recipes Archives - Page 7 of 10

Lean Lena October 22, 2013

Tasty Tuesday – 15 Ways to Eat Your Oats

Hey guys! Happy Tasty Tuesday!

Did you have something yummy for breakfast today? I had oatmeal 🙂

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I LOVE oatmeal! I can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then through some in as a snack, too 🙂

Anyway, I post a lot of pictures of oatmeal in my “What’s on my Plate Wednesday” posts, but I never really share the recipes for my “oatmeal adventures”. A lot of times you can see in the pictures what goes into my oatmeal, but I thought I’d share a more detailed post with you entirely dedicated to my oatmeal obsession 🙂

So, here are my 15 ways to eat my oats!

Bake it!

This is my all time favorite. Usually every Sunday I make a whole new batch of baked oatmeal, then heat it up in the morning and have it for breakfast with some fruit and yogurt.

Baked oatmeal with bananas, blueberries and yogurt

Baked oatmeal with bananas, blueberries, sliced almonds and yogurt

I also eat it as a snack in the afternoon with some coconut butter on it.

The beauty of the baked oatmeal recipe is in the fact that you can add whatever you want to it! Swap the dried cranberries for dried apricots, add chocolate chips, nuts or whatever your heart desires.

Check out the recipe here.

Hot Oatmeal with Toppings

cherries, cinnamon and chocolate chips

Cinnamon, chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds

Banana, blueberries and cinnamon

banana, cinnamon and apple-quinoa crunch

pomegranate, chocolate chips and cinnamon

strawberries, chia seeds and cinnamon

chocolate chips, cinnamon and chocolate chips

apple chips, cinnamon and chocolate chips

Overnight Oats

If you know you’re going to have a super busy week when every minute of sleep counts, this is a great way to save time on making breakfast and still eat right and healthy.

On the weekend before a week like that I make my overnight oats for the whole week. Just combine oats and milk (I use almond milk) put into jars and refrigerate. I like adding 1 tsp of chia seed per jar into mine.

During the week – just heat it up or eat cold – however you like it.

strawberries, chocolate chips, sliced almonds

dried cranberries, bananas and sliced almonds

Make Granola!

One of the ways to eat your oats is make granola! That is such a great snack or part of your breakfast, too. Here’s the recipe for the homemade granola I use.

mix it with fresh fruit

add some Greek yogurt

have it on top of some cottage cheese

have it on top of chia seed pudding

And those are my ways of eating oats, friends!

What is your favorite way to eat oats?

Filed Under: breakfast, fitness, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday, Weight Watchers, WW Tagged With: breakfast, healthy breakfast, healthy snack ideas, lunch, oatmeal, oats, recipes 2 Comments

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

Lean Lena September 24, 2013

Tasty Tuesday – Orzo Salad Recipe with Coconut-Lime Shrimp + A Hell of a Monday

Hey, folks! Happy Tasty Tuesday to you!

Today we’re making an orzo salad with coconut-lime shrimp. Ready? Continue Reading

Filed Under: dinner, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday, Weight Watchers, WW Tagged With: dinner, family, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, pasta, pasta salad, recipes, salad, Vodka the Kitty, weight loss, Weight Watchers, wwbtb Leave a Comment

Lean Lena September 19, 2013

Belated “What’s on my Plate Wednesday” and Weekly Exercise Recap

Hey hey, my fitness friends!

I bet you didn’t expect a “What’s on my Plate” Wednesday post from me on Thursday! Well, guess what? It is happening. And since I missed the exercise recap post this week, I am combining the two!

Here we go, eating highlights and exercise recap of the past week or so!Continue Reading

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, fitness, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes, spinning, Weight Lifting, Weight Watchers, what's on my plate wednesday, WW Tagged With: bicycling, dinner, fitness, fitness motivation, GGS, Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, Lose it!, lunch, recipes, salad, smoothie, spinning, weight loss, weightwatchers, wwbtb, yoga Leave a Comment

Lean Lena September 16, 2013

Beets Salad Recipe and Motivation Monday

Hey, my fitfam!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I know… Last week was crazy busy – between work, physical therapy and exercise I hardly had any time at all to sit down and breathe.

All better now, seems like, so let’s go into the new week starting with Motivation Monday!Continue Reading

Filed Under: dinner, fitness, lunch, Motivation Monday, recipes, Weight Watchers, WW Tagged With: dinner, fitness, fitness motivation, GGS, Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, Lose it!, lunch, pasta salad, recipes, salad, weight loss, wwbtb 2 Comments

Lean Lena September 10, 2013

Tasty Tuesday – Spinach Pasta with Shrimp and Creamy Sauce Recipe

Hey, folks! Happy Tasty Tuesday to you!

Today’s issue of the “Tasty Tuesday” is about the spinach pasta with shrimp, the picture of which you all liked so much on my countless social media pages 🙂

Thank you for your support of all my numerous pages and I am more than happy to share my recipes with you.

This is an original recipe born and raised entirely in my head 🙂 So be careful 🙂Continue Reading