HIIT Review and Easy Recipe

I successfully completed the Tone It Up girls' new HIIT workout that I mentioned in the last post. I must say that it did what it's supposed to do! My heart rate was up and I was working hard. 

For someone who regularly exercises and has followed the TIU videos or other exercise videos, this HIIT workout is an excellent challenge and can easily be done at home, in a hotel, and (important for me) during the Monkey's nap time. You use your own body weight for the exercises and you hit all the major muscles. 

The beginning exerciser, on the other hand, would have a difficult time keeping up and completing the moves with proper form.  I workout regularly and constantly strive to improve my form on moves like squats, lunges, and push-ups. I found the moves challenging, so I feel that a beginner might get frustrated and give up. In the beginning, I found that basic moves were best for me and have only recently begun to move to more challenging variations. It's a process!

I liked the way the three circuits were structured! You complete each of 5 moves twice for 20 seconds on and 10 seconds rest. The entire workout video was 20 minutes long, which is not bad at all!  I appreciate short workouts because knowing they are short makes me work harder during that time. 

I had a lot of energy afterwards as well. Much needed!

Alright, on to the recipe I made yesterday!  A bit of back story - Chap has a friend in the egg industry. During the lovely Atlanta snow there was a poultry convention in downtown Atl and Chap's friend was going. For a couple weeks now, I've noticed on our shared calendar an event called "The Chicken Show" that I kept meaning to ask Chap about! It turns out Chap was meeting his friend there to walk around and get lunch. 

In honor of said Chicken Show, I made these delicious egg tacos for the Monkey and me. They would be fantastic for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Easy Egg Tacos

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 eggs

6 grape tomatoes, quartered

1/2 cup leafy greens, chopped (I used arugula because we had it)

Grated cheese 

4 corn tortillas, warmed

Directions:

1. Crack eggs into small bowl, add salt and pepper, and whisk. 

2. Heat olive oil over medium high heat and scramble eggs. 

3.  Just as eggs are almost done add tomatoes and greens. Continue to stir. 

4. Add cheese, fold into mixture, and remove from heat. 

5. Spoon into warmed corn tortillas. 

So easy and delicious!

A Little Relaxation!

I've already done the Tone It Up Love Your Total Body workout today and can't wait to see their new HIIT video tonight!

HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training, and it's getting a lot of good press because of the cardiovascular benefits it provides in such a short time frame. Usually we are talking under 30 and even under 20 minutes for a complete workout that can really torch calories!  I'm looking forward to this one tonight and will do a mini-review of it as a post later!

For now I'm enjoying my calm tea time while watching the snow fall! Our first Atlanta snow!

Kettlebells!

The new Tone It Up kettlebell routine was just posted and I loved it! The moves are pretty traditional as far as kettlebell workouts go, but it flowed really nicely and I was able to concentrate on my form during my workout. If you are looking for something quick and total body, I would suggest this workout or possibly their original one on the Tone It Up website.

I'm sure I will feel this in the morning!

Check it out at their website:

Kettlebell Workout 

Tropical Paradise Green Smoothie

Or should I call this "how to get your kid to drink spinach"? This is a delicious smoothie that is easy too.  It's two year old tested and approved (as in, more Smoobie, Mommy?) I use a hand immersion blender, but a regular blender would work great for this smoothie!

If you go ahead and buy two cans of coconut milk and four bananas, you can make this smoothie four times with one pineapple!

Tropical Paradise Smoothie

1/4 pineapple

1 banana, chopped into large pieces

1/2 can coconut milk

2 - 3 handfuls spinach

Directions:

If you buy a whole pineapple, use a sharp knife to remove the outside and the core. Of course at the farmers market, they didn't have any already prepped because I was there early! The early bird cuts the pineapple, I suppose. 

 

Cut the pineapple into large chunks and place in blending cup with the banana. Add half of the can of coconut milk. Blend!

Add the spinach a handful at a time. You may want to add water to help the spinach blend to a nice consistency. 

Delicious finished smoothie! If only we were experiencing tropical weather...

What's for Dinner? Week of 1/19

This week our goal was to shop out of our pantry and supplement with fresh foods.  We also took advantage of the 2 for $12 rotisserie chickens at Fresh Market on Saturday.  I'm determining whether that is actually a good deal, or if I should buy whole chickens and roast them myself.  I'll keep you updated!

Here are the meals we are making this week!

Red Lentil Curry
Winter Chili (left from last week)
Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sauce
Pasta with Lentils and Arugula
Chickpea Barley Soup - no link because this is my creation!

We have tickets to a comedy show on Friday night, and the Monkey and I will eat at my parents' house while Chap is out of town on Wednesday!

I already made the chickpea barley soup in the crockpot last night.  It turned out to be quite delicious!  So delicious I forgot to take a final picture.  Whoops!

I will share the recipe though in hopes you will think it sounds a lot like chicken noodle soup.  Because it was, minus noodles!

Chickpea Barley Soup
By: Miss Fit

1 cup dried chickpeas
1/2 cup dried barley
4 cups chicken broth
3 carrots
1 bunch parsley, rough chopped
1/2 rotisserie chicken, shredded (or about 1 1/2 c chicken)
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
1. Combine chickpeas, barley, chicken broth, and carrots in the crockpot.  Add about a tablespoon each of the onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.  Stir.  Cook on High for 4 hours, Low for 6 hours.
2.  About 30 minutes before eating, add the parsley and chicken.  Allow it to warm up on High in the crockpot.  Add more salt and pepper if needed.

...And that's it!  The soup was very comforting, just like chicken noodle soup.  Next time I will experiment with the length of time to see if it can all go in at once.  I intended for this to be a vegetarian soup, but the chicken broth at the farmer's market was 50 cents cheaper than vegetable broth, so I figured adding chicken (that we already had) would stretch it further!

We only spent $45 at the farmer's market on these ingredients plus extra juicing/smoothie fruits and vegetables, and of course a bar of chocolate for the week!  I still need tortillas, orecchiette, and eggs, so I anticipate spending about $5 on those items at Publix.  Not a bad week for $50!

I notice that we go through olive oil, salt, and pepper much more quickly when we eat at home a lot.  Thankfully the prices are so reasonable at the farmer's market that it's still MUCH cheaper to eat home rather than out!  I bought a large container of sea salt for 85 cents.  I think we can handle that.

Happy eating and budgeting this week!

Weekly Recipe Review!

I'm so happy with us this week! We only ate out once because of an impromptu date night, courtesy of Auntie A! Here are the finished dishes and the verdicts:

Sunday - Indian Enchiladas

Wow, these were ah-mazing. They got better throughout the week, too!!!

Monday - Sprouted Lentils w Fish

Surpringly delicious to all - the Monkey asked for seconds! The lentils were cooked with a curry sauce. Yum!

Tuesday - Pesto Pasta

Who doesn't love a bowl of pasta? The pesto is SO easy and doesn't use cheese. I'm still amazed!

Wednesday - Crockpot Cilantro Chicken

Pretty good and SUPER easy! Served it over rice and had plenty of leftovers. As you can see, Chap spiced his up a bit. 

Thursday - surprise date night!

We tried out The Nook by Piedmont Park - it was alright but it was also karaoke night. Need I say more?

Friday - Chickpea Pizza

This was easy once I started on the recipe. We had just completed a 5 mile run, so eating out was looking better and better by the minute. I'm glad we didn't cave! These toppings were good, but we also brainstormed other options for next time. There will probably be a next time because we now have a whole container of chickpea flour. 

We loved all of the recipes and would make them all again at some point!

Interesting Oatmeal Alternative

I'm definitely a carb kind of girl. Left to my own devices, I might eat all carbs at every meal, all day. Sooooo... I have to be very aware of my protein intake each day. Oatmeal, my go to breakfast, does have a little protein in it, but it doesn't contain all the amino acids your body needs. 

So as an alternative, I'm eating quinoa for breakfast today. The farmers market only had red quinoa, which I will say was a little different but interesting. We put apple slices in it and it tasted pretty good! I love regular quinoa, so once we run out of the red I plan to buy regular again!  It's easy to cook so that's a plus!

I don't think it's neccessary to eat the quinoa every morning, but I like having an alternative!

(Tastes better than it looks!)

What's for Dinner this Week?

Can menu planning be considered a hobby?  Something I love doing is planning our menu and grocery list for the week.  We have found that lack of planning results in a lot of unhealthy choices and eating out.  While eating out is fun, it is expensive and sometimes often we have restaurant regret!  To stay within our $100 weekly food budget, it's easier to buy more interesting foods to cook than have someone cook them for us.

In order to spice up our weekly menu, Chap and I resolved to try a couple new recipes each week this month.  We have a lot of random staples hanging out in our pantry at the moment.  Including a lot of different flours.  Which is odd.  Because we don't bake.  Ever.  Anyways...

Here is our menu for this week!  We call it our "dinner wheel" because nailing down specific days for meals was too stifling for us.  We plan a couple of specific days based on schedules and prep needed for certain dishes, but otherwise we choose within our menu daily.  Links are provided to recipes we are using!

Dinner Wheel Week of 1/12/2014

Indian Enchiladas
Chickpea Pizza with Sausage and Peppers
Crockpot Cilantro Lime Chicken
Pesto Pasta with Broccoli
Winter Chili (maybe with venison tenderloin in the crockpot)
Sprouted Lentils with Tilapia
{Saturday night - out for a friends' birthday!}

Because the pizza only called for one ounce of mozzarella, I'm using the rest in this breakfast recipe:
Kale and Chorizo Frittata 

For lunches we eat leftover dinner items and salads with fun toppings from the fridge or pantry.  Snacks are hummus and raw veggies, fresh fruit, nuts, and sometimes cheese and gluten free crackers.

We were treated to a great surprise at the farmer's market this weekend - Italian parsley was 4 bunches for $1!  Yes, 25 cent bunches of parsley.  We are making tabbouleh for snacks for sure!  We will also be sure to spice up our hummus this week with extra parsley.  Mmmmmm!

Our grocery total this week was about $85, which means we will be using our entertainment budget for dinner Saturday night!  I'm pretty sure we will be quite entertained!  This means we can roll $15 into next week's budget, and the extra should give us enough for a fun date night!

I hope these recipes turn out well - I'll be sure to let you know!

Slimmed Down Steak Tacos

Who doesn't love a good steak taco? We love them in this house but want a clean version! This is how we are able to make steak tacos for three (although we had enough leftovers for a fourth, very hungry person) with only six ounces of steak. Yes, six! Meat is way more expensive than vegetables. By bulking up with zucchini and squash, we can stretch our meal a lot further! Take a look!

Ingredients:

- small amount of butter (maybe 1 tsp?)

- 6 ounce top sirloin

- zucchini

- squash

- 1/2 red onion

- avocado

- salsa

- corn tortillas

Step by Step:

In a skillet, begin melting butter on medium heat. Slice the veggies and steak. Stir onions into the skillet first. 

After a few minutes, add the steak and season in the skillet. I used salt, pepper, and chili powder, but you can use any spices you like! Let it sit and cook a few minutes before stirring. Then add the zucchini and squash. 

Meanwhile, prep the tortillas by rubbing them with a little water on each side and wrapping the stack in paper towels. Microwave for about 40 seconds or until they are pliable. Back to the stove - cook until steak is done and veggies are slightly tender. You might be drooling at this point because trust me, they smelled amazing!

Serve family style with the sliced avocado. We also served chips and small salads. Here is a little tip for chip eating - eat the salad and a whole taco first, then have some chips. If I'd eaten them before my meal, I would have devoured most of the bag without even thinking! After the salad and taco, I only needed a small handful to feel satisfied!

This is definitely a favorite meal in our family! The Monkey loved his taco - he actually preferred the veggies over the steak. He had some ownership in this meal because he helped pick out the veggies at the store. He also got to sample a piece of onion and a chip while dinner was cooking. Chap and I are completely on the same page when it comes to meals - we have a take it or leave it philosophy. It works really well for our family and it's how our parents raised us. We turned out okay...I think! An the Monkey will, too!

I hope you enjoy your slimmer steak tacos! Your body and wallet will thank you!

Dessert: Light on Calories and Budget

I love dessert.  Chap would rather have another serving of whatever dinner was, but the Monkey definitely takes after me and appreciates sweet things.  We are well aware of what sweet things can do to the waistline and our bodies overall, so dessert has to be made over in our house!  I will note that we aren't afraid of full fat foods in our house - we just watch what we eat overall to make sure fats are balanced with our protein and carbs.  Hence the butter in this recipe!  Fat is not the enemy.

Since we had lots of apples in the crisper, I decided to make a fake apple pie.  Here's what I did!

Fake Apple Pie
Serves 3
Ingredients:
*3 apples
*1/2 tbsp butter
*Cinnamon
*Nutmeg
*Honey or other natural sweetener

Step by Step:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and melt butter in bottom of baking dish.

Core and slice apples.  I love my apple corer/slicer!!

Remove melted butter and stir apples in the baking dish.  Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on top.

Drizzle a very small amount of honey onto the apples and stir once more.

Bake in the oven about 15-20 minutes or until apples are tender.  Enjoy!

I would love to try other spices in this recipe, and maybe I will come up with a healthy oatmeal topping!  I hope you love your budget and calorie friendly dessert!

Budget Protein + Surprise Salad Ingredient

I did a Jillian Michaels DVD on Amazon Prime this morning. Since it was my second time doing it, I was definitely more prepared to follow along and (mostly) keep up! My breakfast afterward of oatmeal and trail mix was good, but by lunchtime today I needed some greens and protein! I should probably mention that I'm also a little tired of meat...

I must say, even at $2.99 a dozen (the most we would pay), EGGS are a really affordable source of protein! Each egg contains about 6 grams of protein. I hard boiled 4 eggs for the Monkey and myself to share. That's only $2 for plenty of protein to top a salad!  The Monkey was so excited to eat the "oak" or yolk, in two year old speak! 

As for my surprise salad ingredient, I cut up a GRAPEFRUIT and added it to my salad today! I didn't need any other dressing other than a tiny drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and the grapefruit was a nice change from lemon!  I know it's not original to add fruit to salad, but adding the grapefruit was certainly different for me!

I'm still following the Tone It Up workout plan and enjoyed fueling my body for it today! 

My Lunch Salad

A Two Year Old Approved Lunch Plate

(Yes, that is pepper on his eggs. He loves pepper on pretty much everything!)

Best Burger Side

We had burgers for dinner tonight because my grandparents sent us an Omaha Steak package for Christmas. We are set on meat for awhile, which REALLY saves on our weekly food budget. While we don't eat it every night, meat can be a healthy addition to your weekly menu. We stick to 3-4 oz portions (1-2 for the Monkey), and pair with lots of interesting sides and additions. 

Tonight, because I've been wanting take-out style burgers and fries, I bought three different potatoes at the Fresh Market to make oven fries. I purchased a russet, orange sweet, and PURPLE sweet potato! I peeled and sliced the potatoes, mixed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and popped them in a 375* oven for 20ish minutes. They were delicious and definitely a lot healthier than restaurant fries!

Chap was super healthy and added a salad to his meal. I'm set to eat green vegetables tomorrow! I'm not counting the five pieces of baby lettuce on my burger...

I do love a good burger and fries!

Affordable Workout Equipment

I researched the price of dumbbells on Amazon because many of the Tone It Up workouts use them. I have kettlebells and resistance bands already, so I could have taken the time to modify the workouts to make them work.  Have you ever tried to take time to modify a workout with a 2 year old running around? It feels next to impossible...

...but I found that January is a great time to shop for weights at stores like Target! Using the Target Cartwheel app and the sale price, I was able to buy two 6-pound weights for $12 total! I'm excited to have such an affordable way to keep up with my *free* TIU workouts!

Great Budget Link!

Having trouble lowering your grocery bill? Greatist put together this awesome list of 44 foods under $1 per serving. Most of them are WAY under a dollar and are perfect bases for healthy meals!

Check it out!

http://greatist.com/health/44-healthy-foods-under-1 

Fueling with Breakfast

Do you have a go-to breakfast?  We certainly do in this house.  All three of us need something warm, filling, and affordable to start our day.

Usually my breakfast consists of oatmeal and some sort of topping.  Oatmeal is super affordable at any store.  Even at Whole Foods - $1.50 per pound in the bulk bin.  If I shop at the Dekalb Farmer's Market, I can get rolled oats for $1.49 per pound and steel cut for $1.19 per pound!  Lately I've also purchased Whole Foods' campus trail mix ($6.99 per pound) from their bulk bin to top my oatmeal.  All it takes is a handful, and I get a great mix of nuts and raisins to flavor my breakfast.

I also really love a tiny drizzle of honey and flax seed meal mixed into my oatmeal!  It tastes a little nuttier and only needs a tiny bit of sweet to make it delicious.  We buy whole flax seed and grind it in our coffee grinder.  It's on my list of "things I want but don't have to have" to get another grinder dedicated to flax and spices, but it hasn't happened yet!

I've also discovered, thanks to Chap, that oatmeal does not have to be sweet.  Do you ever have a morning where something sweet sounds awful?  Every so often that's the case for me.  He is great about cooking an egg and kale and topping the oatmeal with it.  I've also learned I like a little dash of soy sauce with this meal.  It sounds crazy, and for the longest time I resisted trying it, but the savory oatmeal can actually be a great change of pace.

Sometimes we keep boiled eggs in the fridge - I love a bowl of oatmeal with trail mix served with a boiled egg on the side!  The Monkey (being the two year old he is) always wants to "try Mommy's egg" even though he already knows he loves them!  I end up eating 1 egg plus a bite, and the Monkey takes the rest!  Talk about an easy breakfast!

New habit to help my muscles - DRINKING MORE WATER!  I have a glass while the oatmeal is cooking and won't let myself start coffee until I've had my water.  Our condo is really dry, so I'm glad my husband pointed out that I wasn't getting enough water throughout the day.  Being mindful of it helps so much!

I'm thinking about dinners for this week, so watch for a post about this week's budget meals!

Hello, 2014!

I can't even imagine how many blogs were created on January 1st.  I'm almost embarrassed that this is one of them!  I wanted a place to document my healthy eating and fitness goals and steps to meet them!  I have been working on these goals for awhile now - they aren't New Year's resolutions.  The new year just coincided with my decision to blog about my life!

A bit about me - I'm a wife to a consulting arborist, stay at home mom to a two year old (best known as the Monkey), and a former teacher.  My husband (Chap, as I call him) owns his own business, so his schedule is super busy but also can be flexible.  We recently moved to a condo in Midtown Atlanta and FINALLY sold a home in Athens.  The months of overlap between buying and selling were tight, but we did it!  Our weekly food budget dropped to $100 a week for our family of three.  It sounds bad, but we manage to eat well - it's become my secret mission to prove that you can eat healthy on a small food budget.  Perhaps my blog can make it not-so-secret.

Fitness-wise, I will admit I'm starting with a decent base of fitness.  I run regularly and was training for a 10K...until I learned it was full by the time I tried to register.  Whoops.  So I can run a decent amount with no race to document it!  I use the Ease into 10K app regularly and even go back to earlier weeks to increase my speed and do shorter running intervals.

Recently (maybe November-ish?) I signed up to receive the Tone It Up girls' email.  I'd tried a couple of the workouts on my own and liked them.  In fact, I did the Saved By the Bell kettlebell workout for a few weeks with awesome results.  I shed a few extra pounds that I didn't necessarily need to, but my muscles really started to develop!

When I saw the Tone It Up Love Your Body series, I was a little curious about it.  I've committed myself to doing the challenge.  You can do ANYTHING for six weeks!  Well, most anything workout related.

So that's me.  I'm working daily on loving my body, loving my family, and just all around loving life!  I hope to share meal planning ideas, recipes, and workout ideas for those with limited time and energy!  Having taught for 8 years, I know what that's like!

Here's to 2014 being awesome!