healthy snack ideas Archives - Page 2 of 5

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!

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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 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 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

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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.

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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 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 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.

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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

Lean Lena April 8, 2014

Tasty Tuesday – Let’s Talk Guilt Free Desserts

Hey guys! Happy Tasty Tuesday! How is your week going?

I’m back with the traditional Tasty Tuesday post today. Don’t forget it is a link up party, too! Link up your tasty finds (or your own posts) below and remember to check out other links, too!

What I have for you today is a selection of 5 guilt free desserts!

As you probably know, I am not supporting the fat free diet. I am a strong believer that our body needs all food groups and elements (including sugar and fat) – but I also believe those have to come in the right amounts and from the right sources.

Today I wanted to share with you 5 recipes I have recently discovered that use clean ingredients (entirely or mostly) and will leave you happy and guilt free.

Just to be clear – when I say “guilt free”, I don’t really mean the calories. I mean the ingredients (even though those two seem to come hand in hand in dessert recipes below). You will not feel guilty about eating these desserts, because they are better for you! Of course they won’t be guilt free if you overload on them 🙂 But if you apply the “everything in moderation” principle while eating these, you will be much better off than hitting your favorite ice cream place or grocery store for dessert.

You can click on the recipe title to get to the recipe on the author’s blog/website.

Here we go, let’s have some dessert!

{ONE} Frozen Yogurt Trail Mix Bars by the Lean Green Bean

Photo credit: the Lean Green Bean

I love this recipe for several reasons: it has simple ingredients, is very easy to make and makes a great meal prep item! You can make a batch that will last you a whole week and keep it in the fridge/freezer.

That is something I always admire about Lindsay’s recipes – simple ingredients and simple instructions.

Check out her blog for more recipes!

{TWO} 100 Calorie 2 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake by Eclectic Recipes

I love mug cakes – they make a great quick and satisfying dessert. You got 5 minutes – you got a great dessert! However, these babies are usually packed with empty calories ranging at 300-700 each and sometimes even more!

A healthy reasonably caloric mug cake is a rare find! and I just found one for you!

Photo credit: www.eclecticrecipes.com

I found this recipe over at Angie’s blog – Eclectic Recipes.

I loved it because once again – the ingredient list is simple and contains no funky stuff.

Make sure to stop by and check out Angie’s fabulous recipe collection!

{THREE} Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Snack Cake by Peanut Butter and Peppers

Peanut butter? Quinoa? Snack CAKE??? Count me in!!! 🙂

Photo credit: www.peanutbutterandpeppers.com

This one comes together in 30 minutes according tot he recipe and makes a great meal prep item as well (I am all about efficiency and productivity today 🙂 )

Now I don’t know about Truvia Baking Blend the recipe is calling for, I would probably just pass on that one – pretty sure the chocolate chips will do the job of making it sweet enough for me. I would probably also use avocado in place of all/half the butter the recipe is calling for. But other than that I just love this recipe! It is also simple and quick to make.

You have to check out the Peanut Butter and Peppers blog where Jennifer is sharing healthy living tips and recipes!

{FOUR} 100-Calorie Pumpkin Pie Tartlets

Photo credit: www.verybestbaking.com

I love pumpkin. Even though this recipe is listed on the Very Best Baking under winter recipes, I could eat pumpkin every day all year round.

{FIVE} Greek Yogurt Peanut Butter Cups by The Falafelser

Can you believe these guys are 14 calories each? 🙂

Photo credit: http://thefalafelser.wordpress.com

No? Than you better head over here and grab the recipe!

Definitely check out The Falafelser for more recipes while you’re there. 😉

Now your turn! Tell me what delicious recipes/eats you have discovered lately! Link up below or just share in comments!

Have a tasty week, friends!

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Filed Under: dessert, healthy snack ideas, Link Up, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: baking, breakfast, dessert, healthy snack ideas, recipes 24 Comments

Lean Lena March 31, 2014

Foodie Penpals Reveal Day – March 2014

Hey guys! Happy Monday!

I am sure you already know what the Foodie Pen Pal program is. NO??? Well, you better head over to the blog of the wonderful Lean Green Bean and check out the Foodie Penpals page there to see if it interests you enough to participate.

I am sure it will because if is loads of fun! It is free to register and all you do is you send a box of goodies to a random person you get paired with and he/she sends you one in return. Foodie goodies that is 🙂

So here is what I got from Jen in my March box.

Individually packaged nut/cranberry mix. Love these babies! It is so easy to lose control when you’re eating nuts – this solves the problem, just grab and eat one package 🙂

Herb blend – we’ve tried it on steaks so far – works great! And – it contains no salt, sugar or preservatives!

Chocolate covered espresso beans – these guys have been my afternoon life savers lately – awesome “pick-me-ups” when you get sleepy at work in the afternoon 🙂

Justin’s!!! I love their everything!

Thank you so much, Jen, for a wonderful box!

Check out the posts about the previous Foodie Penpals boxes that I got:

Stay fit, friends, and have a wonderful week!

Filed Under: Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas Tagged With: foodie penpals, good food, healthy snack ideas, new experience 3 Comments

Lean Lena March 19, 2014

A Hectic Week Recap – Eats and Exercises

Hey guys! Happy ~~Hump~~ Pump Day! 🙂

I’ve had a very hectic couple of weeks as you probably noticed by the lack of my “What’s on my plate” Wednesday and Motivation Monday posts this and last week… Well, guess what? I am making it all up to you today by combining the two 🙂

Not much was going on on the exercise front last week – between the sharp right shoulder/arm pain and busy schedule I managed to squeeze in just a few workouts/classes last week.

{MONDAY} Cycling and Chicken

Cycling class with Jim on Monday

I don’t like Mondays most of the time. I am excited about Monday being a new beginning and all, but by the end of the day I am beat. It is usually the busiest day of the week for me – at work, exercising after work, etc. etc.. What do I make for dinner when I am busy? That’s right – crockpot anything 🙂

Last Monday it was chicken! I used to put it in the crockpot in the morning, set on Low and turn it off when I get home at 5 PM. It made the chicken a little overcooked to my liking…So what I’ve been doing lately is I would come home for lunch, and throw the chicken into the crock pot (Low) for 4-5 hours. That’s plenty of time to cook it and it comes out just perfectly juicy.

Hubby made wok veggies on Monday night – and we got a perfect dinner right there!

{TUESDAY} No Exercise and Lamb

Took a rest day on Tuesday night.

Foodie’s highlight of the day was lamb for dinner – grilled to perfection by my husband.

and this fruit and veggie platter I had at work for my snack throughout the afternoon:

{WEDNESDAY} Yoga and Pork Chops

I did make it to yoga on Wednesday but didn’t take any pictures so you’ll just have to trust me on that one 🙂

And then I got home and made rosemary pork chops and a salad for my tired husband.

Mmmmmm….

{THURSDAY} Rest Day and Orange Salsa

Yeah, that was the day my shoulder and arm started acting up. It was that kind of muscle paralyzing pain that makes it hard to lift even a cup of coffee.

That did not prevent me from making an awesome orange salsa to go with tilapia and rice for dinner on Thursday evening, though 🙂

{FRIDAY} Another rest day and Beet Root Salad

On Friday my shoulder/arm was hurting so much it would wake me up at night. So…another rest day for the Lena 🙁

The food highlights of the day included the beet root salad I made for lunch on Sunday during my meal prep.

Canned beet roots, lettuce, feta, roasted pepitas and purple onions

{SATURDAY} Yoga and Big Family Breakfast

By Saturday I felt good enough to go get some gentle stretching done in a yoga class.

Yoga was followed by a breakfast fest made by my husband!

I also had a super-delicious lunch – leftover pasta with scallops from eating out the night before:

YUM!!!

{SUNDAY} Food Prep

Well, that decision to go to yoga the day before was a little pre-mature. My shoulder and arm were not ready for any Sunday workout.

They were good for Sunday meal prep, so I went wild 🙂 I actually started on Saturday with this:

Apple-Cinnamon infused water, sweet potatoes and quinoa

and then continued on Sunday by making lunches and snacks for the week days:

No working out on Sunday either 🙁 Some nice kitchen time though 🙂 🙂 🙂

And that was my week of eating and non-exercising at a glance 🙂

Do share: How did you do last week? Anything fun? Anything delicious cooking?

Take care, friends, and stay fit!

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, FitFluential, fitness, Fitness Challenges, Girls Gone Sporty, healthy snack ideas, lunch, Motivation Monday, recipes, spinning, Sweat Pink, what's on my plate wednesday Tagged With: bicycling, breakfast, dining out, dinner, fitness, fitness motivation, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, infused water, lunch, pasta, recipes, salad, spinning, yoga 4 Comments

Lean Lena March 18, 2014

Tasty Tuesday: Ham and Cheese Baked Egg Cups

Hey, guys! Happy Tasty Tuesday! How is your week going so far? Are you ready to see some tasty stuff? 🙂

Don’t forget this post is a link up party! Link your favorite tasty posts below so everyone can see what tasty foods you’re eating 🙂

Are you a food blogger who wants to co-host this link up party with us every Tuesday? Contact me for details or leave a comment below!

Now down to business already 🙂

My post today is about a wonderful page – The Lemon Bowl. Liz is my go to resource for simple, healthy and delicious recipes!

Last week I stumbled upon her Ham and Cheese Baked Egg Cups and I knew I had to make those as part of my Sunday meal prep.

They come together in less than 10 minutes, bake for 25 and make a super delicious and nutritious breakfast. My husband called them “breakfast bombs” 🙂

Because I, believe it or not, couldn’t find Canadian bacon the recipe was calling for at our grocery store, I had to improvise with Liz’s recipe.

I also didn’t have enough eggs, so I used half the amounts on the recipe and also used mini muffins pan, so I still got 12 muffins with the ingredients below.

Before we get to the recipe, make sure you give Liz some love:

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Ham and Cheese Baked Egg Cups

INGREDIENTS:

7 eggs
1/3 cup 2% milk
2 oz of Extra sharp cheddar (shredded)
3-4 oz leftover lunch meat (I used chicken breast and ham)
1/4 cup minced scallions
Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a muffin pan with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until light and fluffy. Stir in the meat, scallions and salt/pepper to taste.

3. Divide egg mixture evenly between 12 muffin tins then sprinkle evenly with sharp cheddar.

4. Bake until eggs are set, 25-30 minutes. Let cool slightly to ensure eggs are set before removing from pan to serve.

Enjoy as a healthy breakfast, snack or even lunch!

Have a wonderful week, guys, and don’t forget to link up below 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

Filed Under: breakfast, fitness, healthy snack ideas, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: baking, breakfast, fitness, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, muffins, recipes 10 Comments

Lean Lena March 11, 2014

Tasty Tuesday – Latest Tasty Finds and a Linkup Party!

Hey guys! Happy Tasty Tuesday to you!

Before I start talking about all the tasty stuff, I wanted to bring your attention to the fact that starting from today, the Tasty Tuesday blog post is officially announced to be a Linkup Party!

Come here every Tuesday to add links to your favorite tasty recipes, restaurant reviews, meal prep tips, etc. etc.. – we are talking anything tasty!

And…since it is a party – once you add a link here, your links will also appear on the Tasty Tuesday blog post of the linkup co-hosts.

This week it is just me and Meranda over at Fairytales and Fitness. Be sure to check out her blog!

So. Down to business now – this Tasty Tuesday I am sharing recent Tasty Finds!

{ONE} Peanut Butter Pie Ball by Wishes and Dishes.

To all of you, peanut butter lovers – you are welcome! 🙂

{TWO} Red Velvet Mug Cake by Kiss My Broccoli

Heather, I just want to give you a hug for this one! I love red velvet anything 🙂

{THREE} Ham and Cheese Baked Egg Cups by the Lemon Bowl

{FOUR} Banana Blueberry Cinnamon Bread by A Hungry Runner

I have recently received a private message on Instagram with a video statement from my 11 year old daughter’s friends at school that this bread is super delicious. You gotta trust those girls! This bread is super awesome!

{FIVE} Lemony Cookie Bars by Lauren Kelly

Aren’t the gorgeous?

Stay fit, friends, and keep it tasty!

Don’t forget to link up your favorite tasty stuff below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, healthy snack ideas, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: baking, breakfast, dessert, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy snack ideas, lunch, muffins, recipes 10 Comments

Lean Lena February 28, 2014

Five on Friday – Foodie Penpals Reveal Day – February 2014

Hey, guys! TGIF! I am tired of this week! I am ready for the weekend – bring. it. on.

Did you have a good week? Busy? Crazy? Not so bad?

Anywho. This is Five on Friday again – the day when I am sharing five things I’ve been loving lately, want to own, own and want to dis-own, etc. 🙂 Anything in the amount of 5 that excites me this Friday 🙂

This week I am sharing five wonderful things I got in my Foodie Penpal package in February. I was paired up with Lindsay from Oklahoma and she’s been a wonderful Foodie Penpal! Thanks SO much for the wonderful box of goodies, Lindsay.

Here’s what I got:

{ONE} A whole bunch of hot beverages.

Chai tea, green tea latte and savory vegetable tea. I am a big tea drinker. I think I have like 500 various tea bags at home. I am not so big on instant coffees though…Oh, but that green tea latte! Oh. My. God. I love that stuff, I am totally addicted now!

I loved it added to warm milk, but I think it would be great in smoothies, too.

Anyway, Amazon failed me on this one – the only place I could find more of this particular brand was eBay. YEY! 20 bags shipping my way 🙂

{TWO} A whole bunch of snacks

I got an orange bar, a dark chocolate bar filled with cookie spread (YUM!), roasted seaweed snacks, Justin’s peanut butter with honey, and snapea crisps. The crisps I got before – from Magdaline, and they are just great – either as a snack or in salads. I was so happy to sea a pack of those in my box 🙂

Oh and this cookie spread filled bar was heavenly good! Best 200 calories I ate in forever! 🙂

{THREE} Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar

I haven’t tried it yet, but Lindsay shared an idea of adding it to home made salad dressings. I’ll definitely have to try that!

{FOUR} Lemon-Mint Water

I didn’t particularly like this one… just because I like my water either plain or infused with fruit/veggies. But guess what – my fridge is like a Bermuda Triangle – whatever goes in there disappears at some point because somebody in my extended family drinks/eats it. So, this one is gone – that means someone liked it and drank it. Thanks, Lindsay! 🙂

{FIVE} Harvest Grain Blend

I have yet to try this one, but I am sure I’ll love it because I love all the ingredients.

All in all, check out what a great box I got from Lindsay!

Thank you again, Lindsay!

Do you want to try Foodie Penpals? Then head over here and register to do it next month!

Now, it’s your turn! What’s your Five on Friday? Link up below or just comment.

Have a great weekend, my friends, and stay fit!

An InLinkz Link-up

Filed Under: Five on Friday, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, lunch Tagged With: five on friday, foodie penpals, good food, healthy snack ideas, new experience 4 Comments

Lean Lena February 27, 2014

Recipe: Ham and Cheese Corn Muffins

Hello-hello! How are you today, guys?

I am sleepy and it is way too cold here! Also, they say we’re in for another winter storm this weekend with snow and ice coming down Sunday into Monday… Yuk!

So. If you’re going to be snowed/iced in – why not use that time to make something yummy? Something you can freeze and eat later, or just refrigerate and re-heat every morning for breakfast. How does that sound?

To me that sounded good last weekend, so I hade some of these breakfast muffins during my meal prep. As I promised here – I am sharing the recipe with you today.

The original recipe is by Maureen Callahan and was discovered in Cooking Light, I made a few modifications to it and here we go! Awesome muffins for breakfast.

HAM AND CHEESE CORN MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS

7 1/2 ounces whole wheat flour (about 1 2/3 cups)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
3 eggs
3 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup (3 ounces) reduced-fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions (about 1 bunch)
1/2 cup frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1/3 cup (2 ounces) diced extra lean ham
Cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through pepper) in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.
Combine buttermilk, eggs, and oil; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
Fold in cheese, green onions, corn, and diced ham.
Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 350° for 23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove muffins from pan; let cool on a wire rack.

These muffins are super good for breakfast! Just throw into the microwave, reheat and enjoy!

Stay fit and warm, my friends!

Filed Under: breakfast, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes Tagged With: baking, breakfast, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, muffins, recipes Leave a Comment

SWEET POTATO WEDGES

Ham and Cheese Baked Egg Cups

HAM AND CHEESE CORN MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

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