Tag Archives: healthy food

♥Warm Beet Salad ♥

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I’ve been eating beet greens since I bought beets last Saturday at the local market; the greens sure go a long way! lol. I oven roasted the beets and made warm beet salads for a couple of days…that was so tasty!

Growing up I only ever ate beets from a jar so I was used to the taste of vinegar used to preserve them. To my delight, roasted beets are delicious as is and I plan to buy more today! Not to knock the jarred beets…I plan to can beets too. ;) Oh and beware…if you haven’t tried beets before or not in any great quantity, be prepared for your, ummm…eliminations :) to be purplish! hahaha. This really had me concerned for a minute last week. lol TMI? Well, some people would be scared of purple pee! ;) (and poo) ok, ok I will stop…just didn’t want you all to run to the doctors office!

Feel like a recipe now?

beets etc. fresh from the farm :)

First off, I roasted the beets, skins on, in tin foil at 400 degrees for about 50 – 60 minutes. Once they are fully cooked, allow them to cool enough to handle then peel the skins off. Please wear rubber gloves as the beet juice will stain your hands for days.  Trust me on this one!

WEAR RUBBER GLOVES!

The skins literally slip off and you are left with these beauties. I had to stop myself from eating them they were that good. After all, I had a beet salad to make lol ;)

:) YUM!

Next, saute minced garlic in olive oil, add the beet greens and saute until the greens are wilted. I tossed in some crushed pistachios too.

 

Arrange cooked beet greens on a plate and top with warm roasted beets. Delicious!

 

Warm Beet Salad ♥

I really do love beets but I didn’t realize that the greens were so tasty too.

As an aside, I read a tweet from Runner’s World today that referred to a study that states - athletes who eat roasted beets “tended to speed up during the last 1.1 miles of the workout after eating beets”. I’ve been eating beets and beet greens all week…call it a coincidence but I PR’d my 5K last week then PR’d again yesterday! You just can’t ‘BEET’ that…I had to say it! lol

Shared on: http://marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.ca/2012/07/foodie-friends-friday-linky-party.html

how do you like your beets?

let me know if you try this recipe.

in food and health

Denise ♥

 

 

 

Portobella Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries :)

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Can’t think of what to make for dinner? Well here’s an easy meal to make that is short on time and big on taste.

As you can see tonight’s dinner was a mouth-watering picture of good health! I used ‘The Looneyspoons Collection’ cookbook again…my favorite, and made the ‘My Yammy Spice’ sweet potato fries and the ‘Bye-Bye Burgie’ and added an ear of corn.

For the fries:
wash and cut the sweet potato into wedges or fry strips, coat with olive oil.
Mix the following spices together:

spices!

1/2 tsp each of cumin, paprika and dried oregano(I used an italian blend as I did not   have oregano) and 1/4 tsp of salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the spices to the sweet potatoes and toss to coat.

 Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, turning once

Once you have those in the oven baking you can get on with preparing the ‘non-burger’ as I like to call it. It has a Chickpea Spread to prepare which I did make but next time I may be inclined to use a pre-made hummus.

For the spread:
1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed, 2 Tbsp each light sour cream and minced
onions. 1 Tbsp cilantro(I didn’t have any), 2 Tsp each minced garlic and fresh
squeezed lemon juice. 3/4 Tsp coriander, 1/2 Tsp each cumin and liquid honey (or
sugar). A pinch of salt and pepper. Put all ingredients into a food processor and  mix until smooth.

Once the spread is done you can prepare the ‘burger’. *don’t forget to turn the sweet potatoes. ;)

4 Portobello mushrooms, 1 large red pepper and 1 medium red onion. Wipe the mushrooms clean, cut the pepper and onion into slices. Mix together 1Tbsp each balsamic vinegar and olive oil and brush onto both sides of mushrooms, peppers and onions. *Tip – use parchment paper instead of oil on your pans to save on calories and clean up!
Remove sweet potatoes from oven and set oven to broil. Move rack to top third of oven. Broil for 3 minutes each side or until tender.

all roasted and ready to eat :)

To serve:
Line bottom of bun with baby spinach, add mushroom, spread, pepper, onion and top of bun. Enjoy!!!

My husband used a bun and added mustard and was very surprised to discover it tasted like a ‘real’ burger. He was very skeptical that dinner was going to taste good…I knew it would! I could see he was trying to figure out a default meal! Hahaha
I did not use a bun and the heat from the mushroom wilted the spinach perfectly. I would definitely make these again. :)

let me know if you try these recipes and if you enjoyed them as much as we did.

shared on http://www.ameessavorydish.com/

in tasty food and health

Denise ♥

It’s been a great week :)

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My 10K is fast approaching. One week from today.  What was I thinking. Haha, oh boy! I have been using the Garmin to track my runs this past week and I see that my pace is decent and my time is good for me. I find this is a good tool and I think it’s going to make me a better runner. I notice that when I am running the watch motivates me to keep going. To not stop and walk when I really want to and then to realize that I don’t real need to stop. Then this happened today!!!

first time below 32 mins for 5K :)

 

Another pleasant discovery? That you don’t need to serve calorie laden foods when you invite company over for dinner. :) On Saturday I spent all afternoon preparing 4 yummy, healthy food items that were packed with flavor not calories. I also discovered that I quite enjoy cooking and preparing food…ha, if you told me that last year I would have laughed! For recipes visit my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/fitpsychology?ref=tn_tnmn

Apple Crisp

 

Eggplant Parmesan and salad

 

potato skins and mushroom caps

I went through a strength slump a week ago meaning I felt like the more I worked out the weaker I was becoming. Not low energy but loss of strength. This did not make sense to me at all until I posted a question on my FB page asking trainers to give me their opinion as to why this might be happening. The repeated answer was either not enough calories or over-training or both. I then reviewed my fitness journal and came to the conclusion that over training was the most likely culprit. It’s somewhat addicting to w/o and I was definitely falling into the addicted category. I decided to take 5 days off of any strength routines and stick to only running. When I returned to do a strength w/o I was back to form. I have always thrown in a rest day or two but I was doing too many HIIT routines back to back and not allowing my muscles to repair. I have adjusted my w/o’s now to include 3 runs and 2-3 HIIT with rests. I am also documenting my food intake via a food journal album on my FB page. This is proving to be both motivating and eye opening. I realize that I am not eating enough on workout days. There are always adjustments to make in life and this is just another area to figure out. :)

got my strength back! FIERCE! ;)

Lastly I prepared and planted the vegetable garden. I have a lot of veggies to try and since it is our first attempt at gardening I am hoping to at least have carrots and potatoes later in the year! Well I hope we have a lot more than that but I am settin the bar low to avoid disappointment  ;)

just planted :)

 

Looking forward to the week ahead. Will run twice and not workout past thurs. Gotta keep the legs fresh for the big day May 27th.

have you ever lost your ‘strength’? were you over training?

if you have any gardening tips please comment her :)

in health

Denise ♥