Lentil and Chicken Stew

With all these recipes going up, I thought I'd add one that I made last week. I think it's so good and my 3 yo even ate it and said "mmm"! Winner in my book!

Lentil and Chicken Stew (I'm assuming you can omit the chicken...but I like it in it)

3 tsp Extra virgin olive oil, divided
8 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced (I like to sprinkle mine with a little bit of seasoning salt)
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp coriander seed, crushed
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 14oz can reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 C French green/brown lentils, sorted and rinsed (I honestly don't know what French lentil are; I just use what I have in my house)
1 6oz bag baby Spinach
1 Tb Lemon juice
1 Tb chopped fresh dill (I don't think I've ever actually had dill when I've made this...)

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, stirring once or twice, until no longer pink (about 2 mins). Transfer to plate with slotted spoon.
2. Add the remaining 2 tsp oil to pan and heat over medium-low heat. Add carrot, garlic, coriander seed, salt, and pepper, stirring constantly 30 seconds to 1 minute.
3. Stir in broth and lentils, and increase heat to med-high and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to maintain simmer and cook for, stirring occasionally until tender, 20-30 minutes.
4. Add chicken broth, lentil, baby spinach, and lemon juice. Return to simmer and cook 1-2 minutes more. Add dill. Enjoy!

New Recipe with Veggies

Skillet Ratatouille
Ingredients:
3 TBSP. olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
2 zucchini, sliced (or to your liking)
2 yellow squash, sliced (or to your liking)
1 lb. Italian sausage
2 tomatoes
16 oz. noodles
salt and pepper to taste
some grated Parmesan if desired

1. Cook noodles and drain.
2. Cook sausage and drain fat off.
3. Heat your oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add the onions. Cook until browned and softened. You may go as far as
caramelizing it if you choose. While that cooks, prepare your squash.
4. Cook squash and zucchini until softened. Let some of it
caramelize/burn brown a bit. Those pieces taste the best!
5. Add your tomato and season with salt and pepper. Plum tomatoes are
ideal for this recipe because they don't have a lot of juice in them.
Cherry or grape tomatoes would work great as well. If you use another
kind of tomato, cut them in half and squeeze out most of the juice
before slicing them up.
6. Cook for a few minutes more. Add sausage. Serve hot over noodles.

Momentum Lagging and then Rejuvinated

So, at the beginning of last week, I was totally gun-ho about this challenge. I worked hard and I was strict (even to leave game night with neighbors so I could make my personal goal...), and it was fun.

But I was also exhausted. Even with my added sleep (such a good idea for me!), I was still so tired by the end of the day and then definitely by the end of the week. This 30 mins 6 days a week is tough!! I usually do 2-3 days a week. So this has been pushing me and it's made me so tired. So I really enjoyed the break on Sunday.

But then Monday came. And I was not feeling it. Instead of being excited about working out, I was dreading it because of sick children and staying up all night...so I barely did it at like 8:30 last night. And all I wanted to do was eat some chocolate. Or something. It was really hard!!

I thought to myself, "This is why most New Year's Resolutions don't last. We get excited, and then we kind of burn ourselves out." I resolved I wasn't going to get burned out. So I'm still going! I just made my work out today 30 minutes or so instead of 1 1/2 hours I was doing last week. I gotta adjust, right? And thanks to the knowledge that ALL of you are trying to do it too made me that much more determined (well, a bit maybe). But it at least gave me the motivation to do it. It's like I could hear you all cheering me on. Or at least saying, "Hey, we did it. Get off the couch and get to work."

So, for what it's worth. Thanks everyone! And thanks, Angela, again, for hosting this challenge. I can't wait to see what happens to me after 4 more weeks!

Ups and Downs

I think the hardest "challenge" for me is not after 8 pm. Most days I don't get home until after 9, so I sometimes forget to grab something to eat so I won't miss out. But I think if I'm able to gain this healthy habit by the end of the 5 weeks, it'll be well worth it! The biggest pro for me has been the sweets. I have all kinds of candy in my office for different things here at school, and when I was stressed I used to just grab some. You could always tell how stressed I was by the number of candy wrappers in the trash can outside my office. But now I'm more aware and don't reach for them! Sweet!

Points are up!

Well done ladies! And I mean every single one of you. We're doing this! Sometimes people ask why I host these things. There are multiple reasons (like I need the challenge) but one of my favorite things? Seeing the stats come in each week. You guys are so motivational. Look at all those perfect scores! Those who improve their scores each week may be my favorite. It is so so hard to get up after tripping (that's what I'm facing after yesterday, wish me luck!). And what about those who miss one point early on, but carry on to get perfect scores? Sometimes those people make me cry. How awesome are you guys!

So have a new and wonderful week. And keep the posts coming. Cheers.

ps. as always, let me know if you see any errors. I believe Adele was driving her fire truck across the keyboard while plugging points in.

What's a healthy breakfast?

So I'm curious what "healthy breakfast" means for everyone. This isn't to compare or boast or whatever, just plain curious. And it's fun to get ideas. A good friend of mine has an approach to healthy eating, which is to ask "What's just one thing I can do better?" I can't change everything, our budget won't change (for now), my occasional morning sickness won't change (for now), and time constraints won't go away, but what is ONE thing I can do better? For me that was a glass of milk and actually taking that prenatal vitamin. Maybe not necessaries, but it was one good step for me in addition to generally healthy breakfasts. Oh and to stop eating  for a couple of hours once breakfast is over. Breakfast doesn't mean the beginning of day-long itty-bitty snacking. Novel idea, I know.

So what about you?

Things I learned last week

Drinking water is no big deal for me - I probably drink 12 glasses of water a day, because I'm nursing.  No eating after 8 PM is a little harder - I grab a snack at about 7:45 every night.  What can I say, nursing makes me hungry!  I think a little bit more about my breakfasts, which is good, although they weren't terrible before.   All this food talk is making me hungry, goodness! :)  The exercise everyday is hard, but I can see the pesky lovehandles going down, hooray!  The best thing of all though, has been my personal goal of prayer and scripture study every day.  It really makes the whole day go better, I'm more patient with my children, and happier with myself.

Good luck to everyone on this coming week!

Another Serving Sizes help

I should have kept browsing before posting the last post, because I came across this gem:

http://nutrition.about.com/od/fruitsandvegetables/f/servingfruit.htm 

It actually lists examples of how many of the smaller fruits and veggies make up one serving. It doesn't list everything, but enough for getting a better idea (at least for me) for those smaller things, like strawberries and baby carrots. Keep in mind that when looking at something like an orange or an apple, a medium sized fruit is one serving (about a tennis ball size). Combined with the livestrong info, I feel much better armed this week for my servings of fruits and veggies!

Fruits

• One banana
• Six strawberries
• Two plums
• Fifteen grapes
• One apple
• one pluot
• One peach
• One-half cup of orange or other fruit juice

Vegetables

• Five broccoli florets
• Ten baby carrots
• One Roma tomato
• Three-fourths cup tomato juice
• Three-fourths cup vegetable juice
• Half a baked sweet potato
• One ear of corn
• Half-cup whipped rutabaga
• Four slices of an onion

Serving Sizes

I've been waiting for time on a computer again to check out what the Internet gurus say about serving sizes for fruits and veggies (thanks for the question, Amber!).  I found this on LiveStrong.com that was one of the most concise explanations I've ever seen:

Fruits and Vegetables

Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains is important to maintaining good health. A tennis ball is a good visual for one medium piece of fruit. Other serving sizes for fruit include 1/2 cup of canned fruit and 1/4 cup dried fruit. A serving of cooked vegetables is 1/2 cup or about half the size of a baseball, while a serving of raw leafy vegetables is 1 cup.

The article has similarly concise explanations for what constitutes one serving of grains, dairy, etc.  It's really very helpful!

Beating the Clock!

I have to laugh at myself. My personal goal is to be in bed by 10:30 every night, and I realized how closely I have been pushing it. I generally look at the clock and say "aah!!!" then I run and get ready for bed, and dive into bed and look at the digital clock on my night stand. My stats were: 10:22, 10:28, 9:50 (because I made a special effort to be in bed by 9:30 - lol!), 10:29, 10:20, 10:28, 10:29.

Good grief! This is going to be a bit challenging - as it's supposed to be, right? :)