Recipe of the Week-Hot and Sweet Chicken and Peppers

Happy Easter!
I hope you all had a great weekend. I did myself. My Easter plans ended up allowing me to not have to cook, however I did find an old recipe that I really like that I wanted to share with you.

From www.rachelray.com
Hot and Sweet Chicken and Peppers
How I "mandi-tized" this: I use chicken breasts. Of course gluten free flour and low sodium chicken broth. Leave the bread out. Instead serve with nice salad and a veggie. You could serve over brown rice if you preferred.

This can be a bit spicy, but it has a really interesting flavor. I hope you give it a try.

My next topic is going to be discussing health benefits of Coconut oil as I have recently come across this. So I will talk to you soon. I hope with the weather turning somewhat nice and the longer day light you are getting out and about and getting some exercise!

Talk to you soon....
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~Mandi

Low Sodium Cooking Website

This is just a quick blurb, but as you know I am big for following a low sodium diet, I found this website this week when helping a co-worker try to find a low sodium potato dish to make for her father who has Heart Failure for Easter. We found three recipes on this site that looked great!

After doing a Google search, I found:

http://www.lowsodiumcooking.com/

It has a ton of recipes, tips on following low sodium diet, newletters, and a blog. It is a great source for low sodium cooking. The recipes look great!

Check it out :)

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~Mandi

Healthy Snack Ideas

Hello,

I do realize it has been a week since I posted, and I failed to post a recipe last Sunday. I was out of town so I didn't get to cook anything Sunday...but I will have something this weekend!

I did want to share some ideas for healthy snacking that I have found. Snacking is an easy way to over consume unnecessary calories, so you want to be sure you are snacking smartly. The biggest thing is to stay away from junk. Get rid of the chips, cookies, crackers, candy, etc for these are just empty calories that pile on the pounds. You want to focus more on fruit, vegetables, fiber, protein. You can get really creative in your snacks and keep it interesting if you know the right things to try.

I found a really great list of some non-boring (is that a word??) snacks that I really love from WebMD. I think this list is great, because it has some unique ideas that are super easy!!!

25 Super Snacks With 100 Calories or Less

I also came across a nice list in my Good Housekeeping Magazine:


Some of my favorite easy go to snacks are generally veggies with 2 tbs of hummus, a handful of grapes and clementines.  I always keep a bag of almonds at my desk. So experiment with some healthy things rather than the junk food. You can also do a google search for more ideas.

Have fun snacking!
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~Mandi

Tabata Workout: What is it?

As you know I am a huge fan of shorter, high intensity interval training routines, rather than droning on and on a the gym on a treadmill, doing some sort of work out for an hour, etc. And I am a huge fan because I have had amazing results. I am talking my whole body shape has changed. I am wearing smaller sizes than I have in a very long time due to my increased muscle tone. I am honestly almost to my high school figure.  (I have already explained HIIT workouts in another blog post so check that out!)

There is a variation of HIIT exercises called Tabata. "Tabata" was created in Japan for training Olympians. The routine consists of doing one exercise for 20 seconds, resting for 10 and repeating this 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. Now I know that this sounds easy and really, who can get a good exercise benefit in 4 minutes...but it's true. Four minutes of Tabata actually has more benefits than 60 minutes of moderate exercise on a treadmill.Your resting metabolic rate increases greatly. Meaning you will burn more calories at rest between the first 24-48 hours than you will with 60 minutes of the treadmill. Now you of course can do multiple 4 minute rounds to include different exercises for different parts of your body. What I like about this is you can create your own routine. Say you want to do push ups, jump squats and reverse crunches. Do a four minute round of each exercise and you have a 12 minute almost full body work out in which you are burning massive calories. It is recommended to rest for a full minute between each 4 minute round to help lesson fatigue. The benefits to Tabata is that it increases aerobic and anaerobic rate, increases your endurance, creates leaner muscle tone, and increases your body fat loss percentage much more than what you can get from moderate cardio. It is important to keep in mind that this exercise style does push you to the point of exhaustion so it is not advised to do it everyday, but adding it in a few times per week will add great benefit to your physical health. They can also be very monotonous to do so you have to have will power to finish.

I found a great website that explains Tabata in much more depth:

www.tabatatraining.org

You can research for Tabata exercises on google and youtube and you will find all sorts of things. Or get creative and create your own! I challenge you to give this a try, especially if you are in a rut or plateau. This is a sure way to push your body and see changes.

Have a great night!
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~Mandi 

Recipe of the Week: Irish food!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I do have some Irish blood in me thanks to my mother's side of the family. Plus today is my Grandmother's Birthday (happy birthday grandma!!), so I thought it would be fun to make some Irish themed food for today. After much searching, I found three great recipes:

Beef and Guinness Stew
How I "mandi-tized" it:
I of course used low sodium beef broth. And you can always add in some flour (gluten free in my      case) or corn starch to thicken it up, as the recipe calls for "thick beef stock". And I didn't use parsnips. I just am not a big fan of parsnips. You could use potatoes in place, however I am making mashed potatoes to go along with it so I just left them out.

Red Potato Colcannon
This is an Irish style mashed potato. It is traditionally made with bacon and regular potatoes, but this is a healthier version that leaves out the bacon and uses red potatoes with the skins to give you more of a nutritional value.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
I grew up eating cabbage rolls that my Grandma made. So in a tribute to her, I found a recipe that is also a healthier version. I used just one pound of ground turkey because I had it on hand, however I am sure the ground turkey sausage would have been good too.

And I made some Irish Carbomb Cupcakes which were to die for!

Hope you have a great and safe St. Patrick's Day

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~Mandi

Insanity-Does it really work? A real before and after.

My little brother, Kyle, did the 60 day Insanity workout program. So I am here to report his results. Here is a little background on Kyle: (sorry bro, I am laying it all out there!)

Kyle is 24 years old. He has been overweight for the last few years. He was leading a not so healthy life...not eating right and not exercising. Even had high blood pressure.  Last fall Kyle, Brian and I ran a 5 k. It was Kyle's first 5k. We did train for about 2 months for it. He was very proud of himself, but I could tell that he was frustrated with his endurance level. His job does a Biggest Loser challenge every year and he decided he was going participate and try to win. Brian had done Insanity part way a few summers ago and Kyle decided he was going to borrow it and give it a try.

Q&A
When did you start and end? January 3rd to March 6th.

How long were the workouts? It was 6 days per week. The first month about 45 minutes, the second month an hour or so.

What were the workout styles? Plyometrics, cardio, body weight, stretching

Did you change your diet? Yes, but I did not follow a "diet". I simply starting making healthy choices such as egg whites for breakfast, protein and something green for lunch and dinner. I snacked on things such as almonds and apples.

How did you feel in the beginning? Sore, worn out and tired.

How did you feel in the end? I was not as sore, my endurance level was improved. I felt lighter, healthier. I noticed that I no longer get out of breath by walking up stairs.

The commercials show a lot of muscular people, did you gain muscle? No I did not gain muscle tone. The benefit I got from these workouts was purely cardio and weight loss.

Did you want to quit? Yes, it was pretty intense. However I didn't quit because of the results I was seeing and the Facebook motivation page that you can join. It did take a lot of will power and motivation, but you can do the exercises at your own pace. You may not be able to keep up with the people on the DVD, but you just do your best.

Have you gotten your Insanity T-shirt? No.
                         (get your T-shirt, man!!)

How much weight did you lose? I started at 242lbs and now weight 210 lbs.

What do you plan to do now? I plan to follow High Intensity Interval Training as suggested by my sister.
                                      :)
Now ready for some amazing before and after pictures???

That's it! Obviously Insanity is not a realistic, permanent solution but it is a good way to kick start yourself into a good regimen of weight loss if you are looking for drastic results. It does take a lot time and will power, but it can be done. The most important thing is to create a long term solution with your workout regimen and diet once something like this is done.  And it can easily be done and that is where I come in. :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing this!

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~Mandi

I think I have posted this pic before, but I still love it!

Recipe of the Week-A Day Late But Worth It

Yesterday I wanted to try a new crock pot recipe, as when it's cold, I am a sucker for crock pot comfort food. We thumbed through a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker cookbook we forgot we had and found a hearty soup rich in fiber, protein and some good spice!

Adapted from Betty Crocker

Smoky Chipotle Cassoulet
1 lb chicken breast, boneless, skinless cubed
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp cumin
1 bay leaf
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced (buy canned in the hispanic section of the grocery store)
1 medium onion, diced
1 can navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, low sodium
1/2 fresh orange juice (or use the 50% less sugar orange juice as juicing an orange is kind of a pain)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Mix all ingredients, except cilantro, in your crock pot. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5  hours. Remove Bay leaf before serving and garnish with cilantro.

This was very good and hit the spot on a cold day.  It was very easy and quick to put together. We cooked it on high and served it with a salad and some gluten free bread. You should definitely give this a shot!

Later this week I will have my little brother's report on completing the 60 day Insanity workout and some Q&A and before and after pictures!!! Stay tuned! :)

And Stay Active
~Mandi