Friday, March 20, 2009

Recipe Rut Breaker!

We ALL get into the cooking rut sometimes, where we make the same easy thing over and over and over until it seems that you've forgotten how to make anything else! That's where I found myself recently, stuck in a rut with zucchini! Regardless of how much I enjoy zucchini, I had cook something without it so I started searching the web for inspiration. I'm not much for following recipes, but I whole-heartedly enjoy inspiration. This is what I came up with...full of protein, fiber, potassium and anti-inflammatories!

Lentil-Quinoa Salad with Pumpkin

Salad:
1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
1 cup brown lentils, uncooked
3 scallions, chopped
1 can pumpkin
1 large tomato, chopped

Dressing:
2 Tb Extra Light Olive Oil
6 Tb Lime juice
1 tsp coriander
2 Tb curry or your own curry mix (add garlic powder, salt to taste)
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp tarragon
1 tsp ground ginger

Directions:
Cook quinoa as directed (2:1 water:quinoa ratio). Cook lentils as directed until tender. Drain and return to cooking pot and fold in pumpkin (to help warm it and make it easier to mix. In a large bowl put scallions, tomato and quinoa together. In small bowl whisk the dressing ingredients together. Finally put lentil/pumpkin mixture into large bowl, drizzle in the dressing and fold it all together. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before serving to meld flavors. Can be served as a warm salad or chilled. It's up to you!


This is a totally refreshing, lovely combination of flavors. The sweetness of the pumpkin picks up the lime and relaxes the curry. You can also substitute avocado for the pumpkin if you would like to (and the lime juice helps keep the avocado from turning brown)! Each serving is also chock-a-block full of complete vegeterian-source protein, fiber, potassium, zinc, iron, antioxidant beta-carotenes lutein and zeaxanthin, vitamin C and magnesium and more!

Let me know what you think or how you altered it to incorporate what you happened to have in your fridge!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Biggest Loser commentary

So maybe this isn't going to be the MOST scientific entry I've ever made, but as I sat watching the most recent episode of the Biggest Loser I knew I would be writing about it today!

As a quick & dirty synopsis, last night was the episode in which the Black Team won 24 hours of luxury (during which they hurled themselves off the proverbial bandwagon). Once confronted by Jillian about their mistakes, Filipe flipped out on her for having not worked him out during their most recent workout time etc. Then he went back to Bob's side and worked with him for the rest of the day.

When the Black Team won their 24 hours of luxury, they threw ALL caution to the winds. When it was time for dinner not one of them knew what they were doing and that could be forgiven to a certain degree. But a double tequila shot? Followed by more calorie-desnse drinks? And then Filipe tossing all good intention out the window with his order of chicken fingers and french fries...yes that is AFTER he had already eaten dinner! What really aggravated me was that he had the nerve to blame Jillian for his failiure. When he got up on the scale, all he could say was how he had let Jillian's attitude keep him down. No. That's a lie. You can see that he was so crazy disappointed in himself that he couldn't stand it. He had to throw the blame onto someone else; he needed a scape goat.

But this isn't a blog entry all about Filipe. It's about how to succeed in weight loss. If you make a bad decision at dinner one night, fine! Enjoy your cheat meal; every...single...bite. [That means putting off the alcohol..you'll lose sensation and it'll be much easier to lose self-control and end up ordering chicken fingers!] If you aren't achieving your weight-loss goals, you absolutely CANNOT blame anyone else for that! YOU are the only person responsible for what goes in your mouth. Would it make sense to say that it's your own personal success whenever you win, but it's someone elses fault whenever you lose? How can that be possible? You have to take your share of both so you can learn and get better. Filipe essentially tried to blame Jillian for making him order chicken fingers and french fries and then eating them. Of course it isn't her fault! I understand that he was upset with her for the missed workout, but to blame her for eating too much is absolutely absurd.

Should you splurge on the Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake at The CheeseCake Factory (933 calories per slice by the way, 531 of them are fat), then own up to it! If you feel sick afterwards that is your body telling you that you did something it didn't approve of. Now you know, so don't do it again! Now that you've learned your lesson it will be easier to say "No" to a temptation later on. That confidence and knowledge of yourself will make the road to weight-loss success tons easier! But don't test your limits with cheesecake-sized splurges too often please!

Respect your body; love it for better or for worse! And without that cheesecake you'll be loving it for the better ;^)