When A Woman Loves her Food:
Ok, no lie I absolutely love food! Eating it, even preparing it. With living with my parents (with a kitchen in remodel to boot!) I've lost some of my freedom in the kitchen but I still do get space to do my own thing. I try to eat fairly healthy and though with the abundance of new years resolutions dedicated to eating better I would share my thoughts and some basic recipes! :) Also I am not going to lie I don't make New Years Resolutions because I feel like it's easier to make resolutions throughout the year based on the ebb and flow of life!
Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking, SALAD!? Everyone knows it's good for you and blah blah blah but no one really feels a drive to eat them. What I found with salad is I'm happiest if I play with them, for about a month or so every time I went to the grocery store I would try to think of something good to add to my salads. This included diverse healthy extras such as tomatoes, carrots, avocado, peppers, ect. On this particular salad I have Oscar Meyer carving board chicken (this and the turkey is my stand by processes meat which isn't great but isn't the worse either), plain almonds, carrots, feta cheese, tomatoes, shrimp, almonds, avocado, and light raspberry vinaigrette which I can NOT rave about enough. I use to always use balsamic vinaigrette which I still like but the raspberry adds a great sweet kick! One mistake a lot of people make is making an amazing salad and then drenching it in heavy dressing which can add up to 200 calories on it's own (at that point give me a McDouble!!). On the side I have some strawberry greek yogurt for a sort of dessert, if I had fresh fruit it'd be in there! I use yogurt as a snack or dessert since it has a lot of sugar in it and I try to watch mainly three things inside my calorie intake: salt, sugar, fat!
Ok that post was quite long but salads are something I've grown passionate about! Here we have some homemade gumbo! Yum! I try to substitute healthy alternatives when a recipe calls for certain things so here I used no salt added chicken broth, whole wheat flour, extra olive virgin oil, cut up and grilled chicken, Andouille sausage (I would now skip this it's high in fat and TOO spicy for me!), shrimp, celery, peppers, tomatoes, and onions. For my carb I just used whole wheat bread with goat cheese on top (I LOVE THIS!). This is something I would eat for lunch or dinner :)
I really wish I had a picture of the finished product here but these were the ingredients for a parmesan pasta and salsa side dish I made, focusing on quality ingredients. The parmesan pasta had whole wheat pasta, greek yogurt cream cheese, buttermilk and shredded parmesan. The salsa was made with heirloom tomatoes, onion, and green, red, yellow, orange (not all pictured) peppers. I made this for a girls night of wine and pasta and my only advice is it doesn't reheat well so make just enough :D (also I just google for recipes, I find a few and combine them a lot to get something different! Though I really should start writing them down!)
Here I have jambalaya which is using pretty much the same ingredients as the gumbo but instead of whole wheat flour it contains quinoa which I substituted for the white rice the recipe called for. One way I save money is by making things with similar ingredients or incorporating the extra ingredients into a whole different dish.
Yum, breakfast! I'm actually kind of a hobbit, I usually eat two breakfasts :D basically by eating two small breakfasts I keep myself full longer and don't feel overly full the first go round. This one is what I'd have if I was only having one and a snack to make it to lunch. The whole wheat toast has goat cheese on it again and my new obsession of boiling an egg is eaten with it. I am in LOVE with the baby bell mini cheese rounds which I get in light, at 50 calories they're a great snack or little added bit to meals.
This is a kind of splurge diner for me, I LOVE potatoes!! To a point where relatives joke about it! But I don't love the skin which is the healthiest part and I like it with just butter, salt and pepper. It's not something I eat everyday (though I totally would if it was healthier) and I tend to save it for a day I need an extra bit of comfort food. The chicken is oven baked friend chicken (who knew that was a thing) which I coat either with an egg (healthier) or buttermilk (less healthy), whole wheat flour, and sometimes Kellogg crumbles. I should add that spices are my drug of choice for food, it takes anything blah and makes BAM! amazing! I may do a whole post on my seasonings (is that odd?) if I can find the box. On the side I have carrots and a little light ranch for dipping, because I had to feel better about myself a little!! Actually adding a vegetable to every meal is a really good goal, especially different colors. The way I look at it the more colorful foods you're eating the more diverse the nutrients you're ingesting (this does NOT apply to skittles unfortunately).
Yum, lunch time! (These aren't in any order if you noticed!) This is a whole wheat pita (though I also use whole wheat wraps in the same manner), inside I put either goat cheese or garlic hummus (just a small spread of either on one side), avocado, peppers, tomatoes, feta cheese, turkey or chicken meat, and spinach. I should add that the peppers are not the spicy kind, they just add more flavor and color really :)
Ok quick foray, since I don't have a picture of it I use to take protein shakes after a real workout session. This meant going to the gym and putting in the real time, not just when I was semi lazy and did a few things at home. In my protein shakes I usually used skim milk and some EAS soy protein powder in chocolate from Wal-Mart. I will be the first to say that I don't know much about the powders out there and would recommend doing your own research if you choose to go down that route. Now the above was not very pleasant but when I needed it quick it worked, IF I had the time I would sometimes add PB2 (powdered peanut butter AMAZING), greek yogurt, or greek yogurt caramel ice-cream. Sometimes I also substituted the skim milk for no sugar added almond milk which had less calories and with the PB2 tasted pretty darn good. Ok now that that is out of the way I went down the green smoothie route (which is on pause as my parents don't have a blender out right now) I looked up lots of recipes online so just play with what you think you'll like. I used frozen kale (putting the kale in the freezer helped it last longer and taste better, also I really liked breaking frozen kale leaves off for some reason lol), pineapple, banana, coconut water, and strawberry honey greek yogurt. I thought this was a great for an energizer as the fruit was naturally a carb. Also it's a sneaky way to get just a little bit more leafy greens into your day!
This is a healthy dinner for me, lemon lime fiesta salmon (the portions a little big though) on a bed of quinoa, blackberries and a small spinach salad with only peppers, tomatoes, balsamic and feta cheese on top. This is just trying to eat as balanced as possible, add some skim milk and I've hit every food group (not counting the tiny bit of feta already there)!!
Another breakfast and a half. Here I just cooked the egg and put it on my goat cheese toast. The side is strawberry honey greek yogurt and some berries added in, once again it's like dessert! yum!
This is a Kala just got done working out and want's to eat a lot!!...but doesn't want to ruin her workout! One way I fill up when I'm just craving food, food, and more food is with water based foods. The celery and cucumber have a lot of water in them to fill me up and the protein and fat in the peanut butter along with the complex carbs in the whole wheat bread will keep me full as well as help rebuild muscle. Peanut butter I tried to find the healthiest option and haven't used any lately but my gal pal from high school said you can mix the PB2 and water and it's much healthier! I haven't tried it so I can't say if it tastes good but the more options the better!!
I thought I'd throw this cool thing in here, I saw this at my local grocery store. You can make your own organic peanut butter!! I think this a really cool natural idea and can't wait to try it sometime.
This one is very sad looking but tastes better than it looks!! It's also a great take to work lunch. It's tuna (pouch sealed in WATER), lettuce or spinach, light mayo, on whole wheat bread. Plus some sunflower seeds on the side (I was probably craving something salty). I thought I would hate tuna but have found it's one the simplest healthy things to throw on my sandwiches!
Oh boy, this is the kind of diner I grew up with yum yum. Who can blame me for making it when I started cooking for myself? basically it's filet mignon, pasta roni pasta, and peas. Ways to make this a little healthier would be homemade pasta, or at least whole grain pasta with a light store bought sauce and a leaner cut of meat. All in the all the portions are not too bad though and it's got a lot more vegetable then the bad stuff ;)
Here's another love that's a bit of a fat/calorie buster. BURGER TIME!! I've changed how I make these a bit since this picture. I don't use the prepackaged burgers I buy the meat myself and add seasonings make it into patties and freeze what I'm not making in the next day. I make 4 burgers from a pound of meat so obviously they're about 1/4 lb burgers each. I put spinach and tomatoes on the burger to add some vegetables and also I just really like them on there :) Now instead of cheddar cheese I use pepper jack which has more flavor and is usually less processed. All on a wheat bun of course and a small bit of no sodium added ketchup :D
That pretty much wraps up PLENTY of my food choices. One tip I've found lately is if you count calories (which I try to keep track of at the very least) it's good to know an approximate daily amount but not to get too hung up on those and instead focus on a weekly total. This way when you go out to eat/drink one day with friends or family you don't have to write off the day as a failure, especially cause this can add to making worse decisions. Just look at is as maybe go for a longer walk the next day, extra half hour at the gym, or maybe really asking if you need that dessert the next day. Most of my eating changes came from finding recipes I could experiment with and playing with foods I knew I liked before finding healthy substitutes. If you keep an eye out for creative blogs or aps you can also score info on things you never knew about. For instance my friend (PB2 girl lol) found some squash spaghetti, literally spaghetti made from squash! I haven't tried it yet but I never ever would have guessed something like that existed and hey if it's good I found a keeper, if not it's on to something else new!!! I know this is a long post (and I also typed it twice because I lost it the first time!!) but I am PASSIONATE about food, particularly eating it ;)
Where ever you are smile everyday (Sunny or not!)
Bye Loves!! <3 <3
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