Body for Life Week 1

I mentioned the other day that I’m trying out a newish workout routine with my friend Brittany so I thought I’d elaborate on it a little bit. I’ve had the Body for Life book for a few years now and attempted the program once or twice but never stuck with it. After completing week one this time I can tell you, having a gym buddy helps a TON! We meet at the gym three days a week for the strength workouts and then do the cardio workouts on our own – although we tend to run into each other on those days as well. Not only does having someone to chat with during the workout make it go by faster but it also holds you more accountable to actually get your butt out of bed. I live 30 minutes from the gym so it’s very easy for me to choose my bed over working out in the mornings! Even on the days we don’t meet I know she’s going to ask if I did my workout and I don’t want to have to say no. That can be strong motivation!

Week 1 of the Body for Life workout plan went really well (I’m not doing the eating plan part of the book, just trying to eat healthier in general). It’s different adjusting to lifting much heavier weights than I ever have and I feel like I should be doing more cardio but this book has been around for awhile so I’m going to trust the process and stick to it. Really the cardio has been the biggest adjustment, you do 20 minutes of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) 3 days a week. I really tried to push myself since the workouts are so short but learned pretty quick that 20 minutes of hard cardio is freaking tough.

Meet my current nemisis:



I only made it about 12 minutes the first time on this sucker before I thought I was going to puke. I didn’t thankfully :) but now I’m really hoping to make it through the full 20 minutes on this bad boy. I’m going to build up slowly because getting sick in the middle of the gym is not classy.

On the food front, we FINALLY went to the store yesterday and I have some interesting recipes to try this week. We’ve definitely fallen off the cooking at home wagon the past few weeks!

Are you a cardio person, a weights person or both? In college I did a good mix of both but after college I was mostly doing cardio but not seeing much results. Considering how sore I am today from not only yesterday’s weight workout but also the vinyasa yoga class I took (I’ve always been a hatha yoga girl, the class yesterday may have converted me) I’m thinking results are just around the corner!

Wedding Update: 5 months to go!

Since a fair number of friends/family read this blog, I thought it’d be nice to share a wedding update with them…if you’re completely uninterested in hearing about weddings I promise to keep it short!
Ty and I got engaged 8 months ago and I’m just starting to feel like we’re making progress on wedding planning. I’m not one of those girls who had her dream wedding planned out in her head way before we got engaged. I’m mean I had some basic ideas, like I wanted it to be outside, but apparently there are a ton of details to a wedding that I had no idea about. And sometimes I wish I could go back to not knowing about them!

We were so excited about getting engaged after being together for almost 9 years that we really sort of wanted to enjoy some time just being engaged. It didn’t take long for the questions to start though, really it was a matter of hours because I remember more than one phone call when I was telling the person we got engaged and their response was “Congratulations! Have you set a date yet?” – uh. no. We just got engaged like 3 hours ago…

Once we got home from vacation the flood gates really opened. Where are you going to have it? What colors are you thinking? When are you having kids?

My brain sort of shut down for a few days before I was ready to get my feet wet and jump into the world of weddings. And then the sticker shock set in. Weddings are ridiculously overpriced. I could throw a “family reunion” and just happen to wear a white dress for half of what it costs to throw a wedding. We figured out pretty quick that most of our ideas were way out of our budget.

Fast forward a few months and we finally figured out where we wanted to have the wedding and that it would not break the bank. We’re going back to where we got engaged – literally you’ll be able to see the pier Ty proposed on from the ceremony site – and getting married in Ocracoke, NC! On October 15th, roughly 5 months from now which also happens to be 2 days before my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary.

Cue the awwwwwwwws :)


This is our venue, it’s right on the harbor. We’ll get married right out front on the water, not on the beach. Beach = windy. Grass = cute shoes!

I have my dress which I can’t show you because Ty reads this, we have the venue and we have the minister so the big things are mostly done. We still have a ton of details to sort through and I can tell you so far shopping for bridesmaids dresses has been the absolute worst part. They’re ugly. Period. And expensive. If you have suggestions please let me know!

I’ve also started a newish workout plan, I’m already feeling the burn and it’s only day 4! I say newish because I’ve actually tries the Body For Life plan before but this time I have my gym buddy to help motivate me. Brittany and I have upped our once a week gym dates to three days a week and are planning to do the full 12 week plan. Neither of us have ever stuck to a plan for that amount of time or lifted weights as heavy as the program has you lift so we’re excited to see the results!

I’m hoping for arms like Jessica Biel.


Ok she looks kinda manly in that picture…but you know what I mean :)

What is the best tip you would give a couple planning a wedding?

Easy Grilled Chicken Salad

Ty and I tag teamed dinner tonight by taking another shot at chicken salad. Ty did the actual cooking part by grilling the chicken, I just did the mixing. We decided the last time we tried this that grilling the chicken is way better than baking it! It gives it a whole other level of flavor. Here is all you need to make an easy, healthy and dare I say tasty, chicken salad:

• 2-3 chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup of walnuts
• 3/4 cup of dried cranberries (or raisins)
• Light mayo

I seasoned the chicken with seasoning salt and Italian Herb Garlic Gold Nuggets (you knew I couldn’t get through a meal without these didn’t you) before Ty threw them on the grill. Once they were done Ty chopped up the chicken and I got the other ingredients ready. You have to be careful in our house about turning your back on food sitting on the counter.

I caught him just in time!
I chopped the walnuts a little and then pretty much threw it all in a bowl.

 
We had very little mayo left, which was fine because last time I used way too much! This time I’d say it was about 1/2 a cup but you should add it by the spoonful anyway because you can’t take it out if you use too much.

The Verdict: I think we’ve perfected this recipe! Not overdoing it on the mayo helped for sure but I think the real kicker is using a good amount of seasoning and grilling the chicken. We didn’t have to add any salt or pepper because the chicken had plenty of flavor. Ty reminded me later that we’d planned on adding diced red peppers, there are tons of things you could add in as well. Now that I feel comfortable with the basics I think we’ll try a few other add-ins the next time!

Pan Seared Salmon and Asparagus

I promise I’ll get back to using actual recipes on here but it’s been almost…fun? Throwing meals together and trying out different seasoning combinations. I can definitely say that trying all the recipes I’ve tried so far has helped me feel more confident when I got home and realize I’m going to have to wing it with dinner.
Like the scallops from the other night, this is another meal that looks and sounds fancy but took less than 20 minutes to cook! I’m starting to see a trend with seafood here. I used to be wary of seafood because it seems so easy to mess up but it’s actually pretty forgiving as long as you watch it carefully. Trust me, the smell of burnt fish hangs out in your house for a looooong time. And I still have nightmares about the “salmon cakes” I attempted once. That one actually made me cry…they looked like clumps of dog food :(
This time I tried salmon, I’m not actually sure “pan seared” is the correct term for cooking salmon in a pan but it sure makes it sound good. Again we used the frozen salmon filets that were on sale at Kroger, and I pretty much closed my eyes and tossed a bunch of seasonings on it.

I basically use Garlic Gold olive oil on everything these days (can you tell by the fact that it’s been in the last 4 posts?) so that was a given. Seasoning salt is also proving to be a go to for us, so far it has tasted awesome on everything we’ve put it on! I also got this garlic and sea salt grinder in my Easter basket (thanks mom!) that we hadn’t tried yet so I threw that on there. Then I though what if this is too much salt/garlic? Since the lemon vinaigrette has been such a hit, I went with the citrus theme and thought a little lime juice would help bring all the flavors together.
Whadya know. I’m learning stuff :)

The asparagus I just sautéed in a pan with the same Garlic Gold olive oil – seriously, regardless of whether you’re an awesome cook or well, me, you need to try this stuff! Unless you don’t like garlic…if that’s the case I’m not sure we can be friends.
The Verdict: I even got the pretty brown crust on this one! I might’ve over done it using two salt based seasonings but the lime juice was crucial. Citrus and seafood are like spaghetti and meatballs I’m learning (or lamb and a tuna feesh…name that movie!). The asparagus was kind of bitter though, I think it had been in the fridge a day or two too long…
To further prove the powers of Garlic Gold (are you sick of me talking about this stuff yet?) I also sautéed brussel sprouts in the garlic olive oil the other night and Ty didn’t hate it! His official stance on brussel sprouts is: “I just can’t eat hot little balls of lettuce” but he actually ate like 2 bites of these!

Lettuce Tacos

A few weeks ago, Ty and I went out to dinner at P.F. Chang's with a gift card we'd gotten and had their famous lettuce wraps. Ty commented that we could probably make these at home to which I replied with a smile and a "mhmm" - inside I was thinking he should really know better by now.

Over Easter weekend we were trying to decide what to make for dinner Sunday for my parents since we'd just started our "cleanse" and were adjusting to eating vegetables (cause we just didn't do that much before). Ty said he was craving tacos, I somehow thought of lettuce wraps and a new (to us) invention was born: lettuce tacos.

I started by chopping up some red and orange bell peppers to saute up - Ty is obsessed with sauteed peppers lately! And then I got ready to brown and season the meat. That is when I realized we were out of taco seasoning. What I thought was a packet of taco seasoning was actually a packet of teriyaki mix...which could've worked for lettuce wraps but it wasn't what I was looking for. I'm usually a big fan of prepackaged seasoning mixes so I was really nervous to go at seasoning the meat on my own, but I did it.

I ended up using ground cumin, ground paprika, Garlic Gold nuggets, seasoning salt and pepper. Since I was nervous about the seasoning on the meat I wanted to add something else with a little flavor.

Does anyone else get annoyed cooking ground meat? I wish it already came broken up or something, I get bored tired standing there breaking it up as it cooks.

I tasted the meat and guess what....it was GOOD. I was so surprised I yelled for Ty to come down immediately to taste it and make sure it didn't just taste good to me because I really really wanted it to. He agreed, and even said he liked it better than the packet mix!

This did get me thinking though, because I noticed my taco meat was not the almost biohazard orange color that comes when you use a seasoning mix. Anyone know what makes it that color? I was thinking maybe it was the paprika but that didn't seem to add much to the color of mine?

Next step was preparing the "taco" which was so easy:

Yeah that's it.

Assembling the lettuce tacos was easy too, I went with meat first, then rice, topped with sauteed peppers. Then of course my favorite Louisiana hot sauce

The Verdict: Good and easy! We can change this up so many ways, my first thought is adding avacado mmm.  There are tons of options for toppings. At this point we were still trying to eat less cheese and really I didn't even miss it.

Have you ever tried a restaurant inspired recipe?

Magic Sauce: Scallops with whole wheat pasta and lemon Vinaigrette

I love when I think up a meal that seems fancy and takes almost no time to cook :) I also love finding a sauce that can only be described as magic. Meaning I've used it on multiple things and every time it tastes good, despite the fact that I was the one who cooked it.

I had a sudden impulse to buy scallops at the store the other night, scallops = fancy to me. I got the frozen ones because my shopping impulses tend to sit in the fridge and go bad before we find the impulse to cook them.

We're really into buying frozen seafood right now. You can rarely tell the difference from the fresh stuff and actually, most of the "fresh" stuff at the seafood counter was actually frozen at some point - it even says something like "previously frozen" on the label. That may not be true at say, Whole Foods, but I only take the occasional field trip to go there. Also, frozen seafood thaws super quick! All you have to do is put it in a bowl (or the sink) filled with warmish water - still in its vacuum sealed packaging - and it'll be thaw in like 10 minutes.

A while ago (probably years ago really...) I saw Rachel Ray make scallops that looked amazing. Being the culinary risk taker that I am (ha) I decided to try and recreate them from memory. I actually have a pretty good photographic memory for most things - it conveniently does not work for my car keys most mornings - but I can visualize Rachel's scallops being rolled in a mix of sesame seeds and chopped fresh herbs. We don't keep fresh herbs on hand very often (I keep meaning to plant some but I'm lazy) so I went with dried herbs.

The flavor arsenal:

Italian Herb Garlic Gold, black pepper, toasted sesame oil, Garlic Gold Olive Oil,
Garlic Gold Lemon Vinaigrette, toasted sesame seeds, Bragg seasoning mix

Can you spot the magic sauce in there? Yeah it's this stuff:

Garlic Gold Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette. Yum.

The side dish for this meal was whole wheat thin spaghetti, which out of all the whole wheat pastas taste the most like regular pasta to us, doused in this amazing potion of Lemon Vinaigrette.

So back to the scallops. I've learned that with most seafood (and maybe most meat in general?) it's good to pat it dry before you cook it. Supposedly that helps it get than pretty brown crust on it. So the scallops hung out on a paper towel for a bit while I got everything else ready.

I mixed together the sesame seeds, some (a lot) Italian Herb Garlic Gold, and then threw in a few other green herbs for the heck of it. Oregano and basil I think they were.

Rachel made this look much easier but basically I just grabbed a scallop and rolled it in the herb mix until they all look like this:

Then I put a little Garlic Gold Olive Oil in a pan (I promise they did not in anyway pay or coerce me when writing this post...I'm just a little obsessed with their stuff right now!) and then put the scallops in. While they were cooking I also dropped in the pasta.

After a few minutes I checked the scallops and they didn't have that pretty brown crust I was looking for :( but I've heard they're very easy to overcook so I went ahead and flipped them over. I don't think I've ever had overcooked scallops but I hear the texture is like chewing rubber bands. I have made other things that ended up tasting like rubber and was determined not to let that happen tonight.

Once the scallops were done (I was totally guessing on if they were really done...how do you know when scallops are done??) I went ahead and drained the pasta and poured on the magic sauce. Then a little lightbulb went off and I remembered the one thing that would make this meal even better:

CHEESE.

Not just any cheese, fresh, fancy, asiago cheese mom got us. A little bit of that shredded on top of the pasta:

The Verdict: Easily the best meal I've ever cooked in under 20 minutes. Seriously, this took like no time! And it looks fancy right?

Also, that "magic sauce" is really awesome on top of grilled tuna. We've done that a few times the past few weeks, just put it on a bed of lettuce and you've got yourself a meal!

Do you have a favorite sauce or seasoning that tastes good on almost anything?

Getting Back to Business

Well the Race for the Cure is over and it was an amazing day. The weather was perfect and there is nothing more inspiring than seeing 8,000 people come together for a cause.

The last few weeks have been really busy for me, working with volunteers you end up having a lot of after work meetings. A few things that got me through:

As if I needed another reason to smile about cupcakes, thanks Linda!

I'm not a car girl, but getting to drive this guy around courtesy of Richmond Ford Lincoln sure was fun :)

5am looks much better in a feather boa!

Ty is used to my crazy Race time schedule by now so he stepped up his cooking game and made most of our meals since I was getting home after 8pm 3 or 4 nights a week. We did a lot of grilling, a lot of steamed veggies (the frozen veggie steam in the bag mixes are seriously handy to keep around) and a lot of salads. I did have a few chances to cook a little something and for the most part they were successful!

I'm working on full posts for each of these but here is a sneak peak:

Sauteed brussel sprouts.

Lettuce tacos.

Pan seared salmon and asparagus.

We've done pretty well sticking to our healthy eating plan, with the exception of an "emergency" early morning Chik-fil-a run or two :)

In addition to getting back to business in the cooking department, we also have the task of wedding planning to deal with. Things are moving along ok, only one small hiccup to get through so far. I have also been looking at bridesmaids dresses which has to be the worst part of wedding planning. Seriously, why are bridesmaids dresses so ugly?? I now have a pretty good idea of what I want but finding it is proving to be a challenge.

What ingredients do you keep on hand for quick and easy meals when you're busy?