Middle Eastern Vegetable Salad

5 scallions, thinly sliced 1 pd ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced 1 hothouse cucumber, diced 1 can of chickpeas 1/4 cup fresh parsley 1/4 cup fresh mint 1/4 cup fresh basil 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tbsp minced garlic Salt and pepper to taste 1/4 cup olive oil 4 oz feta cheese Place the vegetables along with the herbs in a large salad bowl and toss to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, garlic, and salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the olive oil to make an emulsion. Pour the dressing over the salad, toss gently. Add the feta, and serve the salad with toasted pita bread. Serves 4-6.

Yummy dessert style snack

This is one of my favorite snacks when I'm craving something sweet.

I take a Voskos Greek Yogurt (I really like the Vanilla Honey Bean flavor) and mix some flax seed in with it. Then add some almonds, Publix nutty nuggets cereal, sliced strawberries, and a little bit of honey on top.

It is delicious!

Chicken, Blackberrry & Barley Toss

I thought this was a pretty good meal out of my Clean Eating Magazine-June 2011

1 cup pearled barley
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 tsp raw honey
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
6 oz blackberries

In a medium pot, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add barley, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10-12 min. Drain barley well and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, prepare Yogurt-Thyme Dressing: combine yogurt, salt, honey, thyme, 1 tbsp water and 1 1/2 tsp oil. Whisk with fork and set aside.

In a large nonstick pan, heat remaining 1 1/2 tsp oil on medium. Add chicken and cook for 5-6 min, occasionally flipping pieces over to ensure they cook evenly. When cooked through and lightly browned, use a slotted spoon to remove chicken and transfer it to the barley bowl.

Add blackberries and yogurt-thyme dressing to the barley chicken mixture and toss well.

Serve with a salad.
(Calories-373, Total Fat-6g, protein-32g, sugar-3g, fiber-10g, sodium-112mg)

Eat your Fruits

Beginning this week you are required to eat at least 3 servings a fruit a day for the nutrition portion of the challenge-and this will continue throughout the challenge. Please note that this is NOT the daily recommended amount of fruits you should be eating-but it is a start. So, after this first week you may be looking for fun and different ways to incorporate fruit into your daily diet.

Here are a few:
-Add fruit/dried fruit to cereal or oatmeal in the morning
-make a homemade smoothie for breakfast or as a snack-usually you can get your 3 serving in, in this one smoothie
-for all of you dessert lovers, try chocolate covered strawberries or banana or place some berries over a teacup of icecream
-Add apples, pears, strawberries, or raspberries to a salad for a fun and tasty change
-Cut up fruit straight from the grocery store and mix into a bowl for fast and easy serving; bring with you for an after class snack. It will help motivate some of the other mom's to do the same!

If you have your own fun way to add fruit to your daily food intake, please leave in the comment section so other mom's will have more ideas.

Healthy Recipe using Kale

Here is a great healthy recipe Jen made the other night. She tweaked it a little to make it better.

Research shows kale turns on your body's natural detoxifying enzymes, sooooo here it is:

Kale or Spinach, Potato and Onion Frittata

cooking spray
1 yellow or white onion
1 lb Kale or Spinach, trimmed, blanched 3 minutes in boiling water, drained, squeezed and coarsly chopped (i used frozen spinach and just squeezed out the liquid)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups boiled diced potatoes
2 whole eggs
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 salt and pepper
handfull of feta cheese

Heat oven to 400. In a medium cast-iron skillet coated with cooking spray, cook onion over medium heat, stir 5 minutes. Add greens and garlic; stir 5 minutes. Add potatoes. Whisk eggs, egg whites, 2 tbsp water, paprika, salt and pepper in a bowl; stir into green-potato mixture. Cook over medium-low heat 1 minute. Transfer skillet to oven; bake until eggs are set and center is slightly runny, 6-8 min. Sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese and put under broiler until browned.

Clean Eating

Many of you who know me, know that my diet is something I struggle with. I don't want to say that I don't eat healthy, but when it comes to sweets...I don't eat healthy. Right before I found out I was pregnant I was gifted a new magazine from a dear friend, called Clean Eating. It was great, until the morning sickness set in; and wanted nothing more than the most comforting home foods-filled with cheese and butter (and lots of love).

Now that I'm 6 months in and the Holidays are almost over; I am going to go back to my Clean Eating ways (or at least for dinner-since I do still have some chocolates in my house). So I found this great recipe in the Nov/Dec issue that I wanted to share:

Unbelievably Delicious Low-Fat Enchilada

-5 whole wheat tortillas
-1 cup shredded low fat cheddar cheese
-Fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Chicken Mixture
-3 cups chopped cooked chicken (I got a Rotisserie chicken)
-4 oz green chiles
-1 tsp each of hot sauce, garlic powder, ground cumin, and chile powder
-1/2 tsp black pepper
-1/4 tsp sea salt

Sauce
-15 oz tomato sauce
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1 1/2 tsp chile powder
-1/4 tsp sea salt
-1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all chicken mixture ingredients in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat and cook until heated through. Combine all sauce ingredients in another pan, set over medium heat and cook until warm. Spread a thin layer of sauce on bottom of a small casserole dish. Divide chicken evenly among tortillas, roll tortillas up, and place seam side down in dish. Top enchiladas with sauce and sprinkle the cheese over top. Bake in oven for 20 minutes.

I made some homemade guacomole (avocado, tomato, red onion, garlic, lime juice, salt, pepper, and cilantro) and served it on top of some lettuce with a little bit of sour cream.

This was an excellent dinner!

Muffins and Such

My boys love to eat bread and muffins, so I am always looking for something new and tasty to try. Unfortunately it seems that most of the recipies I find for muffins are filled with sugars and are not all that healthy, which is something we are working on in this house. So I was excited to receive an email from Jen (one of our Trainers) who said that she had two great recipies that she made that turned out really good. I am sharing them with you in hopes that you will love them too. I am hoping to make mine after the holidays, when we go back to healthier eating. If you have some healthy recipies you'd like to share, please send them my way. We would all love to try them out.

Easy Wheaty Sweet Potato Biscuits

Easy Blueberry Muffins

Turkey and Black Bean Burgers

We are a burger family! Every Sunday we grill burgers by the pool, so my husband wasn't enthused when I started making these burgers-and I have to say that although this healthier version sounded good the week before, by the time Sunday came I wasn't looking forward to it. We were all happily surprised by this one and have decided to make it a keeper in our household.

Turkey and Black Bean Burgers with Corny Salsa
(From the Deen Brothers-take it easy Cookbook)

1 1/4 pds ground turkey
One 15oz can black beans, rinsed, drained, and lightly mashed
1/2 cup crushed tortilla chips
2 tsp The Ladys House Seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin

1 cup prepared salsa
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 avocado

1. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, beans, tortilla chips, house seasoning, chili powder, and cumin. Use your hands to form the mixture into patties.

2. (Here is where I made it a little healthier-they have you pan fry them) I just stuck them on the grill and cooked them until they were cooked through.

3. In a small bowl, mix together the salsa, corn, and avocado. Place the burger on buns along with the salsa mixture and add a little bit of sour cream.

Enjoy!