First thing this morning, Harley and I ventured out for a long walk around our neighborhood trail. As my stomach growled, I started to think about breakfast. Most days, I eat Greek yogurt with fruit, cereal with protein powder and fruit, or a smoothie for breakfast. But every couple of weeks, I get a craving for pancakes. Today was one of those days, and as we got some exercise in, I concocted a breakfast recipe in my head. Despite my love for pancakes, you won't find pancake mix in my kitchen cabinets. I've become accustomed to mixing a bunch of ingredients together to make up my own recipe when I have pancake yen. Here is today's creation: These light and fluffy banana pancakes have a subtle hint of peanut butter, and are the perfect portion to serve breakfast for one. I used ... [Read More]
healthy recipes
Portobello Goat Cheese Burgers
Before I get to my delicious dinner creation tonight, here's a recap of my eats today. As I discussed in yesterday's post about eating ample amounts of goodness to help me get over this dreaded cold, I ate a lot of fruits and veggies today: Breakfast this morning was a chopped Granny Smith apple sprinkled with cinnamon, topped with a Stonyfield Greek caramel yogurt + 1/2 serving of cashew pieces: I had a lunch date with a girlfriend I haven't seen in awhile. We had a fun time catching up at PF Chang's, where I munched on a mixed greens salad + steamed vegetable dumplings: After lunch, I headed to the Marine Corps base to watch a ceremony that my hubby was in. Being that it was 90 degrees outside today (which feels pretty damn hot when you've been spoiled living in San Diego!), I ... [Read More]
Skinny Penne A La Vodka
There's nothing like starting off my day with a good sweat session. I began my Sunday by going for a nice hike with Harley, and it was a perfect morning outside. Good cardio + a sleepy puppy before 10 am = awesomeness! Dinner I printed out a recipe for low-calorie penne a la vodka from the Shape magazine website a few months ago, and was waiting until I had a yen for pasta to try it out. Last night I was in a pasta mood, and when I got a whiff of my fragrant basil plant, wanted to use some for my dinner. I made a few changes to their recipe , such as nixing the pine nuts and adding spinach to the mix to add some veggie vitamins. Don't expect it to taste like the creamy, full-fat penne vodka version you'd get a restaurant, but this dish came out pretty tasty. Skinny Penne a la ... [Read More]
Curried Chickpea Cakes
"True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are united." - Alexander von Humboldt While I was visiting my family, workout DVDs were my friend -- Jillian Michaels' DVDs to be exact. One day I was able to be a guest at my mom's gym and take a class with her, but besides that, I did a good amount of jumping around in my parents' living room the past couple of weeks (and looked really cool doing it, might I add). My gym hiatus made me excited to get back into it once I got back to San Diego. Yesterday I really wanted to get to the gym, but a hectic day got in the way. I wound up hiking with Harley right before the sun set instead, so today was my first day back at the gym. I did a circuit workout that had me dripping sweat for 90 glorious minutes. I ... [Read More]
My New Favorite Summertime Mexican Salad
Hello from the West coast! I got back to San Diego last night after having a fantastic stay in Jersey. My Monday has been nonstop, and started off with me picking up my very excited puppy from the pet resort. Okay, I might have been very excited too... I missed my Harley girl the past few weeks! A few shots from last weekend at my family's shore house: I'm happy I got to spend a good amount of time with my cutie pie nephew during my trip. The last time I saw him he was just a little munchkin! I can't even deal with his sun outfit: I had an amazing time with my family and friends, and I think I miss them already. But let's face it, the past 2 weeks of my life have included too much food and booze, and not enough working out and sleep. It's not like I didn't eat ... [Read More]
Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins
Hope you're having a fabulous Thursday. I'm blogging to you as I sip my first glass of wine for the night - a yummy California Chardonnay: Backing up to last night's jewelry party, we had a fun relaxed ladies' night. Besides the chocolate Kahlua cake I talked about yesterday, we had a few other goodies: Roasted Red Hummus Platter - Champagne punch bowl - FYI, that fun ice/strawberry ring in the middle is pretty & decorative for the punch bowl, but not very practical. We had trouble getting it out of the way to scoop out punch with the ladle. [Note to self: come up with a smaller ice chiller next time!] My best friends Meaghan and Danielle came to the party: And this close-up photo of Meg and me is hilarious (Thanks for the photography styling, ... [Read More]