Recently…

Yay, it’s finally the weekend! I love that cozy place between last week’s craziness and preparation for next week. Saturdays are where the magic happens!

After a glorious 8 hour slumber, we headed out for breakfast and the farmer’s market.

fruit/yogurt/granola parfait, scrambled egg, Companion 5-Grain toast, and coffee.

Today’s haul included eggs, beets, peaches, blackberries, green beans, sweet corn, broccoli, heirloom tomatoes, and summer squash.

We also made a quick stop at the mall (before it got crazy busy) and made it home by 11a.m. Love Saturday mornings like that!

Let’s reverse– some highlights from last week…

Overnight oats with the sunrise. Blueberry/peach is my new favorite combo! I’m also loving Wallaby greek yogurt. This batch of oats is topped with toasted crushed walnuts.

Christmas in July! French press for one with Nutcracker Sweet inbru that I found in the depths of the cabinet.

Gracie wishing I’d made French press for two…

Food For Life Ezekiel Flax toast, scrambled eggs, and peaches +blueberries…

My new favorite snack: frozen banana slices with a schmear of coconut almond butter.

Popcorn + almonds

A few epic salads were devoured last week….

This one is a mix of greens, roasted corn/green beans/onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, croutons, and tofu. Baked salt & vinegar chips on the side.

And this one is greens, a crumbled veggie burger, brown rice, cucs, tomatoes, and dolups of hummus and greek yogurt. The salt & vin chips made another appearance!

The best dinner of the week was this Mexican bowl, hands down!

Brown rice, smashed pinto beans, sautéed summer squash and onions seasoned with chili powder/cayenne/paprika, tomatoes, greek yogurt, cilantro, and a heap of nooch! So. Good.

Also had some fun with the spiralizer. More on that later!

Also last week….

Mornin’ garden gazin’ (check out that bedhead, hehe)

And a midweek Dave Matthews Band concert! Out past 8pm on a Wednesday night? Who are we??

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I’ve got some good stuff in the drafts folder! Thanks for reading 🙂

Cheat Meals and an All-in-one Workout

Hi, happy weekend!

I’m not a huge fan of the term “cheat meal” because of its close proximity to the other bad word- “diet”. However, a cheat meal is a helpful concept for many people. I also loosely abide by this healthy eating guideline. JWD and I generally choose one meal per week to indulge- and by indulge I mean go out to eat. This is primarily a budgeting tool, but it helps keep us healthy too.

Many of my clients designate a cheat meal because it forces them to put thought into their splurges and gives them an incentive to stay on track the rest of the week. They plan ahead, pick a meal or event where splurging is inevitable (dinner with friends, birthday party, etc.), and savor and enjoy every bite when they sit down to that meal. It also stops them from eating so-not-worth-it stale birthday cake in the break room. Who wants to waste their cheat meal on that??

WARNING: a cheat meal is NOT an excuse to eat everything in sight. After all, it’s your cheat meal not last meal. Keep it reasonable.

So if I had to choose a cheat meal for last week, Thursday night’s pizza and beer would be it! First, let’s back up a bit…

I started Thursday with a tall green juice, coffee, and overnight oats (oats, soymilk, greek yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, stevia, and cinnamon).

I worked all morning, then threw together lunch with leftovers before heading to a meeting. Greens, salmon, millet, avocado dressing, and melon on the side.

The afternoon included a grocery store run, a bike ride, and a quick shower before a fun night out!

JWD and I went to an O.A.R. concert. Pre-concert festivities:

Pizza and beer! The Pageant is an awesome venue in St. Louis. They serve craft beer and allow you to bring in your own food, so we ordered a Pi pizza to go. 

The show was AMAZING! We didn’t get home until after midnight (wayyy late for us), so I was a tired girl on Friday. To rebound from a “cheat meal” night, I drink plenty of water (the sodium is what kills me), resume my normal healthy eats, and get in a good workout. No need to deprive or “burn off extra calories”.

I want to share Friday’s workout with you because it was a fun one.

Cheat meals- yay or nay?

Hope you’re having a fantastic weekend! Thanks for reading 🙂

Good Eats On The Road

Hey there friends! Whew, what a weekend. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did! Let me start from the beginning…

On Friday I left for Summer Camp, an outdoor music festival full of camping, dirt, environmentalism, beautiful music, and….. great food! Yes, you can have delicious, healthy food while traveling. It just takes a little planning 🙂

~What To Pack, How To Pack It, and What To Do With It
Whether you are on plane, train, or automobile, in a boat, ten or hotel- packing healthy snacks is a must! It’ll stop you from giving in to convenience store junk food, it’ll prevent fast food temptation, and most importantly- it’ll keep you from going hungry!! I spent most of Friday morning packing up the grocery store goodies for the trip. I try to choose things that travel well and are pretty much ready-to-eat.

Fruits and veggies are a great travel snack because they are full of water and fiber to curb between-meal hunger and they satisfy you when travel boredom hits.

Of course we packed some carbs! LOVE this bread. Seeduction from Whole Foods. It’s soft, nutty and grainy with a touch of sweetness. Companion bagels and some unpictured Ezekiel Sprouted Whole Grain Flourless Tortillas.

To pair with our fruits, veggies, and breads we packed plenty of dips and spreads. Nut butters, honey, hummus, and goat cheese.

We also packed a couple high fiber cereals, mini almond milks, and yogurt. Usually we buy yogurt in large containers because it’s cheaper so we were REALLY excited to pick out mini ‘gurts in different flavors. Strawberry, fig, honey, pomegranate, six grains strawberry, and cherry vanilla.

We also packed some unpictured munchies like potato chips, pretzels, and bars.

When traveling, I prefer individual serving sizes so they are ready to go with no labor. Tupperware and plastic baggies become your best friend for traveling foods. I washed and cut all the veggies and stored them in tupperware. I sliced the breads and put them in tupperware. The cereal went in to plastic baggies so they were easier to tote. If you are flying or going on a shorter trip, you can pre-make peanut butter sandwiches or turkey and cheese tortillas, but since we were camping for the whole weekend we brought the whole jars of spreads. In an attempt to be green, we packed reusable knives, spoons, and plastic bowls, but you could also use disposable utensils. We packed the breads, fruits, veggies, ‘gurts, and spreads in a cooler. The type of traveling will designate the type of storage you use- whether it be a large cooler like we used or a small insulated lunch box.

Here are the various meal combos we munched on…

• veggies and hummus
• tortilla with nut butter and banana
• tortilla/sandwich with hummus, goat cheese, cucumbers, greens, and turkey
• bagel/bread spread with nut butter and honey or goat cheese
• yogurt with cereal
• plain fruits, veggies, and bars for mid-meal snacks

Part of the fun of traveling is having NEW food experiences, so we definitely didn’t pass up any opportunities to try something different. The festival had some great food vendors that offered a variety of foods including ethnic foods, vegetarian items, and yummy homemade treats.

One night for dinner we couldn’t pass up this fresh veggie curry pita. The pita was soft and doughy and the filling was spicy and flavorful. I’m going to attempt to replicate it in my own kitchen.

We also shared a late-night snack of homemade fresh cut sweet potato fries. They were a little greasy because I’m used to baked fries, but they were still tasty. (this picture mysteriously disappeared from my camera 😦 )

Another inevitable part of eating while traveling is being faced with indulgences. Here are the 2 questions I ask myself before indulging: 1. Is it something exclusive to this traveling adventure or is it something I can get anytime? 2. Do I really want to splurge on this treat or am I only doing it because it’s in front of me and I’m “on vacation”? One of the vendors was selling homemade ice cream in several different flavors. Ice cream is something I rarely eat, let alone homemade ice cream, so it was definitely a treat for me. I asked myself my two indulgence questons and considering it was 90 degrees outside and I hadn’t had an afternoon snack, I said “Yes please!” to one scoop of homemade cookies and cream ice cream in a cake cone. I enjoyed every melty lick 🙂

I also enjoyed several other indulgences over the weekend: a few ice-cold Goose Island Summertime beers. Yummy!

~Exercising While Traveling

Exercising when you’re traveling is important, especially if you know you’ll be indulging more than usual. If you are on an active vacation (hiking, skiing, sightseeing on foot) then fitting in a litte exercise will be easy! In our case, we walked A LOT and carried A LOT of camping gear a looooong way. I actually felt kind of sore! They also offered free yoga classes twice a day at the festival 🙂 If you are away on business or visiting relatives then exercise might not be the top priority. If you are staying in a hotel, check for a fitness center or pool. You can hop on a cardio machine or swim laps when you have a little free time. No gym? Walk the hotel halls or stairs for 30 minutes. if you are flying, walk as briskly as possible through the airport, take the stairs and skip the people-movers (as long as you aren’t late for your flight!). If you are sightseeing, check for bike rentals or bike tours instead of a bus tour. If you are visiting family or friends, encourage them to join you for a walk after dinner or first thing in the morning. You can get in your daily dose of exercise AND inspire and motivate others with your healthy habits!

I’m looking forward to sharing my first RECIPE POST later this week!

Thanks for reading 🙂