box of wild grain rice, so I cooked that up. I was going to make a side salad when I decided I would just put my chicken ON the salad!
Does anyone else have this Celebrate plate from Pampered Chef? I used it tonight to celebrate me working out!
So on my plate I had baby spinach, mixed greens, 1 small apple, chopped, celery, carrots, soy nuts, red onion, the chicken and Paul Newman’s Light Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.
It was so good I could have eaten another plate, BUT I didn’t!!
I have a favor to ask of you. I met John at the Food Buzz web site and he is trying to win a contest for Murphy-Goode Winery’s “A Really Good Job” Sweepstakes where he can tour and talk and write about the wine country for 6 months! How cool is that? BUT, in order for him to get to the next level, he needs as many votes as he can get! Click on this link to watch his short video and vote today! Check out his fantastic blog too!
Also, Heather at 365 Healthy Eats is having her first give-a-way on her site for some great Outer Banks, North Carolina gifts, including a hat and t-shirt, so check out her site and leave a comment to be entered!
I hope everyone has a great day!
