My family loves tacos, loves them so much that we have established a tradition around them; Taco Tuesday.  I’ve tried a lot of different recipes, but here is my absolute favorite:

 

Black Bean Tacos

serves 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I had was the camera on my phone so this picture doesn’t do these babies justice!

 

cooking spray

1 medium onion, chopped

1 15-ounce can of black beans, lightly drained

1 T. chili powder

1 T. cumin

1T. soy sauce

1/2 T. maple syrup

10 corn tortillas

 

toppings:

2 oz. cheddar cheese

1/2 C. Greek Yogurt

1 avocado, chopped

tomatoes, chopped

lettuce, chopped

salsa

 

Heat pan over medium heat and spray bottom with cooking spray.  Saute the onions, then add the beans, spices, soy sauce, and maple syrup.  Reduce heat to medium low and let everything cook for 10-15 minutes.  Meanwhile, wrap the tortillas in foil and warm in a 250-degree oven.

 

Nutritional Info Per Serving: 232 calories / 30 grams carbohydrates / 7 grams fiber / 12 grams protein / 8 grams fat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a reason they tell you to eat light before scuba diving.

When first given this advice, I thought it a little silly. I mean, scuba diving isn’t exactly strenuous and never before had I heard that you should eat light before doing it. However, I was extremely glad that I had followed this advice when I was heaving over the side of our rocking boat and everyone aboard could see EXACTLY what I’d had for breakfast. Not my finest moment.

 

There is no such thing as too few clothes in the Bahamas.

When it was time to head to the airport and Brian and I had on normal clothes and actually had to wear shoes, we felt like we were prepared for a climb up Everest.

 

 

Taco Bell may have 4^th meal, but our vacation had 6^th meal.

Because we had an all-inclusive vacation, my husband felt it was his personal obligation to out-eat every other guest at the resort. Besides the breakfast, lunch, and dinner that we’d eat, he made sure to get his second breakfast at 10am, his 3pm pizza, and his 1:00 am “snack.” It made my stomach hurt just hearing about it.

 

 

I love having other people cook for me, but hate never being 100% sure what’s in my food.

It was so nice never having to think about what I was going to cook. It was so relaxing. However, I’m excited to be back home and know exactly what I’m putting in my food. No matter what you tell the server, you never know how much butter or oil the cook is using. You can’t be sure the food’s not loaded with High Fructose Corn Syrup, MSG, or BHT. It’s nice when you know exactly what you’re putting in your body for fuel.

 

Paddleboarding is awesome,

especially on the ocean with the waves crashing around you. I loved it!

 

No matter how hard you paddle, your kayaking partner thinks they’re doing all of the work.

 

Nothing makes you run faster than the smell of diapers, dead cats, trash, and anything else you can think of that smells so bad it burns your nostrils.

With an amazing view of the crystal blue sparkling waters of the Carribean, I figured nothing could beat a nice run. I took off, breathing in the nice fresh ocean air. Perfect. As I was practically dancing in my ocean paradise, the smell of everything horrible and ugly filled my nostrils and made me want to cry. I have no idea what it was, but it definitely ruined my enthusiasm for running on the beach. I sprinted back and got to the indoor fitness center as quickly as I could. It was probably a two-minute mile.

 

Every drop of sweat from push-ups, burpees, body planks, chin-ups, dips, and crunches was totally worth it when my clothes were replaced with a swim-suit.

 

Yesterday we were out running errands and Taylor decided he’d had enough.  He started sounding like a mix between the ringwraiths on Lord of the Rings and a tornado siren.  Addie was busy asking questions like “why are stop signs red,” “why was that girl wearing those pants,” “why does the guy on Yo Gabba Gabba wear tight orange clothes?” (I really don’t know!), and “why do we have hands?”  Sometimes I can’t even try to come up with an answer before she fires off the next question.  She just sits there asking question after question until my head hurts.  Then we passed a Panera.  I get a little giddy feeling every time I see one.  When I was in the hospital after having Taylor, we were less than a mile away from a Panera so Brian brought it to me for nearly every meal.  You get the point.  I love Panera.  We went inside and both of my kids were instantly silent.  Apparently my love of soups, salads, and sandwiches is hereditary.

I love all of the You Pick Two options.  My favorites are the Frontega Chicken Panini, Smokehouse Turkey Panini, literally every salad on their menu, and the black bean soup.  Yesterday I was in a hurry and forgot to specify “panini” when I ordered the Smokehouse Turkey so I got the regular sandwich.  It was good, but not “Smokehouse Turkey Panini” good.  Still, our little Panera break seemed to turn our day around.  Do you like Panera?  What are your favorite foods on the menu?

The word “salad” conjures up images of slim women, daintily poking at some lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers with a fork.  We somehow feel better about ourselves when we can say, “I’m just going to order a salad,” or “I just had a salad for dinner.”  It doesn’t seem to matter what’s in the salad, but the fact that we’re having a salad must make us healthy.  If you feel guilty ordering chicken fingers, lose the guilt and order the chicken fingers salad.  You don’t want all of the calories in one of those entrees with cheese, cream sauce, and fatty meat?  Instead, order it all on a salad and you’re good to go.  I want to start marketing a scoop of ice cream served over spinach leaves and call it “salad.”  Sure,  ice cream and spinach don’t seem like an appealing combination, but if there’s a way to make ice cream healthy, I’m in.

 

 

There are plenty of  healthy salads with great nutritional benefits, but lately, there seem to be so many imposters posing as a health food in the form of a salad.  I looked at some of the popular restaurants to check out how many calories and grams of fat were in some of their salads.  Many salads had over 1000 calories.

 

Macaroni Grill’s Market Chop Salad: 1010 calories, 71 grams of fat

 

Ruby Tuesday’s Carolina Chicken Salad: 1101 calories, 46 grams of fat

 

Applebees’ Bruschetta Chicken Salad: 1110 calories, 66 grams of fat

 

T.G.I. Friday’s Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad: 1100 calories, 71 grams of fat

 

 

While on T.G.I. Friday’s site, I checked how many calories a small side-salad had; 270, but that’s without any dressing.  The dressing ranged from 130 calories if you choose a vinaigrette up to 490 calories for the bleu cheese dressing.  So your side -salad could have up to 760 calories!

 

If you’re looking for something healthy, be sure and take note of what’s in the salad you’re ordering (or making).  Crushed-up Doritos and crispy-fried chicken will never be healthy, no matter how much spinach is underneath.

 

A few weeks ago I found a recipe on Fitnessita that Gina posted and it’s awesome!  It’s what she calls a Breakfast Cookie.  It’s packed with protein, keeps me full all morning, and I love the taste.  It’s quickly become one of my favorite breakfasts.

In a small bowl, combine 1/3 C. oats,  1 T. nut butter (I use raw almond, crunchy), and 1/2 scoop protein powder (I’ve been using Jay Robb’s Egg White Protein in Chocolate).  Stir it up until the nut butter is broken up.

Add 1/8 C. milk (I like unsweetened vanilla almond milk) and mix until moistened.  Then add whatever mix-ins you like; pumpkin, banana, raisins, whatever you feel like and season it (cinnamon and Stevia are great!)

 

 

Put the mixture on a small plate and flatten with the back of your spoon to desired thickness.  Refrigerate overnight and it will slightly harden.  If you want it harder, put it in the freezer a few minutes before you eat it.

 

 

Enjoy!

I would love to hear what you think of it and any other great ideas for mix-ins.

 

I’ve had several emails asking  how I exercise when I’m trying to shed a few pounds.  I love circuit-style training when I’m really focusing on losing inches and toning.  Here is an example of a circuit:

 

I do each exercise for 1 minute and repeat the circuit 3 times (If you don’t like one of the exercises or don’t have the needed equipment, sub it out for something else).  Some of these YouTube videos that demonstrate the exercises are pretty funny (for some reason the guy doing jump squats cracks me up), but they make the exercises very easy to understand.

 

Bench Push Ups

Bench Tricep Dips

Get your heart pumping:  Mountain Climbers

Wall Sit

Chest Flies on Stability Ball

Get your heart pumping: Jump Squats

Bicep Curls

Body Plank

Get your heart pumping: Burpees

(Repeat entire circuit 3 times)

 

Make it challenging.  The results will be determined by how much you put into it.

Happy circuit training!

 

Hey guys!  I hope everybody had a great day yesterday.  It flew by here (but the weekends always seem to do that for me).  This year Easter was:

 

a super yummy egg bake for breakfast

going on a family walk to soak up the sunshine

church

naps (much needed naps thanks to my one year-old who decided we should pull an all-nighter)

a wonderful dinner with family

a quiet evening since the kids were so exhausted that they fell asleep at 7

 

We have been getting quite a few strawberries out of our garden lately.

 

So I made a Strawberry Romaine Salad to go with our dinner.  Delicious.

 

 

Strawberry Romaine Salad

serves 10

1 T. honey

1/3 c. slivered almonds

1 bunch romaine, torn

1/2 red onion, halved and sliced

2 c. fresh strawberries, sliced

 

Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing:

1/4 c. mayonnaise

1 T. sugar

1 T. sour cream

1 T. milk

2- 1/2 t. cider vinegar

1 -1/2 t. poppy seeds

 

In a saucepan, heat honey over medium heat until runny (about 1 minute).  Stir in almonds until coated.  Spread on foil to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the romaine, onion, and strawberries.  Combine the dressing ingredients; drizzle over salad and toss to coat.  Sprinkle with coated almonds.

 

Nutritional Info (per 3/4 c. serving): 92 calories, 10 g carbs, 2 g protein, 2 g fiber

If you make it, let me know what you think.  Have a great week!

 

 

 

I saw these at Costco:

 

 

Since my kids have an almost unnatural obsession with all things popsicle-like, I figured they would be fun to try.  I.LOVE.THEM.  They don’t have any crappy ingredients like High-Fructose Corn Syrup and they taste awesome.  They’re sweet enough that they feel like a treat, but not overly sweet like many popsicles or ice cream bars that make you feel like you’re inhaling a cup of sugar.  Plus, they’re not just a straight shot of carbs either.  Each bar has 6 grams of protein and 12 grams of carbohydrates.

 

In other news, I tried doing the level 3 of the 8 minute abs video that I posted last time.  Holy sore abs.  I’ve been trying not to laugh or sneeze or do anything that causes extra strain on my abs because they HURT!

For the past month, Brian has gone running nearly every evening AFTER he’s already worked out at the gym in the morning.  I’m amazed.  This is the same guy who used to spend his evenings with a package of Oreos and soda.  I’m always exhausted by the time evening rolls around and I’ve worked out at the gym already so I find an excuse to not go with him.  However, it’s been so nice outside lately that running actually sounds like fun.  Then when we get back, we do an ab workout.  He found some great workouts on youtube. It’s called 8 Minute Abs and they come in 3 different levels.  Here’s the one we did last night:

 

 

Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Good luck!

 

 

Sydney over at the Daybook blog frequently does what she calls “Awkward and Awesome Thursday.”  This week’s experiences at the gym were just begging me to join in on the fun.  So, here is Awkward and Awesome Thursday (at the gym):

 

Awkward:

-Man in spandex unitard.  There’s really no more description needed.

-The man to the right of me telling the man to the left of me details about his colonoscopy.  Hey guys, I’m just chillin here right in between you, just knockin out a set of dumbbell curls.  2, 3, 4, Oh, what’s that?  Super, please tell me more details about this  liquid you had to consume to clear out all fecal matter from your colon and rectum.

-The fact that they need a sign next to the hot tub telling people they’re not aloud to use it while naked.  Really?

-Me recognizing my friend’s shoes in the bathroom stall next to mine and starting to tell her a story only to discover it’s not her

 

Awesome:

-The giant grin and chubby outstretched arms of my son and the full-out sprint to me while yelling “Mommy” from my daughter when I’m done working out and go to pick them up

-Getting measurably stronger each and every week

-the feeling you get when you’ve worked out as hard as you can and you’re absolutely exhausted, but feel so good at the same time

-good, motivating work-out buddies who bring out my competitive side and make me accomplish more than I ever could alone