healthy lunch Archives - Page 5 of 8

Lean Lena February 25, 2014

Tasty Tuesday – Meatloaf Muffins Recipe by Amber

Hey guys! Happy Tasty Tuesday to you!

I have something new and exciting for you today – a guest post! Please, meet Amber Vesey – the face behind Eats and Exercise by Amber.

Today Amber is sharing one of her recipes with us, so I will let her take the floor from now on. I hope you like the recipe and please, take a moment to connect with Amber for more wonderful recipes and exercise routines she shares on her Facebook page, her blog and Instagram.

Growing up, I would groan at my mother’s announcement that we would be having meatloaf for dinner. Over the course of the last few years, my eating habits have transformed drastically and so have my taste buds. Now, I look forward to the next time when I’ll be home and can dine on the comfort of my mother’s meatloaf. While delicious, my mother’s recipe needed some revamping to make it more nutritious. With my meal prepper mindset, I thought it would be more efficient to make Meatloaf Muffins, so more could be made at once, prepped to eat through out the week or even frozen to eat at a later date!

This recipe was my first attempt ever at making meatloaf, let alone in the shape of muffins but I am VERY happy with how it turned out! It was super moist and juicy, a worry of mine was that it would be too dry, but that was not the case! The recipe below is based off of my mother’s original, but there are other ways you could make meatloaf muffins, such as swapping out the BBQ sauce and ketchup for onion and seasoning, and maybe even adding some spinach! It really depends on what you like best! Take an original family recipe and make some healthy swapportunities! Comment below with any switches you made or if you thought of another Meatloaf Muffin idea!

MEATLOAF MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. ground turkey (makes five meatloaf muffins)
1 whole egg
1-2 slices GF bread* (see below tip)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tablespoon Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey BBQ Sauce (plus one squirt, after I mixed it all)
1/4 Cup Ketchup
Pepper and Garlic Powder to taste

* You will need to use gluten free bread as part of the recipe, *if you use Udi’s or any other frozen bread normally, it is helpful that at the end of a loaf, you save the ‘butts’ in the crisper of your fridge so you always have defrosted bread on hand. Don’t already do this? No worries, you can toast a slice of bread and it works just as well. Be careful with defrosting a slice of bread in the microwave though, I did it for too long once and the bread was not the right consistency to crumble and I had to throw the slice out which is a sacrilege since it’s so expensive in the first place!

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375
Add ground turkey, egg, garlic, pepper, garlic powder, ketchup and Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey BBQ
Crumble GF bread and add to mixture, mix well with your hands

4. Spray/grease muffin tin

5. Roll meat mixture into balls, place into tin, unlike making cupcakes or muffins, you want the meat mixture coming up out of the tin, since it will not rise

6. Place aluminum foil or a cookie sheet under your muffin tin in case the meat drips

7. Bake for 10-15 minutes, poke holes or cut in half to check the inside

8. Bake for another 10-15 minutes, to ensure that the meat is fully cooked, take out one of the muffin halves and make sure there is no pink on the inside

Pair these muffins with mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes, putting it on top and creating a meatloaf “cupcake” instead!

Tips/Notes

This was my first attempt ever, so the recipe time is a bit estimated, since while I was mid cooking my oven decided to shut off, effecting the times
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce brand is gluten free, if using another sauce, please check the ingredients or company website!
You can top each muffin with ketchup while cooking, I only tried that with one of the muffins, I am unsure if it made a huge difference
Cut muffins in half to ensure they cook fully if you are paranoid like me about undercooking meat
Place muffin tin on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil in case the turkey “drips” to prevent the excess from hitting the bottom of the oven and burning! No one likes the smoke detector to go off while trying to cook a delicious dinner!

Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us, Amber! I don’t know about you, guys, but I am definitely making those muffins in the near future 🙂

Stay fit and warm!

Filed Under: dinner, guest post, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: dinner, good food, guest post, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, muffins, recipes Leave a Comment

Lean Lena February 24, 2014

Weekend Cooking Spree

Hey guys! How was your weekend?

Mine was busy!

The weather was just gorgeous here this weekend, but sadly, I didn’t get to do much outside.

On Saturday morning hubby and I headed out to the Y to take Jim’s indoor cycling class. It was so nice out that I decided to take my new Vibram Five Fingers for a walk.

Love-love-love them!

Since my Spinning® instructor training I noticed that my workout attitude and the overall “feeling” at a cycling class has changed dramatically! For some reason I was always going for the speed – thinking that if I go faster, it will be better for me, I will burn more calories and all that crap. Well, that all has changed now. I am doing speed work, too but generally try to apply more resistance on the wheel than I used to and focus more on my heart rate rather than the RPM.

Taking the training also changed my entire perspective on what a bike set up should be – I have my saddle a lot higher now and I’ve noticed that it is making it much easier on my knees – a lot less cracking! 🙂

Anyway, with that in mind, I went pretty close to my usual distance on Saturday but burnt the number of calories I haven’t burnt in a cycling class in a long time.

I did take a nice two-hour nap on Saturday after this class + yoga. I just had to! It was the best nap of my life 🙂

When I woke up from my nap, it turned out the youngest had gone for a sleepover, so suddenly me and hubby had the evening to ourselves. We headed out for dinner to a Chinese place, and then decided to do some wandering around TJ Maxx. Well, I never leave that store without a score (yep, I rhymed that on purpose!)

Got me some yoga socks 🙂

I’ve been eyeing those for a while, but they just cost some ridiculous money it seems like. These were $3.something a pair so I got them and will give them a try this Wednesday!

On Saturday I also managed to squeeze in some meal prep into my day somewhere between the two workouts and the nap.

Homemade hummus, quinoa, water infused with cucumber and frozen mint leaves

Did you notice I got my water infusing water bottles that I mentioned here? 🙂 I just love the one with the orange cap except for one thing – it had a huge sticker on the front. Being an OCD driven woman, I took it off and now it’s sticky. Some Googone will have to be applied – and that’s just too many motions for something I want to get in the mail and simply enjoy. If you don’t have an OCD, you will do just that without Googone – enjoy 🙂

The one with the red lid and bottom – I haven’t quite figured it out yet – the infuser part comes out through the bottom, if you don’t put the bottom lid back on tightly – it leeks. It’ll take me a while to make friends with this one 🙂

Anyway! On Sunday morning we slept in and hubby made me an awesome brunch.

crispy bacon, poached eggs, potatoes and English muffin

And then it started…My cooking bug was obviously up and full force this weekend. I just couldn’t stop cooking!

I did my lunch prep for the week:

Cut up some bananas to freeze for my smoothies:

Made some more infused water (oranges and tangerines):

Made these super awesome breakfast corn muffins with cheese and ham:

By the time I was done with my meal prep, it was time to make dinner. So I threw together this chicken with veggies.

And yes, those are pecan bars you see in the background – I made them, too. What? The oven was warm anyway 🙂

Tell me: what fun stuff did you do this weekend?

And as always – stay fit!

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, fitness, healthy snack ideas, lunch, Motivation Monday, recipes, spinning, Spinning Instructor Tagged With: bicycling, breakfast, dinner, family, fitness, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, infused water, lunch, muffins, recipes, salad, spinning Leave a Comment

Lean Lena February 15, 2014

MNB Challenge, Week 2 Recap – Nourish

Hey guys! It’s the weekend! YEY!

We are totally and completely snowed in this week!

I needed a training plan to shovel all that! My back and arms are still sore…

Anyway, back to the business – today I am going to tell you about Week 2 of the Move. Nourish. Believe Challenge that I am taking part in.

You can find the first week’s recap here if you missed it last Friday.

So, the second week was all about nourishing your body.

{MONDAY} Go Meatless

This week’s Monday was announced to be Meatless Monday by the challenge hosts Fit Approach and Lorna Jane Active.

The name speaks for itself – we had to go meatless.

I had oatmeal with honey and frozen raspberries for breakfast, pasta salad for lunch and Thai food (salmon, fried rice with veggies and tofu, and rice noodles) for dinner as it was Simon’s birthday and we went out to eat.

{TUESDAY} Bring your lunch to work

Tuesday was Bring Your Lunch to Work day. That one was easy for me – even though I didn’t get my usual massive food prep done last weekend (as I spent most of it in my Spinning Instructor Training), I still managed to prep salads for a couple of week day lunches and also took some leftover fried rice with veggies and tofu to work with me from the night before.

{WEDNESDAY} Write it down!

On Wednesday the challenge was to journal our food and show what we ate (another easy one for me since I do it every day with MyFitnessPal).

{THURSDAY} Thirsty Thursday

On Thursday the challenge was to make a healthy smoothie. Another easy one for me! I usually make a smoothie every morning and take it to work with me to have as a morning snack as I have breakfast pretty early and usually get hungry by 10:30 am.

So, the Thursday smoothie was:

1 carrot cake popsicle

1 frozen banana

2 tbsp. Activia Greek yogurt (vanilla)

1/2 cup almond milk

1 tsp agave nectar

1 tsp sliced almonds (to garnish)

3-4 frozen raspberries (to garnish)

1/4 tsp chia seeds (to garnish)

{FRIDAY} Go raw!

Now, that was a heard one for me… even though I love salads, fruit, veggies and smoothies.

I did some prep.work the day before:

So all I had to do on Friday was stick to the plan! That made it a lot easier for sure.

Breakfast smoothie: spinach, kale, celery, avocado, frozen banana, almond milk

Lunch was an all-veggie salad with spinach, avocado, cucumber, bell pepper, red onions, corn and pepitas.

Dinner unfortunately was not raw…hubby took me out to eat for Valentine’s day, so my plan did not work 🙁

Now – on to Week 3 of the challenge – the Believe part! Stay tuned for the recap next weekend.

Question: have you ever tried raw eating? What did you think of that?

Stay fit, friends!

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, fitness, Fitness Challenges, lunch, new experiences Tagged With: breakfast, fitapproach, fitness, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lornajaneactive, lunch, mnbchallenge, new experience, recipes, salad, smoothie, swetpink 2 Comments

Lean Lena January 18, 2014

Recipe: Coconut Milk, Kale and Steelhead Trout Soup

Hi guys! Happy Saturday morning to you!

What are you up to today? What’s cooking in your kitchen?

Are you planning anything special for Saturday dinner? I got a very easy to make and super delicious dinner idea for you today.

Last week I was cooking something with coconut milk. You know how it goes with coconut milk, right? You never really use the whole can and whatever is left over ends up in the trash couple weeks later. A few days ago I was facing the same problem so I got online to look for some recipes that would help me use up the leftover coconut milk that was calling my name out of the fridge.

That was when I stumbled upon this great recipe from the Healthy Green Kitchen. I have played around and changed it up a little bit to my liking and based on what ingredients I had in my fridge (like steelhead trout instead of salmon). Oh, and next time you need an idea of what to cook for dinner – you head right over to the Healthy Green Kitchen! It is exactly what it is called – healthy and green! Winnie has a ton of great recipes on her blog that I will definitely be trying out. Thank you for this recipe, Winnie! I hope you don’t mind my modifications 🙂

Coconut Milk, Kale and Steelhead Trout Soup

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 3 servings

Calories per serving: 201

5.2

Coconut Milk, Kale and Steelhead Trout Soup

Ingredients

4 cups homemade chicken stock (I used the stock I had from making a whole chicken in my crockpot the night before)
1 1/2 cups whole coconut milk
1 steelhead trout fillet, approximately 6-8 oz., cut into cubes
1 (tightly packed) cup of chopped kale, stems removed
1 cup cubed acorn squash (peeled)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (plus a few leaves for garnish)
2 tsp brown sugar, coconut sugar, or palm sugar
Freshly squeezed lime juice, for serving (to taste, I used 1/4 lime per serving)

Instructions

Place all the ingredients (except fish) into a medium pot.
Bring to boil and simmer until the squash is cooked through.
Add fish and simmer for another 5-7 minutes or until fish is cooked.
Another option here is to pre-cook the squash, since of all the ingredients it takes the longest to cook through. If you do that, you can add all the ingredients to the pot at the same time as it won't take as long for the squash to cook.
Ladle soup into bowls.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with lime on the side.
Enjoy!

https://leanlena.com/recipe-coconut-milk-kale-and-steelhead-trout-soup/

www.leanlena.com

Filed Under: dinner, lunch, recipes Tagged With: dinner, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, recipes, soup Leave a Comment

Lean Lena January 15, 2014

Food Highlights: Crockpot the Saviour, Salad-a-Day and more

Hey guys! Happy Hump Day!

It’s downhill from now on – Friday is almost here, so hang in there!

How about I tell you of my food highlights of the past couple week as part of my “What’s on my Plate Wednesday” blog series?

Here’s the deliciousness I’ve had!

Breakfast

I am still a big fan of oatmeal with my 1000 ideas of what to top it with. Remember my post about 15 ways to eat your oats? Well, I keep adding on to those ways pretty much every morning 🙂

Oatmeal with marshmallows, raisins and cinnamon chips

Been a huge fan of oatmeal + marshmallows combination!

I also enjoyed some savory breakfasts with added protein and fats.

Hardboiled eggs, capers, wheat berries and a cheese cookie

Hardboiled eggs, ranch, capers, wheat berries and a cheese cookie

Egg sandwich with black forest ham and cheese on an English muffin

Lunches

I have committed to eating one salad a day! It is not a streak, or a challenge or any other group activity of any sorts – just my personal commitment 🙂 So I have been pretty much eating salads for lunch in the past couple weeks (with a few exceptions where leftovers from dinner were just too tempting).

Baby spinach, sweet potato, organic chicken breast meat, black beans, leeks, hardboiled eggs, quinoa

Baby spinach, quinoa, sweet potato, avocado, hardboiled eggs

Baby spinach, canned beets, feta, sliced almonds

Dinners

It’s been a very busy few weeks – both for me and Mr. H. – at home, at work, in life in general. Trying to eat healthy with a busy schedule can be quite difficult and with the general stress of this kind of schedule the failure to eat healthy is even more upsetting and discouraging.

That is exactly the moment where my crockpot comes into play making healthy and nutritious food while I am at work 🙂

My all-time favorite – crock pot split pea soup with smoked ham

Crockpot chicken with stir-fried veggies

If we have more time in the evening, we might throw something on the grill:

Like these pork chops with kale and quinoa salad on the side

And…then, of course there are times where my best intentions collide with my husband’s appetite 🙂 Like last Friday, I made a wonderfully healthy pizza with whole grain crust, mushrooms, olives, meat and leaks…

Looks great, right?

and then Mister Husband made me dump half a bag of mozzarella on top of this goodness and we ended up eating this:

Oh well, life happens 🙂 I just love my husband and mozzarella too much 🙂

That pretty much sums it up, guys!

What was the best food you ate lately?

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, lunch, recipes, what's on my plate wednesday Tagged With: breakfast, dinner, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, oatmeal, recipes, salad Leave a Comment

Lean Lena January 10, 2014

Five on Friday

Hey guys! Happy Friday!

As usual, here is the Five on Friday post – five things, events, adventures, foods, etc.. that I am loving/enjoying lately.

{{ONE}} Trip to get our wedding rings.

I dug this picture out from that trip and it made me feel so good!

We went to Frederick, MD to get our wedding rings and stopped at a Starbucks on the way. We were still unmarried, happy and full of goof like above 🙂 Now – the only thing that’s changed is the “unmarried” part. Yep, still full of goof 🙂

It was a great trip on a beautiful September day that I will always remember with warmth in my heart.

{{TWO}} Healthy Living Blogs Tea Swap

Yeah, I participate in a lot of swaps… But I can’t help myself – it is so much fun and I get to meet new people!

The idea behind this one is so simple and so fun – you get a name and an address of a person and you send them 2-3 teabags of your favorite tea. You then receive tea from somebody else on the swap in return. So – you get to meet 2 people.

Here’s what I got from Mindy at Just A One Girl Revolution

I sent my tea package to Jessica at Fit & Fab Yogi. I haven’t heard back from her, but I hope the tea made it to her and she enjoyed it.

If you are interested in participating, keep an eye on the Healthy Living Blogs website for the new round of the program to start

{{THREE}} Meal Prep

I love it. Simply love it.

I usually get my “cooking bug” all active on the weekends anyway so why not put it to a good use and prep some meals for the coming week? Exactly – no reason why not.

Last week’s salad prep for hubby and me

Things I usually make:

Quinoa
Hardboiled eggs
Sweet potatoes
Beet roots (boiled/steamed)
Chicken breast (baked, grilled, fried)
Wheat berries
Roasted nuts

These are the ingredients to throw together a great salad to take to work for a healthy lunch! And it saves you time on the weeknights when you are tired and oh so tempted to grab some comfort food for lunch or go out.

Seriously, who wouldn’t want this for lunch, right?

{{FOUR}} Single Serve Blender

I got this baby for Christmas from my husband and I am absolutely loving it!

Neither of my family members is a big fan of smoothies, so the single serve is just perfect! It has travel cup, too – so it is super easy to just make one serving, detach the cap and drink on the way to work.

Look what goodness I have made so far:

cherry-banana goodness

If you think that making a smoothie is a rocket science – it really is not. Check out this cheat sheet for making smoothies that I am using, curtsey of Super Skinny Me.

{{FIVE}} Polar Loop

I know I have more gadgets than I can handle already…But this is something to wish for 🙂 Love the way it looks and what it does!

Maybe…maybe if I am a good girl, Santa will bring it for me next year 😉

Check out the features and prices:

Awesome, right?

Now – your turn!

Share your Five on Friday with me.

Filed Under: family events, fitness, Five on Friday, gadget-head, lunch Tagged With: family, fitness, five on friday, gadget-head, good food, healthy lunch, lunch, smoothie Leave a Comment

Lean Lena November 8, 2013

Five on Friday

Hey guys! I’m back with Five on Friday!

{{ONE}} I will never get tired of saying this – I am so glad I said that “Yes” to the most wonderful guy in the world! This past week has been an emotional roller coaster, and I am so lucky to have my husband who supports me, worries about me, talks to me, holds me and loves me every step of the way.

{{TWO}} Fall and Soups.

Yes, those two come together for me personally. I love the whole mind set change when it comes to fall cooking.

Crockpot Chili

Chicken Pho

{{THREE}} My new Philips Performance Earphones.

Finally got those! Can’t believe it took me so long to stop this frustration with the regular ear buds falling out of my ears while working out.

{{FOUR}} My very own Shellac manicure “factory”.

The whole set purchased a while ago on Amazon has paid for itself a long time ago. Love doing my own nails!

The Miracle Factory

Ready “product”

{{FIVE}} Everybody. Everyday. Fitness Challenge at work.

This is something my company does every year and it’s the first time I participate in it. All the participants are part of the teams and the goal is to be active every day, and log the number of minutes of activity planned vs. actual. The logs are then submitted to team captains, who log them into a neat program for the whole team. It is a 6 weeks challenge and my performance this week sucks 🙂 Mostly because I’ve been sick for the past couple weeks…

Your turn!

Filed Under: Five on Friday Tagged With: dinner, family, five on friday, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch 2 Comments

Lean Lena November 2, 2013

Rice and Kale Frittata

Hey guys! Me again.

I hope you weekend is going great!

Just remembered that I promised you a recipe for my Rice and Kale Frittata and never posted it! Guilty…

So here you go! This is an excellent breakfast (make the night before, refrigerate, microwave in the morning, eat) or lunch!

You can bake it in the oven if you have some extra time, or fry it in a covered pan.

Rice and Kale Frittata

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Rice and Kale Frittata

Ingredients

1 cup jasmine rice, cooked
1 cup kale leaves, chopped
1/2 cup almond milk, unsweetened
3 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook rice according to package instruction and let it cool down.
Preheat oven to 375 F
Chop the kale
Mix rice, kale, almond milk and eggs

Spray a small dish with cooking spray
Pour the mix into the dish and bake for 30 minutes or until baked through.

Enjoy!

https://leanlena.com/rice-and-kale-frittata/

www.leanlena.com

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay fit!

Filed Under: breakfast, lunch, recipes Tagged With: breakfast, healthy breakfast, healthy lunch, lunch, recipes Leave a Comment

Lean Lena October 21, 2013

Weekend Fun and Split Peas and Kale Soup Recipe

Happy Monday, guys!

I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for the new week.

We had a fun and relaxing weekend. I finally caught up on my sleep – 12 hrs on Saturday, totally blowing the Saturday workout this time, but that was what my body needed me to do, so I listened to it.

Friday night was celebrated in our family by going to the recently opened Sweet Frog!

Love that place! It is a self-serve so it is easier to control your portion size (or not control it), they have TONS of toppings to choose from, and the place is just so bright and cheerful!

We got some serious goodness there!

After that we stopped at the Spirit Halloween to look for Carmen’s costume and had some fun with hats 🙂

and masks…

After another trip to a similar store, C’s costume was complete! (that was pretty easy).

On an unrelated subject:

I feel like switching things around a little here on the blog. So. No Motivation Monday today 🙂

Since the soup season is in “full force”, this time let’s make some Split Peas and Kale Soup in a crock pot!

This is one of my most favorite soups of all times! I made it on Sunday and just love having all those leftovers for lunches during the week.

You don’t have to make it in a crock pot – if you make it on the stove top, just boil the meat a little first to get some nice stock, then add other ingredients and boil until all the vegies are cooked through. I would add potatoes first since they take the longest to cook through.

Split Pea and Kale Soup

Ingredients

1 cup split peas
9 cups water (divided 2+7)
2 medium carrots, chopped
1/2 purple onion, chopped
1 cup kale, chopped
2 medium potatoes, cubed
Green onions, chopped
1 smoked turkey drumstick (or any other smoked meat), deboned, cubed
Fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Before you start, add peas and 2 cups of water to the crock pot so they soak a little.

Take the skin off the turkey drumstick and cut up in 1in cubes

Add turkey and chopped onions to the crock pot

Finely chop the kale and add to the pot

Chop and add green onions, carrots and potatoes

Chop fresh parsley and add to the pot

Add the remaining water and spices to the pot and mix well

Cook on HIGH for a couple hours, then switch to LOW and cook for another 5-6 hours.
Enjoy!

https://leanlena.com/weekend-fun-and-split-peas-and-kale-soup-recipe/

www.leanlena.com

Filed Under: dinner, lunch, recipes Tagged With: crockpot, dinner, family, good food, halloween, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, recipes, soup 2 Comments

Lean Lena October 18, 2013

Five on Friday

Hello, my friends! How have you been this week?

Hope you’re doing well on this beautiful day!

Today I am sharing the things I’m loving lately/great things happening in my life/exciting news – Five on Friday.

Ready?

{{ONE}} Our 2nd Wedding Anniversary and Trip to NYC!

I will post the trip recap some time this week. This One of Five is about this awesome guy I met years ago and married 2 years ago – best “YES” I ever said!

He is my best friend, my one and only and I am SO lucky to have such a wonderful man by my side!

{{TWO}} Mantra Bands!

Aren’t they awesome?

My Mantra Band

I found these online and I was obsessed ever since. Head over to the Mantra Band and order your own to help you stay motivated on your fitness or any other journey!

See how it motivated me? 🙂

{{THREE}} My latest kitchen gadget – crock pot!

My new crock pot

Now this is a blessing for a family of 4 where both mom and dad work full time. I’m sure you know, but I just love saying it – throw the ingredients in, turn on, leave for work, come back to a delicious hot meal – that is what a crock pot is and I can’t believe it took me so long to get one.

Look at these wonderful things you can make in a crock pot:

Home made crock pot split pea soup

Home made crock pot chili

if you add too much water to it like I did – you get soup instead of the stew, which is not too bad either

{{FOUR}} My upcoming trip to Russia in November!!!

Super excited about it! I haven’t seen my family and friends for 2 long years!!!!

Got tickets in my pocket – leaving on November 27 and coming back on December 11. 2 weeks with my dearest ones! CAN’T WAIT!

{{FIVE}} Overnight Oats

Gotta love those! Easy and quick breakfast for week days. Just combine oats, almond milk and chia/flax seeds in a jar and refrigerate!

Take out of the fridge in the morning, heat up, add fruit, nuts, etc.. and your healthy breakfast is ready!

Your turn!

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, events, family events, fitness, gadget-head, new experiences, recipes, travel Tagged With: dinner, family, fitness, five on friday, gadget-head, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, recipes, travel Leave a Comment

Lean Lena October 11, 2013

Junk Food: 2, Lena: 1

Hey guys!

I finally got to my blog – second time in this busy week, which sucked for the most part 🙂

Let’s see….It’s Friday (YAY!), I am back to PT for an uncertain period of time (boooo), and heading to NYC this weekend to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary!!!

The past week healthy eating was challenged by:

lunch out with my husband on Monday

Birthday celebration cupcakes at work

Photo source – Catherine’s Cupcakery

movie night at home with my family

Junk/Processed/Not-so-good-for-you food – 2, Lena – 1.

There were some good/not-so-bad food choices and decisions this week, as well.

Fruit and yogurt for breakfast last Thursday

Home made crock pot chili

Mashed potatoes and chili on top

Home made crock pot split pea soup

Whole grain orzo salad

All in all, it wasn’t the best week food-wise.

On top of that, I pulled my left calf on Wednesday night, went to my scheduled physical therapy session on Thursday and was immediately treated for the new disaster. And that’s right when I was going to start making my way out of PT some time after next week. No such luck. The pulled calf hurt like hell last night, but seems to be a little better today.

What I am most upset about is the rest days I have to take that I was not planning on. This injury once again messes up my entire exercise routine and I can’t ignore it because it hurts to move.

Erm…remind me – isn’t exercise supposed to make you fell better? 🙂

Anywho, before my fitness life was interrupted by the pulled muscle, I managed to fit some fine exercise in last week:

12 ml ride in Monday’s spin class

Weights and strength training with Jim on Wednesday

Yoga class with Jim on Wednesday

Blogging news:

Did you guys noticed the new banner? What do you think?

Also, the former “Healthy Recipe” page of the blog is now called “Recipes” (the sole reason for the name change is that what’s healthy for me can be unhealthy for somebody else, so let’s go with the neutral name) and is powered by ReciPage!

I am still in the process of transferring the recipes from one to the other, but very happy with the way the new page looks! I think it is a lot easier to brows recipes now. You can also search by key ingredients, cooking methods and alphabetically.

I hope you like it and I would appreciate any feedback!

I will see you guys next week with the NYC trip recap!

Have a great weekend and stay fit!

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, events, family events, fitness, lunch, recipes, spinning, Weight Lifting Tagged With: bicycling, dessert, dinner, family, fitness, fitness motivation, GGS, Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, pasta, pasta salad, recipes, salad, spinning, yoga Leave a Comment

Lean Lena October 8, 2013

Tasty Tuesday: Delicata Squash with Orzo Recipe

Hey guys!

Tasty Tuesday is here!

Today I am sharing one of my all time favorite recipes I found in the Yoga Journal a while ago.

Ever since it has been my number one choice when it comes to cooking squash this time of year. Even though it is pretty easy to make, I usually make it on the weekends as it requires a little bit more time than I have/am willing to spend on a week night meal prep 🙂

Delicata Squash with Orzo

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Delicata Squash with Orzo

Ingredients

2 ea delicata squash, halved and seeded

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 fresh sage leaves

6 ounces whole grain orzo pasta - cooked according to package instructions, drained

1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds or chopped almonds, roasted

1/2 cup dried cranberries, halved
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Italian parsley, chopped
Handful of fresh pomegranate seeds
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Rub cut side of the squash with oil, and roast, cut side up, until tender when pierced (approximately 40 min).
In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the remaining butter until it melts and develops light brown color, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Tear the sage leaves and add them to the saucepan.

Strain the brown butter through a fine strainer, and toss the butter with the orzo and the lemon juice.
Add the cranberries and roasted pepitas to the orzo.

Mound the orzo into the squash.
Sprinkle a layer of bread crumbs on top.
Heat in a 250°F oven for about 20 minutes.
Garnish with parsley, pomegranate seeds, salt, and black pepper.
Enjoy!

https://leanlena.com/tasty-tuesday-delicata-squash-with-orzo-recipe/

www.leanlena.com

The original recipe can be found on the Yoga Journal website right here.

I made it this last weekend and every member of my family had their plates empty before my first spoonful reached my mouth. 🙂

Enjoy the rest of your week and stay fit!

Filed Under: dinner, fitness, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday, Weight Watchers, WW Tagged With: dinner, fitness, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, recipes, weight loss, Weight Watchers, wwbtb Leave a Comment

Lean Lena October 2, 2013

Foods of the Week – What’s on my Plate Wednesday

Hello and happy Wednesday to you, my friends!

Let’s talk healthy (and not so much) food, shall we? I am changing the format of my weekly “What’s on my Plate Wednesday” blog post today – just because I get bored if things don’t change for a while 🙂

Hope you like it!Continue Reading

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, fitness, gadget-head, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes, Weight Watchers, what's on my plate wednesday, WW Tagged With: dessert, dinner, fitness, gadget-head, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes, salad, weight loss, Weight Watchers, wwbtb Leave a Comment

Lean Lena September 30, 2013

Foodie Pen Pals – Reveal Day

Hey, my fitness friends!

Guess what? I did it again! I participated in Foodie Pen Pals program and today is the Reveal Day!

Curious what I got?

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experiences, recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: dessert, dinner, fitness, fitness motivation, foodiepenpals, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experience, recipes, smoothie 5 Comments

Lean Lena September 25, 2013

What’s on My Plate Wednesday

Happy hump day, my friends!

To me, it’s pretty much Friday, close enough anyway 🙂

It’s been a very hectic week so far (just like the one before) – lots of running around, exercising, PT sessions, etc. etc..

With all this I am honestly struggling with fitting simple things like getting gas and grocery shopping into my schedule….and fail a lot of times 🙂

You will see the signs of my busy schedule in today’s post – “What’s on My Plate Wednesday” is featuring not as many eats as usual – not because I am a lazy photographer, but because a lot of times I am eating “on the go” – still eating good stuff, though. No fast food for this body 🙂

Ok, here we go – eating highlights from the past week.Continue Reading

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, lunch, recipes, Weight Watchers, what's on my plate wednesday, WW Tagged With: dinner, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, pasta, pasta salad, recipes, salad, smoothie, weight loss, Weight Watchers, wwbtb Leave a Comment

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