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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Spoiled husbands and salad dressing

Anyone who knows my husband well enough knows he's spoiled... at least by me, in the kitchen. I make all of his meals for him during the week, pack them for him each day and even toss in some snacks. He does have a nearly 90-minute commute to work each way, so I guess the comforts of home cooking are well-deserved. Maybe I'm the spoiled one... at home all day with two toddlers?

Rather than purchasing pre-made or pre-packaged food, I try to create all of our food in our kitchen, which fortunately enough was recently renovated by my father and brothers. So in reality, I spoil everyone in the house, myself included. I will admit, though, that my kids do eat goldfish crackers, chicken nuggets and fruit snacks. My secret is out.

One of the things I find myself making often is homemade salad dressing. My husband would eat a salad everyday for lunch and dinner if that's what I made for him. To be honest, I get bored of making and eating salads so I try to limit salad intake to one meal a day, for me at least.

Salad dressing is one of the simplest things to make and you really don't need a recipe to do it. I've followed recipes for dressing in the past and probably adhered to them the first few times I made them, but after a dozen times of mixing up a dressing, you start getting a little crazy... with the ingredients that is. Here's what last night's dressing consisted of:


I'll I did was juice the lemon and mix it with about 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard (you would not believe how much of this I go through making salad dressings!), 1 teaspoon of local honey and a good, long pour of EVOO. I season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and shake it all together in a mason jar. Taste it and add whatever strikes you. Simple, all natural and readily available if you have the ingredients on hand. You don't have to worry about a packaged dressing's expiration date or what sort of fillers are in it. 

My husband's love for salad and an extra large bunch of kale that had been sitting in my fridge for several days led me to create a couple of recipes this afternoon. Click here to check that out. I have to admit the balsamic baked kale was mighty tasty. 

I love food, but I love my husband, our health and our family more. It may take a little while longer and a little bit more effort, but I'll keep cranking out the salad dressing if it means we're eating better. 


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Veggies in disguise

I have to admit I've been pretty terrible at eating the adequate amount of vegetables lately. It's not that I don't like them,  because I actually do. It's just that I'm getting so tired of eating and cooking veggies. There are only so many ways to cook a green bean.

So that being said, I've been doing my best to sneak veggies in whenever possible. And I have to admit I'm pretty good at this. I have two toddlers who like to eat, but often vegetables are the first things to hit the floor or the last things left on the plate. My dachshund has definitely been meeting her daily required servings for vegetables, though.

One of the best ways to increase your vegetable intake is to add a serving to a smoothie. I've been doing this for myself and my daughters. Lately, we've been using spinach along with milk, non-fat Greek yogurt, frozen berries, local honey and a splash of vanilla. Or, if you're feeling a bit more industrious, try roasting some beets and tossing them into a smoothie. Here's a recipe I was inspired to create after having a "Berry Up-beet" from Jamba Juice. My version does not cost $6.


1 beet, roasted and peeled
1/2 cup frozen berries
1/4 cup frozen mango
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup water
1 cup plain NF Greek yogurt

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Enjoy!

I've also been known to throw chopped spinach into a turkey meatloaf or meatballs. I came up with a great recipe for a Mediterranean Turkey-Spinach Meatloaf over the weekend. You don't even notice that you're eating spinach, which is one of the reasons I love using it so often. Aside from the meatloaf, I also tossed cooked spinach into a gluten-free mac and cheese I created for my kids (I was inspired by my favorite foodie, the Barefoot Contessa... she has a great mac and cheese recipe!).

Even in baking there's room for veggies. I've recently become obsessed with Elana's Pantry, a great site for gluten-free cooking and baking. I've made her pumpkin pie muffins and carrot muffins with coconut flour. Not only do they taste absolutely delicious, but they give you a little bit of your veggies and replace regular old flour with higher fiber and higher protein alternatives like almond and coconut flours. All of Elana's recipes also include no white sugar and no fake sugar substitutes, which I am a fan of.

When you're trying to eat healthy and you're the one doing all the food shopping and cooking, it can be hard to keep up the momentum. What makes it easier is finding and sharing simple recipes that taste good and fill you up.

What is your all-time favorite clean-eating recipe?


What resources do you use for clean cooking and baking?





Sunday, February 12, 2012

Setting goals and giving stuff away!

I have a to share a secret: I am terrible at setting goals. Absolutely terrible. I am good about sticking to my priorities, which include working out and eating healthy, but when it comes to setting specific goals to accomplish I usually fall flat. This kind of makes me feel bad.

Over the last several months I've been trying to change this behavior. I've been following several inspiring women online, my favorite being a group of women at Girls Gone Strong. And I've even bought a book to help me out: Push, by Chalene Johnson (yes, the Chalene Johnson of TurboFire and Chalean... that woman INSPIRES!).

One of the things I have found to work for me so far is to write down what I want to achieve this year. This is one of the simplest and most effective things you can do for yourself. By writing something on a piece of paper, in a journal or even online, it becomes more real. It's recorded and there for you to look at whenever you need an extra push.

And to make me more accountable to what I want to accomplish, I'm going to share some of the goals I've set for myself thus far. In no particular order, here they are.

1). To compete... in something. Real specific, I know, but my goals are a work in progress. Since the birth of my second daughter, I have had this urge to really test myself. In what, I'm not sure. I've toyed with the notion of a fitness or figure competition, powerlifting and even Crossfit. For me, my biggest fear is failure, and that is something I need to conquer first.

2). To bench press my body weight, squat 1 and 1/2 times my body weight and perform at least 10 pull-ups. For me, this is a relatively easy goal to accomplish. Reaching these numbers only means going to the gym week in and week out, and continuing to improve upon my work. As long as I push myself in my workouts and keep adding plates to the bar, I'll reach these numbers.

3). To educate myself in the arena of nutrition. I have a pretty decent understanding of nutrition, which probably comes from the fact that I've been "watching" what I eat since I was a teenager. All kidding aside, I did receive some basic training in nutrition when I became a personal trainer and Tae Bo fitness instructor. Even today I continue to read health and fitness magazines and educate myself on the best foods to put into my body. To reach this goal specifically, though, I've decided to sign up to get a Precision Nutrition Certification. We'll see where I go from there.

4). To share my success with Beachbody products with more people. This may sound like a shameless plug, but in all honesty, it is not. Last April I became a Beachbody coach because the company's products truly helped my survive my life as a new mom. I went from being someone who had her hands in several different projects at a time (at one point I was working as a waitress, personal trainer and newspaper editor... and enjoying it), to someone whose sole purpose was to care for another human being. And then it became two human beings. I love my daughters more than words can express, and I wouldn't trade the last 2 and 1/2 years for anything. But at times, it was rough. I didn't care for myself as well as I should and rarely took time for myself. And then I conquered P90X again. And did 2 rounds of Insanity. And then I added Shakeology. And I did all of that from home, being able to spend as much time with my girls as possible. And now Beachbody has given me the freedom to get back to my heavy lifting at the gym and the ability to share its success with others. That being said, if you haven't checked out my site, please do so here: beachbodycoach.com/jhaus33. It might just help you out of a rut!

So, what specific goals have you set for yourself? How do you stay accountable to what you want to accomplish? These are the things I struggle with, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Feel free to leave some comments on what you want to achieve in 2012 and what you're doing to get there. By trying to help yourself, you may help someone else.

Now for the fun part: free stuff! Here are the detes: like my Facebook page here and leave me a comment below telling me you did so. I will randomly select a winner to receive a free sample of Shakeology along with a shaker cup!!!