California: The Land of Delicious Fruit Stands…and where I will be moving after I get married. I am so excited to visit local farmer’s markets and produce stands to fill my tote bag!
“So seeking out more local foods means eating more of what’s in season – aka actually fresh and tasty – around you.” -Jessica Alba, The Honest Life
I am in love with Jessica Alba’s The Honest Life. I love how she presents a healthy lifestyle in an easy way. I own Gwyneth’s books too, but The Honest Life is MUCH easier to stick to (and afford…). One of my favorite sections in the book is the list of seasonal fruits and vegetables. Eating seasonally ensures that you will have the best version of that particular produce possible. Alba also offers up quick and easy ways of preparing each item on her lists. Enjoy!
Brussels Sprouts used to freak me out. I’m not really sure why. Tiny little weird cabbage heads… I have to say, though, that I am converted to the mini cabbage. Super nutritious, and with a little preparation, very tasty.
Ingredients
Brussels Sprouts
Bacon, 2 slices cut into small pieces
Salt + Pepper to taste
1 tsp crushed red pepper (more if you like things spicy)
Walnuts
Olive oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Cut brussels sprouts in half and toss onto a shallow roasting pan.
Cut 2 slices of bacon into small pieces and toss in pan with the sprouts.
Salt and pepper to your liking
Add crushed red pepper
Add walnuts
Drizzle entire mixture with olive oil and stir to coat sprouts.
Spread the sprouts on the pan so that they are not piled on top of one another to allow for even cooking.
Roast prepared sprouts for approximately 15-20 minutes. Halfway through cook time, stir sprouts to keep them from sticking to the pan.
Yesterday after work I completed a doozy of a workout. When I finished, I sort of laid out very unattractively (don’t judge…) on my living room floor trying to convince myself to get up, cook myself dinner, and clean up so I could make it to Wednesday night church services. I needed something quick, so I threw together this sweet and spicy salmon recipe.
Full of high-quality protein, vitamins and minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids, salmon is a wonderfully healthy choice and oh so tasty! Omega-3 fatty acids contribute to brain, heart, and joint health. Our body does not create this fatty acid, so it must be obtained from our diet. This super simple and delicious recipe will be ready to eat in 20 minutes!
Honey-Lime Sriracha Salmon
Ingredients
2 salmon fillets
Salt + pepper to taste
1 Tbsp Sriracha chili sauce (Add more if you like things a little spicier)
3 Tbsp honey
Juice from 1/2 a lime
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a small bowl, mix together the Sriracha, honey, and lime juice.
Line a baking dish with parchment paper.
Salt and pepper salmon to taste and place in lined baking dish.
Brush half of the prepared sauce over the fish. Bake the salmon for 16 minutes, pouring the last half of the sauce over the fish halfway through baking time.
Valentine’s day date night can put a wrinkle in those healthy eating resolutions you made for yourself. And that’s ok. I believe that a little indulgence every once in a while is just fine. However, here is a healthier dessert that still is indulgent-worthy. This creamy cheesecake is completely refined-sugar-free, and I promise it is wonderful! You won’t miss the sugar.
Creamy Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce
Ingredients for Cheesecake
3 – 8 oz. pkg. reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel), softened
1/2 cup light agave nectar
2 Tbsp almond milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
Strawberry Sauce
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-in springform pan. Using a double layer heavy-duty foil, create a watertight seal by bringing the edges of the foil up around the edges, molding it to the sides of the pan.
In a stand mixer, beat the softened cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. *Use the whisk attachment. Beat in agave nectar, almond milk, and vanilla until well combined. Scrape the sides and ensure that there are no clumps. Add eggs and beat on low speed until eggs are combined.
Pour filling into the prepared springform pan. Place springform pan into a roasting pan. Create a water bath by adding enough boiling water to the roasting pan to reach about halfway up the springform pan.
Bake for 40 minutes until the center of the cheesecake is nearly set when shaken slightly. Turn oven off and allow cheesecake to sit in oven for 30 minutes longer, letting it set even more.
Remove from oven. Remove from water bath. Remove foil from pan.
Cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Run a knife along the edges of the pan to loosen the cheesecake. Let cool even more. Remove the sides of the springform pan and let cheesecake cool completely.
Cover and chill overnight.
When ready to serve, spoon warm Strawberry Sauce over cheesecake. Makes 16 slices.
Strawberry Sauce
Ingredients for Sauce
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups halved strawberries, fresh (quarter strawberries if they are very large)
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup light agave nectar
1/2 cup water + 1/2 tsp cornstarch
Directions
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add strawberries and cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally until softened. Remove strawberries from skillet and transfer to a plate.
Add white wine to skillet cooking until most of the liquid is evaporated stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.
Add agave nectar. In a separate bowl, mix together the 1/2 cup water and the 1/2 tsp cornstarch until smooth. Add to skillet and cook until mixture is bubbling and slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.
Add strawberries back to skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes more until sauce is thickened and bubbly, stirring gently.
I love this Fitspiration photo from The Body Department. This is what healthy living is all about – being your best self. It isn’t a specific jeans size or stressing over trying to look like Taylor Swift or some other celebrity. Don’t get me wrong, Taylor is gorgeous, but her’s is a body that is physically impossible for me to attain and remain healthy.
Just a few more weeks left in January 2015! How are you doing on your healthy living resolutions? About this time many people drop off their exercise plans and lose sight of their healthy eating goals. Don’t let that be you!
For me, the easiest way to stay motivated to workout regularly is to follow a calendar. I don’t have to think about planning a workout. It is done for me. I simply look at the day and do what it tells me. Right now, I am running and adding videos from BeFit’s YouTube channel. I am sharing my routine with you in hopes that a calendar will make your exercise goals easier to stick with. The schedule for the 10-minute videos follows the BeFit calendar recommended for the 30 Day Six Pack Abs video set. I hope this calendar helps make your exercise goals manageable and keeps you motivated to keep it up!
*If you can’t run for 30 minutes straight yet, don’t worry. Work your way up to it. Add another minute every day. Also, if you’re new to running (or even if you aren’t), it is a good idea to keep up with the walking days. They help to stretch you out and keep the running manageable so you don’t quit.
Cooking for one can be tough. You go into the grocery store with good intentions, buy a ton of fruits and vegetables, and end up throwing half of them out after they have started rotting in your crisper drawer. My problem is that I enjoy eating out too much. I love cooking, but eating out just seemed to be so much easier to do. No waste. Unfortunately, eating out has some major downsides like WAY too much fat and salt. So, in my decision to live healthier, I decided to go back to cooking the majority of my own food.
I love pizza. It is one of those foods that I just can’t go without. Earlier in the week, I had made myself grilled chicken gyros. Super simple, by the way! I had quite a bit of chicken left over, so I decided to use that on my pizza. So in my need to use up some of the food I purchased from the grocery store, my Easy White Chicken Pizza was born.
NOTE: This pizza is obviously not calorie free. There is a lot of cheese… What I can say for it is all the ingredients are whole, natural products that work for your body rather than against it. Part of healthy living is being able to stick with your goals. Constant deprivation tends to send people to the dark side. So enjoy this healthier version of pizza and stick to your healthy living path.
Simple White Chicken Pizza
Ingredients:
1 – 12″ whole wheat pizza crust (Make it yourself or use a pre-made version, just make sure it is actually WHOLE WHEAT)
Olive oil
1 pkg. natural shredded italian cheese blend (mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, asiago, fontina, and romano)
Baby spinach, fresh
1/4 sweet onion, caramelized (Add more if you really like onions)
1 grilled chicken breast (Simple steps to grilling chicken at the end of this post)
Goat cheese, optional
Italian seasoning
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Dice the sweet onion. Heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions until they begin to turn a light brown. Remove from heat.
Brush prepared crust with olive oil and italian seasoning. Top with Italian cheese blend.
Cut baby spinach into strips, using as much as you prefer. I used a large handful. Sprinkle cut spinach on top of cheese.
Add onions to the pizza.
Cut grilled chicken into thin strips, and add to pizza.
I like to sprinkle my pizza with a little goat cheese and italian seasoning to top it off.
Pop your fancy looking pizza into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, until cheese is bubbling and just staring to brown.
Serve and enjoy!
Simple Steps to Grilling Chicken
I don’t have a grill living in an apartment, but I do have a nifty grill pan which I love. Dearly. Get one. It is worth the investment.
Season raw chicken breast with your choice of seasoning. For this pizza I used italian seasoning.
Spray grill pan with a light coating of olive oil. Heat pan over medium heat.
Add chicken breast to pan, cooking chicken on both sides until cooked through. Approximately 5-8 minutes per side.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that making fitness a part of your daily routine is a choice that has to be made. And made again…and again…until it becomes a habit and eventually a happily anticipated activity. When I was younger, I was involved in gymnastics and various other sports that made fitness a major part of my life without much thought. After college, my fitness routine basically dropped to nothing as I worked on finding a balance with teaching, working on my Master’s degree (I’m done now!!), and generally supporting myself. And it has started to show…
About three months ago, I made the decision to put fitness back into my daily routine. I started running again. Ok…so it is more like a jog at this point, but since I have no desire to run sevenish-minute miles any longer, I’m happy with what I’m doing. Understanding that has been the biggest help to my fitness journey. I exercise because I am healthier for it. Period. Don’t beat yourself up because you can’t do the same things you did in high school or even college. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t lose 20 pounds in a flash. If you want to start running, but don’t know where to begin, I would recommend doing a little research. The Runner’s World Big Book of Running for Beginners has great running plans no matter what fitness level you are at. There are also great tips on healthier food choices. I want to stress that healthy eating does NOT have to taste like cardboard or diet drinks.
And here I would like to divulge into a small rant: I don’t like that the word “diet” has such negative connotations. We hear “diet” and we automatically groan inwardly or maybe even outwardly. We believe “diet” is synonymous with restriction, starvation, and tasteless. IT IS NOT! A diet is simply the kinds of food a person eats. You can have a healthy or an unhealthy diet. A vegetarian diet. A whole foods diet. A gluten-free diet (don’t get me started…but if you’re curious, I totally agree with this post). Yes, there can be restrictions due to certain medical reasons or personal choices, but a diet does not have to be a negative thing. Ok, rant over.
So back to the point of this post: fitness. I recently ran across TheBodyDepartment.com, which is run by Olympic gymnast and gold medalist Shawn Johnson. I am probably behind the times in finding this site, but whatever. Shawn Johnson is a proponent of Lionsgate BeFit program on YouTube, which offers tons of free exercise videos from trainers like Jillian Michaels and various others. I love videos you can do in the privacy of your home and that teach you skills so that when you do go to the gym, you don’t look like an idiot. I have started the 30 Day Fat Burn program. This program is a compilation of 10 minute – yes, only 10 minutes! – videos that are developed to burn maximum calories and tone your body. The trainers suggest you follow the 30 Day Fat Burn Calendar for best results. Even the busiest of people can find 10 minutes in their day to exercise if the goal of a healthy life is important to them.
Need a little help sticking to those healthy resolutions you made for yourself? I have a huge sweet tooth, so I need a little something every now and then to keep me going. Even though its cold outside, I for some strange reason still enjoy ice cream. Tonight I tried making the 5-Minute Healthy Strawberry Frozen Yogurt from Just A Taste. I definitely recommend it! Complete with simple, whole ingredients, it was just what I needed.
Good luck on your new or continuing healthy lifestyle! Healthy eating doesn’t have to consist of boring or tasteless food. I will continue to share delicious recipes for you throughout the year to help you on your journey. Feeding your body whole, tasty foods is totally worth it! Happy 2015!!
It seems like everyone’s New Year’s resolution is to eat healthier or make better decisions about your health in general. About this time, people start to fall of the band wagon and go back to their less healthy choices whatever they may be. Maybe you have made the decision to use safer products for yourself, your home or your kids, and you need a little help continuing that New Year’s resolution journey. Take a look at The Honest Company. This is a subscription service (yes…here is yet another addition to my addiction) that sends products to your door. The products vary from cleaning supplies, body lotions and shampoos, to diapers, all of which are natural, safe, and effective. If you’ve heard about The Honest Company before but thought that it was mainly for moms, I understand where you got that idea. Yes, the company was founded because Jessica Alba and her co-founders wanted to create a company that made safe and affordable products for their children. I am not a mom, and I still signed up for the FREE trial set of the Essentials Bundle which will allow me to sample five of their home/personal care products. While I won’t be purchasing the diaper bundle (a pretty good deal if you are a mom) any time soon, there are several other items I am curious about. I will give a review of my samples once I receive them and give them a try. I’m excited!
Interested in learning more about the company and the motives behind creating it? Take a look at Jessica Alba’s book The Honest Life. Though the company doesn’t offer food products, there is a section of the book devoted to quick and easy recipes that are simple and healthy. Staying on the healthy band wagon is easier when the products are sent to you and the recipes are not overwhelming. I really enjoyed the read.
I wish everyone luck sticking with their resolutions for a healthier life!
Anyone out there already using The Honest Products? I’d love to hear what you think about them.
I am in love with Jessica Alba’s The Honest Life. I love how she presents a healthy lifestyle in an easy way. I own Gwyneth’s books too, but The Honest Life is MUCH easier to stick to (and afford…). One of my favorite sections in the book is the list of seasonal fruits and vegetables. Eating seasonally ensures that you will have the best version of that particular produce possible. Alba also offers up quick and easy ways of preparing each item on her lists. Enjoy!
Home Ec Life 