Buffalo Chickpea Dip

-         2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

-         6 oz. cream cheese

-         ¼ cup ranch dressing

-         ¼ - ½ cup buffalo sauce (Frank’s is a good brand)

-         1 ½ cups + 2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar works nicely)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Put chickpeas in a large bowl.  Mash with a potato masher until roughly mashed.
3. Mix in cream cheese, ranch dressing, buffalo sauce and 1 ½ cups of the shredded cheese and stir together well.
4. Put all ingredients in a 9x13 baking dish and sprinkle remaining cheese on top.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or so until bubbling and cheese starts to get golden.
6. Serve with crackers, chips or veggies.

Salmon Cakes

-         1 14.75 oz. can salmon

-         2 green onions, chopped, using white & green

-         ½ red bell pepper, chopped fine

-         1 clove garlic, minced finely (optional)

-         ½ cup panko bread crumbs

-         2 eggs, beaten

-         1 – ½ tsp. salt

-         ¼ tsp. pepper

1. Mix all ingredients and form into patties.  
2. Heat your choice of oil (olive or coconut) in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Gently place patties in pan and cook for 3-5 minutes per side or until golden brown.

Serving Suggestions:

-         Make a big salad with dark greens (I love the ones that come in the clam shells at the store – mixed baby greens or spring greens), diced colored sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes and whatever other veggies you like in salads.  Make a vinaigrette with salt, pepper, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil.  Coat salad with dressing and put desired amount on a plate.  Place a salmon cake on the salad.  Cover with a spicey mayonnaise (mix sriracha or other hot sauce with mayo).

-         Serve with fried or poached eggs for breakfast.  Serve with hollandaise sauce if desired.  Try eating a salad like above for breakfast, too!  A great way to get veggies in right away!

Crockpot Chicken and Root Vegetables

Because sometimes you need a quick and easy and nutritious meal waiting for you after a long day of work!

What you'll need:
1 package boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 large onions
6-7 medium carrots (peeled, whole)
3-4 red potatoes (peeled or not, whichever you prefer....leaving skins pack a more powerful nutrient punch)
2 sweet potatoes (peeled and cut into thirds or quarters)
olive oil
salt and pepper
garlic powder
parsley flakes

Place chicken on the bottom of your crockpot, arrange vegetables on top of chicken. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with seasonings. Set crockpot on low and cook 7-8 hours.

Jen's Quinoa Salad

Jen's Quinoa Salad
2 cups uncooked quinoa
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh basil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 cup thinly sliced spinach
1/2 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped English cucumber
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese
3 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
1 tablespoon minced red onion

Preparation

1. Place quinoa in a large bowl; cover with water. Let stand 5 minutes; rinse well, and drain.

Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan; stir in quinoa. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Uncover; fluff with a fork. Cool to room temperature.

2. Combine olive oil and next 5 ingredients (through sea salt) in a large bowl. Add cooled quinoa, tomatoes, and the remaining ingredients; toss well.
   

Snacks

Is this what you think of when you think snacks? (This is a real picture of real snacks that I purchased with real money and my husband and I had the other night.  I felt so yucky after eating this stuff!)

My husband brought home the leftovers from a snack from work the other day (different from the picture above!).  It was a tray of some sort of danish or pastry with a couple of slices left over.  My kids were ecstatic!  They gobbled it up right away, and I even licked some of the frosting off of the container.  Hmmmm.... not very satisfying.  That, combined with a snack I saw at a recent meeting, got me thinking about eating when you're at work.  

It's hard, isn't it?  You're at work, slogging along (well, hopefully that's not how you feel about your job most of the time!), and then someone brings in treats.  Or you go to a meeting where food is served.  How do you know what to eat?  Should you just eat with abandon?  It IS this one time only, right???  Should you not take anything and deprive yourself of some of the pleasure that comes with sharing food with others?  Are there some options that look good?

Why do people insist on bringing in the things that are so bad for us?  Is it just an excuse to eat things that they crave?

I have experienced a really interesting phenomenon over the past few months.  Cravings that I once had and loved to give into for nutrient-lacking foods have been replaced by cravings for better-for-me foods and a stronger ability to say no to things that I know won't really do me any good.  I have become a label-reading fiend, refusing (almost every time) to buy things that aren't as close to "whole" as possible.  That means that products that have ingredient lists that are longer than just a few items are discarded immediately. 

As you saw above, I'm not 100% fiendish, and I still believe that you should treat yourself every once in a while, and also that eating feeds more than just your body, and sometimes your soul needs "comfort food."

But what about snacking?  What are some good options for snacks that you can bring for yourself, and how can you be a good example for your co-workers about what's good to eat?  

A quick disclaimer: I refuse to eat food that I don't enjoy.  For example, I really hate raw broccoli.  I'm sorry, I just do!  But I love it roasted with olive oil, salt & pepper.  So I will choose to eat roasted broccoli.  But I love raw peppers and carrots and spinach and tomatoes, for example.  So I will eat them raw because I know raw veggies are super good for me.  It's important to me for you to know that I don't advocate for eating things just because they're good for you.  I want you to love the way they taste, too.  And believe me, you *can* learn to love the taste of things you never thought you would.  Because even though I don't want you to eat things just because they're good for you, I do want you to eat things that are good for you!  Got it?

So, anyway.

Here are some things that I love to snack on.  Snacks are part of your daily diet (obviously), so they should be part of your overall intake of a variety of foods.  Raw veggies are awesome.  And they are even awesomer with a bit of dip - hummus is awesome, easy and cheap to make and full of good-for-you ingreds.  Grab a jar of roasted red peppers (or roast your own!) and blend them up with some garlic and spices.  You could then dip raw red peppers in your roasted red pepper dip.  Yummy!

How about some berries with yogurt?  How about a variation on the pb&j sandwich: berries with a scoop of nut butter?

Handful of almonds?  Love that one.  Love the flavored almonds, and you can usually find some that aren't full of 500 crazy ingredients, too.

Is it possible for you to be in charge of bringing snacks for your next work event?  Show your coworkers where your food values are and bring something out of the ordinary!  

And please remember, read the ingredients of any processed food!!!!  Low-Fat does NOT equal good for you!  Low fat chip dip has so many insane ingredients, it can absolutely not be better for your body than full fat nut butter, for example!  Our bodies were not made to process man-made ingredients and fake food and artificial ingredients!!!!!  

Better yet, bring some sort of whole food.  A real vegetable or fruit is your best bet!!!!  

Below are some snacks I purchased for a gathering last night.  For processed food, I feel OK about eating them because the ingredient lists aren't that long.

This is a brand of chips that is super yummy and has really decent ingreds.  I just bought this bag at HyVee North.

This is another super yummy cracker that my family inhales.  I feel better about eating this because it has pecan meal as the 2nd ingredient.  I really am not a fan of "natural pecan flavor and natural butter flavor," but compared to other brands of crackers out there, this one is much better!



If you need more ideas for snacks, let me know!  There are tons!  Happy snacking!

Conquering Fear

 So today I was forced to ride my bike to the studio to teach my morning Zumba class.  Most of you will think I'm a big baby, and I think I really am.  Riding your bike around town is not that bad, right?  Except that it's a weird fear that I've had for a while.  It might be due to that time when I was a young girl, riding my bike home from the swimming pool one summer day (I'm pretty sure my mom made me ride, like, 54 miles to and from the pool!) when my I (stupidly) rode over this big grate on a sidewalk (kind of like this one).

Only it was running in a perpendicular sense so that my front bike tire slipped down in one of those spaces!  It was near a busy intersection, and I'm sure everyone in my hometown saw me, and I was so embarassed! 

 Oh, you're wondering if maybe I got super hurt?  Nope.  Just my pride.

  And that is the dumbest reason ever to have a fear of something.

Fast forward to this morning, and one of our cars wouldn't start.  Since it was blocking "my" car, I wasn't able to drive.  Heavens!  So I grumbled that I would ride my bike, hoping that just by saying that, the car would magically fix itself, rendering my sacrifice unnecessary.

But, alas.  That was not to be, and so I reluctantly strapped on my helmet and set off, calling what would no doubt be my last words of affection to my husband, "If I die, you can marry someone eelllllllsssssse..."

Now, you will understand why I am somewhat justified in my fear of riding my bike around Rochester.  We live at the top of a moun- I mean HUGE HILL!  So I could just picture myself spinning out of control down the hill, hitting a rock (or someone who was hiding in the woods sticking their foot out) and flying head over heels smack onto the concrete sidewalk, scraping up my whole entire body, including my face, breaking all my bones and just generally almost dying.

So I decided just to walk my bike down that hill.

Then I hopped on and rode the rest of the way to the studio.  

And it wasn't scary!

In fact, it was beautiful.  It was marvelous.  It was time outside, away from the computer.  I didn't have to do anything else except move my legs up and down.  

It was a perfect fall morning with a slight breeze.  I got to ride on part of our most awesomest bike trail, past the gurgling falls that is my favorite spot in Rochester.  

I even rode on the street for a while (because that's my other fear - getting killed my a car whose driver is doing something irresponsible like reaching back to comfort their crying baby and doesn't see me and runs smack into me, causing me to fly head over heels smack onto the concrete sidewalk, scraping up my whole entire body, including my face, breaking all my bones and just generally almost dying).

I'm not generally very good at going outside of my comfort zone, so this was sort of a big deal for me, and I'm proud.  

Plus, I've decided that this is a very good look for me:

Do you have any fears, rational or irrational?  Have you ever been forced to overcome your fear?

Crockpot White Beef Chili

Crockpot White Beef Chili

Ingredients

½ Chuck Roast, cubed

2 cans Goya Small White Beans, drained and rinsed

1 small can diced green chiles (mild)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 yellow or green zucchini, chopped

3c water

½ c flour

2T olive oil

Spices 2tsp each: cumin, coriander, garlic salt

Directions:

Mix flour and spices together in a medium bowl. Toss the cubed beef around in the flour mixture, until evenly coated. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat, add beef to the skillet. Lightly stirring, heat until lightly browned. Add 1 cup of the water, scraping all of the drippings from the skillet. Add all contents from the skillet to your crockpot.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Cook for 7-8hrs on low or 5-6hrs on high