I'm scrappy

Vegetable broth. A staple in most Meatless Monday meals - and pretty darn expensive for what you're getting. Seriously. Why on earth have I been paying $3.50 for this stuff when it's so easy to make myself - FOR NOTHING?!?

Since starting my budgeting kick - you know, since I'm so broke - I just hate wasting food and throwing away things I can use again later. (Remember saving the cranberry water for crandied orange peel?) So, when a friend mentioned making her own vegetable broth all I could think was "Why aren't I doing that?"

I've been collecting the scraps from my cooking endeavors - you know, the leaves off the outside of the lettuce head, the butts of the onions, spinach stems, the veins from my peppers - and yesterday I put em all in a big pot, added water and garlic and set it to simmer for an hour. Then, I strained it and put it in jars.

Now I have 48 ounces of vegetable broth - that didn't cost a dime!!! How's that for being scrappy with the budget?

I didn't need any vegetable broth for the Roasted Cauliflower and Penne I made for dinner tonight, but I'm ready for the next batch of vegetable soup or veggie chili. Bring it on, Monday, my pocketbook and I are ready for you.

Because it's Monday ... and you know what that means!

Have you checked out Meatless Monday yet? I blogged about it awhile back, but I thought it was time for a reminder.

I've been following the Meatless Monday Movement for a few months now and I LOVE the creativity it has brought to my meal plans, the varied foods I've eaten because of it, and the dent it's made in my pocketbook (did I just say pocketbook?). Some of the recipes I got from Meatless Monday are now a regular on my meal plans (hello Sweet Potato Burritos - minus all that cheese, of course!)

I don't just go meatless on Mondays, I've found protein-happy, meatless meals creeping into other days each week as well. This week for instance, sees me making Sweet Potato Pierogies for dinner tonight (so excited!), Eggs and Lentils for dinner tomorrow, and Mushroom Fajitas for dinner Thursday. Seriously, my grocery bill for this week was $15 LESS than usual. Just sayin'

Here is an easy recipe to kickstart your Meatless Monday Meal plan:

Avocadillas
1 medium whole wheat tortilla
1/2 avocado
1 Tbsp chopped peanuts

Scoop avocado from skin and mash in bowl. Mix in peanuts.
Spread avocado mash on one half tortilla and fold other half to close.

Spray frying pan with non-stick spray and lightly toast the tortilla, flipping as needed. Enjoy!

Servings Per Recipe:1; Calories: 297.0; Total Fat: 18.1 g; Cholesterol: 0.0 mg; Sodium: 405.9 mg; Total Carbs: 32.5 g; Dietary Fiber: 10.4 g; Protein: 6.7 g


This recipe has been an evolving creation for me. The first time I made it, I used cheese and called it a quesadilla. Sure, it was tasty, but I decided the cheese wasn't necessary and just added more fat. Sometimes, however, I add a tablespoon of bacon bits (you can find vegetarian options) and they add a nice little flavor zap.

Lettuce rejoice this winter

During the summer, salads can be super exciting. Those fresh greens you lovingly choose at the local farmer's market. The light dressing you sparingly spray to enhance the crisp crunch of each type of lettuce. The peppers you chop to add a little bite. The coolness in our mouth and the droplets of water that still cling to the leaves, cooling you from a steamy, humid summer's day. I love it.

But then comes winter - and what is a delectable pleasure in dogs days of summer becomes a bland, punishment during the dark, cold days of winter. I crave warm foods when it's cold and cold foods when it's warm. So salads become a necessary evil for me in winter. Sure, I still love the crunch and the variety of flavors, but I want food that warms me and salad just doesn't do that.

Until today.

I don't know why I never thought of it before: Warm salad. It's so simple it's stupid (or at least I am). I'm not talking about the usual warm (carb-filled) salads like potato or pasta salad. I'm talking about taking a base of greens and topping them with warm salad fixins! It's total brilliance that came to me via an AMAZING recipe in Women's Health. 

Seriously, this has blown my mind and may have just started a new obsession for me! 

The salad (recipe also posted below) involved cooking shrimp, onions and mushrooms in the bacon dressing. All I could think was, "Why have I never thought to heat up vinaigrette before?" When I put the plate in front of Kevin - covered in fresh spinach and wafting with the smell of cooked bacon I said something about wanting to take a picture. "I totally support that idea" said the man whose big joy in life comes from laughing at me each time I photograph a plate. He ooohed and ahhhed through the whole meal and nodded vigorously as I talked about the apparently brilliance of warm salads.

Oh - and the brilliance of bacon dressing shouldn't go un-noted either.

Check out this life-changing, protein-filled salad recipe (and yes, it takes BACON!!!):

Shrimp And Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing

8 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
6 oz baby spinach
1 cup sliced mushrooms
6 strips bacon, cut into small pieces
1 red onion, sliced
2 Tbsp pine nuts
3 Tbsp red-wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Olive oil (optional)

How to make it:
1/ Set a large skillet over medium heat. Cook bacon pieces until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper towel.

2/ Add onion and mushrooms to the hot skillet and cook until onion begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Season shrimp with salt and pepper to taste and add them to the skillet, along with pine nuts. When shrimp are pink and firm (2 to 4 minutes), stir in vinegar and mustard, and season again with salt and pepper to taste. If the skillet looks dry, add a splash of olive oil.

3/ Divide spinach and eggs among 4 plates and top with the hot shrimp mixture, some of the dressing from the skillet, and bacon.

Makes 4 servings
Per serving: 316 calories, 20 g fat, 12 g carbs, 572 mg sodium, 5 g fiber, 21 g protein

D-coding cravings

I love it when one of my magazines speaks to me and offers a solution to a problem I couldn't articulate.

It happened just five minutes ago. I was thumbing through my "Women's Health" from December and a reader's question caught my eye.

"Why do I crave more carbs in the winter?"

And it hit me - that's exactly what's been happening to me the past couple of months! I've been physically craving breads, cookies, CEREAL, crackers, and pasta. I've given in more times than I should, but now I'm thrilled to know why.

According to Keri Glassman, R.D., of NutritiousLife.com, it is totally natural to crave more carbs in the winter because there are fewer daylight hours. What does that have to do with the price of spaghetti? Well, apparently, with less sunlight, our bodies make less vitamin D and therefore can't pump as much serotonin.

I am quite familiar with serotonin, the brain's mood-regulating chemical, and have battled my body's inability to regulate it for years. But I never knew my body's vitamin D production was also a factor.

Glassman says that when there is less sunlight, our bodies urge us to look for another way to make serotonin. Carbs boost the production of serotonin and so we crave carbs more. Simple as that.

So what do we do to fight this? Glassman says we should increase our intake in D-rich foods such as nonfat milk, orange juice, tuna and mushrooms.

Oh, and we should spend a few minutes in the sun every day - even if the ground is covered in 8 inches of snow.

I'm on it! Portabello Mushroom Fajitas is going straight on this week's meal list and I'm getting the dogs ready for a lovely hike through the (snow-covered) neighborhood. Hot chocolate made with milk should make a great snack when we get back.

See? Serotonin boost is already happening at the mere thought of it all!

School days make me happy

I am so excited to go to school today. Mainly, I'm excited to get back into my usual routine. Spending time at home for weeks on end is nice - don't get me wrong. But it's been a constant battle for me - to snack or not to snack.

Don't get me wrong - I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing for the past 3 weeks. Besides work, I have done a lot around the house getting ready for this new semester. In fact, it was on the two days that I gave myself permission to just stay in bed and read and watch movies that I snacked less! Since I knew I would be sitting at home for days on end, I altered my eating style a bit. I focused on smaller meals to compensate for more snacking.

Also, as an experiment in maintenance, I stopped counting my calories at the beginning of December. Yes, you read that correctly. I decided to see if I could "do it" without counting every calorie I consumed. Silly me, it was a bad idea to do this during the holidays because there were so many different dishes crossing my plate. Since the start of the new year, however, I have managed to maintain my weight and even start back on the losing track over the past week or so.

But I feel a little out of touch with the nutritional information of what I'm eating. Perhaps this is one reason I've read articles advocating counting calories forever. Of course, the idea of that sounds a bit tedious to me. I certainly didn't miss writing everything down in December and January. Plus, I feel pretty comfortable with my ability to stick to my calorie allowance - holiday foods notwithstanding. But, I miss knowing some important information: How much calcium, protein, fiber and iron I'm consuming.

Sure, I read labels, but they don't add it all up for me. And you'd be surprised how hard it can be to get the recommended iron or calcium you need in a day! I might pop back onto Sparkpeople.com every few days and input that day's food to see how I'm doing.

New measurements (and Weigh Day)

It's the first weigh day of 2011! Whether it's a day to look back over the changes of the past year or a day to mark as a starting point for future goals. Today is THE day!!!

1/5/2011
My Measurements:
Weight: 145.6
Waist: 27.5 inches
Arm: 10.75 inches
Thigh: 19 inches
Calf: 14.75 inches
Hips: 37 inches

For me, I'm taking today to look back on where I was this time last year. And wow, I'm super-thrilled with what I did in 2010.

1/20/2010:
My Measurements
Weight: 183 pounds.
Waist: 35 inches
Arms: 13.75 inches
Thigh: 26 inches
Calf: 16 inches
Hips: 44.5 inches

2010: A Year of Inner Growth

Seriously, 2010 was pretty damn amazing. Not only did I FINALLY hit a healthy weight for the first time in my memory, but I walked a 60-mile walk, ran my first 5k and developed some awesome eating habits to carry with me into 2011.

Here is a montage looking back on 2010 and the outer signs of inner growth I experienced.

I learned a lot last year. I learned about healthy eating - more than just low-calorie eating - and what my body needs to thrive. I learned that physical activities don't come easy for me, but that I can do anything I set my mind to - so long as I prepare my body correctly. And I learned what I need to push myself to the next challenge (mainly fear and a deadline). So, I'm taking those lessons with me into 2011.

It will be hard to top 2010, but I'm setting things up to do so. Heck, just the fact that I will be finishing law school this year is pretty amazing (in December). Plus, I'm signing up for a half marathon, and am setting new weight-loss and maintenance goals for myself. I'll blog about those in a few days.

How was your 2010? What milestones did you reach? What lessons are you taking into 2011?

28-Day Boootcamp? I'm in!

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions? For me, I set a big goal: This year I will run a half marathon ... on April 10, if I have my druthers.

The funny thing is, after walking 20 miles a day for three days straight last summer, 13.1 miles isn't that intimidating to me. Maybe it should be, since this will involve the move I hate the most: running. But if I learned anything in 2010, I learned that I am capable of doing whatever I set my mind to doing - so long as I plan and prepare adequately.

So, since the race I want to run is in 14 weeks, I've spent this morning coming up with a training plan for the half-marathon. Most of the plans I see online are 10-week plans for people who can run 3 miles without stopping. Because I have only done that once and it was months ago, I figure I need a bit more time.

My plan involves spending the next 4 weeks getting my body back into running shape. This, of course, involves training my brain that running does not mean Death himself is after me and is no need to panic. It involves reminding my heart that it's ok to pound a bit quicker for awhile. And reminding my lungs that they need to work while I run - the entire time.

So, imagine my glee when I saw a 28-day Bootcamp program in my inbox from Sparkpeople. Ladies, I forwarded it to you in case you wanted to join too.

I just finished the video for Day One and, um, yeah. I'm a lot more out-of-shape than I realized! But that's ok. With the 28-Day Bootcamp program, and cardio 5 days a week, I still think I can be running 3 miles by the end of January and then ready to build miles for the half-marathon.

The video was quick and really did get my heart rate going.  The dogs, watching the entire time, thought I'd lost my mind and were very concerned. But, I already feel like I accomplished something this year and that's all that matters!

Seriously, check out www.SparkPeople.com if you haven't already. It is GREAT for tracking fitness, counting calories, and reading healthy recipes. If you have joined, post your user name so we can find you! I'm Nallie01 and can use a few more friends on there.

Right or wrong?

I was wrong.

Apparently, I can cast it all aside and just eat. At least that's what it seems I've been doing the past week.  In the name of "not wasting food" I have been eating leftovers from Christmas all week - in moderation, of course. But then add in the left over pecan pie I've eaten every day. And the 6 chocolate chip cookies I had for New Year's ... and it seems I'm not necessarily the fatty-snob we thought I was!

But it's all over today. I just used up the last of the mashed potatoes in pancakes and will throw away and remaining pecan pie after dinner. I won't lie - this week of excess has been tasty (though the cookies were a bit too hard for my taste and - technically - wasted calories since they weren't the texture I prefer) but I don't like how these foods have made me feel. I haven't been able to eat nearly as many vegetables as usual and I can definitely tell a difference in my energy and sleeping habits. Also, I haven't gotten my usual amounts of calcium and fiber lately and I notice a difference in other areas because of this.

Finances are still a bit tight until my student loan disbursement so I'm stuck with a lot of frozen vegetables until mid-January. Also, my protein has to come from beans until pay day. But there is a lot that I can make from my fridge. I have lots of black-eyed peas and lentils left over from New Year's Day. Plus, we have some venison sausage that was given to us in Texas.

Anyway, I digress. I stepped on the scale this morning and got a VERY unwelcome shock: 147.8. Um, that puts me back into the overweight category - and is totally unacceptable! It also perfectly illustrates the points I've made in previous posts. 1) I want a buffer that allows me to gain a bit of weight without going back to being overweight. 2) I can't let down my guard - even if "it's the holidays" - if I want to stay a healthy weight. At least not yet.

So, I guess, really, I was right. Phew. I hate being wrong.