Quinoa Stuffed Squash – Tasty Tuesday Recipe Feature and Linkup

Hey-hey! How was your weekend, guys?

We were working on our kitchen this weekend. We have finally painted the walls! Now to put in the ceiling 🙂 Slow but sure we’re making some progress with our kitchen.

Because my kitchen (and pretty much the whole house because of the kitchen project) is a mess, I didn’t cook anything new this weekend to share with you today.

BUT! Tasty Tuesday is still on!

tasty tuesday

Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s ONLY ONE RULE TO THE LINKUP – link back to this blog or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more people checking out your posts next week! Please, respect this rule – every week I put my time and effort into creating this linkup, and so do bloggers who come to linkup their posts. Linking back = spreading the word = giving back.Continue Reading

Zucchini Latkes Recipe and Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party

Hey guys! How is that Tasty Tuesday going over there? 🙂

I’m having an extremely busy week again – a lot going on and I still haven’t told you about my trip to San Diego! Shame on me!

But in my defense – I put together a super yummy post for you today 🙂

tasty tuesday

Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back to this blog or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more people checking out your posts next week!

We also now have the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest Board where you can pin your posts every week. To be able to do that, please follow me on Pinterest and let me know in comments that you did, and your Pinterest username so I could send you an invite.

Also! If you haven’t noticed yet – right below this post there is a sign up form you can use to opt in for receiving an e-mail reminder every Monday about the next Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party. Fill it out if you’d like that and I’ll remind you to put together a post for the next TT linkup.

So! On to the tasty stuff now :)

I’m a big fan of savory breakfast. I just can’t start my day off with sweet stuff. Really, I can’t. Any other time of day or night – but not the morning 🙂

So because of this and because having eggs for breakfast every day can drive you nuts, I have to think of new recipes for my savory breakfasts. This one was inspired by the zucchini attack we all experience in the fall. 🙂 What better way to use them than making delicious zucchini latkes? Here’s how.

Zucchini Latkes

zucchini latkes Continue Reading

Homemade Fresh Vegetables Salad Recipe and Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party

Hey-hey, my friends! I’m finally back from the sunny San Diego! I bet you can’t wait for a recap of my trip 🙂 But I’ll have to save that for a little later in the week.

Why? Because today is the Tasty Tuesday, of course!

tasty tuesday

Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back to this blog or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more people checking out your posts next week!

We also now have the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest Board where you can pin your posts every week. To be able to do that, please follow me on Pinterest and let me know in comments that you did, and your Pinterest username so I could send you an invite.

So! On to the tasty stuff now :)

Continue Reading

Sweet Potato-Squash Soup Recipe

Hey my foodies! Happy Tasty Tuesday!

Are you ready for some tasty recipes? Me too!

Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back to this blog or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more people checking out your posts next week!

tasty tuesday

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Whole30 Days 11-20 Recap – What It Really Feels Like

Hey-hey! Happy Sunday, guys! Having a good weekend so far?

It’s time for my Whole30 Days 11-20 Recap.

This time, instead of showing you just what I ate day-by-day, I wanted to share more of how I felt during my Whole30 Days 11-20. And some things I ate, too 🙂

Here we go!

whole30 days 11-20

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Whole30 Days 1-10 Recap: Program Friendly Meal Ideas

So I am 1/3 of the way through – done with my Whole30 Days 1-10.

In case you missed the beginning – after some thinking I decided to try this program with my buddy over in the Netherlands – Yuliya.

Ok, now that you have all the links, go ahead and read – I’ll wait 🙂

Welcome back!

So. 10 days later I decided I’d recap the highlights of the first 10 days of the program, let you guys know how it feels and what it takes.

whole30 days 1-10

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Curried Chicken and Vegetables Recipe and Tasty Tuesday Linkup

Hey-hey, my foodies! It’s time to talk about tasty stuff on this Tasty Tuesday 🙂

tasty tuesday

Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back to this blog or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more participants checking out your posts next week!

Remember that there is now the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest Board where you can pin your posts every week. To be able to do that, please follow me on Pinterest and let me know in comments that you did, and your Pinterest username so I could send you an invite.

This week, in light of my latest challenge which is Whole30, I am posting a Whole30-friendly recipe again.

This curried chicken and vegetables are super quick and easy to make – ideal option for a quick week night dinner for the whole family, and a great way to use those veggies in your fridge/garden.

CURRIED CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES

curried chicken and vegetables

To serve 2, you will need:

  • 1 chicken breast, cut into pieces – the size of your choice. I like mine chunky.
  • 1 bell pepper of any color, cut in chunks
  • 2-3 Bok Choy leaves, cut in chunks
  • 1 small zucchini, cut in chunks
  • 4-6 bella mushrooms, halved
  • 1/2 yellow or red onion, cut in chunks
  • 1 tbs yellow curry powder
  • Salt and white pepper to taste
  • Oil of choice (I used olive oil)

Instructions:

Prep the chicken – cut, add curry, salt and pepper, mix until the chicken pieces are coated in spices and set aside for as long as you can – the longer the better.

Cut up all the veggies.

Heat up the oil in your wok (or pan if you don’t have a wok) until light white smoke just starts coming from it. It is very important to heat the oil and the wok/pan properly.

Once that is done, things are gonna start happening pretty quickly, so make sure you have all the ingredients handy.

Add chicken to the wok and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes until it is almost cooked through.

Remove chicken from wok.

Start adding vegetables – one at a time starting with the ones that take the longest to cook.

Stir constantly.

Add some white pepper and salt when the veggies are almost done and stir.

Return chicken to the wok (just to heat it up), turn the heat down to low and stir everything together for another minute or two (depending on how well the veggies are cooked at that point).

You don’t want to overcook the vegetables, the need to be a little crunchy.

Serve hot and enjoy!

curried chicken and vegetables

And once again – how easy was that? This dinner takes 20 minutes to throw together. You’re welcome, busy working people 🙂

Spread the love?

Now it’s your turn! Show me what’s been cooking in your kitchen lately 🙂

Hugs,

Lena

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So…Whole30 Gets a….YES!

After careful consideration, my Whole30 Challenge is a go!

Won’t go into much detail as to why – I guess there’s both pro and con opinions out there – and plenty of both, too. I just feel it’s the right thing for me to do at this point in my health journey.

I’m missing something. And I’m hoping that Whole30 will help me find that “something”.

Anywho. It just so happens that Yuliya over at Welcome to Mommyhood is starting another round of hers over there in the Netherlands as well. How exciting is that? I have a Whole30 buddy!

We decided to cheer each other on and post recaps on our blogs for every 10 days of the challenge.

We will also be posting daily highlights over at Lean Lena and Welcome to Mommyhood Instagram pages.

Make sure you follow both our blogs and Instagram pages if you would like to follow along and find out what the first Whole30 feels like (that would be me telling you that) and how to make it enjoyable with Yuliya’s recipes and previous experience with this program. 🙂

Don’t miss out on the real experience and true recaps!

So… Whole30.

whole30

This weekend I sat down to plan my meals for the week. I’m saying “my” because my family is not following me along. They’re not crazy enough 🙂 Joking. They are. They just love pizza too much 🙂

The good thing is we don’t have the kids with us for the first 7 days of my Whole30, my husband is very flexible with food so we can eat program-friendly meals and hopefully, I will ease into it pretty quickly with less temptations.

So, back to the weekend prep.

On Saturday we went berry picking. It was so awesome! The place is wonderful and we had so much fun. If you’re in the area, check out the Yellow Hill Farm.

We picked a ton of blackberries.

whole30

We made blackberry cobbler that night, and I lie to you not – on Sunday morning my family sat down for breakfast and put away the whole 8″x8″ of it – right out of the pan 🙂 Ok, well…that wasn’t very Whole30 friendly 🙂

Back to the good stuff now.

On the way back from the berry picking we stopped by at the Peach Festival, and got a whole huge bag of peaches!

whole30

On Sunday our hot water heater said “I’m done!” My husband and the girl worked on it all day and ended up replacing the whole thing, while I was getting busy in the kitchen.

I made these awesome Turkey Ginger Breakfast Patties (stay tuned for the recipe tomorrow):

whole30

Got the pork roast in homemade marinade ready and in the over for dinner.

whole30

Cut up some fruit for my smoothies during the week:

whole30

Boiled some eggs, too.

I may or may not have made another 2 cobblers (peach and blackberry) for my hungry family 🙂

So, there you have it, guys! I’m ready for the Whole30 and I feel good about it. Bring it on!

Take care and stay healthy. Come back tomorrow for the awesome breakfast patties recipe!

Lena

 

Cooking Class at Issei Noodle + Pineapple Curry Fried Rice Recipe

Hey, hey my Foodies! How was your weekend?

It’s that time of the week again – Tasty Tuesday!

Tasty Tuesday Badge 2000x2000

Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more participants next week!

So! This week I wanted to share an amazing cooking class experience we had a couple weeks ago.

Cooking class at Issei Noodle!

But let me start from the beginning.

There is an Asian restaurant in my town called Issei Noodle. It is a family owned business and it is famous for it’s fresh and delicious food, honest ingredients and fast and courteous service. Any time you walk in – it’s packed with people, and nobody leaves unhappy. Yep, they are the ones who make my favorite Thai tea (now with bubbles!):

Thai tea

AND my favorite Chicken Pho:

chicken pho

Anyway, it is not far from our house so we naturally go there A LOT! 🙂 On one of our visits I noticed an ad at the check out saying they are now accepting sign ups for cooking classes. Imagine my excitement! Learn how to make their delicious food and get to know the family secrets of fine cooking we enjoy so much? 😉 Count me in!

I signed us up as part of the birthday present for my husband, and a couple Sundays ago we grabbed our cutting boards and knives and went off to the restaurant. I have to say, just being there at the time when they’re usually closed, walking through the restaurant with no guests in it, and walking around their open kitchen was an incredible experience!

The owners (Robert and Naomi) are super nice people! It was the very first cooking class they held, and there were 4 other couples there (total of 10 people).

The first dish we made was Pineapple Curry Fried Rice. With all the ingredients on the table, it didn’t look all that difficult to make at all.

cooking class

Before we knew it, we learned how to peel and slice a pineapple, and got everything ready to go for the actual cooking process.

cooking class

Both teachers were guiding us along the way as we prepped the vegetables (yep, that’s us in the actual kitchen):

We got to use the wok, too! It was pretty heavy so I let my husband “do the shakin’ ” 🙂

cooking class

All that shakin’ resulted in this beauty:

coocking class

It was super delicious! And the fact that we made it ourselves made it even better 🙂 We enjoyed the plate of fried rice while other couples were cooking theirs (we were the first to go).

So, without further ado here’s the recipe for the Pineapple Curry Fried Rice. My advice – since the only way of learning how to do it the right way is to actually go to their cooking class, do it if you get a chance! If you don’t – experiment! It’s a dish that leaves you a lot of room for creativity – other that mandatory ingredients, you can switch and swap pretty much anything! Fun-Fun!

So here we go:

You will need (makes 4 servings):
  • 1 bell pepper
  • Pineapple chunks (wither fresh, or canned. If using canned, choose the unsweetened ones and drain well)
  • 1 onion (either red or yellow – whichever one you prefer)
  • 1 lb marinated beef (cut of your choice, or swap with other kind of meet, chicken or tofu)
  • Vegetables of your choice (we just used onions and peppers)
  • 3 cups jasmine rice (cooked)
  • 2 tbsp. fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp. sweet soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp. brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp. corn starch
  • 4 tbsp. oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp. garlic powder
  • 4 tbsp. fine lemongrass
  • 2 tbsp. (more or less to taste) yellow curry powder
Instructions:
  1. Cut the beef to your liking. Add beef to a bowl and add ingredients from the list above: brown sugar – curry, and mix well. Keep in the fridge for at least an hour before cooking (the longer the better).
  2. Preheat the wok really well. Add 2 tbsp. vegetable oil to the wok and carefully slide marinated beef to the wok.
  3. Stir until cooked.
  4. Add vegetables to wok, cook for a bit, and then add pineapple chunks.
  5. Add fish sauce and stir in the cooked rice.
  6. Add the sweet soy sauce and stir well.
  7. Garnish with some green onions and dried shallots.
  8. Enjoy!

And that’s how easy it is, guys!

HUGE thanks to Issei Noodle for an incredible experience, sharing their wisdom with us and letting us have such a great time at their restaurant.

Take a moment to check them out on:

Now it’s your turn to share your Tasty Tuesday post, guys! Link ’em up!

Lean Lena

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30 Days Active Challenge: Week 4 Recap

Hey-hey my fit friends! It’s Hump Day and that means what?

Correct! Time for another 30 Days Active Challenge recap.

The past week was hectic and busy-busy-busy with both mine and my husband’s birthdays – I feel like all I ate was cake all week 🙂

But yes, I did have this challenge I put myself through on my mind all the time and even on the days when I didn’t have an “official” workout, I tried to stay active or eat extra healthy.

So here’s what happened last week:

{WEDNESDAY}  was my birthday, so official workout didn’t really happen. I had a wonderful birthday celebration both at work and at home.

My awesome husband took me out to Rock Bass Grill for dinner where I had the 2nd best crab cakes in my life!

crab cakes

Guess what I got for my birthday? 🙂

garmin forerunner

Yep, I’m married to the BEST guy in the world, you know? 🙂

Exercise on Wednesday: walk-walk-walk!

{THURSDAY}

We had a yoga class at work over lunch time. I love those classes! It’s like somebody pushes your reset button in the middle of the day and you come back to your desk all balanced and calm.

Then somebody pisses you off again, but that has nothing to do with yoga 🙂

Anyway. After work on Thursday I needed to go to CVS. So instead of driving a few blocks like I usually do, I walked there.

30 days active

{FRIDAY}

There was so much cake on Wednesday at work, and then dinner at the restaurant….so we didn’t get to my birthday cake at home until Friday 🙂

IMG_2452-1

No official workout, but lots of activities and walking that day.

{SATURDAY}

On Saturday I finally got a chance to try an indoor cycling class with a recently hired instructor at our Y. She teaches in the mornings on weekdays, which of course I can’t make because I work.

So I was pretty excited to see her name on the Saturday rotation class schedule this past week. I signed up and bam! I was there at 8:00 AM on Saturday.

Here’s my blurry “Pilot” at the end of the class 🙂 It’s blurry because taking a picture while still pedaling is not the best idea in the world 🙂

30 days active

The class was good, just a couple “funky” moves and that’s it 🙂 I still got an awesome workout, which was nice – just being able to concentrate on your own effort without having to guide anybody else. 🙂

After the class, hubby and I took a long walk to Cole’s bicycle shop where I almost agreed to buy a $1200 road bike… Crazy woman 🙂

That didn’t happen, though. $1200 is waaaaaaay over the budget I was planning for my first road bike. So…we’ll keep looking 🙂 I got fitted though and tried several bikes which was A LOT of fun!

Here’s the bike I was trying out on Saturday – Trek Lexa SLX:

$1200 is a good price for this bike. Just not good for my budget 🙁 (sigh)

Good steps that day!

30 days active

{SUNDAY}

No official exercise on Sunday. Hubby and I had something planned which ended up taking up most of our day (More on that this coming Tasty Tuesday).

So…steps, steps, steps.

{MONDAY} Cycling

Monday was my husband’s birthday. As I usually teach indoor cycling on Mondays, and he wanted to come to my class this week, I designed a riding profile just for my him – with the happy birthday song in the beginning and some of his most favorite songs throughout.

My class is called “Road Trip”. So I announced this past Monday class as a “Rocky Road Trip” because most of the songs in the class were rock 🙂 If you would like to see the latest class playlist, check out this page here.

30 days active

Good burn and fun class. My birthday boy was happy with the ride 🙂

We then got home and celebrated his birthday with his favorite coffee chocolate chip ice cream pie, and gave him a special birthday present he requested.

{TUESDAY}

Steps-steps-steps. No official workout.

Healthy choice of the day:

smoothie

Watermelon, strawberry, mint and cottage cheese smoothie

And that was it, my friends.

I am not particularly happy with the past week for a few reasons: I didn’t run once (my knee was being funny pretty much all week), I had too much cake, I had too many days with no official workout. I did stay active every day, I did what I could when I could. I guess it’s the most important thing, but somehow it doesn’t feel like it’s enough…

Ok, so today is Wednesday and it is the beginning of the final week of the challenge. I’m gonna make it count!

Stay tuned for the next week’s recap and more!

Lean Lena

This post has been shared on: Work Out Wednesday Link Up, The Hump Day Blog Hop

Dinner Salad with Salmon and Grapefruit – Recipe and Linkup Party

Hey, my Foodies! Got a good start this week?

I had an awesome Monday! (more on that tomorrow).

Meanwhile, it’s Tasty Tuesday time!

What is Tasty Tuesday you ask?

Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more participants next week!

Tasty Tuesday Badge 2000x2000

So, today my contribution to the Tasty Tuesday is a dinner salad recipe.

This salad comes together in minutes and is ideal for hot summer nights when you don’t feel like eating much, or trying to take it easy after that huge meatball sub you had for lunch 🙂

Anyway, give this salad a try as a dinner salad or as a side – it is fresh and delicious!

dinner salad

You will need:

(pick your own quantities depending on how many servings you would like to make)

  • Romaine lettuce
  • Grapefruit
  • Avocado
  • Salmon
  • Sliced almonds
Instructions:

Before you begin, here’s a tip: don’t make this salad in a big bowl. It is much better to make individual servings to keep it nice and beautiful.

First, marinate your fish: all I use is a little bit of lemon juice, pepper and soy sauce. Make sure the fish is coated with the marinade and let it sit on the counter while you’re prepping other ingredients.

Then, tear up your lettuce. Don’t cut it with a knife – that’s how you get those rusty brown edges on the lettuce pieces on your plate and the leftover lettuce head in the fridge. So, tear it up and layer the bottom of the salad bowls with it.

Peel and cut avocado, and put on top of the lettuce.

Since grapefruit will probably take the longest to prep, do that next. Peel it, take the flesh out and tear into chunky pieces. Another tip: do it over the salad bowls with lettuce – that way you will keep the grapefruit juice in the salad. It also helps keep avocado from turning brown.

Cooking fish: I used my wok, but you can use a regular frying pan. The key is to heat up the oil in your wok/pan nicely (I use olive oil). Once that’s done, throw the fish in and stir constantly but gently so the fish doesn’t fall apart. Ideally, you want the fish to be rare on the inside and just have a cooked crust on the outside for this salad. If you’re not comfortable eating almost raw fish, just cook it through.

Put the fish on top of your salad and sprinkle the sliced almonds over it.

Serve warm or cold.

I generally don’t add any dressing to this salad because of the grapefruit juice + juices from fish on it, but you can add some olive oil or any other dressing you like to this salad.

dinner salad

Enjoy!

And that’s about it for this week’s Tasty Tuesday, my friends.

Your turn: link up your tasty posts below! And don’t forget to share and spread the word!

Lean Lena

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This post was linked up to: Recipe of the Week,  Tasty Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesday

Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party and Quinoa Taco Salad Recipe

Hey, guys! Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July!

I had a great weekend! Full of family time, laughs, fun activities and good food. Yep, there were fireworks, too 🙂 Back to the salt mine today, but all recharged and ready for it.

As always, it’s the Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party time here on Lean Lena. Here’s the new badge (you can grab the code for it on the right sidebar), and I’m hosting it alone for now.

Tasty Tuesday Badge 2000x2000

We’ll see what happens 🙂

So! If you have a recipe on the blog, a restaurant review, a meal plan, a “what’s on my plate” kind of post or anything food related – you can link it up below.

This linkup is open for 1 week – right until the next one starts. So, if you didn’t get a chance to link up today – come back tomorrow!

Any shares and spreading the word is greatly appreciated!

Today I’m sharing yet another salad recipe with you – and this one is also quinoa based. I just love quinoa in salads! Have you seen my post featuring recipes with quinoa yet? Head over here to check it out in case you missed it.

Then come back inspired and make this super-salad!

tasty tuesday

YOU WILL NEED:

  • Quinoa, cooked according to package instructions – about 1/2 cup uncooked, and cooled down
  • Canned Black Beans (rinsed and drained well)
  • Fresh tomatoes
  • Fresh leeks or purple onion
  • Corn (I “shaved” my corn on the cob that I had handy but you can use canned corn as well, just rinse and drain well before adding to the salad)
  • Fresh cilantro
  • Lemon juice
  • Olive oil
  • Taco seasoning, salt and pepper to taste
  • Tri-Color Tortilla Strips to garnish (optional)

tasty tuesday

INSTRUCTIONS:

Combine quinoa and all vegetables (except tomatoes) in a salad bowl.

Add lemon juice, olive oil, taco seasoning, salt and pepper and mix until well combined.

Fold in tomatoes.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Enjoy!

tasty tuesday

How wonderfully easy is this salad?

The best part of it is that the longer it stays in the fridge, the tastier it gets (within reason, of course 🙂 )

Now tell me, what was the tastiest thing you ate last week?

Got a post about it? Link it up below!

Happy Tasty Tuesday and I will see you tomorrow right here with my report to follow up on my resolutions I talked about in the Tough Love post last week.

Stay tuned!

Lean Lena

Be sure to check out the linkups this post was shared on:

Real Food Wednesdays

Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop

A Humble Bumble

FEATURED-BUTTON-Healthy-Hop-2501

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Five on Friday: Random Likes and Dislikes

Hey-hey, guys! Happy Friday and the 4th of July!

What fun things are you doing today? Grilling? Family visiting?

It is Five on Friday time and I have five things to tell you about that I’m loving/disliking lately. This week these are totally random likes and dislikes without any theme.

{ONE} FitBit Flex – Wireless Activity Tracker

fitbit flex

Isn’t it a pretty blue I picked out?

I’ve been eyeing activity trackers of all sorts for a while… It is very easy to get lost in the variety offered by Nike, FitBit, Polar….Besides, I am not the kind of person who reads instruction manuals for more than 2 minutes, and that’s usually when it is trouble shooting time 🙂

Anyway, I got lost – in the variety.

I am a Polar girl…but their Loop seemed a little too big to me.

Then two of my co-workers showed up at work with 2 different activity trackers! One had Nike and the other had Fitbit. That was just what I needed!

I asked both if I could try their activity trackers on and the decision was easy to make. Fitbit felt much lighter, much more flexible and compact. Fitbit it was!

I ordered mine on their official website and got it in the mail a few days later.

Fun Fact: you can connect it to your My Fitness Pal account – Fitbit will get the calories consumed data from My Fitness Pal and sync the activity calories back to it. FUN!

It also supports a whole bunch of other apps. Told ya – FUN! 🙂

If you read The New Yorker – there was a fun article about Fitbit in one of the latest issues – “Stepping Out” by David Sedaris. Click here to read online.

{TWO} Gardening

I just realized the other day that I haven’t shared my gardening pictures with you yet this year! Here we go.

gardening

Left to right, top to bottom: peppers, tomatoes and more peppers, sage, basil and cilantro, tomatoes, purple basil, egg plants, more peppers

Never thought I’d be so excited about gardening! But hey, those tomatoes taste a whole lot different from store bought ones. They just TASTE.

five on friday

Salads with home grown tomatoes are to die for!

Besides, it is super Zen to tend to a garden 🙂 Try it! Best meditation practice ever 🙂

{THREE} Worst Smoothie Recipe – EVER!

So last Friday I made myself a smoothie. I did it before work and I was kind of in a rush…So I threw in everything I had that I could classify as a smoothie ingredient into my blender. That included:

  • fresh strawberries (not bad)
  • frozen banana (done that before)
  • almond milk (well, that turned out to be bad, so I dumped it and added some regular milk)
  • vanilla extract (ok, I guess)
  • watermelon (oooooops….baaaaaad idea)

So anyway, it looked beautiful! I snapped a picture and rushed to work.

smoothie

Imagine my surprise when I got to work and decided to sip on my smoothie. It. Was. Disgusting! I have no idea why, but the combination above tastes horrible – must be the watermelon and milk 🙂

{FOUR} Roasted Vegetables

roasted vegetables

Roasted carrots and potatoes

It seems like any roasted vegetable becomes a great hit in my family this summer. They are so good for you and super easy to make: just mix with spices and olive oil and roast in the oven at 400° F for 40 minutes, turning at 20. Done! Comes together while you’re grilling and makes a great side for pretty much anything.

{FIVE} Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Five on Friday

You guys probably read this book in high school 🙂 I’m from a different country so I’ve just discovered it for myself before going on my trip to Savannah last week.

The action actually takes place in Savannah and that’s the reason why I wanted to read it. LOVE this book. Still working on but I don’t think it’s going to get worse 🙂

And that’s my Five on Friday! Have a wonderful weekend, guys, and I’ll see you next week!

Lean Lena

DISCLAIMER: I have not been compensated in any way by any of the brands mentioned in this post for writing about their product/service. All the opinions above are my own and provided voluntarily and independently from any brand mentioned herein.

FitBloggin’ 14: Tastes and Sights of Savannah

Hey guys! How was Monday?

I was dragging after the FitBloggin’ weekend. Lil’ better today, but still catching up on my sleep and getting back to my routine.

So! As you may have noticed, yesterday’s brief overview of the whole experience did not touch the two exciting parts of the trip to Savannah – food and sights 🙂

Since it is Tasty Tuesday, I’m going to tell you what I ate in Savannah as well is what I saw.

If you get to Savannah by air, here’s what you see when you get to the airport:

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yep, that is INSIDE the airport

Most of the meals were provided so we had just a few chances to go and explore Savannah and eat out. Here’s a glance at our typical breakfast:

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fruit, eggs, sausage, potatoes and a muffin

On the first night, Jennifer and I decided to eat at the hotel we were staying at (Hyatt Regency Savannah) at their Lounge called “Windows”

I ordered a crab cake sandwich looking forward to tasting the delicious fresh crab in it!

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Mmmmmm

Well, that crab cake was HOT! It was so spicy I could not eat it. Thankfully Jennifer came to my rescue and we swapped halves of our sandwiches. The lounge was so nice as to give us 50% off that crab cake sandwich since I didn’t like it.

After dinner we headed out for the Ghost Tour with Peg Leg Ron and his shipmate Jacob 🙂 It was a ghost tour in a real hearse!

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Ready to Roll! Photo credit

I didn’t take many pictures on the tour. I mean I did but none of them really turned out. Mysterious, isn’t it? 🙂

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except this one pic of this spooky house!

But don’t you think Savannah is all that spooky and dark. It’s not. It is a very beautiful place – full of history and beautiful places to see and go to.

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View from our hotel terrace

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One of the 23 squares in Savannah

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City Hall

But back to the food….

FitBloggin’ 14 was sponsored by many yummy brands 🙂

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California Almonds had a whole snack bar set up for us to use!

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California Avocado Commission made THE BEST blueberry muffins ever!

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Run Disney provided lunch one of the days while presenting to all the runners in the audience 🙂

We also had a chance to explore Savannah and grab some food outside of the conference venue, so Jennifer and I went wondering around and found this:

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Pralines from River Street Sweets

Remember I got a Foodie Penpals box from Tiffani with a bear claw from this store in Charlston? Yep, that was the same chain and their sweets are ahhhhhh-mazing! They deliver, you know? 🙂

On Saturday we had dinner to ourselves (not arranged) so we ventured out to Ruan Thai Cuisine where I had this delicious reminder of my days in Thailand:

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Fried rice with scallops. YUM!

All in all, guys – I am in love with Savannah! Despite the heat and humidity – I’m ready to go back TODAY!

Now link it up! Share your recipes or any food related posts below. Nothing to share? Tell your friends!

Take care and talk to you soon!

Lean Lena

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Quinoa the Queen and 5 Ways to Easily Incorporate it into Your Diet

Happy Tasty Tuesday morning to you, my friends!

What fun things did you do this weekend? I was on a cleaning spree – so I scrubbed and cleaned, and washed and dusted, and vacuumed and what not 🙂

Love to have a clean house! Great feeling.

There was also some pool time on Sunday and hubby’s company picnic on Saturday.

FUN!

But back to tasty things 🙂 It’s linkup party time! Do you have something tasty you’re talking about on your blog? A new recipe? A restaurant review? Link it up below!

Don’t forget to check out other links!

Me? I am talking Quinoa today 🙂

Quinoa is a wonder-seed. Rich in protein (8 g, 16%), magnesium (118 mg, 30%) and fiber (5 g, 21%) it has become extremely popular among people with various dietary restrictions, preferences and tastes.

I personally discovered it about a year ago (thank you, Internet 🙂 ), and I have been hooked ever since I tried it for the first time.

If you’re looking into trying quinoa, here are some tasty ways to incorporate it into your diet.

{ONE} Salads

I usually make a whole batch of it on Sunday and add it pretty much to all my salads.

On a bed of fresh baby spinach

On a bed of fresh baby spinach

Here’s the link to my Quinoa Power Salad and ways to serve it.

Every salad (except the beet root salad) in this Sunday meal prep photo has white quinoa in it:

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{TWO} Baking

I haven’t tried baking with it yet, but this Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Snack Cake by Peanut Butter and Peppers looks super-yummy!

{THREE} Breakfast Recipes

Some people eat quinoa cooked as oatmeal for breakfast.

Or, you can make this awesome Quinoa Pudding by Honest Fare and have that instead!

{FOUR} Add to Soups

Add your quinoa to soups instead of that pasta! So much better for you!

This Black Bean and Quinoa Soup by The Post Punk Kitchen looks simply ah-mazing!

{FIVE} Add to Smoothies

Yes, you read that right! I can’t wait to try and add quinoa to my smoothie!

Check out the recipe for this beautiful Tropical Quinoa Smoothie by Rabbit Food for my Bunny Teeth.

And those are your 5 ways to incorporate quinoa into your diet.

Now it’s party time!

Share your tasty finds with me 🙂

Questions of the day:

Have you ever tried quinoa? How did you like it? What is your favorite recipe with quinoa?

Take care, my friends!

Lean Lena

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