a healthy balance

Morning Everyone!

This week, I’ve been having Almond Breeze’s Chocolate Almond Milk as part of my breakfast. I’ve been looking for low-calorie, no-added-sugar version of chocolate milk for a while so I’m glad I found this. It’s refreshing with just the right amount of cocoa to make you forget about any chocolate cravings! At just 45 calories a cup with 45% of your DVR of Calcium, it can easily be part of your daily diet. 

Some ideas for use:

1. Add to cereal for more flavor.
2. Mocha Latte 
3. Chocolate Banana “ice cream”

The sales people at Costco were feeding my mom sorbet and smoothie samples and she came home with a new Vitamix 5200…lol well I’m actually excited to try making soups and green smoothies with it! It comes with a cool recipe book too. So, is this going to be life changing…?

I just visited a new Whole Foods in NorCal after months of neglecting the store. There’s just so much STUFF in this store that sounds great, but we just don’t really need it. Like this endless aisle of “superfoods” and raw food bars…when do I ever really need a raw coconut spirulina cacao nib sprouted grain ball? Be careful if you buy these snacks…ask yourself how is this helping your diet? Are you just attracted to the advertising of the product? Look and see that a lot of these bars and dried foods are held together by dates and/or agave syrup which just means more sugar. Overall, i like to keep my diet simple =]

Washing all 5 lbs of strawberries from Costco so I’ll have something healthy for snacks and dessert all week! 

Just ate some celery with grapes on a whim… The refreshing flavors as crispness go great together. The grapes give celery sticks a boost in taste. I would prefer this over “ants on a log” because fresh fruit is healthier than dried ones and it doesn’t need any peanut butter or spread. Combining celery with grapes prevents me from eating way too many grapes and encourages me to have more celery!

Tried to win this bowl on their Facebook page today…but I was too late lol. Siggi’s skyr yogurt is so good! It’s nutritionally comparable to Greek yogurt and he flavored varieties only have 8g of sugar!

It’s okay my mom’s a vegetarian and I’m a veggie-whore…I’m pretty sure we have 2 or 3 varieties of bok choy lol. This week’s challenges will be to cook artichoke for the first time, make zucchini pasta or pizza crust, and eat more celery that’s tucked away in the back =] woot woot we can do it!

Let’s take a stab at what we see:

1. Bok choy
2. 10 lb bag of organic carrots
3. 3 slabs of banana squash
4. Almond Milk (Silk Unsweetened is better though…the thickening agents in Trader Joe’s is too much) 
5. Artichoke
6. Miscellaneous greens
7. Prunes (dessert!) 
8. Broccoli
9. Big white root thing on the bottom shelf 
10. Eggs
11. Old ketchup (like really old)
12. Baby Bell Peppers 
13. Wheat bread, french rolls somewhere 
14. Cabbage
15. Fat-Free Kraft Cheese 
16. Shredded Red Cabbage: SO proud I finally made an effort to incorporate this into my meals this week! 

In case anyone was curious…this is a typical traditional Vietnamese dinner…fish, boiled greens, rice (not pictured because I caved in half way through and got rice then), tea!

Everyone, this was so amazing but I just ate my last avocado so can’t make it again to take my own picture. BUT, just so you can get a head start and try it out for yourself (if you haven’t all ready), I found a picture =) : 

Brown Rice and Avocado

1. 1/2 cup cooked brown rice 
2. 1/2 Hass avocado, cut and cubed
3. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste 

So easy and yet so tasty. Life is good. 

Simply Cooked tops this with a Vietnamese sauce with red pepper, ginger, fish sauce, and lime which sounds awesome and I’m definitely going to make it when I get another avocado…but if you want to keep this vegetarian and vegan, stick in the salt&pepper! 

Happy healthy eating  <3

My first time cooking eggplant!

I don’t really like eggplant but it’s so healthy that I am trying to acquire the taste. It’s skin has the phytonutrient, nasunin, which protects brain cell membranes! Also it’s fleshy and tastes like a starchy vegetable yet only has 20 calories per cup. This was the easiest way I found to prepare eggplant: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F 
• Brush sides with olive oil
• Season with salt and pepper 
• Bake for ~20 minutes or until tops are brown
• Season with lemon juice when done 

Baking or roasting vegetables is so simple, quick, and keeps your recipes clean =) Anyone else like eggplant and want to share a recipe? 

Harvard’s Health Eating Plate  v.s. USDA’s MyPlate

Harvard’s is much more thorough and helps people make smarter choices. If we’re following MyPlate, we could be eating hot dogs for proteins, potatoes for vegetables, and fried rice for grains. At least MyPlate is better than the old food pyramid, which recommended 6-11 servings for breads, cereals, and grains a day and only 3-5 servings of vegetables.

Read more about it at Harvard’s School of Public Health Site

First dibs at Whole Foods…yum! my sometimes treat since its expensive =\