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Gluten-Free Banana Bread

March 8, 2012 by Lindsay 69 Comments

Hi Guys!

Just popping in to finally share the recipe for my new favorite banana bread. I’ve been tweeting about it all week, so now it’s time to spread the love!

Let’s talk about this banana bread. Yes, it is gluten-free as long as you used certified gluten-free oats. I don’t really need it to be gluten-free, it just worked out that way! Let me tell you how awesome this bread is:

It uses chickpea flour. I’m not sure you guys are truly comprehending how much I love this stuff. It is amazing. Between my breakfast bars and this banana bread, I may never bake anything with wheat flour again. It’s like all the nutritional benefits of chickpeas, in flour form.
It uses greek yogurt and applesauce to replace a lot of the butter that’s usually in banana bread.
It uses less sugar than most banana breads, relying on the natural sweetness of the bananas.
If you cut the loaf into 12 slices, there are 5.5 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber per slice.

This Gluten-Free Banana Bread is made with a mixture of chickpea and oat flours, plus greek yogurt for a little extra protein!

So there you have it! If you gave this to someone who didn’t know, they would never guess there was chickpea flour in it.

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Keywords: bake bread breakfast snack gluten-free healthy vegetarian banana chickpeas oats

Ingredients (1 loaf)

1 c chickpea flour
1 c oat flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp flax seed
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c mashed banana- about 3 medium bananas
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
¼ c plain Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp apple sauce
½ c sugar

Instructions

Combine the bananas, vanilla, eggs, yogurt, butter, applesauce and sugar in a bowl and mix well.

Add the flours, baking soda, baking powder, flax seed and cinnamon.

Stir until just combined and pour into a well-greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

So there you have it! Super easy to throw together and much healthier than most version!

Know what the best part is? Hubby doesn’t like bananas in baked goods so this loaf is alllllll for me 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Pizza with Sweet Potato Socca Crust

March 6, 2012 by Lindsay 99 Comments

Hi Friends!

Whew! That’s a long title isn’t it? Sorry, but I couldn’t think of any way to shorten it and still describe the awesomeness that is this pizza. It’s not your traditional cheese-laden, greasy pizza. Instead, it has a protein & fiber packed crust, a spicy bean dip for the “sauce” and is topped with delicious veggies and goat cheese.

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I got the idea for this pizza from several places. I’d been thinking about trying socca, thanks to some encouragement from Laura, for a while now. Then Nicole posted this Mexican Socca Tostada and I finally decided I needed to try socca for myself. But I didn’t make just plain socca, I added sweet potato! I got the idea from this post but I made mine a little differently by microwaving the sweet potato before adding it and not using cheese in the crust. As for the pizza itself, my mom sent me an email last week saying that she made this pizza with a few changes and it was delicious.

I wrote back saying it sounded good and that I would have used sweet potatoes instead of squash and an idea was born! So this is how it went down. I made the crust first. While it was baking, I chopped up some sweet potatoes and threw them in the oven with the crust to roast. Then I made the white bean dip to use for the sauce. Finally I caramelized the onions and sauteed the peppers.

The night I made this I just wasn’t in the mood to take pictures. I gave it a half-hearted effort but it just wasn’t working out. Want proof? This is the best picture I took of the first pizza.

Yeah…not good. But this was the scene at the end of dinner:

But this was SO good that I knew I had to share it with you guys. So what did I do? I did what any good food blogger does and I re-made the pizza for lunch the next day and took better pictures:

Much better. And just as delicious the second time around. I made the crust a little bit thicker, per the hubby’s request and added some balsamic vinegar to the onions while I was caramelizing them.

Enjoy!

Today’s workout:

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Thanks so much for your support. It means the world to me!

–Lindsay–

Fitness Friday 12

March 2, 2012 by Lindsay 28 Comments

Hi Guys-

So, I know it’s Fitness Friday but first things first. BIG NEWS! Foodie Penpals is expanding. I’m working with Carol Anne, a blogger over in the UK, to see if there’s enough interest to start a branch of FPP across the pond! Not sure if this will be happening this month or next. Right now we’re just trying to see how many people are interested. So, if you’re reading over in the UK, or you know any bloggers over there- spread the word! Click here to read Carol Anne’s post about it and if you are a UK or European blogger, let her know if you’re interested.

The idea is that the UK branch will be an extension of our program over here. Carol Anne will do all the organizing, matching and emailing for that group, but we will all have the same rules and reveal day and everyone will link-up on my blog for one giant party! Added bonus- we will send the American/Canadian bloggers the UK spreadsheet and vice versa to give you the opportunity to check out even more new blogs if you’re interested.

Similarly to how things run now, UK bloggers will only be exchanging with other UK bloggers- or potentially European bloggers if we decide to go that route, but not American or Canadian bloggers. However, somewhere down the line we might organize a one-month international swap just for fun!

As for our Foodie Penpals over here: we’re currently up to over 330 American & Canadian bloggers for March! INCREDIBLE!! Wanna join? Email me!!

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Ok, so moving on to regularly scheduled programing 🙂

This week has been kind of a light week. I’ve been having problem some trouble with my knee so I’ve been trying really hard to take it easy. Knee problems are actually one of my biggest fears. I spent 7 years playing volleyball and played in constant fear that I was going to tear my ACL (super common vball injury). I’ve had multiple ankle sprains, a pulled hip flexor and back problems but i’d take any of those over a knee injury any day.

So, as you can see i’m not dealing with it well. I’ve been icing it and trying to avoid squats and lunges and such which seem to bother it them most. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be getting worse. It’s a weird feeling and sometimes it will hurt and other times it feels just fine….I think the problem might actually be stemming from my hip being super tight so I’ve been stretching a lot! On Wednesday my knee was feeling pretty good so I decided to try running. I ran two miles and felt pretty good. Then I iced it and when I woke up Thursday it still felt pretty good. There’s no intense pain, it just doesn’t feel quite right. I don’t really know how to explain it.

ANYWAYS….here’s the weekly rundown of my workouts:

Feb 24^th– Rest Day. My knee was pretty sore so I didn’t work out, but I probably didn’t help it by walking miles and miles around Ikea and Jungle Jims.

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Feb 25^th– When I was on the rowing team in college, we did this thing during practice and races called a “power ten”. It’s pretty much what it sounds like- you pull as hard as you can for 10 strokes at a critical time in a race, ie to pass another boat or to cross the finish line…I put together three Power 10 workouts, one for lower body, upper body and abs. The key is to go HARD for 10 minutes and then you’re done.

Here’s what they look like. Do one, two or all three in a row!

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I did the leg one but took it easy and then pushed myself on the other two and was definitely sweating by the end.

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Feb 26^th– Rest day. Apparently even taking it easy on the leg workout wasn’t a good idea. Spent a lot of time with the ice pack.

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Feb 27^th– Did an AWESOME upper body push/pull workout. I’m guest posting on Maddy’s blog today so GO HERE to check out this workout. It’s worth it. I was sore for 2 days.

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Feb 28^th– Rest day. My arms definitely needed a rest and I forced myself to take a second leg rest day.

Feb 29^th– After two solid days of rest, my knee was feeling pretty good, even after taking the dogs on a 2.5 mile walk…so I decided to tackle a treadmill run and see how it went. I put together a fun little 2-4-6-8 run named because the speed increases by .2 mph, then .4mph and so on. Here’s what it looked like:

My knee felt great while running. A few twinges here and there but fine other than that! I followed this sequence until I hit 2 miles. I felt like I could have gone farther but wanted to play it safe. Keep in mind you can adjust the treadmill speeds to fit your needs. I started by decided what I wanted my fastest speed to be and then worked backwards from there!

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March 1st- Put together an ab workout because it’d been away. It’s called 3×4 abs. The concept is 4 different kinds of ab workouts- med ball, plank, stability ball and bodyweight with 3 exercises for each. Here’s what it looked like:

Feel the burn friends 🙂

So there you have it! Tell me about your week of workouts! Any recommendations for stretches to do to help tight hips?

–Lindsay–

Have a Salad

March 1, 2012 by Lindsay 67 Comments

Hi Friends!

Confession time. Prior to this week, I’m not totally certain when the last time I had a salad was.

I know, I know. Bad healthy living blogger right? Well don’t judge me too harshly. I’ve still been getting my veggies:

See? But as far as salads go…not so much. Until this week. Over the weekend, the hubby and I went to our favorite restaurant and I noticed this on the menu:

I really wanted that salad, but I wasn’t in the mood to pay $10 for it, especially when I had all the ingredients at home!

So I’ll give you one guess what we had for dinner the next night?!

Baby Spinach
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Sliced Pears
Diced Red Peppers
Sliced Strawberries
Pecans
Fresh Goat Cheese

And I guarantee this didn’t cost $10.

So don’t be like me and go 2 months without…

Have a salad 🙂

–Lindsay–

PS: Today’s Workout: All Abs. 4 kinds of ab workouts, 3 exercises of each kind

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Foodie Penpals Reveal with Go the Xtra Mile

February 28, 2012 by Lindsay 38 Comments

It’s that time again! Time to recap all of the goodies I got in this month’s Foodie Penpals box!!!

This month I received my box from Brittany @ Go The Xtra Mile! She is totally adorable and just ran her first half marathon this past weekend!

She hooked me up with a delicious box of treats!

The spread (cat not included):

Let me just say that I tried pretty much everything
within 5 min of opening the box!

I send Justin’s nut butter a lot but had never actually tried it! It was fantastic. And that jam is my new favorite. Strawberry rhubarb? Yes please.

I tried this with my lunch and absolutely fell in love. Not something I would have bought on my own, but the flavor was SO GOOD! I love green tea.

I also munched on some of these veggie chips. They were better than I expected and the hubby actually ended up eating most of the bag. He’s already requested that we buy more.

And finally, I requested that she send me some homemade cookies and she did not disappoint!!! These were SO GOOD!

I love her 🙂

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And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals. In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
–Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for March, please send an email to me at [email protected] and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
–WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. – this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!

You must submit your information by March 4th as pairings will be emailed on March 5th!

***PLEASE NOTE: if you send an email, you WILL GET A RESPONSE within 48 hours. If you don”t….please re-send your email or contact me via Twitter (@LeanGrnBeanBlog). Last month we had a few emails get lost as spam so we’re trying to avoid that!

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Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Caramel Apple Bars

February 27, 2012 by Lindsay 54 Comments

Good Morning!

It’s Monday…. Don’t you hate how an especially great weekend makes coming back to reality just that much harder? Well, have no fear. I have something for you that might ease the pain.

Caramel.Apple.Bars.

I know, I know, I told you I don’t like caramel. But I think I may be changing my mind. I started thinking about these as soon as I got this in the mail (free sample- all thoughts and opinions are my own):

I knew the apple cinnamon would be perfect for baking. Confession- I made these 3 times over the weekend trying to get them just right.

The first time, the taste was spot on but they were a little crumbly. The second time they were more bar like, but not sweet enough. Now they’re delicious.

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So there you have it! And as far as dessert goes, these are pretty healthy! Today’s Workout: Pin It

So dig in! Happy Monday friends 🙂
–Lindsay–

Just A Little Roadtrip

February 26, 2012 by Lindsay 25 Comments

On Friday the hubby & I took a little roadtrip. He took the day off work and I skipped class and after taking the dogs to get their nails trimmed, we hit the road! We’d been talking about going to Ikea for months and we finally decided to make it happen! We didn’t have any huge plans to buy anything. In hindsight-this was a mistake. If you’ve never been, Ikea is HUGE and we basically wandered around like lost puppies but it was fun! We picked up a few things but for the most part just went for the experience.

After Ikea, we headed down the road to Jungle Jim’s. It’s pretty much a foodie paradise 🙂

There was mind-blowing amounts of some stuff, like beer & wine, honey, Bob’s Red Mill, and nuts!

Hubby really wanted a keg of draft beer! They’re also known for their restrooms. They’ve disguised the hallway to the restroom as the entrance to a port-a-potty!

We loaded up, mostly on beer and wine, plus a few foodie treats, and headed home.

It was a good day!

What was the last road trip you took?

A workout for you: Do 1, 2 or all 3 for a total body workout. Go hard! it’s only 10 min!

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–Lindsay–

Fitness Friday 11

February 24, 2012 by Lindsay 20 Comments

Hi Friends!

Hard to believe it’s Friday again already! This week I don’t have a ton of workouts developed by ME to share with you, but I still did some good ones!

But first, I have a little video for you. After I posted the paper plate workout last week, and explained that I ran out of time to do the video, several of you asked if I could still make the video to help you visualize the moves. Well, my friends, ask and you shall receive.

Here’s the workout again:

And here’s the video (ps…pretty proud of this video bc i figured out how to edit it and add words!):

And now for this week’s workouts:

Feb 17^th– ran 2 miles outside in 17:20. It seems that 8:40 is a comfortable pace for me to run at for a few miles. I’ll take it! Then I took the dogs on a 2 mile walk.

Feb 18^th– I did a random workout of new to me moves. A compilation of moves I gathered from several different workouts, like this one, this one, this one and this one– among others. I didn’t make a workout to share with you guys because to be honest I wasn’t crazy about what I did. I did a minute of each of the following exercises: Medball slams, side burpees, spiderman pushups, jumping front kicks, skull crushers in bridge position, wide stance burpees, single arm clean and press, decline plank steps, reverse flys, wall climbers.

There were some that I really liked, like the skull crushers in bridge position, side burpees and decline plank steps….but there were some I hated like spiderman pushups and wide stance burpees. The lesson I learned was to incorporate one or two moves that are new to me into a workout instead of trying to do a workout of all new-to-me moves!

Feb 19^th– rest day. Not feeling well.

Feb 20^th– did one round of Tina’s Life’s a Bench workout. Instead of following her reps, I did it for time, 50sec/10sec rest, which took 16 minutes and then and ran 1.5 miles in 12 minutes. Loved the bench workout!

Feb21st– did this tabata workout from Lindsay with no rest between tabatas so it took 20 minutes. This will definitely get your heartrate up! The only subs I made were regular pushups instead of spidermans and line jumps instead of tuck jumps.

Also did a quick ab workout:

Yes you will be feeling the burn by the end!

Feb 22nd– It was still around 50 degrees after work so the hubby and I headed back to the stairs at the dam to get a workout in. Hubby headed off to do his own thing, while I tackled this workout:

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The stairs I used had 98 steps, so I ran them five times, plus 10 additional steps to get my 500. To figure out how many times you need to run your stairs, just divide 500 by the number of steps you have! Do this workout as fast as you can…and then STRETCH!! especially our calves! Use the steps to do your split squats, pushups, dips, squat jumps and plank!

Feb 23rd- Did this workout from Jess @ Blonde Ponytail and it kicked my butt! I made the following changes: I used a workout bench instead of a step platform in set #2. In set #3, I replaced the wood chops with standing russian twists with a med ball and med ball jump-overs. I also used my med ball to do med ball slams instead of sand bag throw-downs.

So there you go! How was your week of workouts? Did you bookmark any good ones?

Happy Weekend!
–Lindsay–

Five Reasons to Volunteer

February 23, 2012 by Lindsay 31 Comments

Hi Friends!

Today I wanted to have a little chat with you about something I feel is super important- volunteering.

When was the last time you volunteered? When was the last time you took some time out of your day to help someone else? To really stop and think about just how lucky you are to have everything that you do?

Thanks to my parents, I started volunteering at a very young age. Every Christmas, my mom would bundle my sister and I up to go ring the bell for The Salvation Army. And every year we would adopt a family to buy Christmas presents for through the red bag program. On the day they were due, we would go help sort them and load them into semi-trucks to be delivered. I’ll never forget the first time we showed up to help sort and I saw 6 semi-trucks lined up in the street. I remember thinking that there couldn’t possibly be that many people that needed help over the holidays.

As I got older, I continued to volunteer at festivals, events and soup kitchens. In high school, I did all sorts of volunteer work for National Honor Society. I won’t say I enjoyed every single minute. Most high schoolers don’t enjoy getting up early on Saturday morning to go pick up trash…but am I glad I did it? Absolutely. Am I glad I formed a group of friends who knew the importance of volunteering and did it with me? For sure.

In college I was part of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program. After we graduated from college, the hubby and I spent several years volunteering weekly at a local animal shelter.

When I went back to school, I started volunteering at places that were more specifically geared towards my interest in food and nutrition. I volunteered at a WIC clinic and I spent time at LifeCare Alliance working with their Senior Farmer’s Market and Meals on Wheels programs. I volunteer with Local Matters and will soon begin teaching Cooking Matters classes. I also volunteer weekly at a choice food pantry.

Although it may seem like it so far, this post is not about me touting what an awesome person I am, or searching for compliments. I just wanted to show you that it’s an important part of my life, and that it can be done, even if you have a busy schedule like I do. The purpose of this post is to encourage each and every one of you to spend some time volunteering this year.

And here’s why:

Five Reasons to Volunteer

It shows you care about others.
When you’re applying for college or for a job, people are going to look to see whether you give back to your community. It shows that you understand there are people out there that need your help, and more importantly than just understanding, it shows that you’re willing to get out there and do something about it- to try to make a difference in someone’s life.
There’s a huge need.
There are SO MANY amazing organizations out there that are working tirelessly to help those in need. But they can’t do it without the help of volunteers. The food pantry I volunteer at is open 3 days a week for 8 hours each day. It takes at least 20 volunteers each day in order for them to be able to stay open for the full amount of time, have things run smoothly and even come close to meeting the demand of the community. That’s 60 volunteers a week that are needed for just one of the many volunteer opportunities in Columbus.
You can do what you love while helping others.
There are literally thousands of different ways you can volunteer. If you’re not lucky enough to work at a job that embodies your true passions, volunteering is the perfect chance to do what you love for the benefit of others! If you like kids, become a Big Brother/Big Sister or a Court Appointed Service Advocate. If you like the elderly, volunteer to help senior citizens do their grocery shopping or go spend some time at a retirement home. If you like to build things, help build a house with Habitat for Humanity…. If you’re not a people person, find an agency that needs help with data entry or stuffing envelopes. And remember that sometimes the tasks that seem the most mundane are the most important. I’ve spent many hours filing papers or pulling charts, not because I especially love filing, but because I love the organizations and the work that they’re doing and I know that sometimes, those areas are the ones where they need the most help, in order for them to keep helping people. Think about where you passions lie, and then find an organization that needs your time and assistance.
Someone will always be grateful for your time.
There’s no amount of time too small when it comes to volunteering. If you only have 2 hours a month, they’ll take it. If you can only commit to one event a year? They’ll say “yes please!” Never, ever think that just because you can’t make a weekly, or even a monthly, commitment that your time isn’t valuable or that volunteering won’t be worth it. JUST GO DO IT!
If you let it, it can change your life.
Go into each experience with a positive attitude, an open mind and an open heart. Sometimes you might feel overwhelmed by your busy schedule or question whether you’re really making a difference, but when you get a hug from someone at the food pantry and they tell you they wouldn’t have had anything to feed their kids that night without your help, or you get smothered in puppy kisses from a dog who is so grateful for a walk because he spends 23 hours a day in a cage at the shelter, or you wake up Christmas morning knowing that somewhere out there, a couple of kids are have present under the tree because of you, IT’S ALL WORTH IT. Volunteering will humble you. It will teach you compassion. It will make you so, so grateful for everything you have in your life. But beyond that, it’s a way to give back. It’s a way to help others and pay it forward…because you just never know when you might need a little help of your own.

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I wanted to do a little local spotlight here and give you guys a peek at one of my favorite places to volunteer here in Columbus. I’ve always been drawn to volunteering at food pantries, and they’ve come a long way since I was little. Now, lots of pantries are Choice Food Pantries, which basically means that the clients get to choose what they want, within certain limits, instead of just being handed a bag of food.

The Mid-Ohio Food Bank, which does incredible work here in Central Ohio, recently opened their very own Choice Food Pantry and it is AMAZING. It’s by far the nicest one I’ve ever volunteered at and it’s paving the way for providing healthy, fresh and even local food to the community.

The first time I volunteered at this pantry I was literally blown away by the number of healthy options this pantry has for its clients. I am so happy to see food pantries evolving to provide people with healthy options instead of just canned peas and corn- the traditional food pantry stereotype.

I went a little picture crazy but I really wanted to show you guys some of the things I was impressed by!

I loved all the healthy cereals I saw. The heart-healthy kinds definitely outnumbered the sugary kinds. There were whole wheat pasta options, canned fruit that was unsweetened or in lite syrup and tons of bread- oatnut bread, whole wheat bread, high fiber bread….

One of my favorite parts about the pantry is that they have a “take what you can use” policy for fresh fruits and vegetables and bread. Clients take basically take as many fresh fruits and veggies as they want, as long as they think they can use them. Also, clients can only make a full trip to the pantry 2x per month, but they can come back as many times as they want for fresh produce and bread! How cool is that?! Each week they have different produce but so far i’ve seen things like oranges, apples, pears, kiwis, bananas, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, collard greens, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, potatoes, onions…

The refrigerated cases also impressed me! I saw Greek yogurt, which I never would have expected, locally produced milk and even hummus! I love being able to tell clients how awesome greek yogurt and hummus are and then being able to give them some to try for themselves!

They have a few other cool things too, including recipe suggestions placed around the pantry that clients can take home, My Plate signs to help people learn what food groups they are choosing and they even have reusable shopping bags that were donated!

I look forward to going to volunteer at the pantry every week. Seeing how grateful the clients are at the amount of food we’re able to provide for them is so awesome!

So my challenge to you is to spend a little time this weekend looking at volunteer opportunities in your community. Grab your family, grab some friends, even some co-workers and head out to do a little good for others! Then come back and tell me all about it!

Tell me…do you volunteer? If so, where’s your favorite place to volunteer? If not, have I inspired you??

–Lindsay–

Healthy Blueberry Scones

February 21, 2012 by Lindsay 62 Comments

Hi Friends!

Just popping in for a minute to share a recipe that’s been a long time coming. I actually can’t believe I haven’t shared it with you yet! It’s been my favorite scone recipe for about 10 years now.

And I know I’ve promised to post it several times recently, so here it is! I like it because it’s fairly healthy. There isn’t a ton of butter or sugar, and greek yogurt adds some protein.

Healthy Blueberry Scones

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 14 min

Ingredients (12 scones)

2 c white whole wheat flour (or AP, or 1/2 white-1/2 wheat)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c sugar
6 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into pieces
1 c bluberries
1 c vanilla Greek yogurt
1 egg

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.

Add the butter and use a pastry blender, or two knives, to cut in until it resembles small peas.

Stir in the berries.

In a small bowl, mix together the egg and yogurt.

Stir the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Dump the dough onto a work surface and “knead” 3-4 times.

Pat into a circle about 1/2 an inch thick.

Cut into 12 wedges and transfer to a baking sheet.

Sprinkle the tops with a pinch of sugar and bake 12-14 minutes.

Notes:
-If you use all white whole wheat flour, you might need to add an extra dollop of yogurt or a splash of milk because it absorbs more liquid than AP flour. I’ve found 1/2 and 1/2 works best.
-These are very moist. Eat them within a few days or they may get moldy. This is never a problem in my house 🙂

Annnnnd voila!

One thing to note about these scones is the dough. It will be SUPER crumbly when you dump it out on to the workspace. And it will be sticky! That’s ok. Just do your best to “knead” it a few times and then after you press it into a circle and cut it, use your fingers to kind of smoosh the crumbly edges together on each wedge. And don’t worry if there’s a little extra flour in your bowl that doesn’t get used!

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PS…after having my Nikon for 4 years, I finally learned how to change the settings in manual mode! SO, bear with me while I practice and learn 🙂 PPS. Don’t forget to check out this week’s Tuesday Trainer. This week’s theme is Animal-Inspired moves and I did the crocodile walk!

Enjoy! –Lindsay– PS. Here’s the ab workout I did today:

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A Heart Healthy Dinner Party

February 20, 2012 by Lindsay 57 Comments

Hi Friends!

Happy Monday 🙂 Over the weekend we had some friends over for a dinner party. But not just any dinner party! Thanks to the lovely folks over at Eggland’s Best, we were able to host an EB Mine Brinner party to help promote February as National Heart Health month! (*I received a free package of Eggland’s Best goodies as well a gift card to help me with the groceries for the Brinner party but I hosted this party because I believe strongly in the importance in raising awareness in the importance of heart health.)

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death among men and women in the United States. However, there are simple steps you can take to help reduce your risk, including proper nutrition and daily exercise. These lifestyle changes, along with not smoking can help cut your odds of having a heart attack by 92% (Source: Woman’s Day, February 2012).
Eggs can be incorporated into a heart-healthy diet, and are one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. Eggland’s Best eggs contain less cholesterol than ordinary eggs, as well as more than 2X the heart healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, 2X more Vitamin D, and 10X more Vitamin E, a vitamin associated with reducing the risk of heart disease.

So here’s the deal. We all know I LOVE breakfast. And I LOVE eggs. Egg sandwiches are pretty much a staple in my lunch-time rotation, scrambled eggs make an appearance pretty much every weekend and the hubby and I actually eat brinner fairly often.

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Due to the fact that last week was one of the craziest off my life, I didn’t actually start planning this party until Friday afternoon. The thing about me and planning parties is that I tend to get a little over zealous. And I make A LOT of lists. Since I was in a bit of a time crunch, I turned to my fellow bloggers for some inspiration when I was making my list of healthy egg dishes.

First, let’s start with what I didn’t have a chance to make. These are dishes that sounded fantastic, but I either didn’t have enough people coming, enough ovens, or enough arms to make them all. In case you’ve never tried, it’s difficult to plan a party that involves several egg dished that all need to be cooked and done at the same time!

So, here’s some great egg recipes for you to check out that are still on my to try:

Poached Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce from Cat @ Breakfast to Bed
Fried Eggs in Bell Pepper Rings
Baked Eggs in Bread Bowls from Sarah @ Baking Serendipity
Peach Dutch Baby Pancake from Brandi @ Bran Appetit
Spinach & Feta Wonton Quiche Cups from Jenn @ Peas and Crayons

Those look pretty good right? I bet you’re wondering what exactly I did make? Well, let’s take a look at the menu:

The Lean Green Bean Brinner Party

Deviled Eggs
Avocado & Egg Salad Sliders
Mixed Berry Baked French Toast
Sausage, Egg & Vegetable Breakfast Casserole
Veggie Egg Muffins
Bean & Veggie Breakfast Burritos w/ Ranchero Sauce
Fruit Salad
Orange Juice & Cocktails

Let’s take a closer look shall we? Like I said, it started with a lot of lists…and LOTS of eggs.

I got up Saturday morning and got to work. I started with the French Toast because it typically sits overnight. I used this recipe from Taste of Home. I prepped the bread and let it sit all day. I decided to cook this first because I knew it would reheat a little better, if necessary, than the dishes that were more egg heavy like the casserole. Our guests came at 7:00pm, so I popped this in the oven at 5:30 and cooked it for 1/2 an hour. Then I took it out, added the berry topping and baked it for another 15 minutes. I stored it in an insulated bag and it was still nice and warm by the time we ate, about an hour later.

Next I tackled the cold dishes. I wanted to chose a few dishes that didn’t need to be baked/require the oven. I had coupons for pre-cooked and peeled eggs but couldn’t find them at my grocery store, so I pulled out my pressure cooker and got to work.

I made my first ever deviled eggs using this recipe from Anne @ Fannetastic Food. This recipe swaps greek yogurt for the mayo, an easy swap to make these more heart healthy. I was a little nervous about making these because I don’t eat them and really had no idea what they were supposed to taste like. Plus I only had spicy brown mustard instead of dijon. But they were all gone at the end of the night so I guess they were good 🙂 I made them in the morning and then just sprinkled on the paprika right before everyone came!

I used the rest of the hard-boiled eggs to make egg salad, another thing I don’t eat. I knew I wanted to add some avocado to make these even more heart-healthy so I was excited when I found this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I halved the recipe, left out the chives and swapped greek yogurt for the mayo…then I served it on slider buns. I made the eg salad ahead of time. I was nervous about the avocado browning but since there was vinegar in the recipe I figured it would be ok. And it was! Then I just spooned them onto buns right before serving.

While I was cooking, the boys had a little playtime with this fun little egg toy…It’s their new fav.

Next up, I prepped the breakfast casserole. I used this recipe from Taste of Home and used Morningstar Breakfast Sausage. It was my first time buying the pre-shredded hash browns and they worked out really well. I bought the plain kind because they were very low sodium. I assembled the whole casserole and stuck it in the fridge. In the evening, after the french toast was cooked, I popped this casserole in and it finished cooking right around 7:15 when people started arriving.

Next up, I made the egg muffins. I followed this recipe from Amy @ The Scene From Me. I’ve made these before and they were a hit with the hubby. This time, I left the sausage out and just used veggies and cheese (1/2 feta, 1/2 cheddar). They’re a great, healthy breakfast that can be made ahead of time and re-heated throughout the week, or even frozen and eaten later. I put these in the oven last, right when people started eating and they were ready just in time for the people who came back for seconds.

The last thing I made was breakfast burritos. They were inspired by this recipe from Katie @ Yes I Want Cake. I left out the potatoes and bacon and just used black beans, veggies and eggs, plus some avocado, tomatoes and cheese. I started cooking these around 6:30 and assembled them all and wrapped them in foil to keep them warm.

I also whipped up some of this Ranchero Sauce from Janetha @ Meals and Moves for people to top the burritos with. I used 1 poblano pepper, a can of hot, diced jalapenos and only 1 Tbsp butter.

EB also sent me coupons to give away to my guests. They were a huge hit! We all like our eggs 🙂

I also made a HUGE fruit salad for everyone to enjoy on the side.

And our friends brought the cocktails!

So there you go! A full party recap. In case you didn’t pick up on it, everything at the party was totally vegetarian! And I’m happy to say that all the dishes were a hit, even with my meat-loving friends!!!! Hopefully this inspired you to try a few new healthy egg recipes!

And guess what…EB has offered to send one reader the same package of goodies I got.

It includes:

2 Free EB Dozen coupons (Any variety- classic, cage-free, or organic)
1 Free EB Hard Cooked and Peeled variety coupon
1 EB Apron
1 EB Spatula
1 EB Whisk
1 EB Cutting Board
1 EB Mixing Bowl
1 EB Bowl Scraper
1 EB Coffee Mug
1 Plush Egg
1 EB Tote Bag

Wanna win? Just leave a comment telling me your favorite heart-healthy egg dish! I’ll choose a winner randomly tomorrow night. Giveaway ends Tuesday Feb 21st at 10pm EST.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Fitness Friday 10

February 17, 2012 by Lindsay 26 Comments

Hi Friends!

Time for another Fitness Friday!

Not much time for chitchat today since I’m writing this post in a hurry/I should be studying. I hope you all had an awesome week of workouts!! Let’s take a look at what I did:

Feb 10^th– rest day

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Feb 11^th– A couple of weeks ago at the grocery store I bought a pack of paper plates so I could try out a paper plate workout. I did some research on some of the moves you could do and put together my own workout! The plan was to make a video of the moves to show you, but this week was a bit CRAZY…so it didn’t happen.

Here’s what it looked like:

You can google these exercises but they’re pretty self explanatory.

Reverse lunges: Put one foot on a paper plate and slide back into a lunge.
Hamstring bridge slides: Lay on your back, raise your butt in the air and put one foot on a paper plate. Slide the plate in towards your butt and out away from use, using your hamstrings to do most of the work.
Mountain Climbers: Just like regular ones except instead of lifting your feet off the ground, keep each foot on a paper plate and slide your feet in and out.
Plank Leg Cross-Thru: Get in plank position (arms straight). Put one foot on a paper plate and bend your leg slightly to move it just a bit in front of your other let. Slide the foot on the plate in front of your other foot (and under your body) then switch directions and move it out to the side away from you.
Plank Arm Circles: In straight arm plank position, place one hand on a paper plate. Use your shoulder muscles to move the plate in a circle.
Side to Side Shuffles: Put each foot on a paper plate. Slide your feet along the floor on the plates as you shuffle three times in one direction, then reverse and shuffle back.
Curtsy Lunges: Put one foot on a paper plate and slide it diagonally behind you, bend at the knee into a lunge position as if doing a curtsy
Seated Side Lat Pull: Sit with your feet tucked to the side of your legs. Place the hand on the side you’re leaning towards on a paper plate. Slide it out and then back in, using the other hand for balance and using your lat muscles to pull you back to your starting position.
Plank Jacks: Just like normal except instead of jumping your feet in and out, slide them in and out on paper plates.
Side Lunges: Just like normal except instead of stepping out to one side, put your foot on a plate and slide out before bending down inton a lunge position.
Plank Knee Tucks: Get in plank position (straight arms). Put each foot on a paper plate. Slide one foot in, bringing the knee toward the opposite elbow.
Arm Crawls: Place each foot on a paper plate. Get in straight arm plank position. Pull yourself across the floor with your arms, letting your feet slide behind you on the plates.

I loved this workout. I worked up quite a sweat and could really feel my thighs working!

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Feb 12^th– It’d been a while since I did a good tabata so I put one together that was all legs and by the end I was FEELIN THE BURN! One of my favs so far!

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Feb 13^th– Put together another fun workout that revolved around burpees. This was a real challenge for me because I hate burpees 🙂 Plus I was pretty sore from the previous two workouts this week!

I was DEFINITELY ready to be done by the end of the 4th circuit!

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Feb 14th– Rest day!

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Feb 15th– Hubby got me a med ball for Valentine’s day so I put together a workout to test it out.

My abs and shoulders were definitely feeling the burn on this one. If this is too hard for you, you could easily just do it one time through, or drop the reps down to 25 instead of 50!

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Feb 16th- Rest day. Lately I’ve been taking my rest days on Tuesdays and Fridays and it’s been working out well….but this week I did a little rearranging and took my second rest day on Thursday so I could study.

So there you have it. Feel free to pin these to save them for later, and let me know if you give any of them a try!!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Lightened Up Caramel Apples

February 14, 2012 by Lindsay 40 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day friends 🙂

I hope you get to enjoy some time with your loved ones tonight!

I made you a little dessert. A fun spin on the traditional calorie-laden caramel apple. You know, like the ones from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory?

Last week, my friends at Stonyfield sent me a fun little valentine’s day package! *Free sample. All opinions are my own.

That’s right…caramel and chocolate flavored Greek Yogurt!

Whenever I think of caramel, I think of caramel apples, even though I don’t really ever eat them. To be honest, I’m not the biggest caramel fan….so I wasn’t actually sure that I was going to like this little dessert I whipped up for myself! But I kept an open mind, and it turns out I loved it!

Here’s how it went down:

One of my favorite go-to “desserts”, (especially right after I graduated from college-I made these all.the.time) is sauteed cinnamon apples. All I do is slice an apple up into really thin slices, put them in a saucepan with a little bit of water and some cinnamon and saute them until they’re nice and soft.

I usually top the slices with a little bit of vanilla ice cream or yogurt, but last night I got the brilliant idea to add the caramel yogurt!!

Let me just say….YUM! I liked this yogurt way better than I thought I would. The caramel flavor wasn’t too strong, but was still definitely present and it paired perfectly with the apples! Add a few chocolate chips and you’ve got yourself a pretty tasty little treat – that won’t undo all your hard work at the gym!

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Speaking of the gym, don’t forget to hop on over to Lindsay’s blog and check out today’s Tuesday Trainer! Today’s theme is partner moves!

Today’s workout: Put together a workout that involved a lot of burpees! A challenge for me because I hate burpees: Pin It

I was definitely ready to be done by the 4th round!

Enjoy!

–Lindsay–

Healthy Breakfast Bars

February 13, 2012 by Lindsay 30 Comments

Hi Guys!

It’s Monday, and boy do I have a treat for you! Have you ever baked something and had it turn out so well that it just makes you kinda ridiculously happy? That’s how I feel about these. I feel like I’ve been in a little bit of a cooking rut lately, makings some things that are edible, some things that are good, but nothing GREAT. Well let me tell you, I’ve definitely busted out of that rut with these….and it brought a big smile to my face 🙂

Let’s back up…Over the weekend I whipped up some breakfast/snack bars using my new favorite ingredient- chickpea flour! I made a small batch because I wasn’t sure how they would turn out…but I loved them! You can’t tell there’s chickpea flour in them at all. I’m so excited to share them with you guys. I used my Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars as a starting point…but I wanted to make them healthier, and I didn’t have any pumpkin so I had to work around that.

These are gluten free as long as you use oats that are, and can easily be made vegan if you use a flax egg!

Healthy Breakfast Bars

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Keywords: bake breakfast snack healthy vegetarian low-sodium banana chickpeas cranberry peanut butter

Ingredients (12 bars)

1 c garbanzo bean flour
1 c oats
1/2 c oat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 c natural peanut nutter
1/2 c brown rice syrup
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1 c mashed banana
1/2 c chocolate chips
1/2 c dried cranberries

Instructions

Mix wet ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.

Add dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Stir in the cranberries and chocolate chips.

Pour mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 375 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes.

These bars are moist and delicious and packed with protein and fiber! You can customize them by adding different kinds of dried fruit, leaving out the chocolate chips or you could try subbing pumpkin or applesauce for the mashed banana! Also, when I first tested these I made a quarter batch, so this recipe can easily be halved or quartered. They could also be baked in a variety of different sized pans to get your desired thickness.

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I plugged this recipe into sparkpeople because I was curious about the nutrition facts and look what popped out:

I was so pumped to see so much fiber and protein in them. The sugar is a little high, but some of it is natural from the banana, and if you left out the chocolate chips and used an unsweetened dried fruit instead of craisins it would be lower.

So there you have it. My new favorite morning snack 🙂

Today’s workout:

t’d been a while since I did a good tabata so I put one together that was all legs and by the end I was FEELIN THE BURN! One of my favs so far!

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Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Fitness Friday 9

February 10, 2012 by Lindsay 16 Comments

Hi Friends!

Happy Friday 🙂 Time for another week of workouts!

Gosh I love Fridays 🙂 I’ve got some good workouts to share with you today! My favorite this week was the Fast 4 & Core so be sure to check that one out!

Let’s get started shall we?

Feb 3^rd– Rev & Recover Tabata Workout
I kept the tabatas simple with only 2 exercises for each one. Tabatas 1 & 2 and 4 & 5 will rev up your heart rate and get you breathing hard. Tabatas 3 & 6 let you actively recover with tabatas geared towards ab exercise.

I liked this tabata because it was quick, but still got me sweating. I did 20 sec of work/10 sec rest eight times total per tabata so each exercise was done 4 times. It took 24 minutes with no rest between tabatas.

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Feb 4^th– I put together a stability ball workout with cardio blasts. Each exercise was done for 50 sec. followed by 10 sec rest. This took 20 minutes, followed by an optional 5 minute ab workout that could be done once or twice.

If you’re not sure how to do any of these exercises using a stability ball, just google them! There are tons of videos out there to show you, but here’s a quick run down:

One legged squats– place the ball between your back and a wall. Stand on one leg and squat down. The ball will roll down the wall with you.
Seated shoulder press- Sit on the stability ball and do shoulder presses like normal
Hamstring curl– Lay on the floor and place one foot on top of the ball. Roll the ball towards you using your hamstring and then roll it back out.
Chest press– Place your feet on the floor and your upper back on the ball. Perform chest press like normal.
One Legged Wall Sit- Place the stability ball between your back and the wall. Stand on one leg and roll down the wall until your leg is in a seated position. Hold.
Seated lateral raises– Sit on the stability ball and perform lateral raises as usual
Split squat– Put one foot, laces down on the top of the stability ball. Stretch your front leg out to a lunge position. Squat up and down.
Decline pushups– Put your feet on the stability ball and your hands on the ground and do pushups.

Abs:
Oblique lifts– google this one
Incline plank– Do a plank but put your forearms on the stability ball and keep your feet on the floor
Knee tucks– put your hands on the floor and your legs on the stability ball. Pull your knees towards your stomach, rolling the ball in with them and back out
Crunches– lay with your back on the stability ball and your feet on the floor and perform crunches like normal

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Feb 5^th– Wanted to push myself with running and do some core work so this is what I put together:

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This speed was crazy fast for me. It’s basically a 7:45 min mile, and you end up running just over ½ a mile…then ab work…and repeat. I covered 2.08 miles.

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Feb 6^th– I did this workout– still one of my all-time favs. Kills me every time. I used 15# dbs and it took me 23 minutes.

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Feb 7^th-rest day for me, but hubby made himself a little 100 workout so I thought I’d share it with you!

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Feb 8^th– My legs were a little tired still, even after my rest day but I wanted to do a bit of running. I also knew I needed to do some upper body lifting. I’m notorious for avoiding pretty much all upper body weights except shoulder presses…but I’m working on it! I put together a 3 mile decrease run, where the miles are broken up by upper body exercises and each mile, you decrease the amount you run and increase the amount you walk.

I used my goal speeds from my 8 min miles workout and finally got it dead on! If you run alternating 8.6 and 6.6 mph you will finish a mile in exactly 8 min.

With those treadmill speeds you’ll finish the first mile in 8 minutes, the second in 9:20 and the third in 10:40. You can make it more challenging my increasing the incline during the walking portions. For the lifting I used 10# dbs for everything except the tricep ext where I used one 15#.

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Feb 9th- I wanted to tackle some leg work, so I chose some exercises that worked the quads and some that worked the hamstrings and glutes (hence the front/back workout name). Then I threw some abs for good measure! Here’s what it looked like:

I used 15# dbs for most of the leg exercises. The hardest part for me? Two full minutes of side plank dips! Yikes!

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So there you go friends 🙂 Any of these look like fun to you?? Now it’s your turn. Tell me about the best workout you did this week?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Sweet Potato Falafel

February 9, 2012 by Lindsay 62 Comments

Hi Friends!

So here’s the deal. I’ve only actually had falafel like twice…ever. So i’m no expert.

But we all know that I am immediately sucked in to any recipe with sweet potato in the title. When I first discovered Allie’s blog a few months ago, the first recipe of hers that I noticed was her Sweet Potato Falafel. I immediately wanted to make them…however I was forced to wait a while because I had no idea that most falafel recipes call for chickpea flour, not just canned chickpeas.

I tried to make my own chickpea flour with some dry chickpeas I had. I put them in the food processor and OMG was it loud. Worst noise ever. It hurt my eardrums terribly, and barely made a dent in breaking up the chickpeas in to flour.

Then I tried two different grocery stores and neither of them had the flour. I complained to the hubby and he told me he was going to put me on WhiteWhine.com. Have you heard of this website. HILARIOUS. Go check it out. It’s basically just a collection of ridiculous complaints from overpriveledged white people.

ANYWAYS, third times a charm I guess…because I located my flour and immediately got to work on these falafels.

I made some changes to the recipe so below is the one I used. I cut down on the sweet potato cooking time by microwaving almost all the way and then baking for just 10 minutes for flavor. I also didn’t wait for the dough to cool before scooping and baking like a lot of recipes said to do.

Sweet Potato Falafel

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Keywords: bake appetizer entree sandwich healthy low-sodium vegetarian sweet potato chickpeas Greek Mediterranean

Ingredients (12 falafels)

For the Falafel

2 medium sweet potatoes
1 c chickpea flour
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c pepitas, pulsed several times in a food processor
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 Tbsp EVOO

For the Tzatziki sauce

1/2 c plain, non-fat greek yogurt
1/4 of a cucumber, shredded and squeezed of excess moisture
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp EVOO
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice

For assembly

avocado slices
red pepper slices
spinach
cucumber slices
pitas

Instructions

For the Falafel

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Stab the sweet potatoes all over with a knife and microwave on high for six minutes, turning once.

Remove from microwave and bake in the oven for an additional 10 minutes (This helps them get the oven baked taste without all the time).

In a small bowl, combine the garlic, pepitas, spices and chickpea flour.

When the sweet potatoes are done, slice in half lengthwise and scoop the flesh into the bowl.

Mix well and add the lemon juice and olive oil.

Stir until combined- mixture will be thick, like cookie dough.

Scoop dough onto cookie sheet. Use a fork to flatten each ball.

Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees F and bake for 14 minutes, flipping once 1/2 way through.

For the sauce

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and let sit for at least 15 minutes

To assemble

Stuff half a pita with spinach, 2 falafels, red pepper slices and avocado. Top with tzatziki sauce.

The verdict? These were really good! They are a bit on the dry side (not totally sure if most falafels are like that or not) but I found that with the red peppers, avocado and sauce, there was plenty of moisture so they didn’t taste dry at all….and the flavor was great. (Side note, we ate the leftovers the next night and they were just as good) I’m just saying if you were to just pick up a falafel by itself and munch on it, it might be a little dry 🙂 If you’re worried about it, you could maybe add a little greek yogurt to the falafel dough to moisten it…or an egg. Pin It

So there you have it friends! The recipe for the sauce made just enough for us and it’s about 1/3 the amounts of some of the recipes I looked at. I also left out the dill that appears to be traditional because I hate dill 🙂 How do you feel about falafel? Today’s workout: I wanted to tackle some leg work so I chose some exercises that worked the quads and some that worked the hamstrings and glutes (hence the front/back title). Then I threw some abs in there for good measure 🙂 Here’s what it looked like: Pin It
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Black Bean, Shrimp & Avocado Rollups

February 7, 2012 by Lindsay 40 Comments

Hi friends!

A couple of months ago, the hubby and I were back in our college town and we ordered an appetizer at one of the bars while we waited for a table to open up at the restaurant down the street. We ordered some black bean and avocado egg roll type things. They were really good, but they were fried- not my favorite…so when hubby suggested I recreate them at home, I immediately made a note in my phone.

Then I promptly forgot about them for several weeks. The other day I came upon the note in my phone and decided to give them a whirl at home.I changed them up a little bit by adding shrimp. I used wonton wrappers and baked them instead of frying.

These were super easy to make, have very few ingredients and were a big hit with the hubby! They’d make a great party appetizer and are a fun alternative to chips and dip.

So here’s what you do:

Black Bean, Shrimp & Avocado Rollups

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 12 min

Keywords: bake appetizer healthy vegetarian black beans avocado shrimp

Ingredients (15-20 rollups)

1 large avocado
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 c black beans
1/4 lb shrimp, raw
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
20 wonton wrappers
salsa

Instructions

In a small saucepan, heat some EVOO over medium-high heat.

Saute the onion, garlic and shrimp until the shrimp is cooked through.

Dice the shrimp mixture (you should have about 1/2 a cup) and let cool.

Mash the avocado in a small bowl. Add the lemon juice, black beans, cayenne pepper and shrimp and stir until well combined.

Place one tablespoon of filling into a wonton wrapper. Fold in two of the sides, then roll up from one of the unfolded ends and place on a baking sheet, with them seam down.

Mist with cooking spray, sprinkle with paprika if desired and bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes until wontons are golden brown.

Serve with salsa.

The hubby suggested that these could also be made in tortillas and then sliced. We’re going to try that next time.

What’s your favorite non-traditional party appetizer?

Workout:

Wanted to push myself with running and do some core work so this is what I put together:

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This speed was crazy fast for me. It’s basically a 7:45 min mile, and you end up running just over ½ a mile…then ab work…and repeat. I covered 2.08 miles.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Cilantro & Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

February 6, 2012 by Lindsay 39 Comments

Hi Friends!

It’s been a while, but it’s time for another Secret Recipe Club post!

This month I was assigned to Katherine’s blog: Katherine Martinelli. She has a beautiful blog and takes amazing photos. I drooled over pretty much everything, and after much deliberation I finally decided I was so intrigued by her Cilantro Pesto that I had to give it a try!

A few weeks ago, I was tweeting with Lauren and she was telling me how much she loved this roasted red pepper pesto! I was immediately in love and bookmarked the recipe. When I decided to make this cilantro pesto, I thought it’d be the perfect time to add in a roasted red pepper to it to tone down the cilantro a little.

So I made a few changes to Katherine’s recipe. I used almonds instead of pine nuts because I had them on hand, added a red pepper, decreased the oil and didn’t use any cheese!

Cilantro & Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

by Lindsay L

Prep Time: 5 min

Keywords: food processor healthy vegetarian red pepper cilantro

Ingredients (1/2 cup)

1 roasted red pepper, skin & seeds removed
1/3 raw almonds
2 cups cilantro leaves
4 cloves garlic
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
parmesan cheese if desired

Instructions

Place the almonds and garlic in a food processor and pulse several times.

Add the cilantro and red pepper and process until smooth.

Slowly pour in the olive oil and process until well blended.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freeze.

It turned out really well! I served in on some salmon but i’m putting the rest in the freezer for the next time I feel like making some bruschetta….and i’ll use the rest to make some pesto pasta. YUM!

Thanks to Katherine for the inspiration!

Weekend Workout- Saturday:

I put together a stability ball workout with cardio blasts. Each exercise was done for 50 sec. followed by 10 sec rest. This took 20 minutes, followed by an optional 5 minute ab workout that could be done once or twice.

Pin It
If you’re not sure how to do any of these exercises using a stability ball, just google them! There are tons of videos out there to show you, but here’s a quick run down: One legged squats- place the ball between your back and a wall. Stand on one leg and squat down. The ball will roll down the wall with you. Seated shoulder press- Sit on the stability ball and do shoulder presses like normal Hamstring curl- Lay on the floor and place one foot on top of the ball. Roll the ball towards you using your hamstring and then roll it back out. Chest press: Place your feet on the floor and your upper back on the ball. Perform chest press like normal. One Legged Wall Sit- Place the stability ball between your back and the wall. Stand on one leg and roll down the wall until your leg is in a seated position. Hold. Seated lateral raises- Sit on the stability ball and perform lateral raises as usual Split squat- Put one foot, laces down on the top of the stability ball. Stretch your front leg out to a lunge position. Squat up and down. Decline pushups- Put your feet on the stability ball and your hands on the ground and do pushups. Abs: Oblique lifts- google this one Incline plank- Do a plank but put your forearms on the stability ball and keep your feet on the floor Knee tucks- put your hands on the floor and your legs on the stability ball. Pull your knees towards your stomach, rolling the ball in with them and back out Crunches- lay with your back on the stability ball and your feet on the floor and perform crunches like normal Enjoy! –Lindsay–

What’s in a Jean Size

February 1, 2012 by Lindsay 83 Comments

Hi Friends!

I’ve been thinking about something for the past week or so and it just doesn’t seem to want to get out of my head, so I’m writing about it.

{This is funny because clearly I was not having
any deep thoughts in this picture}

ANYWAYS…last week, one of my fellow Fitfluential Ambassadors asked people to submit a picture of themselves wearing a pair of jeans that make them feel great about themselves. I didn’t…mainly because I was feeling lazy…but I think that’s what started this whole thought process.

I started thinking about the pairs of jeans I own. I think I have 4 pairs. 2 pairs of what used to be my favorite pair with the flare legs. Yep, exactly same pair, bought about 2 years apart…so one’s old and one’s new. And two pairs of my new favorite pair of skinny jeans. Yep, again, same exact pair, just one old and one new.

I held out on buying skinny jeans for a long time. I have big legs, always have, probably always will, namely big thighs…and I was convinced skinny jeans just weren’t for me. So, a few months ago when I finally got up the courage to even try some on…it was a big day. This particular pair wasn’t great…BUT they weren’t horrible…I was surprised and I decided to keep looking. A few weeks later, I tried on another pair and they were AWESOME. They weren’t the infamous jeggings…they were actual jeans…just with a skinny ankle opening…HUGE change from the flare legged jeans I’d been wearing for oh, approximately the last 15 years. So I bought them.

And I’ve pretty much been wearing them non-stop. I think I like them because they remind me of the leggings I’d rather be wearing…but they’re jeans….so they’re more appropriate in most situations 🙂 I’m especially loving that they fit so nicely in my winter boots and that I no longer have to deal with stuffing my bunchy flare legged jeans into them, which i’ve been doing for oh, approximately the last 15 years.

Anyways, so here’s what happened. The other day it was pretty nice out (read: dry, with no snow) so I decided I would wear my tennis shoes to class, instead of my boots. Along with that decision, I decided that since I’d been wearing my skinny jeans for the past however many days in a row, that today might be a good day to pull out the old flare legged pair. Here’s me wearing the flare back in April.

And you know what? They didn’t fit. Well, they fit. I could still button them, they weren’t too tight in the waist, but I spent the next several hours being super uncomfortable. Since I started working out, my legs have changed a little bit…I’ve gained some muscle. And when I put on my old pair of jeans, ie the pair I hadn’t really worn since I started working out, they didn’t fit right. They were tighter in my hips and thighs but still fit in the waist. I was constantly tugging on the sides and squatting to try to stretch them out, yet pulling them up at the waist.

And it was miserable. I knew they still looked ok. I could see myself in the mirror and I know that anyone else who saw me wasn’t going “omg look at how terribly her jeans fit”…but I wasn’t comfortable. I started thinking I must’ve gained weight since the jeans were tighter in some places…even though I KNEW it was muscle I’d gained. It’s still hard to avoid those negative thoughts.

Later that day, as I came home from class, I remembered that the hubby and I had a college alumni event to go to that evening. I wasn’t really in the mood. I was feeling a little down in the dumps…but hubby was excited about going. So here’s what I did: I got my hair wet and restyled it from the messy high ponytail it had been in all day. I put on a new shirt that I know fits my body that way it is now, and I put on my skinny jeans and my favorite pair of boots. And you know what?

I felt like a million bucks. I was comfortable and I didn’t tug at my jeans a single time during the night.

When I got home, I looked at the size on both pairs of jeans…just for kicks. And you know what? The skinny jeans were a size smaller. I realized that the two pairs of jeans represented two different stages of my life. One pair fits how I used to be, and one pair fits how I am now. And you know what? That’s ok. It would have been ok if they were the same size, or even if the skinny jeans were a bigger size. Who cares?! They look better, they feel better…why should it matter what size they are.

It got me thinking about why clothing size really matters. Do you think people’s body confidence would increase if jean were sized via random letters in non-alphabetical order instead of increasing numerical numbers? Would people care less about what size they wore if they couldn’t compare their size C jeans to another girl’s size K jeans? Versus comparing their size 10 to another’s size 4?

Clearly size is irrelevant anyways if I can have two pairs of jeans and the the bigger ones feel too tight. Size is just a number, and it irritates me when people let it define them.

I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that if you’re working out hard, losing fat and gaining muscle, OR losing weight through diet and exercise, OR working hard to get healthy and gain weight….treat yourself to some clothes that fit your body now. Whether it be a size bigger, or a size smaller….find a size that FITS YOU…don’t just buy something and try to squeeze into it because it’s the size you think you want to be or think you should be. And don’t keep wearing the same pair if your body changes.

Ignore the size, ignore the label, ignore what size the sizing charts tell you you should be wearing. Focus on the way they FIT, not what size they are. Find a pair of jeans that are comfortable. That fit your curves, or lack of curves, whatever the case may be. That make you SMILE when you look in the mirror because you’re proud of yourself for all your hard work and you want to show it off.

Then buy those and never look back!

Today’s workout:

Needed a heavy lifting day so I picked 4 moves and really focused on heavy weights.

Here’s what I did:

Pin It

I chose a heavy weight and then a slightly lighter one for round two. I’m getting to the point where it’s almost as hard to hold the 30# dbs as it is to squat with them! I miss having a bar to do squats. But anyways, my legs were screaming by the end of the lunges…and then I went and did wall sits!
PS…you can turn your gymboss into a stopwatch- perfect for the wall sits and planks!

–Lindsay–

January Foodie Penpals

January 31, 2012 by Lindsay 27 Comments

Heyyyyyyyyy Friends!

It’s time for another Foodie Penpals reveal day!

And let me tell you, I got some GOOD stuff this month! I got my box from the lovely Sarah at Sarah Snacks. She’s totally adorable and one of my fav bloggers, not only because she’s also in school to become an RD but because she whips up delicious recipes and is fun to chat with on Twitter 🙂

Check out what she sent me:

Expertly packed so everything made it in one piece!

Look at all those goodies! And such a fun green basket…which is now conveniently holding the million supplies we need to take care of our wounded puppy! (Who, by the way, did not end up needing more stitches, but still has his paw wrapped and has successfully eaten his entire bandage twice more…sigh…good news is the paw does appear to be healing, slowly but surely)…ANYWAYS…

She sent me homemade treats, which I love! Banana chocolate chip and banana walnut muffins!

Local Texas pecans. A little back story…I complained on twitter a few months ago about how all the Christmas cookies i wanted to make used pecans but they were SO expensive here in Ohio. She told me they have pecan trees in Texas and she’d send me some when they were back in season. AND THEN SHE REMEMBERED! She’s the freakin’ best 🙂

Dark chocolate covered cherries, which are delicious to munch on and are also probably going to be very good in the cookies I put them in 🙂
Vegan queso (Fun Fact: She’s the second foodie penpal to send it to me. Foodies love the stuff!)
And that salsa. BEST.SALSA.EVER. The hubby and I devoured it in about 2 days. So good!!!

So like I said, I lucked out 🙂

In case you’re now super jealous and would like to join in the fun, here are a few details about the program:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

**The BIG news this month is that we’re going to do a trial run in Canada. I’m still not exactly sure how it will work with shipping costs and stuff since I’m not sure you guys up North have flat rate shipping boxes, but if you’re willing to give it a try for a month and provide me with some feedback, that would be awesome!

Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

Sound like fun? If you’re interested in participating for February, please send an email to Lindsay at [email protected] and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
–WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. – this is SUPER important so I can get you on the right list!

That’s all for today friends!

Yesterday’s workout:

I didn’t sleep well the night before and literally had to drag myself off the couch but it ended up being my best workout of the week. I hit the treadmill for some more intervals but decided I was going to jog during my recovery instead of walk.

Here’s what I did:

Pin It

So here’s the deal. This workout was a bit of trial and error. For the first mile, I ran the very first minute at 8.0 and decided it wasn’t fast enough so I bumped it up to 8.5. That mile too 8:12. For the next mile I did all 8.5/6.5 and it was 8:06 which I realize isn’t exactly an 8 min mile per the title but it’s pretty darn close! For mile 3, I was tired. So for the first 4 minutes I did 8.6/6.6. Then for the next 4 I did 8.6/4.5. Once I hit 8 minutes I was at 2.92 miles so I bumped it back up to 8.6 and finished mile 3 in 8:35. It was amazing!!! At first I felt bad that I had to walk for the second half of that last mile…but then I realized that all three of my miles were still faster than the fastest one I did on Saturday! Next time I’m going to try to do all of them at 8.6/6.6.

–Lindsay–

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Pizza with Sweet Potato Socca Crust

Fitness Friday 12

Have a Salad

Have a salad 🙂

Foodie Penpals Reveal with Go the Xtra Mile

Caramel Apple Bars

Just A Little Roadtrip

Fitness Friday 11

Five Reasons to Volunteer

Five Reasons to Volunteer

So my challenge to you is to spend a little time this weekend looking at volunteer opportunities in your community. Grab your family, grab some friends, even some co-workers and head out to do a little good for others! Then come back and tell me all about it!

Healthy Blueberry Scones

A Heart Healthy Dinner Party

Fitness Friday 10

Lightened Up Caramel Apples

Healthy Breakfast Bars

Fitness Friday 9

Sweet Potato Falafel

Black Bean, Shrimp & Avocado Rollups

Cilantro & Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

What’s in a Jean Size

January Foodie Penpals

Recipes

Kids

Resources

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