salad Archives - Page 2 of 4

Lean Lena June 24, 2014

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

Happy Tasty Tuesday morning to you, my friends!

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

Love to have a clean house! Great feeling.

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

FUN!

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

Don’t forget to check out other links!

Me? I am talking Quinoa today 🙂

Image Source

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

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

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

{ONE} Salads

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

On a bed of fresh baby spinach

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

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

{TWO} Baking

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

Image Source

{THREE} Breakfast Recipes

Some people eat quinoa cooked as oatmeal for breakfast.

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

Image Source

{FOUR} Add to Soups

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

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

Image Source

{FIVE} Add to Smoothies

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

Image Source

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

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

Now it’s party time!

Share your tasty finds with me 🙂

Questions of the day:

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

Take care, my friends!

Loading InLinkz ...

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

Lean Lena 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 April 15, 2014

Tasty Tuesday: 10-minute Chicken Pasta Salad Recipe

Hey guys! Happy Tasty Tuesday to you!

It’s time to party and share your tasty finds, tasty posts and recipes. Join the link up party below, which will also appear on my co-host’s blog – Fairytales and Fitness.

I am super-excited because last Tuesday we had the record number of 25 partiers! Thank you so much, guys! I love each and every one of your recipes and blogs!

Today I am sharing with you one of my go-to sides/lunch salad recipes – Chicken Pasta Salad.

Well, first of all, you can throw pretty much anything into a pasta salad as long as you don’t forget to throw in the pasta 🙂

I love making pasta salads because they take care of any leftovers I have in the fridge! Pasta salads are also super delicious. Win-win!

Once again, this is a recipe that doesn’t really call for any quantities – just throw in as much as you have of whatever you have, and don’t forget pasta 🙂

SUGGESTED INGREDIENTS:

Pasta (I used Barilla Whole Grain Rotini Pasta, about half a pack)
Chicken breast (you can use grilled chicken, pan fried, baked or whatever you have and feel like. I used the leftover crockpot chicken).
Bell peppers (use different colors to make your salad bright!)
Red onions
Fresh parsley
Capers
Any other veggies you have/like

For the dressing:

Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Either fresh or dry basil leaves

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cook pasta according to the package instructions, set aside to cool
While pasta is cooking, combine lemon juice, olive oil and spices in a bowl and whisk well until combined, set aside
Dice the vegetables and chicken
Combine all the ingredients in a salad bowl, pour the dressing over and mix until coated.
Serve cold or warm.
Add salami or any meat instead of chicken. Experiment!
Enjoy your pasta salad for lunch or as a side for dinner 🙂

See? Told you it was a 10 minute deal 🙂

Now do share with me: what tasty things have you discovered/tried lately? Link up below or share in comments, and don’t forget to check out other links in the party and spread the word by sharing this post! Let more people know and come to the party!

Have a great week, guys!

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Lean Lena April 2, 2014

Foods and Moves – Last Week’s Recap

Hello friends! Happy hump day! I hope you’re having a great week so far! And while you are, I thought I’d share my last week’s exercise recap with you with some food highlights here and there to (maybe, just maybe) inspire you 🙂

Here we go!Continue Reading

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, fitness, fitness events, lunch, spinning, Spinning Instructor, Weight Lifting Tagged With: bicycling, breakfast, dining out, dinner, fitness, fitness motivation, GGS, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, oatmeal, pasta, salad, spinning, spinning instructor, yoga 2 Comments

Lean Lena March 25, 2014

Tasty Tuesday: Quinoa Power Salad

Hey guys! It’s Tasty Tuesday! And on Tasty Tuesdays we party!!!

Yeah! Don’t forget to link up below and check out other links of the party guests. If you link up, your link will also appear on the blog of my co-host – Meranda.

So. Today I wanted to share a recipe for one of my most favorite salads.

Guess what? There is no traditional recipe for it 🙂 Just guidelines and suggested ingredient list – no quantities. Just use how ever much of whatever you have basically!

INGREDIENTS:

Have to use to get a great salad:

Quinoa, cooked according to package instructions, and cooled
Canned black beans, rinsed and drained well
Purple onion, finely chopped
Sweet potato, microwaved, chilled, cubed
Fresh cilantro or parsley (depends on what you like more – I like both so I throw in whichever I have handy)
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Cumin, salt and pepper

Optional ingredients:

Fresh cucumber, cubed
Fresh tomato (I am not a big fan of adding it – gives a great taste to the salad, but I personally don’t like the texture)
Acorn/Butternut squash (cooked and diced – hey, good way to use those leftovers)
Bell peppers
Avocado (I only put it in if I am making just enough for us to eat in one meal, otherwise avocado gets dark and mushy the day after)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Start with cooking your quinoa according to package instructions – it takes a while to cool, and you will need to use it chilled. Can always put it in the fridge, but I try not to, just let it cool at the room temperature. I usually use 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa and 1 cup water. With everything else thrown into the salad it usually makes 4-6 servings.
Microwave the sweet potato, quarter and let cool (quartering will help it cool faster, too). I usually take a medium size potato and microwave it for 2-3 minutes.
Next – make the dressing. This is one of those salads where adding the dressing in advance makes the salad better and more flavorful. Combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin in a bowl. Wisk it and let sit for a little bit for the flavors to combine.
Dice, chop and prep the vegetables you decided to add to your salad.
Add all the ingredients together in a salad bowl, pour the dressing over, mix until combined, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Enjoy!

Here are some serving suggestions, too:

As a side for your steak

On a bed of fresh baby spinach

Do share: have you tried any yummy recipes lately? Link up below to share with us or comment!

Stay fit, friends, and have a wonderful week!

An InLinkz Link-up

Filed Under: dinner, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday, Uncategorized Tagged With: dinner, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, quinoa, recipes, salad 14 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 5, 2014

What’s on My Plate Wednesday

Hey guys! Happy hump day!!!

Oh, I am so very happy it is Wednesday!

So, how about taking a peak at what I ate in the past week? Yeah, I thought so. But I am posting anyway 🙂

For some reason I wasn’t feeling like taking a lot of pictures in the mornings this past week.

I can tell you that I ate a lot of oatmeal:

why of course I have cinnamon chips on it!

And breakfast sandwiches with a fried egg, cream cheese and turkey breast on an English muffin:

I ate my wonderful salads for lunch most of the days (those I prepped last weekend):

And then they tore out my kitchen last Tuesday… We live in an old house with horse hair plaster in the walls (yeah I know it is hard to imagine there were “before drywall times” now). When you have plaster in the walls and ceilings, this can happen:

yep, a hole in the ceiling

So they tore my kitchen ceiling out completely.

like…entirely…as in no ceiling at all

Gives my kitchen kind of a rustic look, doesn’t it? 🙂

Did that effect my cooking schedule? Yeah…all that plaster dust took a while to get rid of, that’s why we had Chinese for dinner on Tuesday.

But once I got all that dust cleaned off, we were back on track with dinners!

Yeah, lots of grilling and crockpot action!

Lemon-shrimp pasta, crockpot beef with wok veggies, steak and mashed potatoes, crockpot pork and wok veggies, chicken wings.

And, I did do my usual meal prep this Sunday! I did some nice lunch prep (salads with baby romaine lettuce, avocado, bell peppers, sweet potatoes, quinoa, green onions, goat cheese, chicken breast and hardboiled eggs + a sandwich) including snacks (apples, celery, carrots, snack cheese).

And right after that – this happened!

Well…what can I say? “All work and no play” would make Lena a one boring personality – gotta break the rules sometimes 🙂

Eat well, my friends, and have a great week!

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, home improvement, lunch, recipes, what's on my plate wednesday Tagged With: breakfast, dining out, dinner, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, home improvement, lunch, pasta, recipes, salad 1 Comment

Lean Lena February 26, 2014

What’s on My Plate Wednesday – Weekly Eats

Hey guys! It’s hump day! Just 2 full work days left and then it is the weekend! Got anything special going on this weekend?

I will probably sleep a lot – I was not getting enough sleep this week. And when I don’t get enough sleep…well…you know…”don’t get body slammed by a low land gorilla” 🙂

It’s been a while since I shared my eats with you here, so here we go – “What’s on my plate Wednesday” post in store for you today. 🙂

Egg sandwich on an English muffin, corn muffin (recipe coming soon), oatmeal with cinnamon chips and sliced almonds, buckwheat with honey and butter, oatmeal with cinnamon chips and marshmallows. I’ve generally been pretty good with my breakfast choices as you can see.

Warm quinoa salad on a bed of spinach, pre-prepped salads, lentil soup (crockpot), salad/sandwich combo, Italian Grinder. Lunch…I am a Queen of Lunch Prep! So pretty good choices here too.

Pork loin with buckwheat, mushrooms and onions on the side; pork chops with buckwheat; salmon, rice, avocado and spaghetti squash; home made beef enchiladas; chicken roaster with veggies. Except when my hubby is making dinner (yes, enchiladas, I am talking to you), my dinners look pretty healthy. 🙂

Celery + homemade hummus, snapeas crisps, PB-banana smoothie, raspberry-banana smoothie, cuties. Yeah, this is my weakness. Can’t even begin to describe you what I snack on that doesn’t get to the social media in the form of pictures 🙂 Het, bare with me – I am working on it and it’s a journey!

What fun foods have you eaten lately?

Stay fit, folks!

Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, healthy snack ideas, lunch, recipes, what's on my plate wednesday Tagged With: breakfast, dessert, dinner, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, muffins, oatmeal, recipes, salad, smoothie 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 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 December 27, 2013

Five on Friday or I Am Back

Hey, guys! Long time no post, huh?

I know…I know… Time to catch up and get back to my blog!

Today I am back with Five on Friday, which pretty much sums up what I have been up to while I wasn’t here with you. So, here we go!

{{ONE}} Christmas!

Where I come from, New Year is a lot bigger celebration than Christmas, and Christmas is celebrated on a different date, too (January 7). However, I came to love this wonderful holiday since I moved to the US. I love seeing smiles on people’s faces, giving and receiving presents and, of course, eating all the yummy things being cooked around this time of year!

We had a beautiful Christmas tree with a lot of presents under it!

And the kitty who thought those were all his gifts:

I got a great present (one of many)!

Braun Single Serve Blender!

Oh, now you just wait until I start blending those wonderful smoothies and sharing recipes with you 🙂

{{TWO}} Christmas Food – That’s Right, a Separate One for This!

Don’t you love Christmas for all the wonderful foods that bring back the memories of childhood, and make you feel safe and happy? I do! And since I am not American, I brought a little bit of my home to this year’s Christmas table.

Russian potato salad – “Olivye”

Crepes stuffed with cottage cheese and raisins

Oh, and of course we had to make cookies to honor the American traditions!

By the way, did you know the story of the Peanut Butter Blossoms? Check it out here!

We also had a beautiful center piece for the Christmas table that I brought back from my company’s Christmas Party:

{{THREE}} The Evil Stepmother Speaks

A little over 2 years ago I became a wife to a wonderful man, and a step-mother to 2 great kids. As great as they are, it wasn’t all cakes and flowers between us. The kids struggled with getting used to having me in their life full time, having to share their daddy with me, finding a place for me in the new family paradigm, adjusting to the changes I brought into the family….Throw in the adjustment due to being newly weds who had never lived together before and you got a pretty “explosive” mix there. I was blessed with great kids who were trying their hardest to adjust, be nice and loving. With the most wonderful husband, who has been my shoulder to cry on, my biggest supporter and The Man of the family. With an understanding and kind ex-wife who stayed out of the way when it came to our house vs. her house, our life and our decisions. Who has been my silent supporter all the way for the sake of her kids’ happiness.

Even with all that – we have had and are still having issues, difficulties, tension and disagreements, which are bound to happen in any step-family.

Having no friends around to vent to, what do you do? Right, you get online and Google the “happy step-family”. So I did.

I am very happy to have found Barb Goldberg’s blog that I read as a book – cover to cover. I am thankful for the feeling of not being alone on this anymore that reading her blog gave me. (And for oh so many “Thank God, I thought I was crazy” relief sighs that I took while reading her blog).

I don’t agree with everything she writes about. Not everything she writes about applies to me and my situation, but I can certainly relate to a lot of what she is saying. Thank you, Barb, for the hope you gave me with your blog posts! They are so inspiring and motivating!

{{FOUR}} Dr. Kevin Leman and the Birth Order Factor

To continue educating myself on the subject mentioned above, I grabbed my Nook and started looking for books to read to find answers to the questions I have about stepfamilies and step parenting.

I stumbled upon Dr. Kevin Leman’s works on birth order and how it effects the relationships in families. I downloaded his book “Living in a step family without getting stepped on”, and even though the book is mostly about blended families where both spouses have kids from previous marriages, I found it to be a great resource to understanding how the whole family dynamics works, and where the issues come from. Great read!

{{FIVE}} Back to Working Out

For the past month (oh my God…was it really THAT long?) my exercise has been very sporadic…2 weeks in Russia where all I did was walking from dinner table to dinner table, then Christmas with all the cookies and other delicious foods and practically no activity! It is time to get back on track here!

I did go to my regular Monday spin class!

Tonight – yoga, and my usual Saturday Double tomorrow with my hubby joining me for the spin class part of it. How exciting is that?

And that concludes my Five on Friday post!

Your turn!

Filed Under: dessert, dinner, events, family events, Five on Friday, holidays Tagged With: dessert, dinner, family, five on friday, good food, healthy dinner, holidays, salad 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 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 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

Connect with me:

Archives