Monday Madness!

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Terrific Tuesday

If you haven’t heard the news yet in the life of Bhealthier…

I sent in my video application to be a wine correspondent for Murphy-Goode Winery last week! They just emailed me for a PHONE INTERVIEW to help select their Top 50 candidates! Thank you to everyone that has already put their vote in for me!

Terrific Breakfast:
Oats with cinnamon and valencia peanut butter.

Blueberries and Cherries- hmmm Antioxidants!

Ladies Lunch at Lilly’s!

I could not resist my usual favorite: The Red Rooster ! It is made with organic greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, onions and topped with fabulous bread knobs, BBQ chicken, roasted pecans and cheese.

Sarah S got the same salad and loved it as well!
Sarah B ordered a slice of pizza and a house salad-

Of course she was happy to share…

This definitely persuaded me to order pizza from there! Oh, how I wish I could have lunch out with the ladies everyday! It was so enjoyable despite the bit of rain, the unbearable heat and the barely-english speaking food runner that shouted ” kelly” or “sarah” everytime he brought an order out that wasn’t even ours!

Dinner:Whole wheat pasta with a quick meaty pasta sauce…

I used  organic crushed tomatoes with basil, some Newman’s Own Olive Oil and a little NOO Balsamic Vinegar too…

For the salad- I toasted Kale as I did last night and used up the rest of the organic mix. I think I will use the rest of the Kale in smoothies tomorrow!

Walk, Talk, Eat!

Body: Long walk at the beach!
Mind: Budget talks for the wedding
Soul: Talking with a friend about wedding planning was restorative and so productive!

oh and as promised…here’s the goods

Delicious Fudge!
Left to Right… Top: Chewy Praline ( praline flavored fudge with a chewy caramel and nut middle), and Chocolate Peanut Butter
Middle: Butterscotch ( it had chunks of butterscotch chips) and Under the Rocks ( It was like m&m rock candy on top of vanilla fudge).
Bottom:
Butter Pecan and on the right was unmarked! ( I think it tasted like peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge and caramel fudge all marbled).

I think my favorite was the chocolate peanut butter and maybe the butterscotch…

Breakfast: My mom’s French Toast with Toasted Almonds….

Here is my portion of French toast with a little extra protein from Cottage Cheese and sweetness from pure maple syrup ( I also had a pear but no photo)

Lunch: Half a turkey sandwich with mustard, tomato and swiss

Dinner: Grilled chicken breast, whole wheat cous cous and steamed veggies

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!  ( I know its belated at this point)

My Memorial Day Breakfast
Micro-meal:
I didnt feel up to cooking persay, so I microwaved my breakfast. I threw in a bunch of frozen veggies and thawed tehm in the microwave, added about 3 egg whites and cooked it all up.

 
Then I did a mini-cobbler- I took frozen peaches, pineapples, blueberries and oats with some milk- heated it all up in the micro.

Lunch:

some leftover pasta (carbonara with tomatoes, broc, bacon and whole wheat penne )from before we left and some frozen steamed brussels with my new creation of Tofu Salad! 
I saw Lindsay on Daily Goods make a Tofu Salad with mayo and I loved her idea! All her meals are always fantastic! So I don’t have any mayo in my house and couldn’t do a version like hers. So I used some Goddess Dressing and some Oikos Greek plain and extra firm tofu- mixed it all up really well and heated it with the rest of my stuff. It was darn tasty!

and some more fruit:

I went off to study so Jeff made us dinner! He is a really fantastic cook but I almost always end up having more time to cook than he does!  He made Chicken Caccitore with mixed frozen veggies, browned chicken breasts , a large can of crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes…. more red pepper flakes.. and then he added brown mustard!! I could tell there was “something” else but had no idea it was mustard until he told me!

It was delicious! Thanks babe! We cooked up some whole wheat cous cous to go with it and I grabbed a thing of salad mix on the way home.

Fantastic!

We started watching Cold Mountain together and I wanted dessert ! When I was at the store I saw the ice cream isle and had a craving for some ice cream-

I picked out this guy…

Because it looked delicious and it was BOGO Free ( usually there is at least one brand on sale each week so that isn’t an excuse but it does make it an easier buy). I’m not a plain-vanilla kinda gal- I like chunky “overloaded” ice cream- so I didn’t go with the “all-natural” kind.
Hmmmmm despite the laundry list of ingredients – it tasted AWESOME! You can totally see and taste the caramel swirls, the brownie pieces were soft and fudgy, the almonds were tiny and crunchy! Fantastic! I had some whip cream and strawberries too. yum yum yum

Body:

I managed to get to the gym for a quick 2 mile run and a 30 minute elliptical session.  I got a great sweat but not a super great workout. I didn’t mind because I knew it would help me focus on studying!

Mind:

Finished studying viruses, cholera, and reviewed everything like procaryotes, eurokaryotes, and small pox! Phew, I feel like catching up an entire week of summer class ( which is like 1 +month of regular semester classes) is nearly impossible!

I am not good at biology either- give me math, chemistry, or latin and I will zip through it- but Biology is just so tough!

Soul:

Watched Cold Mountain with Jeff!! I forgot exactly how everything happened in that movie but Jude Law is so hot! I think Jeff and him look alike a bit too!

I got laundry and unpacking done too!

It is so crazy to think of how war throughout history has cost so many lives unnecessarily. It worries me for the future the world has, ya know. Wars will continue, lives will continue to be lost, and it just makes me feel that everyone should appreciate every second they have and cherish their time with loved ones at all costs. Happy Memorial Day. 

I’m Done Golfin yall!

My last day of golfing for this trip was sunday and we decided to head home afterwards to hopefully have a productive monday at home!

I started out my sunday with a fantastic bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunchy, but spilled over during cooking!  I filled my bowl with a little Marmalade French Toast and added fresh blueberries and kiwi to my breakfast!

Last Day of Golfing:

For Lunch/Snacking I had packed our stuff up when we got back so no photos- but it was some Almonds, an Orange and an Oikos Vanilla in the car on the way home.

On our way home we drove directly through where my sister lives so we had planned to stop in and say hello or visit or grab a bite to eat. We ended up grabbing dinner at UNO’s in Bethesda, MD but I would highly recommend NOT going there! My sister warned me that the service sucked there but I had never gone so I wanted to try it!

I had a side salad to start because I was really missing my vegetables this weekend so I was craving fresh!

My sister, Jeff and I split a 2-3 person deep dish with chicken, pepperoni and mushrooms.
It was a great combo and well-put together pizza but it was COLD in some spots and warm in others.  blech- the waitress had clearly left it sitting forever because it took forever to come out! She also never re-filled our drinks or ever came back to check on our pizza, if she had, we would have told her it was cold!

But we just wanted to enjoy our visit and our food and we did that! Off it was to another 5 hour drive. Phew. That was rough after a long day of golfing- we were both exhausted by the time we pulled in our driveway. We unpacked the car super quickly and went straight to bed!

Body:
4 hours of golf! I wore my heart rate monitor for fun and found that my heart rate stayed at about 45 % of its max most of the time. I burned 610 kcal but knew the previous days were more strenous so it was a hefty bit of exercise!

I was slightly sad that I didn’t get in a good run at all but I also felt like all the travelling and golfing was enough of a tax on my bod.

Mind:
Studied Archaea and now all I have left is Eukaryotes and Viruses to study for the exam tomorrow.

Soul:
It was awesome to golf again and to see Jeff’s family and my sister!

Home sweet home indeed!

Marmalade French Toast

 
This was my prep Saturday Night for Marmalade French Toast Casserole that I served for breakfast on Sunday!
 
Ingredients: ( to serve 8 +)
3 Tb butter
Two loaves French Bread or Ciabatta ( I used one of each)
1 jar Marmalade (I used Trader Joes Organic Orange and Apricot Marmalade)
2 and 3/4 cup Milk ( I used 1%)
6 eggs, plus 2 egg whites
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
*Optional 1/2 cup Raisins and/or Walnuts

Directions:
Grease casserole dish and butter one side of bottom layer of bread slices. Lay bread butter side down, Spread Marmalade over top layer. Repeat with top layer of bread slices only lay marmalade side down, butter side facing up. Beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices.

* at this point I added NOO raisins but I should covered the dish in the oven or I should have kept the raisins underneath the bread because a few burned after cooking. *

Let sit in fridge overnight or 8 hours+. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

I think everyone liked it… one dish was already gone before I even got to take a photo!!

I went golfin yall

my sub-shop, roadside salad: lettuce, tomato, red onion, green pepper, cucumber, olives, pepperocinni, pickles and a dash of cheese. I didn’t use any of that dressing (Ranch- the packet was 230kcal of mostly saturated fat!!) more because the vinegar from the pickles and olives and pepperocinni gave it enough flavor for me!

I also had a ThinkThin bar  (white chocolate crunch) for some protein. I really liked the first bite and the second but then after that it had a funny protein taste. Overall not bad.

Check out my Biscuit Sausage Pies recipe–
For the first day of breakfast, I had made these on thursday hoping they would fair well the next morning. They totally did!! These were AWESOME!!

Whole wheat pizza dough in muffin pans , filled with lowfat sausage, lowfat cheese, mine were egg whites ( the others were whole eggs), and bell peppers. On the side, Mango ( times two)

Golf Course:

Lunch-ish: A Brownie Crunch Think Thin

Same as the white chocolate but I think a little better tasting.

Trail mix snackies

Day  1 Score:

Not too shabby!
In the afternoon we had some DELICIOUS cheese- Some canadian friends brought this gouda with caraway seeds. Oh my goodness , delicious! My cabernet went perfect with it!

Dinner:
Chili! Jeff’s aunt made this and it was fantastic!

 

 

 

Dessert:
Another canadian treat ( this one is available in the US!) Maple Cookies.

They are shaped like maple leafs, maple flavored shortbread with maple cream in the middle! This guy is 100 kcal, but definitely a yummy treat!

Body:
4.5 Hours of Golf! Phew! We also threw horseshoes when we came home so my shoulders/arm is feeling it!

Mind:
I actually studied quite a bit . I am doing little sections by section so I retain the information more than if I would just try studying all or most of the material in one sitting…

Soul:
I LOVE golfing! Oh it was so fun to be back on the course even if it took me several holes to warm up! We played ladies vs. men and a captain’s choice/ best ball. In case you don’t know what that means, we all take a drive and then whereever the best ball lands, we all take our second shot from there, etc. till we get it in the hole. It was such a relaxing, breezy, sunny, fresh-air and exercise filled day!

We played horseshoes and cards and just had a fantastic day!

Biscuit Sausage Pie(s)

I saw Rachel Ray do a recipe for Biscuit Sausage Pie with that Pillsbury refridgerated dough and then just browned sausage with some veggies, cheese and eggs. I thought it was a great idea for this golf outing since Jeff and I were in charge of two days of breakfast.

I thought making individual pies would be even better than whole pies also. Jeff had said most of the time the guys just grab a muffin or bagel etc. so it would be nice and quick to grab and eat!

So instead of making them while here ( because we weren’t sure of golf times and cook ware etc. in the house we were renting) I wanted to make them ahead so they would be ready to go!

Ingredients ( feeds 8-12 +)
1 roll sausage ( I used reduced fat Gualtney pork)
1 bag of Whole Wheat Pizza dough, stretched and cut into 24 sections
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk (1%)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup bell pepper mix ( I thawed frozen and squeezed out water)

Directions:
Grease or spray muffin tin. Brown sausage in skillet, allow to cool sufficiently. While browning, roll, slice, and stretch out pizza dough. Lay sections of dough into each muffin cup. Sprinkle with cheese (optional). Spoon in sausage, I used two spoonfulls per cup. Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup of egg batter and sprinkle of peppers.

Chef Photos and Notes:
I bought Trader Joes whole wheat pizza dough because I figured it would be healthier than the pillsbury, feed more with it, and I like the taste of it so darn much!

I had to be resourceful with this because I tried rolling out the pizza dough really thin and cutting circles to fit inside the muffin cup. Unfortunately, that didn’t work because pizza dough stretches and just resorts back to a little ball essentially.
So instead of making dough “cups” ( to fill entire tin, see bottom far left vs. bottom far right) I decided to try out layiing small sections at the bottom of each muffin cup, then laying another small section around it.

It took awhile, but once I got the hang of it, it was much easier the second muffin sheet!

While I was fooling around with this dough, I was also letting a roll of reduced fat sausage brown in the skillet.

In to the oven…

Out of the oven…

 

Ready for transport: 

EVERYONE LOVED THEM!

Hey yall I’m going golfin!

So we are about to head out and I am now aware that there is no internet in the house we are staying in. It is this really old re-furbished home in a state park so I doubt I will be able to post ( However, I am bringing my lappertop anywho to study for my Microbio test so there may be a coffee shop etc. to check in at)

Body:
Mostly rest but I was on my feet all day it seemed! I was cleaning my car, cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, ironing, packing my clothes, putting away all the other clothes, cooking biscuit sausage pies, cleaning up after the total mess I made, packing up all our snacks, putting golf clubs into the car, putting in my luggage, etc. And then…. I took Jack for a short 1 mile run and did some yoga to relax from all the chaos!

Mind:
I studied shortly for the exam ( will be studying more in the car) and I managed to get everything I need packed, cooked and ready to go!

Soul:
Going golfing for the whole weekend!! We play friday, saturday, sunday and we will get to see my sister on the way home monday ( hopefully!)

I am also looking forward to visiting with Jeff’s aunt and uncle as well! Shenanigans will be occuring!

Breakfast:

Smoothie ( mango, banana, cherry, chocolate pure protein) on top of some more fruit ( pineapple, peaches and blueberries) and Kashi Go Lean Cereal

It was fabulous!

Lunch:

Was quick during cooking and packing! Leftover Pasta Carbonara from last night with extra fat free feta

A bowl of steamed veggies

Oikos Greek
 
Not sure where or what we will have for dinner but it will be on the road. I brought great snacks to hold us through but I always get caught up on meals during road trips!

Have a fantastic weekend yall!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients

3 egg whites
1 large banana, mashed
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

In the words of Marisa
” Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, beat egg whites, banana and sugar. Add milk, vanilla and oil and beat for 2 minutes on low speed. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients until fully combine d. The batter will be very thin.

Using a 1/8 cup measuring cup, scoop batter and pour into mini muffin cups/tin- line either with cooking spray. (paper lining cups or tin)

Bake cupcakes for 12 minutes. Do not overbake! Let cool on wire rack.

After cupcakes are completely cool, prepare frosting!

Easy Fudgey Peanut Butter Frosting:

Ingredients

2 TB White Chocolate Wonder Peanut Butter
1 Tb Cocoa Powder
1 Tb Butter ( I only had Smart Balance)
1/3 cup sugar

In a skillet on med. heat, melt all ingredients together whisking well. Add spoonfulls on top of each muffin. Cool in the fridge to set frosting.