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Homemade Take Out Dinner

December 3, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

Tonight we took dinner to Duke and Jen! It was an experiment but from what I hear, it turned out pretty well! Jen might lie and say something was good when it wasn’t, but Duke and Brady would definitely tell the truth.

I really have a bad habit of trying new recipes on dinner guests. I find myself doing it all the time and I am not sure why because it always makes things a little stressful, but exciting at the same time. :)

Tonight was low-fat chicken enchiladas, with a few veggie versions for me. Here is a peak. Sorry for the bad picture. Enchiladas are not photogenic.

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Recipe to come tomorrow!

Happy Friday!

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Christmas Gifts for Healthy Living

December 2, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

Stuck on an idea for a Christmas gift? Give the gift of healthy living. Here are a few of my favorite ideas:

1. Polar Heart Rate Monitor. This simple gadget is great for working out and making sure you make your workouts worth it. It usually costs about $100 and can be found at any major sports store or possibly at your gym.

2. Subscription to a Health magazine. Giving the gift of fitness/nutrition knowledge is great because it keeps giving all year. I love getting magazines and look forward to everything they have to offer each month. A few of my favorite choices are: Health, Fitness, Women’s Health, Clean Eating, Cooking Light and Martha Stewart’s Living. I also make sure Brady gets Men’s Health.

3. Simple exercise equipment. Give a friend who has been trying to get in shape a simple piece of equipment to add to her collection. A kettle ball, a set of light dumbells, a yoga mat or an exercise band are all good and inexpensive choices.

4. A healthy cookbook. I have a HUGE obsession with cookbooks and have a few on my list this year. Think about the type of person you are buying for and get them a book that fits their style – quick healthy meals, vegan recipes, feeding the family on a budget, or crockpot favorites. What ever their style, make it personal. Some of my favorites are Moosewood Low-fat Vegetarian Cookbook, Tosca Reno’s Clean Eating, Ellie Krieger, Eat Drink and Be Vegan and Cooking Light’s Annual recipes.

5. A personal training session. If you know someone who is trying to get in better shape get them a session with a personal trainer. By giving them an hour or a few half hour sessions you could help them to get motivated and on the right track with fitness. If you can, join them during the session! Usually it is cheaper to train with more than one person and it will be more fun! Plus, you can keep working out together when you are done with the training sessions.

I will be back with more Christmas ideas coming your way! Do you have any ideas for me to add to the list? Let me know, I would love to hear from you!

:)

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Supercharged!

December 1, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

After tonight’s dinner, and before we put up our Christmas tree,  I made a batch of Super Charge Me cookies for Healthy Ashley’s bake sale tomorrow. I won’t be selling this exact batch, but I made them in honor of the bake sale. I am going to take them to school and share them at my team meeting.

Here is a sneak peak of the dough:

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And a preview of the cookies:

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Check out the bake sale to raise money for Team in Training at Healthy Ashley !

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Arugula Pesto Pasta with Shirmp

December 1, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

I was happy that I woke up this morning in time to go to 6:00am spinning. It always makes me feel so good all day.

After school I put clothes away from Thanksgiving and did laundry. Then I set to work on dinner.

I wanted to try a new recipe so I got some ideas from Eating Well magazine.

I decided on arugula pesto because I had a bag of fresh arugula from Trader Joe’s. Here is what I mixed together:

Arugula Almond Pesto

  • 2 big handfuls of arugula
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. water
  • 2 -3 tbsp. parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 c. chopped almonds – from Trader Joe’s
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 tbsp. low fat cottage chese

*This recipe is a general guide, as I just threw ingredients into my mini food processor.

  1. Using a food processor, blend arugula, olive oil, water, almonds, parmesan and salt and pepper.
  2. When this is all mixed and has made a thick paste, add cottage cheese.
  3. Blend until smooth and creamy.
  4. Serve!

This would be great on crackers or on a pizza. I love arugula’s spicy pepper flavor. For dinner tomorrow we are having make your pizza, so expect to see some more arugula!

The paste before the cottage cheese – this would be a great cracker spread.

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The pesto with added cottage cheese, this tastes like cream but without the fat and calories.

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My meal served with mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, shrimp and kale chips, served on Barilla Pasta Plus!

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All mixed together!

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This meal was really good! Next time I would add a little milk or almond milk to the pesto to make it a little creamier so it would stick to the pasta a little better! Let me know if you try it.

:)

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Indian for Him and Her

November 30, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

It’s amazing how you can take a 5 day break and feel like you never left when you get back to school! My kids were pretty good, they were just tired from lack of sleep and too much tv and junk food over break! I am not so sure they were reading each day like I asked them :)

After school, I came home and changed my clothes to go on a run/walk with Katie. We did 3 miles in the freezing cold! We both figured it was better than nothing. Then I stopped at the store to grab a few things for the rest of the week.

I came home to make an easy and quick dinner of Indian food while Brady was at Verizon getting his new phone – the Droid. It is pretty sweet! I am excited to play with it.

When he got home, around 7:45, I was lucky to have not eaten my arm off. We sat down to a his and her meal.

Hers:

I had lentils with spinach spicy sauce and some Tandoori sauce mixed in, plus extra spinach. All of this served with brown rice and broccoli.

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I could only eat about half of the lentil spinach mixture. I think my eyes were much bigger than my stomach tonight.

His:

Brady had the same thing minus the extra spinach and with chicken instead of lentils.

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We both made cups of hot chocolate to take to bed so we could relax. I am reading and Brady is playing with his new phone. See you tomorrow!

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Back on Track

November 29, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

It’s Sunday night – Yuck! I am not ready for the real world to be back tomorrow. I had such a great time that I just want to keep going. Oh well. I will have to tough it out the 2 1/2 weeks until Christmas break.

Yesterday we had a fun day hanging out at my parents and having dinner at Cindy and Tom’s. The meal was great but I forgot my camera. Then this morning we woke and went for a run then a long walk. It was the perfect start to the sunny day. We filled up on a big brunch of English muffins and veggie omlettes before heading back to Columbus. We went to Brady’s parents to decorate their tree on the way home. Then we ran in our house so Brady could change for his soccer game, and we were off to the field. I hadn’t been to watch in a while, since they usually play late games, so I was a supportive wife and went to the game. I actually really enjoy going – especially watching indoor because it is so fast paced!

We came home from the game after a quick stop at Trader Joe’s for some simple dinner ingredients. I threw together a perfect meal in literally 5 minutes.

Here is what our dinner’s and tomorrow’s lunches consist of:

Brady’s dinner. This consisted of two freezer packages from TJ’s.

1.

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2.
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Pretty good nutrition facts for a frozen dinner that was about $3.
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By mixing those two together in a pan for about 10 minutes and adding 1 egg to make it a little more fresh, he got this:

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I could not figure out what I was in the mood for – I was strangely not hungry all day. I had eggs and toast around 11 and then never got hungry. I think the baby is taking over my stomach. I did decide on green beans (frozen, not canned – and not mixed with mushroom soup either) with quinoa. A weird combo I know. It hit the spot though!

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My final plate:

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Yes, that is a lot of beans. Now I have leftovers for lunch!

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Thanksgiving Feast

November 27, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

We left Brady’s grandparents and drove the 2 hours from Cleveland to Chautauqua. We arrived just in time for appetizers – which I didn’t take pictures of. We had a delicious meal with everyone. It was a little different this year because it was the first holiday without either of my grandparents on my mom’s side, they both passed away this year. We made the most of it by keeping things similar to how they always were/are. Overall it was a nice relaxing holiday! Since we missed dinner with my dad’s side of the family, I am excited to have leftovers with them. :)

One of the two big tables set.

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My plate: stuffing (not from in the turkey), mashed potatoes, salad, green beans and mushrooms, and squash! I went back for a refill on the green beans – obviously. :)

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We had fun with Addie entertaining us:

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Thanksgiving Brunch

November 27, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

This morning was great! We woke up at my parents and had coffee while chatting on the couch. Then we got ready for the day. I went to the basement and did the elliptical for a quick 28 minutes then jumped in the shower while my egg white casserole was overcooking in the oven (bummer!).

Then Brady and I headed to his grandparents – they live 15 minutes from my parents house- for brunch and my parents and brother went to Chautauqua.

We had a great brunch with lots of yummy treats to get the morning started.

There was fruit

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Pineapple/French Toast casserole

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My coffeecake

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My egg white spinach and artichoke strata

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Nut bread

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Everything was great. It was really nice to catch up with Brady’s cousins and family. After breakfast we relaxed, looked through black friday adds, and played Wii!

Then we took off to go to Chautauqua.

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Stonyfield Oikos make a smoother smoothie

November 27, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a random post I meant to put up earlier this week. I will be back tomorrow with a recap of the holiday!

:)

It seems like I have been eating a lot of Oikos lately but not doing anything creative with it. I have just been enjoying it as a dip for my apples at my 3:00 pm snack.

This week I decided to add it to a smoothie. I have not been eating many smoothies lately because I am usually freezing and smoothies are not appealing when you are at all cold. Monday morning though, dressed in my long, down, sleeping bag like North Face coat, I decided to have one!

My smoothie included the following key ingredients:

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Plus some frozen mango from Trader Joe’s and frozen blueberries from picking this summer. It was delicious and super smooth! Love the Oikos addition!

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Thanks Stonyfield! To become a fan of Oikos by Stonyfield on facebook, visit:

Oikos on Facebook!

Also, Stonyfield just sent an email with this exciting news!

We are now rewarding our consumers for buying our yogurt in quarts with a free reusable yogurt cup!

Yogurt lovers just have to buy four Stonyfield yogurt quarts through December, and mail in the foil lids (describing this offer), and they’ll receive the reusable, eight-ounce yogurt cup made by Preserve®. Made from 100% recycled plastic, the cup is perfect for yogurt-lovers on the go, the ideal size for breakfast or a snack, with room to stir in fruit or granola. It’s dishwasher safe, BPA-free with a screw-on lid – and it’s made in the US.

Consumers will also get $4.50 worth of Stonyfield and Preserve coupons along with the cup.

Our recycling partner since 2000, Preserve uses innovative methods to turn used materials (including used Stonyfield yogurt cups) into stylish, useful household products like toothbrushes, colanders, cutting boards and tableware. Preserve products are 100% recycled and recyclable too.

Consumers can mail clean foil lids, with name, address and phone number on an index card or 4” x 6” sheet of paper by February 28, 2010 to:

Stonyfield Farm
Reusable Cup Offer
PO Box 4840
Manchester, NH 03108-4840

Cups will be shipped starting in January, 2010 with delivery in 10 to 12 weeks. This offer is good only in the US, while cup supplies last, and is limited to one cup per household (to better spread the love around).

Make sure to start saving your lids!

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Thanksgiving Day Tips for

November 26, 2009 by The Healthy Hostess

In an effort to keep myself from feeling like a beached whale and having to undo my top button (my pants are elastic now, so this year may be different :) )on Thanksgiving I try to follow the following tips.

  1. Do something active. Get up in the morning and get some exercise. Whether it is a walk around the neighborhood while catching up with relatives, a Turkey Trot run, or a morning workout class – just do something. This will make you feel better all day and will get your mind in a healthy place from the beginning of the day.
  2. Eat breakfast. Eat a normal breakfast. Make sure you have a good combination of carbs, protein, fiber and healthy fat that will give you a good start. Skipping breakfast will leave you ravenous and often leads to overeating later. It can also be an excuse to eat more junk later.
  3. Choose special foods. When you are filling up your plate, pick foods that are special for Thanksgiving. Stay away from foods you can eat everyday like rolls and cheese and crackers. This will help to keep you from getting stuffed.
  4. Skip or skimp on the extras. Try to stay away from adding things to your food. This is hard for me when it comes to salt – I salt everything, even before I taste it. Eat your banana/pumpkin/zucchini/apple bread without added butter. It has such great flavor it doesn’t need extra butter. The same is true for mashed potatoes and squash.
  5. Slow Down! Take your time when enjoying your meal. It is not going to go anywhere. :) It’s easy to get excited about all of the traditional and delicious foods at Thanksgiving, but slow down and enjoy them or before you know it, your plate will cleaned!


Remember to have fun! There can be a lot of stress that comes along with the holidays. Relax, enjoy your family and remember what the holiday is all about!

Happy Thanksgiving!


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