Did You Take a You Day?

Posted on February 24, 2011 by healthifiedhaven

This week I have been trying to wake up a few minutes early to ensure I am to work on time. We’ve started a new program at school called “Breakfast in the Classroom” where all students and teachers get a breakfast meal that is consumed together in class. I actually do not have a homeroom class so I’ve just been monitoring in the hallway to make sure things are running smoothly. I have chosen to forego the breakfast offerings after seeing the cherry pastries and granola bars and yogurt cups that the students have been given. Today it was a pancake wrapped sausage on a stick. Luckily, I ate prior to “Breakfast in the Classroom.”

I topped a cup of plain greek yogurt with a 1/2 c. blueberries, a drizzle of maple syrup, a spoonful of almond butter, and an oatmeal chocolate chip muffin was mixed in.

Instead of the usual Chai, I went with Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer Tea. I don’t care for the flavor that much, but was hoping for some stress relief (which hot tea usually has that effect on me anyway). The past couple of days I have been feeling some tension or stress pains in my chest. It feels like tightening or pressure near my heart. I think it could be due to my students’ standardized testing coming up and I am overly-anxious to get it done with.

On my way to lunch just before noon, I was stopped by two coworkers who wanted to know if I had begun to plan for a parent event we have yearly at school. I went on to explain that my heart is feeling tightness and stressed and I just had not gotten to it yet. One of the ladies asked, “Did you take a you day?” My response was no as I don’t generally take off just because I need a break. But I do like the sound of a “you day” or “me day” for that matter!

I then proceeded to the lounge to eat my scrumptious salad composed of spring mix, romas, pecans, reduced fat feta, blueberries, a few chicken chunks left from Sunday’s grilled chicken, topped with a tbsp. of olive oil, and 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar. I enjoyed a banana on side.

Today I made it to the gym to get in some strength training and cardio. I started with 10 minutes on the stair climber, followed by 30 minutes of weights, and finished up with 20 minutes on the elliptical.

After my workout I followed my Mom to her house to pick up some roast that she cooked in the slow-cooker last night. It was a great help because I wasn’t left struggling with “what’s for dinner” tonight. I ate the roast on a sandwich thin with lowfat mayo, a reduced fat slice of swiss, and tomato slices. I added some steamed snap beans for some greenery and veggies.

I decided I would try a few sips of a white wine I was given for Christmas to try and take the edge off. I rarely drink alcohol and just can’t seem to acquire a taste for it.

Do you have any tips to relieve tension/stress?

Don’t Choke on the Artichoke

Posted on February 15, 2011 by healthifiedhaven

It’s getting late so I am going to try and make this snappy.

This A.M. I started with a quick breakfast because I woke up a few minutes late since my husband failed to wake me up before he left for work. Normally he tells me bye and I wake up. (He claims he said goodbye and I responded, but I have no recollection of it.) Anyway, I had a slice of whole wheat toast with some peanut butter, sliced banana, and a handful of blueberries.

Lunch consisted of a delicious salad composed of tender greens, grape tomatoes, yellow and red bell pepper, sliced scallions, reduced fat colby stick, rotisserie chicken pieces, and peach salsa for dressing. I had a Fage Honey on side and I added a couple of spoons of the plain greek yogurt to my salad before digging in.

On my way home after my meeting, I munched on this pecan pie Larabar all thanks to my sister for snagging me one when we stopped at the grocery on Sunday afternoon.

For dinner I ran over to Fisherman’s Cove Seafood Market to get some fresh fish to prepare at home. I knew I wanted to have roasted asparagus as a side, but I also picked up a stuffed artichoke to share with Chris.

I cooked the mahi filets loosely following a recipe for a topping involving miracle whip, Worcestershire, dijon, bell pepper, scallions, and cayene. However, I wasn’t at all happy with the dressing so I won’t be sharing that recipe.

As for the star of the show, the stuffed artichoke made an appearance.

Just in case you want to stuff your own artichokes, here are the ingredients.

And for those who have never eaten a stuffed artichoke which is actually a type of flower…

How to Eat a Stuffed Artichoke:

1. Pull a petal from the flower.

2. Put the entire petal in your mouth crumb side up and scrape the entire thing with your top teeth pulling the petal out of your mouth. (Don’t eat the petal. Just scrape the soft top layer from the top with the crumb mixture.)

3. Discard the scraped petal.

4. Once all of the petals are removed you get to the choke or hairy covering over the heart of the artichoke.

5. Peel off the entire choke layer to reveal the edible heart.

6. Now that does not look all that appetizing, but it can be eaten in its entirety. It contains the most flavor of the artichoke. Many people only scrape the petals and stuffing and bypass the nutritious artichoke heart altogether.

In this area, I only see stuffed whole artichokes at seafood restaurants, po-boy shops, etc. However, no stuffing is necessary. Artichokes can be steamed and the petals can be dipped in lemon butter or vinaigrette prior to scraping the leaves. Hungry Girl sent out a recipe last year for the steamed artichoke which can be seen here. I made it and preferred the lemon butter dip over the salsa- yogurt dip she suggests.

Have you eaten artichoke before that did not come from a jar or can?

A Saturday Game of Scolf

Posted on January 31, 2011 by healthifiedhaven

On Saturday the weather was absolutely gorgeous—sunny and highs reached 68*. The husband and I headed out to City Park in uptown New Orleans to play a game of Scolf with friends. I thought some of the wives/girlfriends would be going along, but it turned out I was the only girl in attendance.

Several years ago a friend of the family invented a game which he originally named Scoobat. Later, he renamed it Scolf. Scolf, similar to golf where a ball (the size of a tennis ball) is scooped into different sized baskets with different point values, and is played in teams. We had three teams of three. My team consisted of myself, Chris, and our friend Timmy. Later on in the day we added another player to our team who came late.

Here are my teammates—Timmy left and Chris right.

Each player has a paddle and a ball. To start, each team member hits the ball off of a batting tee as far as he or she can hit it toward one of the other baskets a couple hundred feet away. A player can opt to hit the ball out of hand as opposed to using the tee.

Off in the distance between the yellow flags is one of the baskets valued at 2 points. Three other baskets were scattered valued at 3 points, 4 points, and 5 points with the smallest basket being valued the most.

The basket above is the 3 pointer. After each team member hits off the tee, the “best” ball is chosen for all team members to play from, which is why you see four balls in line in the first picture next to my teammates. Once close enough to the baskets, players must then use the paddle to scoop the ball in the basket.

Here I am scooping my ball for a 4 point gain for my team.

All members of one team attempt to score until one person makes the basket or no member makes it. (It is not that easy!) The other teams then attempt a basket until 1 team earns the points. Then we move toward the next basket of the scoring team’s choice. (The man in the background above on the right is the inventor of the game.) The team that reaches 22 points first is the winning team.

The game is fun, but loooong. We were there for about three hours until another team beat us at the 5 point basket earning their 22 points total. The game requires lots of walking, but it was a beautiful day so I didn’t mind much though it was tiring having done an hour of cardio and abs Saturday morning.

************************************************************************

Monday’s breakfast was a half whole wheat bagel with peanut butter, plain 0% greek yogurt, sugar free syrup, and a sliced banana.

Today’s commute was blanketed with morning fog over the entire city causing traffic galore so I was a few minutes late for work. What a way to start the week. Ugh!

Lunch included an Everything Bagel Thin with turkey and reduced fat swiss heated in the microwave at school, a simple spring mix and tomato side salad topped with balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil, with an apple.

My after school tutoring snack was two handfuls of peanuts…

Plus I stopped on the way home to get a Mardi Gras King Cake filled with Raspberry Cream Cheese after talking with hubby about him wanting a good one. Oh my yum! Confession: We bought a cream cheese king cake just yesterday at the grocery, but we ate it all in one day. Oops!!