If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me tweet that my office building had a pot luck lunch this afternoon. We love doing this once a month or so. This time around, we tried to all bring something healthy. Unfortunately, the office downstairs didn’t get the memo, and one of the women made the most incredibly, sinful desserts I have ever tasted.
She brought these amazing home made oatmeal/apple cheesecake bites; I asked her for the recipe and she gave me a quick step by step of how she created this masterpiece….
Mix a batch of oatmeal cookie batter
Lay it in the bottom of a baking tray
Mix together 2 packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, some cinnamon, and powdered sugar
Lay mixture over oatmeal cookie batter
Thinly slice apples (or pears, peaches…any fruit) and sautee in butter/cinnamon for a few minutes until soft
Lay apple sizes on top of cream cheese
Refrigerate & slice
I totally ignored my effort to eat healthy during the week by having one of these this afternoon, but it was so worth it; and I learned a great new recipe!
I needed to whip up a quick dinner the other night, but wanted something simple and fairly healthy. I pulled ingredients from my fridge and pantry and made a primavera-esque dish that was actually really good!
I gathered as many veggies as I could find- broccoli, carrots, onions, and mushrooms.
I sliced my onion and immediately put it into the frying pan with some olive oil to caramelize. After the onion slices started loosing their shape I added the rest of the veggies, a tad more olive oil and some salt and pepper to season.
Cook until all veggies are soft
While the vegetables were on the stove, I cooked and drain some wheat spaghetti in a separate pot…
Wheat pasta takes just a bit longer to cook.
Once the veggies were done, I mixed them into the pasta and added a bit more olive oil to substitute as a sauce.
Sprinkle with grated parmesan, salt and pepper to taste
That’s it!
The dish was actually pretty filling and I had plenty of leftovers to bring for lunch the next day.
I love to cook, but not so much on weeknights. I’m always looking for simple and healthy dinner recipes- please feel free share your favorites below!
So I’ve been doing a great job (in my opinion) of eating healthy and increasing my exercise the past few weeks. However, one cannot live on fruits, veggies and low carbs alone. I decided that this weekend I would indulge a bit and satisfy some of the major cravings I’d been having.
Friday night I usually come home from work, throw on some sweats, order a stuffed crust pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut (my weakness), watch a movie and paint my nails. It is honestly the highlight of my week- it’s my time to vegg, relax and unwind. My boyfriend is usually at the studio (he sings in an incredible group- check them out), and my roommate is far more ambitious at maintaining her social life than I am (LOL) so it’s nice me-time 🙂
In my conscious effort to spend less money and eat healthier I decided against ordering a pizza (because I knew I would eventually eat the whole thing) so I made a small personal pizza I had in the back of the freezer- which hit the spot. I helped myself to some other junk foods that I still had in the house, but all in moderation! I was proud of myself for not eating TOO much garbage.
I had been craving nacho cheese for the longest time!
Even though I didn’t completely pig out I still felt SO guilty, so first thing Saturday morning I spent some time exercising (think lots of crunches, squats, and jumping jacks) it was enough to get me feeling good again and ready to continue my weekend of indulging…
My boyfriend and I had to take a trip to the Manchester mall on Saturday afternoon; whenever we’re in that area we can’t help but stop at Texas Roadhouse. We went for lunch and got a baby blossom to share, he ordered potato skins as a meal (I tried to stop him lol) and I got a country fried chicken steak (? I never know what the heck it’s called…but it’s chicken) I got a side salad and a sweet potato as my sides.
The fact that eating all of this food is generally normal for me, was a wake up call. After eating so well, I couldn’t bring myself to completely fill up on garbage. I ended up eating some of the onion, my side salad and sweet potato. I barely touched my chicken- so I packed it up to bring home.
Baby Blossom's are amazing...
That trip was enough to kill my fried food cravings for a while. The late lunch served as an early dinner, so I spend the rest of the evening detoxing with tons of water. Later that night the sweet tooth kicked in, a half a snickers bar and a small cup of ice cream was the perfect treat.
Sunday I spent the day at my parents house, my sister and I made a buffalo chicken dip (we tried to substitute all of the creams and cheeses for low-fat, low-sodium options) of course we didn’t end up following the recipe properly…but it turned out yummy!
And of course my Mom made an amazing dinner…I’m so glad I was able to end the weekend on a healthy note 🙂
Mashed sweet potatoes, gorgonzola salad, roasted chicken with veggies (and the most amazing caramelized onions I’ve ever had!) She had a couple other sides that I wasn’t able to get pictures of, but it was all so delicious and started to get me back on track.
I won’t be eating as much junk this coming weekend, because I do feel like it threw me off track a bit. But I will treat myself here and there. For now, it’s back to a week of healthy eating!
So I am on week two of healthy eating, and surprisingly it has been going SO well! The healthier food choices tied in with a little exercise already has me seeing results- and resisting temptation. My energy level has been so high, my body is feeling amazing, and getting into my pants is not as difficult as it was a couple of weeks ago.
I’ve found that eating a small breakfast in the morning, packing a ton of healthy snacks to eat throughout the day, and having a portion controlled dinner has been the best route for me.
In the morning I have been having either an english muffin, a hard boiled egg or a small bowl of Special K with strawberries.
English muffin with margarine and grape jelly.Hard boiled eggs. I boiled a half a dozen at the beginning of the week, and kept them in the fridge.
Come lunch time I am not starving- which has been a change for me. I used to count down to noon; now I find lunchtime approaching before I’m ready for it. I’ve been bringing a variety of options all week:
Peanut butter, jelly and banana on multi-grain bread. I feel like a kindergartener, because I never end up eating the crust!I love cottage cheese-these small containers are perfect!Cinnamon granola and raisins, clementine, apple, craisins and baby carrotsStrawberries, yogurt, banana and a few ritz crackers- (I crave carbs and salt terribly)
For drinks it’s been water. I keep a cold pitcher of lemon water in the fridge at home. 🙂
A few lemon slices make all the difference
Dinner has been salads, veggies, pork, sweet potatoes (I should have taken pictures)…I took a stab at my first stir fry last week and to my surprise- it had a stellar review! 🙂
Yum!
Now, I haven’t been eating PERFECTLY every day, but I refuse to deprive myself. While visiting my family last weekend my Mom made an amazing dinner- I did my best to control how much I ate, but how do you say no to this!?
Home made mac and cheese, string beans with almonds, breaded chicken breast topped with bruschetta and gorgonzola and rice pilaf. She also made some amazing salmon, but I'm not much of a fish fan.
I am finding myself excited about my new eating habits. I can’t explain what a diet change will do to your body! My mind, energy, and esteem have been on a whole new level.
What are some of your favorite healthy meals and snacks? I’m looking for some new recipes and ideas 🙂
I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be my year- I’ve been making resolutions left and right! Let it be known that I have never made a New Years resolution before in my life- so this is new to me. The reason you are reading this is because one of my resolutions was to begin blogging! I have blogged in the past, but have never stuck it out for very long. This year I hope to keep a sustainable blog… so here we have my (in actuality 6th or 7th) very first post!
I wanted to share the rest of my resolutions as well. I figured this would be a good place to document them!
1) Stop cursing. You know the Dashboard lyrics “You smile like a saint, but you curse like a sailor”…? I have to plead guilty to this, no one believes that I have a foul mouth, but I do; and the funny thing is I cannot stand cursing! I never did it until I got to college and it has become a nasty habit of mine. Noting is more unattractive than a girl with a foul mouth.
2) Exercise regularly (I’m sure this is on everyone’s list…) The gym and I have never been great friends, but I do like the way I feel when my body has been active. I’m not planning on turning into a gym rat this year; I just plan on moving my body more. I love hiking, walking, TV workouts on demand…anything that doesn’t initially suggest exercise.
Dancing counts...
3) Eat healthier (…I’m sure this is on your list too lol…) This is the resolution that never ends. I’m not going to diet, because I don’t have the will power, nor am I trying to lose weight. I just want to cut out the junk that I tend to eat regularly. Making healthier choices when it comes to food is something I need to consider more frequently.
Today I brought some healthy snacks to nibble on throughout the day.
4) Stop spending so much money and start saving more. While I don’t spend a ridiculous amount of money, I could spend less. The little things add up quicker than you’d think! I’m going to be making a conscious effort to cut back on frivolous spending.
5) Make an effort to spend more time with my friends. This one is really important to me. My best friends don’t live down the street anymore, and we rarely see one another. I want to begin having monthly dinners or outings with them! Those relationships are important to me, and distance is a poor excuse for not making the effort!
My bests from home; we all live across CT. (Side note- I love that we all showed up wearing black tops and jeans that night- totally random!)
6) Spend more time reading. I love reading but am such a slacker! I think I’ll shoot to replace an hour of TV per night with some reading time. That’s realistic, no?
Currently in the middle of this! I need to find time to finish it so I can read the others before the movie comes out 🙂This is waiting on my bookshelf as well!
7) No more soda. When I was in college I stopped drinking soda my freshman and sophomore year, out of nowhere I had completely lost the taste for it. Unfortunately, I re-developed a nasty addiction to Diet Coke and have been weening (is that how you spell it?) off of it the past few weeks.
Just say no.
8) Eat out less, and cook more. I love to cook, and I tend to go through cooking sprees. This year I want to make those sprees more of a consistent thing. Buying lunch everyday adds up quick! And going out for dinner so frequently isn’t even much fun.
I do know how to cook! (Not the healthiest of dinners, but I think that's why I have a picture of it LOL)One of my favorite foods to make!
What are some of your resolutions? I really love hearing everyone’s plan for the New Year. I don’t think you could ever have too many! 😉
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