healthy – Fervent Foodie

Broccoli, Leek, & Potato Soup {vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, whole30 recipe}

January 6, 2016 2 Comments

I wrote this Broccoli, Leek, & Potato Soup post as part of a series for Tasteful Selections Potatoes, which is sponsoring Katie’s Krops, an awesome hunger-focused nonprofit fueled by kid-run gardens, through January 2016 (details below).

This January, I’ve committed to refocusing on healthy living. Just like the rest of humanity. Sure it’s cliché, but in my mind New Year’s Day is like hitting the “reset” button on the Nintendo. While I’m normally pretty health-focused, things got a little crazy last year (as they do every year), and I’m thankful for this month to refresh. At this time last year, I was timidly beginning my first Whole30–a nutritional reset program focused on super clean eating for thirty days–and I’m doing the same this year. When I mention the Whole30 in conversation, I often get concerned looks and questions of “wait… what the heck do you eat?” In a nutshell, the Whole30 rules out grains, sugar, beans, soy, dairy, unnatural ingredients, and booze. Which leaves us with protein, fats, and veggies. Lots and lots of veggies.

Broccoli, Leek, & Potato Soup Recipe {vegan, gluten free, whole30}

(bowls by JMNPottery)

The secret to a successful Whole30 (or any clean-eating program, for that matter) is planning, and my plan includes batch cooking tons of vegetables each week. This week, for example, I sautéed an entire head cabbage, roasted three pounds of brussels sprouts, sautéed three bell peppers and two onions, bought a giant container of baby spinach to toss in EVERYTHING, and made this hearty Broccoli, Leek, and Potato Soup. More vegetables than a vegetarian, as they say.

Fitness, What I ate

Run and done(ish)

June 28, 2011 6 Comments

The low down: This week marks week four of my self-proclaimed Kick the Knee Pain running program. I started off this new program with intervals of 2 minutes walking 1 minute running, and each day I run I bump my run interval time up by 1 minute. Sunday I completed 3 intervals of 8 minutes running and 1 minute walking.

Status: Other than some mild tightness in my knees, I haven’t had any knee issues so far!

Contributing “Success” Factors:

Buying new running shoes BEFORE starting to run.
Running primarily on softer surfaces (trails, paths, etc.)
NOT running every day and giving my knees a chance to recuperate
Being conscious of my natural tendency to heel-strike and focusing on NOT
Strength training. Building up the muscles in my legs and my core supposedly takes stress of the knees.

Conclusion: Boo ya.

*Note that stretching is not on the list above… feel free to leave angry comments about the importance of stretching. Maybe that will get it through my stubborn brain.

Short-Term Goal: Be at 30-minute running only intervals (i.e., no walking) with no knee pain by August 15th.

And now on to more exciting things… like this lovely tuna wrap I had for dinner Smile

Isn’t it perdy? This was a quick hodgpodge I threw together after work and consisted of:

1 can chunk tuna in water, drained
1 tbsp light HELMANS mayo (none of that miracle whip crap )
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 small dill pickle, chopped
Handful of romaine lettuce
Handful of grape tomatoes
S&P
Dried Dill
1 light Italian Flat-out wrap

This made for one gynormous wrap, that I basically inhaled. Along with some cucumber salad:

This should be called the Lazy Girl Salad. It consisted of 1 sliced cucumber, some white vinegar, and some dried dill. Easy peasy!

Tomorrow is Wednesday! And for the 92nd week in a row, I’m going to attempt to NOT forget it’s What-I-Ate-Wednesday. I even put a reminder in my phone Smile

Question of the evening: How do we feel about my giant head on the right hand side of the page?

Recipes

Lazy girl’s guide to stir fry

June 21, 2011 6 Comments

Lately I’ve had very little motivation to cook anything. Not sure what the deal is—the heat, the sleep deprivation, the lack of time, or perhaps a missing muse—whatever the case my meals sure have been lacking.

A month or so ago (while still in this cooking rut), I made stir fry for the first time. I’m talking FOR REAL stir fry. Wok and all. (courtesy of five well spent dollars at Ikea)

I wasn’t really sure where to start with the stir fry. So I kinda just went with what felt right. Lucky for me what felt right was a super fast, super easy, super tasty lazy girl stir fry Surprised smile

Here’s what you’ll need:

Minced garlic and or green onion (obviously I prefer both)
Pre-packaged stir-fry veggies (I like FRESH not frozen)
Some sort of meat (shrimp, chopped chicken, beef, etc)
Some sort of sauce (something low sugar/low sodium.. teriyaki, Szechuan, or whatever your heart desires)
S&P
Minute Brown Rice

Ok, so first up, you get the water boiling for the rice. I usually go with 1/3 cup of rice and then overdo it on the veggies – but it’s really your call, lazy girl.. Your call.

Cook the rice according to the package instructions (aka, dump rice in boiling water, simmer 5 min, remove from heat 5 min, FLUFF!).

Meanwhile, heat up a wok (or sauté pan) on medium high heat. Get that baby HOT! Coat with nonstick cooking spray, toss in your garlic and/or onions, and then cook up your meat. I like to season the meat with some pepper and garlic salt. When the meat is cooked through, remove it from the wok, and toss in your veggies, and season with S&P. I use half a bag (6 ounces) of the Eat Smart vegetable Stir Fry mix for one serving.

I use a little spatula to toss the veggies about and get them slightly crisp. I’m still working on my wok-toss, so the spatula will have to do for now.

Occasionally add 1 tsp of water to the wok to help the veg get their groove on while simultaneously making you feel like a wok-BAMF. The pan should SIZZLE when you do this. I know you’ve got it in you!

When the rice is just about done, add the meat back to the wok, and add in about 2 tbsp of your sauce of choice. Give it a nice stir (or a few tosses if you’ll feeling crazy), then pour into a bowl along with the rice.

Then eat your face off.

Schezuan Shrimp:

Teriyaki Chicken:

Good wok, lazy girl. Good wok. Smile

Stats on 1 serving (1/3 cup rice, 6 ounces veggie mix, 4 ounces shrimp, 2 tbsp Szechuan sauce): 300 calories, 40g carbs, 5g fat, 27g protein, 5g fiber

Recipes

Shrimp & Bean Tostado

August 11, 2010 2 Comments

YOWZA! Delicious dinner alert! In my continued effort to use of more of the leftovers from last night’s dinner, I decided to make a tostado for dinner. A Tostado is an “open-face” enchilada that you can order at pretty much any Mexican restaurant. The base for the tostado is a flat hard-shelled taco shell, and it is topped with a variety amazing traditional mexican ingredients.

First thing first, I need to crisp up my tortilla. I sprayed a little cake pan with some cooking spray, and then tossed a Mama Lupe low carb tortilla into the pan. I rubbed the tortilla around in the cooking spray on both sides, then popped into a 415 degree oven. I cooked the tortilla for about 6 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Mama Lupe gone crispy:

Meanwhile, I got to work on the shrimpies. I sprayed a saute pan with cooking spray, seasoned both sides of the shrimp with McCormick’s Mexican blend seasoning, Cayenne pepper, and some black pepper. Then I tossed them into the pan with a few drizzles of lime juice, and cooked them until opaque.

Next I heated up a 1/4 cup of Old El Paso Fat-Free Refried Beans in the microwave and smeared them on top of the crispy tortilla.

Come to mama… Mama Lupe that is 😉

I also heated up some of the leftover grilled veggies from last night’s dinner (this was approximately 1/4 cup red onion, 1/4 of a green pepper, and 1/4 cup zucchini). Once heated, I added the chopped up shrimp and about 1 tbsp of chopped fresh cilantro and gave it a good mix.

Poured the veggies and shrimp onto the bean loaded tortilla and topped with 1 Sargento Light Mozzarella string cheese that I had cut into sticks:

Into a 415 degree oven for 5 minutes until the cheese was nice and melty… Try not to drool on your keyboard 😉

Ohhhhh yes.

But that’s not all!

I topped the tostado off with some shredded lettuce, 1/4 chopped red onion, 1/2 a plum tomato, a few banana peppers, and 2 tbsp fat-free breakstones sour cream.

Yeah that’s right.

Check me out:

Soooooo f.r.i.g.g.i.n. delicious…

The entire time I was eating this I kept thinking “why does this taste SOOOO good?”

A.) Cilantro

B.) Spicy Shrimp

C.) Beans??

D.) VEGGIES GALORE??!?!?

Nope.. It’s actually E.) All of the above! 😀

Stats on dinner: 323 calories, 36g carbs, 6g fat, 29g protein, 10g fiber

Time to get my pack on for the HLS!!! Anyone have tips for packing light?? I’m trying to avoid checked luggage fees at ALL costs…

What I ate

Tuesday GFNBW, OO, BCW!

July 13, 2010 5 Comments

After my big b-day dinner last night, it felt especially good to get my run in this morning. Today marks the completion of week #4 of my interval training plan! I can’t believe I’ve made it this far, and still no knee pain. I’m really looking forward to signing up for some races once I’m back to running a 100% of the time!

Here are my Runkeeper Pro stats for the interval:

3.04 miles in 32 minutes. Not too shabby, given that I was power walking for 12 of the 32 minutes. Next, I’ll be doing 3 10-minute intervals of 7 minutes running and 3 minutes walking. Part of me is excited for this bump in run time, and part of me is nervous!

I’m not sure how they calculate the calories burned in this app since it never asked me to input my height, weight, or sex. Pretty sure it’s not accurate, but at least the GPS function works! Can’t really complain since it was free 🙂

Breakfast #1: GFNBW

Grilled Fruit and Nut Butter Wrap! These always make me smile 🙂

Today I spread 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond butter atop a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla along with some sliced strawberries and blueberries.

Then I grilled the wrap on the George Foreman grill, wrapped in foil, and enjoyed the deliciousness at my desk at work:

Stats on B#1: 193 calories, 18g carbs, 12g fat, 9g protein, 8g fiber

Breakfast #2: OO

For my midmorning breakfast I had… surprise surprise – overnight oats! I switched up my usual mix by adding blueberries. I know, really pushing the boundaries here.

I swear I’m going to get more adventurous with my overnight oats! I’m going to miss these creamy morning treats on vacation:

Stats on B#2: 208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch: BCW

I had planned on making a new dish using the leftover crabmeat from my birthday dinner, but I was short on time this morning so I quickly grabbed the fixin’s for a buffalo chicken wrap.

That consisted of:

1 Mama Lupe’s Low Carb Tortilla
3 ounces shredded chicken
2 tbsp plain Dannon Greek Yogurt
1 tbsp Franks Red Hot
Sprinkling of Black Pepper & Garlic Salt

I had the wrap cold this time, and it was DELICIOUS. Reminded me of the buffalo chicken dip Jarrod and I always make for get togethers, only about three thousand times healthier!

Stats on Lunch: 166 calories, 8g carbs, 4g fat, 28g protein, 4g fiber

Tonight

The Man Candy comes home tonight! His flight is only three hours delayed… Oh well. Tomorrow we’re heading southward to Charlotte, NC! Roadtrip! 😀

Last night, Jarrod finally got in a Belgium Waffle:

That is RIDICULOUS. I’m jealous!

Speaking of the man candy, you may be wondering why on earth I call the BF that. Early on in our dating, we were out at a local bar and my dad happened to show up! I was unsure whether or not Jarrod would be comfortable with me calling him my boyfriend, so I introduced him to my dad as my “man candy” (i.e., manly eye candy)… Totally less awkward than calling him my boyfriend, right?! Hahaha… well the nickname just sorta stuck. My family still refers to him as my man candy. He is pretty easy on the eyes afterall 😉

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