Healthier Lifestyle Thread 15th March till 21st March

[LovelyHearts]

Happy Saturday!

Yesterday, we had a baby shower at work for one of the girls and I had a piece of cake. Boo!

Eating has been getting better. It¡¦s hard eating 5 times a day but I¡¦ve been measuring food and bringing it in to work so when it¡¦s time for a meal, I just grab it out of the fridge. Last night for dinner, we had grilled shrimp, corn and left over mac & cheese.

Hec and I woke up at 6am this morning for Insanity before he went into the office for a few hours. The work out is kicking our butts, but it¡¦s feeling really good.

This weekend, I have a lot of reading to do for my class¡K sucks for me!

Marcy ¡V Yay for saying no to all the sweets. I admire your self-control. I cannot resist a McDonald¡¦s burger. I can never just eat half of it.. ƒ¼ My hubby loves the Wendy¡¦s nuggets. He can eat like 30 of them. Yikes!

Appletini ¡V How fun that you found a walking partner. It doesn¡¦t sound like you need to be motivated though. You sound like you¡¦re doing great on your own!

BR ¡V how many days off per week do you usually take form working out? Enjoy your day off!

Maevie ¡V BOO for working 6 days! I hope you have an awesome day off.. and I hope the weather is gorgeous where you¡¦re at!

Lisa ¡V good luck on the race. I would love to see some pictures.

 

[BeachRunner]

Ah, the weekend.

I bundled up for my run today, and ended up toasty. Oh well, better than being too cold. I bought a visor today, which I''m sure will be great on my LR tomorrow as it''s suppose to be 60 and sunny

And I thought running was an inexpensive sport. New shoes, hats, hydration, fuel, etc... it adds up. I just drool over all the apparel thats out there! Hubs is making shrimp scampi tonight, yum

Whole grain pasta, red pepper, shallot, garlic, shrimp, and some white wine. It''s one of my favorite dishes!

Oh, and can you believe Kansas just lost!? Wow.

Lisa- Good luck on your 8K tomorrow! That''s an odd distance for a race; I''ve heard of 5k and 10k, but an 8k is...different. Anyways, have fun! Oh, and btw, your eats sound wonderful!

LH- Your eats sound good too! I run 5x/week, and do weights 2x/week. Mondays are weights and stretching. So, technically, Friday is my only rest day.

apple- Forgot to call your neighbor? Whoops. Oh well, at least you got out there! I am an independent runner myself. I''ve only ran with another person a handful of times. I just like that time for me. I''ve considered joining a running group here. We''ll see.

Maevie- Working on the weekends, yuck. Hopefully you won''t have to do that for too long. I make no-bake cookies with oats; yummy.

marcy- I like my grapefruit with a sprinkle of sugar. They are good. I didn''t hit ice at all on my run today really. Maybe a few spots on the road where the trees shade the road from the sun, but those spots were easily avoided. Your weekend sounds fun; enjoy!

 

[PumpkinPie]

BeachRunner - no bake cookies with oats? care to share where you got the recipe?

 

[PumpkinPie]

Marcy - I''ve worked 2, 6 day weeks in a row - now I have 2 regular 5 day weeks, then back to 2 more 6 day weeks.. then I think I''ll take a break (I work the extra day for more jewelry budget so I guess I can''t really complain!

 

[Rod]

Hey There........Thanks for saying such nice things. dragon, I''m not gone completely. I just can''t check in every day, especially during the week. My work weeks'' have just been bears lately. THings are good. Some more placements have come in, which is a really good thing. And I did make it to the gym Thursday night and had a really good and strong workout. We had dinner with friends last night near our new condo and we were lucky that they let us go up and the door was unlocked. We got to see how it will be there at night, which was really fun and our friends seemed to really like the new digs. Today we did some more furniture shopping and we think we''ll place the order next weekend, to ensure what we need will be ready when we move. Tomorrow we''re going to workout and just relax the rest of the day. The weather is just fantastic!

Again, I''m still here and I won''t be gone long term. I''ll just check in a bit less often.

Have a great Sunday everyone.........

 

[BeachRunner]

Date: 3/20/2010 9:20:39 PM
Author: Maevie
BeachRunner - no bake cookies with oats? care to share where you got the recipe?

Sure, although they are by no means healthy. I just like em I do want to get into making more nutritious sweets. I also want to make my own granola and granola bars. My husband is currently jobless, so finances are kind of tight making it hard to start that project. Anyways...

No-Bake Cookies:

2 C sugar
4 tbsp cocoa
stick of butter
1/4 C milk
3 C instant oats
1/2 C peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

I melt the butter, add sugar, and milk. Then I''ll add the PB and cocoa. Bring that to a boil for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. After I remove from heat, I''ll add the vanilla. Then add your oats, and spoon out your cookies.

It''s a super easy recipe, and I''m sure you can add more/less of what you like.

 

[PumpkinPie]

Date: 3/20/2010 10:42:30 PM
Author: BeachRunner

Date: 3/20/2010 9:20:39 PM

Author: Maevie

BeachRunner - no bake cookies with oats? care to share where you got the recipe?

Sure, although they are by no means healthy. I just like em I do want to get into making more nutritious sweets. I also want to make my own granola and granola bars. My husband is currently jobless, so finances are kind of tight making it hard to start that project. Anyways...


No-Bake Cookies:


2 C sugar

4 tbsp cocoa

stick of butter

1/4 C milk

3 C instant oats

1/2 C peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla


I melt the butter, add sugar, and milk. Then I''ll add the PB and cocoa. Bring that to a boil for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. After I remove from heat, I''ll add the vanilla. Then add your oats, and spoon out your cookies.


It''s a super easy recipe, and I''m sure you can add more/less of what you like.

Thank you!

I actually have a ''healthier'' brownie recipe that our dietician gave us at our staff meeting last week - involving lentils! The dietician brought the brownies with her for us to try - she didn''t tell her what was in them until after we ate them - I would NEVER have guessed that they had lentils in them. I''m planning to make them tomorrow and I''ll report back - if they work out as well as hers did, I''ll come back and post the recipe here

 

[PumpkinPie]

oh and BeachRunner - there''s a great food blog called Smitten Kitchen that has great recipes for granola and granola bars if you want to try them out!

 

[BeachRunner]

Date: 3/21/2010 12:35:34 AM
Author: Maevie
oh and BeachRunner - there's a great food blog called Smitten Kitchen that has great recipes for granola and granola bars if you want to try them out!

Please report back about the brownies. And thanks!

ETA: I just looked at that website, and wow. So many good recipes on the thread. Husband and I want to try to make the granola bars and the mini pretzels.

 

[PumpkinPie]

it''s such a good website - and plus, her baby is soo cute! a photo of him is embedded in each post she writes (it''s a hyperlink)

I''ve made the barley risotto with beans and greens as well as the asparagus, goat cheese and lemon pasta - they were both fabulous!

 

[PumpkinPie]

Ok all - I''m reporting back on my lentil brownies!
They are as fabulous as they were when my dietician coworker made them - my husband and I have eaten half the batch already today! He loves them too - and he''s pretty picky..I''ve already passed the recipe on to my mother and my mother-in-law.

Mystery Brownies

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Makes 16 servings


Ingredients
1 cup (250ml) canned lentils, rinsed, crushed
¾ cup (175 ml) whole wheat flour
1 cup (250 ml) granulated sugar
½ tsp (2 ml) table salt
½ cup (125 ml) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs, large
2 egg whites
½ tsp (2 ml) vanilla extract
½ cup (125 ml) plain yogurt
¼ cup (60 ml) margarine


Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Rinse the lentils and remove excess water. Mash them in a large bowl (be patient)
3. Stir in the flour, sugar, salt, and cocoa powder
4. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, egg whites, vanilla, yogurt and margarine. Transfer the liquid mix into the dry mix and mix well
5. Transfer the batter into a lightly greased 10’ x 10’ pan (preferably smaller than this)
6. Bake in the oven 45 minutes. Keep leftovers in the refrigerator.


Per serving (one piece)
Calories 140
Total fat 4g
Cabohydrates 22 g
Fiber 2 g
Protein 4 g

 

[PumpkinPie]

We substituted half the sugar for splenda (worked great - was testing it out as my dad is diabetic and my mother was going to try the recipe after we did) and used non-fat yogurt - both of which slightly improve upon the nutritional info as it is given in the recipe

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone!We didn’t have many people show up at the meeting Friday night so we all went out for pie afterwards.I ate the fruit out of mine and skipped the crust.

Saturday we went to breakfast and ran errands.I ran around and looked at compact digital cameras.I think I am going to get a Sony.

I made low fat lasagna yesterday.

Last night we played hearts with some friends and drank too much and stayed up way too late.Ugh.We got in bed about 3 am.I decided this morning I am too old to stay up that late especially having a few drinks.

Today I slept in a little but not enough.I worked on laundry.We met my family for lunch today for my sister’s birthday.

I went for a walk after we got home from lunch.

We just had some slow churned ice cream for dinner.

Lisa, is it still snowing?It was pretty nice here today.Congratulations to James for his promotion at work.I can’t wait to hear how the race went.I like fruit more than vegetables probably because it is sweeter.I imagine giving up meat would not be a good call for you.

LovelyHearts, no worries about a piece of cake – you have to live too.That is always a good thing that your workouts are getting your attention.I don’t care for Wendy’s nuggets – my favorites ones are Chick Filet.They are so greasy though.

Beach Runner, I hate when I get too warm when I am walking but it is better than being cold.How was your long run today?Glad you were able to avoid the icy patches on your run.I haven’t had no bake cookies for years but they are good.

Maevie, how nice to use your extra time as jewelry money.My jewelry money will be gone in 3 months.Rats.Sweet to find a healthier brownie recipe.

Rod, how nice to see your new place at night.I bet you are getting excited to get your new furniture and to get moved.

Take care.

Marcy