Weekend Food Tests and Motivation

Over the weekend I spent some time trying a couple of new recipes and I wanted to review those.

 First up a recipe from Eating Well Magazine - couscous paella soup.  I think it turned out to be roughly $3.25 per person.  After reading about the challenge on Slow Food USA to come up with healthy recipes that are less than what you'd spend on a fast food meal, I've been paying more attention to that.  If you look up this recipe, we used turkey pepperoni instead of the chorizo.  I think going forward I would substitute shrimp.  I grew up making paella and we always had seafood in it.  My family didn't like the couscous and asked me to make it with whole wheat noodles next time.  Here's what the finished product looked like:

 My daughter and I found this plaque while we were out shopping.  I loved the thought behind it.

 Our random new treat that we tried:  Newman's Own peppermint cups.  We liked them and one is 60 calories.  3 come in the package. 

I also made a beef stir fry that also came out around $3.25.  Not pictured is the brown rice that I made.  I marinated the meat in 1 T organic tamarind sauce and freshly grated ginger.  Loved the ginger flavor in the dish.  I sauteed in a spritz of sesame oil:  1 cup chopped celery, 1/2 fresh chopped onion, 2 cups chopped mushrooms, 2 cups chopped baby bok choy with the beef.   The package had .9 lbs in it and I was cooking for 4.  Once the meat was cooked through, I added the rice and cashews and about 1 T soy sauce.

So more evidence for the fact that you can eat interesting and healthy food for less than a happy meal costs.

I find that I never regret a workout, but only regret not being able to talk myself into going to the gym sometimes.  Today was a struggle for me.  I was tired and could think of little to get me out from under the covers - I did haul myself over to the gym and get in leg weights and my 30 minutes of biking cardio afterwards.  Of course I was thrilled that I went after it was all over.

I also had the opportunity to sit down with a friend today and review her eating and workout logs for the month.  I like putting my experience and my training into use to help someone else reach their goals.  I now have a new Greek Yogurt fan!  It's not hard when you see the yogurt you were eating has 6 grams of protein and the same portion of Greek Yogurt has 23.  She was brave enough to just let me open her fridge and pantry and teach her how to use the fooducate app to score stuff she was buying at the grocery store.  I wish her all the best as she takes a leap and makes some changes for February.

So another day in the #healthylife books - food logged, water drank, workout done, and I feel happy about all of that.