sauté chicken and veggies with roasted organic sweet potatoes

Hi Ladies!

Hope you're all having a great week thus far. Life is pretty busy on this end but no complaints.

Today I want to share one of my quick and easy dinner recipes. It literally takes me less than 45 minutes to prep this entire meal and saving time comes in handy when I have work to do all day.

Yes, I kind of ate almost all the sweet potatoes. Too good. Don't judge me! 

As you may already know, I try to make a conscious effort to eat healthy yet satisfying meals at least 80-90% of the time (the rest is saved for my beloved sweet tooth).

This meal idea includes Mushrooms, onions, chicken, yummy seasoning, organic sweet potatoes and steamed veggies.

 Lets do this.

THE {VERY SIMPLE} INGREDIENTS:

Diced mushrooms, onions, grilled chicken:

Frozen Veggies (ready to be steamed):

PREPARATION:

Grilled Chicken saute with the mushrooms and onions.

Saute the onions with all the seasonings, using 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (if you have garlic and red peppers please add some, it will enhanced the flavor even more- I ran out!). Once the onions are caramelized, add the diced mushrooms and mix it all together. Let the mushrooms cook in low-medium hit until soft and tender. Finally, add the grilled chicken and mix it all together again, letting it heat up.

Place the diced sweet potatoes in the oven at 350F for about 15-25 minutes (until cooked and crispy, flip them after about 15 mins).

Mix the saute chicken and onions with the veggies, get the sweet potatoes out of the oven and voila! You're done. enjoy!

Tell me, what is your favorite quick and healthy recipe idea?

Love,
Mabelle

Made My Own Granola and is GOOD!!

Hey Everyone!

How you're all enjoying a good week! It probably goes without saying I haven't been so active lately with the blog because things have gotten quite busy. Nonetheless, here I am to share something I did this past weekend which I am super excited about: made my own granola!

I probably sound like the biggest nerd right now but after spending sooo much money on granola since I started my healthy-living journey (IE: I love the LoveGrown brand but is $$$) I decided to experiment and do my own.

Where do you go when you want to find out how to do something immediately?! Google! I found a great and simple recipe and to my surprise I had all the needed ingredients on hand! I entered the world "clean" on my search because granola can have quite a high amount of calories and fat so I wanted to make sure I found something I wouldnt have to feel guilty about eating.

Here is the recipe from Clean Eating Magazine.

I didn't have cranberries on hand so I used raisins (which I added after the granola was already made since I've never baked raisins before and wasn't quite sure how that would work.)


Here are some photos of the process--->

In to the Oven:

Out of the Oven:

Cut up in to Real Granola!:

Placed it in my containers from Almond Butter which I keep because I am crazy. One of the jars is almost halfway done:

And now I take it to work and mix it with my Greek Yogurt for breakfast! YUM!
 

Cant wait to experiment with more flavors!!! I also want to get cute containers to put it in :)

Question: Have you ever tried making granola, or anything at all that you had previously spent money on? or, do you rather just buy it?

January Goal Review: How did I do?!

Hey everyone! Happy Saturday! I had quite the eventful day. I went to lunch with a very good friend of mine. We met up at California Kitchen and I had the most amazing Cobb Salad with house ranch dressing on the side (used very sparingly).

After a very nice lunch and an amazing time catching up I decided to do some shopping. My goal was just maybe an hour or two but that turned in to about 5 hours where I visited:

• Walmart
• Target
• Trader Joes
• The Container Store

I had to take advantage because most of the stores are no where near my apartment (I was about 20-25 miles away from home). So, believe me! I had a blast. Specially at Walmart  I think I stocked up on enough house cleaning products and snacks to last me for the rest of the year!

So anyways, without further ado I'd like to get to the point of the post which is my January Goals Review. If you missed the very first post of the year you can check it out here. These were my target goals:

1. Read an entire book of choice. January's Selection: Aleph By Paulo Coelho

I finished the book in about 2 weeks in to the month. Although the book was quite good and included several "inspirational- follow your dreams" quotes, which are almost in every Coelho's book--- I still find that the Alchemist is his best work to date. 

Aleph is written as non-fiction and is actually Coelho's personal account of a trip he made
with his writing team while crossing the Trans-Siberian railway (a very, very long and adventurous train ride from Europe to Russia). I wont tell you much in case you want to read it but he shares multiple adventures where the main character is a stalker fan which he allows to join him on the trip. 

Like I mentioned, the book is filled with amazing quotes. Here are a few of my favorites:

"When faced by any loss, there’s no point in trying to recover what has been, it’s best to take advantage of the large space that opens up before us and fill it with something new." -Aleph, Paulo Coelho

"Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions.  Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do."

"Anyone who knows God cannot describe Him. Anyone who can describe God does not know Him."

2. Get started on my new Jillian Michaels DVD. Shred IN 30

What can I say?! I love, love, love Jillian! I am currently on week 2, day 4 of Shred In 30. Ive been doing the workouts pretty consistently about every other day (minus this past week because I did not have time due to my school-scheduling chaos). Nonetheless, the workouts continue to be amazing and I definitely find this DVD much more challenging that the 30 day shred. I feel so much stronger and with more definition. Cant wait to see what weeks 3 and 4 are all about. I have a feeling I should be quite scared. But I am sure it'll be worth it!

*The way I am approaching the workouts: Since is 4 weeks worth of different workouts what I am doing is completing each week through the course of 7 days (skipping a day in between) which makes it to about 2 weeks per weekly workout. Hope that makes sense! I dont do it everyday because the workouts involve weights so, I like to give my muscles a rest day in between.

3. Look at the NY Road Runners schedule and map out a few races for the year or next 6 months. My sister got me a membership for Christmas (gotta love her!) so I cant wait to put it to use

Yes! So excited I have my 5 races mapped out for the year (I had made a goal of completing at least 5 races in 2013). I sat down the other day and googled some cool races for the year. I still have to sign up but a couple of the ones I am super excited about are: The Rock N Roll Race and The Color Run. Tomorrow I am running my very first race of the year with my sister. Is a 4-miler. Not too bad but I am excited :)

Ok, so I know I mentioned I would have my February objectives mapped out by today but I am still working on a few details for that particular post. I want to make sure my goals are realistic and attainable considering I am about to go back in to my full-time employee/ Part-time student routine so, there's going to be quite a nice mix of time-management going on. I am hoping to finish up rounding up my feb goals by tomorrow.

Question: Did you have any particular objectives for January? What was the best thing that happened to you in the last 31 days?

Getting Creative in the Kitchen

Hey all! I feel like I’ve had quite the hectic week and it’s only Wednesday. Ask me why I woke up this morning thinking it was Thursday already?! Ugh! Yesterday there was a crazy accident on my train line on my way home from work so I had to find an alternative way to get home. I was left stranded at a random train station. Thankfully, I made the best out of it by going in to a Barnes and Noble while the craziness died down and it made for quite the productive evening (Barnes & Noble is one of my favorite places to be. Nerd alert!). Another plus side is that I even found my local express bus  in the area which eventually took me straight home! Sometimes breaking away from the routine can help us discover new things we’d probably never realize otherwise.

In terms of workouts—Ive been pretty good with doing Jillian “shred in 30” every other day since the beginning of the year. I love her DVDs. I seriously never though I’d be able to find a work out DVD I would love as much as this one (plz don’t judge lol. I still love his videos!!) but I did and I love it!! Ive also been walking several miles per day.

Somehow I’ve been able to maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle without a gym membership! NYC can be an amazing gym in and of itself!

So…back to the title of the post. Lately I have been enjoying loving the kitchen and finding clean, healthy, yet delicious recipes to try or I’ll just make up random stuff (which I what I usually do). I have to share with you the three top dinners I’ve come up with this past week. Every single one of these dishes was soooo good and full of flavor! And guess what! I barely used any oil and zero salt. For flavor; I use about 1 teaspoon of coconut oil and then I add garlic and onions; which I sauté. I also add some of my curry powder which adds flavor to everything (with a gazillion times less sodium than regular salt).

Sunday: Chicken Quesadilla

Monday: Mashed Sweet potato with Grilled Shrimp

Tuesday: Organic black bean soup with carrots and veggies on the side (not pictured)

…don’t you love Trader Joes? The delicious dish above came out of this lil’ number.



Oh! And I figured out a way to make ~65 calorie hot chocolate (Simple Ingredients: One cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk, one packet of “sugar free” hot cocoa, some cinnamon on top--- One word: D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. The almond milk gives it such a creamy taste! (side note: the Masala Chai  tea experiment is still a work in progress lol. For now, hot cocoa will do).

So, those are my eats so far for the week. Let’s see what new experiment I come up with tonight. I find that ENJOYING the foods we eat place a HUGE impact on weight loss and maintenance. As you may already know, it has to be a lifestyle. Who wants to go through life eating things that taste like cardboard just for the sake of being skinny? Not my style. There is a better way! Food is to be enjoyed. Bon Appetite!

Question: Do you like to cook? Are you a recipe person or a “I’ll figure it out” kinda’ girl?