Some of My Favorite Things

Happy Friday, y’all!

Today was a good day!   I got a lot accomplished, despite having gone out with my husband on “date night” last night. (We had a babysitter watch all the kids).

Today we found out that our boat is ready, (it needed some work after the winter) and since it’s hotter then the devil here in Georgia, we are extremely happy about this.  Tomorrow I am lake bound! Can’t wait!!  I’m the type of person who needs instant gratification, everything needs to be done yesterday. I’m fairly impatient, as you can tell at times.

Today I want to share some of my favorite foods with you.  I eat a lot of them on a regular basis, but try to switch them up by adding different spices and this and that.  Lets start with my all time fave, eggs.

Eggs are an inexpensive complete protein source.  They can be cooked a ton of different ways.  I used to only eat the egg whites, but now I throw in a whole egg to that mix, or cook two whole eggs for breakfast.

One of the ways that I like to cook eggs starts with my spraying a bit of olive oil with my Mysto sprayer in a frying pan and sauteing mushrooms.

White Mushrooms

Then I whisk together the eggs and probably a tablespoon of herbs de provence, which you can find in the spice aisle.

and then it is supposed to look something like this:

Fave Eggs!

I also added some low-fat feta. These are fantastic tasting!

Then, there are of course, the 2 whole eggs, sunny side up, on one slice of preservative free whole wheat toast…

Sunshine on my plate, lol

Another favorite of mine recently are Larabars.  They’re kind of high in calories and fat, but they only have 5 ingredients and are good and clean! I like to eat them after the gym, for some reason…and they also have ones with chocolate! Sometimes you can find them on sale 10 for $10…and they also just came out with mini bars, which are obviously less calories and fat.

Another favorite food of mine is the salad.  I’ve been alternating between romaine and spinach…the spinach has 1 more gram of protein, but more sodium then the romaine…it just depends on how I’m feeling that day!  Cover it in some kind of protein (I favor grilled chicken), veggies, and a tablespoon of a clean dressing, and you’ll be full for HOURS.

The salad pictured is actually spinach, feta, homemade salsa, purple onion, mushrooms and dressing. YUM!

I have recently been into drinking cream in my coffee.  I hated to buy it, because most half and half has HFCS in it and some sort of preservative.  After reading every label in the grocery store (does anyone else do that? I feel retarded standing there reading everything! It takes twice the time for me to get my shopping done sometimes, if I’m looking for items I don’t buy on a regular basis!)

At any rate, I found a creamer that is just that: cream. And it’s not skim milk, so it doesn’t turn my coffee gray, lol.

The way coffee is supposed to look

My cream:

CLEAN!!

Here is a pic of the ingredients:

Highly recommended if you’re a coffee drinker like myself.

Since I recently got a Vitamix,

which is essentially a very high powered blender, I have been making smoothies! It can also make natural nut butters, but I haven’t gotten that far yet…and soup that comes out HOT!  It’s a fantastic little machine and really worth the money.

I made my first green smoothie ever, and the only reason it was green was from spinach, not some weird dirt-like protein powder, lol.

Then there was a pink one, which had mango, banana, strawberry and vanilla protein powder:

Pretty in Pink Smoothie

My other favorite thing recently: plain old water.  I’ve been drinking 80-100 ounces a day (or trying my best, my absolute minimum is 60 ounces).  It is so important to get enough water in.  Guess what? For those of us that retain water, drinking water will get rid of that excess bloat from whatever.  I was never a big water drinker, but now I can’t get enough! (Along with red wine, but that’s a story for another day )

My other favorite things are my kids, as many of you know.  Some things that happened during the last 3 months:

Soccer Time!

We found out that Sophia is kind of a natural athlete, and she loves to play soccer!

Aidan and Me

Aidan graduated to 5th grade, Sean graduated to 3rd…and also climbed almost all the way to the top of a rock wall:

Sophia graduated from pre-k and is officially on her way to kindergarten:

and we took a trip to Stone Mountain, GA.

And decided to walk down the mountain which is a mile, and then another mile back to the park!

That was a super-fun trip!

There’s lots going on this summer, so I hope to bring new and exciting foods and trips to the table for you all to see.  I missed you guys while I was gone! And I missed blogging. Thank you for all of your condolences and well wishes.

Jessica

Let’s Try This Again…

Good Morning my bloggie friends! It has finally stopped snowing but it is C.O.L.D. Holy cow! It was one degree when I woke up. Now it’s 6 degrees!   I am so not used to the cold weather.  I plan on running today, but I need to pick up some trail shoes..my sneakers slide all over the place on the ice and snow and sometimes I have two left feet anyway. So not a good thing!  Here’s a picture of the snow, mostly for my friends in the ATL:

That’s a picture of my parents backyard.

Let’s start with yesterday’s breaky.  Mine was yummy!  I’ve gotten away from eating so many carbs in the morning and kind of limiting if I don’t work out that day.  Yesterday I had a fantastic bowl of oatmeal:

Plain old oatmeal, pineapple, blueberries, granola, and oikos yogurt.  Creamy, yummy, and warm.  I ate the rest of the yogurt in the container to get some protein in (actually, a perfect amount…15 grams).

Fact: The body can only absorb between 15 and 20 grams of protein per meal.  Anything above and beyond gets stored by the body ( like fat does) and needs to be burned off.  Some web sites will put that a little higher (around 30 grams) but personally I like to keep it around 20.

The yogurt:

I have a confession, I had to put some Stevia in it to eat it plain.

Lunch was later in the day.  I really wanted a salad like the kind I make at home. So be it:

Lettuce, baby bella mushrooms, orange peppers, Mary’s Gone Crackers, chicken breast seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning.  All covered with Annie’s Goddess Dressing.  It was so good!

I ate before I started my errands, I had a lot of running around to do…the mall, BJ’s, Tops grocery store, etc., etc.  I brought a new bar with me in case I needed a boost.  A friend of mine on a different board that I belong to told me about these Think Thin bars.  Lots of protein, no sugar, low in fat.

Are you tired of seeing pictures of granola bars on my leg yet? At least my jeans were clean   It was ok.  It seemed to be missing something, not sure what…sugar? LOL!  My faves so far are the Cliff Nectar Bars, but I don’t remember without revisiting previous posts how much protein is in them.  And apparently the company is getting rid of Cliff Nectar, and replaced them with Cliff C Bars.  They actually look really good, they have a nut crust bottom, topped with fruit and almonds.  Sounds really good to me!

I had made dinner ahead of time and had it simmering on the stove.  I made homemade adobo pork, because it’s easy and my parents like it.  It doesn’t have a lot of ingredients, but there is sugar in it, so not completely clean.  It turned out fairly well:

I only had a little bit of the pork and ate a ton of veggies with it.  My parents ate their with the traditional yellow rice.  Loved the veggies, they had good flavor. Carrots, broccoli, lima beans, peppers, zucchini.

Again, I was hungry again a bit later and still giving that SunButter a chance.  It’s not that it’s inedible, I guess I’ve been spoiled with my favorite cashew butter I made a banana boat.  See how easy it is? You can make one 1300 miles away from your home!

This one is a banana, golden raisins, raw cashews, raw cacao nibs, and SunButter.  It was really good.  Even with the SunButter, but I hid the taste a bit with the toppings

I am heading outside (I think it’s 9 degrees now?) to run in the snow.  I got me some cheapy trail shoes in the Men’s part of the shoe department in Target…I think they were $39.99.  Then I bought some athletic insoles to put in them, because they didn’t have any sort of cushion. New trail shoes total = $49.99.  Not falling on my bottom in the snow = priceless! LOL.

I intend on bringing my camera and taking snow covered pictures for my family in the ATL.  I miss everyone! So here are some family pictures I want to share:

June 26, 2009 Family vacay in Pensacola!

My Seany and Bisquit

Aidan and Sophia

Have a Blessed Day!

Jessica xoxo

The day after Festivus ;)

Good Morning! Today is going to be a great day, I can feel it. By some miracle my kids are going to be good, I’m going to get everything done that needs to be done, (we’re actually going to visit some friends today!) and maybe go to Whole Foods to stock up on healthy eats for next week. Now how much of that do you think will actually happen? We shall see

This mornings breakfast consisted of a version of Jamaican Oatmeal. I was starving from eating a bunch of junky foods (unclean for sure the day before).  I am still pretending that I’m on vacation (and no, I’m not delusional, promise!) I just want to go away somewhere warm. Peaches, strawberries, pineapple, unsweetened coconut, and raw cashews. So good!

Kind of looked like a bowl of fruit with some oatmeal added to it, not the other way around

So the day after Christmas. Let us get to it:

I hit the gym with my BFF Colleen. It was a fantastic workout, and then Colleen showed me some of the weight workouts that she does with her trainer for shoulders and biceps. Fun! At any rate, I burned 374 calories at 25% fat in 43:39, in case anyone was wondering. That was just for my cardio class…I’ve been all about the cardio lately, and gotten away from strength training.

Just a side note, strength training is very important because when you build muscle, it burns fat. (Plus, it gives you a rockin’ body) You will burn many more calories even after you are done working out!  Many times girls are afraid that if they strength train they will “bulk up” but this is a myth. We, as women, are not able to do that. Muscle takes up less room then fat, so you will be I smaller. If you have any questions about strength training and how important it is, please feel free to email me at fitclean@gmail.com.

My second meal of the day was a power protein shake. I have been craving chocolate, so that made up the shake: chocolate protein powder, unsweetened chocolate powder, agave nectar, maca, natural peanut butter, and 1/2 a banana:

Not an exciting picture, sorry! Power Protein Shake

Look for the recipe under the “recipe” tab

Then, after an uneventful (whoo-hoo!) trip to Wally World with my Mom for a couple of hours with all of the crazies I came home and ate this:

Give you 3 guesses what that is, LOL! Yep, it’s a lovely salad with feta and Goddess dressing, my Mexican shredded chicken, Sabra Hummus, and Mary’s Gone Crackers. Yummy!

A bit later after hanging out with the family we started to attack the leftovers in the fridge, but I had enough of some of them, and didn’t cook a veggie (I’ve been on a carrot kick lately) so I had Honeybaked Ham and Wheat Berry Salad, the some more ham and a small piece of Cheesy Beer Bread (not great)…

The Leftover Festivus Meal

I know it doesn’t look like a lot, but those Christmas dishes that I got from Kohls are HUGE!!! They’re made for giants, LOL!

Then there was this: (raw coconut balls) not bad for me:

And this: (at least this was organic, but there was sucanat in it)…

And this:

Ummm, what happened???? Too many cookies, for sure! That’s ok, to indulge every once in a while (as long as you don’t get nauseous like me .)

Some exciting news for me: I think that me and my GF  have come up with a name for our book that we are co-writing! I am very excited. We are trying it out to see if it “sticks”.   Also, I printed out the schedule for my 1/2 marathon on March 21st. My cross training days correspond with the days that I go to the gym so I am totally stoked that I don’t have to give up my classes! I will, however cut back if I begin to feel like I am over-training. Can’t wait to start…MONDAY!

Have a great day my friends, 2009 is almost to the end. I am really looking forward to 2010.

Jessica

YaY! It’s Friiiidddaaaaay!

Hello y’all from rainy, gloomy Atlanta, Georgia. Oh well, that’s ok. At least it’s not snow! Yesterday was horribly busy and hectic for me. Something went really wrong with my car, and I wound up having to have it towed and get a rental. It was after the gym, though, which was good (priorities, LOL!) I took BodyStep and had the most fantastic class since I’ve been back on my feet (literally!) I burned 589 calories @ 24% fat in 1:28. That is fantastic. Plus, I was on an endorphine high for the rest of the day so the car incident didn’t really bother me

I promised I would veer away from chicken and steamed veggies and switch things up. I did!

This morning’s breakfast was not very creative (but I have never claimed to be a cook). Wheatena with peaches and coffee. I was super hungry, the Wheatena has carbs and protein, and I just felt like my body needed carbs. So there you have it. At least I was drinking out of my Peanuts mug!

So lunch yesterday (because I had to deal with the car) came from Publix, the local grocery store. I had gone to one that I normally don’t go to, and found they have a little sushi station! (The other stores just make it in the back and package it). SO, I have a moderate sensitivity to cucumbers, which every single roll had, and was able to custom order my rolls and bring them home:

this is smoked salmon, avocado and brown rice. It was sooo good!

Dinner I made a pork butt with garlic powder, thyme and a pinch of sea salt (ummm, not that great, but edible:)

Salad mix with mushrooms, Goddess dressing, and a LOT of broccoli. I also had a Luna bar yesterday (I had a coupon, buy 2 get 1 free so they’re gone now) and another banana hammock (the same as yesterday as well). So if you missed my posts from yesterday, go check them out!

My plan for today:

1. Return rental car (my hubby came home last night, so I can use his car)

2.  Find out what is wrong with my car

3.  Take Biscuit for a bath at PetSmart (didn’t make it yesterday for obvious reasons)

4.  Christmas shopping

Friday Tip of the Day: If you experience pain while doing a particular exercise, don’t continue to do it. Try to modify it if possible or choose a different one. There are lots of exercises out there, you don’t have to do any that cause you pain!

It’s Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal Thursday :D

Ohhhh yeah! Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal with plain yogurt for breakfast: So fantastic! As you can see, it’s oats, maca, unsweetened chocolate, agave nectar, peanut butter, and I put some plain yogurt in for more protein. YUMMY! That’s all I can say. I could eat this every morning!!!

Yesterday’s lunch was fantastically boring, and I almost missed that meal! I made another lovely salad, my feta had thawed, so it made my day! Salad greens, carrots, baked chicken breast, feta and Goddess dressing. I REALLY want to try to make the Goddess dressing homemade. I will let you know if it turns out (or not )

Another lovely salad...

OK, thinking I need to switch things up, because how many pictures of my lovely salad can you actually want to see? Booooring. I will change things up, I promise!

I drank some Smart Water…obviously a “clean” water, as there isn’t anything in it besides water and electrolytes.

And it was special, my Mom brought it from the plane

Then there was another LUNA Bar: Tastes like a rice-crispy treat with chocolate:

I also picturized my dinner from the night before, which I ate again last night:

Rotisserie chicken breast (NO skin!) brown rice with some parmesan cheese, and steamed veggies. Whoo-hoo! Just as good as the first time, LOL!

THEN, I had some coffee in a special cup:

(Yes, I’m like a little kid at Christmas time)   And yet another Banana Hammock:

On a special holiday plate! This one was a delicious as the one last night. Peanut butter, natural coconut, raisins, honey. YUMMY!!! Next time I would love to toast the coconut first. I think it would really add to the flavor!

Plan for today: head to the gym for BodyStep, bring puppy to PetSmart for a bath. Have a fantastic day my friends!

My Friday Extravaganza

Good TGIF to you! My other half made it home last night and that always makes for a happy Friday!

Last nights clean eats were A-MAZ-ING.

Leftover steak from Whole Foods, some more smoked Maine Muscles from yesterday, Mary’s Gone Crackers, and a small salad with goat cheese, cranberries, sun-dried tomatoes and Goddess dressing.

The dinner was before a small binge on peanut butter (with honey) and 3 pieces of the clean eating fudge from the other day. I have issues with the fudge, how do you get it out of the pan? I was eating it with my peanut butter spoon. SCRUMPTIOUS!!!

Breakfast this am was a new concoction for me, and one that I REALLY liked. I used Bob’s Red Mill 5 Grain Oatmeal, a big spoonful of plain pumpkin, a dash of real vanilla extract (beware of those that have hfcs) and yellow saltana raisins. Oh MY!!!

I was really hungry still and hadn’t eaten my protein, so I had 3 egg whites AND one whole egg with sun-dried tomatoes,done up in the microwave. Fried eggs in the microwave. LOVES it!!!

TTYL, my wonderful friends Will check back in a while…errands to run today! Walmart, Publix, and the pet store for our new puppy, Biscuit

I just realized I hadn’t posted in a LONG time today, and I know that if I don’t, I will be overwhelmed in the am. I was out and about running my errands this am, and I forgot all about my snack (meal 2) but realized I had a Luna Bar in my purse (who DOES that?) LOL! So I ate it in the car on my way home with all of my goodies.

I HAD pictures of lunch, but along with the crazy day, I deleted my pics. It was Mary’s Gone Crackers, homemade hummus, and 2 chocolate chip pancakes. (I REALLY don’t know what came over me). Oh, and the rest of the smoked muscles, which I am sure you all will be happy about as you’re probably sick of hearing about them! It was an unplanned crazy lunch.

Dinner was just as much unplanned but I had my trusty “go-to” meal: Shepherds Pie and my normal lovely salad. Had some more of Mary’s crack, too! See you in the morning, fellow foodies!

Wild Wednesday

Hellooo! Yesterday was a good day, my friends! I actually got a good workout in at my gym, an hour BodyAttack class. AND, I got lots of other stuff done too. Christmas is around the corner, kids! Time to get on it!

The almonds were healthy, though, so that’s something. I was starving again an hour later so I made lunch:

Ezekial muffins with homemade hummus, avocado, chicken breast and a “lovely” salad with Goddess dressing. It was absolutely what I needed. I had wanted to eat a whole wheat pita, but under the “Unsuspecting Chemicals” tab (which I am going to set up in a sec.) you will see why!!!
Meal 3 was a Pure Bar. Pure Bars have nothing bad in them, they are raw and vegan (if you’re interested).

At any rate, dinner was one of my “go-to” meals. Clean eating Shepherd’s Pie, green beans, and a small salad with goat cheese, cranberries and almonds! Heavenly! Dessert was Clean eating Molasses Bread Pudding with more cranberries and Cocoa Almonds.

Remember the green beans I grow in my kitchen Aerogarden? I took a pic, and if you look closely enough, you can see some beans growing! Have a Wild Wednesday my friends!!!

Fit and Clean tip of the day: If there’s an ingredient you can’t pronounce, you should think twice about eating it.  Questions about eating clean or anything else? Email me at fitclean@gmail.com

So the rest of today was an interesting one food-wise. I snacked on another Pure Bar this morning and it was SO GOOD! I need to get some more!
Lunch was smoked muscles from Maine. They were giving them as samples at my Whole Foods and I fell in loooove. On the side was whole wheat cous-cous with smoked sun-dried tomatoes. Green beans with balsamic vinegar completed my lunch.

I had to run to a parent teacher conference, to the bank, Starbucks (where I had a nonfat grande latte) pick up my other kids and then finally home for a snack. Yummy Ezekial muffin with cashew butter and maca

I was looking forward to dinner. I ate a little different then the kids…they had steak, I had salmon with a hint of maple syrup, broccoli with Fiesta Lime Mrs. Dash, and Nature’s Way rice, my shortcut side.

Today was my day off for working out. Back to the grind tomorrow! Have a delicious night

Lunch Eats

I had a fantastic salad! Spring mix, spinach, goat cheese, cranberries, baked chicken and natural dressing. Yummy!!! And on my special Christmas dish I got from Kohls