Sometimes people ask me why I pretty much never cook with meat…. I’m not a vegetarian (although I used to be)… and the truth is there just aren’t many meats I enjoy. I eat chicken maybe 2-3 times a month… turkey and ham are really only on holidays… I don’t eat steak… but I do love a nice juicy burger! Confession: I didn’t eat burgers for 7 years because I thought they were disgusting and then my husband introduced me to a nice medium rare juicy burger and I’m a convert from burger hater to burger lover (as long as it’s not overcooked!). Another recent meat obsession is chicken sausage… mostly because it’s so quick and easy (and because hubby loves them). Anyways today I have a chicken recipe and the whole nonmeat eating intro is because I think this might be the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve posted a meat recipe on the blog. You are welcome meat eating friends, haha. Dry chicken is one of the reasons I’m not a huge chicken fan, but these guys were moist and delicious!

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts

1 cup almond meal

2 TBSP garlic powder

1 TBSP oregano

¼ cup maple syrup

½ cup spicy brown or Dijon mustard

1 TBSP soy sauce

Directions:

1.       Mix dry ingredients for almond crust (firsts 4 ingredients)

2.       Mix wet ingredients

3.       Cut chicken into nugget sizes

4.       Dip chicken into wet mixture and then coat in dry mixture

5.       Place on baking sheet

6.       Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350.

Do you love meat? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Vegan and vegetarian friends: hopefully sometime in the future I can create some almond meal crusted tofu similar to this so everyone can enjoy the wonderfulness of mustard +maple syrup! But feel free to try these ratios on your own!

Thank you everyone for the instagram love post triathlon! Fingers crossed for the next one to go a little smoother! Anyways… I have an awesome breakfast recipe for you today!! I know I have been posting a lot of breakfast recipes lately but I feel like in the summer opens up more breakfast options… in the winter all I ever want is warm oats. I wanted to use eggs but make it extra delish and super high protein, this means adding a high protein crust of almond meal and a cottage cheese filling! Adding veggies for extra nutrition creates a perfect breakfast… you could use whatever veggies you want, spinach and onion are just usually my go tos! The crust is gluten free and paleo friendly, and the whole quiche is vegetarian!

High protein veggie and cheese quiche with almond meal crust

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 ½ cups almond meal

2 TBSP garlic powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ cup olive oil

A pinch of salt

Water if needed

For the filling:

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP garlic powder or 1 garlic clove finely diced

1TBSP basil

1 medium yellow onion

6 oz frozen spinach

4 eggs

6 oz cottage cheese

4 oz other cheese (cheddar, goat, gorgonzola)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.       Combine dry ingredients for crust, mix oil in and pat into a 9 inch pie pan

2.       Add more water if crust ingredients are too dry to form a “dough”

3.       Bake at 350 for 15 minutes

4.       Sauté onion in skillet with 1 TBSP olive oil for a few minutes

5.       Add spinach once onion is starting to become soft

6.       Sauté until frozen spinach is heated thoroughly

7.       When crust is done cooking allow to cool before adding filling

8.       Combine filling ingredients and pour into cooled crust

9.       Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until eggs are cooked

10.   Allow to cool before cutting/enjoying!

What do you like to have for breakfast? Do you switch it up or have the same thing every day??

Saturday I completed the NJ State Sprint Triathlon... it was perfect weather for a tri, cool and a cloudy. My friend Gordon completed the tri with me and my husband was there for cheering, support, and of course photo taking!

Swim: The swim took place in the lake, water temp was 82 degrees (a little warm, but better than freezing). It was a different swim start than I had done in the past and it wasn't my favorite. Each corral (age group) had to swim out to two buoys and tread water for a few minutes until the director gave the okay for time to start for that group. I didn’t mind a little treading water as a warm up, but was not a big fan of swimming next to guys. Guys are more aggressive than girls in the water and some of them don’t care if they are running over a guy or girl. Boo. Another con was that a girl in my age group had a panic attack in the water before we started so the lifeguard kayaks and boat had to come in and rescue her… delaying our groups start and causing more energy to be spent treading water. Really I shouldn’t complain too much because the swim was so short, but it’s more a nerves thing. Anyways, so they pulled the girl out of the water and a couple minutes later we were allowed to start! I knew the swim would take me 10-15 minutes and was a short distance… I started strong and didn’t panic too much although I had to pull my head out of the water a couple times after being trampled into by other swimmers (so disorienting). The swim was 400m straight and then a left turn… once I got to the turn I had passed most of the crazy diagonal swimming people so I felt like I had a strong finish. Note: you don’t find out the breakdown time of each leg of the race including transition until the results are posted later online (unless you time yourself, which I don’t) but I will include each of my times in my synopsis. I finished the swim in 11:05, Excellent! My swim rank was 305 out of 1198 (including women and men!)

A quick note on transition… I suck at transitioning, I don’t like being rushed. I’m organized but once you jump out of open water after swimming and you’re running past racks of bikes, you are out of it! My transition from swim to bike was 3:30. I didn’t look at any other times but I thought that was bad. I just kinda take my time drying off and eat a GU, put on my socks and shoes. Eventually I need to get better at transitioning. My transition from bike to run was 1:32. Basically just pushing my bike back and racking it, grabbing another GU for the road, and throwing on my race belt.

Bike: The bike course was a huge loop around the park out onto public roads that were mostly blocked off for the triathlon. There were a couple parts where cars were but very few, so they told you to be aware of traffic but it was very sparse. So I start the bike course and I’m probably a ¼ mile in and my chair comes loose on my bike. I quickly get off and try to fix it but it looks like the derailleur is off track, I manage to get it back on and wait for bike traffic to slow down so I can mount my bike and get back into the race. Here I’m praying that I fixed the issue and it won’t happen again. Wrong. By mile 5 it had happened 3 more times… I discovered any time I went very fast it happened quicker so after that I decided to slow down… clearly it wasn’t going to be my best race since I’d already lost so much time pulling over and fixing the chain. Most Frustrating thing ever… I was so ready for this race and had improved soooo much on the bike, felt so confident going in, and it just wasn’t meant to be. I rode pretty slowly the rest of the course, stopping 3 more times to fix chain… made friends with some other slow riders. I had a handful of people ask if I was okay when I was pulled over which was nice… I was hoping by some miracle someone who knew a lot about bikes and could fix whatever problem I was having would stop. No such luck. I finished the most depressing bike ride of my life in 50:25. My rank is pretty sad, 1162 out of 1198. Yup, I was terrible. However I’m confident that had I had no bike issues I would’ve been at least 10-15 minutes faster. Oh well :(

Run: The run was an out and back course along a paved trail in the woods. It was shaded and mostly flat with a couple tiny rolling hills. After the bike fiasco I was pretty sad, but told myself that if I couldn’t do really well on the bike because of the issues I was having, I would at least try to push myself on the run and do well. Running is my best event of the triathlon… I’m a much better runner than biker, and swimmer. Running is easy…. I’m better at pacing myself for longer distances but a 5k is nothing so I tried to push myself. Note: running any distance after biking is painful for at least the first half mile… your legs feel like jello and its really hard to get them to work smoothly. Usually after a half mile the jello feeling starts to wear off and you hit your stride. I didn’t practice too many brick workouts (bike followed immediately by a run) but I knew the jello effect would happen no matter what. I enjoyed myself on the run, cracking some jokes to volunteers (mostly children) and of course saying thank you! I finished the run in 25:03. My run rank was 363 out of 1198!! Out of men and women! I should note that while there are a good amount of runners that do triathlons, many triathletes are non-runners and suffer through 3.1 miles.  But it is by far the easiest for me… I thought it was a good time for an 5k, even more so considering the swim and bike I had just completed.

Overall I was proud of myself for doing well on the swim and run and holding it together on the bike. It was extremely frustrating and discouraging to be having those chain issues and having to stop my ride but I held it together and pushed myself to stay positive and finish. My overall time was 1:31:37… which actually wasn’t terrible. Women’s rank was 324 out of 542. Overall rank 859 out of 1198. You can clearly see how much the bike ruined my overall time, but it could’ve been worse, and at least I wasn’t injured.  I know I could dominate that course another time, and I will!

Have you even done a triathlon or thought about it? Does reading this make you more interested? (or less, haha)? Ever completed a triathlon before?? Any tips (especially on bike maintenance?)

Just wanted to give you a pre-race update before my sprint triathlon tomorrow! The New Jersey State Triathlon is in central Jersey, the sprint is Saturday and Olympic is Sunday. I opted for the Sprint because it’s only my second tri (also using it as practice for my first Olympic distance race in Sept), and my friend Tara’s bachelorette party is Saturday evening in Sea Isle and I didn’t want to miss out on celebrating the fabulous bride to be! My friend Gordon is doing the sprint with me, he is awesome at triathlons and even has a shot at placing in his age group! I do not have any such shot, haha.

This sprint is shorter than the 1 I did last year… 500m swim, 11.5 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. Piece of cake, right?? I’ve discussed before that I never really set really serious goals but I’d like to finish under an hour and half… I should note I’m very slow in transition… I like to take my time getting ready.  I’ve attached some pictures of each leg of the tri.  The fun kicks off at 7:30 and when I’m done I’ll be en route to the beach, sounds like a perfect Saturday to me! What are your plans this Saturday? Fun workout or race planned??

 As I mentioned previously I’m competing in two triathlons this summer. For most competitors, their weakest event in a triathlon is the swim.  I’m actually not a terrible swimmer, I’d say I’m decent. But it is definitely something I need to practice. I’m not very fast but I do have a good stroke and I’m excellent at pacing myself. Even if you’re not doing a triathlon, swimming is great exercise for you and very good cross training especially if you’re a long distance runner.  

Here is a swim workout I do usually once a week: (1 lap=25 yards)

4X25 freestyle (focusing on form)

4X25 pull buoy between legs (working arms without legs/kick)

1x25 speed (as fast as you can)

1x25 kickboard (leisurely cooldown post speed lap)

1x25 speed

1x25 kickboard

4x25 sighting (in open water you cannot see the bottom of the water so you need to “sight” where you are in the water frequently- it’s actually a lot harder than it sounds to do while maintaining form and speed).

(Repeat 2-3x).

I usually do this work at least twice but feel free to do whatever feels comfortable for you. Also its important to have a basic skill level of swimming before jumping into the pool and swimming laps. Saturday is race day!!

Yes I know, it’s summertime and not the sweet potato season, but I disagree, sweet potatoes are good year round. Plus it’s definitely smoothie season! One of my favorite vegetables and it can be used in so many ways. As a starch veggie it is very versatile. This week I purchased one HUGE sweet potato and I will end up using it in 3 different recipes: sweet potato brownies, a veggie stir-fry bowl, and this smoothie. Whenever you can add veggies to your smoothie do it. You can even toss in some greens with this recipe. I just didn’t want to because I wanted to keep it a pretty sweet potatoish color. The ice is all about your preference with thickness, I like mine thicker, and the milk can be added gradually to thin. The banana and sweet potato boast nutrients and the protein powder helps keep you full after this large smoothie. This really could be divided into two normal sized smoothies but I always make a large one and split it in half for me and the hubs.

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked sweet potato

½ frozen banana

1 TBSP maple syrup or honey

Ice (about 1 cup)

1 cup milk

1 (small) scoop vanilla protein powder

1 tsp cinnamon and extra for topping

1 tsp vanilla extract

handful of greens (optional)

Directions:

1.       Combine all ingredients in blender and blend. Add more milk or ice to meet you preferred consistency.

2.       Serve chilled, top with additional cinnamon as desired.

Do you like sweet potatoes?? How do you like to eat them?? Have you ever had them in a dessert or smoothie???

It’s time for a summer salad. One of my goals this summer is to eat a different salad every week.  So far that has not happened every week… but I’ll be scoping out some of my fellow bloggers recipes today for some ideas for awesome salads! Summertime is great for salad because of all the produce that is in season during this time, but last year I got stuck in a rut of eating the same salad all the time and not being creative enough. Here is my first of hopefully many summer salad recipes. Since I just got back from Greece two weeks ago and had a delicious eggplant salad while I was there and this is my take on it!

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

1 tomato

1 onion

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP white vinegar

1 TSBP garlic powder

¼ cup parsley

2 TBSP Oregano

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/3 cup Feta cheese (optional)

Capers (optional)

Directions:

1.       Roast eggplant on grill or in oven, allow to cool

2.       While eggplant is cooking and cooling, dice onion and tomato

3.       Measure herbs and liquids, combine with onion and tomato

4.       Dice eggplant when cooled and combine with herb and vegetable mixture

5.       Allow to sit in fridge 2 hours (preferably longer) to marinate

6.       Serve cold

Are you a salad person?? Do you have a favorite?? More of a fan of a traditional salad with a base of greens or something like this??

I will compete in my second sprint triathlon in a couple weeks, and this past week I officially signed up for my first Olympic distance Triathlon. Yikes!! #swimbikerun

Last year was my first sprint and I actually managed to finish in the top quarter of the women. My swim and run ranked average but my bike was definitely towards the bottom.  For full disclosure it was the 6th time I’d ever been on a road bike so I was very skittish, also somehow when I was coming down the first hill I hit a pothole and my chain came off, I fixed it, and it proceeded to come off two more times causing more stops.  That being said I still thinking biking is my weakest event, I also have spent the least amount of time doing it. I have been running for four years, and continued swimming over the winter as cross training, you can’t bike train besides spinning in the winter (I did some spinning but it’s really not the same).

My training plan is for 10 weeks starting last week.  It consists of two swim workouts/week, two hour plus bike workouts, and 3-4 runs/week.  I’ve also written in for two lifting days/week, however I’m afraid that I will not be able to do all the lifting I want. I will be working my legs extensively with all the biking and running… also I’ll be working out 5-6 days/week so I already need to be careful of “sore days” (aka days that your body is sore and obviously needs rest even if it is not a rest day- it’s always important to listen to your body).  I know that weight training plays an important part in strengthening muscles during endurance training so I don’t want to skip it. The important thing with weight lifting during endurance training is that you don’t want to add bulk, just maintain muscle strength, less weight more reps vs high weight less reps is my best approach. Fingers crossed I remember this and don’t go overboard with lifting!

This is simply I schedule I made for myself and at first glance it looks very time consuming (probably will be, ha). I do not have a time goal because I don’t really believe in time goals, I just want to do well. Not sure how to define well but I’ve read in triathlons finishing in the top half of your age group is a good goal to have. My real goal is to finish without any bike issues, haha. Seriously.

Have you ever done a triathlon before?? Sprint, Olympic, Ironman?? Any tips!?

It’s summer, the season of picnics and of course the summer holidays. Most people enjoy hot dogs, burgers, chicken, shrimp, etc. What about the vegetarians!? My tempeh bacon recipe can be made on the stovetop or the grill and resembles a BBQ-esqe entree. Vegetarians should also be able to enjoy the charcoal, smoky, goodness of grilling and "meaty" goodness!

Ingredients:

1 TBSP sesame oil

3 TBSP soy sauce or tamari

2 TBSP maple syrup

½ tsp garlic

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp liquid smoke

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 block thinly sliced tempeh

Directions:

1.       Combine all liquid ingredients with sliced tempeh, and allow to marinate in fridge 1-2 hours prior to cooking.

2.       Fire up your grill (or stovetop) to medium heat and grill or sauté each strip 3-4 minutes on each side.

3.       Feel free to make more sauce to top tempeh.

I have a Sharper Image kitchen griddle that I use for “grilling”, making waffles, pancakes, etc. (it has several different plates that can be used). I would love to get a real grill once we are more settled in one place (aka buy a house and have a real patio or yard).  I used the stovetop for this recipe but any sort of grill like machine would work I believe.

Any special grilling secrets or tips?? What meats do you enjoy BBQing?? Do you use a real grill, George Foreman grill, griddle, or a grill pan??

You’ve heard these words a million times, have read countless blog or articles about it, you might already be doing it. BUT, I don’t believe I have ever posted about it so here is a long overdue post.

Food prep is a huge time saver during the week, when you’re trying to fit healthy eating in with your 8-9 hour workday, exercise, a social life, or time with your significant other. Sometimes I prep on Sundays, sometimes it will be a Tuesday or Wednesday, really just whenever I have a couple of free hours at night and hubby is working late or at a Phillies game (hello season tickets).

When preparing food in advance sometimes it requires some meal planning, which I’m terrible at. I can’t write out plans and stick to them. So usually I’ll just prepare my veggies, grains, or proteins to eventually be coordinated into some sort of meal. I start with chopping veggies, either for roasting during food prep, or left raw for a recipe later in the week.

I try to do a good amount of oven related prep. I hate using the oven to cook every night because roasting and baking take a long compared to sautéing.   Also during the summer months having the oven on frequently is just painful and wasteful. I like to roast veggies in advance for the week; sometimes I have a recipe in mind when I’m doing it sometimes it’s just whatever I bought on sale that week.

For grains you can cook pasta, quinoa, brown rice, etc in advance to be used later that week. However not a lot of these take very long to cook so grains are not something I usually food prep.

Meat proteins are good to batch cook. I like making a few pieces of chicken, I use a couple pieces as part of dinner that night, and save the others for salads or stir frys for later in the week. I primarily use canned beans at this time, but my goal is to switch to dry this fall. Since dry beans take a long time to cook, these can also be prepped in advance. I don’t recommend food prepping fish, unless you’re making tuna or salmon burgers/patties. Filets of fish do not taste very good leftover and don’t need to be prepped because they take very little time to cook usually. Hardboiled eggs are an easy and convenient food prep item!

I would also recommend making a casserole, soup, or lasagna as part of your meal prep. Sometimes it’s a good idea to batch prepare something to eat for lunch each day and then have variety as dinner time. Other people prefer to eat leftovers for lunch. You can also chop and store greens or separate for future salads (chop other veggies or ingredients) and combine the day you plan on eating the salad.

The options are endless but spending a couple hours prepping on Sunday or Monday can save a half hour to hour every other day that week. Winning! Remember to always look at expiration dates, and follow shelf life rules for each item you are prepping. Here’s a good site to use for determining how long leftovers are good for:  http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=10949


Yesterday here is what I prepped:

-chopped cauliflower and roasted tomatoes to be used later this week to make this: http://delicious-knowledge.com/creamy-cauliflower-pasta-sauce-vegan/

-hazelnut, walnut, cocoa powder, and honey combined to make protein snack balls (great on the go)

-roasted eggplant, chopped tomatoes and onions, measured ingredients for an eggplant salad to be eaten as a side throughout week, recipe coming soon!!

-roasted a large sweet potato and made these: http://www.theleangreenbean.com/gluten-free-sweet-potato-brownies/ and chopped the leftover sweet potato (it was huuuuge) for later use in the week, including a sweet potato smoothie recipe coming your way soon!

Have you ever done food prep before?? What do you like to make?? Or do you think you will try it in the future??