restaurant review: z pizza

August 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I haven’t done a restaurant review in forever and I thought this one would be a great place to start doing them again!*  I had heard of Z Pizza before but after Matt tweeted about how great it was I knew I had to try it out!

 

I live in Carrolton, which is a little too far from where Z Pizza is located in Flower Mound to get pizza delivered to us so we went there to check it out in person!

 

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When we walked in we were pleasantly surprised by how fresh it felt inside this pizza joint!

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And there are so many different types of pizza/choices of toppings to choose from.  They also have salads and sandwiches on the menu as well.

 

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I love how obvious it is that Z Pizza has a commitment to healthy eating and that definitely starts with their dough which  is 100% organic (regular OR whole wheat!!)!  Then they add fresh produce and other toppings of your choice after that!

I’ve never seen so many veggie options at a pizza place before- it was definitely hard to make a choice!

I couldn’t decide between the Berkeley or the California and in the end I went with the California with a whole wheat crust.  (next time I’ll check out the Berkeley for sure)

The California pizza included tomato sauce, mozzarella, tomatoes, red onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini and black olives.

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First of all the crust was fantastic!  It was crisp but it still had a nice chewiness to it!

Then there were the veggies- they were super fresh.  I adore  zucchini and mushrooms on my pizza so this was perfection!  It also had the perfect amount of cheesiness on it.  And also they carry vegan cheese!

My only complaint about the pizza was that I thought that it didn’t have quite enough sauce on it.  Easily remedied though- that definitely wouldn’t stop me from going back!!

 

 

Two happy campers with bellies full of healthy pizza!

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* (Here’s the disclaimer where I state that I paid for this meal with my own money. Z Pizza did not give me anything in exchange for this review and all of the opinions expressed in the review are my own!)

Filed Under: healthy living, Restaurant Review Tagged With: , , ,

Blueberry oatmeal muffins

August 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I got some organic blueberries on super sale at the farmers market last weekend and we’ve already eaten most of them right out of the package but I wanted to save some back for some blueberry muffins. 

 

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These are super delicious- a great grab-and-go breakfast or snack option when you’re in a hurry!  Also, I’ll never buy supermarket blueberries again after trying these from the farmer’s market. So. Much. Better!

 

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

(Print this recipe!)

by Sarah Collins Chapman

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 20-25 min

Ingredients (12 muffins)

  • 11/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk!)
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 11/2 cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray muffin pan lightly with cooking spray.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

Add wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Carefully fold in blueberries.

Divide batter evenly into the muffin pan. You should get 12 muffins.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

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Hope you enjoy these- have a great day!

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Filed Under: healthy living, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Holy Hiatus Batman!

August 1, 2012 by 3 Comments

Wow!  I really didn’t intend to be gone this long from blogging!!

 

It started as a wait for a little bit after we move to get internet hooked up to save a few bucks kind of thing.  Then it turned into a there is no internet service where we live thing.  Seriously we called every internet company in the area and they all said that they didn’t have service where we live.  We finally found one that did and had the WORST time dealing with them.   Also the worst customer service I’ve ever dealt with. (I’m talking to YOU Verizon!!)

 

Anyway what else is going on?  Just working, trying to finish up unpacking the new house and killing time till school starts up again!  Yes I’m that person that can’t wait for school to start!!  I’m super excited to go get school supplies (seriously new pens, notebooks and spirals are the best!) and I’ve got all but one of my textbooks purchased. 

 

Also I got a fun new toy!  The fitbit!!  (FYI I paid waaaay less than that so don’t freak when you see the price!  I got it brand new on eBay for much much less than you can get it from their website or even from Amazon!)

Source

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I actually got it several weeks ago but I haven’t been able to do anything with it since I didn’t have internet.  I just started wearing it yesterday and I’m having fun playing around with all the stuff it does! 

Here are my stats from yesterday…

I didn’t put it on till about 10 am.  I worked out around lunchtime so that’s why there’s a huge spike (4 mile walk and some dumbbell arm stuff).  The rest of the afternoon I kinda sat around and played on the internet since it’s been months and months since I’ve been on my computer!

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And it also tracks sleep, which I didn’t really think I would be interested in but it turns out that I sleep terribly and I didn’t know it!

 

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Terrible right?  I’m going to wear it again tonight to bed but I’m going to try to go to bed a little earlier and drink a little sleepy time tea before I go to sleep and see if that helps any.  We’ll see!

I get bored with gadgets pretty quickly so I’m hoping I won’t be tired of this in a few weeks and end up selling it!

I have a few recipes coming up in the next few days that are delicious and I can’t wait to get posted so stay tuned!!

 

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Filed Under: healthy living, school Tagged With: , ,

Five things Friday

May 18, 2012 by 4 Comments

Time for something new to shake things up!  So Five Things Friday it is!  I’ve been feeling very grateful and blessed lately so I thought I would do five things that I’m thankful for!

 

1.  This fella!  Our four year wedding anniversary is coming up and we’ve been together for a total of 8 yrs!  And we haven’t killed each other yet!!  Winking smile 

 

 

2, These two crazy girls!  I can’t imagine my life without my dogs- it would be so very empty!  These girls mean the world to me and I love them so much!!

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3. New opportunities.  We recently had the opportunity to move.  So we’re moving to Dallas!  I don’t loooove Dallas and am a little sad to be leaving country life but this move will give us so many opportunities for the future!  I’ll be so much closer to school plus those two girls above will get a nice backyard to play in, which we don’t have now!

 

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4.  This blog!!!  I’ve made so many new friends through blogging even though some of them live across the country from me!  I’ve always loved to cook but I never knew that I also loved to write my own recipes until I started blogging.  It’s one of my absolute favorite things to do… in fact as soon as I finish typing this I’m headed to the kitchen to test out a new muffin recipe I’ve been dreaming up!

 

 

5.  A new career path!  I volunteer for a program called Cooking Matters.  The last course I volunteered as a course assistant and had such a blast.  There’s a new course starting next week and I’m going to be the nutrition instructor this time.  What’s so crazy about this is that the course is in Cleburne where I taught as a music teacher for 4 years and eventually decided that teaching wasn’t the career for me.  It’s going to be a little strange going back there to teach, but it’s a completely different content and something I’m much more passionate about!  Time to dust off my teaching skills and put them to use again!

Share Our Strength: No Kid Hungry

(source)

 

Now it’s your turn!  What are you thankful for today???

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Filed Under: Five Things Friday, healthy living Tagged With: ,

Skinny VS. Healthy… let’s talk about it!

May 17, 2012 by 6 Comments

Hey guys! 

First of all official grades are in for the semester- I ended up with A’s in Anatomy and Physiology Lecture, Biochemistry (did I already mention that I made a 100 on the final for that class?) and Literature in Nutrition.  Those A’s are fantastic and I’m very proud of them but I’m most happy about the B that I got this semester in A&P lab. 

Even though I looooove making A’s (I’m a straight up nerd!) I’m really really happy for this B!  Between a TA and a lab coordinator both on a major power trip and no one EVER knowing what was going on in that lab (seriously it was horrible!) and no one in the class ever making above an 84 on a practical I’m very okay with that B.  I honestly thought it was going to be a C and that ugly little letter is absolutely NOT allowed to be on my transcript!!  So I’m surprisingly okay with this B.  But next semester look out… I’ll be back to straight A’s!!!

 

Anyway on to the topic at hand!

 

Skinny vs. healthy…

This is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately since the weather started warming up and people started declaring it to be “bikini season”.  Seriously don’t you hate those two words?!  I’m hoping that I don’t just end up going off on a rant about this but start a conversation about it.  Let’s talk about this!

 

The number of times I hear the words “get your body bikini ready” in one day is astounding!

Look at what I found through just a quick Google search…

Bikini Body workout from Self Magazine  It even comes with pictures guys!  Apparently this is what we should look like…


(source)

 

Here’s another…

Bikini body in only 4 weeks?!  And another picture…

 Bikini Body Opener
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Also can we talk about this new book by The Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper?  It’s called The Skinny Rules.  Seriously that’s what it’s called.  Here are just a few of the more ridiculous “rules” I noticed while flipping through this at a store…

  • Go to bed hungry (what the what?!?!)
  • No carbs after lunch (it really says that- I can’t make this stuff up!  No distinguishing between complex carbs and refined carbohydrates and why one is better for you than the other.  Wow. Just wow.)
  • No potatoes (Apparently potatoes and all carbohydrates are evil)
    Oh and he also claims that he has new and emerging science to back all this up but never cites a single thing to actually back up these insane claims.  Just another “diet” book by a celebrity trainer who is absolutely NOT qualified to give out nutritional advice.  Shame on you Bob Harper.
      There are so many examples out there of why we should be “skinny”.  But why do we need to be skinny?  Why can’t we just strive to be healthy?  What’s the difference?
      I have to quote Allison, a friend from school on this one (even though this has been on my mind a lot lately she inspired me to actually write this post)…  She posted about this on Facebook recently.  She was referring to this article.

      I was thinking just the other day how tired I am of seeing this stuff, and all the other “get bikini ready” stuff on every news segment, TV show, commercial and website.  This cycle will never end until women everywhere stop promoting it themselves and decide to be healthy not skinny”

      I totally agree!

      This also came up in the conversation…

      Being overweight is not healthy, being underweight is not healthy. Healthy is putting nutritious food into your body (the right amount) and getting strong through exercise.  The point is that it should not be about the "perfect" bikini body or about appearances, instead we should be promoting TV segments and magazine articles that focus on living strong and healthy for life, not for bikini season.

      Preach it sister!!

      Don’t get me wrong I don’t think there’s anything wrong with rocking a bikini if you feel comfortable and confident in one!  I don’t happen to (and probably never will) so I think that maybe I resent the fact that all these advertisements are only showing the super skinny people in their bikinis and making women feel like they aren’t healthy unless they look this way.

      Does anyone else have thoughts on this?  Seriously this would be great to have a conversation about- just leave a comment below!

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