A Truly Green Monster

Maybe it was all the green grass around me, but all I could think about while mowing the lawn this afternoon was making a giant green monster!

Into the blender: 

  • 10 small fresh strawberries
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze vanilla almond milk
  • 2 packets Truvia
  • 2 cups spinach
  • ICE
  • 1 tbsp oikos plain yogurt (would have used more, but that’s all that was left in the container)

 Gave it a thorough immulsification:

 That is a seriously green monster smoothie: 

 Stats on the GM:  64 calories, 15g carbs, 2g fat, 4g protein, 3g fiber

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Pita Pizza & a Green Monster

Some nights I am really amped to try out a new recipe…. And some nights, I just want pizza.  Tonight was one of THOSE nights. 

I decided to use a Joseph’s Middle East Bakery Low Carb pita as my base.  I topped that off with:

  • 1/4 cup Classico Fire Roasted/Tomato Garlic spaghetti sauce
  • Sprinkling of garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, dried oregano, black pepper, and red pepper flakes
  • 1 ounce thinly sliced grilled chicken (leftover from the batch I grilled up sunday night)
  • 1 light babybel cheese sliced into four super thin discs
  • 1 tbsp fat free ricotta
  • thinly sliced red onion
  • a couple thinly sliced cherry tomatoes

Popped it into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Then, I topped it with some chopped basil from the back yard garden:

I served the pizza up with a side salad that consisted of romaine, cherry tomatoes, red onion, banana peppers, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Northern Italian dressing with Basil and Romano:

The salad was delicious.  That Ken sure does know a thing or two about dressings 😉

And the pizza was..  in a word… Umm…. YUM.  Ok, that’s two words, but regardless this pizza really hit the spot:

Soooo goood!!!  Why don’t I make pizza more often?!

Check out this huge banana pepper I’ve got growing in the back yard:

He might have to go on my next salad 🙂

Stats on the pizza: 197 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 20g protein, 5g fiber 

Stats on the salad:  97 calories, 13g carbs, 5g fat, 3g protein, 4g fiber

All together now:  294 calories, 33g carbs, 11g fat, 23g protein, 9g fiber

 

I’ve previously eluded to the fact that I’m a messy cook.  Given the simplicity of my dinner tonight, you’d probably assume that my kitchen would be in pretty good shape.  Whelp, you’d be wrong! 

Take a look at this monstrosity:

I wish I were kidding.  Can you imagine the disasters I could create if I had a big kitchen?

After dinner, I couldn’t wait for late-night snack time to roll around.  I decided earlier in the day that I’d make up a green monster smoothie for my snack to give me lots of energy for my run in the morning.

Threw the following into the blender:

  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk
  • 1/4 cup Oikos plain Greek Yogurt
  • 1 packet Truvia (stevia) all natural sweetener
  • 1/2 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1 cup fresh SPINACH
  • 3 ice cubes

It’s green.  It’s delicious.

Mmmmm…

Thankfully, the green monster gave me the energy I needed to clean up that disaster kitchen:

Stats on the green monster: 105 calories, 18g carbs, 2g fat, 9g protein, 5g fiber 

Blog Updates

I recently updated my About Me page to incorporate some comments I had posted on the blog.  I also added a Foodie Q&A page where I plan to keep a running list of questions readers ask.  And as always, I am continuously linking all my recipe posts to the Recipe Page.  This page is actually getting pretty long, so I think I’ll be reformatting it in the near future.

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Cold and crunchy Monday

It’s Monday!  Woot. 

😉 actually today has been a pretty decent Monday thus far.  The office is super quiet since many of my coworkers opted to use our floating holiday today.  I decided to bank mine and take my birthday off (next week) instead.

Hope you all have a fabulous fun/food/framily filled weekend!

The PB2 Giveaway ended last night!!!  Read further for the lucky winner 😀

Breakfast #1

It’s been so hot these past few days, that I was craving something super cold for breakfast this morning.  I decided a fruit smoothie would be the ticket to cooling things off.  I threw the following into the blender:

  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Vanilla Greek Yogurt
  • 1 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia) all natural sweetener

Once I blended everything up, I opened the fridge to put the almond milk away and saw a lonely half-empty bag of spinach sitting on the shelf begging to be eaten. 

I’ve read lots of posts on the “green monster” smoothies, especially on Julie’s blog, but I’ve never tried one myself… Until today that is!

I grabbed a handful of spinach and threw it into the blender and gave it a good pulse. 

Yes, that is spinach you are seeing

The result:

One huge smoothie with “monster” flecks:

This was surprisingly tasty!  You can’t specifically taste the spinach itself, but it gives the smoothy a hearty fullness.  It also cuts on some of the sweetness of the fruit, so I was glad I used a whole packet of truvia.  I think I’ve officially jumped on the green monster bandwagon 😀

If you’re intrigued — check out the Green Monster Movement.

Stats on the Green Monster:  197 calories, 37g carbs, 2g fat, 12g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfast #2

O…. O…..   mmmmmm…. haven’t had overnight oats in a few days, so I went with the go-to OO Combo: 

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon
  • fresh strawberries

All stirred up:

Overnight oats… oh how I’ve missed you :-*

Stats on the oats:  208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

Keeping on with today’s cold theme, I thought I’d add a little crunch to my lunch with a nice salad.  Last night, I threw together a monster salad that consisted of:

  • 1/2 bag fresh express romaine
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1/4 cup white onion
  • 1 serving baby carrots
  • 1 link of Jennie O’s hot turkey sausage

Topped it all off with 2 tbsp of fat free ranch dressing:

Stats on the Monster Salad:  295 calories, 28g carbs, 10g fat, 22g protein, 7g fiber

And the winner of the PB2 Giveaway ……………

Drumroll please……

Based on the random number generator, the lucky winner is:

Monique at She’s Going the Distance!!!

  

Thank you guys for taking the time to post on my blog!  I really love seeing what you guys have to say, and as cheesy as it may sound (who doesn’t love a little cheese?) it really brightens my day 😀

Monique – please send your mailing address to:  ferventfoodie@gmail.com

Everyone else – you can purchase PB2 online at www.netrition.com.  Since it’s flat rate shipping, I’d recommend getting some Mama Lupe’s low-carb tortillas, Joseph’s low-carb pita, and some carba nada pasta 🙂

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Carb tooth strikes again

Happy July!!!!

Can’t believe it’s already here… There is so much going on over the next few months (my birthday, vaca, parties, get-togethers, HLS!!!), I’m sure they are going to fly by!  Psst… don’t forget to comment on the PB2 giveaway by Sunday!

The first day of every month my firm brings in a “Birthday Breakfast” to celebrate all the employees whose birthdays fall in that month.  The spread always consists of fruits and a variety of carblicious goodies to tempt me:

I really wanted to toast up one of those bagels and smear it in cream cheese and hot sauce (if you haven’t tried it and you like hot food, TRY IT NOW).  Something about baked goods and breads make my mouth water….  I wish I could get past it, but my body is head over heals in love with these unhealthy treats!!!  Darn you, carb tooth!

Since my birthday falls in this particular month, I allowed myself a tiny sliver of a blueberry muffin.  Ridiculous.  I just picked up some Bob’s Red Mill low-carb baking mix, so maybe I’ll try and make some healthified baked goods this weekend 🙂

 

Breakfast #1

For breakfast today, I had the leftover Canadian Bacon Eggins I made earlier in the week.

Just as tasty the second time around 🙂

Stats:   147 calories, 6g carbs, 1g fat, 26g protein, 0g fiber

 

Breakfast #2

For breakfast #2, I had 1.5 cups Trader Joe’s Vanilla greek yogurt with 1/4 cup blueberries.

I love all the fresh fruits and berries this time of year!  Cannot get enough.

 Stats:   171 calories, 28g carbs, 0g fat, 14g protein, 1g fiber

 

Lunch

My sandwich yesterday was so frickin delicious, I decided to make a similar one today.  I took a 3.5 ounce chicken breast, 1 cup spinach, 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Spicy Hummus, tomato, and onion and smashed it into a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita.

Also had some sliced up red pepper on the side.  I looovvveeeeee hummuss…. mmmmm…..

Stats on stuffed pita & red pepper:   240 calories, 25g carbs, 7g fat, 28g protein, 9g fiber

Snack

I tried the Trader Joe’s Mocha yogurt, but was NOT a fan. 

It had a weird tartness about it… and overall was just different than I was expecting.  First thing I’ve purchased from TJ’s that I didn’t enjoy!

QUESTION OF THE DAY:  What are your favorite healthified cookout recipes?

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Getcho run on!

What is it about running first thing in the morning that makes me feel like I can tackle anything the day brings me?  This morning I completed Day #3, Week #2 of my interval training plan.  Woo hoo!  That means Friday I’ll be up to 2 minutes walking, 4 minutes running… and still no knee pain in sight 🙂

  

Breakfast #1

In honor of the fabulous PB2 GIVEAWAY, I decided to make a grilled fruit and nut butter wrap using Chocolate PB2

I took 2 tbsp of powdered chocolate PB2:

Then added 1 tbsp water:

Then smeared it on a  Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla and topped with 1/4 cup each of strawberries and blueberries

I wrapped everything up, and put it on the george foreman for 5 minutes.  Then wrapped in foil and stuck in my purse:

And enjoyed at my desk at work:

Mmmmmmm…. love love love the grilled fruit and nut butter wraps!!!

Stats on the wrap:  145 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber

 

Make sure you post a comment on the PB2 giveaway by midnight Sunday July 4th!

 

Breakfast #2

Bowl of overnight oats consisting of:

  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze almond milk
  • 1 packet Truvia (stevia)
  • Cinnamon
  • Fresh Strawberries & Blueberries (added this morning)

I <3 overnight oats.

 Stats on the oats:  203 calories, 39g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

 

Lunch

Last night when I was packing my lunch I was really craving a sandwich.  (The carb tooth strikes again!) 

Sunday night I grilled up a big batch of chicken breasts seasoned with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning.  So I packed one of the breasts (about a 2.5 ouncer), 1 cup spinach, tomato, onion, a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Spicy hummus.

Can you say YUM?  Yum. 😀

Stats on the sammy:  230 calories, 29g carbs, 5g fat, 22g protein, 9g fiber

 

Women Power

Tonight I’m headed up to Cleveland for the Athena Women’s award dinner.  This opportunity came up through my involvement with the Knowledgeable Network of Women through the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce.

And I’m taking my camera.  First time for me to let my inner food blogger out at a business function… should be interesting 🙂

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