Archive for June, 2011

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June 30th, 2011

Good Things for Thursday (and a giveaway!)

by Tiff

I know it’s usually “Three-mile Thursday” around here (and yes, I still went for a run this morning), but today it’s “Good Things Thursday!”  Who doesn’t like good things?!?!

1 – Yesterday, I treated myself to a non-office coffee.  I’ve stated my distaste for the hot mud work coffee, so this is a treat.

coffee

That's a happy thumbs-up stick Tiff, not an angry, obscene-gesture-making stick Tiff.

Today I got more non-office coffee since I worked out at home instead of the gym, thus giving my access to both my shower and my coffee maker.  Simple pleasures…

2 – I came home to a whole lot of awesome yesterday.  Leia was pretty pumped about the greatness.  Food Should Taste Good was kind enough to send me 5 bags of goodies to review.  Wowzers – that’s a lot of chips!

chip

Can I Has A Chip? Nom Nom Nom

Food Should Taste Good allowed me to choose which of the flavors I wanted to review, and trust me, it was no easy choice.  Their flavor lineup includes Multigrain, Sweet Potato, Olive, Jalapeño, The Works!, Chocolate, Lime, Blue Corn, Cheddar, Toasted Sesame, and White Cheddar.

After work, I savagely tore into opened, White Cheddar and Jalapeno.  The White Cheddar flavor was very tasty.  The chips are very crunchy, like regular corn chips, but there’s an added grainy texture, which I happen to like.  No greasy chip fingers here; they are like cracker/chip hybrids.  White Cheddar is not loaded with flavor, like Doritos or Cheetos, but your mouth and fingers do not turn florescent orange.  Score!  There’s just enough cheddar flavor to be satisfying.

chip

Naked Chip - No Dip Needed

I think I prefer the jalapeno chips.  They are still very crunchy and grainy, but the extra kick is really nice.  It’s the tip-of-your-tongue hot, not wasabi all-up-in-your-buggers hot.  Neither chip will satisfy a salty craving, just FYI.

chip

Nutrition Info Available on Company Site

Lucky for me, I happened to have an amazing pairing on-hand at home.  Now, I’m not saying you need beer, a dip, or anything else in order to enjoy these chips.  However, I recommend having water handy if you have a low tolerance for spicy.  They’re not that hot, but there’s my warning.

beer n' chip

Read Below + Hear Me On This One!

Pairing a chip with a beer might sound… different, but let’s face it, pairing this flavor with a great craft brew like Victory Hop Devil (which scored 99/100 on Rate Beer and A+ by “The Bros” at Beer Advocate) is definitely a good thing!  Neither bitter beer nor spicy chip overpowered the other, and while the malt balanced the spice, the light hint grapefruit makes the pairing like a cabana party in my mouth.

  • Note, I only had a few drinks of Kev’s beer – one of those babies clocks in at 215 calories per 12 oz.  Yikes!

3 – The last good thing for Thursday is a giveaway!  Hooray!  Food Should Taste Good is giving away 5 more bags of their goodies to one lucky reader.

You want to win this; the company representative told me their “our all natural tortilla chips are made from real, simple ingredients. All of our chip varieties are free of cholesterol, preservatives and trans fat, and do not use genetically modified ingredients (GMOs).  They are also certified Kosher and Gluten Free, lower in sodium, and are a good source of dietary fiber.”

All you have to do is follow me on Twitter, and leave a comment telling me two things: (1) that you follow me on Twitter and (2) the flavor interests you the most.  Do this by Monday, and you could be the winner!

Good luck!

Posted in Fitness, Food | 44 Comments »

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June 29th, 2011

What I Ate Wednesday

by Tiff

It’s WIAW time!  Blog parties are fun, and if you agree, hop over to Jenn’s site to check out other WIAW entries.

If you all read Monday’s post, you’ll know I’ve boarded the healthy train this week.  Yup, the train is right on track.  I’ve been working out despite my inexplicable lethargy, and I’ve been eating relatively well.

gun show

Welcome to the Gun Show

Breakfast consists of my regular three-part breakfasts.  I have a pre-gym brown rice cake and a post-gym hardboiled egg.  I’ve really taken a liking to these eggs!  Sometimes, if I wake up hungry, I throw a little peeb (peanut butter) on the rice cake.  It hits the spot.  Once I arrive at work, I have a parfait full of plain, nonfat Greek yogurt, homemade granola (not very sweet or tasty, but filling), and ½ cup of berries.

parfait

The snozberries taste like snozberries!

Lunch is another veggie bowl.  Woohoo!  I’ll be posting the recipe tomorrow, so stay tuned.  Hint, it involves red quinoa that I ordered from Amazon… and veggies… duh.

I pair the veggie bowl with five almonds.  Why?  I sometimes feel like munching, and that’s just enough to satisfy my greedy taste buds.

Snack includes veggies (carrots or celery, usually) with one 90-calorie serving of 2% Daisy cottage cheese.  I love that stuff, but I don’t understand how something so seemingly natural has such a long shelf life.  Maybe I shouldn’t question a good thing – just roll with it Tiff…

snack

Recycled Pic - I brought more carrots, but same idea...

Dinner is the same for three nights this week.  I’m having half a humongous chicken breast with barely boiled asparagus (0.3 lbs of it to be exact), and a leftover slice of eggplant.  I just learned the eggplant is great on the countertop grill – no oil needed!

dinner

Plain Jane Kind of Meal – No Offense Jane

Oh, and I also had popcorn after dinner Monday and a couple servings of ice cream (light organic strawberry) after dinner Tuesday.

Kevin’s dinner three nights this week has been a little more interesting, so I’ll post it too.  I made him a tuna-noodle casserole with peas and celery.  The store did not have any natural or whole-wheat egg noodles (grocery store = fail), so he got the regular kind.  Luckily, I’m the only one who actually enjoys wheat pasta/bread/etc.

dinner kev

30% is missing - I was too late for a good pic

Instead of two cans of condensed cream of celery soup, I made the creamy sauce for the casserole with cashews, unsweetened almond milk, and a few herbs.  This was my first cashew sauce experiment, and it was a winner!  The sauce was sort of bland, and it dried out a wee bit in the oven.  However, the dish still tasted good, and the tuna was not overpowered by soup flavor.

Bad Things = cooking two separate meals leads double kitchen clean-up

Good Things = leftovers for both of us for three nights – Wahoooo!

What are your thoughts on leftovers?  Do you make extra so you get leftovers, or do you avoid them when possible?

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June 28th, 2011

Savory Summer Muffins

by Tiff

Top o’ the muffin to ya!  When I went out for lunch Saturday, the restaurant had a pretty awesome appetizer called a tomato pie.  The entire table loved them, and although I only tried a bite, I knew I had to remake them… or at least something similar.

The restaurant’s tomato pie looked as if it was made in a popover tin.  It had tomato in the middle of a flaky yet semi-doughy pie crust.  As we all know, a flaky crust comes from one thing- lard, so I knew I’d need to make a healthier edition.

I instead made savory summer muffins, which use whole wheat flour and yellow cornmeal.  I have a bunch of leftover cornmeal from that amazing tamale pie, so I’m happy I found another use for it!

Savory Muffins

Savory Summer Muffins ~ Makes 4 Muffins

FILLING

  • 2 tsp butter or butter substitute
  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced onion 1/2 medium tomato (thinly diced)

DRY

  • 1/3 cup corn meal
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (approx 1 TBS reserved)
  • 1/8 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme (or a little more if you like this stuff)

WET

  • 1 egg and one egg white (reserve the extra yolk) ~ I don’t think a flax egg would work well, but I have no idea.
  • 1/4 cup  milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
  • 1 tsp honey (probably unnecessary)

TOPPING

  • 1 egg yolk (leftover)
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/8 – 1/4 cup shredded cheese (I used about 1/8 of shaved parmesan)

tomato muffin

Directions

  1. See toppings.  Melt butter in a pan, and when melted, cook onion until soft.  Turn off burner, and add tomato pieces.  Let cool in the warm pan.
  2. Whisk dry ingredients in a bowl.  Whisk wet ingredients separately in another bowl. Stir to combine wet and dry ingredients, but do not over-stir.
  3. Place a dallop of dough mixture into the bottom of four greased places in a muffin tin. Try to make the dough come up the sides a bit to make a dip in the middle.  The dough doesn’t want to do this, so don’t force it.  Sprinkle most of your reserved flour in the middle of your muffin.
  4. Plop equal amounts of tomato and onion mix in each muffin, without extra juices from pan.  Sprinkle your remaining wee bit of flour on filling.  Top muffins with remaining dough mixture.  Whisk topping, and drizzle over each muffin. Bake at 350 degrees  F for approximately 19-22 minutes.
yum

In other news, I enjoyed roast Brussels sprouts and eggplant Sunday night with a glass of cheap simple red wine and little chunk of Parmesan cheese.  Roast Brussels are nature’s candy!  Kevin’s plate also included a large grilled chicken breast.

Last night, I changed it up a bit.  I’m not going to share that dinner just yet since I’ll be eating the same thing tomorrow.  Yup, tomorrow you are in store for another WIAW.  Sooner or later I need to do a What I Drank Weekend Edition, but I’ll hold onto that thought.

If you try my muffin recipe, let me know what you think of it in the comments.  I’m eager to know!  Oh, and if you make your rendition of it, let me know that too.  This was my first attempt at savory muffins (or any baking recipe I made up myself), so I’m sure some tweaking is in order.

Have you made a savory treat that’s usually sweet?  Or how about the other way around?

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June 27th, 2011

Gravy Train to Healthy Train

by Tiff

Diet schmiet, who needs it?  Apparently I do, and after this weekend, it’s time to buckle-down on some better habits.  If you thought I lead a healthy example of good nutrition and regular workouts, you are wrong (and you’re probably not an avid reader of this blog).  I’m used to a few splurges on the weekend, but this weekend with the in-laws takes the cake.  Cake?  Did someone say cake???  Ha – that’s been me lately, so after I recap my weekend via pictures, you’ll see why I’ll be back on the calorie-counting train for a while.

I already blogged about Thursday’s splurge, and after that meal, I had plans to be more mindful of nutrition on my weekend trip.  Well… this was Friday’s dinner…

bbq

Not Many Healthy Options on That Menu...

It was good Southern food.  The okra wasn’t as good as my mommy’s, but it was still tasty.  Those little things to the left are hush puppies.  I love those little buggars!  The beer was not impressive, but at $1 per draft, I couldn’t turn it down.

I tried to run on Saturday.  To my dismay, Kevin’s parents’ live in an area that is not safe for runners (no shoulder or sidewalk but lots of turns and hills), so I drove up to a local school’s track.  I was pumped to do some speed training, but this is what I found.

no run

No Run 4 You

My motivation took a nose dive, and I gave up.  Run = Fail

We had more Southern cookin’ for lunch and dinner Saturday.  No exercise and lots of food makes Tiff an uncomfy girl.  Lunch included a hearty chicken salad sandwich and blueberry n’ peach cobbler.  I know cupcakes are in vogue right now, but they don’t even touch the greatness of pies and cobblers!  They’re two of my (many) weaknesses.

Dinner was… interesting…

We went to an Italian restaurant.  Never have I seen fried pickles and jalapeno poppers on an Italian restaurant’s menu.

Menu

Italiamerican Food?

The food was edible.  Don’t let the cheese fool you; the sauce and noodles were not so yummy.  In fact, I was kicking myself for not ordering a side salad and baked sweet potato for my meal.  You guys know how much I love sweet potatoes!

ziti

Cheese = Good ~ Ziti n' Sauce = Meh

Sooooo… Sunday I spent allllll day in the kitchen.  Don’t worry, recipes are soon to come.  It’s time to get back on the healthy train!  I could use your support and bikini-body tips, so if you’ve got any, send them my way!  Luckily, I got a great workout in first thing this morning.

What was the best thing you did this weekend?

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June 24th, 2011

I’m Not At Work

by Tiff
Yup.  I’m not at work today.  That is big news because I’m so friggin happy about it.  It’s okay… I’ll move on to other news now so that I’m not rubbing it in, but I just had to share that tidbit of info.  See, that’s why the blog post is late today.  I got up at 6 instead of 5 to workout, and then I had a dermatologist appointment.
*Notice the Slick Segway to New Topic*
Speaking of dermatologist, my Eat for Good Skin diet only sort of worked.  I think my skin’s tone has become more even, but it’s still breaking out like crazy.  Bummer.  I am now on a new, slightly scary prescription for my acne.  It is supposed to make my potassium levels skyrocket, so I have to lay off the bananas, potatoes, and other goodies.  In addition, it’s mainly used for those with high blood pressure.  Great.  I already have low but healthy but blood pressure, so I’m going to be walking around like a zombie until this clears up a bit.  Wonderful.
Moving on…
I started my weekend with a glass of wine, an ounce of parm cheese, and three kalamata olives.  I tried to take this picture…
wine

Unwind in 3... 2... 1...

but then this happened.  Thanks Cleo for making the picture much more interesting.

cleo

I'd reach for it too if I lived off dry kibble!

After that, I had Italian on the brain.  Should I have cooked healthy Italian?  Yes.  Did I?  No.  This was dinner.

pizza

Unhealthy and Delicious

I’d love to tell you Kevin and I split that, but that would be a lie.  I’d also like to say I ate half and saved the rest for later, but that too would be a lie.  So let’s just not talk about pizza any more.
On a positive note, last night’s pizza led to a killer green monster smoothie today and an awesome workout.  I picked up very heavy things and put them down quite a few times.

Thanks, Gina, for posting this commercial.  I love it.

The meat-head in the video above reminds me of something I wanted to mention.  I received a lovely compliment today at the gym.  Another morning regular was there, and he’s a total meat-head.  We occasionally say hello, but we don’t talk much.  Today he told me that it looked like I had recently put on a good bit of muscle, particularly in my legs.  I would generally be offended if a man said this to me because it would be really creepy, but given the source, it really made me happy.

We talked a wee bit about protein supplementation and my fav move for ultimate quad definition.  His comment pumped me up, and I totally rocked my bench step-ups.  I went until total failure on my left side, which felt odd.  When I tried to step up one last time, my leg said, “Sorry Tiff, but we’re done here,” and I was okay with that.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  I’m off to see the in-laws.  Hopefully I’ll get a run in tomorrow… if I can feel my legs!

Do you talk to other regulars in the gym or on the trails?  What do you think about gym compliments/remarks – creepy or cool?

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