Sometimes I want a basic, boring side salad to complement whatever else I’m eating. Sometimes I want a salad with lighter and brighter tastes, like with fruits and seeds. Sometimes I want a salad where I can just forget that it’s a salad. Last night’s salad was certainly one of those occasions.

On Saturday, as we were finishing up menu planning (in the parking lot of grocery store #2, no less) I was trying to come up with a meal that could use bits of pieces leftover from previous meals…organic roasted chicken from Easter, organic bacon from a future breakfast for dinner or BLT night, leftover hardboiled eggs, plus miscellaneous produce in my fridge. Then I remembered my newfound love for Panera’s Chicken Cobb Salad. Andddd done. I knew what I was making, and I was actually so excited about it that I moved it from a lame, end-of-the-week leftover meal to the very first meal of the week.

Mexican Chicken Cobb Salad (serves 1)

• 2 cups organic baby spinach
• 1/2 diced tomato
• 1 organic egg, hardboiled and chopped
• 2 oz. organic chicken breast meat, chopped
• 1/4 avocado, diced
• 2 Tablespoons corn kernals
• 1 slice cheese (I used Applegate Farms Monterey Jack cheese)
• 2 slices organic bacon, crumbled
• Dressing:
• juice from half a lime
• 1/2 of a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
• 2 Tablespoons water
• any additional water if a thinner consistency is desired

Let’s be real – it’s a salad, there are no real directions here. Layer away in a bowl/ plate/ tabletop and boom, yay salad! For the dressing, combine ingredients in a food processor or blender. I didn’t use any extra water because I liked the thicker texture, but the world’s your oyster! Have fun and make it your own.

Using the same brands and ingredients that I did, the nutritional information works out as follows: 436 calories, 23.8 g fat, 23.3 g carb., 30.1 g protein.

Now I’m off to lament the fact that I don’t have leftovers of this leftover meal. sadface.

I don’t want you to be sad, too, so here’s a reminder of a current giveaway! If you missed the announcement, Ross and I are going to start co-blogging in the near future, but we want a new name! The winner will receive a random collection of goodies from us, because I’m anything but random, including (but not limited to!):

a trial size container of my favorite body butter by Say Yes to Carrots

one of my favorite lululemon headbands

a batch of my top secret recipe vegan chocolate chip cookies

Unless you’re a dude. Then we’ll come up with some alternatives. Or just a double batch of cookies. To win this contest, you have to help us come up with a new blog name! If you give us a new blog name that’s funky, cool, not too cutesy/ dude appropriate, health/fitness/food related, OR you give us a name that inspires the name we end up with (still with me?) you win. So far…no one’s winning. And I really want to bake you (or you!) cookies.

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Food Photos

Half of the pictures in my header are of food. This is primarily because my blog is a “foodie” blog. It is also because food/ spending time in the kitchen is very relaxing for me, in addition to being a lot of fun!

I chose this first picture to demonstrate my affinity for fruits and vegetables! I love all things green and have had a lot of fun incorporating fruits and veggies into my daily eats!

This next picture was chosen because this Peppermint Bark was one of the first things I made last year when I was starting to get a lot more adventurous in the kitchen (read: create without recipes). I also got a ton of positive feedback from my friends and family about it, which is around the time I first started thinking about food blogging.

This next picture is a recipe I created recently for Healthy Blueberry Muffins. I chose this picture because it shows my love for creating healthy and wholesome foods.

The final food photo is of my Homemade Egg Rolls. I love trying new things and branching out of my kitchen comfort zone, as well as making cooking fun! My husband and I had a ton of fun the night that we made these egg rolls.

Moments in Life Photos

I am a newlywed and love every moment of my new journey being a wife! It is definitely a life-changing time and I’m so glad I started this blog. I look forward to looking back on all of these memories from our newlywed years of marriage! Obviously this photo is taken from our wedding day.

I am a huge lover of nature, particularly of oceans, lakes, rivers, and any water formation. I’m also a huge lover of sunsets! (sunrises too, but I have seen way more sunsets). This photo is one I will always treasure because it is a moment in time showing the sunset on our wedding day this past summer. I was full of such love, peace, gratefulness, beauty and emotion, and still on such a high from our exciting day. I felt like my heart was bubbling over into the sunset!

This next photo is a moment from a beautiful sunset on a trip to Salerno, Italy in March 2007. I was only there briefly but I absolutely fell in love with the Italian culture, the Mediterranean, the food, and the beauty of life there. I could go on and on about my time in Salerno (haha it’d be best to email me if you’re interested!). Basically, I went on a “vision trip” with a Christian organization to see how God is moving in Italy and how I could be a part of it. It was a fantastic experience. And regardless of your personal beliefs, I think this picture is just a great depiction of silent, beautiful power and grace.

This final picture is from inside the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. I remember walking in, totally in the moment absorbing all of my surroundings and the first thing I saw was this giant cross displayed in the midst of a gorgeous blue, sunny, Italian sky. This photo depicts another beautiful moment in my life, as well as the cross which symbolizes my beliefs as a Christian.

And thus is the story of the photos in my header. I hope you all enjoyed learning a little bit more about me and some special moments in my life.

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Update from yesterday: I did not go running yesterday, I wore my shoes a bit to get used to them, but am going for a run later today. Yay!!

Product Review

A couple days ago I finally tried a Chobani (Chobani fairy? Please make my Christmas! It’s so hard to find Chobanis here in Dulls-ville!). I picked up the peach flavor at a Fresh Market store in Sarasota while we were there for Thanksgiving. All I can say is YUMMMM!!!! Wow, I really wasn’t expecting to taste that big of a difference from the Oikos Greek yogurt, but I thought it was so much creamier and just better.

Obviously I enjoyed it so much I and was so excited I had to taste it first before I found my camera. I was really impressed with the nutritional info, too. (You can check it out on Chobani’s website here). 14 grams of protein? Whoa! Based on a daily intake of 2,000 calories, that’s 28% of your daily protein needs!

I would totally recommend this and I personally can’t wait to try the other flavors (and the plain nonfat). I have never even seen a strawberry Chobani in stores, so hopefully I can find one sometime soon-ish!

Deals and Steals

Ok, so I’m just going to throw this out there. I’ve shopped at Big Lots. While the stores themselves are usually a little unorganized/ not the cleanest or fanciest, I am now totally hooked. I went in to a local one on Monday because I was searching for a pretty, inexpensive tree skirt, and I honestly didn’t like any that I saw at Target, Michael’s, Marshalls, etc. And I refuse to settle. So I found a gorgeous tree skirt that matches our tree beautifully, and then I figured I’d head over to their non-perishable food section. Hey, I’m a foodie, why not?

Oh. My. Gosh. I’m totally hooked and hitting that again! I think what I was most excited about were my finds of Annie’s Organic Pomegranate Vinaigrette Dressing and Annie’s Organic Green Garlic Dressing – each were 80 cents. Um, do they even know how much these sell for at other stores? I’ve seen them $4 and up, each in the Publix Greenwise department!!! So I picked up one of each for myself and for my mom (Merry Christmas Mom!) I was talking to a worker there and she was telling me they get a lot of organic goods there, so it might be worth a scope out if there’s one by you!

Food/ “Recipe”

Anyway! I used the Green Garlic dressing in our dinner from Monday night. My mom had a ton of huge Swai fillets (it’s a fish, also known as Basa Fish), so she gave a couple to Ross and I to take back with us. The fillets were so big, I split one in 3 pieces (2 used in dinner, 1 in Ross’ lunch the next day). I coated each piece in the Green Garlic dressing, then lightly dipped it in bread crumbs and cooked it in a skillet over medium heat with a small amount of EVOO. (I don’t know how much, I use a Misto sprayer and just sprayed the bottom and then sprayed again whenever it got stuck). When the fish was done I drizzled a little more of the Green Garlic dressing on top of the fillet (which by the way was one of the most tender pieces of fish I have ever tasted!).

I served them with peas (frozen, that I pretty much killed when I nuked them way too long!) and homemade mashed potatoes, yum! (The mashed potatoes = 3 white potatoes, peels on, cooked until fork-tender, mashed with a couple tablespoons of fat free sour cream, a tiny bit of butter, garlic powder, and a pinch of kosher salt). I had to test this out because I’m making this for a holiday party that I’m going to with hubs on Friday night (a 5 lb. bag of white potatoes is $1.99 at Publix!).

Christmas Decorating

I know I’ve been promising pictures of our decorating, so here are a few sneak peaks. There are no cute pictures of us newlyweds in front of the tree yet, because, well, to be honest, I felt I looked like crap last night and didn’t feel like looking cute (read: I was comfy in my sweats). So here are a few pictures from our tree.

Full of all sorts of pretty golds and reds. (Which is kind of ironic because we bought our ornaments sporadically last year in post-Christmas sales and some this year pre-Christmas sales, and we totally weren’t trying to be matchy-matchy).

And LOOK! Jack Frost decided to decorate for Christmas too!!

Check out all that frost on my neighbor’s SUV! Big deal! This doesn’t happen very often in Florida, folks!

Well I need to go be productive. Expect an entire Christmas related post in the future…pictures of all our decorations, us being cute newlyweds celebrating Christmas, new traditions, cookie baking/ decorating with friends, and more!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

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Um hello, death by deep south! Oh, and those innocent looking brownies in the top right corner? They had walnuts in them. Duh! So anyway, I broke into my emergency stash I brought with me. While everyone else was enjoying their pecan fest, I enjoyed my own pom-a-palooza!

So anyway, Tuesday we drove down all day (yay driving…not) to Sarasota, FL where we currently are. I’m SO glad to be home with my parents, my sister, and of course my wonderful husband. Today has been spent doing a jog (2.5 miles…but UGH I’m getting slower), going to a great kind of hole-in-the-wall type place called Southside Deli for lunch, and then spending ALL afternoon at the AT&T store where we were all looking at and picking out new phones. I ended up getting the Pantech Matrix in Navy. Loving it! Now we’re all off to enjoy a relaxing evening enjoying random finger foods for our “dinner” (i.e. crackers, cheeses, fruits, chicken wings, etc.) and watch Walle! Peace out folks, see y’all later! And in case I don’t “see” y’all tomorrow…

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Love,
LC

P.S. I’m glad to be back. I missed the blog world. Who knows what I’ll do when I’m gone even longer in AL for Christmas!

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Friday hubs came home from work and told me to hurry and get ready, I had to go with him to pick up a package (he really needs to make better excuses…why on earth do I need to look cute to go pick up a package??). Well, guess what I ended up doing Friday night :

YES! He surprised me with tickets to go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra Friday night! I was SO excited. I just think it’s so cool what they do, and have always enjoyed their music. I’ve always wanted to go see them live. Plus, they played several of their Christmas hits, so it was a fun start to the holiday season. And we got to hear a sneak peak of some new songs that will be on a new cd to released at some point in the future. Hooray! Here are a few pictures from the show:

Here we are, waiting for the show to start! (I’m not good at taking centered self-photos, haha).

Pic of the bling…we were SO bored waiting!

Coming down from the ceiling. (Sorry the pictures are blurry, we were high up).

Cool light effects.

This chick was rocking out with her sweet pink electric violin. She was ridiculous man…running all over the stage, jumping up and down everywhere, she even did a Blue Man Group type stunt, and came out into the audience, started playing right next to people while walking on chairs behind them – gosh, I wish I was one of those people!

The show ended up going a LOT later than we expected (that’s ok, we don’t mind getting our money’s worth!), but we ended up getting home after 12:30am and off to bed way later than we normally do (gosh, we’re such old people). I mention this, because if y’all recall, I was supposed to do my 2 mile no-walking run Saturday. I really wanted to get it done in the am, which in hindsight was a bad idea. I didn’t eat the best on Friday (nothing too bad, just not a good balance of lots of fruits and veggies like I’ve been doing), plus I got a LOT less sleep than I usually do, and generally felt like crap when I woke up. But I got up early, went out, and tried. It sucked. I made it a mile before I had to stop walking because my chest was so tight/ not letting my breathe. Needless to say, I was incredibly frustrated when I got back to my apartment.

BUT I did NOT let it discourage me! I was so determined to acheive this 2 mile jog this weekend, that after our fun day today, I made Personal Trainer Hubs go out with me on a 2 mile jog, and told him he was not allowed to stop for me. I know I could’ve done it, but it helped so much to have him there, just a few steps ahead of me, saying a few encouraging words when he could tell I needed it. And I’m happy to say the 2-mile jog is done! I know, not a big deal for most of my readers, but this is the longest distance I’ve gone straight. YAY!!

Anyway!!

Saturday post-awful-jog Ross and I did some cleaning around the house. I tried the chocolate chip cookie recipe of the hard boiled egg cookies. I was actually disappointed. Good thing I made a small batch! I used this recipe *using all hard-boiled egg) and definitely need to fix it up. Too much butter and sugar which created a kind of weird, artificial type taste to me. I’ll let y’all know when I come up with a good recipe!

Then after an afternoon of browsing our local mall, we decided to do a more fun finger food type dinner.

Pomegranate BBQ chicken wings, Spinach Sausage Bread (Jennie-O Extra Lean Turkey Sausage), carrots, steamed edamame, kiwi slices and pomegranate seeds. Along with a glass of Shiraz. So yum and it was really easy and fast! (Let me know if anyone wants any specific recipes).

I also found pomegranates for $1 each! WOW what a great price! So we got 2. For those of you who aren’t sure, you want to get pomegranates that are more firm (I think the firmer ones are also darker too). Here are all the beautiful pomegranate seeds we ended up with:

Today was just a fun morning at church (GREAT message about marriage and how it’s not all romantic as “two becoming one” sounds – it’s about hard work and committment to the process of marriage!). Then we went to a city a little further up to get some really cheap half off Christmas present craft supplies, as well as some supplies to make our own wreath. I’ll post a picture when we make it.

Now I am going to end this post because hubs and I are watching KungFu Panda (it’s actually really cute!) And a quick thank you to Lindsay for the blog award she gave me today! I’ll post the award and pass it on tomorrow. Have a good rest of the evening!

Love,
LC

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First of all, can you believe the election was a week ago? I don’t know about y’all, but it feels like it’s been ages since November 4th! Also, on the whole national type theme, Happy Veteran’s Day!!

Second of all – fitness. I successfully completed Week 5 Workout 1 from the C25k running plan this morning. (From here on out, when I update my progress, I’ll refer to it as Wk5WO1 or whatever that particular week/ workout may be.) I’ve also done some stability ball work, ab work, arm work, butt work (haha gotta love squats!) and stretching.

Food: I enjoyed a small cinnamon raisin bagel this morning with a glass of skim milk (amazingly, the milk didn’t even hurt my tummy at all!! This is nearly miraculous folks!) I’m currently munching away on my yummy, random lunch right now. One component I wanted to throw out there: Kahiki Vegetable Egg Rolls.

They’re actually really good, and pretty good nutritionally, too. A good rule of thumb is to avoid foods that have a slew of ingredients that you can’t pronounce. But I actually knew all of the ingredients in these! And there are no trans fats, no saturated fats, no cholesterol, etc. And at only 70 calories, the fact that they can easily be microwaved (and not get soggy!) and they’re fast is great! Plus if you want the sweet and sour sauce too, that’s only another 10 calories for the whole packet and isn’t full of a bunch of garbage! In my opinion, these are a great snack/ addition to a lunch. My biggest complaint is that there are only 2g of protein…boo.

To continue my randominity (new word? I like it!), I wanted to share something with y’all that I read in my nutrition book this morning. They suggested some “rules of thumb” for serving sizes. You know, your typical “a portion of meat is the size of your palm”, etc. Well, they also said that 1/2 c. was the size of a cupped hand (1 c. meaning both your hands cupped together). I decided to put this to the test.

I love edamame, and I love it frozen (please don’t tell me I’m the only one out there…). One serving measures 1/2 cup, so I decided to use this to test it out.

I vote this a fail. Or maybe I’m just bad at cupping my hand? Maybe it needs to be a heaping handful? Who knows. Well, regardless, I topped my 1/2 cup off and had the edamame, along with my eggroll, a 1/2 c. of unsweetened applesauce (1 serving) and an ounce of raw almonds (1 serving protein). Voila! Yummy lunch!

My last random: I know my husband sometimes reads my blog, and hun, I just want to thank you for always being so supportive of me and all my endeavors, and for loving me the way you do. No special reason, just cuz I love ya.

So everyone spread the love today!

Love love love,
LC

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