Happy Monday!  Ever notice how everyone always says that?  Why?  I don’t know about you, but Mondays are typically not my favorite day…

How was everyone’s weekend?  Mine was good – crazy busy, but very fun.  Because we travel a lot, my weekends spent at home are few and far between; this weekend I was able to be at home the entire time and I LOVED IT.  Though you’d never know from my insane schedule, I’m a homebody at heart

My husband had to get up early for a meeting this morning and had a little bit of extra time…so he decided to make me French toast – how sweet, right?  He’s been doing a little bit more of the cooking lately and I am VERY impressed…his mom taught him well!  To make my French toast, he combined a couple egg whites, vanilla extract and lots of cinnamon, submerged a few pieces of French bread into the mixture and then cooked them in a frying pan.

It felt SO indulgent to eat French toast on a Monday, though I’m not sure why the fact that it’s a weekday made it feel like that?  Regardless, it was soooo, so good, and I will definitely be expecting him to make this for me again sometime soon.

Because I got crazy with breakfast, I decided to keep lunch simple.  I started with a (mostly) veggie salad from Whole Foods:

Let’s see…I had a base of romaine, and piled it with purple cabbage (my favorite thing ever to put in salads!), shredded carrots, green onions, garbanzo beans, 1 piece of the amazing chili tofu that I’m obsessed with and a few sesame sticks for no reason other than I couldn’t resist!

So delicious.

Someone emailed me the other day and asked me if I eat my salads dry (as in with no dressing), and if so, how?  The answer is that sometimes, yes, I eat them dry – it just depends on what’s in them.  If you load your salad up with enough good tasting stuff and fun textures, you won’t miss the dressing.  I promise.  However, on a salad like I had today, I did need a little something, so I used just a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette (which is pretty much what I always use).  My philosophy on salad dressing is a little bit of the “real” thing goes a long way – and tastes much better.  I find I actually consume less calories eating real salad dressing than if I eat the fat free kind because the flavor is much more robust and I just don’t need that much.

Anyway – moving on!  I also had an apple and some Mary’s Gone Crackers (which I highly, highly recommend).

The rest of the day involves work, working out, and TONS of biochemistry (try not to be too jealous).  See you this evening!

Thank you all so much for entering the nutridel giveaway!  For those of you who asked where to buy these cookies – unfortunately, unless you are in Oregon or California, I don’t believe you can.  This company is pretty brand new so they don’t even have ordering set up on their website yet.  I emailed the ladies of Nutridel though to let them know how impressed everyone is with their cookie statistics, so maybe they’ll speed up the online ordering process….

Anyway – using www.random.org, the winner is…

LORI Z! 

Congratulations, Lori Z!  Please send me your address and your nutridels will be on the way!

See you all later today for a breakfast + lunch post!

Have you ever heard of a Nutridel?

I discovered Nutridels a few months ago and fell instantly in love; they are big, crunchy, cookies that are 100% natural, containing no additives, preservatives, artificial colorings, flavorings or sweeteners of any kind.  They also use no dairy or animal products in their recipes, so they are a perfect healthy snack for vegan enthusiasts (vegan or not (which clearly, I’m not), I think you’ll love these).

Needless to say, when the lovely ladies of Nutridel offered to send me some cookies for review – and to giveaway – I jumped at the opportunity.

Nutridel cookies come in four flavors:  oatmeal (their best seller), flaxseed (my personal favorite), almond and pecan.  Each cookie is loaded with seeds, grains, nuts, fiber, sweetened with molasses are are very low in calories (especially for a decent sized cookie).

(Click to enlarge)

My favorite cookie – the flaxseed flavor – has just 57 calories per cookie (they’re BIG too) and contains the following ingredients:  oats, whole wheat flour, flaxseed, wheat bran, amaranth, molasses, sunflower oil and ground cinnamon.  And that’s it.  With ingredients like that, what’s not to love?

If you’re wondering what these taste like…well, each one is different.  The flaxseed is very cinammony, while the oatmeal is more mild tasting with hints of coconut and sesame.  The almond tastes like – you guessed it – almonds!  But, sweet almonds.  And the pecan (which was my least favorite…but still quite tasty), had a pecany, molasses flavor.

I am a HUGE fan of nutridel cookies, and I honestly can’t say enough good things about them.  Want to try them for yourself?  Well, one lucky person can…

How can you win?!

You can try all four flavors of nutridel simply by leaving a comment on this post.  Want an extra entry?  Link back to this giveaway on your blog (and email me – deliciouslyfit1@gmail.com – or leave another comment to let me know you’ve done so).  The winner will be announced first thing Monday morning (which will be Monday afternoon to many of you, because I’m on the west coast).  And, it’s important to note, you do not have to have a blog to enter!  Anyone can enter, blog or not.

Ready.  Set.  Go. 

(Trust me – this is a giveaway you want to win!)

This post has to be fast because I have an appointment for work in just a few minutes!  I hope everyone’s Thursday is going well; I got yelled at by one of the doctors I call on this morning AND I broke a dish while rushing to prepare my lunch, so that kind of sucked.  Thank goodness it’s ALMOST Friday (TGIAF)…

I wanted oatmeal for breakfast this morning but we were out of toppings (bananas, nuts, etc.), so I went for scrambled eggs and a piece of toast instead:

What you’re looking at is 4 scrambled egg whites and a piece of toast with organic raspberry preserves.  (That little bit of yellow in the eggs is a tiny bit of yolk that snuck in!)

Then I went to work, got yelled at , stopped at Starbucks and got…

That’s right.  Just some (free) water.  I started to explain to the lady that I spend a lot of money at Starbucks and normally I wouldn’t ask for free water unless I was buying something else…but she told me I didn’t have to justify why I wanted the cup of water, so I stopped.  Starbucks free water is the BEST water around – it’s triple-filtered…love.

Ever since seeing Zesty’s post this morning on the ultimate cheeseburger, I knew what I wanted for lunch.

Okay, so not anywhere near as mouth-watering as Zesty’s, but this was quite delicious.  I had a chipotle veggie burger (these are SO good…kind of spicy) on 100% whole wheat sandwich thins (love these things…the perfect hamburger bun for 100 calories) with mustard, ketchup, a few bread & butter pickles and a wedge of laughing cow light swiss (which you can’t see…it’s under the burger).  YUM.

I also had some carrots and celery, but I completely forgot to photograph them!  Oh well…I’m assuming you all know what those veggies look like…

Okay – off to my meeting – stay tuned for a giveaway tonight (I’m not lying this time)!

I’ve never been a huge fan of tofu; up until I found the chili tofu at Whole Foods (which I talk about here), I almost never ate it.  Needless to say, I was kind of shocked to realize I ate tofu not once today, but twice!  Yay for being meatless.

Because I don’t like tofu all that much, I’m really not quite sure what possessed me to put “Pad Thai with Tofu” on the menu this week.  Here’s a strange fact about me:  I crave things I don’t really like all the time.  Take raw tomatoes, for example – I typically hate them…but every once in awhile, I’ll REALLY want one.  It makes no sense, I know. 

Maybe I’m actually starting to like tofu though, because this recipe was really good!  I always make my husband rate the meals I cook (5 stars is the best), and he gave this dish 4 stars.  I have to agree with him; it was a good, solid meal…not something I’d serve to company, but definitely fun and different for an easy, weeknight meal.

I changed the recipe slightly:

• I didn’t use any mushrooms (my husband is allergic to them)
• I used about 2 cups of shredded carrots (as opposed to 1 cup of grated)
• I used 2 cups of bean sprouts (as opposed to 1 cup)
• I used about 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (instead of 1 cup)
• I used 100% whole wheat lo-mein noodles

If I make this again – and I probably will – I’d keep my changes and even add a few more:

• The shredded lettuce in this was just weird.  I would definitely sub green or red cabbage
• I’d nix the cilantro completely; it just didn’t taste right in this
• I would only use 4 ounces of pasta instead of the 8 it called for…this was overwhelmingly noodley! (Yeah, I made that word up).

I also doused my dinner with sriracha, which honestly makes just about anything taste better…

I know I promised a review and giveaway tonight, but it actually has to wait until tomorrow!  My biochemistry class started this week and I already have homework piled to the top of my head.  Fun.

I’d also be lying if I told you I wasn’t try to hurry so I could go watch America’s Next Top Model.

Goodbye!

Hello hello!  I want to apologize for my horrible blog etiquette; I went out of town last week and fully intended to tell everyone I’d be gone for a few days…but somehow I never got around to posting my farewell.  As of Monday, I started to get all sorts of emails from people asking me if I quit the blog – the answer is no!!!!  I definitely did not quit deliciouslyfit.com.  I just went on vacay and blogging wasn’t really conducive to my footloose-and-fancy-free lifestyle .  Anyway, I’m home now so posting should resume as normal…

I don’t know about you guys, but when I go on vacation, I tend to choose things like green gummy worms instead of green beans when it comes to eating.  I always tell myself I’m going to go on a trip and eat as if I always do (healthy!)…well, unfortunately, it doesn’t always pan out like that.  I spent the last few days in Denver, Colorado, which I think has some of the finest restaurants ever.  I’m not saying it’s like, New York style or anything…but something about the cuisine in Denver tastes so. damn. good.  So, after stuffing myself with far too many unhealthy foods, I was actually looking VERY forward to resuming my normal eating habits.

We are running low on groceries, so my only option for breakfast was Greek yogurt.  Luckily, I also found some pineapple in the fridge.

Using a pina colada as my inspiration, I piled a nonfat plain Oikos, chopped pineapple, a few almonds and about 2 tablespoons of unsweetened, reduced fat shredded coconut in my favorite red bowl.  This was actually my first time combining pineapple and Greek yogurt and I LOVED it – the sweet and tart combo was awesome.

All was well in my world…just driving around and working…and then, I broke.  If you’ve read my blog from the beginning, you probably know what I mean…I stopped at Starbucks!  I had heard waaaay too much about those pumpkin spice lattes and I wanted to see what all the hype was about!  Lucky for me, my brother gave me a coupon to get a free drink so it actually didn’t even cost me a dime…

 + =

Yummmmmm.  So, so good…but so unbelievably rich.  I got through about 2/3 of it and tossed the rest.  Craving satisfied.

Lunch time rolled around and all I wanted was a salad.  I’m usually not one to yearn for vegetables, but today I was so I went with it.  I stopped at Whole Foods and made myself a mammoth salad.

This salad contained a little bit of everything.  See that tofu in the top left corner?  It’s called chili tofu and it’s just about the most amazing tofu I’ve ever put in my mouth.  If you have a Whole Foods, look for this stuff in the salad bar.  It’s kind of incredible.

See you tonight for a new product review and a VERY fun giveaway!

Just a quick post because I am one tired lady tonight!  I think all those 4:00AM wake up calls are finally starting to get to me…

We’re going out of town this weekend, and we have a fridge full of food.  Remember the eggplant parmesan, aloha curry and neat joes?  Yeah, we still have multiple servings of each left in our fridge!  We are realllly bad at eating leftovers; we are trying to improve, but truth is, I just don’t like them that much!  Unless it’s something like chili or a soup or a stew…I just think most food hits it’s prime on day one…and then it’s downhill from there.

Well, I’m putting an end to our non-leftover-eating-selves; it’s wasteful and expensive.  Jake chose eggplant parmesan tonight, while I settled on neat joes:

We were out of buns, so I just put it on a piece of 100% whole wheat bread (I toasted it, which is why it appears burnt on the edges…).  The verdict?  They were good!  Actually, they tasted better than I remembered.  Jake even said the eggplant parm wasn’t bad the second time around, either.  As of tonight, we have officially joined the “leftover eater” group – I’m so proud.

I also had some carrots and hummus, and some strawberries: 

I keep trying to make my own hummus and it keeps turning out kind of bad.  Does anyone have a no-fail hummus recipe?

Ok, my brain is no longer working – my apologies for this super lame post!  Time for this girl to go to bed…

Goodnight!

I was driving around for work this morning, and out of no where, I started craving taco bell.  Is that bad for a health food blogger to say?  Well, I don’t care if it’s bad – it’s true!  Even though I’m an RD-to-be and a huge health food advocate, I’m also human and I crave “bad” things too.  A huge part of healthy eating, to me, is figuring out how to deal with those cravings; sometimes I think it’s okay to indulge, but most of the time, there is usually a way to satisfy my desire by taking an alternative (healthier) route.  I am not sure where my craving for T.Bell came from; honestly, I can’t tell you the last time I ate fast food – it’s been years.  But this craving was getting to me…so much that I was this close to pulling off and ordering a burrito supreme.  Luckily, I remembered I had this bad boy in the freezer at home:

Enter the Cedarlane giant burrito:  a whole wheat tortilla stuffed with brown rice, all sorts of organic vegetables, jack cheese and topped with green chili.  I’ve actually never had Cedarlane products before today (I’m an Amy’s girl at heart), but you know what?  I was impressed.  Clocking in at right around 400 calories for the entire thing, this burrito was satisfying, filling, organic, and chockfull of plenty of vegetables I wouldn’t normally eat at lunchtime (squash for lunch?  Just doesn’t sound that good).  My favorite thing about this burrito, though, was the fact that it saved me from consuming who knows how many calories from a junky, unhealthy, grease-laden restaurant that I KNOW I would regret later on. 

I slathered some nonfat Greek yogurt (Oikos Organic baby!) on top, and put a healthy spread of salsa on it too.  (Does anyone else put Greek yogurt on everything?!…This blog is making me realize that it is seriously the most versatile food ever…)

Yummmmmmmm.  This burrito hit the spot.

And let’s not forget about breakfast!  I had my traditional frozen salad, minus the protein powder:

I missed the protein powder, but I am reallllly trying hard to get away from all artificial sweeteners.  Thank you to everyone who left comments and emailed me with some wonderful suggestions about protein powders!  I’m definitely going to check some of them out.

I am soooooo tired today…I cannot wait for 5PM!  I foresee a nap in my future….

Back to work for now – see you tonight!

Well, I survived the dentist…barely.  I envy all of you who left me comments saying you loved the dentist; I have one question for you people, though:  Why???  The noise of the little tools the use, the cold water they spray on your teeth, the weird tasting stuff they use to “polish” (as they say) your teeth…I think it is all miserable!!!  But I got through it (phew) – and – I’m cavity free!  Yahoo!

My husband took one bite of dinner tonight and said it tasted like Hawaii – he called it “aloha curry,” to be exact.

In actuality, it’s not aloha curry – it’s Curried Chicken Penne with Pineapple Chutney.

When I first saw this recipe, I wasn’t sure it would work – all the ingredients they put together seemed so strange.  However, I made it tonight (changing just a few things) and it turned out fabulous.  If you like curries, this is a must try!

Here are the changes I made:

• Instead of mango, I used 2 cups of chopped pineapple (we are not really mango fans…)
• Instead of 4 cups broccoli and cauliflower, I used 5 cups
• I also used a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower…though I think fresh would’ve worked better.
• I used 100% whole wheat pasta

Unfortunately, because the broccoli and cauliflower were originally frozen, they defrosted in the pan, releasing water, and thus making the sauce (the best part!) a little thin.  I think this will be better leftover – it will have time to thicken up a little.  All in all though, I would definitely recommend this recipe – it’s fast, healthy and you don’t really need any sides… (it has grains, veggies, protein, dairy…pretty complete meal if you ask me)!

I have a very important question for all you protein powder people out there; do you know of any protein powders WITHOUT artificial sweetener?  I’d prefer it didn’t even have stevia in it.  If someone can help me with this I’ll be forever grateful!!!

Goodnight!

Happy Monday!  My day started at 3:45AM.  Not sure WHY IN THE WORLD I can’t sleep anymore, but I can’t.  My alarm was set for 6:15AM…but 3:45 rolled around, and I was up.  I tossed and turned until I couldn’t anymore and finally just gave up and went to workout.  I workout so much better in the afternoon…but what else is there to do at four in the morning?!

I came in from working out and look who I found:

Someone other than me is feeding my cat!!!  See how he’s looking a little chub?  He is an indoor/outdoor cat, and everyday he comes home (he pretty much only sleeps inside at night…otherwise he’s out wandering the ‘hood…), he’s just a little bit fatter.  It’s making me so mad because the vet specifically told us he needed to lose a couple pounds…so I ration out his food every single day, and he doesn’t even eat it all.  But he’s continuing to gain weight…so I’m convinced someone else is feeding him.  But who…?  Why would someone do that?  He wears a collar with a tag…so not like he looks like a stray….

Anyway.

After my workout, I was starrrrving, so I had one of my favorites:  nonfat Greek yogurt, a sliced plum and a few frosted mini wheats:

I’m looking so forward to fall, but I will be sad when summer disappears because that means no more peaches, plums, nectarines…all my favorites!

I’ve had a serious shortage of fruits and vegetables in my life as of late; something about being sick and fruits and vegetables just don’t mix (well, for me they don’t anyway).  I wish I craved things like broccoli and green beans as comfort food…but I definitely do not.  Bring on the carbs.

Needless to say, I decided to introduce my long lost friends – fruits and veggies – back into my life today.

A sandwich with low fat cream cheese, homemade lemony hummus, cucumbers, onions and carrot ribbons.  I actually ate both halves of my sandwich, but I only took a picture of one.

I also had a tiny Clementine and some leftover roasted Brussels sprouts:

And for dessert, some cherries (maybe my all-time favorite fruit…)

This afternoon is looking bleak, because guess where I have to go?  THE DENTIST.  Ugh.  You guys, I would honestly rather go to the gynecologist than the dentist.  I hate it there!!!

Wish me luck