A Refreshing Drink

I love water. I probably drink between 12-16 cups of water a day. Even so, sometimes on a really hot day, just plain water doesn't cut it. We're in our first streak of hot days for the season, and I wanted a little pick-me-up to have after a hot run.

In the morning I boiled a pot of water and poured it into my largest vase. I added several green tea bags and let it sit in the fridge all day when I was at work. The cold green tea is the base of this refreshing drink - the rest is quite easy!

Get a cup.

Add ice.

Add chilled fruit (frozen fruit would also be delicious). I used mango and strawberries.

Pour in green tea.

I also added some lemonade to my drink - it was about 2/3 green tea and 1/3 lemonade. This was really delicious.

Trader Joe's low calorie lemonade is my favorite (it also comes in pink!).

This would also be really good with seltzer, a splash of pomegranate juice, or even some vodka (but not after a long hot run). And after you're done drinking, you have a nice fruit salad to eat.

This is also a much better alternative to the McDonald's strawberry lemonade, which I haven't tried, but expect it to be a bad sugar headache in the making.

Source

Speaking of refreshing...I bought a huge bag of these enormous grapes at the store the other day.

I've always avoided the big "globe" grapes, because they have seeds in them. Gross. That is, until a colleague at work told me that those seeds contain lots of antioxidants. So I tried one. They were very good! The seed just adds a little crunch, and is much less bothersome than I'd expected. Another good thing about these is that they seem to retain their firmness a lot better than your typical red or green grapes. Out of my entire bag I didn't have to throw away any soft grapes - all were crunchy! Cold grapes are a great snack for hot and humid days.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Any fun plans for the holiday?

Pat and I are going down to the cape for our belated anniversary celebration! Lots of beach time, ice cream, and a fancy dinner out in my horizon!

Salad Fever

Guess what? The sun finally came out! After over a week of non-stop rain and temps in the 40s, its finally starting to act a little like spring. When its cold and rainy all I crave is hot meals (usually covered in some kind of cheese)...and when its hot I constantly want salads. After a hot and humid run last night the only thing I wanted was a big salad.

Organic baby spinach, orange wedges, red bell peppers, boiled beets (hot, I don't really care for them cold), goat cheese, and toasted walnuts, drizzled with some balsamic vinaigrette. Toasting walnuts is easy, just bake them for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees - it really brings out the flavor a lot more.

With my salad I had some tofu. And some popcorn. Yes, I'm random.

I woke up to another warm day today, and after running and going to the gym I wanted another salad. I had salad for breakfast a few weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. I guess I didn't stick with it because it takes a lot longer to prepare a salad in the morning than a quick bowl of oatmeal or a smoothie. Since I work from home on Wednesdays, I had time to make myself a big breakfast salad. 

Organic baby spinach, red bell peppers, and avocado. I squeezed some fresh lemon on top, sprinkled with cayenne pepper for a kick, and topped with some scrambled egg whites. I had a bowl of mango on the side and a glass of skim milk for extra protein.

Some of my friends have told me its weird that I like salad for breakfast. I would have said the same thing, too. Give it a try and then let me know if you still think its weird! It is very satisfying to fill up on something other than carbs (and this is coming from the carb queen) and it gives me more energy throughout the day.

Its been one week since I started my 30 day challenge (to run at least one mile per day). Here's how I've done so far:

Day 1 - 3 mile run; Bikram yoga class

Day 2 - 3 mile run; Bikram yoga class

Day 3 - 2.25 mile run

Day 4 - 3 mile run

Day 5 - 1 mile run

Day 6 - 1 mile run

Day 7 - 5 mile run; abs and legs strength training

Day 8 (today) - 2.6 mile run, back and bis strength training

As you can see, a few of those days I only ran the minimum 1 mile. Those were super busy days that I normally would not have done anything. My excuse would always be that I didn't have time, or that doing something as short as just one mile wouldn't make any difference. Since following this challenge, I've found a way to squeeze in a mile even in my busiest days, whether waking up a little early to get it done or quickly doing it when I got home late at night. Those mornings that I forced myself out of bed at 5am to fit in a quick mile were some of the best mornings - I love working out early in the day because it gives me such a boost of energy. If I didn't have to leave before 6am for work, I'd definitely do all of my work outs in the morning. 

I printed out a free calendar template I found online and have been marking down my mileage. Its a good way to keep track of what I've done and motivate myself to keep going. Even better is that I've heard from a few of my friends who are doing the challenge, too! I'm glad that other people are participating, and I think talking to each other about it helps keep us on track. If you can't run the miles, choose something else. My friend Chrissy has several injuries left over from college basketball, so running can be uncomfortable for her, but she's decided to do the challenge by biking and other forms of cross training! 

In terms of my other challenge, the 100 push ups challenge, that was a little bit later in getting off the ground. I actually just started it this morning. I did the initial test to see how many push ups I could do (to see where my training should begin) and I did 12. Not on my knees, either! I contemplated first doing this challenge with knee push ups and then doing it with standard push ups, but decided to try the real deal. I'm sure I'll be regretting this in a few days.

Anyone else want to join us in the 30 day challenge?

What are your favorite foods of summer?

Mine are salads and tons of fresh fruit. Oh and ice cream, that's pretty important, too!

Light Lemon Cookies

I don't think I've ever had lemon cookies, or even lemon cake for that matter. Then a few days ago I saw these lemon cookies on Foodbuzz and instantly wanted some. So I made myself a batch, healthified them in the process, and they were perfect: light, chewy and airy lemon cookies that tasted like Spring (if the weather doesn't want to cooperate quite yet, at least I can start eating warm weather foods). 

These cookies are so quick and easy to make, and with my ingredient adjustments there's less than 1/4 gram of fat in each (I didn't calculate the calories, but those are quite a bit reduced as well). Please make these!

These are the simple ingredients you'll need:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Pour cake mix into a large mixing bowl. Zest your lemon into the bowl.

Add egg whites and egg, applesauce and lemon juice - stir until well blended.

I tested a couple batches of these cookies, some chilled and some not, and it doesn't make too much of a difference what you do. The dough was slightly easier to handle after being chilled for 15 minutes, but perhaps not enough of a difference to make it worth it. So I'll leave to chill or not to chill up to you! Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of powdered sugar and roll around until they are covered. Put dough balls on a cookie sheet (again I tested a couple batches of these cookies, some on an ungreased cookie sheet and some on parchment paper - doesn't make much of a difference for the actual cookies, but I think the parchment paper makes clean up a lot easier).

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cookies are set. The bottoms will be light brown and the insides of the cookies will be light and chewy. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely before serving.

Light Lemon Cookies

Makes 30 cookies.

Adapted from AllRecipes and Eaternal Bliss

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 1 egg and 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• zest of one lemon
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• shredded coconut (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in egg and egg whites, applesauce, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix until well blended. Drop by teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioner's sugar and roll around until covered. Place dough balls on cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cookies are set and bottoms are light brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

Anyone who knows me won't be surprised that I also tried to incorporate coconut into this recipe.  I think I try to incorporate coconut into every recipe. So on the last 5 cookies, rather than rolling the dough in confectioner's sugar, I rolled it in shredded coconut.

Well actually, I rolled 4 cookies in just coconut, and the 5th cookie I rolled first in coconut and then in confectioner's sugar.

And then baked them...

You can see that the coconut got burned. If I were to use just coconut again, I'd make smaller cookies so they didn't have to bake as long. But check out the coconut and confectioner's sugar cookie (on the right):

This one didn't burn at all, and came out so well! The coconut flavor really complemented the light lemon flavor (might have been my favorite cookie!). Next batch I make will be half lemon and half lemon coconut.

I did see a note on Eaternal Bliss' blog that these cookies are better the day after they're baked. I can't comment on that because there was nothing left the next day. I'm not going to tell you how many I ate. Because I lost count. And after I stuffed my face with these lemon cookies, I brought the rest to have with some girlfriends, and then they were gone. So perhaps they are better the next day, but all I can tell you is they're pretty damn good straight out of the oven.

Dinner: A Circus of Citrus

My dinner last night was inspired by citrus fruits. Sunday was about 42 degrees and Monday was 40 degrees. Considering the winter we've had, that felt like spring to me. Rather than making another hot, hearty meal, this little bit of warmth deserved a warm-weather inspired meal.

I used the above fruits to make a salad, broil fish, and squeeze onto dessert.

The meal-

Salad: baby spinach, sections of orange, sections of grapefruit, cucumbers, green and yellow peppers - drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. (I also roasted some pecans to throw on top but forgot to add them - that would have been good though!)

Fish: trout broiled at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, flipped halfway through. Spray pan with cooking spray and squeeze juice of half of lemon onto fish before cooking. Also add fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, and any other spices you feel like. I also sauteed some plum tomatoes and garlic to add on top of the fish when it was done.

Dessert: slices of mango covered in lime juice and sprinkled with cayenne pepper.

Here's the before and after shots of my fish:

I spayed a small skillet with cooking spray and sauteed a sliced plum tomato and one clove of garlic for a few minutes until hot and wilted.

As the fish broiled, I made the salad, sauteed the tomatoes, and sliced my mango.

This whole dinner came together in about 20 minutes, and the colors and taste almost tricked me into thinking winter was over. Almost.

The salad was light and refreshing.

The fish was nice and flaky, and the flavor combination of the lemon, tomato and garlic was delicious.

The mango with lime juice and cayenne pepper was very good - although I think I overestimated my tolerance for spice. Just this amount was very spicy - so next time I'll probably put about half as much as I used here. My brother went to college in New Mexico, and this is a popular treat there (although there they serve the entire mango on a stick and there's much more cayenne added!).

The "spring"-like weather did not last long. I woke up this morning to several inches of fresh snow covering my car. Temperatures are supposed to drop way down the rest of the week, so I guess spring isn't coming quite yet.

This morning I tried another variation of Overnight Oats - I'm calling it Apple Crisp A La Mode!

Last night I put the following in my big mug:

-1/3 cup oats

-1/2 cup water

-several large spoonfuls of unsweetened applesauce

-1 tsp cinnamon

This morning I added a large scoop of 0% vanilla Greek yogurt, some more cinnamon, and some chopped walnuts. Delicious!

Big Night

At about noon yesterday I realized something quite exciting...that night was the first night I didn't have plans, have to study or work on essays in weeks! I had absolutely nothing to do! Sometimes when you feel like you're constantly running from one thing to another (I feel this way often) it is so nice to have a night with absolutely nothing planned. But of course, being the type-A that I am, I immediately started planning my night. Pat would be gone until late evening because he had several meetings, I was out of work at 3:30 because I'd gotten in so early, so that left hours of time to myself. How will I entertain myself? A couple years ago the answer to that question would have been Thirsty Thursday! But now, all I wanted to do was cook! I had my appetizer, entree and dessert planned by the time I left work. I made it back to Nashua in record time, stopped at Trader Joe's to stock up on some ingredients, and then hit the gym for a six mile run. 

I got home at 6:45 energized, starving, and sweaty. After showering, I got to work in the kitchen.

Tonight's Menu:

Appetizer: Broccoli Hummus with Baked Pita Chips and Carrots

Entree: Tofu and Mushroom Marsala

Dessert: Salted Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, that's a lot of food to make for myself and eat myself, but I'd managed to work up quite the appetite on the ride home and treadmill.

Broccoli Hummus

I've been meaning to make hummus for a while now that I have a food processor, but hadn't gotten around to it. For this I used all of the typical ingredients of hummus, but added broccoli, halved the oil, and didn't use tahini (Trader's didn't have any and I didn't feel like going on a quest for it). Pat and I are a little bit obsessed with broccoli and have it almost every night with dinner. I thought that adding broccoli to my hummus would be a fun new way to incorporate it into a meal.

This is so easy to make - just throw all of your ingredients into the food processor and continue to process until it reaches the desired consistency (several minutes).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw broccoli
• 15 ounce can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste (I didn't use any, didn't think it needed it)

I also made some whole wheat pita chips to have with the hummus.  This came out to be so delicious! The garlic and lemon add a lot to the taste of this dip - it was a wonderful snack to have as I made dinner, and good for you, too! I can't wait to use this in a sandwich this weekend.

Tofu and Mushroom Marsala

I've never made Marsala before, but Pat has made me chicken Marsala several times and I've always loved it. When I saw a recipe for tofu Marsala I couldn't wait to try it! This meal came together very quickly but tasted as though someone had spent hours in the kitchen (well I did, but this dish only took about 30 minutes from start to finish!).

In a large pan heated on medium, saute minced garlic in olive oil until fragrant.

Add bell pepper, oregano and salt. Saute for about 5 minutes.

Turn the heat to high and add Marsala and tofu, cook for 4 minutes (I wanted the wine to reduce more so it would be less liquidy, so I cooked about 5-6 minutes).

Turn heat to medium-high and add mushrooms and tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and stir in basil.

Serve in bowls with freshly grated Parmesan on top, and crusty bread on the side (I bought Ciabbata rolls from Trader Joe's that were perfect for this).

This was so good - definitely one of the best tofu dishes I've made. I love the basil and Parmesan cheese with the tofu, and all of the flavors blended really well together. As I said, I wouldn't have thought to make tofu in a Marsala dish, but it worked so well!

Recipe

This is from Serious Eats - their recipe serves 4 but I cut mine down to serve 2.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup Marsala cooking wine
• 1/2 package firm light tofu, pressed and cut into strips
• (1/2) 15 ounce can diced tomatoes (I used Trader Joe's fire roasted tomatoes for some spice)
• 5 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 cup chopped basil
• Parmesan cheese (to grate on top)
• Crusty bread or pasta to serve with

Directions:

1. In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add bell pepper, oregano, and salt. Saute 5 minutes.
2. Turn heat up to high. Add Marsala and tofu and cook 4 minutes, so wine reduces a little (I cooked 5-6 minutes so it reduced more).
3. Turn heat to medium-high. Add mushrooms and tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in basil. Serve in bowls with crusty bread or pasta.

Salted Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love anything that combines salty and sweet, so I had a good feeling about these cookies. They did not disappoint! Though they look more like little dough balls than cookies, the taste is outstanding...and its impossible to eat just one. I also love that this recipe uses whole wheat flour instead of white...and that there's oats in them!

In a medium bowl, mix oats, flour, and baking powder.

In a smaller bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, and syrup.

Add egg and vanilla - mix thoroughly.

Combine dry and wet ingredients.

Roll dough into balls. Place on baking sheet covered in parchment paper and sprinkle with sea salt (don't be shy about the salt!). Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

I wish I'd flattened these a bit before cooking because they maintained their ball shape. I'd forgotten the difference between brown and white sugar - the white sugar allows the cookies to spread, whereas brown sugar usually maintains the original shape. So though the shape isn't perfect, the taste was!! These go so well with a cold glass of milk. For you nut lovers out there - definitely include nuts if you have them. The added crunch is great!

Recipe (from Nutrition Nut on the Run)

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4-1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used 1/4 cup because I only added to half the batter, use 1/2 a cup if adding to all of batter)
• sea salt

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix oats, flour, and baking powder. 
2. In a smaller bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, and syrup. Add egg and vanilla - mix thoroughly.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients.
4. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.
5. Roll dough into balls. Place on baking sheet covered in parchment paper and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.