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Audrey's Orzo Salad

Try it, you'll like it.

Orzo with Roasted Vegetables
1 small eggplant, peeled and diced into 3/4" pieces
1 red bell pepper, diced into 1" pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, diced into 1" pieces
1 red onion, peeled and diced into 1" pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup good olive oil
1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound orzo

Dressing:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 tsp pepper

To Assemble:
4 scallions, minced
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
3/4 lb good feta, crumbled
15 fresh basil leaves cut into a chiffonade

Preheat oven to 425. Toss the eggplant, peppers, onion, garlic, salt and pepper with the olive oil on a large baking sheet. Roast 40 minutes, turning once with a spatula.

Meanwhile, cook orzo in boiling, salted water for 7-9 minute or until tender. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the roasted vegetables to the pasta scraping all the liquid and the seasoning from the pan.

For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and pour on the pasta & veggies. Let cool to room temperature, then add the scallions, pine nuts, feta and basil. Check the seasonings and serve at room temperature.

Last time I made this, I cut the oil on the veggies to about 2 tbsp, and I added another eggplant and another bell pepper or two. I would love to tell you the calorie info, but I've never measured it out to get accurate serving sizes. I've only just guessed. As written, if it serves 16 than it's 241 calories per serving.

To add insult to injury...

After a healthy lunch today I decided I would eat a rice krispie treat. Low-cal right? Well then Tessa only ate one bite of hers, so I ate that too- a bad mommy habit, but we all do it. Can't stand to let that food go to waste. I ate what I thought was 210 calories worth of treats. Not something to be proud of, but not horrific. I usually don't really even like rice krispie treats, but these were so delicious I couldn't resist. They were extra gooey. Too gooey. So gooey I decided to re-check the recipe. Turns out I made them wrong. I tripled the marshmallows and butter, but only doubled the cereal. To make matters worse, when I made them I mis-read the serving size. What I thought was about 210 calories ended up being 756 calories. I just ate 756 calories worth of rice krispy treats. 7-5-6! Now I only have 450 calories left for the day. Looks like I'll be eating a lot of celery and pickles.

Can I have a do-over?

Something New

I am trying something new and different.

A while back I mentioned a little about my stomach issues. I have been eating gluten free for a few months now, and it feels so much better. But every now and then, I have a rough day. While browsing through Trainer Mommas blog I stumbled upon a blog called Nutritious Foodie. I discovered that she suffered from the same issues and diagnosis I have, and has been able to control them through what she eats. I quickly emailed her, spitting out thoughts faster than my fingers could type. To my surprise, she responded that day with a heavenly sent email full of tips that might help me.

One of her tips was to eat my fruit first thing in the morning. I eat a serving of fruit, then wait about 30 minutes. Then I eat another one, and then I wait again. My main symptom is bloating...big, huge, stretched out bloating. What I learned is that when I was eating fruit before, it was having to wait its turn in line inside of me before it could be digested. There was other food that I put in there first, and the poor old fruit had to sit and wait. While it sat there, and sat there waiting for my eggs to digest, it began to ferment. The fermenting can cause bloating.

Now, I don't know if this is why I am having bloating every now and then. Maybe it's just hormonal, but before I went gluten free, it happened EVERY day. Now it happens about once a week. Much better wouldn't you say? If there is a way to improve that even more, I am willing to try it. Especially because my doctor wants me to do that thing where they put you to sleep and look up your you know what. (My neighbor swears it was like a spa treatment. I don't believe her).

I won't be able to visit the "spa" until July, so instead of just sitting tight till then, I am happy to have something new to try.

So far, I feel great. I like it that I get all my required fruit in right away. I don't have to think about it, and the rest of my day is spent eating my veggies.

One last note I found interesting. Her doctor told her to eat as fresh as she could and to eat meat sparingly....hummm....sound familiar? The Word of Wisdom truly was inspired. I think I will take this advice seriously too!

I Am Still Thinking About It!!

I am still thinking about the events of this morning.

It began when my alarm was set to go off at 5:35. (Yes, at that time in the morning five minutes does make a difference). I opened my eyes at 5:34 to see if it was almost time to get up. YES!! I jumped out of bed, put my running clothes on, scarfed down my banana, and drove to my moms house for our first early morning run of the season. I was thinking we would do a nice leisurely run, but she had a different plan. She wanted to take on the four mile hill climb. AHHHH, not the four mile hill climb. I don't know if I'm ready for the four mile hill climb. I didn't want to tell her that, so I reluctantly agreed. Do you think I made it?

YES!!! I did it! Talk about a huge mental booster. The best part is, my legs and rear are only slightly feeling the effects. BEST RUN EVER! I'm still thinking about this morning.

Then to top it all off, I made this for breakfast:
1 sunny side up egg with the yolk completely cooked

1 Sandwich Thin Toasted

2 tablespoons of Avocado

1 ounce of mozzarella cheese melted from the egg and toasted bread

All for a whopping 310 Calories and a full belly for hours!

OH MY! I don't usually reflect back on a healthy meal and anxiously wait to try it again, but this one is going to be repeated in the morning.

Food, you are no friend of mine.

Do you ever get into a slump, emotionally? The past ten days have been like that for me. We've been dealing with some difficult personal issues and I've felt sad, lonely, and depressed. I'm in a rut and I know it.

Not coincidentally, my ability to resist bad food has been weak too. I keep finding myself opening the pantry door, or staring into the fridge. I've never really considered myself an emotional eater, more like a social eater. But this morning as I was contemplating throwing my calorie range out the door for the day, I realized something. FOOD IS NOT GOING TO FILL ME UP. I'm empty inside, and food will not fill that hole. It will not give me courage and faith. It will not make me feel valuable and loved. It will not bring me happiness and peace. I know that... in theory. The application is a little tricky. When did food become a coping mechanism for me?

Ode to Audrey . . .

Whenever I am in a rut

You always seem to kick my butt

With healthy tips and yummy food

You motivate until my mood

Has changed and I am good to go

So it's only right to let you know

That as a sister, friend and wife

Your birth has truly blessed my life!

Happiest Birthday Audrey.  I love you!

Samantha

Thank you for being the best sister I could ever ask for!! You are amazing inside and out and I appreciate everything you do for me and this blog. You have changed my life and you are changing the life of everyone here too. I love you more than you know!

Question to the Runners....

So I have a friend who has been trying to eat right and exercise as well. Although, when she runs she gets a cramp-like, almost charley horse after running just a little while. She says it's closer to the shin on the side, not the calf. She wears the right shoes, I had her make sure she was eating bananas, etc. but it keeps happening. It's only when she runs on the treadmill, not on the elliptical or walking.

Do you guys have any advice I can give her?

True Junkie at Heart

Okay, I hate to admit this, but I am a true junkie at heart. I still prefer the sweet taste of sugar over the vegetables I try to eat for lunch. Unfortunately, my rear end and thighs don't agree with me. So, when I saw this post, I was immediately drawn to it. It's from Dani Spies, a health food nut: Banana Split Breakfast Bites. MMMM, just the wording sounds so yummy. Of course, I knew it was going to be healthy. Check this one out:
http://www.danispies.com/archives/breakfast/banana_split_breakfast_bites.php

Even this one looks like it might satisfy my sweet tooth!

A calorie range works best for me!

Last week I was punching numbers...how many calories I should be eating is always tricky. To few and you end up eating everything in site or your body starts using your muscle as fuel because it thinks it's starving. To many and you either stay where you are or put on weight. So I sat with my computer and calculator and tried to make sense of all this craziness.

Here is what I came up with:

I used the equation from Trainer Momma's Post

Since I don't seem to have a problem putting it all out there my numbers look exactly like this.

(10*82.55kg) + (6.25*172.7cm)-(5*37)-161=1558.875 this is what I need to sustain life

then I used the lowest PAL number 1558.875*1.2=1870.65 Maintain with no exercise

then I used moderate 1558.875*1.375=2143.45 with an exercise burn of 273 calories

Now I want to loose weight so I took 500 calories off of each (that is for a 1lb loss per week)

My range looks like this 1370-1640. Totally reasonable.

Now why do I want a range.

First: I do not workout every day. Before this challenge I workouts 3-4 times a week. Now I'm 4-5 and on a really good week 6 days but most weeks it's more like 4.

I want to know what my low end of the range is because I don't want to be eating an extra 273 calories that the equation thinks that I'm burning off on days that I don't workout. Do you? If you're using a single number based on the average number of workouts you're doing a week you end up eating more on days that you don't workout and that seems to me like you're canceling all the hard work your doing on the other days.

Now, I didn't increase my PAL number because I'd like to take the days that I may get more than 273 calories burned in my workout as extra calories burned. I'd love to lose more than one pound a week. Two pounds would be awesome but I'm not going to take 1000 calories off of what I need to eat each day. That's just not enough food. It also means that if I have an extra hard workout day and I burn closer to 800+ calories I can add some more food into my diet that day. Each PAL increment on the example Trainer Momma showed us increase your burn rate apox. 270 calories.

I did this exact math problem on a weight loss of 20lbs. Something I think is attainable and not unrealistic. That range is 1750-2006 calories or 1251 to 1506 calories to continue to lose weight. That's only a 120 calorie difference.

I hope this helps some of you who may be having questions about what calorie range works best for you. I've used many different equations some I feel to lenient some to strict. I find this is a good range for what I'm trying to do.