Sunday, February 28, 2010

Pizza Please!

Last night was probably one of the best food nights ever! The husband and I made homemade mini healthy pizzas together, I made some yummy hummus, and we had some coconut milk ice cream.

The pizzas consisted of %1oo whole wheat english muffins, pizza sauce, veggie cheese, black olives, green bell pepper slices, and veggie pepperonis. We added everything together and cooked them in the oven at 375 for 13 min. The result: Pure goodness! I have to say though, I wasn't crazy about the veggie pepperonis. They got really crispy and ended up tasting like nothing. Everything else was amazing. I love veggie cheese because it's not greasy like regular cheese but it still melts the same for a cheesy taste and texture.
I also made some red pepper hummus. I LOVE making hummus. We almost always have it in the refrigerator now. The recipe is very simple and easy.

  • 1 16 oz can of chickpeas
  • 1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
  • 3-5 tablespoons of lemon juice (I usually just squeeze in a half of a lemon)
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 cup roasted red pepper
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
Add all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.

Personally, I like original flavor better. All you would do is not add in the red peppers but I have noticed when using red peppers you don't need the whole 1/4 of the liquid from the can because the red peppers are already pretty juicy. I just add a splash because you don't want it to be too liquid.
After we ate the food we made it was time for dessert. If you have never had Purely Decadent brand ice cream you have to try it! It's dairy free and gluten free and made with organic ingredients. I can't have dairy so I always used to have it growing up. They have so many different flavors now. I chose cookie dough. Now they make it using coconut milk which is amazing. You can definitely taste the coconut so if you don't like coconut it might not be for you.
Overall, it was a great night with all my favorite things.

How do you like your pizza?

xoxo Jessenia

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Organic Crazed

Today in South FL it's wet, gloomy, and cold. Doesn't sound much like FL does it! I cannot wait until it warms up and I can head to the beach.
Since it's soo gross outside the husband and I decided to go to the gym. I did legs and abs and I felt terrible. I had no energy. I think my body wants to get sick but I've been taking as much vitamin C as a can! I still managed to get in about a 40 min workout. After the gym we stopped at Tropical Smoothie and I got a pomegranate plunge with no sugar add immune booster (since I seem to need it haha) It was sooo good. If you haven't had it you should defiantly give it a try.
Next we went to TJMaxx to get new sheets and I ended up finding a bunch of yummy organic snacks in the clearance section! Who would've known lol.
I got Organic Pomegranate Hard Candy made with organic evaporated cane juice andorganic brown rice syrup with only 2.5 grams of sugar each. Not bad for candy and they're not that bad if you like the taste of cane sugar.

I also got Organic Vanilla Bean Cookies with Green Tea. They are Late July brand. They have 4g of whole grains per serving and antioxidants. For an organic cookie they are amazing. Ilove cookies!
Lastly, I found a Honest Food Granola Plank: Maple Almond Crunch flavor. An organic granola bar packed with organic oats, whole grains, nuts, fruits, and seeds = Amazing.
There's nothing like some good organic food, especially when it's on sale!

What's favorite organic food?

xoxo Jessenia

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

3000 words about a Deer

Hello Darlings! Today I have to write a rough draft paper about the Florida Key Deer and it has to be between 2500-3000 words. Of course I waited until the last minute and it's due tomorrow! Such is life.
I started my day with the usual cup of coffee with soy creamer and one Sugar in the Raw. I got a lot done, about 1,200 words. Then I ate some raisins (loveee raisins) and now it's lunch time. Yippeee!

Today for lunch I went to the caf. because I didn't have time to pack a lunch. My school has the best salad bar ever so I went for it. There are two size containers you can choose from and I always go with the small one because it's only $2.29. Can't beat it right? But the lunch lady yelled at me one time and told me I filled it up too much. Haha. So I have to be sneaky and fill it as full as I can without her seeing me. I also got pretzels and a water.



My salad consisted of a little pasta salad (w/ mayo, one of my weakness right there. I love mayo!), lettuce, cucumbers, black olives (all time fav), chick peas, hard-boiled egg, banana peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and green peppers.


Let me tell you, it was sooo good and healthy too minus the non-whole wheat pasta and mayo. But overall, it was a yummy lunch. I am very pro salad bar.

Now I'm off to write some more and I'm thinking about having another half cup of coffee minus the creamer w/ one Sugar in the Raw to keep me going. According to an article my brother showed me, the more coffee you drink, the less likely you are to have health problems. That is if you don't have any preexisting conditions. I don't believe everything I read but I'm very open to new information. You can read the article HERE.

I hope you are all having a fabulous Wednesday. Only 2 more days until the weekend!

Do you love the salad bar as much as me? What's your favorite salad bar item?

xoxo Jessenia

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Spin

I realized yesterday that since I've started this blog about "Health and Fitness" I have really only talked about food. Which would make it seem like all I ever do is eat and not work out! haha. I do eat a lot I won't lie to you but today I'm writing about Spin Class. I LOVE Spin. It's the best. I went last night with my friend Amy.




Spin is an aerobic exercise that you do on a stationary bike called a spinning bike. As you ride the teacher plays up beat music and guides you on your ride. My teacher is the best of the best. She's constantly pushing us to our maximum capacity and often runs by our bike to motivate us. I enjoy spin so much because the pumping music and the teacher challenging you sets the tone for you to give it all you have. It's a very challenging workout but its a very rewarding one. If you've never tried a Spin class I highly recommend it. Most gyms will offer it. If you're looking for a new workout, I promise this will be a fun one!

Have you ever taken a spin class? What's your favorite workout?

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Starbucks

Hello all! I hope you're having a fabulous weekend. Last night the husband and I went to Starbucks with a friend of ours to catch up. It was late so I knew I should get decaf but I usually get a vanilla soy latte. In light of not eating white sugar anymore, I realized I couldn't get my norm. Instead I chose a decaf tall coffee with soy and I added two In the Raw Sugars.



I have to admit it was pretty good. I also haven't been using non-dairy creamer anymore because I have heard some not so good things about it and and plus it has sugar in it. Changing up my coffee routine has forced me to actually taste my coffee and not rely on a flavored creamer. Now I actually enjoy the taste of coffee. I enjoy it so much that I have to drink it everyday now. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. lol. I hope you all have a great week.

What's your Starbucks norm? How often do you drink coffee?

xoxo Jessenia

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Homemade Lemonade

Yesterday I found myself craving some ice cold lemonade. I was going to just go buy some at the store but most of them are loaded with more sugar than lemons! I decided to try to make my own so I looked up some recipes online and realized it is quite a simple task. It was pretty fun too. Here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients:
  • 3/4 cup Raw Sugar
  • 1 cup water (for syrup)
  • 1 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
  • 4 cups cold water
  1. Use 4-6 lemons to juice 1 cup of lemon.
  2. Heat 1 cup of water with the raw sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves.
  3. Add heated sugar water and lemon juice to pitcher along with 4 cups of cold water (more or less depending on the strength you perfer) Refrigeate and Serve!



I was pleasently surprised at the outcome. The lemonade was fantastic and I love how the raw sugar gives it a unique taste. (It also gives it a slightly darker color) I think I will be making lemonade a lot more often :)

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

P.S. Thus far in my wifey cooking career my favorite ingredients to cook with are: Fresh garlic, Garlic salt, Pepper, and Lemon.

What ingredients do you like?

xoxo Jessenia

Friday, February 19, 2010

New Cookbook

I finally got my new book in the mail! It's called The Skinnygirl Dish by Bethenny Frankel. Bethenny Frankel is from the show Real Housewives of New York City. I love that show and that's where I first heard of her. She is health food chef and has a few books out. I already loved her on the show so I was super excited for the book.

I just skimmed the index and saw it talks about how to cook with food you have and what foods to always have in your refrigerator. I'm really excited to start reading! I did however skip to the recipe section and make my first meal from the book. I made brown rice and veggies. Simple and yummy.

What good health food books have you read?

xoxo Jessenia

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ignoring Reality

Hello all! I missed a day of blogging again. This week has been so crazy! School has been taking over my life.

I just read a blog about a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle and the reasons behind it. I found it to be very interesting. You can read it Here.

It really got me thinking about the whole subject and where I stand on all of it. To be quite honest I'm not sure where I stand. My mom has been a vegetarian for a while and I always grew up eating a healthy diet with limited meat. Even now, I don't eat much meat and I eat no dairy because I am allergic. I do eat eggs. I decided to do a little research on the top reasons for becoming a vegan/vegetarian so I could look at this subject from many angles.

1. For the Animals : Animals on factory farms are treated with extreme cruelty. Most farmed chickens, turkeys and pigs spend their lives in dark cramped warehouses where they can't even spread their wings. Many of them get their sensitive beaks seared off with hot blades and pigs and other cattle are castrated with no painkillers. They live in their own waste and many will become very ill from it. They are pumped with hormones so they will grow faster and larger. The only time they will see the light of day is when they hauled off to the slaughterhouse where they are hung upside down and their throats are slit while they are still conscious.

This to me is appalling, as it should be to everyone who knows about it. I do not think that is it wrong to eat an animal. If they are killed humanly in their natural habitat, I personally have no problem eating them. Also, in terms of eggs, I have a friend who has chickens and I have no problem eating their eggs because I know how they are treated. I think that a lot of people ignore what is happening to our food industry, I know I have. I have heard about these things and tried to push them to the back of my mind but to be honest I'm not sure if I want to keep living that way. If I was there, if I saw that, I would try to stop it so why then do I eat the meat of the animals that this is happening to? Just something to think about.

2. For Your Health : Some of the top killers in America such as heart disease and obesity can be clearly linked with a meat diet. Heart disease is caused by the build up of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products in our arteries. I have always believed in everything in moderation. I don't think you will get heart disease from eating (free-range) meat every once in a while but I do think most Americans do not know what the word moderation means. The fact is by eating a high meat and animal product diet you are putting your body at risk. Is it worth it?

3. For the Environment : The animal agriculture business uses more than half of the water supply in the United States and because animals produce 130 times the amount of excrement than humans, our waterways are becoming polluted. Forests are being cut down to make room for animal factories which is really cutting down our oxygen supply and depriving native animals of their homes. Personally, anything that involves cutting down trees bewilders me.

Overall, I think I learned a lot from writing this blog and I hope you learned from reading it. Making the choice to become a vegetarian or a vegan is very personal and should be made based on your own feelings and not what other people persuade you into. Right now I would not label myself as a vegetarian or vegan but I am pondering the choices and I don't want to ignore the reality anymore.

What do you think? and be honest, all opinions are highly valued :)

xoxo Jessenia
(Most of the information used for this blog was taken from this Article)


Monday, February 15, 2010

Monday Monday

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I really wanted to but I got too busy and well you know how it is. ;) I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! I had a lovely one. The husband and I had a relaxing morning, then went to the gym, then to a movie (Valentine's Day), and then to dinner. It was an amazing day! His gift to me was very original. He bought one of those corny romance novels, acutally the name of it was Viking in Love! He went through the first two chapters and highlighted words to make a funny love story/ letter for me. It was so cute. I made him his favorite, pumpkin pie, using organic pumpkin and I used my heart shaped cookie cutter to make little pumpkin pie hearts. :)

I also decided to start my workout book up again. I made a book a while ago with all different workouts I have found in magazines. I love magazines, especially SELF Mag. It has so many great workouts. Making a book is a great way to remember and use all of your favorite workout articles.




Hope you're having a great monday!

Do you ever save magazine articles?

xoxo Jessenia

Saturday, February 13, 2010

A Trip to the Health Food Store

So yesterday I went to the health food store for some canned pumpkin because for some reason there's no pumpkin at any store. No idea why because it's not even a holiday. Anyways, I love the health food store. I always want to buy everything! I ended up with the canned pumpkin, Tings, and coconut water.


While I was there, there was a guy trying to get me to come to his yoga class and come to his talk about alternative medicine. To be honest I have no idea what he was talking about but he asked if I was a vegan and I said no and he was talking about how a lot of animals these days are fed with other animals ground up body parts... really gross and true. It really made me want to be a vegetarian but I'm not sure yet. What do you think? To be or not to be?
Hope you're having a great weekend.

xoxo Jessenia

Friday, February 12, 2010

Free Food

Everyone loves free food right? I know I do! Today at work they are having a huge event and they served a complimentary lunch. I've noticed that whenever food is free people tend to eat as much as they can. I know I'm guilty of that! I guess it's just the whole free thing. Understandable in this economy. But even though the food is free it doesn't give us an excuse to overindulge.
I remember one time in particular that I went to a work party with my husband and the food being served was chicken fingers, fries, and onion rings. Normally, I wouldn't order fried food or if I did I would try not to eat very much of it. This was not the case on that day. FREE was the word ringing in my head so I decided to take advantage of it and stuff myself. Not such a great idea! Afterwards I was left feeling bloated and greasy. So the moral of the story is even though the food is free it might not be worth the price tag.

Today, though, I lucked out and the free food was mostly healthy!
The menu was: rice, corn, chicken w/ green peppers and onions on flour tortillas, veggies, sour cream, guacamole, cookies, and brownies.

I chose the rice, corn, chicken w/ green peppers on flour tortillas, and veggies with a water.

The reason I strayed away from the extra condiments are because first off, I'm allergic to milk so I couldn't have them anyways but also because they can be an added source of calories. We never really think twice about adding them to our meals but believe me our bodies won't miss them one bit.

Food Fact: A 1 ounce serving of sour cream has 59 calories and a 1 ounce serving of guacamole has 60 calories.

Also, I didn't have dessert. As we all know cookies, cake, and brownies are high in sugar and calories. I am probably one of the biggest lovers of dessert ever, so it's tough for me to say no but I'm working on trying to bake some healthy goodies very soon! Also, I chose water instead of soda.

Also, I discovered a new healthy snack yesterday. lol I'm sure i'm not the first one. Unsalted rice cakes with peanut butter. yummy.


What's your favorite healthy snack?

xoxo Jessenia

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Shrimp Scampi

Hello all! I'm so excited to be starting this new blog. I've been thinking about it for a while and now I'm finally doing it. I'm so excited to share all my ideas, recipes, and workouts with you and I look forward to hearing all yours too!

I'll start with yesterday. I went to the gym and was not very motivated. It happens to the best of us lol. But I still powered through.
- First I did the elliptical machine for 5 minutes.
- Then I did some crunches, pushups and squats. Squats are such a good exersice. Good for your butt!
- After that I decided to do cardio since I lifted the day before. I alternated between jogging, running, and walking every 5 minutes for 30 minutes on the treadmill. I like this kind of cardio because it gives you variety so you don't get bored and it works different muscles between walking and running.

Needless to say it was a good workout and I felt refreshed after but i didn't stretch! tisk tisk. Stretching is so important after a workout so your muscles don't get too tight. It's hard to remember with a busy schedule but I assure you it's worth it. I guess I need to tell myself that lol.

When I got home I made some whole wheat cupcakes. It was my own made up recipe and my first attempt so they weren't the best but I intend on trying until they are good! When I reach that point I promise to post the recipe.

Next, I made dinner. I don't always have very much time to be creative with dinner but I love to cook and I love to see my husband enjoy the food I make ;). Last night I had a bit of time so I made shrimp scampi with whole wheat noodles which is actually very easy and really tasty. All I did was boil the noodles while I sautéed onions, garlic, and shrimp in olive oil in my wok. I added a little garlic salt, nature's seasoning, and oregano. Then once the noodles were done I added them to the ingredients in the wok and stirred it all together with a little more olive oil and that's pretty much it! It was super tasty and healthy. I just have to remember not to go overboard on the olive oil because it is a little fattening. If its too dry you can always add a little water. Oh and btw I LOVE my wok. I think everyone should have one. You can basically cook anything in it!
That's all for now. How do you make shrimp scampi?

xoxo Jessenia