Monday Healthy Tip #3...

Well...I somehow managed to forget my camera at almost every turn this weekend!! So unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my Mom's perfect homemade ravioli's, pastia or Easter Bread:( I do have pictures of the 2 sweets I made this weekend: Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake & a Lemon Ice Box Pie....but I figured since it's HEALTHY MONDAY, I wouldn't tempt anyone with MORE treats! Especially since I am VERY READY to not have any more sugar for a MONTH (OK...if I make it to Wednesday, I'll be thrilled;)

So anyway, I thought for my "tip" today that I'd give you a quick cooking trick that I always use. So brown rice is a whole grain, full of fiber and all sorts of good stuff that is lacking in white rice. But let's be honest: It's pretty boring, right??? Well, THE ONLY way I've gotten myself to eat brown rice and actually ENJOY it is that I always cook the rice in chicken or vegetable broth. It adds barely any calories & fat, but the taste difference is off the charts. You can use this trick with any grain: couscous, quinoa, millet....anything to give it that extra little boost of flavor, which may actually make you a fan of the otherwise rather bland "health food." Thought I'd pass on that little tidbit in my ongoing quest to enjoy any healthier food available.

Oh yeah, and PS-I never did make it to my triathlon on Saturday morning. Can you believe I HONESTLY spaced out while I was driving to the gym and flew right past the exit?? (hello, subconscious??) and by the time I turned around, I would have been embarrassingly late for the class. So I condensed all of my three hours of planned workout into one full blown hour of power yoga...and let me tell ya: My legs are STILL killing me!! It was almost an hour of standing splits...here's your visual if your unfamiliar with this brand of torture:Photo Source

Two words: HOT. MESS! :) hahahahhaahhahaa...I'll just leave it at that!

When I came home, I had some cheesecake for lunch....Well, not really! I added a cup of WW Amaretto cheesecake yogurt and a scoop of protein powder to my cup of milk and a huge blender full of spinach to make a DELICIOUS "Cheesecake" Green Monster. I'm really digging the yogurt/protein powder combo lately. It makes the smoothie EXTRA Vanilla-y, but with the power punch of about 3 cups of spinach...try it out folks, you won't be disappointed! OK...I'm done chatting! Have a great Monday!