Beyond the Sandwich - for Adults

I've seen lots of articles for alternatives to the sandwich for kids' lunches but what about us adults?  After all, we're just as bored with the same old sandwich as our kiddos!  

So I've been on a quest to find alternatives to a sandwich for lunch.  Don't get me wrong, my tastebuds LOVE bread but not my scale!  When you take away bread, lunch all of a sudden becomes VERY difficult.  A sandwich (slapped with TONS of mayo, right?!) is usually my go-to for lunch when last night's leftovers aren't sounding very appealing (or there are none!).

Here's what I've come up with to help add some healthy variety to lunch.  Some do require a little cooking (which I really try to keep minimal for lunch time).  If you work outside of your home, I'd recommend whipping up any of these dishes the night before as they are GREAT when heated up the next day!

Sweet Potato Fries HERE with a side of cottage cheese.

This Caesar Salad recipe HERE becomes a meal when I add pre-cooked sliced chicken strips that I simply warm up, dice and throw in.  For a more on-the-go version, stack it all in a 1-quart canning jar.  Start with the dressing and add in the more firm ingredients, ending with the lettuce.

Whole wheat tortilla pesto chicken wrap.  No recipe for this unless you want homemade pesto HERE (which I would HIGHLY recommend).

Spread the pesto on your tortilla, add your favorite lunchmeat, greens (spinach is pictured above) and a slice of cheese.  Roll it up and you are good to go!

Tuna Salad Lettuce Boats

Another recipe-free meal!  Open up a can of tuna and mix in half of a ripe avocado, some plain greek yogurt, and any diced fruit (like apples or grapes) and chopped nuts.  I added some garlic and onion powder as well, in addition to some salt.  Serve in Romaine lettuce leaves and you have a yummy sandwich alternative!

Do you have anything that you LOVE to eat for lunch that doesn't revolve around bread or pasta?  Do share!!

Kefir...say what?

I've been dabbling in growing bacteria on my counter, then taking it one step further, and eating it!  My husband thinks I'm crazy and hasn't touched the stuff, let alone eat it.  I've done a bit of reading and research on kefir (pronounced like key-fer), enough at least to know that I should be implementing it into my diet regularly.  

I first heard about it from Green Smoothie Girl's 12-Steps to Whole Foods book a few years ago.  It's one of the later steps in the book and it finally intrigued me enough to give it a try.  She recommended checking out the thekeferlady.com but the website is a bit dated.  I was eventually led to this youTube video HERE that I found very informative.

But here's a quick definition of what it is and does:

Kefir’s tart and refreshing flavor is similar to a drinking-style yogurt, but it contains beneficial yeast as well as friendly ‘probiotic’ bacteria found in yogurt. The naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in kefir combine symbiotically to give superior health benefits when consumed regularly. It is loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals and contains easily digestible complete proteins.

You can buy a drinkable kefir from the grocery store, but what I've seen has TONS of sugar.  Costco sells the Yakult brand but the amount of sugar in it didn't thrill me.  So I decided to go the homemade route and ordered some milk kefir grains from Amazon HERE (there are water kefir grains too).  When they arrived, I followed the instructions and placed them in a glass jar...

Poured a cup of whole milk over them, and gave them a good stir.

Then I simply placed it on the counter and sat and waited, occasionally stirring...

A day or two later, it looked like this:

See all the curds?  Then there's a little whey on the bottom that looks like a yellowish liquid.  Apparently you can make a natural carbonated healthy soda using that whey... I haven't gotten there, nor do I intend to.

Then I strained it into a plastic strainer (the grains don't do well with metal so plastic is advised)

And pressed through all the kefir...

Leaving only the grains...

With these, I simply washed out my glass jar and put them back in, then placed another cup of whole milk over them to repeat the process.  After several batches, the grains will multiply so you can either make more, faster, or give them away.  If you want any, let me know ;).

Then I was left with this kefir, kind of a thin liquid yogurt consistency...

It's not very good plain (kind of tart and has a strong smell) so I make a smoothie with it, which is really quite good!  It reminds me of a drinkable yogurt smoothie you'd buy at the store, but NO processed sugar!

I like to add frozen berries, any other frozen fruit I may have (peaches - yum!) a few dates, some honey and maybe 1/4 of a ripe banana.

Here's the finished product:

I make a kefir smoothie about every other day.  My 2-year old and I drink it (she's the only other person who will touch it).  Since it is TMI to talk about changes in my stool (which there definitely have been), I'll talk a little about hers...she's been constipated since she's started having an opinion about what she eats, but since drinking this, she's definitely become more regular.

On another note, Pink Eye has been spreading through the family like wild fire the last few weeks!  My husband was the first one with symptoms, then all the other kids had it except for...wait for it...me and my toddler.  My husband thinks it's just a coincidence but I'm pretty much sold it's due to the healthy probiotics living inside our guts, keeping us healthy.  Only time will tell if we are able to avoid other infections as we continue to drink this little pink concoction.

If you are one who is prone to infections and diseases, this may be worth looking into.  It's been fairly simple to implement into my diet and as far as taste goes, it's really growing on me {pun intended -  ha!}.

If kefir is a regular part of your diet, I'd love to hear!

Homemade AND Healthy Granola!

I'll admit...I am a cereal addict!  I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacktime.  My favorite way to eat cereal is to sit down with the hubby in front of a Big Bang Theory episode with a big ol' bowl full after the kids have gone to bed!  But all that sugary, crunchy deliciousness right before bed is a serious no-no for my diet!  I've been trying to not eat after 8:00 pm and eliminate refined sugars, most dairy and ground grains (read: flour, like in breads and pasta).  And my triple serving of cereal contains pretty much everything on that do-not-eat list!  Ugh!

So in order to still be able to get my cereal fix, I've turned to a recipe for homemade granola from my husband's grandma that I've come to love!  Her original recipe called for TONS of brown sugar and canola oil.  It was also too chewy for my liking.  But with a few simple tweaks, I've changed it so the granola fits my diet criteria and is just as good, if not better!

Homemade Granola

13 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 14-oz pkg. coconut, toasted

1 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 ½ cups honey

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. vanilla

1 cup coconut oil

1 cup water

Craisins or raisins (optional)

Sliced almonds (optionl)

Combine oats, coconut and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.  Toasting the coconut is optional but I prefer it - the coconut tends to be really chewy if it's not toasted.  Here's how I toast mine (really easy!)...

Pour your coconut in a frying pan.  Over medium heat, stir constantly...

until it looks like this...

All nice and golden brown.  You have to really keep stirring it or it will burn!!

Set aside your oat/coconut mixture and in a saucepan, combine honey (I prefer raw), salt, vanilla, coconut oil and water.  Stir over medium heat until honey is dissolved (no need need to boil).

Here's another tip for measuring out your oil and honey: measure them in the same container!

Measure your oil (which is 1 cup in this recipe) and slowly add your honey to the same measuring cup.  Once your oil level has been raised by 1 1/2 cups, you've measured out the correct amount of honey.  What's great about this is the oil will keep the honey from sticking to your measuring cup and  everything will slide right out!  Amazing!  I have my mom to thank for this tip!!

So once melted, pour the honey/oil mixture over the grain mixture and stir until evenly coated.

Now, the original recipe says to spread mixture onto 2 jelly roll pans and bake at 300° for 25 minutes. This will make more of a chewy granola.  I prefer it more crunchy (like Honey Bunches of Oats Clusters!!),  So to do this, I put it in my dehydrator using fruit leather trays for approximately 24 hours or more - just until no longer chewy.

And don't add too much granola to each tray - it will take too long to dry out.  For my dehydrator, 2 1/2 cups is about right for each tray.  Then I dry 2 batches.

Once dry and no longer wet, store in tightly sealed container.  I bought a cereal container for mine.

Serve with craisins, raisins, sliced allmonds, milk, yogurt or on top of ice cream (that will obviously defeat my health-free version, but it's really good nonetheless!).  Or, for a dairy-free option, I eat mine over sugar-free almond milk.  YUM!!

While this doesn't fix my eating after 8:00 pm problem, it sure does solve all the other issues!  I love that I can get my cereal "fix" but still have it fall under my diet criteria and it's OH so good!  So good in fact, that I've hardly missed "real" cereal!

Half Marathon Scheduler

I've been training for a Half Marathon.  Don't get me wrong...I'm not a runner...or really even a jogger...but I'm doing it anyway (okay, and I'm tagging along with my sister - misery loves company I suppose!).   If I'm being honest, it's one of those "life bucket list" items I'd like to get crossed off my list sooner than later.

When I signed up for the run, I started Googling to try to figure out what the heck I had gotten myself into and I started looking at training schedules.  I saw several but none that fit my schedule so I came up with my own...

You can download an editable Excel document HERE so you can cater to your own schedule.  Or download the non-edible PDF version HERE if your schedule fits the same as mine!  You can fill in your own dates on the first column.  Then the little "check-box" columns are so I can log what I actually ran that day.  Because come on, life happens and some days you just don't do what you intended to!

I didn't want to run or cross-train on Sunday.  I just wanted to rest.  So that put my long run on Saturday which was perfect because the hubsters could be home to deal with kids while I was out enjoying myself :).  

I also usually swim laps on Tuesdays and Thursdays so those days seemed logical to do my cross-training.  Mondays and Wednesdays then filled in as my short-run days and Fridays, well, they came to be another day to rest and gear up for my long run on Saturday.

Is it perfect?  No, but it works for me and is manageable with my schedule.

The distances I picked to run each week seemed to be pretty uniform with all the schedules I saw out there.  Most recommended to run a 5K and a 10K which you'll see in my schedule on weeks 6 and weeks 9.  But I doubt I'll be running those weeks as an actual race.  I've run  a few 5K's so I at least kind of know what to expect at a race.  But if you have never run a race, I'd probably recommend doing one before your half.

Good luck with your training for your upcoming Half Marathon!

My Health Checklist

I just completed a second round of Health Games (find details HERE).  I learned TONS of great health habits that I hope to continue to incorporate into my life forever!  To help do that, I created a simple "My Health Checklist" for an easy reminder and it's complete with a list of "High Protein Snacks" that help when I start to get snacky!

Download a copy HERE.

I printed this out and placed it on my refrigerator for easy viewing :).

The "take a day off" line item is to be completed once a week where I don't have to do any of the other items on the list!  The recipe for "Pink Smoothie" is HERE and the "Oatmeal Cookie Bites" recipe is HERE.