Life's too short...

Morning, all!  Sorry I didn't get a chance to hop on here on Friday...or any other times this weekend😉  And not only was the weekend a whirlwind, but so was this past week.  I had no consistency with meals last week since most nights I was running back out the door to teach and lunch turned into dinner.  Sooooo with that said, since I don't have a 'weekly wrap-up' to share with you, I figured I'd just share a few treats (healthy or otherwise😉) that I had this week.  And why not throw in a few quotes to make up for Friday, shall we??

Healthy bites this week:

Blueberry oat bars

These were such a hit from the 2015 Bikini Series that I have NO idea why it took me this long to make them again.  Ya just whirl all the ingredients in the food processor, press it into a pan, bake, done.  Plus they're soooo good, sweet from natural sweeteners of maple syrup & blueberries and filling from the added protein...which my body NEEEEEEDS for breakfast.  NEEDS.  Or I'm a crazy, ravished animal for the ENTIRE rest of the day😉

Greek Cucumber Noodle Salad

Another recipe that I was fascinated with trying...mostly because A.- I will eat anything with kalamata olives involved & B.- the hummus topper??  Genius.  This was delicious, light & healthy...with a little kiss of decadence from those kalamatas and the feta.  Swoon😍

Ham & Cheese quinoa cups

My love for quinoa cups is still rollin this week.  A batch of these cooked on Sunday = a healthy lunch in 60 seconds during the week.  Weeeeeeeeee!

Joyful Heart Muffins

I have made this recipe (sans the frosting from this old picture) a million and one times and once I bake them, I don't understand why I don't keep these stocked in my fridge at ALL times.  They are completely decadent and chocolate-y, perfect for that mid-afternoon sweet tooth...AND guilt-free.  Plus, I love, love, love any time you use oat flour (or ground oats) as a base.  It just FEELS good for the old bod.

And in the "Life is too short" Category...

Since March was coming to an end last week (whattttt???) I realized I only had a few more days to get my hands on the March-only delicacy known as St. Joseph's pastry.  And since we were near my VERYFAVORITE bakery on Monday, Nino's Pastry shop, we decided to stop in after Katie's gymnastics lesson.  Only problem?  As I was walking up, I realized a bakery probably wouldn't be open on Monday....as was stated on the door....as I was WALKING IN.  Yes, for some reason the door was open while the owner was in there getting a jump on his week's inventory.  As I was apologizing for disturbing him, he asked me what I wanted...and when I mentioned the St. Joseph's treats, he proceeded to MAKE THEM FOR ME.  Fresh & off the presses!

How often does THAT happened in life??  I left feeling soooooo incredibly grateful (because HOW NICE IS THAT???) ANDDDD really excited to tear into these little jewels.  I wasn't even planning on eating them that day when I purchased them...but life is too short for denying THAT kinda TOTALLY FRESH goodness.  And OF COURSE not only were they sooooooo delicious, but those pastry edges still had a bit of a crispy edge, which sends me into stratospheric levels of joy😉   If you're in the Hamilton area, you MUST MUST MUST go to Nino's.  + best cannoli's I've EVER had...and I've been to Italy.  So there's that😉  And an owner who was gracious enough to make a customer a pastry ONTHESPOT WHEN they were closed!  Terribly impressive.

And a few food for thoughts moments to kick off your Monday...

I could barely get through that one without my voice cracking😉  Typical😉

Have a great kick-off to the week!

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A tale of two peppers...

Hey guys!  I know it's been a minute since I've shared a recipe with you for the Collingswood Farmer's Market Bloggers, so today I'm bringing you a DOUBLE whammy. 

But first?  A photo of Katie, who lingered by this mural next to the market for a good half hour while we noshed on Tortilla Press Quesadillas.  She just couldn't get over all of the animals hidden in the tree branches, and I couldn't get over watching her love it:)  #Momlife.

And of course, we have our produce picture...

...and this STILL doesn't tell the tale of how many beautiful and fresh veggies are just BURSTING at the seams at every turn at the market.  TIS THE SEASON for ALL the beauties.

And one big theme this week:  Peppers.  Peppers ALL DAY.  "You get a pepper!  And YOU get a pepper!"

OK, I'll settle down.

BUT not before sharing 2 recipes with you today.  The first is for one of my favorite ways to 'healthy up' one of those awesome decadent treats:  Pepper nachos!

Swoooooonnnnn...nachos minus the cards and + lots of vitamins & minerals?  Done and DONE.

You can use any peppers you want for this recipe, but my favorite is to use those ADORABLE baby peppers to make bite-size 'nachos'...

Slice the peppers in half, remove the seeds and bake the peppers for about 10-20 minutes on 350 just to soften them up a bit.

While the peppers are cooking up a bit, it's time to get your fillings together.  For this recipe, I poached some chicken breasts until cooked, give em a shred and sprinkle with taco seasoning.  (you could also use ground meat/turkey, black beans, whatever sounds good to you)

Next, pile the chicken (or your favorite filling) into the peppers...

Top with cheese (I used monterey jack & cotija) and green onions and bake until the cheese is melty and delicious...

Top with lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole or any of your favorite nacho topping and you've got a quick, delicious and HEALTHY way to serve nachos ANY day of the week!

Baby Pepper Nachos

Ingredients:

• 1 bushel of mini peppers, seeded and sliced
• Poached chicken (or your favorite nacho filling)
• Cheese
• Green Onions

1. Place pepper halves on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for about 10-20 minutes at 350 degrees until warmed through.
2. Fill with chicken (or your favorite filling) and top with cheese and green onions.
3. Bake until cheese is melty.  Top with lettuce, tomatoes, etc.
4. Devour!

And from the itty-bitty peppers to these beauties...

...I put them to work to make a great meal for these grilling days:  Grilled Pepper Pizza...

I quickly lopped off the tops of the peppers and deseeded them before slicing em in quarters and giving em a quick whirl in my food processor, creating a flavorful 'sauce' in mere minutes.  I also added a couple garlic cloves because, well, WHY NOT?  But feel free to omit if that's not your jam.

While I worked on the pepper, I had the crust workin on that grill.  The way we make grilled pizza is to stretch out the dough and toss on one side directly onto the grill.  When the crust is done, it will easily release from the grates.  Flip the cooked side up.... 

...and start to pile on the goods.  For this pepper pizza, we added the pepper & garlic 'sauce'... 

...we also added some sliced onions (to really extenuate how AWESOME we were going to smell later;) and lots of mozzarella...

...toss back on the grill until the underside is cooked and the cheese is melted.

I mean...

Can you really argue with GRILL kissed pizza laced with fresh flavors?  It's one of the perfect ways to wind down this summer season.

Grilled Pepper Pizza

Ingredients:

• Long peppers, deseeded and quartered
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Pizza dough
• Onion
• Mozzarella Cheese

1. Preheat grill and roll out the dough.  Once the grill is hot, place dough directly on grates.  It will easily release once the dough is cooked on one side.
2. While the dough is cooking, toss the peppers & garlic into the food processor and whirl until it is a sauce consistency.
3. Take dough off the grill and flip so the cooked side is on top.  Top with pepper sauce, sliced onions and mozzarella cheese.
4. Place back on the grill and cook until the underside is cooked and the cheese is melty.
5. ENJOY!

Hope you liked these recipes.  I'll have more to share with you next week since, this time of year, I am BURSTING with fresh, healthy veggie recipes.  Have a great one!

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I even brought the yogis down...

Morning, everyone!  Sorry for the mini-hiatus!  After my wild weekend last week, I did indeed get that salad for lunch on Tuesday afternoon....but then my week spiraled into the ANTI-Bikini Series.  Think pizza, strawberry milkshakes (although I learned one fast food chain's version tasted like a cup of cleaning products, thankfully ending that phase quickly!) and lots of comfort food.  Basically anything I could think of that sounded even remotely appealing.  It was fun....for about 5 minutes, until I started to feel gross & lazy, but I just COULD NOT get my footing back.  Oh well....it happens, especially at 36 weeks pregnant and after 6 weeks of following a pretty solid routineJ  

On top of that, I was cramming for both my FINAL YOGA TEACH (holy shmoly!) & written exam, which I'm AMAZED to say I passed both with flying colors...CRAZY!  Well, at least I'm pretty sure I passed my final teachJ  I don't get officially certified until the graduation ceremony at the end of June, after everyone else completes their final teach.  (bumped mine up since, ummmm, we don't know what the end of June will bringJ  I'll either have a newborn or be 700 months pregnantJ)

ANNNNNNNYYYYYWAYYYYYYYY, so I TRIED to get myself back on track, thanks to my dear Edofoods friends...but even THAT descended into madnessJ  I'll explain in a secJ

*AND THANKS AGAIN MUST GO TO MY DEAR FRIEND CHRIS FOR ALL OF THE EDOPHOTOS!  I was the epitome of LAZY this weekend, and she thankfully picked up my slack!!  Thanks, Chris<3 b="">

Saturday morning brought this beautiful and sweet fruit salad...filled with dragon fruit, lychee (not sure if I've ever had either of those before), cherries, blackberries, papaya stars and THE sweetest mango I've ever tasted....

Lunch brought us an "Asian Peanut Noodle Salad"...complete with zucchini noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, peanuts.  ...which we all shamelessly drowned in EdoFood's peanut sauce.  We LOVEEEEDDD the mix of flavors and crunchy textures in this fresh salad... 

And our sweet treat to finish off our "Asian-inspired" menu on Saturday was a red bean mochi....as demonstrated by the hand model:  MEJ hahahahahhaha 

And Sunday started off well enough, with these DIVINE AND SUPREMELY CRUNCHY spice-roasted chickpeas, which we all loveeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddd!!!!!!!!

...but once lunch time rolled around, my need for 'non-healthy' food came on SO Strong, that I even managed to convince a few of my beautiful yogis to join me on a burger/bacon/fries spreeJ  It was seriously one of the HAPPIEST lunches I've EVER hadJ  I'm gonna blame YOGA-GLOW, amazing company & the fact that we were all giddy from being a little 'off the yoga path' at that momentJ  It was a blastJ

So, thanks to my burger lunch, I was pretty full for the rest of the day, so most of my Edo eats are still in my fridge waiting to be devoured over the next few daysJ  I'll definitely be sure to share as I go....thanks again, Jen & Ricky!!!!  We LOVE you both!

And Monday FINALLLLLLLLY brought us back to normal, as I FEVERISHLY made our food menu & grocery shopped to get back on track this week = NO EXCUSES.  Even after 24 hours, I feel better than I did about 95% of last week.  Just goes to show.....

ANYWAYS!

Monday Recap:

Workout:  2 sets arms & squats with 8 pounds

Which was, ummmm, like my first exercise all week as well.  I just felt RIDICULOUS going to yoga class last week (since getting dressed felt like a chore) and I had my 'diva-moments' at yoga school this weekend and barely did anything THERE as well.  I just kinda felt like I reached THE END OF THE EXERCISE LINE at the moment...BUTTTTTTTT I think that was just an excuse since I felt JUST fine picking up the weights again yesterdayJ  We'll play this week's schedule by earJ

Breakfast:  Banana Smoothie Bowl

Snack:  1 cup strawberries (fresh picked from Katie:) + 1/4 cup pistachios

Lunch:  Tone it Up Sweet Potato Sliders + 1/4 avocado

Not pictured because they were burned and in piecesJ, but Tone it Up's recipe for roasted sweet potato/black bean/millet/southwestern spiced 'burgers' made 800 patties.  Scott devoured most of them last week (while I was downing...ummmm, mac & cheese and mashed potatoes for lunch:), so I was bummed that when I finally got around to trying them yesterday:  THEY WERE THE LAST OF THE STASH!  I'll definitely try making this recipe again soon...especially since a little effort covered about 10 meals!

Snack:  Coconut Luna Bar

Dinner:  Tone it Up Chicken Stir-fry with chopped peanuts 

So that was a day of FINALLY getting back on track.  And hopefully the motivation from this post will keep me going!  

Thanks for reading all of my rambles and have a great Tuesday!!J

Bikini Series: Week 4 kick-off...

Monday Recap:

Breakfast:  Sweet Potato Cookies

This week's Bikini Series bake-ahead breakfast treats is a mix of roasted sweet potatoes, peanut butter, flax, coconut flour, craisins, pecans & honey...swooooooon, they were quite delicious.  A Tone it up breakfast hasn't failed us yet!

Snack:  1/2 whole wheat pita with hummus + spinach 

I love that this is a SNACK!  Totally kept me full till well-passed noon.

Lunch:  TIU Enchilada con mole 

There goes those millet enchiladas againJ  Wrapped in corn tortillas (vs. collard green leaves) for lunch.  While zucchini, broccoli & millet doesn't seem like normal enchilada fare, it's actually quite tasty.  The one weird things is they flavored the vegetables in Asian flavors (rice vinegar & Tamari) while everything else is flavored with chipotle, chili & cumin.  Shoulda swapped those spices out from the jump...cause that weird hit of tang is really the strangest part of the whole dish.

Snack:  Tuna & chickpeas mixed with avocado & lemon juice on Wasa crackers and topped spinach 

How's that for another hearty snack??

Dinner:  Hawaiian Chicken + roasted snow peas 

Pineapple juice, lime, honey & garlic marinated chicken topped with cool pineapple, pepper & chive salsa, this meal was definitely fit for SUMMER.  Cool, sweet & delicious.

And I'm not normally a fan of snow peas, but roasted in olive oil, garlic powder & a bit of sea salt made these crispy & toasty deliciousness.

Workout:  Hatha Vinyasa Yoga

And Finally FINALLY I felt well enough to make it back to class Monday night!  I was soooooooooooo happy!  I never cease to feel FAB after a good yoga sweatJ

And speaking of sweat, ummmmmmmmm...we leapt right from early spring to summer around here yesterday.  85 swooped in on us and made for one stuffy house by late afternoon.  Come on, summer!  Keep it together until JULY at the earliest!   It's that or I will be parked in front of blasting air conditioners for the entire month of JuneJ  

ANYWAYS...J

Have a good Tuesday!

Spring yogi eats...

Morning, folks!  Hope you guys had a great weekend.  It was a CRAZY BEAUTIFUL one in NJ, with temps in the high 60's & 70's, bright sunshine, cool breeze, and for me:  a weekend spent with my fellow yogi teacher traineesJ

Which also meant a fabulous weekend of foods fresh from EdoFoods Spring menu.  Starting with our Saturday round up of goodies, including a spiced Carrot Muffin... 

Which I remember it being delicious, but don't remember too much else since I think I scarfed it down in 3 bitesJ  Hahahahahahahaha....

Lunch brought us this BEAUTIFUL salad packed with sweet sugar snap peas, radishes and peppers in a strawberry coconut dressing...

...and on the side, a spring mix of fresh asparagus, diced tomatoes and peppers in a balsamic dressing.

Much like its name, this tasted soooooooooooo fresh!  I didn't even recognize the raw asparagus, since I'm not sure I've ever eaten them uncooked, but they were so snappy & crunchy that I'll definitely be adding them raw to my salads all spring-long.

And, of course, everyone's favorite course is the 'dessert' course for late afternoon, and these Dark Beet muffins made EVERYONE super happyJ  Mini chocolate muffins studded with mini caco chips made the whole afternoon that much sweeterJ

And Sunday brought us a new round of treats, starting with HUGE oat crisp cookies...

I love love love oatmeal cookies, so any excuse to have them as part of a healthy diet is A-OK with me.  These (like all of Edofoods) were made with clean, healthy ingredients so you got to indulge in every bite of crisp goodness without an ounce of guilty.  Yee-ha!

Lunch included some sunshine...along with these chickpeas, cabbage, carrot, lettuce wraps in a gluten-free rice wrap smothered in spicy & sweet hummus sauce...swooooooonnn.... 

And on the side, ain't she a beaut??  Quinoa salad filled with little jewels of diced peppers, cilanto & tomatoes.  JUST SO GOOD! 

And, um, remember that thing I said about 'late afternoon snack?'  Well, this one had to get bumped up to 'lunch dessert', when some of us just COULD NOT WAIT to crack into these mini jars... 

...of blueberry CHEESECAKE!!!!  Minus the cheese!  EdoFood's specialty treats maker, Jen, is just BEYOND amazing to be able to turn all of these vegan ingredients into a 'you'd never know the difference' cheesecake treat.  Bliss, I tell ya!

Thank you again, Ricky & Jen, for all of your beautiful food mastery and for nourishing all of us, body and SOULLLJ  Just the cherry (or blueberry) on top of a beautiful weekendJ

And the rest of the weekend, we kept to our "Bikini Series" plan with Almond/flax pancakes on Saturday morning...(Scott was NOT a fan of the Perfect Fit pancake I had made for him one time, but was a much bigger fan of this energy/protein pancake swap)

And dinners of bean salad & avocado on Saturday...

...and another round of chili lime tacos on Sunday...

We DID, however, have our weekend splurges of doughnuts for breakfast on Sunday morning (Katie's latest request, replacing her request for Sunday morning pancakes, which were apparently her 'winter thing'J) and a burger from Issac Newton's on Friday night...

...chased with a mini Salted Caramel Blizzard from Dairy Queen, which OMG...don't even get me started.  This latest baby Loooooooooveessssssss chocolate and that little number made us both VERYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY happy.

But I'm soooooooooooo happy to go through a weekend WITHOUT feeling like I need a full-blown Monday "restart," since we kept our balances & splurges in check....which is always QUITE a challenge, I will admit.

But we're already back at it for Week 2 of the Bikini Series.  And I say "already back at it" since I already ate the breakfastJ  And sneak peek:  it was another winner.

Alright...better get up and get this day officially startedJ  Have a good Monday, everyone.