Tag - Easter Party Menu

I'm a little late to the game here today but I was so graciously tagged by Lyndsey of The Tiny Skillet to participate in a dinner menu game and had to partake.  The process appears to be to choose 5-10 recipes from your past posts and create a dinner menu (including links to the past posts and a photo) then choose 10 other bloggers to do the same.

Since Easter is about half over, let's just make it a dinner party for any occasion.  I'm such a rule breaker.  :)

Here is my kid friendly dinner party menu.  Not sure these all flow together to make a nice meal, but then again, mine never do anyway:

Rum Cocktails (no rum for the kiddos of course, but they'll love the coconut "cup")

Shrimp Pot Stickers

Lentil Soup with cornbread

Stout Steak

Stuffed Potatoes on the side

Wasabi Tuna Rolls for the vegetarians

Creamy Peach Pie for dessert

Ten bloggers I'd love to see put together a menu:

Kristy from My Little Space

Bo from Bo's Bowl

Michael from Me, My Food & I

Ev from Mozzarella & Makeup

Little J from Whisk It Good

Lizzy from That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!

Pam from Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner

Julia from No Face Plate

EGB at Mmm Home Cooking

Catherine from Living the Gourmet

Jenn at Jenn's Food Journey

Oops, I think that's 11.  Sorry for any double tagging.  I have about 300 more bloggers I'd love to tag as well.  :)  Thanks Lyndsey for including me in this fun project.  It was great to look back and some older posts.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate!

Weekend Eats in Pictures

Two large freelance projects kind of derailed my food logging for the weekend, but I did make it to the farmer's market and did NOT resort to convenience foods.  Also found time to hit the mall early on Monday for the Labor Day sales, and oh yes, four pairs of pants were purchased in a smaller size!  Hello Shaun T, goodbye muffin top!

Here's a little photo show of some of the various (and yummy) things I ingested.  LOL  Not so bad for a holiday weekend - probably because most of it was spent at my desk.

Skebbies with garlic bread and hot chicken sausage:

Farmer's Market Finds - black Russian onion bread with heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozz (pronounced "mootz" of course):

Pork and beans:

Pina colada protein pancakes (add ins: coconut, macadamia nuts, vanilla and crushed pineapple) cooked in coconut oil:

Lower fat mac & cheese:

BBQ a la the Mr.:

A few sips of:

Random "hanging in the backyard" cuteness:

I hope everybody thoroughly enjoyed their holiday weekend and that is was full of good food, relaxation and family!

Menu - Sept 3 & Insanity Day 6

Late, late, late.  This is how today is going so far.  Woke up - late.  Husband woke up - even later.  Ok, let's go work out.  Nope.  Someone needed coffee first.  Barf!  Work out - late.  Shower - late.  Work - yeah, I was late for that too.  Ah well.  Let's hope the rest of the day brings me back on schedule.  TGIF!

On the bright side, today was the last day of our first week of Insanity with Plyo Cardio Circuit.  Woohoo, we made it.  We also did on this on Monday which really effected my lower back.  But today we found out why.  My form during the power squats was way off.  I am leaning forward too much.  As soon as I did one today, there was the pain.  Had my husband watch my form and help me correct it.  That's one of the nice things about working out with a partner.  Hoping next week I'll do better with those.  All in all though, now that we are done learning the moves, I can say that this is one killer workout.  My goodness, there was sweat flinging everywhere.  So gross yet so good!  Note to self - obtain heart rate monitor so I can see exactly how many calories we are burning during these grueling circuits.

Breakfast:
Of course, after that killer workout I was starving with a capital S.  I knew I needed something hearty.  Irish oatmeal!  Yummy.  Today I fortified it with some pumpkin, honey and walnuts.  Recipe: 1 cup 2% milk, 1/2 cup oats, 1 tbsp pumpkin, a dash of vanilla and cinnamon, handful of crushed walnuts - cook.  Drizzled on some honey and added a pinch of brown sugar when it was done.  Twas good!

Someone recently asked about my supplements.  I only take one kind, two pills in the morning.  The Super Vita-CoQ10 Formula by BlueBonnet pictured below.  These are kind of expensive ($29 for 60), but I do feel differently since using them and they contain a ton of vitamins and antioxidants which I unfortunately lack in my diet.  They are supposed to be energizing, and I feel they help get me going in the morning.  The first few days I used them though, I had trouble sleeping and just didn't feel tired.  Thankfully, that wore off after a few days.

Lunch:
10am pb&j (I was a half hour early today - trying to counteract all the lateness from this morning).  Packed a slice of the Indian pizza from last night and ate it cold. OMG, so good that way too.  Side of red grapes.  Yeah, nothing green has entered my body yet today.  Sigh...

Mid-Day:
I had a bit of a drive this afternoon to pick up my kids from their dad's so 1/2 a pecan pie Lara bar it was.  Carefully eaten while driving.  Was hoping to ward off any cravings for NYC pizza during the trip - so hard to say no though.

Dinner:
Green!!  I had a healthy portion of broccoli with my oven "fried" chicken strips (recipe to post shortly) and brown rice.  It's not enough, but at least it's something.

Menu - Sept 2 & Insanity Day 5

Pure Cardio this morning.  Pure?  Hmmm....what could that mean?  Well, lemme tell ya - they should call it Pure Hell on Earth.  This is an intense cardio workout without intervals.  In other words, there is not even the usual 30 second rest between sets.  It is about 17 minutes of constant movement - intense movement.  Each new move is continued for one minute.  For those of you who think you can do anything for just a minute, think again my friends!  I held on pretty good, but I don't think I did more than 3 reps of the last two exercises.  Having those plank position moves at the end of the routine is just nuts.  I have no strength left to hold my body up.  So, I watched the last 15 seconds count down on the clock on my knees gasping for air.  But, I feel pretty darn good right now.

Breakfast:
After that workout, a girl needs a good (big) breakfast.  Enter three hard boiled egg whites, spelt toast with a teeny smidge of butter and two chicken sausage links (could only stuff down one, so Rico was a happy pup this morning between his usual egg yolks and sausage too).

Lunch:
10:30 pb&j.  Should I even enter this anymore?  It's so predictable.  I packed up the leftover chicken tikka and lentil salad with brown rice for work.  I so love this dish and my Indian spice kit just arrived so I'm hoping to make a healthier version of this soon!

Mid-Day Nosh:
Yeah, it's hot here again.  2 chocolate lace cookies in the belly.  :(

Dinner:
A little Indian inspired shrimp pizza with a spicy mango chutney tomato sauce.  Recipe forthcoming in next post.  Paired with the leftover salad from last night that I picked at.

A glass of wine and a little taste of coconut curry chocolate rounded out the evening.

Menu - August 31 & Insanity Day 3

The last day of August.  So, so, so sad.  I love summer and can't believe it's almost over.  Next week, the kids go back to school.  I remember that time from when I was a kid - excited to wear your new school clothes and use your new pens and folders with pictures of Andy Gibb and Rod Stewart on them, but dreading it at the same time.  Where to sit at lunch?  Will my friends be in my class?  Will the class bully be in my class?  Are they going to make us play gym today?  How can I get rid of this giant chin zit over night, etc.  Yuck, I did NOT enjoy that time.

Anyhoo, despite the fact that we BOTH wanted to stay in bed, the Mr. and I hauled our butts downstairs and completed day 3 of Insanity.  There was sweating, grunting, painful groaning and some cursing, but then it was done and we both feel better for it.  His legs are sore and my back is really twisted.  I'm thinking my form may be off on some of the moves.  I'll have to pay better attention tomorrow.

Now, on to the food.

Breakfast:
My back was really bothering me after our workout, so I just grabbed a bowl of cereal and a glass of OJ this morning.  I mix Kashi Go Lean with some Kashi Go Lean Crunch as I find the regular Go Lean to have very little taste (and it looks like rabbit feed).  Top with 2% milk.

Lunch:
Back to work again.  Today I had to bring the kids with me - woohoo!  NOT.  Camp is over and no school yet, so we do what we have to do.  I packed today my 10:30 pb&j on oat nut bread and some fresh strawberries with a hint of powdered sugar.  For lunch I had a salad - spinach, herbs, three hard boiled egg whites, a few cherry tomatoes from a local farm and some cuke slices.

Mid-Day Nosh:
Ack, another donut.  I wasn't even hungry.  Why do I do that?  But at least they are gone now!

Dinner:
It's H-O-T hot here today and I took the kids and friends to the zoo.  Soooo we got home late, and I'm still in vacation mode, and every single muscle in my back hurts, and for various other excuses totally valid reasons, I succumbed to convenience and opted for the Whole Foods hot buffet.  My fav, chicken tikka masala with brown rice.  I added a little of their lentil salad and topped it with some of my leftover broccoli from last night.  When I scoop at the hot bar, I try to drain off as much of the cream sauce as possible - you know, to be healthy!  :)  And, since everybody has to have an appy before dinner, we have sushi, two varieties - spicy tuna and salmon with avocado made with brown rice.  I ate one of each type with a little lot of wasabi (no soy sauce today, I was a good girl).  Yum!!  Surprisingly delicious for supermarket sushi.

Not sure how any of this fits in with the Insanity nutrition guide!  Advice on getting more veggies into my body is always welcome.  Maybe I should try baking them into powdered sugar donuts!

Menu - August 30th

Today was my first actual workout with Insanity - although the Fit Test alone felt like more than a workout to me.  So I was pretty hungry by the time breakfast rolled around.

Breakfast:
Pumpkin protein pancakes with walnuts and a touch of maple syrup.

Lunch:
First day back to work since my vacation.  :-(  I packed the left over salad from last night (baby spinach, herbs, pears, walnuts, dried cranberries) with a bit of raspberry vinaigrette on the side.  Peanut butter and raspberry jam on oat nut bread for my mid-morning meal at about 10:30 or so.  Love, love, love the nut grinders at Whole Foods.  I seriously cannot live without this pb - it is nothing but peanuts ground up into a creamy deliciousness!  Also on hand is a banana.

When I came home from work, one of those darned donuts made it's way down into my belly again.  Sigh...  I did ignore the Ghiardelli chocolate that someone put out at work though.

Mid-day Snack:
Around 2pm I am ALWAYS hungry.  Today I didn't make a good choice, but someone HAD to eat the last of that pizza from the farmer's market.  So, I did.

Dinner:
It's Monday!  That means that hubby cooks.  One less thing for me to have to wrap my brain around.  Today he made grilled london broil, sauteed broccoli with garlic and oven fries.  I promise I did go back for more broccoli - three more in fact.  Unfortunately, I had to finish up the cooking/grilling as since he did not get up with me this morning, he was in the workout area having his ass handed to him by Shaun T.  All for a good cause I guess.

Another video of the amazing things a hard core workout system can do for your body and health: P90X and Insanity take on MS.  Very inspirational.

Menu - August 29th (Insanity start date)

A few of the lovely ladies over at Beachbody have asked me to diary my meals for a week or so.  I am happy to give it a try but will mention that I do not follow the Beachbody workout diet plans.  Although there are many great food choices in the plans and I have used several of the recipes included, I just find following a written diet plan a recipe for failure (pardon the pun).  I try to keep my eating clean, healthy and somewhat balanced.  I am not, however, a dietitian (yet) so I cannot say that I meet all RDAs, etc., but I do try to keep my protein and carb intake on the higher side while participating in these crazy workouts.

As I may have mentioned, my husband and I are starting Insanity today.  Insanity is a 60 day workout plan.  It is pretty intense from what I have heard and seen.  Today will be a fit test day.  We will have a number of exercises to do and a minute to perform as many repetitions as possible.  The fit test will occur weekly (or bi-weekly, can't remember offhand) and is used to track progress and increases in strength and stamina.  We are off to a rocky start already as I allowed my husband to talk me into doing this tonight instead of this morning.  Hopefully, we will be doing the program in the mornings from now on, or we will be doing them separately.

OK, here's today's meals.  I am including everything I ate - even the bad stuff although that was gone so fast, I didn't even have time to take a photo!  :)

Breakfast:
One slice of spelt bread toasted with a teeny touch of butter, two hard boiled eggs of which I consumed one of the yolks and both whites.  The dog got the other yolk - he likes hard boiled egg day.  Also had one skinless chicken breakfast sausage and a sweet fig.  Washed it down with a calcium fortified glass of OJ (no pulp).

Lunch:
I went to my farmer's market this morning and they were having a special on whole wheat pizzas.  Two for $5 - I can't make two pizzas that cheap, so we had a little treat.

A powdered sugar coated apple cider donut was consumed post-farmer's market visit.  I fought the urge to have a second though (baby steps)!

Dinner:
Fig/balsamic coated chicken sausage and tomato kabobs with grilled corn on the cob that was marinated in a coconut lime chili sauce.  I made a side salad of baby spinach, baby herbs, pears, walnuts and dried cranberries.  Topped the salad with Annie's light raspberry vinaigrette.

Our post-fit test dessert will be a honey almond custard with fig chutney.  I used 2% milk for the custard and halved the sugar in the chutney, but this is still kind of a splurge.

Recipes for the dinner will be posted throughout this week.

So I'm sure by now you can tell that I'm not good with the veggies!  I really don't like most of them I will admit.  I will try to do better tomorrow most likely by having my salad for lunch and at dinner and by doing some broccoli tomorrow night.  I also put some pumpkin puree into my pancake mix for the morning.

Other than the morning OJ, I drink water for the remainder of the day.  LOTS of water.

Now, if you are like me and get a thrill out of watching other people's pain, here are some Youtubers experiencing the Insanity fit test for the first time.  I will NOT be posting a video of me!  :)

Insanity Fit Test 1 - average, every day kinda guy
Insanity Fit Test 2 - already fit female