Jan 19, 2012
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 19, 2012 in breakfast, drinks, general ideas, kid friendly, vegetables | 2 comments
For the last week I’ve been drinking a smoothie for breakfast. Not just any smoothie, but one chocked full of nutrition!
I think it’s a great way to start the day on the right foot, and if you have trouble fitting in fruits and veggies – this could do the trick!
My power smoothie
What am I making my smoothies with??
This week it’s been:
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
handful of frozen mango chunks
2 kiwi
1/2 cup fresh cranberries (which I keep in the freezer)
1 leaf of kale (too much will make the smoothie taste gross)
1 carrot
squeeze of honey
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon flax seeds
I just put everything in my blender and blend until it’s super smooth.
It’s about 300 calories, I bring it to work and sip on it and it’s been keeping me full until lunchtime – which is nice!
Also, I have a site to share www.thislunchrox.com. She has great ideas and recipes!
One of which is no bake granola bars. I’ve made them before, but they NEVER stay together and end up just being granola. This takes no time to make and is great for your lunch or your kids lunch!
Ingredients
Granola Bars (based on a recipe from This Lunch Rox!)
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup oats
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons other dry ingredients (like flax seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, nuts, protein powder, etc)
(I used 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon of flax seeds)
In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate and peanut butter
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until combined.
I used an 8×8 pan, and just pressed the mixture into that dish. Refrigerate 10 minutes of until set.
These were delicious and it’s nice to know all the ingredients that are in there vs. buying a granola bar that is store bought – and it’s cheap too!
Not the best picture - but you get the idea!
Do you have a recipe for granola bars you like? What’s your favorite things to put in a smoothie??
Jan 15, 2012
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 15, 2012 in breakfast, cookies, dessert, dieting, kid friendly, oatmeal, recipe make over | 3 comments
I have a HUGE pile of cooking magazines in my house. Some are mine, but the majority I got from another Mom in my hometown, and I have at least 50 cooking magazines! Vegetarian times, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Rachel Ray, Food TV, etc…
So, when I am looking for inspiration – I just grab a few and see what there is that I can make. This recipe is based off of a 2005 Vegetarian Times recipe. I used that as a guide, but added what I had on hand. Their recipe called for currants, and I was going to use fresh cranberries, but then I also wanted my kids to eat these, so I subbed in 1/4 cup chocolate chips instead.
You don’t even need to get your mixer out, you can mix everything in a bowl with a rubber spatula.
This made 19 mini scones
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup (the recipe asked for Maple syrup – but I didn’t have any…)
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup chocolate chips
5 tablespoons of butter
*Melted chocolate for drizzle if desired
In a big mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients and stir. I sliced the butter into small pieces and using your hands, just start incorporating the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles course crumbs.
Add the milk and corn syrup and stir until the dough comes together. On a floured surface, remove the dough and knead a few times until it’s all combined. I made it into a log, then sliced it with a pizza cutter.
Bake on cookie sheet coated with cooking spray for 15-17 minutes at 425 degrees – they will be golden brown on top.
Jenn's 110 calorie scone bites
These were great – not too sweet, but just the right thing to hit the spot if you want a little special treat after dinner, or make an afternoon hot chocolate/tea/coffee to go with these.
I will definitely make these again!
EACH SCONE IS:
110 CALORIES
4.3 GRAMS FAT
15 GRAMS CARBS
2 GRAMS PROTEIN
.9 FIBER
Jan 14, 2012
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 14, 2012 in a day in the life of me!, Team in Training | 2 comments
For those of you who don’t know, my husband and I are training with Team in Training for the Christy Clinic Half marathon and marathon which is on April 28, 2012!
I’m training for the half – my husband is training for the full marathon, which of all things takes place at U of I in Champaign where he went to undergrad and law school AND it’s on his 50th birthday – so not a bad way to spend your birthday!
I am not going to lie though – I was super nervous about this morning. Since we’ve had such a mild winter this year, several times in December and January – we ran in shorts sleeves and shorts – that every time I saw the weather this week – and it kept getting colder and colder I was worried I was going to freeze my ass off!
The temp was 15 when we got downtown to the Chicago Lakefront path. We had to be there at 8:00 a.m. I wore my tank top on the first layer, a long sleeve with turtleneck Nike shirt, my short sleeve Team in Training shirt over that, and TWO windbreakers + I put on 2 pairs of running pants – just to make sure 
We arrived in the parking lot at the Wilson exit which had not been plowed yet – so we didn’t have to pay for parking because you couldn’t even see where the parking spots were – so that was excellent.
There was about 20 people who braved the cold. The full marathoners had to run 6 miles, the half marathoners (which is me) had to run 4 miles. The great thing about the Lakefront path is it’s so pretty – and it was snowing huge snowflakes so it kind of felt like you were running in a snow globe!
We always start with a mission moment and someone talks about why they run for Team in Training - And yes a few girls wore tutu's!
The path is so pretty!
So pretty! And all the snow was removed from the path which made it much easier!
One of the Team members brought their dog - supporting the Team
That's my hubby David as we were driving to the Lakefront
It was very cloudy and kind of foggy driving into the City - we can get to the Training from our house in about 25 minutes
So even though when we were standing around ready to get started I was cold – once I got going at about the halfway point I was actually getting warm! I even took off my gloves at one point. And since the path was cleared, my shoes didn’t get wet – so that was a bonus too because I thought I would be running on snow the whole time.
So I’ve got to really keep to my weekday schedule and get my runs in – because next Saturday we are already doing 6 miles!
Here is my schedule for this race:
January 14 – 4 miles
January 21 – 6 miles
January 28 – 6 miles
February 50 minutes – we have a long distance clinic talking about getting into longer distances and things you need to know
February 11 – 8 miles
February 18 – 6 miles
February 25 – 8 miles
March 3 – 90 minutes
March 10 – 10 miles – yikes!
March 17 – 8 miles
March 24 – 12 miles
March 31 – 60 minutes
April 7 – 12 miles
April 14 – 100 minutes
April 21 – 60 minutes
April 28 – EVENT DAY!
So not a long season. When my husband and I did the Chicago Marathon in 2005 and 2006 we started training with the Team in February and the marathon wasn’t until October – so it will be weird for this training to go by so fast.
If you’ve ever wanted to train for an event check out Team in Training – they have training all over the country (www.teamintraining.org)
AND – since we are raising money to fight blood cancers – HERE IS OUR FUNDRAISING PAGE - no donation is too small!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Jan 12, 2012
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 12, 2012 in soup, vegetables | 0 comments
So good!
I made this soup before work – it took about 15 minutes to make. If you have chicken base on hand (the powdered stuff in a jar) then you can whip up a soup in no time. I prefer that than buying cans or cartons of chicken broth – and it’s cheaper too!
I had three Trader Joe’s vegetarian pot stickers in the freezer, so I decided to add those too.
Serves 1 HUGE bowl of soup 5 WW+ points (according to my twin sister Biz)
3 cups chicken broth
½ cup broccoli slaw
1 small red pepper, diced
½ small bag mixed veggies, (mine had green beans, peas and carrots
3 Trader Joe’s vegetarian pot stickers (found in the frozen section)
2 tablespoons Thai chili sauce
1/8 cup uncooked elbow noodles
In a small pot, add the chicken broth, the frozen veggies, broccoli slaw, red pepper, and broccoli slaw. Heat on low for about 5 minutes. Add the pot stickers, elbow noodles and Thai sauce and cook for another 10 minutes or until the noodles are done.
This was a gigantic serving – I thought having so few pot stickers would make me sad and I wished I had more, but to be honest – it was just right!
You could do so many variations of this. Just start with whatever kind of broth you like, add some veggies, leftover chicken, or steak, if you want to add noodles or pasta – and whatever spices you like and you are done!
What is your favorite soup?
This is the chili sauce I used. It’s so good! You can find it in the Asian section at pretty much any major grocery chain:
Jan 10, 2012
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 10, 2012 in a day in the life of me!, chicken, Dinner Idea, eggs, general ideas, kid friendly, pasta, potluck, sauces | 0 comments
In our Christmas box from my brother’s family – I received some deluxe food items – almost all of which we’ve already eaten. I got this:
This pesto is AWESOME!
This pesto is made with almonds and peppers and is delish. A little goes a long way, so you don’t have to use that much to add flavor to what you are making. Last week I made lunch with it a few times.
I used a cooked potato, mixed veggies, green onions, peppers, a scrambled egg and added some of the pesto and a leftover Target Chicken sausage – cut up. It was super filling and yummy!
Filling lunch!
But onto the RIck Bayless sauces! You can now buy in the grocery store some of his signature sauces. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure how it would taste – but was pleasantly surprised that these tasted so good! Definitely worth it to check out. I got the taco sauce and the enchilada sauce.
With the enchilada sauce I cut up some chicken, added a bag of frozen peppers from Trader Joe’s and cooked that until it was done. In a separate pot, I cooked up some orzo and drained that. I added the orzo to the chicken and peppers and used 1 packet of the enchilada sauce. Dinner was done in less than 30 minutes and there was no leftovers – so I consider that a hit!
Orzo, peppers, chicken and enchilada sauce
So thanks to my brother Charlie and his family for giving us such great gifts in our Christmas basket this year – we really loved everything!
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And on the Team in Training front, my husband and I went to the kick-off at Eduardo’s pizza in Skokie, IL on Saturday. Basically it’s a getting to know you, meet the coaches, go for a short 30 minute run, come back, eat pizza (nice!) and then we had a clinic about what to wear when it’s cold outside and layering from 2 men from Fleet Feet running store in Chicago. Although who needs that advice now since today is going to be in the 50′s again! Winter hasn’t really come yet this year – which is fine with me!
We got some stuff too – 2 new Team in Training shirts, the white one is for being alumni since this is my 4th event with the Team. We got water bottles and reps from FRS which is a company that has sports drinks for athletes, so we got to take some samples of that too.
The loot we got at the kick off!
It was a great time – we saw some team members from when we did our last event back in 2007 – and met Doug a patient honoree who is battling lymphoma – but also raising money and running events with Team in Training – I always get choked up meeting people like that.
So, our fundraising page is open for donations – no donation is too small – it all adds up!
Have a great day everyone!
