Spring Break Eats

April 3rd, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Eats of the Week - (0 Comments)

The past Easter weekend, I headed to the beach with my family to a short break. We went to Destin, Florida area which is also near the location for my wedding this Fall. So, I got in a little wedding planning while I was there. But, mostly, we relaxed and enjoyed the ocean and the food!

On the way there, we passed this disgrace:

hardees pork and biscuit

Pork and gravy biscuit? Eww, no thanks.

I brought my seed crackers for the ride down, and my sister enjoyed her Twizzlers ;-)

healthy cracker for travel

I was happy to get to the beach and enjoy some shrimp!

steamed shrimp

We went to Shake’s after dinner. My family and I love Shake’s–the ice cream is so creamy and is more of a “custard”. We only get to have it when we are near Destin!

So, don’t freak out about this less healthy option.

Shake's hot fudge sundae

I will say that they have increased their portions. The “regular” size used to be smaller than this, so we were all surprised when we got this huge ice cream!

Yum! Then, the next night I ordered salmon and asparagus.

salmon on cedar plank

We enjoyed some wine most every night ;-) And took plenty of walks and went for a few runs.

Rosemary Beach restaurants

For Easter, Psycho Holiday Baker brought a huge Costco size Jelly Belly container. And Dad picked up some Donut Hole treats. They are known for their key lime pie, but also have tasty donuts and baked goods. I eat mostly fruit and some natural peanut butter, but enjoyed half a chocolate coconut donut!

Donut hole donuts

It was a fun weekend, but now it’s back to the day-to-day normal routine!!

, , ,

Lightened up: Macaroni and Cheese Cups

March 28th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (0 Comments)

As usual, I was browsing Pinterest for recipe ideas, and I saw this mac ‘n cheese recipe with spinach from Emily Bites.

I am picky about my pasta dishes, and don’t typically eat too much pasta. But, I love baked pastas!

Since this recipe is made in a muffin tin, you get these cute little portion sizes (and yes, you may want to eat more than one!). Another benefit is that you get crispy edges, and this dish cooks more quickly. If you don’t like crispy edges, you may want to bake this in a large casserole dish.

macaroni and cheese muffin

I followed Emily’s recipe exactly, except I added more crushed garlic to mine, and I used half gluten free pasta/half regular elbow white pasta.

You can use whatever pasta you like, but I recommend cooking it so that it is barely done as it will continue cooking in the oven.

We ate ours with some leftover chicken, and a side salad. Yum!! I loved it, and Mr. Cyclist said it was OK (he said you could tell it was healthier). I was happy to eat more of it the next day as leftovers ;-)

, , , , , ,

Szechuan Peppercorn Salmon

March 21st, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (0 Comments)

I have been MIA in the blogging world the past week because I have been in full-swing wedding planning mode. Yep, I’m getting hitched. Perfect time to talk about being healthy and fit. Haha.

I won’t bore you with details, but wedding planning does take up a good chunk of time… so I was happy to come home one day to this super tasty salmon. It is my new favorite recipe! It’s a little spicy, but has a unique flavor from the peppercorns (you can buy the peppercorns at a larger grocery store like Whole Paycheck–I got mine from a large farmer’s market).

They are the ones that look a little pink/dark red in color. You can even order them online if you don’t want to pick them up from the store!

Szechuan Peppercorn Salmon

spicy thai salmon

Ingredients:

  • 1 filet of salmon (or about the amount pictured above)
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp. ground pepper
  • 1/4-1/2 tsp szechuan peppercorns, ground
  • 1-1.5 Tbsp. light mayonnaise
  • 3.5-4 Tbsp. roasted red chili paste
  • pinch of salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
  2. Meanwhile, mix your marinade.
  3. Place your salmon on a baking sheet or baking dish and coat with marinade. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until cooked medium-well.

Yum!

baked salmon with peppers

We had some salad and edamame to go with it.

, , , , , ,

Fish in Foil

March 17th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (1 Comments)

Happy St. Patty’s Day!! Today, I have a recipe for you with a little bit of green ;-)

I rarely cook fish in a foil packet or parchment paper because it doesn’t get crispy. But, what I discovered is that it becomes super moist and packed with flavor.

fish in foil packet

I followed this tilapia recipe from Key Ingredient, except I used green beans instead of asparagus for the vegetable. It turned out like a gourmet meal! And it was nice and light.

Here is how to lay out the foil with fish and ingredients on top:

cook foil packets

how to make foil packets

Wrap them up tightly and place on a baking sheet. It makes for easy clean-up!!

You can use parchment paper as well for a more natural choice.

Then, Mr. Cyclist made some homemade french onion soup to go with it!

homemade french onion soup

It felt like a gourmet dinner! But, the fish recipe was so easy.

, , , , ,

Protein Almond Butter

March 11th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (0 Comments)

I was getting a little creative with my normal almond butter spread for breakfast. I mixed a brown rice protein powder with almond butter and almond milk. Spread it on top of Ezekiel bread, and you have a balanced breakfast!

almond butter with protein

  • 1 slice Ezekiel
  • 1.5 Tbsp. almond butter
  • 1 Tbsp. vanilla brown rice protein powder
  • sprinkle of cinnamon
  • almond milk or any milk to moisten the mixture
  • drizzle of real honey on top (1 tsp.)

I eat this warm out of toaster oven. I’m sure you could eat it cold, but it always tastes better when the honey becomes warm.

Nutrition Facts:

nutrition facts for almond butter toast

I ate some blueberries to go with this to make it more of a complete meal :)

, , , , , ,

KIND Bars

March 7th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Food Review - (0 Comments)

In honor of National Nutrition Month, KIND sent me a box load of treats last week. So sweet of them!

kind bars shipment

They included a lot of their bars and a few bags of granola. As you know, I generally don’t buy granola because I figure I can make my own cheaper and healthier.

But, I absolutely loved their granola. It turned out to be a breakfast treat. I enjoyed it because it wasn’t too high in sugar and the calories weren’t outrageous. Most contain about 5-6 g sugar per 1/3 cup serving.

I like some of their bars–mostly only the ones with 4 grams of sugar. These ones are all nuts compacted into a bar with some type of flavor like vanilla extract.

My favorite was the vanilla almond:

vanilla almond kind bar

Eating it in the car before I go to the gym! 7 g protein and 5 g fiber. Love that.

Overall, I have pretty good things to say about KIND products, except double check your ingredient label. Like I said, try to choose the flavors that have the least amount of added sugar (4-6 g is pretty good).

Thanks KIND!

, , , , ,

Eats this Week: Best Salad Ever and The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

March 4th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Eats of the Week - (0 Comments)

We had a lot of tasty eats this week! Mr. Cyclist and I discovered that if you roast little mini peppers they become even more sweet and delicious.

We ate them with a turkey burger (I left off the bun because I was saving room for chips hah):

turkey burger with roasted peppers

All you need to do is get the big bag of mini peppers from Costco or your local grocery store (if you can find them there) and then roast them on a baking sheet in the oven under the broiler until they brown. We add some olive oil and a few spices.

Next, we added those same peppers to what I am calling the best salad ever (for the moment anyway).

shrimp avocado salad

Lemon shrimp, avocado, Romano cheese, roasted mini peppers, spinach, onion, sun-dried tomatoes and a few olives. So tasty!

For another dinner, we took more avocados and put them on top of a vegetable omelet.

omelet with avocado

Served with a side of spiced black beans for a complete meal.

Last night, Psycho Holiday Baker made a batch of some of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. Even my Dad couldn’t stop eating them! And he doesn’t usually care much about cookies. The recipe was from Savory Sweet Life.

best chocolate chip cookies

For today, we went to one of those make-your-own stir-fry restaurants.

At first, I was horrible at putting together ingredients, but now I am a pro. Haha. Anyway, first I made a vegetable and tilapia curry mix:

tilapia vegetable red curry

And then, a second small vegetable mix with vodka sauce! It was amazing:

vodka sauce stir fry

Look at all of those veggies!

make your own stir fry

I don’t think he really liked getting his picture taken.

Now, it’s time to make some gumbo and relax. I already did my exercise by wandering around on a trail in the woods with Mr. Cyclist! Hah. Typical for a day off.

, , , , , , ,

Hello Fresh Food

March 1st, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Miscellaneous - (0 Comments)

I had a $40 gift card for Hello Fresh (a food delivery company that delivers the ingredients to make 3 fresh meals per week). I decided to try it out for one week. By the way, 3 meals (for 2 people) costs $59 for the week and that is just the vegetarian option. Not a great deal.

They are OCD with packaging:

hello fresh food

It turned out much better than I expected! The only negative is the cost, and that you might not get food that you want. You can vote on the meal choices, but they send you a recipe for whatever they decide. So, if you are picky, this is not for you.

Meal 1: Vegetable Curry with Brown Rice

vegetable red curry

By accident, I used the entire container of curry paste when you were only supposed to use 2 Tbsp! Yikes! The directions were not the best. So, it’s obviously not my fault ;-)

Meal 2: Lentil Squash Soup

lentil squash soup

This tasted so light and fresh, yet hearty. The flavors were excellent, and we agreed that we would try to make this at home again.

Meal 3: Cauliflower Stir Fry

This also turned out better than expected. I wasn’t a fan of the white rice, but it was OK to try something different. The recipe called for a crispy panko buttery topping, but it wasn’t too heavy.

cauliflower stir fry

We had the cauliflower again as leftovers with some salmon for protein the next night:

salmon and cauliflower

If I re-create any of these recipes, I will post my final edited recipe for everyone to try!

Overall, I canceled my subscription because of cost, and I like to be able to decide exactly what I am going to eat that week! But, for others who still want to cook, but want fresh recipes at their fingertips, this might be a good choice.

, , , , , ,

Healthy Mug Muffins

February 25th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Recipes - (0 Comments)

For a long time now, I have seen other bloggers posting their cake mugs or mug muffin ideas online. I didn’t think much of it because I immediately thought of it as an unhealthy cake.

But, you can easily turn it into a healthy snack or breakfast!

healthy mug muffin

healthy cake mug

I found this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie for the mug muffin pictured directly above. It came out great, so I used this as my starting point to make a healthier mug muffin.

Healthy Protein Mug Muffin

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 a banana (or 1 small) mashed–or you could use applesauce, sweet potato, or pumpkin
  • 2 Tbsp. brown rice protein powder
  • 2 Tbsp. oat flour
  • 2 packets stevia
  • 3-4 Tbsp. almond milk (or until the consistency of cake batter)
  • 1-2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • splash of vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt
  • dash of cinnamon
  • pinch of walnuts or almonds for the top

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients until you get a cake batter consistency. Top with walnuts.
  2. Microwave about 60-75 seconds.
  3. Cool 2 minutes before attempting to eat. It will be VERY hot.

Approx Nutrition Facts: 300 calories, 35 g carbohydrates, 7 g fiber, 9 g fat, 28 g protein, 38% of your DV for iron! Very low sugar–only from the banana.

Perfect nutrition for the morning. I ate some more cantaloupe, and the rest of the banana to go with it all!

, , , , , , , ,

When’s the last time you had a Philly Cheesesteak?

February 25th, 2013 | Posted by Nicole in Eats of the Week - (0 Comments)

What’s wrong with this picture? Haha.

easy cheese

My answer to this question would be… maybe in middle school? I have no idea. It has been forever. My Mom used to cook us that frozen meat and put it all under the broiler. It was delicious.

Since I am not a fan of beef and cheese, I had a modified cheesesteak for dinner. My Dad was kind enough to cook me chicken.

chicken Philly cheesesteak

Then, I topped with loads of lettuce and some spicy sauce.

healthier Philly cheesesteak

I was so excited about the sweet potato fries, that I had already been eating them off my plate before the picture ;-)

baked homemade sweet potato fries

For all of you who are don’t like to eat much white bread, here is a trick I use:

Pick out the fluffy inside of a bun, so that all you have is a bread sandwich “shell” to hold your toppings.

low carb sub roll

Now, compared to my meal, here is my brother’s cheesy less healthy meal. Ugh.

homemade philly cheesesteak

Does not look appetizing to me. Just looks gross. By the way, I was reading the ingredients of the Easy Cheese, and they seem to be a little better now. Easy Cheese is made with cheese, and canola oil now. And, of course, a list of preservatives and chemicals, but it is not as bad as I remember.

We all got excited about Philly Cheesesteaks, and were rushing to get to watch the Oscar’s that this happened:

dropped eggs

Whoops.

When I came home after the Oscar’s, the cats were loving their new Banana Republic shopping bag!

cat in shopping bag

cat in bag

Until tomorrow bloggies!

Going to start working on getting ready to get in my bikini at the end of March when I go to the beach. So, I will be posting some beach body worthy foods and recipe ideas starting Monday!

Until then…

cat in a shopping bag

, , , , ,