New Type of Posts

Good morning everyone and happy Friday! I know I have been slacking with the posts lately; but do not worry I am back. I will skip the recap of all my eats for this week and just answer one question that a reader asked. This question comes from Lucky Taste Buds:

The pumpkin ice-cream sounds delicious, but I’ve had a few misses with my ice-cream experiences and I’m worried it won’t be yummy!! Does this really taste like ice-cream or is it worth making my own at home?

For those of you who do not know what she is talking about, I posted about this ice cream on Monday:

To answer your question, yes it is worth the buy. I used to make my own pumpkin ice cream because I could never find pumpkin ice cream in the stores. When I found this, I immediately grabbed it! This ice cream seriously tastes like pumpkin pie. The stats are not bad either! I believe it only has 100 calories and 3 grams of fat per 1/2 cup. If you like pumpkin ice cream and are wondering about this, buy it! Trust me on this one, it is worth the cash!

On another note, as all of you know I am a frequent writer for SingleEdition.com. For the next couple of weeks, you will see me post some questions from people who are in the SingleEdition network. Feel free to give your responses! Check back later on today, there’s a question brewing!

Weekend Updates

Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. My weekend was finally a little more low-key. On Friday afternoon I booked our photographer. I am so happy with our decision and am very confident that they will do a great job Once I got home, I experimented with spaghetti squash once again. This time I added tomatoes and goat cheese. I think this may be my favorite mixture. The black beans and tomatoes compliment each other really well.

For dinner, Gregg and I actually decided to go to the Forum. The Forum is a restaurant that serve’s breakfast 24/7. Gregg wanted a waffle and I wanted an omelet, so that’s exactly what we had. Once we got home, I had some of this awesome ice cream:

I cannot even put into words how good this ice cream is. It seriously tasted like a pumpkin pie, except I think this was better! No lie, if you like pumpkin this is a must try

Saturday morning before my class I had a bowl of oatmeal with trail mix on top. You have seen that many times before so there is no need to post a picture (okay I forgot to take one). I didn’t really eat lunch on Saturday because I was really busy. But, I did take my mom out to dinner to the twisted fork where I decided to get my favorite salad: The spinach salad. This salad has spinach, pecans, strawberries and goat cheese topped with a strawberry dressing.

My mom really liked it too! Her and I actually split this salad and got the BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado) to split as well. Overall, the dinner was success. After dinner, we went to the Brass Monkey for a few drinks and I learned how to play bar dice. Beware, I didn’t lose a game all night!

Sunday morning, my mom and I went out for brunch were I built my own omelet and shared a waffle. The brunch was pretty good but we were hoping to see more breakfast food like fruit and oatmeal. Oh well, you win some you lose some right?

Last night for dinner, we made a beef stroganoff and salads:

I was so full I couldn’t even eat dessert. This dinner was a winner in my book. This morning for breakfast, I had a new creation: Hot apples and Sunflower Butter! I had a little bit of SF butter left so I took an apple and chopped it up, added cinnamon-sugar and heated it up. After I heated it up, I added it to the jar of SF butter.

The verdict: Super good! I love the combo of SF Butter and apples. I also topped it with a little bit of granola. I got this idea from Meghann and boy was it good. I see another mix in the near future. For lunch today, I packed up a salad, yogurt, an apple and the rest of my spaghetti squash.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day everyone!

My Favorite Fall Foods

The leaves are falling and summer has come to an end. For most people this is a sad time; no more pool time, time at the summer cabin or even that bonfire down by the beach. It seems kind of depressing right? Not, for me! There is just something about the cool crisp air and the sun shinning down on you while taking a walk and watching the season change. To me the end of summer brings a brand new season and a time to bring out my favorite foods. Fall is my favorite season hands down, but fall is also my busiest season. It always seems like I have something going on or somewhere to be; so it doesn’t leave me with much time to prepare my food.

During the fall season, I always make it a priority to make soups and chili. This is an easy way to make a great meal go a long way. My all time favorite soup is Chicken Tortilla Soup. It is very easy to make and very healthy for you too! (Each serving only contains 99 calories) The best part of making soup is that you can make a huge pot of it and have it a week or even a month later. All you have to do is freeze it. Soup is very easy to keep in the freezer. You can get my fast, convenient and healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe at my healthy food blog called Healthy Living. You can also find my recipe for Healthy Turkey Chili there as well.

When I do not have time to make a whole pot of soup or chili, I will heat up a frozen meal. Frozen meals can be tasty, convenient and good for you at the same time. When I look for a frozen meal, I want it to have whole grains and wholesome ingredients. One meal that I am a huge fan of is the Mayan Harvest Bake, new from Kashi. This entrée screams fall and is new to the Kashi line of frozen entrees. If you are on the go, make sure you stock up on a few Kashi meals for a quick lunch or dinner.

 

Since I am on the go pretty much all day and night, I tend to sleep a little longer than most. Doing so can make my breakfast’s on the go as well. When I am in a bind, I will go for something called the Breakfast Cookie. But, not just any breakfast cookie an Erin Baker’s Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Cookie; this is a seasonal flavor so stock up now! Erin Baker’s Cookies are baked fresh with heart-healthy whole grains and sweetened with fruit puree. Each cookie is packed with protein, antioxidants, fiber and complex carbohydrates; it is a healthy and delicious way to start your day. With stats like this, you can’t go wrong:

 

Another great go-to snack for an energy boost is Clif Bars. Clif bars give you the energy to keep you going through the day. Usually, I will eat these bars as a snack or feature them in a meal. If they are part of my meal, I will add a salad and a piece of fruit to round out the meal. If you are looking for a fall treat, look for the Pumpkin Spice flavor, I promise it will not disappoint!

 

I hope you enjoyed reading about some of my fall favorites and that you will take my advice and try a few. Remember, a good, healthy meal can be easy and convenient.

Finally a post about food

Good morning everyone! Today I am actually going to go over a few eats, go figure a food blog talking about food… what a crazy concept I know I have been slacking on the food posts, but it was because I was gone all last week. But, enough with the excuses lets get to my eats Monday and Tuesday. So, Monday morning, I started off with a repeat of the Pink Ribbon Bagel from Panera:

I will admit, while I was house sitting, this is what I ate everyday! I know totally full of carbs, but so good And to top it off, these were free from someone at work. Nothing beats a good bagel that is free. Monday for lunch, I had a repeat from last week: Oikos, soup and pretzels.

For dinner on Monday night, I made my first of the season: Spaghetti Squash! We wanted to have spaghetti for dinner, but because I felt like I had my fair share of carbs, I opted for the spaghetti squash which doesn’t have as many cards as the pasta. I topped my spaghetti squash with spaghetti squash.

For dessert, I one of the cookies I bought from whole foods over the weekend: A Whole Wheat Cranberry Oatmeal Cookie:

For breakfast yesterday morning, I made an egg sandwich with cheese and spinach:

For lunch, I packed up some leftovers from the night before with an apple and a salad:

Then, right before I walked out of the door, I made a last minute decision to add this bar to my lunch:

This was my first time ever having a Think bar and I liked it. All of the ingredients meshed well together, but I was hoping for a little more cherry flavor, all in all it was still good though!

For dinner last night, I was on my own so I just started throwing things together, in the mix: Spaghetti Squash, Black Beans, a Laughing Cow Wedge, A Quorn Cutlet, Salt, Pepper, Spinach and topped with goat cheese, the result looked like this:

It was actually really good and all of the components went really well together.

For dessert, I had some trail mix (x2.5)

This morning for breakfast, I made some oatmeal and topped it with 1 tbs of trail mix:

For lunch, I basically recreated my dinner last night because I have spaghetti squash coming out of my ears! This time, I added just black beans and spinach, salt, pepper and some white cheddar mix:

I also packed some grapes:

And some more trail mix:

My lunch all together:

Well, that’s all I have for now, have a great day

Kreativ Blogger!

Good afternoon all! One of the coolest things happened to me this weekend, Ali From Let the Sun Shine Ingave me my first ever blog award: The Kreativ Blogger Award! I know it’s not a big deal to some people, but I am really excited about this:

According to the rules, I have to tell you 7 random things about me. This is going to be hard since I have 100 random things posted about me on my page already. But, I am up for the challenge, so here goes:

1. My favorite drink is wine. No matter if it is white or red, Riesling, port,  or chardonnay; I love it all!
2. My favorite holiday is Christmas, I love making these sugar cookies and spending time with the family.
3. My favorite meal of the day is Breakfast. Sure, lunch and dinner are good but there is nothing better than a good bowl of oatmeal or pancakes to start your day!
4. I wake up at 5:15a Monday-Friday: It really only takes me 25-30 minutes to get ready, but I poke around so it ends up taking me about an hour….
5. I have been to Vegas twice and I love it so much that I will be taking another trip out there with all of my girls in June or July next year.
6. Gregg wanted to get married in Hawaii; since we knew that couldn’t happen we decided that we will be going there for our honeymoon, can’t wait!
7. I would love to move to California, but I couldn’t stand being so far away from my family

Well, there you have it 7 more things that you didn’t know about me. Now, I have the chance to tag a few others as Kreativ blogger, here goes:

• Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point and Operation Beautiful
• Meghann from Inner workings of a college graduate
• Tina From Carrots n Cake
• Kath from Kath Eats Real Food
• Erin and Andrea from Care to Eat

I chose this wonderful bloggers because they are the reason I started blogging in the first place, have fun with this one chicas!

Giveaway Winners!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Today, I will not be able to post my eats from teh weekend so I will just post the winners from my giveaway. The 10 winners for the Silk Coupon Giveaway are:

• Allison from Postcollegecook
• Evan from Food Makes Fun Fuel
• Yogi from An Apple a Day
• Anna 
• Danica from Danicas Daily
• Tay from Taydor Tott  
• Cellabella
• Chelsea
• Busy Little Lexi
• Lethea Benson

Please email your address’s  krittie.healthyliving@gmail.com If I do not receive an email from you by Wednesday, I will choose a different winner. Thank you for all that entered! I will be back later to post about an award I won!

Sigh…

So, I do not have food pics for you. I am currently house sitting for my aunt  my camera cord at home. I will post pictures on Monday or Tuesday from the weekend and whatnot. Even though it is Friday, I am kind of sad…. This weekend Rod Thomas will be in Milwaukee. I heart him but I cannot go see him because I told my brother and sister in law that I watch their two girls overnight. Okay, so I am not too upset about it because I am actually really excited to watch the two little ones, but Rob is beautiful, see:

I guess it is all okay because I did get to see him last year:

Since I wasn’t able to show you any food, I hope you enjoyed the eye candy. Have a good Friday and don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

Silk Giveaway!

So, last week I got an email from Tim from Silk Soy Milk. They recently launched a new product called Silk Heart Health Soy Milk. He asked if I would be interested in hosting a giveaway so people can try this new product for FREE. So, I took a look at the product online and found this information:

A recent study found that people who enjoyed three servings of Silk Heart Health per day for four weeks, as part of a sensible diet, lowered their cholesterol by 7%.Silk Heart Health is the first U.S. soymilk to offer the combined benefit of two proven heart-health ingredients.¹

• Soy Protein-a perfect, natural protein recognized by the FDA for its role in heart health.
• Phytosterols-a naturally sourced plant ingredient that also carries the FDA heart-health claim.

From diet and exercise to stress and sleep, every lifestyle choice you make can have an impact on your heart. With clinically shown benefits from two proven ingredients, Silk Heart Health is a natural choice for heart-health confidence you can feel.

I also took a look at the nutritional stats and was pretty impressed: Calories 80, Total Fat 1.5g, Sodium 95mg, Total Carbs, 10g, Fiber 1g, Sugars 7g, Protein 6g

Since I was impressed with the product and I know a lot of my readers enjoy soy milk, I was more than happy to host a giveaway. The best part is that I get to choose 10 readers to receive a coupon for a Free Half Gallon of Silk Heart Healthy Soy Milk.

To enter this giveaway, you can do the following:

• Leave a comment stating why you would like to try this new product
• Link this post on your blog and leave a comment letting me know you did
• Add me to your blogroll and leave a comment letting me know that you did

Thats all you have to do. You have until Sunday, October 11th to enter. I will choose 10 winners and post them in my Monday post. Good Luck!

Happy Hump Day!

Good afternoon everyone! I am in a great mood today and I have no clue why, maybe it was the extra hour of sleep I got because it’s Wednesday. I usually wake up at 4:45 for work, but today I got to sleep until 5:45 because it’s my night to close the building. Any who, last night I had a pretty good meal. Gregg and I actually got to make dinner together; which never seems to happen anymore. We both get really busy so it’s hard to take the time to do this. We both knew we wanted chicken, but he wanted something extra special: BBQ Chicken. So, that’s exactly what we made. We used some Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and some Weber Grill Seasoning.

We also made some mashed potatoes. I haven’t had these in forever!

We also decided to use up some frozen corn that we had in the freezer.

All in all, it was a pretty good meal. I know it looks boring and very separated, but for some reason, I do not like it when my food touches. Sometimes, I cannot control that, but when I can my food will not be touching.

After dinner, I hopped on my stationary bike and rode that for 30 minutes. Once I was done doing that, I cleaned up and sat down to watch my addiction aka 90210. While watching 90210 I snacked on some grapes. Do you like my green sweats? I am sure you do

For dessert, I decided to finish off the brownies my mom made over the weekend. These brownies are not at all good for you, but they are the best. I mean whats not to like, walnuts, chocolate and caramel. YUMM!

This morning, I had my first Pink Ribbion Bagel of the season. And let me tell you, those people at Panera know what they are doing! This bagel has a ton of cranberries and cherries in it, it’s also very hearty and filling. You may or may not be seeing this bagel again 2 or 3 more times this week…

For lunch, I packed some Campbell’s Coup, Newmans Own Organic Pretzels and some plain Oikos with chopped up Apple folded into it.

Have you ever tried Newmans Own Organic Pretzels before? If you haven’t you must! I know they are just pretzels, but they will rock your socks off, I promise!

The Blog: One Year….

You know, it’s crazy what a year can do to you. I was thinking about it this morning and decided I would devote my blog post to that. I have been through a lot in the last year and it’s hard to believe that I am where I am today. I think it all started with a single post about food. I remember I started reading a few blogs, one in particular really sticks out in my mind. Her name was Tina and she had a love for Barney Butter. If you do not know who I am talking about, it’s Tina from Carrots n Cake. Her blog was the first one I ever read. I came across her blog looking for a new type of peanut butter and fell upon her contest. I decided to enter the contest and write up a little poem of why I wanted to win. Guess what?!? I won. The girl who hated writing, wrote a poem and won a free jar of Barney Butter.

From there, my blog exploded into something I never thought it would be. I turned into a blogger. Companies started contacting me to review their products and readers started asking me for advice. This was CRAZY to me! But, the more I did it, the more I loved it. It really brought me in tune with nutrition and made me love it.

Since starting the blog, I have won the Worksite Wellness Award for my company, ran my first 5k and continue to excercise on a daily basis, I have learned to be okay with they way I am even if the number on the scale isn’t what I want and I became certified in Nutrition and Wellness. This past year has been a great year for me. I could not have done any of the things that I have done without the inspiration from other bloggers such as Caitlin from the Healthy Tipping Point and Operation Beautiful; and Meghann from The Inner Workings of a College Graduate. With the help of Tina, Meghann and Caitlin, I have learned that blogging is fun, helping people out is even better and loving who you are no matter what is what counts in life.

I know it seems a little weird to get all of this from a blog, but I really did. The blog motivates me and from what I can see, motivates others. If it weren’t for other people in the blog world, I would have never saw that nutrition and helping people out was my passion. So, here’s to the awesome year I have had with the blog and here’s to another great year, Thanks blog world!