Snack Time: Kale Chips

Mr. S and I went out last night to celebrate my birthday. There was a little too much tequila involved, I'm not going to deny it.

So here I am, guzzling water bottles and craving a salty snack. I'm craving that greasy hangover food!

Instead of running through the drive through and grabbing some greasy fries or scarfing a bag of potato chips, I'm making my own healthy alternative to get me back on track. I'm making kale chips!

Recipe below!

Ingredients:
 1 bunch kale
 1 TBSP olive oil
 1 tsp seasoned salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. With a knife or kitchen shears, remove the leaves from teh thick stem and tear into bite sized pieces. Washe and thuroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoned salt

 3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, about 10-15 minutes.

Sweet Snack: "Fried" Honey Bananas

I have the day off today and so does Mr. S. We've been intermittently getting chores done around the house and lounging with our dogs on the couch. It's been a really nice, relaxing day. It's almost 3pm though, and I'm craving a sweet pick me up before my workout. Enter, "fried" honey bananas. Yum!

Ingredients:
1 firm banana, sliced evenly
1 TBSP honey
coconut or olive oil
Dash cinnamon (if desired)


Directions:
Heat a skillet over medium heat and drizzle a small amount of oil in pan.
Place bananas in pan and cook for around 1-2 minutes, then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
While the bananas are cooking, dilute the honey with a TBSP water, to thin it.
Remove pan from heat and drizzle with honey mixture
Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired


Recipe courtesy of rachelschultz.com

What's for dinner?

I needed something quick and easy for dinner tonight because I've been running around like crazy all day. This is one of my healthy and fast go-to meals that the hubs requests again and again.

Pesto Chicken Roll-ups

Ingredients:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Low fat mozzarella cheese sticks

Pre-made or homemade pesto sauce

Directions:

Pound out (I do this in a Ziploc bag) as many chicken breasts as you want to make.
Then spread about a tablespoon of pesto sauce on one side.
Cut low fat mozzarella string cheese sticks in half and place on top of the pest you have just spread.
Grab one end of chicken and start to roll upwards, around the mozzarella.
Place each roll in a glass baking dish.
Top with more pesto if desired and bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until juices from chicken run clear.
Enjoy!

What's for dinner?

I'm making a fantastic meal tonight, butternut squash soup and grilled chicken.  In fact, it's one of the meals my husband requests the most. Oddly enough, it's simple and full of whole, real foods and easy to make!

I usually make this soup on Sunday night and then put it in the fridge, so on busy work nights, all I have to do is heat it up and throw a couple of chicken breasts on the grill. Just because I'm busy, I can still be successful with my eating.

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash
1 granny smith apple
1/2 yellow onion
2 TBS butter
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp sage
1tsp salt
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (if desired)
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with foil.

2. Split Butternut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds.

3. Place halves skin side down on baking sheet and season generously with salt and pepper.

4. Place 1 TBSP butter on each half of squash.

5. Bake squash halves for 50 minutes to one hour, or until knife tender.

6. Dice 1/2 onion and whole apple and place in hot dutch oven or sauce pot, prepared with a drizzle of olive oil.

7. Add 1tsp sage to apples and onion and cook approximately 8 minutes.

8. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

9. When squash is cooked, take out of oven and place baking sheet on wire rack to help cool.

10. Once cool enough to touch, scoop flesh of squash out of skin and place in pot with apples and onions.

11. Add chicken broth, water, nutmeg, and (if desired, crushed red pepper).

12. Bring to boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring to break up large pieces of squash.

13. At this point, I taste and add any more salt and pepper if needed, add the coconut milk and then take off the heat to cool.

14.At this point, you can either blend the mixture in small batches in a blender, being careful with hot liquids. Or you can do what I do and put it in the fridge. Then, when you're ready to eat just blend and then heat!

Yum! Enjoy!

Eating Clean

For years I thought I was an overall healthy eater. I would eat oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, veggies, lean proteins, etc. in an attempt to lose weight. Working out and seemingly eating right, I still wasn't losing weight. Sounds familiar, right? Well, I've found the problem. I was only really pretending to eat healthy. I wasn't reading labels and truly eating natural, whole foods.

Upon being diagnosed with a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, I learned that my fluctuating hormone levels had caused me to be pre-diabetic. How could this be? I was 23, relatively healthy (despite the 20lbs I had recently put on) and realizing that I was in total denial. My hormone fluctuations were directly related to my insulin levels and were even wreaking havoc on my potential to have children. As a young, married woman, this terrifies me! I began doing my research and discovered that many PCOS patients have issues with sugars and refined starches such as bread and pasta. Well, this made sense to me. Every time I had tried a lower carbohydrate diet in the past, I always lost weight, only to return to my carb loving ways and gain it all back. This was different now though. This was not only affecting my size, it was affecting my moods and my potential to have a family with my husband.

After all of my research, I found that the majority of those who had conquered PCOS had adopted some form of a clean eating plan. For those who don't know what clean eating is, it is eating whole, natural foods and avoiding anything processed as much as possible. Yes, it does mean giving up cereals and pre-packaged "diet" meals. Upon evaluating my diet that I thought was healthy I discovered that I had been going about it all wrong. While greek yogurt is a great food on its own, I was eating a variety that was full of unnecessary sugars. That low calorie frozen entree was pumped full of salts and preservatives. I was even passing trail mix with chocolate bits in it off as health food. I was doing it all wrong.

I'm not saying, eat salads for the rest of your life. Personally, I'd go crazy. I've just never been a huge salad person. I'm asking you to challenge yourself to eat a cleaner diet. Basically, read the ingredients on the things you're buying and truly educate yourself on what you're putting into your body. You may be surprised to find out that you're not eating as healthy as you thought. You may be cheating yourself from achieving your weight loss goals simply because you didn't take the time to investigate.

So I urge you to feel better and lose weight while doing it. I have not only lost 20lbs, I have never had more energy in my life. Even just a few short months of eating this way has made a drastic difference. Previously, anything more than sitting on the couch for the day was seemingly exhausting. Since changing my diet, I feel like I can take on the world. I sleep more soundly, I wake up refreshed. I have more energy to take on a workout, and I have learned so much about my capabilities as a result. I have also built a new confidence in myself. The best result of all however is the fact that I am no longer pre-diabetic and may have in fact restored my ability to have children. I truly credit clean eating with all of these improvement and want to share my results so that hopefully it can help someone else to change their life for the better too.

Instead of a diet entree of macaroni and cheese, make yourself a real plate with whole wheat noodles and low fat milk and cheese. The key for indulgences is portion control. Why would you want to eat a lot of something average tasting when you could have a little of something amazing?