good food Archives - Page 5 of 9

Lean Lena July 8, 2014

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.

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!

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)

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!

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!

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

Real Food Wednesdays

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: dinner, fitness, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: dinner, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, quinoa, recipes, salad 22 Comments

Lean Lena July 4, 2014

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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

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!

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.

Filed Under: dinner, fitness, Five on Friday, gadget-head, Gift Ideas Tagged With: dinner, fitness, five on friday, good food, healthy dinner, smoothie 10 Comments

Lean Lena July 1, 2014

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:

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:

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!

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!

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? 🙂

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.

View from our hotel terrace

One of the 23 squares in Savannah

City Hall

But back to the food….

FitBloggin’ 14 was sponsored by many yummy brands 🙂

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

California Avocado Commission made THE BEST blueberry muffins ever!

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:

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:

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!

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, events, fitness, fitness events, healthy snack ideas, Link Up, lunch, new experiences, Tasty Tuesday, travel Tagged With: breakfast, dessert, dining out, dinner, fitness, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experience, salad 8 Comments

Lean Lena June 24, 2014

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 🙂

Image Source

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

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:

{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!

Image Source

{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!

Image Source

{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!

Image Source

{FIVE} Add to Smoothies

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

Image Source

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!

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, fitness, Healthy Living Tips, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: baking, breakfast, dessert, dinner, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, quinoa, recipes, salad, smoothie 15 Comments

Lean Lena June 10, 2014

S’more S’mores: 5 Recipes You Will Want to Make

Hey guys! Happy Tasty Tuesday! I hope you had a nice weekend.

As usual – we’re partying today and celebrating all the tasty stuff in our lives 🙂 Be sure to hop over to Meranda’s blog to check out what’s cooking over in her part of the cyber space, and check out the party participants in the linkup below. Hey, got something to add to the party? Link it up!

We went camping on Saturday. I. Love. Camping.

When I was a kid we’d go camping every summer for a week. We’d tent by the lake, swim, cook food over the camp fire and go fishing. I looked forward to it so much every summer! And that’s where my ability to start a camp fire came from, as well as my addiction to poking it with a stick all the time 🙂 🙂 🙂

Thankfully, my husband loves camping, too – so we try to make time and go camping every spring/early summer as a family.

One thing I discovered about camping when I moved to the US was S’mores (I know, right?). Oh. My. God. How come I didn’t know this goodness existed for the first 30 years of my life???

Anyway, no one can take that from me now – I love me some s’mores! 🙂 And because I love them so much – that got me thinking about ways to bring s’mores into my life any day I want – not just when we go camping. Check out what I found!

Yeah, that’s my hand holding on to that S’more for dear life 🙂 Anyway, back to the recipes! Click on the recipe name below to view the original recipe on it’s creator’s blog. Some of the recipes are quick and easy to make, others – more complicated and sophisticated. But one thing I can tell you for sure – those 5 will bring the camp fire favorite to your table any time you want it!

{ONE} No Bake S’mores Pie by Brown Eyed Baker

Image Source

This pie looks mouth watering good, and according to the Brown Eyed Baker you only need 20 minutes to put it together! It doesn’t get any better, does it? 🙂

{TWO} 5 Minute Chocolate Fudge S’mores Mug Cake by How Sweet It Is

Image Source

For all of you mug cake AND s’mores lovers out there. You’re welcome 🙂

{THREE} S’mores Stuffed French Toast by BS’ in the Kitchen

Image Source

For this one, Bob over at BS’ in the Kitchen even has a video showing you how to make them!

{FOUR} S’mores Whoopie Pies by My Baking Addiction

Image Source

Mmm….mmm…mmm… Right after I’m done with this post, I am going to look for a whoopee pie pan online so I can make these!

{FIVE} S’mores Fudge by the Novice Chef

Image Source

Fudge AND s’mores? Yes, please!

And that’s how your get s’more s’mores, guys 🙂

Do share: Camping – yey or ney? Tent or cabin? Can you start a camp fire?

Take care, friends! And don’t forget to link up your tasty posts below.

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: dessert, family events, Link Up, new experiences, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: baking, breakfast, dessert, family, good food, recipes 15 Comments

Lean Lena June 6, 2014

A Week in Food – Award Ceremony

Good morning, World! How is it turning today? 🙂 I bet it feels like it’s turning faster, because it’s Friday 🙂

Have you had breakfast yet? No? Well, I’m just about to make you hungry!

I’m talking food here today (again) – highlights of the past week and awards in 5 Categories! Ready?

So “Breakfast/Snack” category winner is…..

Granola and Yogurt

I usually make my own granola. This time I couldn’t resist this yummy looking all organic granola I found at TJ Maxx, so I bought it and enjoyed it ever since.

“From Hubs With Loves” Category winner is….

Steak Sandwich

Just that – steak, provolone and lettuce on whole wheat bread – the sandwich hubby made me last Friday and left in the fridge with a note for me. Isn’t he the sweetest? 🙂

“Eating Out” category winner is…

Chicken Pho Soup from Issei Noodle

This is one of our most favorite places to eat in town – always quick, fresh, cheap and super delicious! And that place just got even better – they now serve Thai tea with bubbles!!!!

Mmmmm…I love me some bubble tea!

“Lazy Wife” category winner is…

Store-bought chicken tortellini with mushrooms

Our go-to meal when the wife is feeling to lazy to cook anything more complicated 🙂 What? I added veggies! 🙂

Do share: what’s cooking today?

Have a great weekend, guys!

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, Five on Friday, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes Tagged With: breakfast, dining out, dinner, five on friday, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, pasta, recipes 10 Comments

Lean Lena June 3, 2014

Apple Upside Down Cake Recipe

Hey-hey, my foodies! How was your weekend?

Mine was really relaxing (lots of pool time as I predicted) and quiet. I got some much needed rest and relaxation to get me ready for the new week.

So here I am with my Tasty Tuesday post!

Meranda is taking a break from co-hosting the linkup today as she has other commitments, so it’s just me and you this time 🙂 Don’t forget to link up your favorite tasty posts below and check out the links of other partiers!

If you read this blog regularly, you know I can’t let food go to waste. A lot of my recipes are using leftovers 🙂

So I had these 4 apples sitting in my fruit basket for a while that needed to be used before they went bad. I felt lazy to make apple chips, so I made an apple upside down cake.

This cake is super easy and delicious – ideal with a scoop of ice cream on top. Here’s what you need.

INGREDIENTS

4 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar (or sweetener of choice in an appropriate amount)
4 medium apples of any kind
1 tsp ground cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°F

Take the core out of the apples, then peel them.

Cut them in half and slice.

Mix with cinnamon until evenly coated and place at the bottom of a greased baking form.

Beat the egg whites and sugar in a mixer until foamy.

Slowly beat in egg yolks and flour until well combined.

Slowly pour the batter over the apples.

Let the cake sit in the form for about 10 minutes or until there are no air bubbles on the surface.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry.

Let cool down, then remove from the form and flip it over “Apple Side” up.

Enjoy with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream on top!

And that’s my Tasty Tuesday post, folks.

What’s yours? Tell me about tasty things you’ve tried lately. Link it up!

And keep having a great week 🙂

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: dessert, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: baking, dessert, good food, recipes 6 Comments

Lean Lena May 30, 2014

Food Favorites Lately

Hey guys! TGIF!

Who’s got plans for this weekend? I am planning to blob by the pool for most of it with errands and workouts in between. Exciting!

Anyway. Today’s Five on Friday is all about food – my five latest likes! Here we go!

{ONE} Foodie Pen Pals

I got yet another box in the mail as part of this awesome program. This time I got paired with MyThy. She sent me a super wonderful Asian themed box and a letter on 3 pages!!!

I absolutely LOVED everything in my box: Cream Wafers, Mixed Fruit Chips, Cracker Nuts, Chocolate Milk Candy, Fruit Chews and assorted teas.

The letter was so wonderful, too! It was great to read about my Foodie Pen Pal and the treats she sent me.

These are all long gone – except for the teas – I’m still working on them.

Thank you so much, MyThy!

{TWO} Chicken and Veggie Skewers

We buy them at Giant – ready to go on the grill. They are pretty cheap and can make a quick and easy summer night dinner. I usually don’t need a side for these because they’re pretty big.

Giant sells them both “raw” and marinated. I have to say, I really like the way Giant marinates them, so I usually buy those.

{THREE} Chicken Lasagna

I’ve never tried chicken lasagna before – until one night we had a lot of leftover crockpot chicken. It’s a great way to use it up! So delicious and better for you.

{FOUR} Jumbo Salads

Just take whatever salad goodness you have in the fridge and throw it into a jumbo salad bowl 🙂 I had lettuce, broccoli, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, pepitas and feta in this case.

{FIVE} Breakfast Sandwiches

No secret to my regular readers – I love breakfast sandwiches and don’t take sweet breakfasts very well. Oh yeah, and I don’t eat cereal – just don’t like it.

So! I’ve been addicted to Walmart’s Ciabatta Rolls.

I toast it, add cream cheese, ham and egg – and that is how you make a super power breakfast in my books 🙂

Do share: what is your favorite food of the week?

Have a great weekend, guys, and stay fit!

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, Five on Friday, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, lunch Tagged With: breakfast, dinner, five on friday, foodie penpals, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, salad 10 Comments

Lean Lena May 27, 2014

Sweet Potato Wedges – Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party

Hey-hey guys! The Tasty Tuesday party is back!

I am so glad to be back to normal with my life and blogging after 3 weeks of just work and no play!

Bringing the party back to you today with my sweet potato wedges recipe! As always, this recipe was inspired by what was leftover in my pantry. This time it was sweet potatoes and I felt like just baking them was way to boring so I made the sweet potato wedges – super easy, quick and my kids just LOVED them! So, here we go.

SWEET POTATO WEDGES

INGREDIENTS:

2 large sweet potatoes
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dill
3 tbsp. olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Scrub the potatoes (I didn’t peel mine) and cut them into wedges, put in a large bowl.

Add oil and spices, mix until well coated.

Bake for 20 minutes, turn the wedges over and bake for another 20 minutes.

About 5 minutes before they are ready, turn on the broiler to make them nice and crispy.

Enjoy!

Now your turn – link up below and remember to visit the blog of my co-host Meranda to see what she’s cooking, as well as other party participants!

Have a wonderful week, friends.

This post was shared on Urban Naturale

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: dinner, healthy snack ideas, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: dinner, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes 11 Comments

Lean Lena May 6, 2014

POPSUGAR Must Have Snacks from Nature Box – Review

Hey-hey, my friends! Happy Tasty Tuesday to you!

I am totally crazed with work these days – I had to get up at 4:30 am and commute 2 hours (vs. my usual 10 minutes), so it’s been a few 12-14 hour days at work. On the plus side – it’s all outside 🙂 FUN!

I will try and pop in every now and then in the next couple of weeks but will be extremely busy, so hang in there 🙂 For now – it is time to PARTY!

I am talking about snacking here today. Again 🙂 Well, whatcha gonna do – I’m a snacking queen 🙂

Anyway, a while ago I received an e-mail from Popsugar Select with an invitation to take part in their #MushHaveSnacks campaign with Nature Box.

Nature Box snacks? Count me in! So I signed up and Popsugar and Nature Box kindly selected me to be part of this awesome campaign. I have received a box of goodies from them free of charge to try and review:

Want to tell you up front – I absolutely LOVED every single snack in my box. No exceptions at all. So let’s take a closer look at what I got:

Dried California Peaches

You know it is good stuff when there is only one ingredient on the list and that’s peaches.

Blueberry Almond Bites

These are moderately sweet and oh so good as a healthy treat!

Next up was the Popsugar Must Have Mix – that one was my most favorite! Savory, delicious, healthy and beautiful! What more would I want of a snack? 🙂

Seaweed Rice Pops

These babies disappeared from my snack drawer before I could say “rice pops” 🙂

Lemon Pucker Pistachios

These were the favorite of the men in my family. I left them on the dining room table in the morning and they were gone by the time I got home from work. I have no idea how that happened because I am the last to leave the house and often the first to come back 🙂 Somebody must have snuck into the house and ate them 🙂

Anyway, guys! I enjoyed the snacks from Popsugar and Nature Box very much! And I am very excited to tell you that for a very limited time POPSUGAR Must Have Snacks by NatureBox will be 50% off!!! Follow this link to sign up and get you first box in the mail!

And that’s it for today, guys! Don’t forget to link up your tasty posts below and check out other partiers!

Have a great week!

Disclosure: POPSUGAR and NatureBox provided me with a complimentary POPSUGAR Must Have Snacks by NatureBox box. The opinions I have shared about the box are my own, and POPSUGAR and NatureBox did not tell me what to say or how to say it.

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: healthy snack ideas, Link Up, new experiences, Product Reviews, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: good food, healthy snack ideas, nature box, new experience, popsugar 10 Comments

Lean Lena April 30, 2014

Foodie Pen Pals Reveal Day – April

Hey hey! Happy Wednesday 🙂 (man, I’m good at rhyming 🙂 )

How is your week going, guys? Ready for Friday yet? I am! I’m tired…

Anyway, Friday never comes soon enough 🙂 While we’re waiting, let me tell you about what I got in my latest Foodie Pen Pals box.

I was paired up with Sara this month. After a quick exchange of details about our food preferences and dietary restrictions (Sara is vegan) the boxes were finally sent off! Sara and I both got our boxes on the same day 🙂

Here’s what I got in my box of goodies:

Hazelnut cream filled wafers

Aren’t they gorgeous?

Omnomnom

These little guys are perfect healthy snack if you’re craving something sweet as cinnamon is a natural sweetener.

Sweet cinnamon roasted chickpeas

Now this was gone within seconds of me opening the box:

Sunflower seed almond butter

Oh and so was this (because, you know, it was just pure coconut):

Coconut snack bar

Larabar? What Larabar? I didn’t get no Larabar!

ALT Larabar that wasn’t there 🙂

Oh by the way, the bag of extremely delicious multigrain snack chips was also not there. No idea what happened to it – must have been lost in transit 🙂

My Foodie Penpals Box

Thank you so much for a wonderful box, Sara! I hope you enjoyed mine as much as I enjoyed yours!

Now time for you, guys, to check out my previous FPP posts to see just how awesome this program is. Here you go:

Convinced to try it yet? 🙂

Have a great rest of your week, guys! And don’t forget to get yourself a foodie penpal – so much fun!

Filed Under: dessert, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, new experiences Tagged With: dessert, foodie penpals, good food, healthy snack ideas, new experience 8 Comments

Lean Lena April 29, 2014

Roasted Carrots with Tahini Drizzle – Recipe

Hey-hey, my friends! Happy Tasty Tuesday!

It is that time of week when we celebrate great food with a linkup party. I hope you join us today for the linkup below or just share your recent tasty finds with me in comments.

In light of recent Easter holiday, I wanted to share my tasty discovery with you today – roasted carrots. I generally LOVE roasted vegetables. I could eat any roasted vegetable every single day and twice on Sunday. 🙂

So, it wasn’t actually Easter that prompted my search for a recipe for roasted carrots, but rather a poor bag of whole carrots sitting in my fridge for a while. I felt bad for them so I needed to cook and eat them. 🙂

After searching the internet for a good recipe, I found one over at High Gate Hill Kitchen. I have modified the original recipe just a tiny bit, but otherwise, it is a great find and definitely goes into my recipe box.

ROASTED CARROTS WITH TAHINI DRIZZLE

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch (basically as much as you have/want to make) of whole carrots
2 tbsp. tahini
Juice of one lemon
10-20ml ice water (I added 10 to make the drizzle not as runny)
2 tbsps sesame seeds
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Wash the carrots, half if needed and place in a single layer on your baking sheet.

Drizzle with olive oil and toss until coated.

Sprinkle with salt and bake for 40 minutes, turning them after 20 minutes.

While the carrots are in the oven, prepare your tahini drizzle: combine the tahini, lemon juice, pepper and water in a bowl.

Whisk until there are no lumps left and the drizzle is smooth. It should be thin enough to drip off your spoon.

Toast the sesame seeds in a pan over high heat until they start to brown, 1-2 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside to cool.

To assemble: lay your roasted carrots on a plate and use a spoon to drizzle the tahini mixture over the top.

Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top and serve immediately.

I made these carrots for the Easter dinner and they were a HUGE hit with my family (and I am talking 2 kids who are not big fans of vegetables, especially if they’re cooked).

Give this recipe a try, guys! And don’t forget to visit the recipe author’s blog and thank them!

Have a great week, friends!

Loading InLinkz ...

This post was shared on: Fairytales and Fitness, A Humble Bumble

Filed Under: dinner, holidays, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: dinner, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, holidays, lunch, recipes 13 Comments

Lean Lena April 28, 2014

Vega Bars Review

Hey guys! Happy New Week!

As you might have noticed from following me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – I’ve been selected to review Vega Bars through Fit Approach. I am super excited and honored as it is my very first product review and it is for Vega! I wanted to thank both Fit Approach and Vega Team for this great opportunity!

The very first time I ever heard of Vega was when I got one of my Foodie Penpal boxes from Heather over at Kiss My Broccoli – she sent me a packet of Vega Sport Performance Protein. I am not very big on protein powders. I do add them to smoothies occasionally but mostly I dislike them for the artificial aftertaste. I was intrigued by the product of Vega back then for not having that aftertaste! So when Fit Approach sent out an opportunity e-mail to review Vega bars, I jumped right at it and was selected as one of the bloggers!

Anyway, back to the bars. I have received a box of goodness from Vega to try out.

There were four kinds in my box: Vega Snack, Vega One, Vega Sport Protein Bar and Vega Sport Energy Bar – I got 2 flavors of each kind.

I won’t bore you with nutrition facts and such in this post. All that information is available online and you can access it and decide if it is right for your nutrition goals. This post is all about my personal experience trying the bars and how my taste buds felt in the process. 🙂

Of course I had to try one right when I received my box! I just got home from work and was getting ready to go to my Wednesday night yoga class, so I thought that would be a perfect time for a snack!

Well, hello there!

I started with Cranberry-Almond snack bar. LOVED the combination of almond and cranberry! I personally found this bar a little too sweet, but you’re looking at the girl who loves super dark chocolate the most. Otherwise, it did the job just great – it was a perfect snack to keep me going for a few hours until dinner time.

Next up was Vega One meal bar and I tried Chocolate-Peanut Butter flavor.

Let me tell you, this is a one serious bar right there! It has 13 g of protein, it is just the right amount of sweetness, and it has peanut butter AND chocolate in it! I was a little skeptical about the name to begin with – meal bar? There’s no way I can be satisfied subbing a meal with a bar – I’ll get hungry in an hour! – I thought. So I had this bar as a snack between meals at work. Erm…I was not hungry for HOURS! I just wasn’t. I had it for a 10 am snack and didn’t have lunch until 2 pm while my usual lunch time after the 10 am snack is noon. Hey, if you know you’re going to be hellishly busy and will not have time to sit down and eat a meal – this is a perfect on the go solution. My favorite part was that having 13 g of protein in it – you get none of that disgusting artificial powder aftertaste you get after eating a protein packed bar. NONE!

On Saturday I headed out for my usual Saturday double in the morning – indoor cycling class and then yoga. Sometimes I eat breakfast before that, other times I don’t – depends on how early I get up and if I feel like eating. This past Saturday I didn’t – so Chocolate-Coconut Vega Sport protein bar came in very handy in between the classes – it was a perfect snack to keep me going for another hour of exercise after cycling.

Just look at this goodness!

Yesterday my husband and I went for a 30K bike ride at our local Rail Trail. I absolutely LOVED the event and the trail, but 30K is a long way to go and you know me – I need a snack every 2 hours. I made sure I am well prepared for the challenge!

Once again, Vega Sport Energy Bar performed – I had my snack before the ride and then half way through:

Don’t mind my face – I just really wanted to finish my Vega bar!

The conclusion, my friends is this:

If you’re looking for a healthy AND delicious snack – Vega Bars are the way to go – no funky ingredients, yummy flavors, plant-based, gluten free and non-GMO.

Best thing – they taste GREAT. They taste like a treat without the guilt part of having one.

I absolutely and sincerely loved being a part of this campaign held by Vega and Fit Approach!

I hope you decide to try Vega Bars, friends. They are 100% worth it!

Have a great week and I will see you back here tomorrow for the Tasty Tuesday linkup party!

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post. I have received complementary box of Vega bars from Vega and Fit Approach. All opinions in this post are my own.

Filed Under: articles, breakfast, Cycling, dessert, events, fitness, fitness events, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experiences, Product Reviews, Sweat Pink Tagged With: good food, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experience, product review, vega, Vega Bars 8 Comments

Lean Lena April 25, 2014

Random Likes – Five on Friday

Hey guys! TGIF!!!

I can’t wait for this weekend! So much going on lately – I have to tell you about it in my Five on Friday post today 🙂 Here we go!

{ONE} Cumberland Valley Rails-to-Trails

This is an awesome trail close by where we live and we went there last weekend for a bike ride. It was my very first time there and I LOVED it!

It is a beautiful trail, and the day was just perfect for a ride – nice breeze, not to warm, no bugs yet. Pure AWESOMENESS! And I got a pretty good workout out of a recreational ride.

We went out 4 miles, but then Carmen got tired and we had to go back. Was still a fun ride and we got to style at the finish line. Well, I personally was mostly styling my helmet hair 🙂

This Sunday hubby and I are going back there again for the 8th annual Race, Run, Ride & Ramble Trail Festival – we’re doing the 30K bike ride part of it. SO excited! Stay tuned for recap next week, friends 🙂

{TWO} Lucky Brand

I’ve been a huge fan of their purses for a long-long time – well made, stylish, super convenient and spacious (crazy bag lady here) and just beautiful. I am a proud owner of this one:

I love their jewelry, too – like this Green Stone Woven Bracelet:

Or these gorgeous Two Tone Oval Orbital Earrings

{THREE} DIY Easter Baskets

We had a wonderful Easter this year! We had the kids and since they are all grown up now, we decided to go with the DIY Easter baskets rather than the egg hunt. So, on Good Friday when everybody was taking their nap in the afternoon, I put together these baskets:

Don’t mind my washer and dryer – I was hiding in laundry room while putting these baskets together 🙂

{FOUR} Homemade Quesadillas

Oh I have been addicted to those! Carmen loves enchiladas, so we always have tortillas in the fridge. What better way to use them than make a breakfast quesadilla?

Takes no time to make, too – just whisk an egg, fry it as a pancake, put on a tortilla, add whatever else you want on it (I have cheese and ham), fold, brown on both sides, cut and devour! 🙂

{FIVE} Indoor Cycling Instructor News

Well, you guys know that this Monday I taught my very first indoor cycling class at the local YMCA as my audition for the job there.

I passed and got a job offer, which I happily accepted!!!

I have yet to pass all the checks, orientations and such, but this goes to show how determination and hard work always pay off! Once you get on the right track, once you really want something and are determined to get it – the whole world helps you reach your goals.

You suddenly find just the right people to help and support you.

You suddenly find energy in yourself to do a cycling class, a yoga class and then come back to cycling room to practice teaching for another hour – all that on a Saturday morning.

It is an amazing feeling when you see your riders’ eyes and smiles at the end of the class. I want to do it again and again 🙂

I am super excited about this job opportunity and the community of people I will be working with.

And that was my Five on Friday, folks 🙂

Do share: what have you been liking lately?

This post has been shared on:

Filed Under: breakfast, Cycling, fitness, fitness events, Five on Friday, Gift Ideas, lunch, new experiences, spinning, Spinning Instructor Tagged With: bicycling, breakfast, fitness, fitness motivation, five on friday, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy lunch, lunch, new experience, spinning, spinning instructor 8 Comments

Lean Lena April 22, 2014

Breakfast Quiche Recipe

Hey-hey! Happy Tasty Tuesday! I hope you guys had a wonderful Easter and are ready to party today 🙂

Link up your favorite tasty posts below and get them to show up on my co-host’s blog as well! Don’t forget to be nice and check out other links of our party attendees.

As for me, I am sharing an awesome recipe for Breakfast Quiche with you today. I found it on Love and Duck Fat originally and made just a few small adjustments to the recipe.

I have to say, this breakfast quiche has been my savior last week. With husband and kids being away, my lazy gene was acting up in the mornings. I was so glad I made this quiche last Sunday! Breakfasts made easy – cut, reheat, eat. One, two, three. Easy! So, here you are, guys, and don’t forget to go and thank Love and Duck Fat for the original recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

1 9” frozen pie crust, pre-baked according to directions.
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups light cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (4-6 oz.) shredded cheese
Handful of fresh baby spinach, arugula or parsley leaves
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. To make the onions: add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan. Add the onions and toss until soft, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat and allow to cook until reduced in size and golden. After about 10 minutes, sprinkle with salt. Allow to cook on low heat for 20 minutes, until very soft and brown. Set aside.

3. To make the mushrooms: melt 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter to a skillet on medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and season with salt. Continue to cook on medium-high, turning only a few times until the mushrooms get brown and crispy on the edges. Remove from the pan. Set aside.

4. To make the custard: whisk together the eggs, cream, and 1 teaspoon of salt until frothy.

5. Assemble the quiche: spread ½ of the cheese on the bottom of the pie crust, then mushrooms, and then the onions. Scatter some spinach leaves on top (or parsley/arugula), then the remaining cheese. Pour the egg mixture gently over the top.

6. Bake for 40 minutes, until the top is golden and the center no longer jiggles.

7. Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

8. Enjoy!

Easy, right? I love easy to make, healthy and delicious recipes.

I know you do, too.

Now your turn: share your tasty finds with me in the link-up party below!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Loading InLinkz ...

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: breakfast, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes 14 Comments

SWEET POTATO WEDGES

ROASTED CARROTS WITH TAHINI DRIZZLE

Connect with me:

Archives