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Posts tagged ‘clean eating’

Oct 17

Healthy, easy, yummy Fall eats

bakedacornsquash-yogurt-honeyCheck out my new favorite fall recipes!

Acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, apples, pears, beets, brussels sprouts — I am in heaven! I love Fall’s seasonal eats. And I’m not alone.

I just about jumped out of my computer chair with joy when I found the Baked Acorn Squash with Greek Yogurt, Honey & Pecans recipe — suggesting it for breakfast. I’m in!

There’s a plenitude of blogs out right now about all of the great seasonal fruits and vegetables available to us in the Fall. And there are also hundreds of  recipes coming across my Facebook feed that CLAIM to be “healthy” comfort foods, but honestly when you look are loaded with starchy, fatty, sugary carbs. Some of those claim to cut the carbs, but I’d have a hard time maintaining my weight loss if I didn’t pay attention to what’s really in those so-called “healthy” recipes.

My definition of healthy is different – to me it means low-carb, low healthy fat, low or no refined sugar and whole, natural food. I know from five years of eating this way that it can still be absolutely delicious and satisfying. So I did some research to bring a little creativity and fun to my Fall healthy cooking regime. Read more

Jun 27

A proud salad makin, meal preppin machine!

And, my dirty little secret to avoid grocery shopping mishaps & stay on plan!

Blog series: The restart

2016-06-12 16.26.58 This is how I spent my Sunday afternoon — prepping salads in an assembly line, grilling fresh veggie kabobs with a titch of olive oil and garlic, and readying the second shift for the grill — an awesome new turkey burger recipe, fresh grilled asparagus and lean grilled pork chops. And I did it all in about 1.5 hours.

For someone who hated to cook, and who just over five years ago was lucky to eat one salad every few months, I’m pretty proud of my Sunday meal preppin skills. It’s absolutely one of the keys to my success at weight maintenance and living a healthy lifestyle. And when I need a restart, like right now, I get right back on plan and crank the tunes, create a colorful salad assembly line and embark on meal prepping for the entire week.

If you struggle to eat healthy or stay on your clean eating program, I’m guessing that lack of time is one of the reasons. Any chance preparation and planning would help? Try it. I’m guessing — YES!

Read more

Jan 14

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Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken. Yum!

A super easy, flavorful, & totally healthy go-to-recipe — part of our back to basics, nuts & bolts blog series

chickensalsa-dinnerTuesday night dinner with my girlfriends included one of my favorite, go-to recipes — Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken. It’s a winner for those who want easy, low-fat, low carb recipes and who are on the go and don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. It’s so easy even I can do it!

You just “fire” the ingredients in the crock pot in the morning before work (takes about 5 minutes) and you have a delicious dinner at night. Now that’s my kind of cooking! I love it so much, I rotate it through my dinner repertoire every other week.

And whoever invented the idea of the slow cooker or crock pot has my undying gratitude. What a brilliant idea for those of us who don’t like to cook and are short on time.

If you get sick of the same old boring chicken, add this recipe to your healthy eating repertoire. There’s nothing boring about it. Read more

Sep 21

Pumpkin spice & everything nice

Plenty of happy, healthy fall eats

Pumpkin-Spice-LatteFall is my all-time favorite season for so many reasons. Not the least of which is the bounty of fabulous fall fruit and vegetables. Tis the season of pumpkin and spice…and the now infamous Pumpkin Spiced Latte.

I LOVE Pumpkin Spiced Lattes! Back when I was a “big” girl, I used to drink 1-2 per day. But, now the lattes have been replaced by Pumpkin Spice Coffee from Trader Joe’s. My new fav! Even Dunkin Donuts sells Pumpkin Spice packaged coffee. This is my “healthy” version without all the sugar. When I am really craving a latte, I make a version with unsweetened almond milk, or skim. Read more

Sep 28

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Good, healthy eats for Fall. Yum!

fall-foods-superfruit-400x400I absolutely LOVE Fall! Love it. It’s my all-time favorite season because it not only yields gorgeous leaves and great hiking and play- outside weather, but some fantastic locally grown food.

In fact, one of my favorite things about Fall is the fresh, healthy food — apples, squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, pears, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and more! Not to mention all of the fun and “healthy” recipe blogs making their way into cyberspace. Yum!

I try to eat seasonal, fresh and local when I can. And since I spend my time in both Minnesota and Maine, I get lots of amazing seafood and produce this time of year. This Fall, I’ve vowed to tackle some new healthy recipes.

So, today, in celebration of Fall, I’m sharing some of the new healthy and seasonal recipes that are on my go-to list. I invite you to share your favorite fall food recipes, here, too. The more the merrier! Read more

Aug 1

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Friendship, frittata and fun

And a recipe for a healthy Chicken Broccoli Frittata. Yum!

10_13_11 Sisters Journey, Maine 113I’m a lucky girl to have such amazing friends in my life! Topping the list, is my group of eight college friends/sorority sisters — we’ve been friends since the 80’s and have seen each other through triumph and heartache, loss of every kind, joy of just about every kind, and lots of celebration.

This was the group of women that traveled from Minnesota to Maine with me almost three years ago to climb a mountain in Acadia National Park and toast my -150 pound weight loss milestone.

We’re all now entering (what I guess you call) middle age, and we all live in Minnesota so we’re able to see each other often. Lately, we’ve embarked on an attempt to get together weekly at my friend Kathy’s house. She hosts weekly “supper club” and whomever can come, comes. One of us makes dinner, and the nights are always filled with deep-in-your-belly, full-on laughter. The kind that makes your cheeks hurt and spirit soar. Read more

May 26

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I did everything right & things didn’t go my way

Damn, I hate it when that happens! Is there anything tougher?

Scale_Makes-You-CryThe truth is, it doesn’t get much tougher to stay on course when you do everything right and things don’t work out.

On May 12, the second anniversary of maintaining my weight loss, I wrote about getting off track and battling hormonal hell (aka perimenopause) — Two years fit & healthy. New life…new lessons. I was struggling to stay on my personal health and wellness plan and decided to “restart” and “refocus” — as I have a hundred times in the last two years.

So, I issued the “In Your Equation Spring Challenge” and invited others to join me in setting specific goals for their overall health and wellness, and to stick with it until May 30, 2014. (Read more about the In Your Equation Spring Challenge here.)

Well, I’ve learned something very important this time around: Sometimes you do everything right and the results still don’t go your way, and they certainly don’t match your effort. To put it mildly, WOW, is it hard to stay on course, not get discouraged (and/or pissed), and not throw in the towel when that happens. Read more

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