Weekly Wrap-Up: 1/29-3/4

February 4, 2012 by 2 Comments

I’ve decided I really like the weekly wrap-up posts!  I’m going to try to make them a regular thing- I like being able to post random things without making a whole post about them specifically. 

This week was so weird for me.  I was tired, grouchy and just felt really off all week.  I kind of felt like I was just going through the motions this week.  But this week officially starts over today and I declare next week awesome!

Weekly weigh- in!

Last week’s weight: 174.6
This week’s weight: 175.2

Change this week: +.6
Total weight lost:  34.8 lbs!!

Meh.

Haircut!

I was about 3 months overdo for a cut and color(yikes!) and I was sporting some major white trash roots.  I also hadn’t realized how long my hair had gotten because I’ve been wearing it in a ponytail pretty much every day since November.  But we cut off 5 inches I think?  And it’s still a few inches below my collarbone.  It was just starting to become completely unmanageable with the length and it was always one big mass of knots.  Anyway here’s the new do.  I didn’t do anything new with my color this time, just took some length off!

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Let’s talk about shoes…

I love them.  I don’t love fashion and I would rather have a tooth pulled than talk about clothes.  I’m just not into it.  But shoes.  Shoes are the only reason I don’t wear wind pants or yoga pants and tees every day.  Can’t wear insanely cute shoes with either of those items unfortunately.  Well I guess you could but it would look pretty weird! Winking smile  Here are just a few of the shoes I wore this week!

Boots!  I love boots!  Cowboy boots?  Yep!  Riding style boots?  Of course!

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Chucks are always appropriate.  As are a new pair of peep toe wedges.

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Recipe Roundup!

Recipes I posted this week!

Spicy Black Bean Dip

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and

Southwestern Salads

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I didn’t really make any other recipes- we had a lot of leftovers this week.  Hopefully I’ll do better with this next week!

 

Workouts…

I was an epic failure on my number of workouts this week.  I have lots of great excuses but I’ll spare you.  But the workouts that I did do were good!

I can’t remember if I posted my long run with last weeks workouts or not, so I’m going to post it again.  (I’m still having some breathing issues.  Dislike.  I think it’s the weather).

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My legs are STILL sore from these sprints- they were killer!  But I think they’ll really help me in the long run!

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Yeah that’s all.  Totally lame.

 

Like I said I wasn’t really feeling like myself this week.  Hoping next week’s wrap-up is a little better!  See ya next time!

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Filed Under: healthy living, recipe round up, weekly wrap up, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Spicy Black Bean Dip

February 3, 2012 by 6 Comments

Hey everyone!!  One of the appliances I love most in my kitchen is my food processor.  Hands down.  But really great food processors are pretty expensive.  We were very blessed to receive ours as a wedding gift.  Also it’s sometimes too big to do the job I need it for, like making small batches of dips and chopping small quantities of veggies.  Enter my new toy…

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The mini food chopper!  This bad boy was on sale at Target this past weekend- I think I paid $30 for it.  I had been thinking about getting one and as I saw this one on sale I knew it was the one!  I’ve had a super cheapy one before but it didn’t work well and I ended up throwing it away.  Spend a little money if you’re going to get something like this.  It’s worth it, I promise! 

This little food chopper is absolutely PERFECT to make the dip recipe I’m sharing with you today!  Also I hear there’s some kind of football game this weekend, and that it’s kind of a big deal.  So maybe you should make this to snack on during said game!

 

Spicy Black Bean Dip

(Print this recipe!)

by Sarah Collins Chapman

Prep Time: 10 min

Keywords: food processor appetizer dip vegan vegetarian black beans Super Bowl

 

 

Ingredients

  • 1/4 small onion
  • 1 jalapeno, seeded
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 t salt
  • 1/4 t ground black pepper
  • 1 T nutritional yeast (optional but it adds a lovely flavor!)
  • 1/2 t chili powder
  • 1/4 t ground cumin
  • 1 T cilantro
  • big squirt of lime juice
  • 1-2 T water

Instructions

Place onion, jalapeno, and garlic in a food processor and pulse it until finely chopped.

Add black beans, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, chili powder, cumin, cilantro, and squirt of lime juice and process until the dip starts to come together.

Stream in water until the dip meets desired consistency (I used 1 T).

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Sooooooo good!!

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And not too shabby in the caloric department either!

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Delish!  Enjoy!

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Southwestern Salad

January 31, 2012 by 2 Comments

This salad may be low calories but it is no slouch when it comes to filling you up!  Using salsa verde instead of an oil laden dressing will keep it light and all the natural flavors of the food can shine through!  Adding beans packs it with protein and the avocado gives us  some nice healthy fat (why not get your fats straight from the whole food, right?!). Plus all the amazing colors are oh so pretty!!!

 

Southwestern Salad

(Print this recipe!)

by Sarah Collins Chapman

Keywords: salad vegan vegetarian salsa black beans Mexican Southwest

 

 

Ingredients (2 big salads)

  • 1 head Romaine lettuce, chopped and rinsed
  • 1 cup black beans
  • 1/2 cup corn kernels (fresh, canned or defrosted frozen corn will all work fine)
  • 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 avocado, diced
  • 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup salsa verde (or more to taste)
  • squirt of lime juice
  • tortilla strips(or crushed tortilla chips) and cilantro for garnish

Instructions

Layer lettuce, beans, corn, tomatoes avocado, and onion in a very large bowl or into two large individual salad bowls.

Top salads with salsa verde, a squirt of lime juice, some tortilla strips and a little cilantro.

Serve immediately

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This is one that we’ll definitely be making again and again!!

Enjoy!

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Weekly Wrap-Up: 1/23-1/29

January 30, 2012 by 5 Comments

Hey y’all!  I really meant to post this this weekend but I was super busy so it just didn’t end up happening. 

I decided I would try out a weekly wrap-up post instead of making separate posts for my weigh in, work outs, new stuff I’ve tried, and just general goings-on.  I thought it might be nice if I kind of condense it all.  It’s just an idea, so we’ll see where it goes!

First my weekly weigh- in!

Last week’s weight: 175
This week’s weight: 174.6

Change this week: – .4
Total weight lost:  35.4 lbs!!

I gained about 5 lbs during finals and Christmas break (stresssss) so I decided that I wanted to lose that 5 lbs by the end of January.  And if I made it I would reward myself with something.  I left the reward open ended so that I could choose whatever I wanted when I reached my goal. I doesn’t usually work for me to choose the prize ahead of time because I’ll just end up saying “screw it” and buy the item for myself regardless of the outcome. Anyway the first weigh in of January I lost 4.8 lbs!  And then the second weigh in I lost .2 and then this week, of course, I lost .4! 

About halfway through the month I started seeing people tweet about the Nike Fuel Band.  I was curious about it so I started looking at it.  The more I read about it the more I knew I had to have one!  So since I was so close to that 5 lbs and I was confident I would make it I went ahead and got one when they went on pre-order (they’re not actually available until the end of February).  I’ve now earned my reward and I can’t wait to get it- I think it will be delivered on Feb. 22nd!  I can’t wait to test it out and let everyone know all about it!

Since I did so well this month I’m going to keep my weight loss goal on the smaller side for next month and say that I would like to lose 2 lbs.  That’s 1/2 a lb per week. I think that is attainable but a little daunting since I normally lose .2-.4 lbs at a time.

 

Weekly recipe round up!

This is totally new!  I thought I would talk about recipes/meals I make each week for anyone that was looking for ideas for tasty healthy meatless meals!

So we’ll divide this up into my personal recipes I posted this week…

Barley, Tomato and Arugula salad!

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AND

Chocolate Cupcakes!

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And recipes I made and loved this week! (cell phone pics+ bad lighting. Sorry!)

Veggie Pot Pie stew and sweet potato biscuits from Appetite for Reduction.  The stew was fabulous, but the sweet potato biscuits were not unfortunately

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Tamale Casserole from The Happy Herbivore.  This was delish- the husband was a huge fan!  We served it with some steamed collard greens.

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And I played with a new product called soy curls.  More on this later- I’m planning a whole post about their fabulousness!  I followed these directions and we had BBQ sandwiches out of them served with oven fries!   Will definitely be using soy curls again- so delicious!!!

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And finally let’s wrap up this little wrap up since it’s starting to get kind of long.

 

This week’s work outs!

My runs have been epic failures most of this week but I have been doing some strength training so I’m pretty proud of that!

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This one was HORRIBLE!  I’ve been having such a hard time breathing lately.  I go through this every winter with breathing problems and bronchitis.  Blah. (p.s. thanks for the encouragement Diana and Laura!)

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I was feeling a little better on this one…

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And I finally got a long run under my belt on Saturday!

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This post has gotten longer than planned, so I’ll go ahead and say adios!  Have a great day!

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Filed Under: Menu posts, recipe round up, Recipes, weekly wrap up, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , ,

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

January 28, 2012 by 3 Comments

Happy National Chocolate Cake day!!!

Sometimes you want to splurge on something full of sugar, fat and pure decadence.  And that’s A-Okay!  In fact moderation is a big part of living a healthy lifestyle!  But sometimes you just want something sweet and chocolatey without breaking the calorie bank. Without it being full of fat and sugar.  This recipe is for you! 

In the past 6 months or so I’ve stopped cooking with oil (oil is totally over rated!)  And I’ve found that you don’t lose any flavor or moisture cooking with applesauce instead of oil or margarine- try this recipe or any of my muffin recipes if you don’t believe me- I swear you won’t miss the oil or butter!!

The thing about these cupcakes though is that you can’t tell that they’re almost fat free!  They taste super decadent without losing that sweet chocolatey flavor or a bit of moisture.  Give them a try- you won’t regret it!

 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

(Print this recipe!)

by Sarah Collins Chapman

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Keywords: bake dessert vegan vegetarian whole wheat pastry flour applesauce cupcake

 

Ingredients (12 cupcakes)

    For chocolate cupcakes:

    • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
    • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
    • 1/2 cup AP flour
    • 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
    • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
    • 3/4 tsp baking soda
    • 1/2 tsp baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
    • 1/3 cup unsweetened apple suce
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract

    For Vanilla Icing:

    • 1 cup organic powdered sugar
    • 2 T unsweetened almond milk
    • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

    Instructions

    For chocolate cupcakes:

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with liners and spritz them with a tiny bit of cooking spray (don’t skip this step- it’s important since there is practically no fat in the cupcakes! Otherwise they will stick to the liners)

    In a liquid measuring cup stir together milk and vinegar. Set aside.

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    In a large bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

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    In a medium bowl combine the milk, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla.

    Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

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    Divide evenly into the 12 muffin liners (I like to use an ice cream scoop to do this- 1 scoop of batter per muffin liner!)

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    Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool completely before icing.

    For icing:

    Stir together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Adjust to your liking- if it’s too thin add a little more powdered sugar, if it’s too thick add a little more milk.

    Ice each cupcake with 1 Tablespoon of icing.

    Note: The icing works best if you refrigerate it for a bit before you ice your cupcakes- this will make it much easier to work with. Also refrigerate your cupcakes immediately after icing to make sure the icing doesn’t melt.

    Mmmmmm…..
     

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    Here’s the nutrition info if you want it!

    1 cupcake with 1 Tablespoon of icing…

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    1 cupcake without icing…

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