Tag: veggiesmost

Make it a great week!

Reality Check

Throughout the span of the pandemic, as a WW Lifetime member, I have gotten a free ride, so to speak. I have totally enjoyed our WW Zoom meetings, and especially our tribe’s tailgate meetings prior to those each Saturday morning. But I haven’t been kept accountable, other than by my own basic routine of meal planning and prepping (which I did not really do at the beginning of the shut down), and the Zoom conversations. I haven’t been on a scale since mid-March. Like most everybody, I have been a little more, shall we say, lenient with myself with regard to my eating? I didn’t even try to put on a pair of jeans for the first 3 months, and like everyone else, I was dabbling in baking….Actually still am, but now being more conscientious again about my ingredients.

This past week I received an e mail from WW that I will have to start weighing in again once a month at a studio starting November 1. I honestly don’t know if I am over my goal weight or not at this point. I know I am over my “personal” goal weight for sure. I also have lost all of the muscle tone I developed from being in the pool 5 times a week, pre-pandemic, aqua jogging and lap swimming. Most of my jeans fit, but not the same, and not all of them…. I definitely have work to do. My goal that first week of November is to be under goal for sure, and as close to my “personal” goal weight as possible. So now begins operation “Blueplan”, as I am dubbing it.

Last weekend was one of the hottest on record in Southern California. I was giving myself a little staycation, so did not publish a blog, but I did prep something for my work week lunches. It had to be quick, easy, and light. I started with Trader Joe’s frozen Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry. To that I added frozen veggies I had in the house – broccoli, spinach, and edamame. I also added a diced fresh red bell pepper, and diced tofu. I seasoned this with Coconut Aminos, Dorot frozen garlic and ginger cubes (2 of each), a little onion salt (because I forgot to buy the scallions I wanted to use, and did not have fresh onion in the house), and fresh ground black pepper. It turned out great.

I had leftovers into the weekend, so I repurposed them into a vegetarian baked eggs casserole. I added fresh chopped red onion, a little roasted red pepper from the jar that I had in the refrigerator, and more frozen broccoli. I mixed a heaping tablespoon of non fat plain Greek yogurt into 6 beaten whole eggs, which I poured over the veggie mixture, and baked it at 350 for about 35 minutes in a square 9 X 9 Pyrex pan, sprayed with olive oil. I had a piece for breakfast yesterday, and will eat it for breakfast throughout the week. This too turned out really yummy.

With the eggs this week, I’ll be having a little butternut squash muffin that I baked today. They were supposed to be pumpkin muffins, but there was not 1 can of pureed pumpkin to be found in all of Santa Monica today. I kid you not. I wanted this so badly, I went to 5 different grocery stores. I was craving something pumpkin, but wanted it to be almost on the savory side and made from whole grains. I found this great recipe, which (other than the main ingredient) I followed exactly: https://cookieandkate.com/healthy-maple-pumpkin-muffins/. Note that the author gives you the choice of honey or maple syrup to sweeten these with. I used maple syrup.

For my lunch prep this week, I found this great 1 pot, 15 minute recipe, Spinach Artichoke Pasta: https://www.thekitchn.com/one-pot-spinach-artichoke-chicken-pasta-recipe-23073220. I made this with my favorite Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe’s. I substituted about 1/2 of the Parmesan cheese with nutritional yeast, used 10 oz of fresh baby spinach, and just over 1 cup of pasta, probably about 8.5 oz. I used the whole wheat fusilli I had in my pantry.

**Spinach Artichoke Pasta Baby Boomer Mermaid Style**

I feel like I am setting myself up for a successful week. I am on planning 4 pool workouts, and walks on the afternoons I am not in the pool, all after work. I let my husband know that I am getting back on track, so no surprise snacks are allowed. He threatened to buy potato chips anyway, so it will be up to me to stay strong. Which of course it always is, at the end of the day. And back to drinking all of my water everyday! It’s a lot, but I know I’ve got this.

Make it a great week! Take care of yourselves. Stay safe, and healthy.

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Birthday Week

During the Pandemic

And so begins my birthday week during the pandemic. I honestly don’t mind celebrating quietly. We did that for my husband’s birthday in April when things were really shut down. It’s more about missing celebrating with my dear lifelong friends who also have birthdays this month. One good thing – my local pool is finally reopening this week. I swim on Tuesday afternoon for the first time since mid March. I just cannot wait. My poor sore, orthopedically challenged body is ready for the water! Happy Birthday week to me!

I kept it simple this week again for my lunch prep. I was inspired by a meal prep I found on my new favorite culinary blog, https://www.flavcity.com/. Here is the link to the prep that inspired me: https://www.flavcity.com/low-fat-meal-prep. I made marinara turkey meatballs and a zucchini, summer squash, and tomato saute to accompany them. I realized that if you start any saute with good olive oil, onions, and garlic you can add any vegetable you want and it will turn out yummy. I seasoned the veggie mixture liberally with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The main dish is Trader Joe’s Frozen Fully Cooked Turkey Meatballs, and my new favorite marinara sauce. Silver Palate Low Sodium Marinara (found at Ralph’s) is 60 calories/ 3 points for a 1/2 cup serving. But it is just 6% sodium, and has 0 added sugars. The ingredients are clean and pure. No preservatives. And it’s delicious. The turkey meatballs are processed, but still fairly clean, and of course convenient to prepare, and delicious to eat. They are 100 calories/ 3 points for a serving of 2. I am having 3 meatballs per serving for lunch for 4 points.

**The fixings for this week’s lunch prep.**

**And the finished products. The Parmesan cheese mix will top my lunch plate.**

I am switching it up just a little for breakfast this week too. I have been having non fat Greek yogurt bowls with bananas, blueberries, flax meal, and chia seeds, along with a hard boiled egg each morning, along with my mock chai tea latte (Trader Joe’s chai spiced tea bags with unsweetened vanilla almond milk). It’s good, but it’s getting boring (not the tea; must have my chai tea in the morning). I got inspired by this egg stuffed peppers idea I found on Pinterest: https://skinnyms.com/egg-stuffed-peppers. I substituted the cheese for Nutritional Yeast (https://www.marthastewart.com/7796957/nutritional-yeast-explained). Less fat and calories, but a nice cheesy flavor. I will still have my yogurt bowl in the morning, in a smaller portion, and one of these.

**Super simple, healthy veggie and egg prep for the morning**

Make it a great week my friends. Stay safe, stay healthy, wear your mask, and wash your hands. Thanks so much for stopping by. Any critiques, questions, and comments are always welcome.

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https://www.hungry-girl.com/recipes

Quick Meal Preps for Busy Weekends

Busy work weeks translate to busier weekends. Happily, I am maintaining the balance of getting things done vs down time. It just requires a little more planning. I am now writing things down and keeping a calendar, so that now everything fits in the way I want it to. Honestly, the only piece of my puzzle that is missing is swimming. When that opens up, I will pivot again, as to ensure the harmony that I so desire.

In addition to my meal preps needing to be quick, easy, clean (not processed) foods, anti inflammatory diet friendly, as well as low in calories and WW points, they also need to be easy to put together in the morning as well as in my work place when getting ready to eat them. I don’t ask for much ;).

Today I put together a quick and easy ground chicken taco mixture. I started my sauteing my diced red onions in a skillet, then adding the chicken, which I seasoned simply with s&p, a generous amount of cumin, dried oregano, and a couple of the frozen garlic cubes. I added canned diced tomatoes with chilies, a can of mild diced green chilies, and a can of pinto beans, which I drained and rinsed. I also ended up adding some frozen spinach. As I was cooking, I realized needed more veg, specifically a dark leafy green (for that anti inflammatory aspect I want every week).

Here is my lunch side salad for this week. Cabbage slaw mixed with broccoli slaw, dressed with Bolthouse Farms Coleslaw Yogurt dressing for 50 calories/ 1 point for 2 tablespoons. By the way, I have 2 tablespoon containers I use, so my dressings are always pre-measured.

**Full Meal. Lunch prep, ready to pack. BTW, the cheese gets packed in a 2 tablespoon container same as my salad dressings. Pre-measuring is key for me.**

Last week I did a different easy lunch prep that involved very little time, and very little cooking. I did a Greek salad with a little roasted chicken breast. I made a super simple red wine vinaigrette for this. It’s 1/3 cups red wine vinegar, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup water, a half teaspoon each of s&p, and I added dried oregano because it was for a Greek salad, after all.

**Beautiful fresh ingredients for my Greek salad with roasted chicken breast. Not shown are the Trader Joe’s light feta, and kalmata olives that made the salad so tasty.**

I hope that these quick and easy lunch preps inspire you to find your own that make you happy. Meal planning and prep do not have to be complicated, or take all day. The interwebs are full of great ideas. It is so easy these days to find culinary inspiration, and to hack a recipe to fit your dietary needs and desires. Here is a short list of some of my favorite blogs/ websites for meal prep inspiration:

https://thepounddropper.com/

https://skinnyms.com/category/recipes/

https://www.flavcity.com/

https://diethood.com/

Make it a great week, my friends. Stay safe and healthy. Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Take good care of yourselves.

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Making Clean Eating a Priority

Clean eating involves choosing minimally processed, real foods that provide maximal nutritional benefits. As I have embraced the anti inflammatory diet over the last several months my choices have begun evolving more towards cleaner food choices. I have cut back on my cheeses and processed meats.When I do choose a sausage, I read the label to make sure it doesn’t have too many preservatives or questionable ingredients. For more information on how to incorporate clean eating into your routine, here is a comprehensive article to get you started: https://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-how-to-eat-clean

Today’s meal prep is straight from the WW website – Very Veggie Turkey Meatloaf. It is clean and healthy. Full of fresh veggies, oats, and fresh ground turkey. And I’ve had a taste. It is really delicious! Here is the recipe: https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/very-veggie-turkey-meat-loaf/5c993ed35e84d2001c1cf17f.

**To start my very veggie turkey meatloaf I have clean, healthy, yet full flavor ingredients**. **Not shown are the olive oil used to saute the veggies, and the salt & pepper added, per the recipe.**

**Mid meal prep – notice the gorgeous colors**

**The finished product. I will spit this into servings to have ready for my work lunches.**

**One of the easiest and most budget friendly ways to eat clean is to incorporate seasonal fruits and vegetables into your diet. These are a few of my favorite for summer. Speaking of gorgeous colors!**

Make it a great week, my friends. Continue to stay safe and healthy.

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Finding Balance in “The New Normal”

**Floral fun from my walks this week. On the left is an artichoke fully flowered. Never saw that before! Love the vibrant colors here.**

As the world opens up, and we are so excited to be going back to work, to restaurants, and retail stores, I feel like we should also embrace some of the wonderful things we discovered about staying home. During quarantine, my walks took the place of the pool for me in that I exercise, I use the walks for meditation, and also as a social outlet enjoying phone visits with friends and family. I learned to sit still without television and/ or devices out in my patio, and to just relax. These are things I want to hold on to, as I ease myself back into the world. I don’t want to be as busy as I used to be, or as harried. Taking things at a slower pace is keeping me more centered and focused. I am adjusting how I organize my time and priorities in order to keep this mindset. Of course I still can’t wait until the pool reopens….

Trader Joe’s Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry was my inspiration for my lunch prep this week. To bulk it up, I added sauteed fresh bok choy and shiitake mushrooms, and the rest of the frozen edamame I had in my freezer to the mix. The basic flavor of the TJ’s cauliflower rice mixture is really good as is, but I wanted to give it a little more oomph, so I added cubes of frozen garlic and frozen ginger to my stir fry, as well as a little coconut aminos. I like Trader Joe’s coconut aminos best. Other brands tend to be a little too sweet for me. Of course you can use soy sauce, low sodium soy sauce, or Tamari sauce as well to achieve that umami flavor. To pair with the veggies I marinated boneless skinless chicken breasts overnight in my husband’s famous teriyaki marinade, and oven roasted them (roasting instructions: https://pin.it/7cFsfZI). Honestly you can’t go wrong with this combo of flavors. And your house will smell amazing. I encourage you to try this recipe. You’re welcome :).

Here is the basic recipe with the changes I made for my meal prep noted:

Spuds Aloha Zesty Hawaiian Marinade; developed by Michael Gronfein

1/2 cup soy sauce (I used TJ’s coconut aminos)

2 tablespoons oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)

1 teaspoon mustard (I used dry mustard)

1/2 teaspoon ginger (I used dry ginger)

2 cloves garlic (I used a teaspoon of granulated garlic)

Pepper (I used a couple of pinches of red chile flakes; sriracha sauce is great in this as well)

**Lunch prep is done. Trader Joe’s Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry with bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, and edamame paired with teriyaki marinated oven roasted chicken breast**

Make it a great week, my friends. I know we are still going through some very tough times, but as bad as 2020 has been so far, there is light to be found here. We are on the road to real positive social change in our country, as well as a vaccine for Covid 19. Please be good to yourselves.

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We are All in this Together – All Lives Matter

I had a full blog planned to publish yesterday, but in light of the protests turned riots, I decided it would not be appropriate. I feel the same way today, but a girl has to eat, so I am just going to share my meal prep with you today.

Summer produce is my favorite, and I wanted to celebrate it this week with this easy summer squash salad I saw prepared on the Food Network show, The Kitchen: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/grilled-shrimp-and-summer-squash-salad-7241083. This is a beautiful summer salad. I made changes, Baby Boomer Mermaid style, but the original recipe is beautiful. If I was cooking for company, I would make this as written. Since I am cooking for my weekly lunch meal prep, I made the changes that work for me, and you should do the same.

**Summer Squash Salad Baby Boomer Mermaid style**

The corn was replaced by celery in my prep. I love a corn on the cob as a treat, but corn is not really my friend, so I hesitated to use it in a meal I plan to eat for a few days. I used celery instead for the fresh crunch. I also subbed the sunflower seeds for toasted almond slices. Just because. I also needed a dark green leafy base for my salad so I combined fresh basil with arugula. I have plenty of my classic vinaigrette dressing left over from last week, so am using that instead of making a new dressing that is actually pretty similar. Other than that, I followed the prep instructions in the recipe – I lightly roasted the seeded summer squash, and blanched the snow peas. My proteins of choice this week will be left over roasted chicken breast, Trader Joe’s shrimp burgers, or Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Sausage. All delicious, all low calories/ points.

**One more quick share – it’s cherry season! I pitted these and added them to my yogurt bowl this morning. So sweet and delicious.**

Thank you so much for checking in. Please take care. Sending you all much love and big hugs.

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Smelling the Roses Again

The city is slowly coming back to life. Santa Monica finally reopened their parks and beaches (for swimming and exercise only). My favorite is Palisades Park, which spans the cliffs just above the ocean. There is the most lovely rose garden there. I missed this little piece of paradise. I am gradually starting to feel whole again.

Last week I started going back to the office to begin prep for the economy reopening. My groceries served me well. I had good, healthy lunches each day. It is indeed all about the groceries. That said, I did want to meal plan for this coming week in the office, so I went to my well stocked freezer. There I found Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi (4 pts/ 140 cal per 1 cup serving), their Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip (2 pts/ 45 cal per 2 tbsp serving), frozen spinach, and frozen broccoli florets. The light bulb in my Baby Boomer Mermaid head went off, and I decided to combine all of this deliciousness into one veggie forward dish for myself. I will pair this with Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage (3 points/ 110 calories per 1 sausage serving). This gives me 4 servings, so all things considered, it will be healthy, filling, and really satisfying for the week.

**Cauliflower Gnocchi with Creamy Spinach Artichoke dip, spinach, and broccoli**

Last weekend, after I published the blog, I got the baking bug. I had a can of pureed pumpkin in the house, along with all of the other ingredients needed, so I made this muffin recipe from Drizzle Me Skinny. No alterations. They came out amazing: https://drizzlemeskinny.com/pumpkin-spice-cream-cheese-muffins/. I highly recommend you give this a try. 2 pts/ 88 cal per muffin. Almost everything I make is inspired by recipes I find on the interwebs, either from Instagram, Pinterest, FB, the WW website, or just by randomly searching.

**More scenes from Palisades Park, Santa Monica, Saturday, May 16**

Just a reminder that I am still selling hospital grade disposable masks. Masks will be a part of our “new normal” for the foreseeable future. Please contact me privately if you are interested in purchasing some for your home and/ or office: marshaleeg@verizon.net.

Thank you for joining me this week! Stay safe. Be well. Take care of yourselves.

Feel free to send me comments, critiques, questions, or meal prep ideas 🙂

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Eating to Build Our Immune Systems

As I was reading up on this topic I realized that eating to build your immune systems and an anti inflammatory diets are closely related, and in fact intertwined. Many immunity building foods also work as anti inflammatory foods. I have been sent, and have been seeing many concoctions that are said to ward off the Corona Virus. And I am looking closely at all of it, and that is what has sparked today’s blog.

I have added more citrus to my diet. I began drinking warm water with slices of lemon in it daily (thank you, Marcy for the home grown lemons). And today I bought a range of citrus fruits to keep in the house, after reading about the overall immunity and anti inflammatory benefits of them. And I love all citrus fruits, anyway.

**Marcy’s lemons with limes, and a pink grapefruit ready to eat on my kitchen counter. Not shown are the mandarin oranges I also bought today (they are in the refrigerator)**

I have also discovered Nutritional Yeast. Nutritional Yeast is a complete protein, contains all 9 amino acids, is high in B vitamins, and trace minerals. And it tastes good! It adds a nutty, cheesy, kind of an umami flavor to foods. So far I have added it to scrambled eggs, and today to my vegetable soup. Here is more about it: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/nutritional-yeast.

Here is a short list of foods that are good for our immunity and for anti inflammatory diets: https://globalhealing.com/natural-health/8-foods-that-boost-your-immune-system/

I want to mention HOW I finally came to buy and try Nutritional Yeast, because it’s a lesson for us all – I was shopping at Trader Joe’s last week after the shelves had been stripped of almost everything. I found the 1 bag of Nutritional Yeast on the shelf, and picked it up. I realized I had heard good things about it, so I read the back of the package, noted the low calories (20 cal for 1 tblsp/ 0 points), and price :), then decided to give it a try. Yesterday during our WW virtual meetings, our coach, the great Amy B. was talking about finding new products on the empty grocery store shelves during this time. She talked about low calorie (low point) sauces that you might not normally try, for example. Keep an open mind while shopping these days. You never know what new treasures you will discover.

Like many of you, I won’t be going to work this week. What little work I have I will do from home, as I am in sales, and unfortunately, as all of the stores I sell to are closed, I am essentially out of business until this passes. Deep breaths…. (This might be a good time for me to try meditation).

I wasn’t really planning a meal prep today, but as I was continuing to read about building our immune systems against this virus, I decided to throw a vegetable soup together out of what I had in the house. I went to my freezer and pulled out a bag of mixed vegetables, a mostly used bag of frozen broccoli, and a partly used bag of spinach. I had most of a quart of chicken broth in the refrigerator, a bag of shirataki noodles, and the Nutritional yeast. I seasoned my soup with 2 cubes of Dorot frozen garlic, some freshly ground black pepper (no salt, as my broth was not low sodium), some ground coriander, and cumin. It came out great, and I want to tell you that the Nutritional Yeast did lend a new flavor that I really like. And it my soup has 0 points, I believe, on all 3 WW plans. I am very happy to have this in the house this week.

**0 point pantry veggie soup with shirataki noodles and Nutritional Yeast**

I want to share one more thing with you that I am going to make for my husband and I. I found it on Instagram this morning. It’s a ginger lime tea recipe. Great for both our immune systems and has all of the anti inflammatory properties: https://presleyspantry.com/2011/04/11/ginger-lime-tea/.

We are all in the same boat here. There is no end date on the quarantine. All we can do is keep ourselves healthy with the foods we eat, exercise, and staying rested. Worrying, stressing, and food binging are not going to help. Take care, my friends.

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Be Aware of Foods That Have That “Health Halo”

Eating Mindfully Part 2

Junk food disguised as healthy snacks is more common than we think. Between sugar-free, gluten-free, low-carb, low-fat, organic, all-natural, and more, there’s an overwhelming amount of terms that you see on food labels. The confusion around reading these labels makes it easy to mistake something for “healthy”.

Here are just a few examples of “health halo” foods to avoid (hint: these are all processed foods):

Flavored yogurt – Packed with protein and gut healthy probiotics, yogurt is an excellent weight loss food. But don’t be fooled by flavored yogurt, it is loaded with sugary fruit. Opt instead for 0 fat or 2% fat plain yogurt and mix in your own whole fruits.
Veggie Chips – The “healthy” alternative to chips are just another processed food. Their bag might display photos of whole veggies, but these chips are actually pulverized vegetable flour mixed with oil and salt.
Fruit smoothies – Replacing meals with protein shakes may help you reduce your daily calories, which can help you lose weight. Eventually you will need to start eating solid food again, which may cause excess weight to return if you don’t choose wisely. And if you rely too heavily on protein shakes to replace regular meals, you’ll miss out on the nutritional benefits of whole foods. As a general rule, it’s better to eat, not drink your fruits. Pair your fruit with a cup of low-fat plain cottage cheese or yogurt if you are craving something creamy.

The moral of this story is to READ THE LABELS. Take your time in the grocery store and really read the labels. Learn the synonyms for added sugars and fats. One of my rules of thumb is “if you can’t pronounce it, it is not a real food”. Also, note the serving sizees. The calories, fat, sugar, etc. shown are for the serving size, not the entire package or can. If you are a WW member, couple this with utilizing the scanner on your app to check the points. Many “light” foods will be deceivingly high in points.

Easy, veggie forward meal prep today. Even though the calendar is inching towards spring, it is still going to be cold and rainy in LA this coming week. Bring on the soup! I created an Asian veggie soup using unsalted chicken broth, seasoned with coconut aminos (my favorite is from Trader Joe’s), garlic, ginger (the frozen Dorot cubes), dry mustard, coriander, and cumin, salt & pepper. This is my own mix of seasonings. Use what you like. I used every veggie I could think of that rang as Asian to me: fresh bok choy, mushrooms, snow peas, scallions. I also added celery because I had it in my house, and a handful of frozen edamame that I had in the freezer. I would call this a Green Asian Veggie Soup if I was a recipe writer :).

**Pairing my Green Asian Veggie Soup with chicken breast that I marinated in coconut aminos, garlic, ginger, mustard, coriander, and cumin then oven roasted, and roasted broccoli and red bell pepper.**

This has been a hard week for all of us. I did not go out and “panic buy” supplies and shelf stable food. I did, however, cancel all of my social plans for the weekend, even my hair appointment. I did shop at Trader Joe’s today so I could complete my meal prep. I was greeted at the door by a lovely, smiling woman holding hand sanitizer, offering squirts. Thankfully, the store was stocked fairly well, and the vibe inside was comfortable. As I checked out, I was again offered a squirt of hand sanitizer, which I again accepted. Stay calm, stay well, and wash your hands.

A few shots from my walk today. I am lucky to live just a few blocks from Santa Monica Bay. It was quite crowded there this afternoon. Seemed a perfect place to be outside, in public, while still remaining “socially distant”. At least I got some exercise, and got in some great people watching.

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